Tag Archives: food

How Are Families Going Sugar Free?

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A spiral of sugar

Have you heard “The Toxic Truth about Sugar”? Last week, a group of scientists published their research on sugar in the journal Nature. Sugar, they found, can trigger “liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases.” They suggest using the models of intervention used to reduce alcohol and tobacco use to similarly reduce sugar use.

A lot of our customers talk about how they have created sugar-free nutrition for their families. This isn’t just a would-be-nice dream. When you consider the damage sugar can cause, keeping your children away from sugar becomes a high priority for their current and future health.

So, where do you start?


Know Sugar When You See It

Start in your pantry. Look at every food item and train yourself to find the hidden sugars that you didn’t even realize were hiding in your kitchen. Look for:

  • Agave Nectar
  • Brown Sugar
  • Cane Crystals
  • Corn Sugar
  • Corn Sweetener
  • Corn Syrup
  • Crystalline Fructose
  • Dextrin
  • Dextrose
  • Evaporated Cane Juice
  • Fructose
  • Fruit Juice Concentrate
  • Galactose
  • Glucose
  • High-fructose Corn Syrup
  • Honey
  • Hydrogenated Starch
  • Invert Sugar
  • Lactose
  • Malt Syrup
  • Maltose
  • Mannitol
  • Maple Syrup
  • Molasses
  • Polyols
  • Raw Sugar
  • Sorbitol
  • Sorghum
  • Sucrose
  • Sugar
  • Syrup
  • Turbinado Sugar
  • Xylitol

That might not even be all of the hidden sugars. I compiled the list from several sources calling attention to added sugar on food labels.


And, Know Where Those Sugars Hide

Next step, look beyond the obvious places to find places that you just can’t believe would have added sugars. Look for sugar in toothpaste, cough syrup, chewing gum, mints, flavoured yogurt, vitamin water, bottled tea, juice drinks, packaged cereals, instant cereals, granola bars, applesauce, preserved fruit, salad dressing, barbeque sauce, tomato sauce, baked beans, soup, sugar-cured meats, as well, of course, as candies, cakes, and everything else you already know has sugar in it.

Have you found sugars in most of your canned, boxed, bottled, and otherwise packaged foods? To avoid the hidden sugars, start your family’s sugar-free journey by giving up prepared and packaged foods. It’s a simple and essential move.

Maybe you still want sweets (like the gooey sugar-free brownies we linked to on Saturday on the Making Love in the Kitchen blog). There are an abundance of websites and cookbooks that will help you find substitute sweets or sweets with less sugar, but they are still sweets.


Stop Looking for Substitutes

In the end, I suggest that rather than looking for substitutes to satisfy a sweet tooth, you get to the root of the problem and eat without the sweet. Pull your family’s natural human appetite for sweets back to levels the body can handle and satisfy that appetite with natural sweeteners like fruit, dairy, or even a bit of honey or maple syrup.

Start now so your children won’t expect sweets. By now, I mean even if you are just pregnant. Start from the first minute and the minute before that to bring your family’s nutritional focus to whole foods. Help your young children value the tasty, natural flavors of fresh foods without additives. (Read “My Sugar-free Son” at Mothering.com.)

Families are going sugar free by managing then shifting expectations about sweets. The amount of sugar consumed by the average North American is staggering. You don’t have to accept that as normal or inevitable for your children. Start with substitutions then move on to a whole new way of looking at food. You’ll feel great, and your children will grow without the hindrance of all of those toxic calories.

Image © Giedrius Zaleckas | Dreamstime.com

3 Reasons We Like Making Love in the Kitchen

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Meghan Telpner creed

Where does Nature Mom go when she needs allergy-free recipes and clear reasoning for changing her eating habits? Making Love in the Kitchen with Meghan Telpner.

I seriously can’t recommend her site/blog enough. And if you are lucky enough to be local (she’s in Toronto), her cooking classes completely changed my boring, tasteless cooking void of all our allergy foods. I’m still learning everyday.


1. Don’t Take No for an Answer

A diagnosis of disease is not the last word. You have control of your health. It’s best if you start now, before allergy or disease force you to change your habits. If you are already facing disease, nutrition-dense foods will only help. No, I’m not claiming that you should forgo allopathic medicine, but you can improve body and mind through diet.

