The word "snob" has such negative connotations, but when it comes to food, there's nothing wrong with being one. It wasn't that long ago that I wasn't so particular about what I put into my mouth. Although I didn't eat fast food often, I did eat it. Wendy's, Burger King, occasionally McDonalds, and sometimes Arby's. Usually, I would deeply regret my choice immediately after I ate. I would always tell people that it's not that I didn't like the food, the food just didn't like ME! It only takes a few times of abusing your body and having it reject those foods before you surrender to your body and stop feeding it junk. While for many people, fast food is convenient, cheap, and highly accessible, diets that consist of alot of fast food are killing us.
In the last several months, I started buying meat that was considered "humane". Free-range chickens, grass-fed beef, cage free eggs. I've also started buying as much organic local produce as I can at local farmers markets, and getting the rest from the "organic" section at my neighborhood grocery store. Where I live, I'm fortunate in that the grocery stores have a large variety of organic items to choose from. I've scoped out the farmer's markets in the area, and even looked into joining a CSA (it's just the driving distance on a weekly basis is a bit far for me to commit to at the moment).
The Single Wife has written about Clean Eating a few times on her blog. I love reading all her posts, but its the ones about food that really got me thinking. Skip the processed foods. If you can't look at the ingredients and pronounce them, there is a problem! The more we get back to eating natural foods instead of GMO's, the healthier we will be. If you haven't seen it yet, Food, Inc. will make you think twice about what you're feeding yourself and your family.
Last week, I took my kids to Panera for lunch. We checked out the menu online (I go there frequently, but the kids had no clue what they had) so they could be prepared when we got there. Two of them chose the kids PB&J, and the other wanted grilled cheese. The kids meals are served with an organic squeezable yogurt, and they have plenty of other things to drink besides soda. Organic milk, lemonade, water, smoothies, or juice. I was pleasantly surprised when they ALL agreed that the food was delicious and tasted better than...McDonalds! Wow! In fact, they have been surprising me all summer. They have been eating more fruit than I can keep in the house. I buy apples, bananas, oranges, peaches, watermelon, grapes...they eat it all. There are some days that I have to tell them "No" because I'm afraid they're going to overeat. One night at dinner I made some free-range grilled chicken, salad, fresh steamed broccoli and brown rice. They came back 2 and 3 times for more. This just proves that kids do like good, wholesome food. They don't have to always have chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers and pizza. Do I treat my kids to the occasional cookie or ice cream? Sure I do. Do I allow myself those same things from time to time? Of course. However, those are looked upon as "treats", not as a part of our everyday diet. As an alternative to those "treats", I buy them organic yogurt. These are the one thing that I have TRIED to develop a taste for, but no matter what brand or flavor I try, I just can't like it. However, the kids all love it. Stonyfield makes a really delicious yogurt and the kids love the Blueberry, Peach and Banana flavors.
What are some of your favorite clean foods?
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