"Natural living" vs good stewardship

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I have been trying to incorporate more whole and healthy foods into my family’s diet. Maybe someday I will make my own bread, but for now we buy 100% whole wheat bread from a bread outlet for $1.50 per loaf- the exact same brand that is $2.69 at the grocery store. I buy brown rice instead of white, and do various other small scale things such as this.

Someday when we have a house (and more storage space!) I plan to have a large garden and do a lot of canning- something my mom did when we were growing up. Something else that my parents did, and other posters have mentioned is buying meat and produce from local farmers. My parents used to buy a whole side of beef from a local farmer. We would like to do this someday, but right now it is not possible.

I would love to buy everything organic, as I do believe it is better, but it is definately out of our budget. It is, as others have said, a balancing act between what you feel are priorities for your family, and what your budget is!
 
Eating healthy does not have to be a budget killer.

Fresh produce is relatively cheap. Combine fresh zucchini or grean beans or corn with lean meats - chicken, turkey, or very lean beef (at least 92%) and you are on your way. Add a side dish of brown rice and you have a real meal.

The organic controversy - well I’d say you can skip the organics if they bust your budget. In my book it is more important to get very fresh produce than organic produce.

Don’t bring things into your house that arent healthy. No desserts, no processed foods (crackers or cookies or chips, etc.)
Stick with fruits, veggies and lean meats and at least 45 minutes of exercise a day.

You’ll be suprised how cheaply you can live healthy.
 
The Hidden Life:
I have been struggling lately with my desire to eat more healthfully versus our family’s need to save money.
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Hi Lee Ann! What a GREAT question!!! I’m always puzzled with this as well!

I know some “health nuts” can really spend just exhorbatant(sp?) amounts on “health foods” --only buying “pesticide free” this and that–“organic” this and that. Why, I have several relatives who spend literally over $800.00 as week on ONLY organic food–and they don’t even have children! Can you imagine?

I think it really boils down to if you can afford it or not. If you can afford to spend $5.00 on a gallon of milk --or $4.00 a pound for “organic” tomatoes–then do it. It can only be better for your health. Right?

I’ve read that coffee, milk, tomatoes are the 3 products with the most pesticides-so I try to buy only organic and hormone-free these–but the others-well so what?: I go for the best prices. If I had endless $$$ I’d ONLY shop at the health food store.

And keep in mind yes, it’s all the packaged goodies that cost the most money. Instead of all this junk, give kids apples and chunks of “real” cheese for a snack–not the processed “cheese & cracker” garbage. Give them real Quaker Oats–5 min. to cook --add honey and brown sugar --yum–nstead of packaged cereal, etc…eat the real stuff–less packaged meals. It really is cheaper and I have found that if a kid is truly hungry and there’s not alot of junk around, he’ll eat! YAY!!! I’ve learned this from trial and error.

What a great topic. Look forward to hearing more from moms re: things they’ve found kids like.

God Bless~~
 
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pittsburghjeff:
Eating healthy does not have to be a budget killer.

Fresh produce is relatively cheap. Combine fresh zucchini or grean beans or corn with lean meats - chicken, turkey, or very lean beef (at least 92%) and you are on your way. Add a side dish of brown rice and you have a real meal.

The organic controversy - well I’d say you can skip the organics if they bust your budget. In my book it is more important to get very fresh produce than organic produce.

Don’t bring things into your house that arent healthy. No desserts, no processed foods (crackers or cookies or chips, etc.)
Stick with fruits, veggies and lean meats and at least 45 minutes of exercise a day.

You’ll be suprised how cheaply you can live healthy.
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Right-on Pittsburgh Jeff! Your wife is lucky to have you. Are you cooking tonite???
 
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pittsburghjeff:
Eating healthy does not have to be a budget killer.

Fresh produce is relatively cheap. Combine fresh zucchini or grean beans or corn with lean meats - chicken, turkey, or very lean beef (at least 92%) and you are on your way. Add a side dish of brown rice and you have a real meal.

