Healthy Diet

I feel similar to you. Overall, I feel like we have a healthy diet. Mostly organic, no fast food, lots of fruit and veggies. Some sugar, some processed food. I am pretty close to what I feel is acceptable for us. I do think moderation is key. I think if we ate more vegetables, less starch, and a little less sugar (can't give it up totally!!), I would be pretty happy.

Good for you on the veggie garden, I would love to do that. Maybe next summer!

We eat semi-healthy. My kids eat a lot of fruit, but they also eat a lot of candy. We stay away from most processed foods (we do eat frozen fries and battered fish), and we only eat take-out mexican or sandwiches --they've never had traditional fast-food. We do not eat organic, save for milk, eggs and chicken. I do a veggie wash, and since there is no evidence that organic is better, I save my money for other things.

My kids also eat sugary yogurts, and we frequently have chips at lunch. We probably should eat more green veggies, but we are a carrot and peas kind of household.

Everyone seems healthy, so I don't worry about. I'm a firm believer of everything in moderation.

And you are right, a piece of fruit without crackers or cheese just doesn't tide them over between meals.

I can tend to fall into the health nut category. But as for picky kids, its not as easy to feed them healthy all the time. I do what I can to even things out (like our 4 x a week fruit smoothie where I sneak in kale, walnuts, flax seed oil, and dates). But still, my two year old eats only french fries and fruit at restaurants more often than not. I don't touch fast food meets, pork product, or soda, those are my clearly dawn lines, but some days they exist on crackers and pasta! Sometimes it just gets away from you, esspecially with those picky eaters of which i have two. As for organic we do about 50%. I have found if you can buy your produce at a local CSA stand its often cheaper when you factor in how much longer it lasts than shipped produce. As far as fast food, I keep it vegetarian and order burritos and tosdadas, instead of burgers and fries. But every now and then dad takes them to In'n out. Flavored yogurts and juice are occasional treats but not always stocked at our house. I cook from scratch more often than not. I win some I loose some. I've drawn some clear lines, but too much sugar and not eating vegitables are a constant struggle.

We all think we are somewhat healthy, but its so relative. Compared to my oldest sister we are not. She manages to control most every bite her only child eats, its all healthy, vegan, organic, nothing processes. My other sister has overweight children that are denied nothing and often eat two or three sweets/ desserts a day every day. She cooks processed, lots of mayo, butter sour cream, but she thinks she is healthy because they eat a ton of vegitables.

We have a very blended diet . Luckily, we don't have picky eaters in our house. So, we could definitely eat healthier but convenience wins , at times. My husband & I have come a long way , though. Both our parents are very unhealthy.

I thought I was pretty healthy with me and the kids, until I read the other posts. We don't do organic anything, we eat out about once a week either a restaurant or fast food maybe every other week. They get sugary yogurt, very limited moderation when it comes to cookies, candy, ice cream. I always give them fruit in their lunches, milk with dinner, and veggies if at all possible(which isn't very often). Myself or my husband cooks every night, I make the kids lunch 4 out of 5 days, and dessert is limited and not every night. They are content with 1 piece of Halloween candy every other night, or ice cream a couple of times a week. It's very much a blend of healthy and not healthy because I am pretty health conscious, however my husband eats anything and everything, so we have to have a balance.

We are in the middle, which is just fine for us. I get produce from a CSA and so we generally have lots of fruit for snacking and plenty of veggies.
Here's where we fall:
I cook from scratch most of the time
I buy very few processed foods
I buy "real" food (real butter, not margarine, etc)
We usually eat organic whole grain bread from our CSA
We serve fruits and veggies for snacks
I serve at least 2 sides of fruit/veg with lunch and dinner
Our beef comes from my FIL who humanely raises cattle, and we eat a lot of deer, elk and moose. So at least I know our meat does not have a bunch of yucky chemicals and fillers.
I count calories for myself and am aware of what foods are healthy and unhealthy
We do not buy organic, it costs too much.
My kids do eat sugared cereal a lot
I bake a lot and I am not stingy at all with treats, we do go overboard on the sugar
We have fast food or pizza maybe 3 times a month
Our celebrations revolve a bit too much around food. We enjoy food A LOT and we can over-do it, for sure

We eat pretty healthy. My kids only eat fast food maybe once every 2-3 months...I think that's because I never feel good after I eat it which makes me never want to go. I also hate to drop 20.00 on fast food when I could put it towards something better.

