We all grew up on “regular food” and we turned out fine. Righhhht.
Except for the fact that we are incredibly obese as a nation. Life-threatening food allergies are on the rise. Our children’s hormones are out of whack. And many people connect mental health issues (ADHD and more) to diet. Then there are other health related problems influenced by diet – diabetes, heart disease, cancer, to name a few.
Listen, I was raised on Hamburger Helper and Lucky Charms. So those things seemed really normal for me feed my kids – no judgment here if those things seem normal to you, too. It was my daughter’s diagnosis of severe food allergies to egg, milk and peanuts that shocked me into reading every single label of every single food.
I’m not an expert. I’m not a food scientist or a nutritionist. I’m a mom who is trying to make good decisions on the food I put in my family’s mouths.
Here are four things that freak me out about food these days -
- Pesticides - how do these chemicals impact our body and brain chemistry? And I’m talking about the pesticides sprayed on my food, as well as the food the animals are eating that I consume (cows, etc.).
- Hormones and antibiotics - we eat so much beef and dairy in this country – and if those cows are pumped full of this junk, you better believe we are consuming it, too. This has been linked to early-onset of puberty in our girls, and antibiotic resistant bacteria… some experts claim dairy contributes to asthma and allergy problems and obesity rates.
- High Fructose Corn Syrup - I’m gonna go out on a limb and say this little ingredient is a major factor in the obesity of our country. Many people will disagree with me, especially the corn industry. It is NOT natural, it is highly processed to be cheap, especially sweet, and addictive. It’s everywhere you look – in your ketchup, in your breakfast cereal, in your loaf of bread. You have to work really hard to find any kind of (processed) food that doesn’t have HFCS.
An article The 7 Foods Experts Won’t Eat started making the rounds again over the weekend and made me think (for the billionth time) about the food I’m feeding my family. A few things on the list they mention that are “bad” include non-organic potatoes, canned tomatoes and non-organic apples. Take a look at the article for more info. It will make you think.
I’ve been transitioning my family’s diet the last few years from highly-processed foods-from-boxes to all natural, whole ingredients and avoiding those things that scare me. I try to buy all organic dairy (yet my kids are still getting regular in school and daycare) and I buy some fruits and vegetables and meat organic, but not all. I’ve completely eliminated HFCS from our regular foods – although it appears in an occasional treat we might buy for a special occasion.
Overall I’ve seen a slow, but steady, rise in awareness about food issues the past few years. (I still can’t bring myself to watch those documentaries on food that freak everyone out.) I’m always curious to hear what other people are thinking on this topic – so please share, what things freak you out about food and what are you doing about it?
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Marketing Mama® features articles on parenting as a working mom, health, family activities, cool products, my two adorable children and sometimes I even talk about marketing.
I saw the 7 Foods article, too (thanks to your tweet). In our super-busy lifestyles these days, convenience foods are just that: convenient. I think we all could benefit from slowing down, taking time to buy and cook better food. That being said, I tried going more organic last year, but on a budget, it’s hard to stick with. The regular produce is just so much cheaper. I will definitely start looking for stores that carry the TetraPak tomatoes, though: I love making my own marinara sauce and chemicals are not an ingredient I want to include!
Amanda – isn’t that interesting how “convenience foods” have become “regular food” though? As in, we don’t view it as the rare exception, but the every-day? At least that’s what my life was like. Agree that organic foods are expensive. Food is by far my biggest household expense. We spend a boatload on organic foods and dairy substitute foods for my daughter (soy yogurts, rice milk, coconut milk ice cream, etc.). Thanks for sharing.
This is right on and also follows what we done at home. I feel blessed to live somewhere that eating organic or with alternative foods (say gluten free grains and alt to dairy) is fairly easy to achieve. But it is still prohibitively expensive, so we sometimes struggle with that. I feel like we are moving in the right direction and a movement is happening but way too slowly.
Thanks for sharing Kat. Glad to hear I’m not alone in those thoughts. Agree our country is slowly moving in the right direction with awareness. Thanks again.
Right on. What’s worse is that sugar is more addictive than caffine (not my quote- but a quote I picked up at the Noble Food conference held at the Science Museum last year). Have you ever seen how HFCS is produced? It’s similar to a certain drug. What’s even more scary is that it is not an issue of “will power” when we try to lose the weight or eat better. We are predisposed to eat fat, sugar and salt…and companies know it. When a certain company says, “Bet’cha just can’t eat one [chip].” -you better believe they mean it. Scary. I too am one of those “kids” who was reared on Mc D’s, soda, and generally processed food. However, just because it was “good enough for me” doesn’t mean it’s good enough for my kids. Times change- we evolve. We know better. With an article recently out that states that once we become fat, we will in turn always be fat as our bodies think the weight we lost means we are starving (so it begins to store fat– hence, why dieters gain everything back over a period of time)…why not go the extra mile to ensure that your kids not only are healthy on the outside– but the inside as well. As a country we need to stop viewing junk food as food… instead, we need to call it what it is, “junk.” Sadly enough though, for some struggling in this economy, or people that are single parents– a box of Ho-Ho’s is cheaper to buy than a bag of fresh veggies. Broken.System. Pay now, or pay later with your health.
