Inspired by the book I’m reading and discussions with Kit - we have a lot of food goals and some of them conflict so we have to prioritize. We’ve not decided which is the most important yet but here they are in no particular order:
- Cutting back on meat.
- Locally grown/raised. Checking out farmers’ market.
- Looking for fair trade chocolates.
- Organic when feasible.
- Eating more in season.
- Growing our own fruits, veggies & herbs when possible.
- Homemade of what we can.
- Cost (always a priority.)

And we are attempting to cut out or cut back on:
- Trans fats, focusing on good fats and limiting those.
- White flour, replacing with whole wheat.
- Meats, increasing bean consumption and doing more fish.
- Nitrates and other preservatives. Avoiding cold cuts, sausage, bacon, etc.
- Sugar, trying to use more honey. Cutting high fructose corn syrup.
- Artificial colors.
- Packaged foods in general.
- Milk with BHT and antibiotics, cutting back on milk and doing hormone free (and yes, I know it still has hormones but those are natural cow hormones and not the artificial ones so it makes us feel better.)
- Sodium, cutting out salt we add to recipes and trying to replace with other seasonings/herbs.

I imagine we’ll be coming up with more and even with all these goals we are still not going to be hardcore about it. I will enjoy my Cheetos on occasion and we don’t mind if the kids have candy with artificial coloring sometimes or sodas or Oreos or what not. But if we set good eating habits at home then the occasional venture into unhealthy is not going to hurt. We are striving for overall healthy eating and moderation in the unhealthy here and there. If we make a big stink about it then we may encourage them to view the other foods as treats and we don’t want to make something contraband and therefore more appealing. If we lead by example and they grow up loving and enjoying the healthy stuff and experience how it gives them energy and keeps them well, I think they’ll develop their own love of the good stuff. I admit when we had some store bread and the kids asked if we could make homemade bread instead, that made me feel good that they are appreciating the taste of the healthier option. If we keep soda an occasional drink and not common place, then sometimes having soda and NOT turning it into a big deal will help them view it in a healthy way. I hope.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.