We made it through week five's adventure of adding new whole foods into our diets. It went pretty well. I introduced the following foods to our family....
1- Kale: I used this twice. Victor and I like it a lot. Lainey didn't complain about eating it in the soup either. Erik will not go anywhere near it. He hates leafy greens and kale is included in this category.
2- Lentils: I cooked the lentils in chicken broth similar to cooking rice (2:1 ratio) and seasoned it them with cumin. I then mixed them into quesadillas with the grass fed beef I bought and corn. Everyone ate them without complaining. They replaced rice which was great.
3-Cranberries: I put them in my oatmeal every morning and thought they were great (thanks Jill). The kids hate having anything added to their oatmeal (except for cinnamon and honey) so I didn't try that. I did add a cup of cranberries to their smoothies and this tasted great! No complaints.
4- Beets: This was a pretty big reject. I prepared them by boiling them and making a potato/carrot/beet salad. I seasoned with dill, salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of mayonnaise. Carson was willing to eat some plain veggies I left out for him. Lainey wouldn't touch the beets no matter how they were offered to her. Erik ate one bite of beets but only while plugging his nose and being bribed with a cookie. Ha! Victor and I ate them but I am not pining for more. It was a good adventure at least!
Onto week six which is....
Do not eat any food products that are labeled as “low-fat,” “lite,” “light,” “reduced fat,” or “nonfat.”
Americans are fat. Really, really fat and for a long time we have blamed calories for all of our weight issues. So to help counteract that thousands of "healthier" fat free versions became available. Americans got even fatter.
I think it is fairly obvious that shoving yourself full of "low-fat" highly processed foods is in no way healthy - they are full of chemicals and artificial products that aren't good for you in any form. I really try to avoid these foods already.
A little more controversial, in my mind, is the idea that full fat dairy products are better for you than low-fat products. It seems that the full fat and low fat versions are still whole foods, offering the same nutrients and health benefits right?
I don't think so.
I have read a lot of books on health and nutrition. I am in no way an expert, and have many unanswered questions myself (someday when I have more free time I hope to really investigate this topic).
There are lots of studies suggesting that whole fat, grass fed dairy products contain more healthy fats necessary for health, contain more nutrients and vitamins A and D that are better absorbed by our bodies. Did you know that most skim milk is first diluted down to a watery state and then they add powdered milk back into it so it is a similar consistency of while milk.
I, like most other Americans, have quite a bit of trouble going back to full fat yogurt and milk but we are going to try it!
I tried to find easy to read articles with researched based evidence supporting this decision. They are available but most are really, really lengthy. Below are a few links with info regarding dairy. Let me know what you think.....
Interview with Dr. Mary Enig
CLA's and fertility
Live Strong
Some people suggest drinking raw milk. I do actually think this provides the most nutrients but there is also risk of listeria and plenty of other infections so I have no intention to jump on that bandwagon.
For now we will try to drink organic, whole milk and if possible milk from grass fed cows that is low-temp pasteurized (only available at one store in our area so I won't go there every week).
I challenge you to do your own research and let me know what you decide!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
We love our full fat dairy. We do not drink a lot of milk, but the milk we do drink is not homogonized, grass fed organic full fat milk. It is good! We buy the Organic plain Whole Milk yogurts (bigger container) and some nights I will put a few spoon fulls in smaller dishes with frozen blueberries or raspberries and by the morning they have thawed into the plain yogurt and made it sweet without the added sugar of many of the sweetened store ones. While we do not drink a lot of milk, we do eat plenty of organic cheddar cheese...I am not sure the dairy is so great for Abby but haven;t had the heart to take it away long enough to figure out if it affects her skin.
Thanks for sharing your food challenge! Love it!
Don't give up on beets yet...it's important to eat things in season to really appreciate their flavor, and while beets can be a fall crop, they are really a spring crop. If you buy them from a farmer's market with the greens still attached (greens are YUMMY sauteed!), I think you will like them more. I always add plenty of salt to mine, and the good beets are slightly sweet. Organic makes a big difference in root veggies especially, I've noticed--carrots, potatoes, etc. The flavor is much more flat in non-organic. I buy 1% milk, but if 2% is on sale or has a longer shelf life, I'll get that instead. I should probably go to whole...yum! I didn't know that about skim, but I have never liked it. I knew there was a reason! :)
Glad you guys liked kale! AGain, very easy to grow and will overwinter in your area. You can probably plant it in March in your area, too..."as soon as the ground can be worked".
:) Liz
Nice work on venturing out. I am impressed!
This is one of my favorite veggie recipes - it's from the Penzey's Spice catalog. I use kale in place of the swiss chard. I have also used spinach. Greg will even have seconds of this.
http://epimeles.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/swiss-chard-with-raisins-and-pine-nuts/
My kids, like Erik, still aren't into the leafy greens if they can see them, but I blend kale into all of our smoothies and they eat it right up. In fact, Cameron helps me pick kale out at the store so he knows it's in his smoothie and he doesn't care.
Post a Comment