Food, Indeed

Stephen Colbert recently pointed out that something like eight percent of American children have some kind of food allergies.  He followed up the statistic with "Luckily, very little of what they eat is actually food."

So true.

I think 'real food' is what eating clean is really all about.  I subscribe to Michael Pollan's mantra: "Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants."  In his book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan points out the same thing that Stephen Colbert was getting at: a huge portion of the calories we consume every day shouldn't really be classified as 'food' at all. 

While trying to clean up my kids' diets and get them a bit healthier, I will be mainly following Pollan's directive, and subscribing to the 'moderation in all things, even moderation' school of thought.  

I have had friends ask what I will do about ice cream, butter, cheese, etc.... for the weeks that we are dairy free.  We'll be avoiding them.  

I won't buy milk.  I won't buy ice cream.  But I figure a quesadilla every two weeks or so is not the same thing as 4-5 cups of milk every day, which is what they were used to before.  A week and a half in, they've complained a bit.  Particularly Mini.  She misses the milk, and has not yet developed a taste for rice milk.  The good news is, she doesn't miss it at all on cereal - only when drinking it plain.

And since quesadillas and mac'n'cheese are for the most part off the menu, it's forced me to be a bit more creative with what I serve for lunch.  They've had fried rice, spaghetti, PB&J, chicken nuggets, pita chips w/hummus (yes, my kids - in an odd break with their all-American junk-food tastebuds, love hummus) and discovered that they might not in fact die without a serving or two of cheese every day. 

The good news is that as I mentioned previously, we've all had a cold.  Oh, wait, that's not good news at all.  The real good news is that normally ANY little respiratory infection means Pickle and Yummy have terrible asthma around the clock, requiring breathing treatments every four hours.  Around the clock.  Pickle frequently coughs until he throws up, and is unable to stop coughing even then.  It's a mess.  Literally.  So even though he went to the doctor Sunday and does indeed have an ear infection (grrrr) for which he's taking antibiotics (again.... sigh) I think that the asthma part has been quite under control.  He has only thrown up once, and only had two breathing treatments this week.  Ordinarily, the throw-up count would be in the double digits, and let's see... quick math here (a non-possibility for me) - the breathing treatment count would be up in the thirties by now.  

We're obviously not 100% yet, but I'm hopeful that I may be seeing real improvement and not just imagining that they're getting well...  

I have a friend who doesn't restrict dairy unless her kids get sick - then they stay off it until the contagion passes and take it up again.  I may end up on that track.  We'll see.  If I don't see any benefit/improvement over the next couple of months I think we'll be back on the cow so to speak, but maybe more selective about only buying organic (not just on the weeks when I'm not feeling broke, as I've been doing for this past year or so).

If I just outed myself for not being an actual animal-lover and using shameless propaganda to brainwash my 7 yr old Mini, then so be it.  Don't get me wrong.  I do love animals. As long as I don't have to touch them.  I want them to have happy lives full of fresh air and food and dignity.  Far far away from me.

I'm not virtuous enough to eliminate animal products from my diet at this point.  Maybe someday.  But for now, I'm focusing on eating Food.  With a capital F.  As opposed to Pollan's 'food-like substances'.  And for now, sorry to all the chickens, cows, and all manner of sea creatures:  that includes you.