by Jenny Brizzi, Wellness Buyer
Raising your offspring to be healthy eaters turns out to be a bit more complex than just buying organic kale.
Back when I was an expectant mom, and long before, I vowed I’d feed my babies-to-be only home-made, puréed, organic fruits and vegetables. But with the chaos of being a new parent, that was soon supplemented and then replaced with quicker things, my good intentions lost to the hectic reality of day-to-day life as a parent of small children. And as they’ve grown into teenagers, and now 20-somethings, with every year that has gone by, I’ve controlled less and less of what they eat.
Long after they’ve stopped cooking us dinner, our parents’ influence lingers. When I was a kid, we shopped in natural foods stores like the Co-op. In the 1970s there was a tiny co-op in my hometown of Putney, VT, and later another much bigger one in Brattleboro. My dad had a huge organic garden in the backyard and my parents fed my sisters and me plenty of healthy international meals. Yes, there was the occasional TV dinner or fast food burger, but the bulk of our diet was nutritious, locally-sourced, and full of variety. I was a lucky kid. And great-tasting food based on natural ingredients is the kind of food that I still crave and choose to cook most of the time.
We really only control what our kids eat for a relatively short portion of their lives. After that it’s up to them. So if we can instill in them a love and respect for food and for themselves and others, then we’re doing really well.
As consumers, we’re seeking out organic foods more and more, with national sales skyrocketing, supermarket chains expanding their organic produce sections, and farms new and old deciding to go organic. We’re learning that when we buy natural foods that are free of hormones, antibiotics, GMOs, chemical pesticides, and other toxins, that what we put in our bodies will be as nutritious and harmless as possible.
Buying organic can be tough on the family budget, but there are ways to make that impact less severe. Even if you can only afford to purchase it a third of the time, that’s healthier than none of the time. Also, often the older a fruit or vegetable is, the less nutritious, so sometimes fresh and local foods raised or grown according to organic principles, even if not certified, can be a great alternative to organic produce that has traveled from across the country or overseas.
For some foods, that organic designation is more crucial than for others. Certain items are more heavily sprayed with pesticides and should be bought organic whenever possible. Called “The Dirty Dozen” by the Environmental Working Group, the 2023 list included peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, strawberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes, green beans, spinach, kale/collards/mustard greens, and sweet bell and hot peppers. A search online for “Clean 15” offers a list of those veggies and fruits for which selecting organic isn’t as crucial.
Grass-fed, organically raised meats and poultry are much more nutritious, tastier, and humanely raised than the mass-market versions, but can be more expensive. One way to get around that is to serve meat-centric meals less often, and when you do, make portions smaller, with plenty of non-meat options or sides to fill bellies.
Another challenge to healthy family eating is time, and sometimes dinner just has to be something out of a box in the car on the way to a game or rehearsal. So cook when you can, but make extra and freeze it for meals on busy nights to have something yummier and more economical than processed frozen dinners.
Encourage the kids to help – even if that help is slow and sloppy in the beginning. Spark that interest in the growing, selection, and preparation of foods, an interest you hope will carry them healthily and happily into adulthood.
When I was a healthy eating educator at Mother Earth’s Storehouse’s three stores in New York a few years back, I’d feel a bit hypocritical when I taught customers how to make healthy eating easier and integrate it into their lives. I’d think about my then teens, who may have at that very moment been grabbing pizza or other fast foods with friends, food that was likely not low in fat, sodium, or sugar, not locally sourced or sustainably raised or grown, and decidedly not organic. I’d feel bad that what I was touting and what my family was consuming was not in sync at that moment. But then I hoped that for most of the meals they’d eat when I wasn’t there, that I’d had some influence and that most of the time they were making healthy choices.
Now that they’re grown-ups and on their own, I’m proud of them. My 21-year-old son is fitness-oriented and cooks himself lean and healthy meals, and my 22-year-old daughter, a pescatarian, also cooks herself and her friends fresh, from-scratch food. It may not be organic but it is nourishing. And I feel like something rubbed off on them, like my parents’ values rubbed off on me, and for that I am grateful.
