Making Healthy Choices As A Family

One of the first thoughts that'll come to mind when making a decision to eat healthier as a family, is all the wonderful family favorite foods you'll have to give up. Let’s face it, elimination of anything is not easy, let along encountering this process as a family. Dad may still desire his favorite bag of chips, while mom still enjoys a piece of chocolate to unwind at night. Let’s not forget the kids having to yield over their favorite lollipops and sodas. The thought of a family suddenly throwing out any one of these, could be a tragic, making the journey to health a long and difficult road

I’ve learned in my 16-year journey to successfully transform myself and family into a family that makes healthier choices, that it is not so much what is eliminated from your family’s diet but what is implemented to your family’s diet, that will make a difference in their health. I’m not saying that food elimination is not important. I’ve eliminated many bad foods from my family’s diet during our health journey. However, as a family, we would still find ourselves returning to some of the same bad habits. When I was married, my husband would still buy his favorite bag of MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) chips, the kids were still accepting candy during church and I would still buy a candy bar to pop in the freezer for whenever I needed it… We were missing the whole concept of eating healthier as a family.

Eating healthier as a family is more about choosing healthier as a family. When you choose healthy, you automatically decrease the desire for unhealthy foods. It is not as much what you consume as a family but what you are not consuming as a family that will affect your family’s health. I realize we had more missing from our diets that made us unhealthy as a family than the junk food we enjoyed eating while watching our favorite movies.

One of the very first things I did to smoothen our health journey was implemented healthier cooking ingredients like Olive Oil, Sugar in the Raw and Brown Rice. This automatically diminished the need for recorded unhealthy cooking ingredients like Vegetable Oil, White Sugar and White Rice. These are not the best for your family…It’s been recorded more than once that “Vegetable Oil is a saturated fat and excessive saturated fats raise your blood cholesterol levels. White Sugar is known to shut down your immune system for more than 5 hours, 30 minutes following consumption, it is also the leading cause of hypoglycemia and diabetes. White Rice is brown rice whitened; important minerals are removed during this process.” As you can see replacing these three major ingredients added nutrition to my family’s diet.

Making healthier choices as a family could be exciting if your family would seize it as opportunity to try new foods that will add to their lives. When I began to see my family’s health journey in this fashion, I began to visit grocery stores that provided organic food products that were tasty and rich in minerals and vitamins. I added to my grocery list Living Foods, Supplemental Vitamins and frozen as oppose to can vegetables. I sought out replacement foods and learned my family members would find them enjoyable like rice milk for my son and sugarless gummy bears for the kids sweetened with evaporated cane sugar, too good to be true. Instead of buying artificially sweetened gum I bought Xylitol sweetened gum and organic chocolate candy bars, just to treat myself. In result of my newly found habits, I turned my husband on to broccoli, yogurt and non-hormonal & reduced fat milk. I also practiced new habits like cooking a full breakfast on the mornings I would have preferred to drop two waffles in the toaster and call it a morning.

When you make the decision to eat healthier as a family you eliminate complaints of headaches, acid reflux, constant belching, stomachaches and unexplained tiredness as a family… The major joy and difference in eating healthier foods as a family is your family can enjoy good food without discomfort and guilt. The plus is, everyday your family awakes, they feel great! I don’t know about you but I would take the task of adding to my family’s diet over the task of eliminating any day!

Here are a few grocery tips I believe would help jump start your family’s plan to make healthier choices:

Yogurt- Is a pro-biotic a (good bacteria) that aids the stomach’s digestive system, bowels and gastrointestinal tract and fights off bad stomach bacteria. Yogurt gets rid of bowel and gastrointestinal challenges like stomachaches, constipation, stomach viruses, acid reflux and much more.

Organic/Non-Hormonal Milk & Eggs-This is the good milk & eggs! You don’t want your family drinking and eating foods with added hormones. rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone) is a growth hormone found in meat and dairy products that contains high levels of IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor one). Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. Professor emeritus Environmental & Occupational Medicine and Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition recorded, “Increased levels of IGF-1 have been shown to increase risks of breast cancer in 19 scientific publications, risks of colon cancer in 10 publications, and prostate cancer in seven publications.” In addition, artificial hormones have been known to enhance early-onset of puberty.

Fresh Fruit—Give the kids as much sweetness as they desire in fruit. The natural sweetener found in fruits is Xylitol. Xylitol is good for your kid’s teeth and behavior if you know what I mean. Keeping fruit out in the open increases the desire to have an apple, banana, or peach. Soon your kids will have less of a desire for candy.
Pure Juice—Replace fake acid induced juices with pure juice. Artificially flavored fruit drinks has food dyes, which is why your kids stool comes out red and colorful after consuming. This has the kids bouncing off the walls. Pure juice has no preservatives and dyes. These are usually cold not always on the shelves at the grocery. There are also squeeze juices without added preservatives and dyes.

Frozen Vegetable—you do not want can vegetables because they have aluminum in them. Yes, the can has gotten all in your food as they sit on the shelves for purchase. Aluminum is recorded as a cause for Alzheimer’s disease. Add a frozen veggie like spinach, asparagus, green beans and peas to your family’s meal.

Bag Salad-give the kids a salad with their favorite salad dressing.

Organic Multi Vitamins- the family needs the help of these. We assume we will get all we need in our food but not so… Iron, potassium, C, D3, B’s, and A vitamin deficiency is still possible after consuming