The organic controversy - well I’d say you can skip the organics if they bust your budget. In my book it is more important to get very fresh produce than organic produce.

Don’t bring things into your house that arent healthy. No desserts, no processed foods (crackers or cookies or chips, etc.)
Stick with fruits, veggies and lean meats and at least 45 minutes of exercise a day.

You’ll be suprised how cheaply you can live healthy.
Click to expand...
Again, I think this varies from person to person and by region.

The only time fresh produce is cheap where I live is when it is in season and local. Any other time it is very expensive, so I have to opt for frozen. Which actually will have more nutrients intact (if flash frozen right after picking) than the “fresh” produce that spent who knows how long on a truck, train, or boat to get here.

Also, yes, some people may actually experience a reduction in cost once they start eating more healthy. But it depends where you are starting from. If, like most families nowadays, they are relying on white rice, pototoes, corn products, bread, and packaged items like mac and cheese as their staples… their costs will go way up if they start buying more lean meat and whole grain products.

And if you start to buy your meats from local farmers markets or butchers, the price goes up. To me it is definitely worth it to support local business…but the taste difference is also dramatic. So if you are on a tight budget or have a large family to feed you may have to shop wholesale and take what you can get.

It is so sad that this is even a topic of discussion. Why should we have to “choose” to feed our families healthy food. In this rich world we live in it should just be a given.

And the other thing to take into consideration is time. You can make a pot of white rice in 5 minutes. But if you use brown you’re up to at least 45 minutes. People need to be aware that cooking “healthy” is usually more time consuming and requires more effort.

Finella
 
Wow, thank you all for your time and effort in posting these ideas and comments. I know discussing “healthy eating” can be controversial if the discussion goes in the wrong direction (“my diet is better/more natural/more Catholic than your diet!”) and I’ve been greatly pleased to see only polite conversation and suggestions here. Yay!

Mrs. R, I’m glad to know someone else out there in the Catholic universe is familiar with the Nourishing Traditions book. I’m amazed at your efforts to boost your health while pregnant. That’s a lot of milk! Only one place in WA is certified to sell raw milk to the public–a Benedictine convent on Shaw Island, which is like the booniest of the Boonies! Very hard to get to. BTW, have you had any improvement or absence of caries since starting raw milk? I seem to be very prone to them and it is one reason I am interested in the NT diet.

Princess Abby, I do have the LLL cookbook. However, it seemed quite vegetarian/vegan in orientation and full of unusual grains (for my tastes). The diet I am interested in is high in meat and dairy products and recommends grains mainly in their fermented or at least soaked form (for digestibility). I wanted to tell you that 99% of organic milk you would get in a grocery store is pasteurized or ultrapasteurized (extending shelf life). You don’t need to worry about drinking something you don’t want because it’s “organic.”

Jess7396, all I can say is WOW! 5-7 gallons a week? Where do you keep it all? 🙂

SeekerJen, thank you for the cookbook recommendations. I have often wondered about the monastery soups book. How would you rate their level of difficulty or requirements for unusual ingredients?

Finella, you are right that it is tragic that we have to struggle financially to feed our families healthy food. I was cleaning out my cupboard of unhealthy foods last month and was thinking, is it really to anyone’s good if I pass on all this junk food to someone less fortunate? Well, I finally reasoned that if I had nothing else to put on the table that junk food would certainly be better than no food and I’d worry about my kids’ teeth some other day.

PittsburghJeff, you mentioned organic versus fresh and I’ve learned something very interesting about that. In my state (Washington) there are many, many small organic farmers but not all of them can afford the certification process of USDA Organic, so I hear a lot of stuff about “no we’re not certified organic but it’s just because…” around here. There is even some debate because now the major chain stores are putting out organic products under their own generic label and the small farmers are pointing out that there are some loopholes in organic requirements and saying that these chain store products aren’t as organic as theirs. So now I read about people who are developing personal relationships with their organic farmer asking about the type of grain fed to his animals, how long the soil has been pesticide-free, how long do the chickens get access to free range, etc. When is there time to actually cook the food and feed it to your family under this kind of scrutiny?

