Giving New Meaning to Parenting

We interrupt this saving money/food organizing series to examine an important question.

Do you ever feel like people are judging you based on the food you serve your family?

I know I do.

And let’s face it, most of us have probably looked at the eating habits of at least one other family and ummmm, drawn some conclusions.  We’re human after all.

I have friends who have made drastic changes to their diets in the past several years; most of them have gone organic and some have gone completely off sugar, corn, gluten, and even apples.  The friends who made the biggest changes saw improvement in their general health and well-being.  In the case of one guy, he went from suffering serious abdominal pain to living a normal life (minus sugar and corn).

The downside of  these diet changes is the assumption some individuals tend to make: what’s good for me is good for everyone.  There are often conversations about the new food choices and the ills of the old diet.  Perhaps they don’t mean to, but the message often sent is “My diet is superior and you should follow it”.

I see it most starkly when someone who eats organic food talks with someone who doesn’t.  The non-organic person often seems to feel guilty about not eating the same way.  Heck, I often feel bad when speaking to someone who’s strictly organic, bakes their own everything, buys from local markets, etc.   To be clear: I’m not slamming people who have live that way.  Chris, who commented on last week’s post, for example.   I think what she’s doing is great.  And her comment was wonderful and inspiring, honest.  The guilt reaction is mine.

What I’m trying to say here is that we are all different and that we’re not all going to make the same dietary choices.  Are some options healthier than others and worth pursuing?  Yep.  Youbetcha.  Does that mean that everyone should dump the contents of their kitchens and start following a diet of grass and soybeans?  No.

I like to aim for a more balanced approach.  Yes, my boys eat regular potato chips but in limited quantities and after they’ve consumed an appropriate serving of fruits or vegetables.  I am learning to cook more recipes from scratch – and the shortcut I have for you next week is an awesome one – but I still buy bread, yogurt, and cheese.  I also buy boxed cereal, canned veggies, chips, crackers, and cookies from the grocery store.

A major tenet of my personal faith is to be “in the world but not of the world” and I try to apply that to dietary choices for my family.  There’s going to come a point when my kids leave the house and make their own food decisions.  I hope that they will know how to enjoy the occasional bit of junk food, but appreciate how much better they feel when they eat a balanced diet.  To that end, I do a lot more limiting than forbidding.

The more time passes, the more I find myself moving away from processed foods and toward the natural items.  I don’t currently focus on organic purchases, but I do recognize the value in fewer chemicals in our bodies.  One of the keys here is that I’m making the changes in small steps. I spent some time feeling bad about the contents of my cupboards and have made various “We’re going to eat better” resolutions.  Then I didn’t follow through.

It was when I got honest with myself and admitted that I’m just not going to stick with it if I make too much drastic change that I started feeling better about things.  More importantly, I gave myself time to make small changes one at a time and stick with them.

All that to say that the series I did earlier on picking and processing your own food, along with the current series on ways to cut food costs and save time are all things I’ve picked up over the course of years.  They’re not meant to make anyone feel badly (or superior, for that matter) about their own diet.

Feel free to pick and choose among the suggestions.  Take what works and shelve what doesn’t.    If you like an idea but just can’t implement it right now, then keep it in mind for a later time.  Don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t pleased with the way things are going now.  If you’re a person not inclined to make drastic change, set a goal and then work towards it in little steps.

Okay.  I feel better now.  You?  Next week, we’ll discuss an easy way to cook meals in advance.  Really.  It’s easy.  I promise!

by AmyL

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