You know, this is interesting, Beverly, because I rarely think of sugar on it’s own as the enemy. I try to limit it, of course, but I don’t view it as quite as evil as the crap that’s in the main things we eat – the chicken, the milk, the bread, the potatoes. The main food we eat all day still has scary stuff in it – the chocolate bar with sugar once a week, while not healthy, I just don’t think of it on the same level. My kids don’t drink pop, although have just started to have “orange pop” at parties… but I really struggle with diet coke. HFCS is super addictive and so far from “natural” that it’s shockin how many foods it in. I just took a look at some crackers in my cupboard and found it. Damn it. I’m not even going to open the box. Thanks for sharing.
I agree with you, the things we put into our bodies are terrifying. When my kids were small, I began to do a lot of reading about how the foods we eat affect behavior and growth. I have worked hard to eliminate HFCS from out regular diets, as well as most artificial colors.
It can be difficult to make good food choices for our kids when they are so influenced by television commercials and the foods their friends bring in their lunches.
Also, in my humble opinion, it is a crime that the good foods are so cost prohibitive! Organic fruits, vegetables, and meats are often 50% – 100% more expensive than the alternative. HFCS-free and artificial color-free yogurt? At least half the price of the healthy alternative…
Also, I feel badly for the undereducated individual (or just plain ignorant) that believes if it’s yogurt, juice, fruit, or a vegetable it has to be good for you! Reading labels has taught me that all of these supposedly “good for you” foods have an evil, processed twin.
Kristin – I heart your comment. <3 Luckily my kids don’t see many TV commercials (we are a DVD family) but I have gotten some begging from what my son sees in school lunches of his peers. I’m also struggling with that yogurt issue! I switched to all organic yogurt but my 6 yo started revolting telling me how much he loved the old kind – Yoplait. I keep trying to find a better alternative for him – an organic that tastes good and isn’t $3 per serving.
Love how you mentioned artificial colors – that’s one I pay attention to but not as closely as I’d like to. In fact, I use them in frostings when I bake cakes, etc. So I always feel weird when I do that. I bet there are probably natural ones… huh? Have you used any for baking?
I struggle with baking. I love red velvet cake, and obviously there is a lot of red food dye in that. It is difficult to eliminate it completely from our diets. I was once a zealot about it, but these days I make an effort to make educated decisions about what I eat containing the food coloring. What really gets me is when you read a label that you would never imagine having food coloring and it’s there! That is infuriating.
As far a yogurt goes, I too had the Yoplait vs yogurt-without-nasty-crap dispute with my kids. I even tried the Stoneyfield Go-Gurt wannabes to no avail. Sadly, it was a battle I didn’t win. As they have gotten older, they have moved away from the Yoplait and are now eating the same yogurt as me.
The peer pressure to eat what everyone else is eating had really hit our household hard this year. Both of the kids pack lunches to school, and Ahna has friends that pack Lunchables and Chef Boyardee. The thought of her eating that junk makes me sick. I am able to appease her by cutting her meats and cheeses with cookie cutters, but I have yet to find an alternative to the Chef Boyardee – not even Scott’s homemade ravioli. *sigh*
I’m an Indian and I’ve been in the US 3 years now and it never fails to amaze me everytime I read something about the typical American diet. The way ‘regular meals’ are prepared here is astonishing… when I first came here it surprised me that eating everyday out of a box was considered normal food, or that some processed pasta with bottled sauce counted for a home-made meal. Back home, we don’t know any other way of eating other than cooking things from scratch, cooking with whole unprocessed grains, and using simple ingredients and natural flavorings such as herbs and spices that actually have medicinal properties. And cooking from scratch really has nothing to do with more women being home-makers etc. My sisters are working mums in India and prepare everything from scratch. I see similarities with my SE Asian and even East European friends. I guess what I’m saying is the US lives in some kind of coccoon where it feels making meals from scratch is ‘going the extra mile for your health’ and eating pre-processed packaged food has become the norm. Evils of a developed economy. Hopefully it’ll all change for the next generation with people like you going back to the ‘real’ method of preparing food.
Sabera – that is a really interesting perspective from someone who didn’t grow up here. Thanks so much for sharing! You are totally right – we think of it as such trouble and out of the ordinary to make a meal. And thanks for adding the piece that it’s by working moms, too. I tend to fall back on that excuse sometimes myself. So… hey, if you see this comment, are you making pasta from scratch, too? Because wow… that amazes me!
