I remember a couple years ago I was watching Jon and Kate plus 8 and Kate said that she was happy that they started making organic marshmallow fluff because now her kids could eat it on peanut butter sandwiches. I was like "are you kidding me?!?!" They can't even have marshmallows that aren't organic? How is Marshmallow fluff even organic? It is just sugar. Kate's love of organic and whole foods always intrigued me, but I always just thought organic was way too pricey and just not worth it. My thought was how could I justify spending the money on organic things if I am not going to be 100% organic.
In recent years my mom has become a very natural, holistic person. Working with herbs and natural things for her health and switching to a more natural diet. She has been very inspiring to me. I would buy organic here and there but never really went all for it. Let me pause for a minute from this story for a minute...
Most of my friends and family know that exactly one year ago this week we moved out of a home that had Chinese Drywall. We had lived in the home for over 2 years and during that time had strange things happen with our health and with electronics and things in our home. Needless to say, as a mother, I was terrified at the harm that it may have caused my babies. The thought of living in a toxic environment for over 2 years was overwhelming and scary. My mom helped me to do some natural things for my kids after we moved out that would draw toxins out of their bodies and give me some peace of mind that at least I was doing something to (even if it was not doing anything) to help them after living in that house.
Back to my food story. So recently I have had food on my brain. My life is a little more routine this year than it was last year (that's a story for another post) and I wanted to feed my family the best I could. I began adding more fruits and veggies to our meals. The kids always have a fresh fruit and a fresh cut veggie in their lunches. The hardest battle for me is won because my kids LOVE fruits and veggies and will try just about any variation of them at least once. Then a couple weeks ago I saw a special on Oprah about "Food Inc." that intrigued me. It was very inspiring and the guy being interviewed talked a lot about how we need to spend more time in the kitchen preparing food than buying all the processed foods. I decided to watch Food Inc. on Netflix. It was so interesting and informative. Around the same time I watched it, a story was breaking about a cancer cluster in central Florida where children were getting brain cancer from some type of unknown environmental cause.
So a culmination of things lead me to make a choice for my family not just to feed them healthier, home cooked meals, but to to try to go more organic. I am blessed to have a Publix that offers a ton of organic fruits, veggies, juices, milk, eggs, meats, sauces, cereal, pasta, etc... I also am trying out a local organic farm share. I love standing in my kitchen chopping up fresh things and cooking real food for my family. Obviously I am not all organic and we still order pizza on Friday night and if I want to serve my kids marshmallow fluff that isn't organic I will. But I do want to make more conscious decisions about food for my family. I want to know that I am doing my best to feed them so they stay healthy and learn healthy life habits. It really all starts at the grocery store. If you don't buy the junk they can't eat the junk!
I guess I am becoming more and more of a hippie these days. I used to make fun of people who didn't get the epidural during childbirth. I thought, the drugs are there, USE them!!! In fact part of my birth plan with Kourtney (my first baby) was for the nurses to clean her up before they put her on my chest. I went from that to having my last baby in my bedroom. And I used to think organic wasn't worth it. But after living in a contaminated house and hearing stories about people getting sick from environmental things I want to do everything I can to feed my family healthy foods.
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