Good Healthy Food = Good Healthy Kids

I had an epiphany the other day as I loaded the car from yet another grocery store trip. Produce is heavy! (That wasn’t the extent of it-stick with me here). Produce has some good, solid mass. When you pick a grapefruit you want one that is heavier than it looks. In this particular shopping excursion I had purchased 30 grapefruit, and they were all heavier than they looked. It took some muscle to just load up the grapefruit! I also had oranges, apples, bananas, pears, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, yams, squash, etc, etc, you get the idea. It had been awhile since I’d done a good shopping so I also had some healthy cold cereal that my kids will actually eat on those crazy days when we’re in a rush. After heaving the produce into the car that bag of cold cereal almost flew out of my hands as I loaded it up with the same enthusiasm.

“You are what you eat” rang loudly through my head. I thought of my children-they are all heavier than they look. They are solid kids-not fat-solid. Their cousin counterparts weigh much less than my kids and I’m always surprised when I pick the cousins up-they are so light!!

I thought of my kids and looked at the food in the back of my car. 85% of it was produce. Good, healthy, colorful, solid, delicious produce. This produce is the mainstay of what my children eat-and they are healthy kids! In my mind I saw my children being synonymous with the grapefruit I had just purchased. They are heavier than they look, just like the grapefruit I had so carefully picked out. Every time they eat they are taking nutrient dense food into their bodies and building strong healthy bones and muscles. They don’t drink milk or eat a lot of packaged food, and in that moment I committed to doing even better at making sure my children get the produce they need to keep growing strong and healthy.

Fruits and vegetables are a mainstay in our home, and the kids will often ask for their favorites when we go shopping. Just this week my eight year old begged for kiwi while my 6 year old begged for fresh green beans at the grocery store. You read that right-green beans!! My 3 year old was so sad that there wasn’t any corn on the cob in sight, but settled for strawberries this time.

It doesn’t take much to convince me to buy their favorite fruits and vegetables during our weekly shopping-after all, you are what you eat!