What we eat has been LIFE CHANGING in our house. I am very passionate about what goes into our bodies. I will write more about our story later but thought I would share  a little today.

I have had several people lately asking about how we eat and about organic stuff etc. So I thought I would post a bit about it. We do as much Organic and Whole Food as possible. I would LOVE to stay that is all we ate but we just can’t afford it right now and we enjoy eating out which when we do, we have no control over the quality of the food. I get and put up as much in season fruits and veggies as I can and thanks to my Dad we get fresh grass fed beef. I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER when we eat organic/whole foods and I know my son does too. Even thought my husband would never admit it I think he does too.

I had a friend  email me just today about where to start etc. so here is part of what I responded to her, I am NO expert, but this is what our family does and how it looks at our house.

First thing DON’T try to change EVERYTHING at once… you will get overwhelmed and it will just be too much work.

Figure out what is the most important to you produce, cleaning supplies, meat, additives and food dyes etc, and start with that then slowly add something else to find better options for.

This is what I AIM to do

• I started early on with NON TOXIC cleaning products (we don’t do all soaps and shampoos because of budget) but cleaning products get on our skin and we breath it in and the cost is not that much more. I like Mrs. Meyers cleaning day but Method brand is more budget friendly and there are other bulk options if your interested.
• Unprocessed is most important to me so I TRY to only buy things that I know everything that is the ingredients and they are all REAL food. Small steps like buying block cheese instead of pre shredded (they add extra stuff to it so it won’t stick together and have a longer shelf life)
• I Look for NO high fructose corn syrup, I try to stay away from sugar too but HFCS is processed more so that is the reason I choose sugar over HFCS. Cane sugar is also less processed so I prefer that over regular white sugar, it is still sugar but more like it is found in its natural state.
• Then I AIM for no food dyes, my son has reactions to them and they are just junk http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/03/13/real-food-tips-7-reasons-i-hate-artificial-food-dyes/
• Organic — I buy as much as we can afford… that being said some things are more important to me than others. Keep in mind the dirty dozen http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214 and try to start with those. And I do organic on what we eat the most of… so strawberries, celery, carrots, apples, and pears are thing I will ONLY buy organic.
• BUY IN SEASON AND LOCALLY… even if I can’t get organic locally I prefer Local vine ripen produce from a small farmer than Organic big scale farming that has to travel half way around the world to get to me. I think it tastes better and it has more nutrients. In the summer freeze and can as much as you can it will really save in the long run.
• Look for local organic CSA’s in your area.
• Milk — we do WHOLE milk which from my research I feel is the best choice  for our family since part of the milk is not removed etc. We also get ours at a local dairy, where we know the farmers and their practices, you see the cows in the fields etc,  and it is pasteurized at a low temp. and not homogenized. which I feel is important, more natural, and easier for our bodies to handle. As a society we eat way too much dairy and our bodies have issues with it… but that is a whole other story. My son who had milk issues since birth  also can drink this type of milk  in small amounts which made where he could get off of soy which I was not comfortable with due to the amounts of estrogen in it.
• Meat — This is tough on the budget there is no way to get around that, so again do what you can where you. I get beef from my Dad so we are blessed with that so I really don’t know any good outlets. I get some chicken from Dad too but chicken is one area I need to start working on getting better options in.
• I also listed local stores etc for the best price and products.

This book is GREAT it tells what vitamins, minerals, etc that is in the Best Whole foods, when they are in season and how to fix them. It also gives the vitamins, minerals, etc and what functions they serve our bodies, why we need those types of foods, what are symptoms of deficiency and how to get more of it by using whole foods.

Nourishing Traditions, will change how you look at your food. It talks about how illness etc are caused by our diets and compares our diets to how people ate hundreds of years ago. It is very interesting and I need to read it again. I do not follow everything in it since its ideas are so far from our diets today but slowly we add the ideas to our way of eating.

Here are a links to amazon and I know I paid more for both of these so enjoy.