Brad is at the NIH all week. He prepared these thoughts prior to his departure.
Last year I was spending a significant portion of my budget on food eaten out. Each trip to the dinner, McDonald's, or Applebee's would cost me between $60 and $100. Clearly we were not making the best choices when it came to the health of our family but as a parent who spend much of their time ferrying kids between activities weekdays between the hours of 4 and 9 pm it was what worked (or what was easy). Ironically it is all this eating out that caused me to develop pancreatitis and then subsequently discover I had Erdheim-Chester Disease.
What followed the discovery of my ECD was a top down review of all things we did as a family involving food. Over the course of many months it became clear that my body just couldn't tolerate eating out more then once or twice a month (due to the high fat and preservative content of most restaurant meals). We also began to realize that we needed to work on training our children on how to make smarter food choices and that we had to do a better job of feeding them healthy less processed foods.
So we stopped eating out...and our food budget skyrocketed! I thought the cost of buying more healthy whole foods would have been offset by not eating out very often but in fact we are now spending more per month on food then we ever have before.
The time commitment has be enormous as well. In the past we would have made a large trip to the supermarket every other week with a quick trip in between for staples like bread and cold cuts. Throw in a quick trip to Costco or Bj's and food shopping was done for the month. What these trip resulted in were shelves, refrigerator, and freezer stuffed with easy to make processed convenience foods. Now we go to the market at least 3 times a week just to keep the shelves stocked with whole largely unprocessed foods like fruits and vegetables.
I have the luxury of time and the advantages of a middle class income to allow me to eat this way and consequently it has made a gigantic difference in how I feel. My energy level is up, my BM's are more regular (People who are sick talk about their BM's. I know it is weird but we do.), and the food I am eating tastes great.
So why doesn't everyone eat like this? Why aren't we all eating cleaner, healthier, less processed foods on a daily basis? 3 things immediatley come to my mind when I asked myself this question and they are convenience, ability, and poverty.
I am going to explore these three categories and their consequences in the coming days. I hope you come back to check it out.
Last year I was spending a significant portion of my budget on food eaten out. Each trip to the dinner, McDonald's, or Applebee's would cost me between $60 and $100. Clearly we were not making the best choices when it came to the health of our family but as a parent who spend much of their time ferrying kids between activities weekdays between the hours of 4 and 9 pm it was what worked (or what was easy). Ironically it is all this eating out that caused me to develop pancreatitis and then subsequently discover I had Erdheim-Chester Disease.
What followed the discovery of my ECD was a top down review of all things we did as a family involving food. Over the course of many months it became clear that my body just couldn't tolerate eating out more then once or twice a month (due to the high fat and preservative content of most restaurant meals). We also began to realize that we needed to work on training our children on how to make smarter food choices and that we had to do a better job of feeding them healthy less processed foods.
So we stopped eating out...and our food budget skyrocketed! I thought the cost of buying more healthy whole foods would have been offset by not eating out very often but in fact we are now spending more per month on food then we ever have before.
The time commitment has be enormous as well. In the past we would have made a large trip to the supermarket every other week with a quick trip in between for staples like bread and cold cuts. Throw in a quick trip to Costco or Bj's and food shopping was done for the month. What these trip resulted in were shelves, refrigerator, and freezer stuffed with easy to make processed convenience foods. Now we go to the market at least 3 times a week just to keep the shelves stocked with whole largely unprocessed foods like fruits and vegetables.
I have the luxury of time and the advantages of a middle class income to allow me to eat this way and consequently it has made a gigantic difference in how I feel. My energy level is up, my BM's are more regular (People who are sick talk about their BM's. I know it is weird but we do.), and the food I am eating tastes great.
So why doesn't everyone eat like this? Why aren't we all eating cleaner, healthier, less processed foods on a daily basis? 3 things immediatley come to my mind when I asked myself this question and they are convenience, ability, and poverty.
I am going to explore these three categories and their consequences in the coming days. I hope you come back to check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.