I seem to be more and more interested in my family's nutrition, with a big reason being the fact that now I am responsible for my toddler's health. Actually I have been shunning many things since long before his time; I will not touch diet soft drinks or artificial sweeteners. I distinctly remember the last time I had a huge diet something drink from Sonic. It was about 5 or 6 years ago, and I had a raging headache afterward. It could definitely have been psychosomatic, but I'll be going with the full sugar, hopefully cane sugar and not HFCS, if I have my way, from now on. No chemical, synthetic sweeteners. At my old job in Memphis, the cooking in the nutrition kitchen was geared toward people with obesity and diabetes, and everything was low sugar or low fat. But not just because they were made with less sugar and less fat, but because they used artificial sweeteners and low-fat-foods-that-are-naturally-high-fat-foods, like cheese and butter. Understandably, diabetics need to avoid sugar and simple carbohydrates, as obese people need to watch calories, but I'm really not sure that substituting sucralose or aspartame for a natural sugar is doing those diseased bodies any good. Really, does it do any bodies good? I think more research will start concluding that no, it only hurts. Besides, the taste is significantly subpar. I'd personally rather not eat "just ok" food that has little nutritional value.
I probably do indulge in real sugar too much, and that is one of those things I need to be working on. It is a tough one for a sweets lover like me. I swore I wouldn't even have desserts in the house, much less let my baby eat them, before he was born. Now he knows where the chocolate is stored and regularly asks for it. At least it's mostly natural (and not even Nestlé brands). Most of the processed foods he eats are organic, and I am working on our dairy being all organic. It's hard to give up my Fage yogurt and Cracker Barrel cheddar though! Butter and milk are no problem. Recently I realized that our favorite butter/canola oil spread was no longer acceptable. I want to avoid genetically modified foods as much as possible, and canola oil is almost always a GMO. My big bottle of canola oil in the pantry is now reserved for playdough. I use a lot of olive oil, and my favorite oil is coconut. The best coffee I have ever made, which I have at least once daily now, is with a scoop of coconut oil, a little butter, honey, and a dash of milk, all blended up and frothy. I really want to go further with the coconut oil and do some oil pulling, but I just don't have 20 minutes in the morning when my mouth has to be occupied with it.
Our produce leaves a little to be desired in the organic vs conventional choice, but here and there we go organic, and for things that Hunter will consume in large quantities that is on the dirty dozen list (frozen raspberries on his oatmeal), I go out of he way to buy. Literally, because Whole Foods is not the closest grocery store.
While I want to know what is in my food, I am too aware of what is in my meat, or rather, what my meat is made of. This is one reason I choose to eat mostly a vegetarian diet. I don't really like meat, and I especially don't like cooking it. We have it occasionally, and I eat it when at a restaurant sometimes. For this reason I do need to be more conscious of my protein and iron intake. That can go on my to-do list.
In our food and also items around the house, like various household cleaners, shampoos and lotions, while I try to avoid harsh chemicals, toxic cleaners, and parabens, etc., I have to remember that toxicity is all about dose. So limiting what I can is helping limit exposure. And hopefully my body and my husband's and child(ren)'s bodies will thank me for it some day.
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