Is it Really?

Changing my eating habits required some education. It actually required a lot of education, starting with some UN-education.

I had to unlearn a ton of crap that I’d been taught all my life. At 50, my generation has been at the center of a very dark period of time nutritionally. Mom’s were out in the work force so home cooked meals were becoming scarce, convenience was important so boxed and frozen food became popular, working behind a computer or desk became part of many people’s lives and our food became more processed. We put our health in the hands of strangers making money from our choices, television was full of ads telling us to buy the latest greatest cereal with the super heroes we watched on Saturday mornings.

I had been brainwashed to believe things like animal fat is bad for you, vegetable oils are healthy, the sun will kill you... Of course I was never encouraged to challenge that information. I was encouraged to simply take the “experts” word for it. Whether that expert was a coach or doctor or a woman selling me a diet program. And we didn’t have Google to help us research anything back then.

You have to educate yourself by finding people who care about their health, then ask questions and get answers from the those people, read - a lot.  This is your health we’re talking about. The same companies that sell your food, sell you meds too. And now we do have Google so there is no excuse for not understanding your health and diet better.

The bottom line for me means that I do not just lightly trust companies making anything that comes in a package or is processed. I even question how real, whole food effects my health. For example a large banana can have 30 grams of carbohydrates in it. I can’t tolerate large quantities of carbs, but even if you can, you should at least be aware of that information. I had to learn what a carb was, and what it’s effect on my body meant.

If the food comes with the label, we have to read and understand what that means to our bodies. We cannot blindly trust the marketing and the companies that make and package our food for their profit. And we cannot blindly listen to the so called “experts” regarding our whole and real food. Whether it’s food, medication or sunscreen you have to discern for yourself what you put into and onto your body.

I have nannied children for over 30 years, but only recently have I come to understand how exactly food plays a part in their physical and mental health.

Sitting in the kitchen of the family I worked for a couple years ago, their then 8 year old, strolled in telling me he was hungry. I like to foster independence, so I told him to get himself something to eat. Knowing more than ever before that food is medicine and his healthiest choices would be in the refrigerator, I told him to eat something from the fridge. I told him a good choice would be string cheese or hard boiled eggs or deli meat because they had healthy fats and protein.

The family had a fabulous pantry, almost the size of my bedroom. It was full of the all the latest snacks; fruit roll ups and granola bars, chips and crackers, sugary nuts and mini muffins all packaged in beautiful bright wrappers screaming eat me, I’m good for you!  That’s right, they didn’t have to say they tasted good. The colors and cartoons told you that, but the words they used to convince you they were healthy, were completely deceptive.

He swaggered past me with a grin of defiance on his face and walked into that pantry. 

Fine with me. His parents bought those snacks for times just like these, when their kids were hungry and could help themselves. I wasn’t trying to force my way of eating on him or his family. I was just encouraging him to make a better choice since he said he was hungry.

He emerged from the pantry with something in his hand, which he quickly held out for me to see. 

“I’m having a PROTEIN BAR.” he said puffing his little 8 year old chest out triumphantly, as if I was so silly thinking there was no protein in the pantry. He was proving me wrong.

“Bring that here.” I said calmly. “Sit down.”

He came right over, still grinning, and sat next to me at the kitchen table. I told him to turn the bar over. I showed him what and where the nutritional label was, something he had never seen before, and asked him to look for the word fat. He’s 8, he can read.

When he found the word fat I asked him to tell me the number next to it. I explained that the lower case ‘g’ next to it represented the measurement of a gram.  He nodded as he listened and looked down reading, 1.5 g. Ok I said, that bar has one and a half grams of fat in it. Now look for the word protein. No problem, he had already seen that word in JUMBO letters written across the front of the bar. Right away he found and read it, and with out me asking, he declared there to be 2 grams of protein! More proof, that the bigger number was why this was a good choice, duh Jen.

Then, before I went on, I paused to explain that there are only three macro nutrients in food. Fat, Protein and Carbohydrates. Simple. Your body needs fat and protein to live. Your body does not need carbohydrates. But lets find out how many grams of carbohydrates are in that bar.

He went back to the label, scanning for the big C word. Then, with his mouth and eyes wide open, he breathed out three words “Twenty three grams.”

Just as he finished, his dad came into the room and he turned to his dad and exclaimed with utter shock. “Dad, this isn’t a protein bar, it’s a carbohydrate bar!” 

He ate it anyway. It was basically a sweet little granola bar, dipped in chocolate, so how can you blame him. But the great thing about that interaction was that he, for the first time, understood some very basic things about nutrition. Things that took me over 50 years to learn. Learning about your health and diet is up to you. No one is going to do it for you, and if the marketing companies have their way, you won’t even bother with the fine print. #Foodidmedicine

Notice the first four ingredients - then the next few ingredients…