Food: A Slow Dietary Change

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A Slow Dietary Change
Thursday, December 29, 2005

My health problems have been mounting and have reached the point where I have to make some drastic changes in my life. I have identify some key areas: career, personal fulfillment, and diet. My husband, the wonderful man that he is, just got a huge promotion at work that comes with a hefty pay raise. That means that we can make some real changes that will help us to feel better.

We have kept up with the few dietary changes that I have written about, such as moving to turkey or tofu instead of ground beef. We are ready now for some more significant dietary changes, and I have done a lot of research about the best way to add new foods and take the old ones away.

First, we will begin buying organic produce. We live in a fairly rural area, and the closest city is about an hour away. I am going to have to go there to get good quality organic produce for a decent price, but we are willing to make that change. I grew up on organic produce without realizing it. My grandparents plant crops every year and generally shy away from chemicals, but they do it because it is just the way they liked to garden. We also canned veggies that lasted through the winter months every summer. Those vegetables are canned without any preservatives, so they are healthy, too. There is a definite taste different in organic versus mass-produced, non-organic vegetables, and we are hoping to partake of only non-organic soon.

We also will be moving to soymilk in some instances. Instead of cow's milk, which contains some hormones that are not necessarily good for you, we will move to more soy-based milk products. Neither my husband nor I really like the taste of soymilk, but the chocolate-flavored one is not bad. Plus, we can use soymilk in our baking and other cooking without a noticeable taste difference.

Eggs are a source of concern for us. We are worried about cholesterol, and eggs really are the only product we eat on a regular basis that does have high amounts of cholesterol. As soon as we find a co-op or health food store, we will examine their egg substitute choices. We are also checking out the eggs at the supermarket. I think that we will find the same issue as with our milk - that we stick with the tried and true for our scrambled eggs or boiled eggs, but we will use some type of modified egg or substitute for cooking.

After we get these basic changes in, I am going to make some more cumbersome changes. After all, the shopping is the only thing different about switching to organic produce. We want to add some Omega-3 to our diet. Until recently, my husband, like many people, swore that he did not like fish. Little did I realize that it is because growing up in the Midwest, he had never had much good quality seafood! We have been experimenting with fresh frozen catfish, which is not as good as fresh but not bad, and he has decided that he does, in fact, like it. Because we have not bought much seafood in the past, we will get to experiment with seafood recipe so that we are having it at least twice per week.

We will be making these food changes slowly. A major change all at once works for some people, but for us, we know that we need to get accustomed to each change before we move on to another one. Still, by the middle of next year, we should be well on our way, eating all organics as well as soy-based milk, egg substitutes, and seafood twice a week.

Our next step will be a bigger change for my husband. When we have eaten vegetarian meals in the past, it was because we could not afford meat. Now, though, we will be able to choose to eat vegetarian meals. We will experiment with them at least once a week. Now, though, we can make more expensive food choices, so there will be plenty of new food experiences to try. At this rate, we will feel like new people this time next year.

By Julia Mercer

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