Okay, so the last three weeks I’ve been in super healthy mode. Every once in a while I decide to upgrade the nutritional status of my family, when I’ve gotten used to past upgrades.
The first major, major change is I’ve finally decided to totally get rid of white sugar in the house. I don’t really buy processed food, so the sugar that we were using was just in the foods we made, mostly baked goods. But since white sugar has absolutely no nutritional value and contributes to most diseases, it seemed like there wasn’t any reason to keep it in. I’ve resisted this for a while because the sugar substitutes are so much more expensive.
But I’ve finally done it!
I bought honey, stevia, and sucanat, and have settled on using sucanat as our main sweetener. Well, for the family, anyway, because I’m back to my sweetener free food plan, which I went off during pregnancy after a long time on it. I haven’t really found a way to use the stevia yet, the honey I’m using for hot drinks for the most part, and the sucanat is easy to use when replacing sugar because it’s such a similar consistency.
In case you’re wondering what sucanat is, it’s dehydrated natural cane juice. It’s the color of brown sugar but grainier. You can get in health food stores, but after buying one bag there to try it out, I went to my bulk food supplier and got it for much cheaper. Just because it’s a healthy sweetener doesn’t mean that I’m using lots of it – I’m not. I try to remember the idea that sweet baked goods are treats, not everyday foods. I’ve been making less muffins as a result.
If you’re wondering how the kids are taking to this, it really hasn’t been a big deal. Part of it is that I don’t spring these kind of things on my family and leave them feeling like I forced it on them. I really believe in getting them on board by sharing the info that changed my thinking on – I don’t actively try to convince them. And because there are easy replacements for the sugar, they don’t miss anything. In fact, they really like knowing that the sweeteners we’re using are good for them!
Avivah
I have had no white flour, white sugar, or hydrogenated oils for about 3 1/2 months now. I don’t miss it, although I’ll admit I sometimes miss the ease of going to the cupboard and grabbing Wheat Thins or Oreos (which we have around bc my husband likes to take them for lunch – even over homemade cookies). Oh yes, and I REALLY miss ice cream! I found some at Whole Foods that was just cream, milk, vanilla, and dehydrated cane juice, which I decided was acceptable for my birthday. But I hope to someday get a Cuisinart ice cream maker.
My next challenge will be to cut out the vegetable oils entirely. I like to bake with butter or coconut oil or olive oil, but my son and daughter prefer the ease and taste of the bottle of vegetable oil. It really upsets me that I was sold on the lie for so long that vegetable oil was better for you. It means that I mis-educated my older children, although the two oldest understand the truth, and I’m quite sure the two youngest will come around, but it will probably be a few years before the two in the middle decide that re-learning about fats is relevant to their lives.
Wow, that’s great that you’ve made such huge dietary improvements for yourself! Do you notice any difference in how you feel?
I know that feeling like you’ve almost misled your children. It’s especially hard when I realize that a lack of knowledge has negative affects regardless of how well intentioned I was. But you can only do what you can do.
As far as changing oils, at a certain point after easing into the changes, it becomes easiest to just not have the less healthy option around. In our family, no one ever preferred the taste of vegetable oils – I think coconut oil, butter, and saturated animal fats all taste so much better! Have you tried vegetable (palm) shortening? There’s one made by Spectrum that’s what we use; it’s a great replacement for Crisco.
Strangely enough, I feel very tired these days, but that’s certainly not due to a lack of white sugar! My best guess is the time of year – I just want to hibernate.
I will probably handle the oils situation just as you described. The time between running out of veg oil and buying a new (smaller) bottle will stretch out longer. By the time that runs out, they should be mostly used to the new taste and the methods of handling it.
I don’t know if you’ve found a use for your Stevia yet, but I’ve found I really like to make hot cocoa with it. Milk, Stevia, cocoa, and coconut oil – this has helped me give up my Dove chocolates!