The thing I try to do the most is cut out processed foods. I try to make a lot of stuff from scratch. Snacks for the kids are mainly fruit, greek yogurt, carrots/celery w/ peanut butter or hummus, cheese, almonds, raisins, blue tortilla chips, popcorn, raisin bagels, green smoothies, homemade tortillas.

If we're going to eat cookies, muffins, breads I make them myself rather than buy them. I use a whole wheat/white flour mix and try to make them healthy. I've been making lots of pumpkin cookies lately w/ raisins.

We did a small veggie garden, they liked going out and eating green beans right off the plant. We also went to the Farmer's Market every other week over the summer.

Don't worry if a piece of fruit doesn't tie them over, just let them eat more than one piece. My kids eat often throughout the day, they need it, it's okay.

We eat fairly healthy. Some organic, some home grown veggies. The only processed foods we buy are pasta (mostly whole grain), bread (mostly whole grain or real bakery loaves) and whole grain cereals. We eat fruit with every meal and include at least one vegetable in each lunch and dinner. I add chopped fruit to plain yogurt (DH will mix in jam so some sugar). DH and DS have a weakness for maple syrup on their weekend pancakes or waffles. DS does get to have a piece of candy daily until he runs out of Halloween candy. Otherwise we don't every buy candy. DS has never been to a fast food restaurant. We do go out once every 7-10 days - usually sushi, Chinese or Thai, occasionally a 'nice' restaurant. We do go out for ice cream maybe weekly in the summer.

For deli meat, look for Hormel Natural Choice, it's a prepackaged lunch meat and is all natural with no preservatives. I cannot afford to buy all Organic right now, since losing my job 2 years ago and now working a low paying job, the budget is tight. BUT, I do buy All Natural, so 1/2 Organic 1/2 All Natural. If I can't understand the ingredients, I don't buy it. Yeah, I'm one of those that reads the labels... if it has High Fructose Corn Syrup or Hydrogenated Oil, I definitely won't buy it. We (my 5 yr old daughter and I) hardly ever eat out. She's had a couple of Happy Meals so knows what it is, she gets the free cookie at the grocery (when we shop at that store, lately not often, we go to Walmart!), and has a piece of her Halloween candy for dessert, someone at preschool is always having a birthday so there is the store bought cupcakes, or it's a holiday like Valentine's, Easter etc... and they always give candy (more than I like!) Sugar seems to be the struggle at the moment, and of course, here come the Holidays!! Obviously I can't control everything she eats, and I do allow some of the "evil" foods, lol... but I do talk with her a lot about what can be in our food and how Organic and Natural is a better choice :-) I can't wait to have a yard to plant a veggie garden! I'm always so envious of gardens. Lucky you and nice job!!

We eat fairly healthy. We do have fast food once a week, and we do eat hot dogs and (gasp) bologna sometimes. My kids eat candy (they actually get a H'ween sized piece of candy every day). We have chips once in a while. I bake cookies. The kids eat sugar yogurt. I sometimes even buy sugar cereal. I don't use many processed or convenience foods and do most cooking from scratch. We always have fresh fruits and veggies in the house (although I have a kid who doesn't like fruit, and only eats a few veggies). We have dessert about once a week. If we go to the grocery store they get their free cookie from the kids club, and they get cookies at church after the service. We go out for ice cream sometimes. I don't usually buy organic from the store because it is more expensive. I do buy organic eggs from a farm, and we grow some veggies in the summer and buy from local farmers markets. I pick strawberries at an organic farm. I think moderation and balance are the key.

We eat mostly home cooked meals from fresh ingredients (mostly organic), but we do eat out, as it gives me a break from cooking! 1-3 meals a week. We don't eat any candies. Once a month, we drink sodas or juices. My kids eat 4 meals a day + 2 snacks (that is 28 meals a week + 14 snacks!).

In meals, we include beans & lentils, microwaved or cooked vegetables, chicken/turkey, whole wheat bread/pasta or rice, and salads.

In snacks, we have a big bowl of 3-4 fruits, boiled eggs, z-bars, chobani yogurt, a tall glass of milk, milk smoothies, nuts & raisins, healthy cookies, banana, baked potatoes, half a cheese sandwich or jam sandwich, etc.

We noticed that when we gave up our sugary cereals in the mornings, it was easier for us to do without sugary stuff during the rest of the day! For breakfast, we mostly eat mildly salted (& spiced up) whole wheat Indian flat bread with plain yogurt & milk & sometimes a boiled egg. On weekends, we have pancakes (made from a mix, lots of eggs, buttermilk) with real maple syrup. We do eat cereals every 6th or so day, but those are mildly sweet.