And the journey continues

I find day-to-day food choices a landmine of misinformation, guilt, confusion and resignation. Not a great way to feel three to five times each day! I'm worried about my own health and longevity, of course, but I am particularly worried about the crapola Evelyn is eating every day. She is on a big milk kick lately, requesting bottles or sippies or cups of milk at all hours of the day, and then eating hardly anything else. Even if we withhold the milk to get her to eat something else, she won't (and just gets tired and cranky instead). I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins....no. I made zucchini bread....no dice. It's all milk all the time, unless it's fast food french fries or chicken nuggets. ARGH!

Milk is good for her, but you know what would be better? Raw milk. But can I buy raw milk? No. It is illegal. Just last year the Colorado legislature passed a law allowing people to get raw milk by purchasing a "cow share" from a local farm, but it is pretty hard to get to when you live in the 'burbs. And by keeping it so hard to get, the price is double that of a regular, organic gallon of whole milk. So I can buy raw vegetables and raw eggs and raw meat, but not raw milk. I can buy toxic, carcinogenic, addictive, disgusting cigarettes, but not unpasteurized dairy products. WHATEVS. I am totally becoming a libertarian.

Evelyn is picky, and I know it is developmentally appropriate and a phase and whatever, but it is also so freakin' annoying. Hey all you parents who complain about picky kids, I feel your pain! A lot of the issue is the television (which she loooooooves and doesn't want to pull herself away from), part of the issue is our lack of family dinners (like I want to cook a meal for just me and Evelyn since she won't eat it anyway), and part of the issue is our reliance on fast food more than a couple times per week.

I've been reading a lot about "real food" and "traditional food" and "primal food" and the like. Things like sprouted grains, soaked flours, coconut oil, lard, beef tallow, soaked nuts, pastured eggs, raw milk, grass-fed beef. Eating the way our great-grandparents might have eaten. Eating the way our bodies evolved to eat. It is all very interesting.

I've been having a lot of fun reading the book, Real Food: What it is and why you should eat it, the websites kellythekitchenkop.com and http://www.nourishedkitchen.com/, and I'm enjoying my "Cooking Real Food" class from http://www.cheeseslave.com/.

My problem is that I have to be realistic. I can't buy grass-fed beef 100% of the time because it is seriously more expensive. We buy organic milk, but not organic cheese. I have seriously cut back my refined carb and sugar intake, but then I am missing out on some of the benefits of whole grains. In fact, it was doing Atkins, and feeling so much healthier, that sent me on this real foods kick. The things I haven't liked about any diet change (whether it be vegetarian or Weight Watchers or Atkins) is the reliance on food substitutes. Breakfast shakes and snack bars and fat-free cheese and low-salt bacon, it just isn't REAL. I like the idea of only eating foods with short ingredient lists where every ingredient is easily recognizable. Or even eating foods with no ingredient list at all! But how can you do that in modern life?

And so we continue to try to get better. More natural fats, less processed "vegetable" oils. More whole dairy, less refined substitutes. More organic, less chemicals. It is a start...