This is one of the most important lessons I learn from Meghan Telpner. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and chose meditation, acupuncture, and a whole foods diet rather than surgery or medication. After six years, she is symptom free. During that time, she became a certified nutritionist and opened her own cooking school in Toronto.


2. Create a Guide that Excites You

For Meghan, her creed is her philosophy of living. Her creed is the image you see above. You might find this inspiring, but I want to tell you that part of the power of this creed is you flipping the switch and realizing that YOU can and you MUST create your own beautiful philosophy of living so that you are realizing your own dreams. Start here if you like, but stretch it, test it, try out a few new things, and build a philosophy that makes your heart sing.


3. You Can Still Eat Brownies

Are you worried that your food will be boring if you remove sugar and other processed ingredients? Really? Well, stop that right now. If anything, conventional, processed foods are a crutch that keeps you from being creative with food. If you need to be convinced that you will be fine in a future with healthful foods, Butternut Squash Ooo-eee Goo-eee Brownies will ease your transition.

When you hang out on the Parenting by Nature Facebook page, you will find that Nature Mom and others mention Making Love in the Kitchen a lot. Join us!

Health Superfoods for Your Family

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Super Food Drinks

Super Foods are nutrient-packed, disease-fighting foods, many of which you probably have in your refrigerator or pantry right now. They aren’t unusual or difficult to find.

A lot of our customers have asked Nature Mom about the super foods that she uses, how she includes them in meals for the family, and how much she uses. Start where you are and add more foods over time.

Do you have a few of these around?

  • Dark berries
  • Dark greens
  • Nuts & seeds
  • Hot peppers
  • Raw cacao nibs
  • Honey

If you already have any of these on hand, you are ready to start adding health superfoods to your family meals. Add more dark greens to salads. Sprinkle seeds on many main dishes. Add hot peppers to your foods, if your family can handle them. Sweeten foods with honey. Add fresh or frozen berries to your cereal in the morning. There you go! You are a superfood super star.


Nature Mom’s Fast Food Breakfast

Nature Mom, owner of bynature.ca, eats fast food for breakfast. Shocking isn’t it? Well, hold on to your blenders, because it’s even faster food than you think. At least 2-3 mornings a week, when she is rushed, she has a super food smoothie.

NOTE: If you are nursing or pregnant, and there is anything that might be a concern, just leave it out. This recipe is really flexible, and she uses what she has in the fridge at the time.

Nature Mom Super Food Smoothie

1 cup of frozen berries (fresh is okay too, but frozen makes the smoothie taste colder)
2 handfuls of greens (I usually use spinach but cabbage, kale, Swiss chard also works)
1 large celery stalk
1-2 Tbsp nut butter of choice, I usually use Almond Butter (or Tahini for a nut-free version)
1-2 Tbsp hemp seeds
1 heaping Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 inch ginger, peeled
dash of cayenne pepper
3 cups of water

Put this all into a high powered blender. Blend and drink as you’re running out the door!

Optional superfood additions (I use them all):


A Month of Your Health Ideas

We’re devoting February to food and other ways our readers keep their families healthy. It’s the depth of winter and there are fewer fresh options, so it takes even more vigilance to eat fresh, healthy, whole foods. Comment here or jump over to Facebook and tell us how you keep your family healthy in the winter especially. We want to include your ideas.

Image © Tomislav Pinter | Dreamstime.com

Save Money on Food

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Backyard chickens

One consistent theme among all of my friends is the need to save money in the current economic climate. For the next month, Eco Baby Steps will offer tips to save money. This week, we’ll look at essentials like food and heating.

What else do you want to save money on? Yes, I know: EVERYTHING! That’s obvious. Tell me, then, how you would finish this statement: “I wish I could save more money on ______.” Where are you really trying to squeeze the budget? Tell me, and I’ll see if I can come up with a few tips to help you.

Today, save money on food. This is one of the biggest items in my family budget, but I want to keep the family healthy and well nourished as well, so we look for a balance.


Focus on Un-processed Foods
Buy whole foods (not to be confused with a high-priced grocery store by that name). I know a lot of people who lower their food bills to almost nothing by using coupons, but I don’t do that. Most of the coupons are for processed foods and other items I wouldn’t normally buy. Keep your overall focus on those foods that have not become ingredients in other foods. Buy fewer prepared meals and more fresh foods.


Use Sales and Coupons
If you would buy the foods anyway, definitely use coupons and show up for sales, but keep in mind the value of your time as you search for and organize your coupons.


