Food For Thought

Please take the time to review the article on this site.

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/10/19/all-the-health-risks-of-processed-foods----in-just-a-few-quick-convenient-bites.htm

There's so much good information there.

Recently, I became very convicted about improving the quality of the food that my family consumes. In our household, I take care of all the food purchasing, meal planning, and preparation of our foods. So, my family's poor eating habits could not be blamed on anyone else but me. I will admit that Shawn was not exactly enthusiastic about removing "badness" and including more "goodness" in our diet. However, he is open-minded enough to know that this is good for us, so he agreed to make changes as well. Our compromise was that we would eat healthy meals together as a family, but Shawn could keep some of his favorite processed foods set aside. So, he has definitely improved his eating habits, but he's still eating more processed foods than the kids and myself.

I do think it's important to note that my opinions on this are somewhat biased because I am a firm believer that eating well causes you to feel better both physically and emotionally. I am totally convinced of this. I believe that the neurological effects of food and food additives are often overlooked. Shawn, however, was a skeptic at first, so I think his opinion is a bit more neutral. With Shawn being a bit skeptical about this change, I was pleased to hear him comment about how two recent meals caused him to feel bad.

Several Sundays ago the kids and I went to visit my parents. Shawn stayed home to work, so he was on his own for supper. He decided to fix a box of Hamburger Helper that was purchased a while back. He had the Cheesy Hashbrown Hamburger Helper, which is his absolute favorite. He likes this type sooooo much that we actually ordered boxes of it online and had it delivered to our house when local stores stopped carrying it. I'm not kidding when I say that it's his favorite! Well, when the kids and I arrived home, Shawn was just finishing up his supper. Later that evening he commented that it just didn't taste as good as he remembered. He said, with a confused look on his face, "It sort of tasted like...plastic."

The other instance occurred earlier this week. Shawn came home from work with a headache. Several hours later he went to teach his night class, came home, and still had the headache. He plopped down on the couch and complained that his head still hurt. I asked him if he had drank enough water that day. He replied that he had and he really thought that his head was hurting from the junk (that's actually the term he used..junk) he'd eaten at work for lunch.

The only way to really understand how your body responds to processed foods and chemicals is to allow your body to be without them for a decent period of time. Then, when you do eat something processed, the difference between it and fresh food will be so obvious to you. The "fake-ness" of the food will be so apparent. The residual effects on both your mood and energy level will be obvious. After ridding yourself of smelly chemicals, a walk down the laundry aisle at a grocery store will be suffocating. So, while it may be easier to go through life accustomed to blue dye in marshmallows and chemicals fragrances in your fabric softener, it is not better for you or your family.

There are still a lot of improvements that my family needs to make for our health, but I feel that we are headed in the right direction. It's necessary for me to take baby steps or else I get overwhelmed. I hope that, after reading the above link, you will also be convinced to take a baby step that will improve your family's health.