Heal your gut. Heal your life.
Today I’m sharing a day of eats with you because I keep on getting the question (via Instagram), “Can you share in a blog post what you eat in a typical day and what supplements you take?”
While at dinner in the mountains in Italy one night, Ceci and her family told us we were having a meal known as “Kilometer Zero.” I gravitated towards the term so much that ever since hearing it, my mind has gone in several directions thinking about how to take it and use it right here in the United States. I decided to start by using the term as the title for this blog post, the one many of you have been waiting around for….food in Italy, what and how I was able to eat all the things while traveling the country.
Ready to dig in?! I sure was (and am).
I was recently forwarded an email with subject line, “Healthy School Lunch Information.”
With all the recent buzz about fake news, I couldn’t help but correlate the content of this email to the concept of “fake news.”
Here is a snippet from the email,
To this end:
Try to include a protein, vegetable and a fruit each day. You will not always succeed, but at least try to get either a fruit or a vegetable included. A healthy carb is also a good item to include, bagels, biscuits, sandwich bread are all good carbs. Chips are not as healthy, but it is certainly better than a sugar snack. A little treat is nice to include, but please try to make it cookies or a granola bar, not donuts or super sugary snacks. For drinks, we highly recommend water! This will help with the cost of lunch as well.
With all this in mind, we need to ask that certain items are not included in your children’s lunches.
*Candy
*SodasThank you so much for your help with this!
I didn’t know if I should write this post because I know that in the mamahood community, thoughts and opinions around food tend to get fairly heated.
But I just had to because it’s such fake news, and parents all over the country could be receiving information like this.
And maybe more than anything, you should know that reason I felt okay writing this is because I’m far from the dogmatic food-mama most think I am.
I am a real food mama, but I don’t believe that children should follow any specific diet (unless medically necessary, which I have had to deal with).
My children eat the way they do because they want to eat like Ryan and me, because I make eating “healthy” things taste good, and because this is just the way we choose to live our lives. But did they eat 17.5 pieces of horrible candy on Easter? Yes. Do they eat things I would never buy when they leave our house? Of course. Am I concerned? Nope. Not overly. (Then again, after Ryan read Gary Taubes’ book, The Case Against Sugar, we are thinking even more about sugar – for all of us.)
Back to the email.
It’s fake news. So on that….
Click HERE to save this post for later.
Dear school lunch director,
To this end:
Thank you for reminding everyone that including a protein, vegetable, and fruit each day is good practice. You are absolutely right, and I wish that all children could have plates filled with each of those at every meal.
I am, however, concerned with various “healthy” tips in your email.
First, I am assuming you are well aware that (albeit mostly lower in overall value) vegetables and fruits are carbohydrates. If we accept that, then it might be more accurate to note “an additional healthy carb is also a good item to include.”
But beyond that, (most) bagels, biscuits, and sandwich bread hardly qualify as healthy carbohydrates for the average consumer. If you would like some ideas of wonderful high-carbohydrate sources you might start with that resource. Kids also love rice, and that’s something cheap and easy for parents to send along.
I was glad to see you mention that chips are not as healthy, but that they can be better than a sugar snack. My kids love Veggie Straws, Arare Rice Crackers, and Siete Lime Tortilla Chips.
However, this statement is very confusing and inaccurate, “A little treat is nice to include, but please try to make it cookies or a granola bar, not donuts or super sugar snacks.” Candy, sodas, and donuts are not the only things that constitute a sugary snack. Sugar is everywhere, and these days those “simple” cookies and granola bars are also packed with sugar. The average family could read this and say, “Alright, I’ll send Jimmy to school today with just three Oreos and a Quaker Chewy Granola Bar.” By doing so, they think they have made such a great decision with minimal sugar, and yet with just a few bites, Jimmy has just eaten 21 grams of sugar (enough for the entire day).
And yes, thank you for recommending water! Since we are mostly made of water, I appreciate that you mentioned this for all parents to take into consideration.
I would be more than happy to speak with you at length on providing parents the best and most accurate information. I am happy to put together several lunch and snack ideas that you could send out to parents. I am even happy to help field any questions about “what makes a healthy lunch” from parents who may reach out to you with questions.
Thank you for all that you’re doing to help our children.
Sincerely,
Mama always on a mission
p.s. For the record, if I was sent an email like this from my child’s school, I would absolutely respond this way. Furthermore, I would absolutely be more than willing to help provide the “how-to’s” to help parents navigate because I know it’s not easy if you’re not as passionate about food as I am. If we want our children to truly thrive all day long without crashing and burning, then accurate “healthy” information must be shared.
Xox,
SKH
If you open your eyes (and your mind), it’s easy to see how our everyday habits become a metaphor for life. For me, this past week….habits, coffee cups, healing.
