WHAT ELSE DO I PURCHASE??

Thru the rest of the store, I will purchase some canned beans (so much more convenient than cooking fresh), diced tomatoes, bags of nuts and seeds such as walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds and hemp seeds. A grain or two such as oats, quinoa, farro or whole wheat pasta. My current favorite non-dairy milk is oat milk, although almond or soy sometimes is chosen. (Always look for unsweetened rather than plain, since “plain” is still often very sweet and loaded with added sugar. Organic if possible is great too!) I usually grab a non-dairy coconut yogurt or kefir for my probiotic goodies and a non-dairy macadamia nut creamer for my decaf morning coffee.

Since I try not to eat much dairy in my diet (I’m sensitive to the casein protein and I don’t need to introduce more hormone filled food into my peri-menopausal self!) cheese is something I really miss and finding a worthwhile plant based cheese is tricky. So occasionally we eat a little aged high quality Italian cheese or goat cheese. But we truthfully feel better without it.

A trip down the health food section to see what is on sale or special this week often finds a fun surprise. I may need a bottle of Braggs Aminos, a jar of nutritional yeast or specialty flour.

OKAY! Off to the checkouts!

But wait…..I skipped the meat counter, the snack food aisle, the soda aisle, the boxed dinner aisle, the Lunchable shelf, the ice cream and pizza cooler, the cereal aisle, the…..

Yes, that is no accident.

This is where I tend to start my cart watching and it saddens me. Please understand I am not standing in judgement looking down my nose at people. There is a sad myth that healthy eating is for snobs, the wealthy, the dorks. For people who have so much time on their hands that they spend hours making dinner while the rest of the world is juggling jobs and family. Again, that disconnect between cooking food in our kitchens and nourishing ourselves. Perhaps nobody taught us how to cook, how to shop, how to meal plan, how to see thru the marketing hype.

But I do know without a doubt that our diet should be a top priority in our own and our family’s life. Eating well should be as important as keeping safe tires on the minivan and fresh batteries in the smoke detectors. Yet, it is left to chance, a late evening drive thru after sports, a rush to get home and microwave a tub of mac and cheese. I’m a mom, and I can easily recall trying to pick up groceries with two crabby crying kids and in an effort to get out of there and keep tantrums to a minimum, succumbing to the junk food sirens call. Because everyone is busy, overbooked, rushed, multi-tasking and somehow good health will just find its way. But sadly it doesn’t. Health so often in our culture isn’t given much thought until it is in crisis mode and we are at risk of losing it. Or the damage is already done and now we will be standing with our cart at the grocery store waiting for our bottles of prescriptions to be filled at the pharmacy. No time to cook, but do we have time to be chronically ill?