Food Scrutiny

Like (hopefully) every parent, I am concerned about what sort of food my daughter is eating. I am starting to get pretty frightened over what we don't know about where our food comes from. Every day lately you hear stories in the news about the lack of labeling, GMOs that we don't know about, mistreatment of animals, pesticides, artificial coloring - all of this a part of what we put into our bodies.

Around the time my daughter started eating table food, I have started to turn my household into an all-organic one. As she watches what we eat, and then compares it to what she eats, she points out to me (sometimes literally) that she needs to be able to eat exactly what we eat. Which means what exactly? That my husband and I need to eat more healthy as well.

And prior to being a parent, I have always been highly concerned about what I eat - but it was more about fat and calories than anything else. As I learn more about what all these confusing ingredients mean, it is hard for me to not buy the fat-free version of something in exchange for the full-fat version. I had been programmed so long to think fat is bad.

But honestly, it just goes back to what we've always been told: everything in moderation. A moderate amount of fat in your diet not only requires you to avoid chemically-modified fat-free versions, but fat helps your body absorb the vitamins it needs to be healthy (for example, the type of salad dressing you use determines whether or not your body will actually recognize those vegetables as nutritious).

I'm probably having the toughest time with milk. I was raised to drink milk, and I have always been a big fan. I used to be proud that I could drink a gallon on my own in less than a workweek. But after learning so much about milk and its variations while learning about the ins and outs of breastfeeding, I'm not sure anymore. It definitely seems to have a lot of sugar in it for a beverage. But isn't it good for our bones? Ugh.

Here are some articles I've been reading lately that cause me to be concerned about our food supply:

Why Fat-free Salad Dressings Are Ridiculous

11 Horrifying Facts About Your Groceries

Monsanto Protect Act: 5 Terrifying Things to Know About the HR933 Provision