When I cut back on coffee, I simply changed the coffee cup I was using each day in order to feel like I was still drinking the same amount when I knew I wasn’t. I went from the standard large coffee cup to our classy, Apilco Beaded Hemstitch Porcelain Cups from Williams-Sonoma (which actually could be more of an Espresso cup).
We got this dish set for our wedding, but like my desire to cling to the “newness” of traditional towels, I was too scared to use the cups for a very long time.
I pulled them out this past year and began using them daily. They are lined up, stacked 2 high in my shabby chic cabinet. There are 12 of them, but each morning I use the same cup (or nearly each morning). The reason is because after final use of it the day before, I wash it then leave it out to dry on our drying rack. I don’t know why, but I never seem to put my coffee cup away. Instead, I leave it there for the next morning, when I can do it all over again.
That was until very recently.
I began to notice that that one cup is starting to get a little discolored (you know, like how your teeth do after years of drinking coffee).
It happened fairly quickly, relatively speaking, because I use it every single day, and fill the cup 2-3 times with fresh, super dark coffee.
I realized what a creature of habit I am. And then I realized how this is both okay and then again not okay.
Simultaneously, I began realizing how much better I felt when I ate a little of many things vs. a few things many times. Did you know that by eating a particular food over-and-over again you can become intolerant to it?
For so many years I was afraid of food. Subsequently, I stuck with eating approximately 10 different things, and ultimately many of those things I became intolerant to for a very long time.
Upon truly feeling the pinch of the situation from my coffee cup experience, I began buying a little of many things. My trips to the grocery store and Farmer’s Market look so much different these days. Additionally, I subscribed to a Farm Fresh to You box every other week.
At any given moment, you will find a wide variety of all food groups in our kitchen. I still won’t do gluten and rarely ever dairy, but everything else is fair game, even if it’s just once in awhile. (p.s. I still believe in the early days of healing, you must adhere to everything I teach via The Gutsy Girl’s Bible, but those teachings should not last for life.)
For dinner on Saturday night, we had ‘Taco Bowls.” Romaine lettuce, onion, Heirloom tomatoes, red pepper, ground beef, cilantro, parsley, basil, avocado and a Cilantro dressing. This, of course, meant I had nightshades, high FODMAP foods, vegetables, meat and more. But I had a little of many things vs. bowls and bowls of the same thing.
I woke up on Sunday morning feeling fantastic.
I grabbed my coffee cup (not one I had used during the previous week), poured a cup of coffee, added coconut milk and honey, then headed outside to the porch to enjoy the peace, quiet, and stillness of the morning.
Through coffee cups and healing, I am learning so much more about habits and about life.
Xox,
SKH
Last week when I published Probiotics for Gut Health, I promised a post on fermentation so as promised, today I am going to share with you how to easily ferment your own vegetables.
{This post was developed in partnership with Mortier Pilon. All opinions are my own. }
This topic is nothing new for me. If you’ve followed my blog for awhile now, you might remember these two posts:
Before I share how to easily ferment your own vegetables, I wanted to give you several resources for why you might even consider making and/or eating fermented foods.
Mortier Pilon states that in addition to being cheap and delicious, here are 6 reasons to ferment your foods :
As I showed you back in 2013, you can simply ferment your own veggies. But the way I will show you today is even easier. In fact, it’s the easiest way to get fermented vegetables without having to purchase store-bought fermented vegetables.
I’ll be honest, when Mortier Pilon reached out to me, I was a bit skeptical. In fact, I told them they could send me a fermentation crock plus recipe book, I would test it out and if (and only if) I really enjoyed it, I would share with you.
But, instantly, I loved it!
Fermenting foods with Mortier Pilon, as I quickly learned is healthy, economic, ecological and Samarah loved the recipes (namely the Vegetable Medley below).
I have the 2L Fermentation Crock, and it could not have been easier to use. Everything from the packaging to the product design, recipes, actual fermentation process and clean up was top notch and completed with ease.
This kit has everything you need to start making your own pickles at home: a durable, cleverly designed fermentation crock that’s a third of the price (and weight!) of most crocks on the market, a rewritable label to identify each batch, and a booklet of user-friendly, thoroughly tested recipes to get you started.
Click HERE to save this recipe for later.
My favorite recipe I have made so far is the Vegetable Medley, which I wanted to share with you today.
Preparing the food that you want to go through the fermentation process is literally all you have to do.
I could pretend that it was more complex than that, but it wasn’t.
And the final product tasted just like the fermented vegetables I have gotten from the store in the past.
Buying fermented foods in the store adds up quickly. This crock will yield batch after batch after batch of pure fermented goodness.
When you shop with Mortier Pilon, I make nothing, but I’m telling you…..give it a try!
Xox,
SKH
In honor of Hemp History Week, I wanted to address a question I get asked all the time, “Is Hemp Safe for Kids?”
