Eating healthier questions?

[sylvenmaid]

We also have been switching esp after I read The Omnivore's Dilemma which is a great book. I haven't read in Defense of Food yet or watched Food Inc. I did see Jamie's show last week. It's really scary and gross what goes into our processed foods.

Be careful as not all organic brands are created equally. Cascadian is actually owned by General Mills and Kashi is Kellogs. It's still processed foods so I try really hard to stay away from boxed foods in general. I do eat Triscuits but it has 3 ingredients: soft winter white wheat, soybean oil, and salt. Now I'm not big on soybean oil but it's not hydrogenated and I don't eat them daily. It's still all ingredients I can pronounce and I can't say that of all organic brands. I am growing lots of veggies in my garden this year like roma tomatoes, cucumbers, cow peas, black beans, green beans, green and orange/yellow bell peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, and zuchinni. In the future I will substitue zuchinni for pasta in my lasagana. I haven't tried spaghetti squash yet but I am eating either Barilla Omega 3 wheat pasta or spinach pasta. We don't eat a lot of pasta. I switched my oil to Extra Virgin Olive Oil. If you love yogurt then you have got to try Fage Greek Yogurt. OMG! This stuff is incredible but I buy the total (full fat) and only 2oz daily with fresh strawberries. Luckily I live near the Strawberry Capital (South Louisiana). Blackberries grow wild so I have several and blueberry bushes.

Another really great book to read is by Tosca Reno called the Eating Clean Diet. It's really a lifestyle change and not a diet. It's all in lines of the other books by cutting out processed and eating real food. I haven't been eating too much pizza but I really like California Kitchen ones. They are fabulous. I am going to start making my own this summer and instead of using Mozerella, I want to use Feta. I also buy cage-free eggs. They are so good and only $2/doz from the local farmer. It's worth every penny but one day I will have my own. I also want a milking goat. I do buy no hormone growth milk. My next investment will be grass fed beef and there is a farm 2 hours from me. I need to call around to see if anyone locally sells free range chicken and I only want the ones that are allowed to be outside actually ranging. Most organic chickens don't go outside. They have doors but they were trained to never use them so it's not much better than regular chicken farms. Again this is why I really want to raise my own chickens. Some for meat and some for eggs.

 

[sylvenmaid]

I also wanted to add that another great book is called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. She only ate locally or what she grew except for a couple of items like chocolate, coffee, and maybe something else. It was a great read and I do try to incorporate as much as I can. Luckily my grocery store is really great about buying from local farmers and seafood. I buy my seafood from locals and it's cheaper than the stores most of the time. Another dream of mine is to have our own fishing pond. It's there but needs to be cleaned out (on my fil's land). I'm trying to really live off the land as much as we can. I doubt I will raise my own turkeys but I can buy those locally. I'm also going to plant several fruit trees and many will be tropical that are expensive to buy in the store. I also get raw honey from a local bee keeper.

 

[Kitzka]

No one has mentioned milk but i try to not give my family milk that is not from grass fed cows. usually grass fed cows are not given hormones to make them produce more milk. we actually have our milk delivered to the house from a local 'milkman'.

his milk comes from hormone free, grass fed cows and comes in glass bottles! it's really great and i think it tastes much better.

lara

 

[mountdew1]

To quote Michael Pollan - "Eat Food. Not to much. Mostly plants." That is the key to eating healthy. A good rule of thumb at the grocery store, shop the perimeter. They are pretty much all set up with dairy, meats, and veggies around the outside, with all the other stuff in the middle. As a PP said, eating organic isn't necessarily the same as eating non processed. Organic veggies > non organic veggies > organic processed > non-organic processed. It all depends on why you are trying to change your eating habits. If you are looking to stop eating meat due to the way they are raised on factory farms, simply look for locally raised meat may be enough. Or looking for meat associated with Niman ranch. On the other hand, if you are looking to stop eating meat due to the fact that being a vegetarian is better for the environment, then just switching all to veggies is the course you need to take.
Either way, I strongly suggest looking into progressing gradually. Look into becoming an localvore or a flexitarian. Both are part of the progression to full on vegetarian and have many
I strongly recommend reading any of Michael Pollan's books for reasons to switch to healthier eating. Also strongly recommend Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall, or Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. The Goodall book is well rounded, and very rational, but also tends to avoid discussing the nastier aspects of eating animals. The Foer book gets more nitty gritty, and as such, deals with more disturbing images. As such, Goodall would be better for kids, Foer is more for adults.

 

[WendyZ]

Thanks for all the great tips to get us started. I did pick up a few different things today at the grocery store. Slow but steady! =D

 

[Totoro]

I make my own pizza crust... so easy. We usually have Friday night "pizza" night. You can make your own dough and kids can make their own personal pizzas. (Top with veggies and reduced fat 2% milk mozzarella.) They have a lot of fun1 It is also very inexpensive. (Use half whole wheat flour and half unbleached flour at first rather than all whole wheat to get the family used to "healthy" pizza. )

We also make our own pizza crust. Yeast at Costco is cheap. I also have a pizza stone that I have used regularly. The pizza stone cost me $15-20 dollars and it makes the best pizza.