Need a Voice of Reason Re Healthier Food...

You're doing great!! I know it can be stressful! We, too, eat lots of fruits & veggies. I feel good about it until someone mentions they grow their own & won't eat store bought...can't win.

I don't eat by what other people tell me. I think for myself and what works for my body.

Listen, I have had food sensitivities since my early 20s which have quite limited my diet and I must say, I would never *seek out* the kind of information you are describing. Why go gluten-free if your family doesn't have an intolerance? So you can make more work for yourself?

My thoughts are this: do what works for you in a sane manner and let the rest go. Not to be horribly blunt, but we are all going to die anyway. It might be 30 years from now in our sleep at the peak of health or it could be tomorrow getting hit by a car. Seriously-- life is too short. Live it comfortably, eat thoughtfully, get some exercise and try to enjoy life as best you can. If preparing food has become an exercise in mental gymnastics and is burning you out, it's probably time to go for 'reasonable' health instead of someone else's idea of "perfect" health.

No such thing as perfect. Good enough is fine.

STOP reading every article you come across. You are making yourself crazy. Food is our fuel same as gas for the car. We need a variety of foods for our bodies to work. Grains provide essential B vitamins, fruits vitamins A & C as well as potassium etc. it is so much better for our bodies to consume the vitimins and minerals we need in our food than by taking pills.
Our bodies see all sugar as the same. Lactose (milk sugar) fruictose, honey etc is all broken down to sugar in the body but so are grains. I come from a family of diabetics so I needed to know about sugars and how our bodies see them.
The biggest problem is ANYONE can write an article or book. Often their credientials are not verified. And recently Dr. Oz has been dicredited.
Instead of following the advice of one book or article; pool all the information and see what makes sense and what doesn't.
Remember cookies, muffins, pies etc are fine in moderation but the body needs exercise too. Years ago people ate dessert with every meal but they got a lot more exercise. Women carried laundry baskets outside and hung the wash on a line to dry. Mens walked behind a lawn mower. Their daily work was exercise. Now we can sit while we work.

I work in food science as an educator, and I attend tons of conferences, seminars and training sessions with top scientists in epigenetics and food science. I can tell you that virtually no food scientists advocate major elimination diets. If someone has Celiac disease and just can't eat wheat, that's one thing. Processed foods, soda, huge quantities of dyes, okay, wise to reduce. But "artificial" ingredients - it depends. Technically, if a food scientist takes 2 natural items and puts them together, the resulting compound must be called "artificial" even if it's indistinguishable from what nature produced. So that's not an indicator of a problem item. In fact, the depleted soils and fast growing techniques that produce our "natural" produce are often the cause of nutritional deficiencies.

But all these crazes of "no this, no that" and (even worse) the "cleanse" fad, do nothing but put huge strains on the body and eliminate that which can be beneficial. We have people eliminating entire families of foods (such as those you name - gluten, carbs, sugar, meat…) but we have the highest rates of obesity, food sensitivities and behavioral issues in history.

So, really, all things in moderation is a better way to go.

Are the processed things from the big food companies less expensive? Sure. So are the corn-fed animals and those in CAFOs. Do most of us live in parts of the country where we can't eat "local and organic" year-round? Sure.

It's more important to add in those compounds that help us process the other things we take in and reduce the huge amount of inflammation that most people are dealing with in the US - whether it's bronchial, digestive/intestinal, joints, muscles, etc. Our current practices have caused such huge epigenetic changes in our bodies (which science now shows are heritable) that we just don't have high-functioning cells. For some people, that comes in one area of the body, and for others it's somewhere else. But the prevention of disease has very much had a paradigm shift in the past 5-10 years, and it's growing.

If it helps, the scientists I work with eat pasta, drink alcohol, eat cookies made with sugar, have meat, use soy and drink coffee. They just add in key nutrients and boost their immune systems with necessary peptides. Following all the clinical data, they're on the right track.