Well… I’d say most of the food me and other Indians I know prepare meals from scratch but once in a while, everyone gives in to indulgences right? In those cases pasta and perhaps even the sauce would be out of a box/jar. As long as the majority of your diet includes ingredients you can control, maintaining good health should be manageable (ceterus paribus).
ever since finn’s “issues” … I have been so.much.more. aware of what is in foods. we avoid red#40 like the plague … but it dumbfounds me what we find it in. foods that have no red in them. white frostings. cereal that seems “healthier”. it’s crazy. i’m slowly but surely adjusting my family to real foods … less & less boxed & canned. realizing that what I thought was convienent really want any easier than taking the real food & preparing it on my own.
I’ve barely even noticed artificial coloring… but I do notice that it’s NOT in the organic/natural food I buy at whole foods… one more thing I should start watching more closely!
I totally agree with this and we have been adopting many of the same changes. I was totally raised on Hamburger Helper and Lucky Charms and I hate it when people make comments about “We ate those (or did those) things and turned out fine.” Well, my mom died of cancer and my dad has Parkinson’s disease. Who knows if these were due to environmental factors or not, but the fact is we (as a country) aren’t fine. After spending 2 years in the Peace Corps in Africa, my husband and I learned how awesome it is to cook from fresh, whole foods. I’ve never felt healthier. And now we have a toddler who has tried processed food (I am sure she gets some at daycare and we too have treats), but she doesn’t think much of it when we give her veggies and hummus or a smoothie for lunch. Likewise, we hardly use any chemicals around our house. I clean with mostly baking soda and vinegar.
Even though mainstream culture may be sending another message, you are not alone! The more awareness on these issues, the cheaper and more assessable organic/ natural/ free-range/ etc, will become!
Kristy – it would be fascinating to spend 2 years in Africa – I’m sure your level of food awareness was raised exponentially! It sounds like youu’ve made a lot of changes because of it. I keep pushing myself to do better, and of course that comes with the investment of time and money! Thanks for sharing!
Purchasing organic fruits and veggies can seem daunting, but fortunately, if you stick to the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” principles, you can make smarter choices.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/the-dirty-dozen-and-clean-15-of-produce/616/
This highlights the 12 fruits/vegetables that you SHOULD buy organic, and the 15 that are acceptable as conventionally grown.
For canned goods, the fear is BPA, used in the linings of cans to prevent product breakdown. Many brands of canned goods can be found without BPA, most widely found is Eden Organics. While these items are more costly, the lack of BPA is worth it to me. Pomi is a brand of tomatoes that come in an aseptic container and are available at Cub, Lunds/Byerly’s and Kowalski’s. The size is equivalent to a large 32 oz can, but no BPA is used in the packaging, as well as no salt either. They are the first brand of packaged tomato that I have tasted that are exactly like a tomato should taste.
Hormones in meat were one reason I was more than willing to give it up last May. The reversal of menopause was more than enough proof to me that it does indeed cause major issues with our bodies. At nearly 48, it’s not unlikely that menopause would occur, but not only have all the symptoms completely disappeared, but I’ve found all the old hormones changes have returned as normal, cycling up and down as they have for years. While I probably could consume meat without hormones, I’ve also found complete relief from my ongoing and chronic stomach problems by being meat-free so it’s unlikely I will ever go back.
Food consumption has become such a volatile issue in this country, and thankfully more people pay attention to what they eat, where it comes from and how it’s grown than ever before. People are adamant about their demand for that knowledge, and we make powerful and life-changing statements simply by what we put in our mouths. Our country has been unfairly targeted, and swayed by politics on our food policies for decades – you must drink milk to get calcium! you must eat meat for protein!- and all of it is a lie. It’s government and food manufacturing companies lining each others pockets in order to increase their profits. It’s billions of dollars in subsidies for corn, and only 1% of the total corn crop is sweet corn grown for human consumption. The prevalence of heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure can all be attributed to the average american diet, and ALL of them can be reversed and even eliminated through eating the right foods.
Obviously this is a hot-button topic for me, but I’ll step down off the soap box for now. It’s clear we need far more awareness of this topic than ever and I’m glad to see more and more people learn of the dangers lurking in their food.
Wow Kate, thanks for all the resources! I always value your insights on this topic and really appreciate the specific brand names to look for at the store. I hadn’t heard of those specific brands for organics and tomatoes, so I’ll definitely look for them! Thanks again!
This is such a great article… sharing with all my friends now.
Artificial Sweeteners is a big one! I have read some great books and watched documentaries. A few friends of mine and I try to spread the word, because we don’t want people to suffer the side-effects from consuming them!
Thanks Britta- I’ve barely started to look at sweeteners… another scary topic.
One of the upsides that comes with living in Canada is that fewer foods contain HFCS here. Pop still does, as well as a lot of candy, but ketchup doesn’t, for instance.
Right now, what’s freaking me out are the pesticides, as well as artificial food colouring. I’ve heard lots of stories from people who say that after removing artificial colours from their kids’ diets they noticed a big change. I haven’t done it, but I know that some of the colours we use in North America are banned in Europe, and that’s not exactly comforting.