The War on Food

Thank you to Oprah, Dr. Phil, Dr. Mercola(www.mercola.com) , my monthly gym magazine http://www.lifetimefitness.com/magazine/ , anorexic celebrities, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Morgan Sperlock, and any other "expert" in the field of good nutrition.

Thanks to those listed above, I have MAJOR issues with not only what I am eating, but what my kids eat too. Although I realize balanced meals and lots of fruits and veggies makes for health in general, foods I ate and enjoyed as a kid are no longer okay enough to feed my kids.

Take for example, the staple of PB & J with a glass of milk, maybe some crackers on the side. Peanut butter...NO good, unless you buy the all natural kind with no sugar or salt added (which, by the way I do). Jelly? FORGET IT!! Unless you by all natural without added sugars, you get nothing but high fructose corn syrup (which by the way is in EVERYTHING). This HFCS is blamed mainly for childhood obesity trends and this type 2 diabetes trend with young ones. On to the bread...Forget white bread, or anything with the word "enriched" in it. It has to be whole grains or bust. And the milk? Umm, unless it's organic, it might contain some Bovine growth hormones...Whatever the hell those are!! The crackers just add too many carbs, and may also have the dreaded TRANS FATS in them somewhere. I will not even go into the whole lunchmeat and hot dogs issues.

I no longer feel comfortable eating out, (especially at 'chain' restaurants) and I TRY TRY TRY hard to buy organic when possible, finding foods with little or no fructose syrup, and absolutely NO trans fats, but it is hard, and it is waging a WAR ON OUR POCKETBOOKS.

It's not to say my kids have a perfect diet, far from it I'm sure. I can't just feed them granola all the time for crying out loud. We're just NOT those people. But I still feel guilty...my family doesn't have the best genetics and has years of unhealthy eating to boast about. Practically my mom's entire family is diabetic, and/ or obese (1 in 4 Americans are obese!!) and high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, and heart attacks are on both sides of my line. John has nothing but Alzheimer's really to worry about, but they're finding dietary links to even THAT!!!

And whilst I wage this battle with the food industry, I am optimistic to know I'm not the only one. There are actually FIGHTS being fought over cupcakes in schools:

http://www.dailycampus.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=431c0b48-cd70-41c7-9e29-ba7a57efbbc4

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/04/28/school_system_mulls_over_ban_on_cupcakes_and_sweets/

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-cupcake27sep27,0,4544237,full.story

As if just the simple act of raising my children without the need for too many therapy sessions when they're older isn't enough, I've got to worry about some DAMN cupcakes!!!

Call me crazy...because that's where this Crazy Mm is headed!