What do summer picnics and feeding our kids have in common?  Macaroni and Cheese!  It’s pretty synonymous with both.

Here’s the ingredient list for Kraft Mac N Cheese :  Actually, forget it, it’s LONG. Here’s the condensed version: 15 ingredients, several chemicals, 2 (cancer causing/headache making/ADD inducing) food dyes, and 47 grams of carbohydrate – in a COUPLE OF OUNCES!

What about Annie’s Organic Mac N Cheese?  The ingredient list is shorter – 5 ingredients, but a small, 2.5 OUNCE serving of this stuff is 47 grams of carbohydrate – there goes the blood sugar.

Here’s the stats on Panera’s Mac N Cheese: 79 Ingredients,  490 calories, 37 grams of carbs, 30 grams of fat, and 1020 mg of sodium.  This comes in a little cup, I know because my youngest tricked me after a lacrosse game into taking her there and she came out with that.  I almost wrecked the car!

Mac N Cheese is a standard American comfort food.  We feed this to our small children, and continue eating it through adulthood.  Parents, this stuff is poison.  Don’t fool yourself by thinking that if your kids are slim, or don’t eat too much, or are very active, that a little bit of Mac N Cheese won’t hurt.  All food hurts or helps.  We build or destroy our health with every bite.  It honestly matters.

There’s more than just health to consider, there’s Habit Building.  We help our children build and form food and eating habits that last their entire life time.

Eating every single time a whim hits?  Life time habit.

Snack before bed?  Life time habit.

Just eating bread/carby/starchy/bland foods? Life time habit.

Barely eating vegetables? Life time habit.

Junk food for every movie/event/reward/?  Life time habit.

I could say it’ll catch up to them, but that’s false.  When you eat processed, chemical, high carb, hydrogenated oil filled foods, the effects are IMMEDIATE, even for kids. Just because the effects aren’t obvious to the eye doesn’t mean they aren’t happening.  When you quit thinking of food in terms of calories, and start giving a nutrient assessment to the food, and when you know what the “anti-nutrients” do (cancer, migraines, behavior /mood issues, skin problems, depression, auto-immune….)  it becomes more and more apparent that it really matters what we, and our children, put in our mouths.  Every bite either adds to our health, or detracts from it.  We build our health, or our lack of health, with our accumulated food choices through the years.

One more interesting ingredient list, baby formula. Big Food is determined to hook us from the very beginning.  Similac Sensitive has 54 ingredients.  Here’s the top of the list:  Corn Syrup, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Milk Protein Isolate, Safflower Oil, Soy Oil, Coconut Oil, Galactooligosaccharides (SUGAR),  followed with more oils and Synthetic Vitamins and Minerals.  I fed a little formula when my kids were babies and never even thought to look at the ingredients.  Their advertising makes you think you’re feeding your baby Manna from Heaven; instead, you’re feeding them Corn Syrup, Sugars, Chemicals, and Omega 6 oils.  Honestly, I consider this stuff to be poison from the devil:  it makes us sick, weak, tired, and fat; yet like so much other food poison, it tastes delicious and triggers food addictions.

Read your ingredient lists, plan, shop, schedule a couple hours in your week to prep and power cook food in big batches, pack your lunch and **** start thinking of food in terms of Nutrients,… not Calories*****.    Eat Real Whole Foods.