WHY IT MATTERS

#1 We are at an all time high rate for obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and ADHD has increased at alarming rates

The engineering of genetically modified foods and the use of artificial food dyes, preservatives and chemicals and the health issues in our country are no coincidence.  Never has our country been as out of shape (physically, emotionally and mentally) as it is now.  I firmly believe the way we eat today is totally different than we ate 30, 20 even 10 years ago.  The explosion of processed foods stocking our supermarkets shelves is landing us in the doctors office and forcing our health care costs to spiral out of control.  Children are being diagnosed with ADD and ADHD at alarming rates along with pre diabetes.   Never in our history have more children been on medication as they are today.

#2 Our children are learning to cook from a box

If you’re in my generation you remember home cooked meals.  They might not have been every night, but when dinner was served in my house is was home cooked.   We sat around the table and ate as a family.  Today it is estimated families eat out 4-5 times per WEEK!  [source].  Kids are learning math, English, and social studies, but they are not learning about proper nutrition or how to live a healthy lifestyle.   I learned to cook on a step stool with a wooden spoon and a mixing bowl.  No fancy Kitchen Aid, no modern appliances.  Today’s kids watch their Mom (or Dad) make cookies from a premade roll found in the freezer section of their supermarket and will embed this into memory as “cooking”.

#3 Kids don’t know a carrot from a cucumber. 

I have a little boy who lives down the street (bless his heart) and he came over recently as I was making Sweet Potato french fries just before dinner.  I was using a crinkle cutter to make the fries have cute edges.  He was watching me very intently and I was anticipating his questions about the strange gadget I had been using.  Sure enough he looks up at me and says “What are you doing?”  so I replied, “making french fries”.  I knew the next question before he was even going to ask it … but I was wrong!  Instead of asking me about my crinkle gadget he said, “with carrots??”

Kids these days truly do not know one vegetable from another vegetable or even a vegetable from a fruit.   Families eat at such fast paces and quite often in front of the TV, computer, or even while driving to get to the gymnastics lesson on time that our children are learning FROM us.  We are showing them that food is an inconvenience.  We don’t have the time or take the time to sit and enjoy a meal with them to teach them food is to be enjoyed.

#4 My weight continued to climb

Non fat and low fat foods are the biggest scam the food industry has ever pulled on us!  When you take something OUT (fat) you have to put something back IN (preservatives and chemicals).  Never has our country gotten so out of shape as when the non fat and low fat movement took this country by storm.  People still fall into the belief it’s somehow better for them.  I was one of them.  I too believed low fat or light was a better choice so I could ‘save’ on a few calories.  Instead I put tons of unknown, unpronounceable chemicals into mine (and my children’s) bodies.

#5 We aren’t eating real food anymore

And finally, why it really matters is because we aren’t eating real food anymore.  We can literally go to the supermarket and come home with an entire meal of entirely processed foods.  From the frozen chicken nuggets to the boxed macaroni and cheese to the frozen broccoli in cheese sauce.  The chemicals and preservatives in that meal alone can run into the hundreds.

We somehow have convinced ourselves we are ‘too busy’ to cook.  Statistically French women work on avg 1 hour more per day than American women, yet dinner is a celebrated meal with family and friends and is always home cooked.

It can be done in under 30 minutes.  It doesn’t have to be ‘a chore’.   Let me show you how…