It's a baking day. It simply can't be helped. With deliciously big snowflakes falling, the kitchen called and my mouth is already watering at the scent of the chocolate chip cookies baking.
Thankfully, R is taking all of the junior high youth on a retreat in the hills tomorrow and I can send them along to be devoured there rather than here.
Yesterday I read (and couldn't put down) a book by Dr. Sears on nutrition and the health of our children's brains.
Suffice to say, junk in equals junk out. We have always eaten homemade food with almost nothing prepped for us. We've avoided a lot of junk food.
Still, the ingredients in many of the foods we used to purchase without thinking have been slowly changing.
When we were kids, bread was flour and water and yeast. A pinch of salt and sugar. Now it's that PLUS more chemicals, emulsifiers, refined sugars, shelf stabilizers and more. Yogurt was milk with a little fruit perhaps and a bit of sugar. Now for so many brands it's a gallon of sugar with food coloring added. There's more sugar in some yogurt servings than in a candy bar!
For years we have avoided all food colorings and as many additives and preservatives as I knew about. Now I've learned more and we avoid more things. I'm passionate about it and learning more everyday.
Yesterday at the table my son quipped, "Gee Mom. I could learn absolutely nothing at school but I would STILL learn something at home every day. You have a fact about every food I put in my mouth." He meant well, but I was reminded that I don't have to share about EVERY food that will kill them, give them cancer, or toxify their brain. :-) I suppose I COULD wait until they ask.
But my poor husband....nutrition is NOT his passion. He likes healthy food. He's fine with eating good-for-you food, but he would like to be able to run into a grocery store and pick a few things up without having to spend an hour reading the labels. He would like food to be food so he wouldn't have to THINK about it. He has enough on his mind. Yogurt doesn't need to be one of them.
Today we will enjoy the cookies...for tomorrow who knows...perhaps eggs won't be eggs and flour will no longer be flour.
