Be sure they become food snobs.

Last year fourth and fifth graders walked to and from my house with their teacher(s) and volunteer parents to visit my growing gardens and cook with me.

What they learned was basic:
1. eat what grows (there is no plant called Dorito)
2. get to know what grows well in your surroundings
3. eat things that grow at the same time (peas and artichokes; tomatoes and basil)
4. be kind and considerate on how you treat your plants (know about natural pest control)
5. balance your meals (carbs, protein, whole grains)

You'd think that such basic kitchen literacy is available to children.
Not for many. Regardless of income, many children have no clue about where food comes from.

Since they grew a school garden in a warmer area than mine, they were able to bring tomatoes and garlic on most visits, which we incorporated in the meals we prepared and ate.

Do your schools have edible gardens?
Do they incorporate lessons on nutrition? 

Eating well is possible, one change at a time.

Have you noticed that everything around us tempts us to eat more, indulge our senses, get off the right path? What we post, here on blogger, on Facebook and other social media, how we talk about food, how we  allow ourselves to taste everything at a buffet table, piling up our plates without thinking, all this behavior is bound to shut down our reasoning brain and cause us to forget that our bodies' engines need high octane fuel, not just anything that pleases the mouth. Staying on the straight road is possible, with some automatic controls selection.

As we grow older, indulgences show up as diabetes, high blood pressure, stomach upsets, inflammation...

We are not stupid, careless or ignorant. We know what food to eat.
So, how do we immunize ourselves against distractions?

Cook your own food.
Selecting meat that has been raised well, and has not been impaired by dramatic weight gains through hormones and extra feeding to get that marbleized look we have come to expect in our steaks will help you right away.  Or, if this is difficult, eat less meat, half as much, and less frequently. If you are used to a steak a week, schedule that meal every other week. At my house, I cook one steak a week, and we share it!

Fill yourself up with salads at every meal.
Yes, having a salad as an appetizer will fill you up before you sit down to the meal. Extra cooked vegetables such as beets or asparagus or green beans are served cold for the next meal with a little salad dressing

Cut portions.
I fill our plates with two cooked vegetables, a serving of starchy vegetable,different colors and textures, and a four-ounce piece of protein, such as fish, lamb, turkey, chicken. My refrigerator and freezer are full of vegetables and portioned protein pieces. It's easy for me to pull together a turkey cutlet because when I purchase meat, I store it in the freezer in portion sizes.

Choose food in its natural state, roots, seeds, leaves as they grow from the ground. 
Yes, eat beet greens, beet roots, and beet seeds over salads.

Enjoy every bite!

We don't need another cook book.

This weekend, my grandchild and her friend will visit me. They don't need cookbooks to appreciate and prepare good meals.

What they need is to taste real food right out of the ground, as these tender radishes.
The red roots will peak out of the ground in a day or two, begging to be pulled out.

We will wash the  plant, pop the entire root in  our mouths and enjoy the crunchiness and the spiceness of the radishes.
If they make it into the house, we can chop, slice or dice them, add olive oil and salt and pepper and add them to our salad greens.

Mostly, we'll appreciate the wonder of real food.
Raw food? As Martha Stewart would say: "It's a very good thing!"
What about you? Do you eat real, raw food?