It’s a question I get asked often: Where should I start?!
And I certainly understand why! it can be difficult to know where to start when you are looking to implement a real food lifestyle for you and your children. First, let me start by saying great job. By beginning the process of researching nutrition, you are already making a huge step in the right direction for your family.
With that said, let’s jump into three easy swaps that I recommend as a starting point for everybody. These are foods that nearly everybody has in their home and uses daily, so upgrading them to healthier options can have a huge impact with minimal effort on your part.
Eggs - Upgrade to pasture raised eggs. Pasture raised eggs are raised outdoors where they are given free range access to grass and sun, making them a more ethical and nutritious option. Mother Earth News conducted a study and found pasture raised eggs to outperform conventional eggs substantially: they boasted 2/3 more Vitamin A, 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids, 3 times more Vitamin # and 7 times more beta carotene!
Oil - Immediately stop cooking with any vegetable oil that you have in your home. If I sound a little dramatic, well, it’s for good reason. Canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, and peanut oil are highly unstable oils that oxidize in the body and cause free radicals. These inflammatory oils have no place in your kitchen! Instead, upgrade to delicious grass fed butter or ghee (my personal favorite), organic coconut oil, avocado oil, or lard or tallow. (I also love olive oil in sauces and salad dressings, I just don’t cook with it as it can oxidize at higher temperatures.)
Salt - This one is as easy as it gets! Upgrade the table salt for Pink Himalayan Salt or Celtic Sea Salt. Real salt (which you can tell because it retains its color) has trace nutrients and minerals and is actually beneficial for your body! And, it tastes delicious! I am a big believer that food should taste good, and using good quality salt certainly goes a long way with that.
And, with that, you’ve started your journey to a healthier family!