Marlowe wearing: Barley & Birch. Garlic: delicious &good for your heart.
Videos:
– TEDTalks: Jamie Oliver: “Teach Every Child About Food” Love him. dreamy and smart.
– Mark Bittman speaks about soda.
– TEDTalks: Mark Bittman: “What’s Wrong With What We Eat”. One of the first videos I watched with Mark Bittman. good stuff.
Reads:
– Jumping on the quinoa bandwagon craze? Here’s an article from the NYTimes that might make you think twice.
-Taco Bell. 88% beef? HA (Eww)
-Want to buy more organic? But feel you can’t make a full on switch (due to expenses or whatever)? Heres a list of veggies containing the most and least pesticides in your fruits and veggies. There are certain things I will absolutely not eat unless it is organic.
– Animal treatment. Pets vs. farm animals, another article by Mark Bittman.
– Why breastfeeding is and always will be better than formula– even organic formula. What’s with all the chemicals? Okay, I understand there are a lot of reasons some women feel they need to give their babies formula– but “not enough milk” is hardly an excuse. There were days that Marlowe would never seem to get enough and would feed (torture my breasts) for hours (usually during her growth spurts). We both pushed through it and here we are almost 6 months later and happily breast-feeding and just (barely) starting to introduce foods. I know there are working mothers who can’t sit and feed their baby 10 hours a day– that’s different. If you’re at home with your child there is no reason you shouldn’t do everything possible to attempt breast-feeding. There were days I would cry throughout each feeding– yes, it’s hard– I know… trust me, I know.
Again, my goal is not to offend anyone (ever), but instead raise awareness on healthy eating.
Happy watching &reading <3
PS! Want another giveaway? We’re having an amazing one Wednesday 🙂
20 Comments
@laura: Absolutely not. That is EXACTLY my point on what is wrong with our food system these days. There really is no need to supplement for breastfeeding unless maybe the mother has some serious food deficiencies herself, but thats a whole different story.
My diet has stayed the same. I eat really well and I always make sure I have the proper nutrition I need. The only difference is I've upped my calories considerably.
I get your point about the natural vs. chemical element of how you feed your baby.
Here in PA a lot of doctors encourage breastfeeding mothers to give their babies a particular vitamin supplement produced by enfamil. They say that formula babies don't need it. Do you give Marlowe a supplement? Honestly I have always thought it is strange that you have to supplement something that seems such an obvious foodsource for babies. Alternately, did you have to change your diet for your baby?
@laura: I was speaking more about sauce rather than the pasta itself.. I suppose I wasn't very clear. &even still… fruits always have a bit (or a lot) of sugar. A lot of jar sauces have extra sugar to balance the added salt or whatever— but the sauce itself was one of those sauces that boasted about no sugar but had a ton of extra chemical additives.
As far as my "breastfeeding brigade":
I feel very strongly that when given the choice to breastfeed or to bottle feed, breastfeeding should be chosen. It's obviously the more natural of the two choices. Formula is just a blend of chemicals, filler, and additives to simulate breast-milk… so when given the choice between real 'food' or a man made version (a chemical replica of food) wouldn't you try to choose the food for (you or) your child? Of course people have survived and lived happy and healthy lives after formula feeding… I know I was only breastfed for a few months before given formula and I know a lot of people who were never breastfed and were solely given formula and are all living very healthy lives. For many generations formula was (and still is) marketed to mothers as being better and easier than breast-feeding while constantly having new chemicals added to it and frequently having recalls for contaminations. It's not like it's poison or anything, I myself have a can of organic soy formula in case of an emergency and would give Marlowe formula if I didn't have a choice.
I recommend you read more into formula vs. breast-feeding. Even just an hour or two of article reading might help you understand why concerned mothers feel so strongly about it.
If it's easier here are some resources you could look at:
http://www.foodpolitics.com/tag/infant-formula/
http://www.llli.org/cbi/biospec.htm
All parents make their own decisions on how they want to raise their children. Like I've stated: these posts will be my opinion on certain issues.
It doesn't hurt my feelings in least– everyone is entitled to their own opinions.
Besides, it's not like I'm walking up to mothers who are bottle feeding and giving them my opinion. You chose to come this blog &read what I had to say. Take it or leave it.
I really hope there's no such thing as sugar-free pasta, what the heck would that even be? Pasta is a carbohydrate. It is composed of sugars. I realize you were only using that as an example, and probably meant 'refined sugar free' or something.
I like your idea of regular food posts. I'm impressed with vegans. I feel like I would lack the creativity, everything I eat seems to have dairy in one form or another. However, I think these posts will be much more valuable if you minimize the broad rants about the stupidity of Americans.
Furthermore, I am completely lost on the breastfeeding brigade. You breastfeed, that's great. You're a good mom. Modern doctors encourage breastfeeding over nursing. It boosts immunity, it helps prevent obesity, etc. I've heard it. I'm just missing why this is such a passionate subject. There are a lot of people from past generations who weren't breastfed and still survived to adulthood, perhaps even thrived. If others don't breastfeed, that is their parenting decision, why comment on it?
I'm taking an opposing viewpoint, but I don't want to hurt your feelings. And I do want to hear what you think in return.
Right back at you – you have been a great example and inspiration to me!