I'm so glad this stuff doesn't bother me at all. I cook and feed my family primarily whole, real food, with plenty of balance and variety. So what if we sometimes get donuts, fast food or pig out on something atrocious like ball park hot dogs and nachos and soda? It's only a small percentage of our overall diet so who cares. My kids are just about fully grown now and have always been extremely healthy and fit. For sure I've had to watch/limit the calories in MY diet but that's because I'm in my mid forties and can't eat with abandon like I did in my twenties (and I don't want to become a total cow.)
The older you get the more secure you will be in your choices, and the less you will obsess over every opinion and article on diet, or anything else for that matter, you'll see.

Step away from the internet. You are doing everything right. There are people with legit gluten allergies and people who do have sensitivities as well. Those people greatly benefit from going gluten free. Your family doesn't, so there's no reason to limit their intake. There's no reason to completely eliminate sugar. Your family sounds like it's eating well, if you followed every fad diet/trend, you would be drinking water and eating nothing. Don't stress yourself out, just keep on with what you've been doing, which is awesome.

I think food should be an enjoyable experience both to make and to consume.
If following the latest trends are starting to cause you stress, cut back on that for awhile and eat what you enjoy.
I think for most people, the whole gluten free thing is a fad.
Everything in moderation is fine.
Every once in a rare while I'll make an old favorite recipe and not care in the least how unhealthy it might be.
Real sugar - is often healthier than many of the substitutes for it - which are horrible for your kidneys or mess up your metabolism - I avoid 'diet', 'zero calorie' and 'lite' foods.
And I use real butter WAY more than is healthy for me - and - I DON'T CARE!
Cutting back on refined grains is good.
I always thought whole grains were better for you since the fiber helps you metabolize them more slowly to avoid blood sugar peaks and valleys.
No one is ever going to take away my steel cut oatmeal from me!

Here's my take:

1. The food that you serve and eat should be primarily recognizable. It doesn't have to be constantly whizzed into smoothies, covered with sauce, blended and pureed and disguised. There's nothing wrong with serving a simple bowl of berries and grapes at the end of a meal or as a snack or light course, without a sugary coating or cream. Breakfast can include fresh fruit in its natural form (orange wedges, apple slices, whole bananas). Vegetables can be roasted or steamed and served with simple things like lemon zest or herbs. And those herbs can be fresh, not always from a jar, or in a pre-packaged mix or packet.

2. Choose foods with just a few, simple, pronounceable ingredients. For example, the next time you're near the dairy case, take a look at sour creams. Read the ingredients on the leading regular sour cream, and then read the ingredients on the fat-free version. Choose the type with just one or two ingredients, and use less of it. Read the list of ingredients in salad dressings or "juice" drinks or coffee creamers. Look at the ingredients in dinner kits, canned items, even canned peas (nearly every brand of canned peas contains sugar!). Are you ok with paying for all those stabilizers, gums, food colors, chemicals, preservatives, fillers and flavorings? Make your own salad dressings with pure olive oil, your choice of vinegars, and fresh herbs or spices. Consider what you're actually paying for in that can of cream-of-whatever soup, vs making a simple white sauce with sauteed real mushrooms or celery or asparagus. Learn to make a simple tomato sauce for pasta with tomatoes and some herbs and maybe some onion or garlic, depending on your preference.

3. Buy quality ingredients and use less of them (which you can, because the taste will be pure, unaffected by additives). Compare the "parmesan" stuff in the familiar green can with real Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Of course, the green can costs a lot less, but you're paying for a lot of fillers, and because the amount of cheese in there is so little, you need a lot more in order to get some actual taste. In comparison, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is expensive, but just a small grating of it provides amazing taste, and a little goes a long way. And you'll know what you paid for: real cheese. No wood pulp, powdered chemicals, artificial junk.

4. Don't get swayed by the trends, the fads, the newest, the talk on tv. There will always be something new, something bigger and brighter, something that "everyone" is doing. You'll drive yourself crazy. And many of those trends are marketing strategies and advertising ploys. For example, stevia. The stevia plant is real, but that stuff on the grocery shelf stores is not. It's a highly processed product, an extract, produced by a major manufacturer in a factory, involving a mind-numbing amount of processes, and marketed by a huge corporation. Stick to raw local honeys, pure maple syrup, and plain old white and brown sugar when you're making chocolate chip cookies (for the occasional treat, not every night!). It's ok to try coconut palm sugar for some things. It's fun to try a new ingredient, like hearts of palm, or spelt, or plumquats (yes, I saw those in the produce department last week), or an unfamiliar ingredient. Just don't do it because someone said it will cure you, fix you, change you, or because you've been doing it all wrong the old way. Try new foods out of appreciation, out of curiosity, out of gratitude for being able to cook, and to eat. Give thanks for what you have, and pray for those who cannot eat due to poverty or illness. Don't eliminate something that is basically harmless; just enjoy it in moderation. Your kids can have some corn flakes or fairly healthy dry cereals on the weekends, and a glass of juice from time to time. It's when breakfast is routinely a cheap sugary pastry and a blue drink that there's a problem.