Manager’s Specials
In my grocery store, the food that is about to expire within a day or so is often marked down to half of the usual price or less. I often bring home foods with those bright red stickers and either use them right away or freeze them. If you are willing to be flexible about what you eat tonight, you might find a special.


Food Rescue
More than a billion tons of food is wasted around the world annually at every link on the supply chain. When food is past its sell-by date, a store won’t sell it, but the food might still be edible. Sometimes you can work with grocery stores for food rescue. Often, this food is donated, but a lot of dumpster divers find edible food for their families.


Start with a List
If you plan your meals, even if you are flexible about changes when you see opportunities in the store, you are less likely to buy expensive foods or foods that will go bad and end up in the compost. Before you arrive at the store, start with a shopping list. Also, make sure to list those foods your family really eats rather than the foods you wish they would eat. Food that is ignored is more likely to be wasted.


Buy and Cook in Bulk
You may have to pay more up front for a larger bag of flour, but you will pay less per pound. On the other hand, if you can’t use all of the giant bag of lettuce before it starts to brown, you haven’t really saved money. Having a chest freezer can be a great way to keep foods as you buy or cook them in bulk. Buy as much as you can afford, as much as you can store, and as much as you will use.


Join or Create a Buying Club
Some wholesalers don’t mind selling food to buying clubs as long as they can meet the minimum. To find a local buying club, ask around or do a search. There are also more organized clubs, which you can find through United Buying Clubs. Or, gather a group of families and start your own buying club.


Freeze the Leftovers
When you have bread that had gone stale or vegetables or rice that you won’t use before they go bad, freeze them. When it is time to make stuffing, you will already have plenty of bread ready, so you won’t have to leave fresh bread out to dry. When it is time to make soup, you will have a variety of ingredients to add to your soup. Even if you can’t use food right away, save it if you can use it later.


Grow Your Own
Whether you have a lot of space to grow your own fruit trees, a medium-sized space to plant a garden, or just enough space to grow a few herbs in pots, growing your own will save you money as long as you don’t overdo the money spent on gardening supplies.


Keep Chickens
Another big trend I’ve noticed among my friends is keeping chickens for eggs. My children took care of their grandparents’ chickens over the holidays, and they are very confident that they can become small-scale farmers themselves. My local garden store has classes in chicken keeping. You might find a similar local class that eases your transition from gardener to farmer.

How do you save money on food? Your friends, neighbors, and family members are all trying to save money. It is just one of the realities of our time. Share your tips.

Image of my in-laws’ backyard chickens.

Wassail!

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Old man with wassail bowl

The holiday tradition of spiced cider or mulled wine stretches from Halloween to Twelfth Night through all of the holidays in between. Wassail is most usually associated with Christmas now, but it wasn’t always so.

Wassail is both the drink and the act of going house to house asking for the drink. “Waes Hail!” is a toast. It means “Good Health!” When roving bands of young men showed up at the doors of the wealthy in a town, holding out their wassail bowls asking for free food and drink, wassailing more closely resembled trick or treating. For those who go Christmas caroling, the offer of a hot drink is from the same tradition. For my family, we keep a pot of mulled cider on the stove through the harvest and winter holidays.

If you are establishing your own family traditions, keep in mind that scents can be very evocative. Apple and cinnamon wafting through the house is one of those signals for my children that it is holiday time. Perhaps you might want to add wassail to your celebrations.

Start with a large stock pan.

Base drink. You can make a kid-friendly version with apple cider or even apple juice with added orange juice. We add a gallon of apple and half a gallon of orange to start.

Alcohol. If you aren’t feeding kids or you are making an adult version, you can start with red wine or hard cider. You can also add brandy, port, or sherry. Anything sweet will mix well.

Spices. Add cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, or any of the sweet spices you like. You can make it all powdered or add whole spices for a beautiful look.

Sugar. I don’t add sugar, but most recipes call for it. Apple juice adds a lot of sweetness that gets thicker as the night goes on, so skip it.

Fruit. We add orange wedges with cloves stuck into the rind, and I’ve also seen apple slices added.

Warm without boiling. You want to let the spices steep for at least 30 minutes, but an hour or two will give you a thicker, spicier version. If you are serving at a party, continue to top it up with more apple and orange through the evening. Topping up is likely why the alcoholic version becomes more potent as the evening wears on.

Waes Hail!

Image © Gunter Hofer | Dreamstime.com