It just struck me how similar scrupulosity is to this kind of behavior. Wow.

With this kind of navel-gazing sometimes I wonder how I manage to get my kids fed each day.

Does anyone else sometimes wish they had remained ignorant of what was healthy to eat and could just go back to eating Wonder Bread and Twinkies in peace?

LeeAnn
The Hidden Life
 
Wait just a minute here people----- twinkies are not organic? :mad: , that’s it- I am done with this “healthy living” garbage, if this movement can see the beauty in twinkies…

(Um, actually- I don’t like twinkies, but if you had said swiss cake rolls- you’d be in trouble with me 😛 )
 
The Hidden Life:
SeekerJen, thank you for the cookbook recommendations. I have often wondered about the monastery soups book. How would you rate their level of difficulty or requirements for unusual ingredients?
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The Monastery Soups book is great- most of the recipes that I’ve tried have been fairly easy (the most difficult part is usually getting everything chopped up), and pretty basic in terms of ingredients: broth or stock (can use canned), veggies, dry or canned beans, rice or pasta, some herbs and spices, etc. A few of them are more elaborate, with cheeses or meats added to the soups, but I usually stick to the more basic ones (like split pea, red bean and rice, cream of broccoli, pasta e fagioli).

As with anything worth making, they take a little while to cook, but the results are definitely worth it.

ETA: Ick, Twinkies! Are those even real food? Now glazed cherry cake donuts, those are FOOD.
 
Most of the savings from switching to a healthy diet from the SAD (standard American diet) will be realized from no longer buying junk food and beverages (which are often loss leaders advertized by the store to get you in and spending more money). Shop at co-ops, natural food stores, farm stands, city markets. In Cleveland we used the Food Co-op and the West Side Market or old market in Collinwood. Does anybody know if they are still functioning? I know the WSM is still a Cleveland institution. We used to ride the rapid over to W 25th on a Saturday to shop for the week and carry everything home in bags and baskets (including a huge pumpkin one halloween that became source for pies and pumpkin seeds).

Source for grass-fed organic beef on line shipped frozen to anywhere in 48 states, texasgrassfedbeef.com
 
The Hidden Life:
BTW, have you had any improvement or absence of caries since starting raw milk? I seem to be very prone to them and it is one reason I am interested in the NT diet.
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We have strong teeth in my family, so caries aren’t a big concern for me. 😃 On the other hand, I have an immune disorder, so I’m very interested in nutrition from that angle.

For instance, have you heard of Immunocal? It’s been written up in mainstream medical journals as a “promising new treatment” for cancer, MS, and many other illnesses. Well, lo and behold, this “wonder drug” is nothing more than carefully freeze-dried whey from raw, grass-fed cows’ milk. Ironically, it was “discovered” at McGill University in Canada, where it’s illegal to sell raw milk (in its natural, non-patented, non-$60-a-box form). :rolleyes:

Historically, fresh whey has always been seen as a very healthy beverage. I can’t say I like the taste, but if it were available cheaply, I’m sure I’d get used to it. 🙂
 
Thanks everyone for letting me know the scoop on making bread vs. buying bread.

By the way, does organic = no pesticides, or both no pesticides and not GM?
Thanks, as always!
 
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TreeHugger:
Thanks everyone for letting me know the scoop on making bread vs. buying bread.

By the way, does organic = no pesticides, or both no pesticides and not GM?
Thanks, as always!
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No problem. Hey, you and your fiance could put a bread machine on your wedding registry (it’s more fun to make it by hand, but sometimes it’s hard to find time). We registered for ours, and quite honestly, it’s one of our most used wedding gifts- along with the wine glasses and flatware. They make good bread, too- I made apple cinnamon bread in mine last night and it turned out great. Free aromatherapy for the house, too. 😉

I think organic usually means no pesticides and no GMO, but I’m not sure. All of the organic products I’ve bought are very clearly labeled “No GMO”.
 
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