Friday, November 07, 2008

Hold It

I know that I need to eat healthier. These years, it's really about setting a good example for the kids.

For some reason, lots of people have had the (mistaken) impression that I am a supremely healthy eater. I've had people assume that I'm a health nut, or a vegetarian, countless times. I'm really not sure why. Maybe because I'm so pale, they assume that I'm anemic due to a lack of iron from not eating meat. Or maybe that's a real stretch, and I just give off a healthy food vibe.

The truth of the matter is, I'm not the healthiest of eaters. I do love fruit, but vegetables usually require me just convince myself that I like them. I like to bake because I like what it yields: namely, baked goods. My classic response to a supper made by my mother that I didn't like was to go and toast a Lender's bagel with melted cheese. (Sorry, mom! I realize now how insulting and rude that was!)

One of my other vices is SALT. I like things salty. I tend to have a heavy hand when it comes to salting the potato kigel (very healthy, I know), or mac and cheese (classic supper for me when I wasn't cooking for the kids), or eggs. How can you enjoy sunny-side-up eggs without some salt?

On Wednesday evening, RaggedyDad and I went to Ann's Parent Orientation at school and the director of the preschool division was talking about an article that came out in the NY Times last week. It seems that all these higher salt foods have let to a rise in kidney stones in children! Kids, who almost never had something like kidney stones are suddenly developing them with much higher frequency.

I've tried a salt substitute, but I found it rather disgusting. So I'd rather just cut back on the salt. It's not good for any of us, and certainly not for RaggedyDad as we get, er, older. I'll just have to try to eliminate it a bit at a time from the things where it doesn't really matter much. As it is, I serve very few processed foods, so it's really just ME adding the salt myself (not sure if that makes it better or worse!).

It'll be a little less tasty, but hopefully, it'll be well worth it.

8 comments:

Shira Salamone said...

Try herbs and/or spices, instead. Maybe that'll work for you, maybe not, but give it a shot.

Remember that you're a role model for your children when it comes to eating habits, as well as just about everything else. Back in the days when my husband used to sprinkle sugar on his morning cereal, he never brought the sugar to the dining room table, lest our son see him adding sugar to his cereal and think that that was a good idea. It worked. As far as I know, it's never occurred to our son to add sugar to his cereal. (We raised him mostly on Cheerios for breakfast--my mother, who was always health-conscious, used to say that one shouldn't eat a cereal with more than 3 grams of sugar.)

the apple said...

Feh. We ate lots of salt as kids and we did just fine!

Okay, okay, all kidding aside, it is good to cut down on salt intake (as long as it doesn't affect taste, G-d forbid). Personally, I think our family already is doing great since you make so much from scratch!

Erachet said...

Forget about the salt - macaronis and ketchup!

(btw, just so you all know, there was no little red underline when I typed "macaronis." So, clearly, it's a word)

the apple said...

And by "our family," I meant "your family" (must have deleted the y accidentally)

RaggedyMom said...

Thanks, Shira. I do the same thing when I add salt actually, because if my kids see me sprinkling at the table, they want some too. Spices are a great alternative. Chili powder is great!

Apple - Thanks.. And I thought you purposely meant 'our' family. Remember when you lived here for a week? Come back, we miss you!

Erachet - What about the cottage cheese (low sodium of course)? How else will we achieve yeshivishaiety? Also, macaronis is simply the ashkenazis pronunciation of the historically more accurate macaroniT.

Ezzie said...

A lot of our recipes have little to no salt, so feel free to call... :)

I actually thought you guys were healthy eaters, but that's because there are about 8 salad type courses to start every meal by you guys.

LittleBirdies said...

Best of luck on cutting back.

Hila said...

Ahh a woman after my own heart! Luckily for me, I have low blood pressure, and so my doctor actually told me to eat MORE salt!!! Hooray! But I'm sure that will come back to bite me in the butt one of these days, so I can't gloat about it for too long. Don't know if the kids will like it but I add onion and garlic to things as much as possible to up the salt-y factor. Good luck cutting back!