@kara: I know! I've been following along and am very excited for you! You're a wonderful example of a woman/mother who will do everything in your power to do what's best without being able to breast-feed. Good job (future) mama 🙂
This is really helpful and I love this new series. Sadly, I won't be able to breastfeed since we are adopting, but totally agree with your stance on breast milk.
Can't wait to read more of these posts!
@the peanut gallery: right! well, its different and the same. Things should always be "no sugar added" it disturbs me that they even have to label it that way. I find that in the end it just confuses the consumer more. "sugar free" things can be… just that "sugar free" or they can be that way because that product either a. normally adds sugar to the product and decided to take it out for that item or b. they attempted to take out natural sugar and added some other chemical sweetener (gross)
@nodtostyle: good! I really love hearing things like that 🙂
@gwiddle: Yes! I forget what chemicals they used to "replace the sugar" but it was ick!
@sarah-rose: it's hard! I'm not 100% free of processed foods and I probably never will be. I plan on doing a post showing which items I occasionally cheat with. I feel like vitamin water isnt doing so well any more Which is good. Whats worse than vitamin water is Gatorade!
@katie: I think cheese is everyones vegan blockade. It took me 3 (or so) attempts to finally give up cheese. I ate more cheese than my 3 college roommates combined. I think its been 4 years now? I'm going to do a whole *why and how im vegan* post in the next two weeks or so 🙂
great post! the thought of diet water is hilarious.. and i'm sure many folks would line up to try it.
i have been a vegetarian for many years, and haven't made the last step to full vegan. the one single item standing in my way is.. cheese.
i'm just curious (and forgive me if you already posted an entry about this, and i just can't seem to find it), but how long have you been a vegan? what was the determining factor? extensive research and a final decision to just 'go' and do it? did you dip into vegetarian-ism for awhile first?
have a great day!
-katie
Oh gosh. I love this post. I'm pretty terrible at avoiding processed food – but I try!
Vitamin Water really REALLY bugs me though. I was living in London when they brought all the hype over to try and sell it – handing it out, huge ads, all the business – but when I read the sugar content on the back of my (free) bottle, it made me feel sick. It drives me crazy that they can market it as "Vitamin" water so people think they're being healthier than drinking soda when it's really jsut as bad.
I loved this post. I agree 100% with what you have to say. All of these processed foods are disgusting! Seriously. Sugar free tomato sauce for real??
as a life long vegetarian i feel like i'm fairly informed but these articles are new to me and fantastic! i really like this feature…
love this! im continuously trying to eat better and im looking forward to upcoming posts!!
this is probably a dumb question but what about 'no sugar added' things? like i give P organic fruit and veggie blends w no sugar added thats different than sugar free bc it still contains natural sugars right? Or no?
@kyle: Thank youuu! I'm sure I'll offend some people.. if not now then in the future. I'm glad you're not one of them 🙂
@jazmyn: Thanks! Im going to try to have it weekly. I could rant on for hours and hours about food and I'm going to do my best not to.
@MrsP: I noticed you did! I have a zillion things bookmarked right now to post and I was going through all of them and decided to take a break and just search through blogs for a bit and came across yours! I was very happy to see you posted it and thought: "GOOD! I'm glad other people saw this article and found it as interesting as I did!"
@Katie: You got it dude.
@Bekah: soo good! Especially with being a pregnant mama like yourself. You especially have to better for you foods! I saw your juicing post the other day and reminded myself I over supplied on veggies for that reason. I made sooo much green juice (and lemonade) yesterday. I love juicing pregnant mamas.
@lilmuselily: Yessss. I use canned over fresh for two reasons: 1. I don't go to the store enough and its easier for me to store canned tomatoes because I end up having fresh ones go bad. I never know if I'm going to need (want) tomatoes that week or not. And just "running out to the store" (as you know) is a much harder with a tiny baby (especially with a two door car. ha.) Maybe once the new walking distance grocery store opens up (very soon) it will be different. 2. I have found it is cheaper for me to buy the canned tomatoes. The amount of tomato to pasta ratio I need to keep my mouth happy is crazy. I could eat a whole can in one sitting and not think twice. I would need like 15 (maybe thats an exaggeration. MAYBE) tomatoes to make a sauce how I like it.
Thanks for the feedback guys. If there is something you'd like to see more of let me know.
or better yet, use REAL tomatoes!!
i hear you.
yes, another giveaway please.
we are having one too. you should check it out. you like giraffes….
So good!
Oh man, I have been reading a lot of Micheal Pollen lately and its just so true that we need to get back to eating FOOD!
With all this organic talk, I think it would be interesting if you did a diet water post on what that actually means in our food system. The word "organic" as a usda vocab word vs. things that are locally organically grown but can't afford the label. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Also, we all know fast and highly processed foods are the cheapest, but how does the single organic vegan baby mama make it work? Any tips?
<3 katie
I just recently blogged about the Bittman article regarding the difference in treatment regarding farm animals and pets!
People are so nuts about their food. I look in people's grocery carts and wonder what in the world they find appealing about half of the junk in there. *sigh*
Lol I would laugh at anyone who bought *diet* water, not even joking haha. I'm pretty interested in this new feature though!
The Sweetest Life♥
what an amazing post. thank you for sharing information about food choices in a completely NON-offensive, informative way. sometimes it takes others and the information they share to keep us each accountable to what we believe and how that manifests itself in what we choose to eat! thanks for being a food role model! <3