Causes I am passionate about #1: Food

I have decided that in an effort to write more often I am going to start a mini-series of blogs about causes I am passionate about. I have ideas for quite a few I can write about so hopefully this will be fun and informative for people. Mostly this will be my opinion and experience mixed with a bit of research I have done on the subject but I am not an expert on much so you just gotta take it or leave it ;)

So... why am I passionate about food? Well, I am passionate about food because we have it all wrong and it is killing the next generation of people in our country. Well, not just that... it has been killing me for a long time and it is taking a lot of work for me to control this food thing so I can teach my children how to be healthy people.

I grew up in a home with a single, working mom or a mom and a step dad who both worked full time for all of my childhood. My mom never really cooked. She certainly didn't cook anything fresh. There was no time, there was no money, and there was really no need. She bought what she could afford and fixed what we would eat so we had full tummies. She did her best. And I grew up preferring the tastes of processed food. Food from boxes and bags and microwavable cartons. And the same thing was going on at school. Quick fix food. Heat and serve, a la carte, and sodas and I liked it. Of course I liked it. Sugar tastes good. And when I got married, I cooked how I knew how to cook. I tried to incorporate fresh foods as we could afford them because I knew that how we were eating wasn't the best for us but we were poor college kids working part time jobs and going to school full time.

But what got me really excited about nutrition and trying to learn to eat better was finding out I was pregnant. I had a tiny little life depending on me for good, wholesome nutrition. And basically since then I have been trying to figure out how to feed my family more healthy meals. It has been a long journey and there are lots of road blocks (mostly money and the fact that food that is horrible for you is priced for the poor... cheaper and more food in the package) but I am making an honest effort for all of the people I love and for myself.

Why is this a cause? Well, there are many reasons I find food a "cause". I briefly mentioned one reason above: Poor people are often times forced into eating unhealthy food because of their financial situation (Cost of 200 Calories, Healthy too expensive, those are just 2 of tons of resources you can find online about this). Fresh food is expensive. Lean meats (if you eat meat) is expensive. Non meat food that is nutritious but not produce, is expensive. I find this very unfortunate (and some days even criminal). I don't want our nations poorest people subject to eating the worst food we have to offer just because they are poor. I find that heart wrenching.

I also find the foods we serve to children in schools to be positively horrible for the most part. It is generally nothing more than fast food served to children at school. If we are truly concerned about the health of our nation, we (as parents, doctors, teachers, and citizens) need to step up and teach children about nutrition and serve them food that is good for them. And in my opinion, the best place to start is school. Sure I can feed my own children mostly healthy food at home. I can limit sugar and serve veggies and fruits and lean meat. I can cook with EVOO and not fry anything or add salt to anything but really the problem is much bigger than just my kids. And while I desperately want my own children to be healthy and to learn good eating habits, I also want all of the children in our country to be educated about food and nutrition. There are SO many children in our country who will only learn about how to take care of their bodies if it is taught in school. Maybe to some that sounds a bit far fetched but I know it isn't. There are so many single parents out there who literally rush their kids off to school, work all day, pick their kids up at 6 from after school child care, get them home, pop food into the microwave, get their kids quickly bathed and to bed and go to bed themselves to get up and do it all again. I know because that describes the family I grew up in.

One of the biggest problems I have with school lunch is that the processed food is subsidized by the government which literally backs schools into a corner because without subsidies they can't afford to run the school lunch program. So essentially our government is forcing schools into serving processed "fast food" to children. Also, many schools get additional money for various programs through vending machines and a la carte items so getting those removed can be a bit of a pain in the neck since so many states are having huge budget problems. Funding for schools is a whole other issue for a different day though I guess.

There are some very cool movements going on right now to try to convince our government to change how we do school food. Jamie Oliver's campaign is called "Food Revolution" and you should check it out and sign his petition if you feel like what he wants to do is what is best for our kids (what he wants to do is serve our children fresh cooked, healthy foods for school breakfast and lunch every day and eliminate unhealthy choices from the menu). Jamie Oliver is doing a fabulous job bringing the obesity crisis to the forefront and is really succeeding in challenging this country to think about the consequences of the food we are feeding our children. He is getting the message out there that for the first time in MANY generations our children have a shorter life expectancy than we do (by about 10 years) and that the leading causes of death in the United States are diet related.

Here is Jamie Oliver's Ted talk that he did not long ago if you some spare time to watch it.

There is also a cool blog that I follow called "Fed up with lunch: the school lunch project" where an anonymous teacher is eating lunch from the school cafeteria every day in 2010. She is then posting pictures of the lunch and spurring on discussion about the whole subject. She also has a lot of very cool guest bloggers. Then you have The Renegade Lunch Lady who basically rocks my socks off.

I could go on and on about food. It is important that as parents (if you are one I suppose), we learn to eat well ourselves and we show our children what a healthy diet looks like. I admit, this is hard for me. How I grew up and money seem to get in the way of my intentions sometimes but when you look at the facts, the way we eat in the US (many of us anyway) is killing us. But this isn't only about parents, if you are a concerned citizen you can help change school lunches and we can start to make a dent in how food is looked at in our country. School lunch is only a small part of it but I strongly believe that if we feed our children well at school and teach them about nutrition at school, it will begin a change in how our country eats and what we eat. And it will give kids a better start and better habits than many of us got. Especially if you have children, this school lunch thing is a big deal. Your kids will be in school soon if they aren't already (excluding those who have home schooled children obviously) so if you feel passionately about these things like I do, find a way to help. Write your representatives, go to The Renegade Lunch Lady's site and check out her recommendations for spurring change, get your kids involved if you can. The more people who care and who stand up for better food for these kids, the better their lives will be.