Revisiting Our Food Choices.

Over the years, I’ve slowly slipped from eating organic food 95-100% of the time. Two decades ago, it was a requirement for me, and easy considering the plethora of food options in Portland and no children to feed. The effort became more challenging while raising a young family on a tight budget in the Wood River Valley’s high cost of living. Even so, I anchored to the belief that how our food was grown was more important than almost anything else. High quality food is not just a love language – I knew too much about toxicants and couldn’t allow myself to offer them to my children in meals meant for their growth and wellness. This deep-seeded value strained many relationships, friendships, and social opportunities. It also brought me deep respect for nature, conscious farmers, and grass roots efforts to live harmoniously with Mother Earth.

Now, well into my 40’s with a master’s degree in science and nutrition, thousands of hours working with clients and teaching about wellness, decades of research and writing about food, farms and health, and plentiful experience within our local food systems, I am even more grounded in my conviction that the quality of our food – and the soil upon which it is grown – is the source of all wellbeing on Earth. Having encountered my own health challenges after almost half a century on Earth – exposed to incalculable amounts of environmental toxicants even while eating a “cleanish” diet – I am, again, revisiting my consumption choices with intention to improve them.

Besides my own nourishment and that of my children, my clients rely on me to recommend foods I’ve vetted. I’ve visited farms, spoken with restauranteurs, and reached out to companies with matcha or chocolate staples in my pantry, freezer, and life. Why, then, do some of my food and beverage rituals stray from my convictions?

With kids, I’ve compromised more than I’d like to admit – a confession I hear often from parents. We surrender to sports drinks that are “better” than the food dye alternative (and unsuitable for youth) or organic versions of road trip snacks that (slightly) ease our consciences. I try to rationalize that it’s okay to be flexible for the kids’ sake, so they don’t feel ostracized from their peers, yet I witness their behavior and cognitive influences of sugar and ultra-processed foods. And, I know better…

When our culture coerces us into believing packaged foods and food-like alternatives are “healthy” or just “okay,” we habituate choosing convenient, prepared food too often without considering their true sustenance or long-term implications. It’s the American way – studies indicate we eat for “health reasons” rather than for pleasure or values. How’s that working out for us? We’re the sickest nation in the world.

As we “clean up” this spring, let’s reconsider why we choose certain foods and how these choices serve us as individuals, our community, and our environment. Start by choosing whole, uncontaminated foods raised as naturally as possible. Then, shift where we shop, which local foods we buy, what we serve our kids – the implications are vast. As we begin to feel better ethically and physically, ask what else we consuming that may cause more harm than it’s worth? Which farmers, producers, and restauranteurs prioritize unadulterated food? Choose them, and we choose our wellbeing, too.