5. Teach your kids how food is made and where it comes from and what it really looks like. If the only potatoes some kids eat come in the form of "tater tots" or boxed "au gratin" potatoes, or mashed potatoes made from dry flakes that come out of a plastic envelope, then they'll never understand healthy eating. I personally believe that the reason that many of the new school lunch programs are failing is because at lunch, the kids are handed what is called "healthy", without any information or education, and then they return home to dinner that comes out of a kit in a box, or a bunch of glop from cans thrown together or a frozen meal in cute shapes. Instead, if you're serving applesauce, start with an apple. If you're serving potatoes, begin with actual potatoes.

6. Did you know there's a fairly new officially medically recognized eating disorder called "orthorexia"? Orthorexia is where a person is so rigidly, militantly, excessively determined to only eat vegan, or gluten-free, or raw, or Paleo, or sugar-free, or organic (or whatever), that he or she becomes reclusive, antagonistic, and rigid, to the degree that he or she becomes mentally ill. The person may skip family weddings because the cake might not be gluten free and perhaps wasn't made with vegan ingredients. At social events, he or she criticizes friends' eating choices to the point of making them angry, and ruining the evening. (Of course I am not referring to anyone with a severe allergy or medical condition here; orthorexia refers to a personal choice that is taken to an extreme.) I believe that we have many blessings in this country and we should be thankful for food, instead of starting wars and causing chaos. Most of us have access to clean water, and most of us can go to a grocery store with relative freedom and select from hundreds of items. It's my opinion that we should enjoy food, serve it as purely and recognizably as possible, teach our children to appreciate real food, and to share with those who are hungry.

7. So to sum it up, eat a variety of real, unprocessed foods; try to eat and serve most foods in their original and recognizable form; don't get caught in the whirlwind of food trends; cook with your children; teach them to appreciate food; and share with those who have less. When choosing foods other than meats or vegetables or fruits, select those with simple, pronounceable, recognizable ingredients, and make your own basics such as salad dressings, cream soup bases and pasta sauces. Choose the best ingredients and use less of them. And don't stress! Enjoy real food.

In the words of Michael Pollan, eat real food in reasonable amounts.
Don't stress yourself out over every single ingredient. Not everything has to be organically grown by Tibetan monks and watered by fairy piss. If you don't have celiac disease, there is nothing wring with a plate of pasta primavera or linguini with clam sauce.
I would add that a handful of Cheetos and a root beer once in a while never killed anyone.

My thoughts are that I'm tired of opening a magazine that pitches a new diet every single week that will take off 10 lbs in 2 days. And I'm over Dr Oz pitching supplements constantly that have no medical basis. Really Dr Oz you are a cardiac surgeon. Get off the tv and go back to work.

It sounds like you are doing a great job. Less processed food and more back to basic cooking is the best thing you can do. When I bake I always use regular sugar because some sugar is fine. I don't use the sugar substitute stuff because its all processed and I try to keep most processed food out of my diet.

So just do what you think is best for your family. Pasta once or twice a week is fine. Bread or muffins are fine when balanced with plenty of fruit and veggies. Just have faith that you are doing what is best for your family and stop thinking that you need to make changes to do better. Honestly I think you have done a great job setting a foundation of great health for your children.

Obviously you don't want a ton of empty calories (snickers bars for example). HOWEVER ... we are omnivores ... our bodies are made to have and require some of everything.

Fresh fruits and veggies have simple bonds in their molecular sugars ... in other words the parts that make them sugar. Our bodies break them down and use them up perfectly.

Oh and for the record EVERYTHING pretty much turns to sugar in our system.

