"Let food be your medicine.....

....and medicine be your food."

These were the words of Hippocrates in 400 BC. I've really been thinking about those words lately, and what they might mean for our family. We aren't a total junk food family, but neither are we a pure, health food family. My goal for this year is to pay closer attention to what our family is eating and re-shape our tastes if necessary so that we will crave wholesome, healthy, natural foods, and then we can start to tip the scale on the "pure and healthy" side. With Clara, it will be easy. We're simply shaping her tastes since she has not been exposed to the junk food that the rest of us have been eating. But the boys will take a little more time to win over. They like Fruity Pebbles and Go-gurt and Pop Tarts. I'm on a mission to change their tastes to whole grain cereals (adding fruit to sweeten naturally), plain yogurt (which doesn't have the added sugar and artificial colorings), and making our own homemade sweets instead of buying the junk food in boxes. Reading labels will be part of life. Buying organic when possible is also on the shopping list.

When we check the labels we are looking for these three villains:

1. high-fructose corn syrup
2. artificial coloring that has a number symbol attached to it
3. hydrogenated oils or trans fats

I read that if we just avoid these three items, we'll have de-junked our diets by 90%! I want to teach my children that bad foods will make them feel bad, and that good foods will make them feel good. It will require a lot of willpower, to choose a snack of carrot sticks instead of gummy worms. Awareness is the key! If I can at least help them understand the differences between healthy "grow foods" and the junky, sugary "fake foods," I will have won at least half the battle.

I am also looking for ways to make meals more nutritious. I read on the package of whole wheat flour that it can easily be used in recipes by using equal amounts of whole wheat and all purpose flour (unbleached!) Another interesting item to add is wheat germ or flaxseed meal. These changes are hardly detected but will boost the nutritional value of homebaked goodies. Instead of buying muffin mixes which contain artificial flavorings and other unwanted additives, we will be making our own homemade muffins with real fruit added. These are treats I can feel good about giving to the baby. And to our growing boys. They like to help make them too! We are also switching to whole grain pastas. I have tried these before in spaghetti, but I used all whole wheat and the change was too noticeable to everyone. There were complaints. Last week when I made baked linguine, I used half regular noodles and half whole wheat. No one even knew it. I couldn't really tell the difference myself in the way it tasted, but I knew it was better to have the whole grains in our food.

We hardly ever have soda in the house. Instead, we like to drink iced tea, water, juice or milk. To boost the antioxidant levels of our iced tea, we add several bags of green tea to the regular tea when brewing. We started juicing our own fruits and vegetables last year with the juicer I purchased online...and love the taste of fresh juice that does not contain any additives and has not been pastureized.

If the junk food isn't in the house, we'll be forced to eat real food. I don't expect that we'll be healthy eaters overnight, but little by little, we can incorporate these changes and slowly adjust our habits and our tastes. Of course, doctors and the medicine they prescribe are sometimes absolutley necessary, and I don't have a doubt in my mind about it. But I do believe that if we are feeding our bodies the healthy food that it needs, (and this is especially true of children and their growing bodies,) we may be able to avoid certain illnesses and problems that are aggravated and/or caused by our junk food diets. This is exciting to me!

Healthy food... Healthy children... Healthy future!