Multiple Choice

by Sally on July 15, 2010

vitaminsSupplements make me nervous. Call me crazy, but pills that pack more milligrams than a person could reasonably eat in real food and are produced without a whole lot of government regulation send up a few red flags for me. Which is why I tell women to eat well and take a basic multivitamin, plus calcium if they don’t get much in their diet. And to shun any supplement with the word “mega” anywhere on the label. High doses of vitamins and minerals aren’t to be messed with.

Because I eat a good diet, I know that many of the nutrients in my multi—like vitamin C, since I eat my weight in fruit everyday—ultimately go to waste. But there’s something comforting about my bases being covered by just one chewable pink hippo (yes, I take a children’s vitamin and you can too). I’m especially grateful for the folic acid (since half of all pregnancies are unplanned) and vitamin D (since most people, including me, don’t get enough).

I also give my kids a multivitamin—Henry (6) gets a whole one, Sam (2) gets a half. But I’m often left wondering if that’s enough. My friend and fellow registered dietitian, Emia, gives parents some great pointers on her blog and makes the case for considering a couple more. You can read all about it here.

{ 0 comments }

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

by Sally on June 8, 2010

StrawberriesNitrates in hot dogs, BPA in cans, pesticides on produce. Anyone else notice how crappy the news has been about food lately? When I consider the stuff I grew up on, apparently I should feel lucky just to be alive: canned tuna by the case, countless non-organic apples and peaches I was too lazy to wash, canned fruit, processed meats, processed meats in a can (am I the only one who has fond memories of twisting open a new can of corned beef with that little metal key, sardine-style?).

All eaten, of course, without wearing sunscreen or a seatbelt.

I can’t turn back the hands of time and undo all those Steak-umm sandwiches that I ate. But (to paraphrase one of Oprah’s favorite inspirational phrases) “now that I know better, I can do better”. Now mind you, I don’t overhaul my family’s diet over every scary headline—and I’m way too frugal to turn my life savings over to Whole Foods (trust me, you don’t have to feed your kids $4-a-box organic cheddar bunny crackers to be a good mom). Yet I have made some small—but hopefully significant—tweaks in how and what we eat around here.

I bought a cow. Well, half of one, to be exact. I’m splitting said bovine with a friend, which means each of us needs to make room for roughly 80 pounds of grass-fed beef in our respective chest freezers. Two things influenced this purchase: A viewing of the jaw-dropping, gag-inducing movie “Food, Inc.” and hearing so much about the nutritional perks of grass-fed beef, namely less saturated fat and more healthy fats like omega-3s. We’re paying much less per pound since we’re buying in bulk, and I like that our beef is coming from a local farmer with a few cows, not a mega-cattle operation.

I’m stocking fewer canned foods. Now that the government has finally gotten around to warning us about BPA in cans, I realize I should’ve been seriously worried about this a looong time ago. BPA is a chemical used in the metal lining of cans and in some plastics (including, of course, baby bottles and sippy cups) and has been linked to developmental and reproductive problems in kids. I used to stock canned fruit (packed in juice) in the winter and didn’t think twice about buying something in a can (like pizza sauce) instead of a jarred version. Not anymore.

I’m choosing some organics. Heard of the Dirty Dozen? It’s a list of the fruits and vegetables with the highest residue of pesticides, compiled by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. They claim you can reduce your exposure to pesticides by 80 percent by buying the organic version of celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, domestic blueberries, nectarines, sweet bell peppers, spinach/kale/collard greens, cherries, potatoes, imported grapes, and lettuce. My kids eat fruit constantly, and I know their little bodies are more vulnerable to big doses of pesticides. And while I’m not ready to shell out for all of these, I’m dipping my toe in the water. I buy organic apples, since Henry and Sam like to eat them unpeeled, and organic lettuce, because my husband and I eat big salads nearly every night at dinner.

I’m shopping more at the farmer’s market. I’m lucky to live a block away from our community’s weekly farmer’s market, which grows larger and livelier every year. This season I’m picking up more things, like free-range eggs from a local farm, homemade veggie burgers, and beautiful organic strawberries that my kids gobble up within minutes. Compared to the stuff at my grocery store, they are splurges—but if it means my family eats a cleaner, healthier diet and my kids learn to love the taste of fresh-picked produce, it’s well worth it (and all that cash I save from my rabid coupon-clipping obsession has to go somewhere).

Have you made any changes to the way you feed your family? I’d love to hear about them.

Photo by Pieter Musterd

{ 11 comments }

Snacking Insanity

May 12, 2010

It was with a bit of “no duh” that I read the recent news about kids and snacks: According to a study in the journal Health Affairs, children get close to 30 percent of their calories from snacks—about three of them every day.
You see, I own approximately three-thousand plastic kid-size snacks bowls in a variety [...]

Read the full article →

The Truth About Juice

April 20, 2010

“Juice”–or more accurately, “ju”–was one of Sam’s first words. I’d avoided giving him any juice at all until he suffered one particularly bad bout of constipation and the pediatrician recommended an ounce or two of diluted apple juice to get things moving.
And thus began his obsession with ju.
The kid would drink juice all day, everyday, [...]

Read the full article →

Promises, Promises

April 7, 2010

I made a somewhat crazy promise to myself on Easter Sunday. As with any crazy promise that you make to yourself–but that you aren’t entirely sure you’ll be able to keep–it’s best that you announce it, loudly and repeatedly, in front of others.
“I’m not going to eat ANY of Henry and Sam’s Easter candy!” I [...]

Read the full article →

Meal Planning Tricks

March 15, 2010

The dinner hour is my least favorite part of the day. Not dinner itself–it’s actually the 45 minutes before dinner, when my husband’s not home yet, the kids are alternately begging for snacks or racing their dumptrucks around the kitchen island, and I’m scrambling to pull the meal together (and often, fighting the urge to [...]

Read the full article →

Pick a Little, Gain a Lot

March 8, 2010

In my self-righteous, childless days, I had a very long list of things I said I’d never do once I had them: change a diaper on an airplane seat, let my toddler run screaming through Target—and definitely never eat my kids’ food scraps. Even those cute, young dads licking away the drips on their child’s [...]

Read the full article →

What’s Your Feeding Strategy?

February 4, 2010

I was reading one of my go-to blogs, Raise Healthy Eaters, when I came across a post called “Why Every Parent Needs A Feeding Strategy”.
I flew into a semi-panic. Did I have a feeding strategy?  I had a collection of household food policies and a whole bunch of opinions. But a feeding strategy sounded way [...]

Read the full article →

OK! Not really.

January 20, 2010

The cover of last week’s OK! magazine brings back so many memories—of me, after my son Sam was born 20 months ago, making soy protein and flaxseed smoothies in full makeup and a fashionable yet supportive tank top.
Alright, alright. For the first four (read: eight) weeks, I ate cereal out of the box, wore a [...]

Read the full article →

On the Menu: Full Disclosure

January 5, 2010

The last time I ate out–and I use that term loosely because it was at a Panera along I-70 in Ohio–I had a squirmy toddler, a spazzy kindergartener, and a hungry husband with me. Simply placing the order was an ordeal (“I want mac and cheese…no! I mean grilled cheese…no! I mean mac and cheese…”), [...]

Read the full article →