Our bodies also require grains, fats and proteins. ALL of these things are needed parts of our diet. Do we need a ton of them? No we don't, but what is too much for one person may be fine for another. Some people do require a little more red meat than others or their blood pressure hits the floor (this is NOT any healthier if it's too low than high blood pressure.) ... for example.

A good balanced diet is key tho. An occasional treat is even fine.

The main problems with "processed foods" ... the decreased nutrients from the canning process and the added salt. Not that adding salt is a "new" process ... it's been being done for ages (at least a couple of centuries). And while we NEED salt ... we don't need it in anywhere near the quantities we tend to get it.

If everyone is healthy, there are no food allergies or sensativities ... then don't stress and don't worry about the 'fads' ... they ALL come and go. If there are health issues then a diet would need to altered for that ... otherwise ... a good balanced diet is fine. Especially if everyone is active.

It really sounds like you are doing a very good job of providing healthy food for your family, so I don't think you have to worry so much.

The main thing most people need to cut out is processed sugar. New studies are showing that it's extremely harmful. Fruit is fine. You don't need to worry about them eating a whole banana.

It doesn't sound like you need to go gluten-free, so don't bother. Just keep up everything you are doing, which includes avoiding processed sugar, and ignore the other health fads. Pasta is fine.

If the reason you are so concerned with this is that weight is an issue in your family, then try minimizing portions and snacks. The reason that most of us are overweight is that we eat too much of whatever. The normal portion size used to look a lot smaller, 30+ years ago. We've become used to thinking we need to consume much more than we actually do.

And I agree with Nervy Girl -- we're all going to die anyway, and good enough is fine. Which is one of the reasons I allow myself to enjoy moderate amounts of alcohol, per a previous post. I don't want all my existence to be a chore.

Stop reading this stuff, stop listening to every food fad and stop worrying about everything you put in your mouth. Really. You have a healthy family. You are doing it right.

Enjoy the muffin or pasta or whatever and let the other nonsense go. You don't need anyone else to approve of how or what you feed your family--you are right that eliminating whole groups of food from our diets is expensive difficult and unnecessary, so why would you worry about not doing it?

Imo, eat low on the food chain. Plants first. Meat is a treat. O. or two meatless meals per week is great.
No/low processed foods.
If God didn't make it? Don't eat it or limit it greatly.

And soda is the #1 thing to eliminate/greatly limit.
And, of course, eliminate or greatly limit fast food.

Sounds like you're doing a great job!

The big question is...do you have health issues that need to be addressed? Do your kids have asthma and allergies? Do they get sick a lot? Are they overweight? Are you overweight? Are you tired or achy or feeling older than you are? Suffer from mood disorders or attention issues? Do your hormones feel out of whack? Suffer from chronic pain, get a lot of infections?

If the answer to the above questions is no, then an "everything in moderation" approach probably works well for you and your family, so yay! Just do what you've been doing. If you're fat, tired, and sick, then you need to figure out what's going on and that's where eliminating some grains, dairy, minimizing fructose, etc. can be beneficial and you might benefit from more drastic changes in diet.

People are driven towards more extreme changes because "everything in moderation" isn't working for them. I'm in that camp. Reducing calories and exercising more has done nothing for me except help me gain 30 lbs in 5 years. My kids? Eat whatever they want and are skinny as rails. They don't have the same damaged metabolism that I do. They don't have hormones all out of whack like I do. They can eat treats within reason and burn them as fuel instead of storing them as fat. So my diet is very different from theirs, because they can handle grains and dairy and other things that I'm learning I can't.

If you and your kids are healthy, keep doing what you're doing and don't go crazy with any of it!

I feel your pain. And, for me, I've broken it down into a simple question. Is this food something that occurs in nature, or is it created in a factory? If it's the later, I avoid it or eat it in moderation. Looking at labels for short descriptions - if it's rice (occurs in nature) but the box shows all the things it has taken out and put back in and added to it, then it's essentially created in the factory. If the ingredients list says "brown rice" then I go for it.

Admittedly, I was doing really well then the holidays came around and it all went to hell. And I feel the difference. My nails tell the story for me. If I'm not eating properly, my nails end up with bumps under them. If I'm eating properly, my nails are smooth under. I also feel more run down.

