The "Nutrition and Children's Behavioral Problems " post got me thinking...

[Amanda1978]

What do you take into consideration before feeding yourself and your family and why? (Besides carbs. :lol: )

Lately I have been trying harder to improve the eating habits of everyone in my family and the kids I babysit. Since most of the kids are 3 & under it has been easier to get them to eat a bigger and healthier variety of foods but my 6 year old and DH are going to be a bit more of a challenge.

[ruthla]

I've been keeping my family away from synthetic junk (colors, flavors, preservatives, artificial sweeteners) for several years. We also only eat kosher food- although that's separate from a healthy diet- you wouldn't beleive the amount of kosher junk food available in stores!

It's still hard to find stuff my kids will actually eat that has enough protein and isnt' too expensive. And I need variety or the kids will get bored and stop eating some of our staples- but if things are TOO varied I end up making meals that one or more of my kids won't eat.

So, of course, the child that's most sensitive to behavioral reactions to additives is also the child who acts whacked when her blood sugar gets too low AND she's also a picky eater. I need to keep things like hot dogs (with minimal additives) and canned tuna available for her or she gets most unpleasant and the whole family suffers.

[jschwab]

What do you take into consideration before feeding yourself and your family and why? (Besides carbs. :lol: )

Lately I have been trying harder to improve the eating habits of everyone in my family and the kids I babysit. Since most of the kids are 3 & under it has been easier to get them to eat a bigger and healthier variety of foods but my 6 year old and DH are going to be a bit more of a challenge.

We have 4 and under, but we also don't have any of them in day care, which makes everything much easier. There are a lot of things we simply don't keep in the house, due to gluten allergy. And the kids know that they can't have gluten due to possibly making my husband get a reaction. We make all of our own food, except for me who works outside the home. For kids that age, good meat and raw dairy are in my opinion going to be most lacking. If you concentrate on those, you will make a big difference.

Janine

[TheBetty]

Even before I started eating better nearly 6 years ago, we tried to stay away from processed and prepackaged foods as much as possible.

I mean, you can get fat eating whole foods and such (ever hear of ORGANIC sugar? :lol: ).

But now, there is a whole new reason to avoid prefab foods--ingredients coming from other countries that we have no control over how they are grown or what they've been sprayed with.

For those of us who ocassionally eat grains, that means anything with flour in it, or even cereal grains. Also, do you know where your oats were grown?

It's further incentive to continue eating WHOLE FOODS where at all possible.

Eating at home makes that a snap. But eating out on the road can prove impossible, since we have no control over where the foods were grown.

It's a sad thing when we practically have to grow everything we eat in our own yards to control the safety.

Goodbye sweet America! :(

[georgia101]

I try to keep everyone away from as many processed and pre packaged foods as possible. I really like for us to eat as many natural foods as we can. Foods with artificial colors and ingredients really make me worry.