1. Start Label Reading

Find the ‘ingredients’ section on the bottle, can, or box—usually in small type any you may have to hunt all over the package to find it. Ingredients are listed from most to least. “The more healthful products typically have short ingredient lists”.

Avoid things your grandmother wouldn’t have eaten & stuff with words you don’t know, like chemical preservatives, artificial colors & flavors.

2. Increase Fresh & Raw Plant Foods

Raw plant foods don’t have ingredient lists and are rich in enzymes & fiber vital to health.

Include fresh or frozen veggies & fruits,  grass-fed & grass-finished meats and poultry,  fish,  raw nuts & seeds, crudités or veggies (see this short video clip ), salads, raw milk cheeses, and also legumes like beans, peas, & lentil–they are rich in nutrients & high in fiber so they are filling.  Use vegetables and fruits of many colors, especially including dark green leafy ones—don’t overcook to preserve enzymes.  Bright green veggies have enzymes, whereas drab, army green color means they’ve been destroyed.

Add ‘blenderized’ veggies to sauces and gravies to make a big difference in your child’s nutrition. Spreading nut butters on apple and carrot slices makes a healthy snack.

3. Drink Water as Main Beverage

Sometimes have coconut water, tomato juice, fruit juice that is 100% juice, seltzer or club soda.

You can create healthier, natural soda free of refined sugars by defrosting any frozen 100% fruit juice concentrate & diluting with seltzer or club soda! It’s a delicious treat, healthier-than-soda, & your kids will love it!

4. If Using Grains, Be Sure They Are Whole Grains

For all ‘flour’ foods like bread, rolls, cereal, pasta, wraps, pizza, muffins, etc., check the package ingredient list.  If you don’t see the words whole wheat, whole oats, whole corn, and whole rice in the grain’s description, it is refined and very deficient in nutrients.  Sprouted, flourless breads are healthier with a lower glycemic index.

Flour products that say they are de-germinated or enriched, are refined and not whole grain.

Try Fast & Easy grain type quinoa (actually a seed pronounced KEEN-wah)- a great tasting fast cooking (12-15 minutes) carbohydrate that’s also high in protein (a substitute for rice, pasta, or potatoes).

5. Focus on Organic Good Fats

Look for buzz words like: first press, cold-pressed, extra virgin, unfiltered, raw, organic. Olive oil,  Coconut oil, Sesame oil.  Focus on getting most fats and oils from food sources (rather than bottled oils) such as raw nuts and seeds, avocado, coconut, olives, egg yolks, pasture raised grass-fed & grass-finished meat and poultry,  wild-caught fish roe (eggs) and wild-caught fish like salmon, sardines, tuna, & halibut.

FOR SWEETENERS–in small amounts:  date sugar (ground dates), whole-fruit–no sugar added– jams, fruit juice concentrates, apple sauce,  honey (preferably raw, unfiltered), and REAL maple syrup (NOT pancake syrup)