Vegetable Rampage

In this country, we have the unique blessing of having at our disposal almost every kind of fruit and vegetable available. I cannot say enough how fortunate we are. These are the very essence of health and vitality.

So why on God's green earth do we choose packaged, scientifically-engineered "food." WHY???

And we feed our kids this crap because they tell us they don't like most fresh fruits and vegetables. HOW ARE THEY EVER GOING TO GET THE CHANCE TO LEARN TO LIKE IT IF WE DON'T GIVE THEM THAT CHANCE?

Of course, if given the choice, they would prefer to eat highly processed, non-nutritious, overly sweetened or salted foods. Why do we think we should allow them the choice?

Take it out of your homes! Prepare wonderful, colorful, nutrient rich fruits and vegetables that will enable your kids to fight infection, to ward off disease, to develop normally, to have more endurance for healthy activities.

Our kids are going to live shorter lives than we are, and we only have ourselves to blame. When I was growing up, the only processed, packaged snacks we had were an occasional box of Little Debbie snacks. I never even got any because my brothers would eat them all. We never had soda, fruit drinks, energy drinks or the like. That use to be "expensive food" and fruits and vegetables were cheap. Now the opposite is true. Fast food is cheaper than buying the ingredients for a salad. Why? It is a simple matter of supply and demand. We are buying more of the crappy kind of food which brings down the cost of it.

This is a call to action. STOP buying crap for your kids to eat and START buying nutritious fruits and vegetables. This will drive down their cost--eventually. However, you will save money on medical bills and less time taken from work, so you will save money and time almost immediately.

Do your family a favor, go to your pantry or where ever you store food, and count how many different chips, flavored snack crackers, fruit-flavored treats, cookies, candy, snack cakes, buttered popcorn, sodas, fruit-flavored drinks, etc. and throw away at least half of it. Yes, throw it in the trash. That is where it belongs, not in our kids bodies! I want you to imagine money being put back in your pocket with each thing you throw away because you WILL save lots of money in trips to the doctor, medication, and time back at work.

Then the next time you are at the grocery store, buy 5 different kinds of vegetables that your family hasn't tried, and 5 that you know they will eat. Also, buy 5 different kinds of fruit. Each day, prepare one new vegetable and one tried and true vegetable, and serve a fruit for dessert. If they don't eat the new ones, that is okay. At least they have seen it and are now on their way to becoming familiar with it.

The worst thing you can do is give up on a fruit or vegetable at this point. Remember it sometimes takes 10 times of seeing a new food before a kid will try it. In the mean time, more for you and your health! Try it in different ways, and if all else fails, add a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it in the oven on high heat. This works for almost any vegetable and is delicious!

For the health of our children, I hope you take this challenge and start making changes right away. Our kids are at our mercy, and we are failing them. Please, please, please take control and take action!