Our overall food philiosophy

I used to weigh over three hundred lbs. Yesterday I tipped the scales at 201, which isn't okay with me. So back on my exercise plan. I hate to exercise. I'll never be a size six, but thats okay with me. I just want to maintain health! I will NOT become diabetic again!

Okay, back on topic. I grew up on the Standard American Diet. My mom claims that she cooked for me, but about three nights a week we would have tuna and noodles. Boil a bag of egg noodles, throw in a can of cream of mushroom soup, throw in a can of tuna. Serve. No veggies, no fruit, nothing "real" except the tuna. Its no wonder that I was 310 lbs at 23 years old. I grew up eating like that, nothing fresh, all fake foods. I was even a pepsi drinker from a young age. My mom did breastfeed me for a few years, but that was all jacked up anyways, so it wasn't really the foundation of a healthy diet.

I realized that I had to change my eating habits, and I have to raise my children with better nutritional foundations that I had. I can't do to my kids, what was done to me and have them spending their twenties floundering around looking for what a healthy diet is.

Here is the basics of what we do and don't do in our home now, what I think is the healthiest diet.

Whole foods. I try to have fresh veggies and fruit at every meal. The only veggies that I don't serve cooked from either a fresh or frozen state are green beans and sometimes tomatoes. Perhaps it is my Italian mushy veggie background, or my midwestern upbringing, but I cannot stand fresh or frozen green beans. I like them straight of out the can warmed with butter. But we do try to have these whole fruits and veggies at every meal.

Whole freshly milled grains. Grains that are milled more than 24 hours in advance of cooking and eating lose MASSIVE amounts of nutrients. The oils in them also start to go rancid after a few short days. I also want to make sure that my breads, which are also served at every meal (not always eaten, but always offered) aren't filled with weird stuff. Flour, honey, yeast, milk, water, and salt (sometimes eggs) is it. Lots of different grains too. We eat all sorts of grains from barley, to rye, to wheat, to quinoia, to spelt. I like variety. Though beans aren't a grain, they fit in this section because they combine perfectly with grains to make a complete protein. And they are just yummy. Unless they are pinto beans, then they are gross and I hate them.

Raw dairy products. I think that raw dairy is really important for humans. We drink raw milk, eat raw milk cheese, raw milk yogurt, raw milk keifer (though I haven't made any in a LONG time) However with raw dairy it is VERY important that you know and trust your farmer. Make sure they are practicing clean catch and that their animals are tested for diseases every six to twelve months. Also you want your cows to be primarily grass fed. Grass fed cows produce higher levels of good fats and lower levels of bad ones.

Free range meats. Cows that eat grass. Chickens that eat grass and worms, and the eggs that come from those chickens. Fish that is wild and swims around in the ocean eating normal foods, not penned up in a cage on the coast sucking in all the undiluted pollution and eating fake foods. I think eating meat is a very important part of a healthy diet. I also believe there are some very serious health risks associated with a vegan diets. Of course we as Americans eat far to much meat. We don't need meat with every meal, nor do we need it every day. Learning to incorporate vegetarian meals into my diet has been great!

No pork or shellfish. Actually we try and follow the biblical standards for diet, though this is a new development as I'm feeling called to be more and more Torah observant. I feel like looking at only the new testament and ignoring the old is a grave mistake. God gave us his ENTIRE word, and he never said the NT voided the OT, just that Jesus was the fulfillment of it. I think God gave those laws for a reason, and that reason was to protect our health.