JEFFERSON\WAUKESHA WAPF CHAPTER

So you’d like to eat healthier but don’t know where to start?

Well the first step is to realize that most foods that you buy in the grocery store are not created to make you healthy, nor will they give you much nourishment. Just try to read the ingredients of most boxed and canned items in the store. If it reads like a science experiment, don’t consider it food.

Over the last several years, my goal has been to only bring food into our home that has as little processing as possible. I look for food as it was created by God, not man.

As you can see from this box of hamburger helper, there is very little actual food in the box. MSG is listed not once, but twice! That's what yeast extract is. Natural flavor is also very possibly, MSG. So it may be listed 3 times!

Next step, get rid of “foods” like this. Become a habitual label reader. If in doubt, don’t buy it. If you don’t know what it is, why in the world would you put it in you mouth, much less that of your children!

I then gave away or threw away much of what was in my cupboards. Folks at church loved that!

For those of you that are old hands at this, please remember, this is a starter's guide. All people change at their own speed. This is how I started.

I mostly stayed out of the center aisles of the store and just shopped around the outer edges. We would stick to “real” foods. Produce, meat, cheeses (real, not processed cheese food), eggs, frozen vegetables (plain, no sauces), frozen juices (not juice cocktails).

You may have noticed I didn’t include milk. That’s because it was one of the first things we changed. Because I live in a state where the farmer can’t legally sell me fresh milk, I went underground. Suffice it to say, I can now get a safe source of healthy, delicious milk. There is more information about fresh milk elsewhere on this site, if you would like to check it out further.

Next, I learned to cook from scratch. This actually is easier than it sounds. Most meals I can have done in one to two hours, some even less.

The slow cooker became my best friend. Slow cookers can make anything taste awesome and tender. Seasonings are part of the secret. The best thing about slow cookers is you take 5 minutes to throw everything in, first thing in the morning and supper is ready at the end of the day!

I will try to include some simple recipes in future posts.

_While I was “low carbing,” I was also researching. I spent countless hours pouring over books & internet sites trying to learn what really is involved in this thing we call eating healthy.
One place I discovered early on was the Weston A Price website. There I learned how drinking fresh milk was safe and so much healthier than the store bought versions. The sad thing is, I grew up across the street from a dairy farm. My mom went there every day and brought milk home for us. That farmer retired and we just naturally gravitated to the grocery store. Eventually we came to believe that the only safe milk was pasteurized milk. However, my researching reminded me of days gone by and taught me that fresh milk really is safer and healthier.
I then sought out a source of local organic fresh milk for my family. We are so incredibly fortunate to have a farm nearby.
At this time I decided that while there was no way we could afford to change everything bad in our diet all at once, we could commit to changing one thing each month. A biggie for us was changing from margarine to butter, later we changed from conventional to organic. Changing just one thing at a time made it so much more doable for us.
One big change was when I discovered how much MSG (monosodium glutamate) was affecting me. It caused headaches, light headedness, a very disconnected feeling. I also discovered that MSG is in so many of our foods and it is also hidden. Natural flavors, seasonings, yeast extract, and many other ingredients are listed that are actually either MSG or naturally occurring glutamates. This began the great purge of my cupboards.
I got rid of practically everything that came out of a box.  All those boxed helpers (tuna, burger, etc), Most seasoned crackers, seasoned chips, so-called cheese sauces, many salad dressings, seasoning mixes and more were given away. I had to learn how to replace them with healthier alternatives. Reading labels became a habit.
Next I discovered that high fructose corn syrup was so prevalent in our foods so that went next. More labels to read.
About 4 years ago we started purchasing a side of beef every year from a local butcher. The meat isn’t organic, but these cattle aren’t given any antibiotics or hormones and they are from a local farm. I would love to buy organic, but for now, this choice is better than what we bought previously. And the meat is delicious!
I buy eggs locally. I know what they are fed and who feeds them. I’m not afraid to eat them raw in mayonnaise and eggnog.
I grow my own organic garden. At the local farmers markets, I know many of the farmers by name and how they grow their food.
I also still buy convenience foods like pizza and mac & cheese. I just try to make sure they aren’t filled with science experiment ingredients. I am, after all, still on this journey. I still have a ways to go. I am always looking for new to us foods to try so we can eat better. That’s what this blog is all about. Our journey and what we’re learning. My joy is in sharing it with you.