The Discovery
You know that can’t sleep, can’t eat feeling you get when you are so excited about something that you just want to share it with the world? That’s how I’m feeling today and ironically, the thing that I’m passionate about is FOOD, but not just any food, food that I can feel good about feeding to the people who mean everything to me: My Family! But before I go any further, let me introduce myself: My name is Kristi and I live in the wonderful northern world of Canada. I wear many hats but the one that fits me best is the one called MOTHER. I am also a WIFE (I love you honey), a CHRISTIAN, a DENTIST and a FOREVER STUDENT. I have a love of learning that lets just say borderlines on addiction. The only thing that has kept me up more at night then reading is my sweet little girls of which there are three: Sai, Mo and Lei.
Those three precious pearls are the motivation for this website as I have a great desire as a parent to give them every opportunity for success. I want to teach them many things throughout their lives such as a willingness to serve others, hard “smart” work, responsibility and spirituality. All of which become a lot easier in life when you start with a healthy body and mind. So as not to bore you with all the details of my journey (and lets just say it’s been a long journey which is not over), on my quest to figuring out what kinds of foods would help my children to lead the healthiest life possible, I came across a book by Dr. Joel Fuhrman MD called “Disease Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right”. I had originally read his book called “Eat To Live” a few years back then I expanded my understanding of a variety of different eating styles, (Meat eating omnivorous, Vegetarian, Vegan, Low Fat Vegan, Raw Foodist) learning little by little, still not convinced of which was right. Naturally I fell back into what I knew best and that closely resembled the Standard American Diet (SAD) which does not receive any sort of award winning metal from me. It wasn’t until I picked up the copy of “Disease Proof Your Child” that I had owned for 2 years but never read, that a light bulb went on in my head. I finally had the motivation I needed to change the way my family was eating from the Standard American Diet to one that Dr. Fuhrman has coined as a NUTRITARIAN DIET.
The whole idea behind this word “NUTRITARIAN” is to eat more of the foods that contain the highest amount of nutrients and less of the foods that don’t. When you start to learn which foods contain the highest amount of nutrients, (I’m not just talking macro nutrients like Proteins, Carb’s & Fats,) including phytochemicals, antioxidants and vitamins, you discover that green leafy vegetables & fruits are it! Next best would be your whole grains, your nuts, seeds and avocados and then the least nutrient dense are your animal products and for a variety of reasons. You can see how this flips the standard food pyramid somewhat on its head and you can view Dr. Fuhrmans food pyramid visually in diagram HERE.
Anyways, I liked this term NUTRITARIAN because it took less stress off of what was right and what was wrong and more focus on finding ways to substitute one more nutrient dense, whole food for another less dense, processed food, which even if it comes in baby steps, makes you feel good about the changes you are making. Now I know a lot of you may be thinking things like: “I’m too busy and can’t afford to waste time experimenting with food because for one, again, I don’t have time and two, if my kids don’t like what I make, then I’ve wasted all that food and money.” I know you are thinking this because that is exactly what my siblings with children said when I introduced the idea of changing unhealthy food habits. Well I have been blessed with a unique opportunity, which has allowed me to enjoy time with my kids experimenting in the kitchen as well as researching different resources to find and create a tried and true list of go to recipes that my kids love. I started by sharing a few of my recipes with family and friends which they appreciated but I then soon realized that, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still” (Benjamin Franklin) and that you can’t force your ideas on anyone… but you can create a website, to share freely with others and if or when they are interested and find time, they are always welcome to find what they are looking for there. I hope that this website full of recipes, ideas, book and product recommendations and more will be a useful resource for you that you can come back to time and time again. Let me do the experimenting for you, while you enjoy the peace that comes from knowing these recipes have been tested with success in someone else’s home!
A word of caution and encouragement: If you are like most people in North America, you are probably starting from the typical Standard American Diet, which is high in animal fat, processed sugar and salt! All of which aside from the health implications, form heavy addictions. Salt and sugar form heavy taste addictions which can dull your senses for the taste of natural whole foods and if left out can initially leave a feeling of wanting that you think can only be satisfied by one of those 3 things. When you first start to clean up your families diet, don’t get discouraged if your kids aren’t initially hooked. I can promise you based on our experience that this is VERY NORMAL and that if you give it some time their tastes will change and you and your children will start to discover the flavors in natural whole foods that you never knew existed. It will be a most rewarding discovery and you will have Nutritarian Kids before you know it.