I am gluten free because I have to be. And I enjoy eating paleo because it's just common sense - nothing processed, no sugars or grains, healthy fats. But I think you can bang your head on a lot of walls. Everyone went low fat in this country for decades because one study said we should. Turns out, it was wrong, proven by many, many studies, but that philosophy is so engrained it will take decades more to change the mindset. Don't get excited by one study articles that say don't eat spelt or any other ingredient. Changes should be gradual and make you feel good, including mentally. If a change is making you crazy, don't do it! You have what sounds like a very healthy approach to eating, just not a very healthy approach to reading.

You're doing fine and most reputable health gurus agree that real sugar in limited quantities is OK. Same with any natural sweetener like molasses, syrup, honey. As long as they are real and preferably organic, they are not harmful-they even have some healthy nutrients-molasses has a lot of iron. You just don't want a high sugar intake in general. You're doing great cooking and limiting your processed food intake. to me all the trends about gluten and knit picking grains are stupid. You need healthy quantities of healthy grains in good variety. The gluten free thing is totally unnecessary if you feel fine eating gluten.

Stick to the philosophy of eating healthy quantities of healthy foods. To me the only REALLY IMPORTANT information is about the man-made toxins in our general food supply created to increase profitability which have increased since the 1990s. Organic food is a king's ransom, but it's the only way to avoid these synthetically engineered toxins in practically ALL OF THE FOOD in our stores in America where we do not regulate food companies like other countries do. There is TONS of information on this but this video is a concise breakdown of what types of foods are unhealthy and why. It also explains why statistically children's food allergies (including to gluten) have skyrocketed since the 90's, and why America's cancer rate is much higher than any other country's. Watch it and then feel armed with the information you need to go forth and continue cooking healthy meals with healthy organic ingredients! The more people demand it, the more the prices will come down as companies have to adjust to demand. I've already seen good price improvements on organic items in some major chains like Wegmans.

Watch it, it's so worth it! Robyn Obrien, former food analyst Ted Talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixyrCNVVGA

Moderation and avoid processed foods. Otherwise, avoid the newest "x is bad/y is good" fads.

My theory in life is eat in moderation, never overdo one thing, and beware food fads and "studies" designed to catch media attention.

Consumer Reports just came out with an article analyzing the whole gluten-free fad. Their opinion is that unless you have a real gluten allergy or celiac disease, you may wind up eating more harmful substances or make a serious dent in your food budget going gluten-free.

One good way to put all this in perspective: the average life expectancy 50 years ago was 66 for men and 73 for women. Now it's 76 for men and 81 for women. So we're still going in the right direction despite all the dire warnings around us.

Sounds to me that by avoiding a lot of processed foods and doing a lot of home cooking, you are doing just fine.

Sounds like you're doing fine, why complicate things? Especially since you're all so healthy and not having any issues? You should basically just eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to get lots of nutrients. Make at least half of your grains "whole grain" and choose lean meats or other sources of protein like beans & nuts. Also include milk, cheese & yogurt to be sure you're getting calcium and vitamin D. Limit or eliminate processed foods if you can and eat sweets, chips, bakery items in moderation.

I like the 100 days of real food cookbook and blog, I use it as a guide because I like the recipes and meal plans...but it's just that for me, a guide. If I truly followed it I'd be going sugar free and that's not really realistic for me, but I do limit my sugar now which is a good thing.
Also, apples & bananas are full of nutrients so even if they do have a lot of sugar the benefits of eating them far outweigh the "bad". Unless a person is diabetic they probably don't need to worry. For your kid's sake, just keep it simple feed them a variety of healthy food!

Gluten Free is only needed if you are cieliac, sensitive or allergic to the gluten protein. My son has one of the 3 above I have had testing done.

The best diet is the one with the least amount of preservative and Dyes.. if you make foods from scratch, then you have eliminated most of that.

Watch how much fried foods, of course. Healthy eating is rounded eating, the less pre made foods, the better.

Good luck.

Take a peek at 100 Days of Real Food. Even if you can get down to 50% real food, you are making a huge difference in your health.

And regarding white vs. wheat flour. Use King Arthur. It's amazing. No one has noticed that I've switched from white to wheat. It's shocking.