How do I transition my family to healthier eating?

I think we are seeing a shift in people's desire to eat well. However, for so many it is just a huge overwhelming task that seems impossible. I still remember clearly the day that I vowed to make drastic changes in our diet and never look back. I tend to be an all or nothing kind of gal, and I can proudly say that since that day I haven't fed my family tuna helper ever again. We also haven't eaten at McDonald's ever again. Chris will occasionally grab a coffee there and I have a sneaky suspicion that grandma sometimes takes the kids, but it's not something I ever even feel tempted to do. It's a very liberating thing to have a 2yr old who doesn't have a clue what a chicken nugget is! While my jump in with both feet method may work for some, there's a good chance that most of you looking to improve your family's eating habits would prefer to do it in small manageable steps. After all, the less overwhelming the more likely you'll stick with it.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer a list of things that I find to be the most important. I know some folks who are gung-ho traditional foodists who make all manner of fermented things that I find to be just nasty. Those aren't the things I'm going to suggest you do. Not right away anyhow. If your family is used to eating a Standard American Diet(SAD) then a sure way to turn them off to real food is by switching out the box mac and cheese, fish stick meal with one of liver and kimchi. Just sayin'. So, here are some very easy do-able first steps. Don't try to do them all at once and don't feel like you need to go into the kitchen and start pitching things in the trash. Unless of course you're an all or nothinger like myself. Start by replacing items you've run out of with the healthier alternative rather than buying your old standby.

1. Fats. Modern science has tried to convince people that all manner of vegetable oils and margarine are good for you. This couldn't be further from the truth. Those things are all concocted in factories and do terrible things to our bodies. The fats that we stick to around here are butter, coconut oil, and olive oil. That's it. There are many other good fats like lard and palm oil, but for now I have simplified by only using the above. My favorite place to buy coconut oil is Tropical Traditions. They run lots of good sales and if you sign up to receive their newsletter or like their facebook page you'll be the first to hear about the sales and free shipping days. If you do order from them, be sure to mention at checkout that you were referred by a friend and enter my user ID 5643428. They will send you a free book and I will receive credit for your purchase.


2. Dairy. This is another area that as consumers we've been deceived. It's acknowledged that small children need the good fat in whole milk, but after age 2 we are to drink only low-fat milk and consume low-fat dairy. The fact of the matter is, that's just not the way God designed it to work. The fats in dairy are good for us. Our bodies need high quality fat to function. As someone who only knew the blue-tinged skim milk from a grocery store shelf this was a HUGE step for me. We moved from drinking conventional skim milk to organic skim milk to non-homogenized skim milk to raw whole milk. Shockingly, raw whole milk is nothing like store-bought whole milk. Rather than being thick and chalky, it is smooth and creamy. It's really delicious! If you're not ready to jump directly to raw, at least try to find milk from cows that have not been treated with rBGH. If you are going to purchase organic milk in the store, steer clear of anything that is labeled as UHT or Ultra-pasteurized. This means it has been heated to very high temperatures. Many companies do it because it extends the shelf life of products, but it kills everything good in the milk. It is essentially dead. More on milk here. 
The same avoidance of low fat should be done in choosing cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc. With all these obviously homemade using raw milk would be best but I am nowhere near that point. For now I look for always full fat versions, organic when available/affordable. We do have a great source for raw cheese which I am so grateful for. There is nothing like raw cheese. Yum. :)


3. Trading Out White for Brown. In a nutshell, things like rice, wheat, and sugar are white because they've been refined. Any time something is refined it is put through a process that strips vitamins and minerals and depletes nutritional value. Make it your goal to rid your home of all white rice, white bread, white flour, white sugar, white pasta, etc. 
With flour in particular it is easiest to make this switch if you are already making things from scratch. You can slowly substitute 1/2 the flour in recipes for whole wheat flour. Continue to up the ratio and before you know it your family will be eating all whole wheat. Also, if you are baking from scratch look for white whole wheat. It is a lighter variety of wheat that will give a lighter color and texture than red wheat which produces the dark brown colored baked goods. We eventually got to the point where it was most cost effective to grind our own flour and I now use mostly hard white winter wheat.
If you are buying bread in the store, look for whole wheat varieties that do not contain HFCS - more on that in a minute. 


4. Sweeteners. Perhaps one of the most involved steps is going to be ridding your kitchen of high fructose corn syrup(HFCS). That stuff is bad on so many levels. Unfortunately, it's also made it's way into pretty much everything. I challenge you to take a tour through your cupboards and refrigerator. Chances are you will find it in things your never expected from bread to ketchup. 
In terms of sweeteners for baking, as you do step number 3 and rid your kitchen of white sugar(and "brown" sugar - it's just white sugar with molasses added) you'll need to replace it with something. My preferred sweeteners are raw honey, real maple syrup, and evaporated cane sugar a.k.a. sucanat. Yes, these sweeteners can be a bit more costly, but I also find them to be more potent and nearly always cut the amount that a recipe calls for. There are many fad sweeteners out there like agave, stevia, truvia, etc. Personally, I stay clear of all of these. There are conflicting viewpoints and some say agave is even worse for you than HFCS. 


5. From Scratch vs Processed. When we started our whole foods journey I began by first making all that I could from scratch. Things like macaroni and cheese and the various "helper" boxed meals. These can all be made from scratch and believe it or not, they taste a million time better and they won't be full of all the MSGs and HFCS in the box variety. Also, please note that just because something is found in the health food section of your grocery doesn't make it healthy! Yes, you can buy organic boxed dinners, chips, cereals and they are probably better than their conventional counterpart, but don't make them a habit. 


6. Produce. Grow your own if possible, if not then find the best locally grown available. Farmer's market season is quickly approaching. Check out the market, talk to the growers, know where your food comes from. Generally speaking organic produce is always going to be better. Not only will it not contain chemical residue, but organically grown fruits and veggies actually have higher nutrient levels. If you do buy produce in the grocery store, then it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists. If we can't find affordable organic items on the dirty dozen list then we simply don't buy those things. We don't strictly eat organic though. If there is a huge price difference and it's one of the clean 15, I buy the conventional variety.


7. Meat. This is a hard one for many people. Grass-fed organic meat is without a doubt the best tasting and best for you. It can be very difficult to find and extremely cost prohibitive. For this reason, my family doesn't eat nearly as much meat as I'd like. Recently, I was craving hamburgers so I did splurge and buy some grass-fed beef. $6.49/lb, people! For us that just isn't in the budget. If you can get meat directly from the farmer it is much much less expensive, so do that when possible. We do eat chicken that I am comfortable with from Smart Chicken. I buy whole chickens, stocking up when they are on sale. I crock-pot it for the first meal, clean all the meat off and put it in soup or something for a 2nd meal and then save the carcass/fat/skin/etc to make stock so I get a lot of mileage out of a chicken. 


I think that about covers the basics. Of course there are many many more facets of healthy traditional eating, but I'll save those things for another post as this is getting quite long already. If you have any questions please ask. I am relatively new to all this, but I'd love to learn with you! There is tons and tons of good information on the blogs I have listed in my sidebar so feel free to peruse those.