Trying to be Healthier

I want to make better food choices for our family. I am concerned about the increase in cancer and other diseases. I have to think that it is something that we are doing by what we put in and on our bodies, in addition to air quality and environmental factors. This may be an area where my obsessiveness will start taking over. Maybe it already has. My interest in healthier foods started about two years ago when I started Arbonne and began to learn how the chemicals and ingredients in our personal care products get into our bloodstream and have an affect on our total body. This made me start to research the food that we put in our bodies. Then, when I got pregnant with Mckenzee I became even more concerned because now I had a tiny life to look after. I stopped eating french fries, stopped my caffeine intake, tried to cut out nitrites as much as possible, ate whole wheat breads, and began washing my fruits and vegetables with soap. I feel like this has been something that has interested me for a long time and I still only know a little bit about it. There is so much to learn.



I remember being at this crazy woman's house when I was pregnant and she began to show me everything in her pantry and refrigerator. It was all from Whole Foods and everything was organic...she was made of money. I thought wow...how cool is she? I want to be just like her! At that point I still did not know the importance of organic.



We have been making some slow changes in our diet for awhile now, and in the last few months we have started buying some organic. We are not made of money and cannot have a pantry like the lady above right now, but we are trying to do better. The Swinneys are sharing their knowledge with us and us with them. As Connie mentioned, Levi definitely contributes to my food obsessiveness... I have been known to throw away food straight from the fridge. Chris and Connie try to let us know when we are too crazy...and sometimes we listen. It makes for a good balance and good conversation. I wanted to share a couple of my favorite products right now and list the top 12 dirtiest foods and top 12 cleanest foods so if you are like me and have to be choosy with your organic you can choose the dirtiest things to go organic in first.

Horizon Organic

What a great company! Learn more at http://www.horizonorganic.com/

We started buying this milk for Mckenzee and now buy it for us too. I wish I would've known it's importance sooner. It is made without added growth hormones, pesticides, or antibiotics. They treat their cows well and use 100% clean wind energy. They also make yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, butter, sour cream, ice cream, smoothies, and eggnog. I have to figure out where all these things are sold. Now for the price. It is over $6 for a gallon. You might be thinking "We cannot afford $6 milk!" I ask you this...."Can you afford to go out to eat?" I had to get real with myself one day because I kept saying that we were going to go organic when we were making more money, but then I thought we go out to eat regularly. We can be sure that going out to eat is not increasing our family's quality of life and buying this milk is. So we made some adjustments. Trust me, the more I learn about food, the less I want to eat out anyway.




Laura's Lean Beef

Learn more at http://www.laurasleanbeef.com/
Okay I'm not going to go into this beef. It is pretty much the same principle as the milk. It is not organic, but there are no antibiotics, growth hormones or food additives and the cows are treated well.

Okay, are these two things the very best milk and beef that are out there? No. The best beef would be a cow you raised yourself that you knew for sure what it ate and how it was processed, etc. Same with the milk. These are the things that I have chosen for our family for now and I feel good about it.

The Dirty Dozen
The 12 most pesticide-laden types of produce
Peaches
Apples
Sweet Bell Peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Pears
Imported grapes
Spinach
Lettuce
Potatoes

The Clean 12
Consistently showed the least amount of pesticide residue
Onions
Avocados
Sweet Corn
Pineapple
Mango
Asparagus
Sweet Peas
Kiwi
Bananas
Cabbage
Broccoli
Papaya

Info from data by the USDA and FDA 2000-2004

Best place to buy your produce is from a local farmer that you can talk to about their farming practices or grow it in your own backyard.

Hopefully, this did not bore you completely. Like I said before, I am no expert on this subject, and if you see any incorrect information PLEASE tell me...I want to know! We are trying to learn all we can to give our family better safer foods.
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