MAKING SURE YOUR FAMILY "EATS RIGHT"
By Stacy Robinson,
When our precious babies are
tiny, we feed them the
very best - either mother’s milk or formula containing exactly what
little bodies need to grow and be healthy.
When our babies begin eating cereals and solid foods,
we continue to feed them the most nutritious foods available - whether we
cook vegetables and fruits and turn them into nutritious mush for little
mouths or buy baby food made from all natural, nutritious ingredients.
Then our babies become toddlers and the poor things
begin eating the foods that the rest of the family eats! In many cases,
that last jar of baby food is the last time our children eat such a
nutritious meal - a meal specifically designed to keep them healthy and
Families are so busy ... always on the run. Moms who
work outside the home often simply don’t have time to prepare a
nutritious dinner. Stay-at-home moms are often so busy as well, that they
too seldom have the time to prepare complete, nutritious meals. Too often,
the only "vegetable" our children eat on any given day is French
What can a busy mom do to make sure her family eats
"Eating right" means eating
"healthy." A daily diet high in fruits and vegetable is
recommended by the American Cancer Society (ACS). Years ago the
ACS’s primary campaigns focused on finding a cure for cancer. Today, the
ACS’s number-one message is prevention through a diet high in fruits and
How many servings of fruits and vegetables did you and
your children eat yesterday? The ACS recommends seven servings of
vegetables and fruit per day for optimum health benefits. Did you come
How can a busy mom make sure her family eats the
minimum (or more) servings of fruits and vegetables per day?
Write a weekly menu plan that includes lots of fruits
and vegetables. Write a grocery list from that menu. Stick to your menus
as best you can so that fruits and vegetables are eaten while they are
Breakfasts at home or even in the car on your commute
to work can be as simple as an apple or banana and a whole-grain cereal.
Brown-bag school lunches can be made nutritious when
you prepare roll-ups loaded with lean turkey, lettuce, and thinly sliced
veggies. Round out this simple, nutritious meal with carrot sticks, fruit
juice, and a chocolate-chip oatmeal cookie. Another great choice for lunch
is a large, leafy salad loaded with raw veggies, whole-grain rolls, and
Keep your dinner menus concentrated on vegetables and
fruit. Fresh and raw is best for good nutrition, but frozen vegies are
better than none!
Making sure your family eats right is all a matter of
planning ... Planning your menus in advance, planning your shopping list,
and planning to actually eat what’s on the week’s menus while the
fruits and vegetables are at their best.
Plan to keep your family healthy by making sure they
Keeping it Simple
While continuing to eat as many fruits and vegetables
as possible, I have found a simple way to ensure that my entire family
receives the full nutritional benefits of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables
every day - even on those days that our busy schedules force us to eat
"on the run."
Every morning we take tw