Before starting our "100 Days of Real Food" pledge you could describe our family's eating habits as fairly average. While I made sure my kids ate at least one fruit or vegetable at every meal - albeit never organic - they also had their fair share of junk food including boxed macaroni and cheese, pretzels made from white flour and "fruit" snacks. Although, at the time, I never realized most of that stuff was even junk food and that's actually the scary part.
Once I figured out, thanks in part to the book "In Defense of Food," by Michael Pollan, that some otherwise innocent looking foods were actually harmful to your health, things suddenly became quite different at our house. But how would my 3- and 5-year-old daughters handle such an abrupt and drastic change? There was only one way to find out, so we basically went cold turkey. Right away I learned one very valuable and surprising lesson: "Out of sight, out of mind." If they no longer saw the usual junk food hanging out in our pantry then in most cases they eventually forgot about it. And "out of sight" doesn't mean hiding it on the top shelf because we parents have our own weaknesses, too.
While we experienced a rough patch with our oldest daughter at the beginning of our "real food" pledge when someone offered her a doughnut, as time went on - and much to our surprise - she was starting to come around. I of course couldn't even attempt to hide all the processed junk from her when out in public places, but as it turned out she was actually learning a thing or two on her own. Since starting our pledge she'd voluntarily chosen a banana from a concession stand and also kept her cool while on a 5-day trip with a little friend who ate plenty of junk food right in front of her. And little did I know she would continue to be full of surprises.
Here's what happened in an excerpt from http://www.100daysofrealfood.com:
"We were just minding our own business while shopping at our regular mainstream supermarket. Both of my daughters were pushing their own kid-sized carts when along came another 5-year-old girl with her own little cart. It almost felt like it happened in slow motion when I saw my kids stare right into her cart full of highly processed food that included Fruit Roll-Ups, Lunchables and a box of white croissants from the bakery. Then the dreaded words started to come out of my 5-year-old's mouth, 'Mom, her cart reminded me that...' I seriously had to hold my breath, but then she said, '...I wanted to get one of those plastic cups that she had.'
I was in shock and said, 'I will absolutely buy you one of those $3 cups. Let's go pick one out!' I explained to her later that I bought her the cup because I was so proud of her for not asking me for, or even wanting, any of the junk food that was in the girl's cart. Even though our 'real food' pledge has not been easy at times, we've stuck it out and somehow managed to change our children's mindsets. I oftentimes cannot believe how well they are handling our new food choices."
I can't help but wonder what would've happened if we thought giving up processed food was so difficult that we didn't even give it a fair chance.
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To learn more about the 100 Days of Real Food pledge, go to www.100DaysofRealFood.com.
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(c) 2011, www.100DaysofRealFood.com
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