"Marshmallows are not a protein"

"But I want them to be!" said my then 5 year old, Noah. Yeah, me too I say under my breath. Wasn't life grand before we knew so much about good nutrition? Our parents fed us hot dogs and Twinkies guilt free. There was no concern about cancer causing nitrates, artery clogging tran fats or the risk of high cholesterol. As a Chiropractor of 17 years and Mom to 2 amazing elementary school boys, I'm constantly weighing the pros and cons of harping about good nutrition. My goal is to raise healthy minds, happy spirits, and instill good eating habits. Now I know what you're going to say...In another 20 years we will be shamed by our children for feeding them chickpeas that we will find out are comparable to Kentucky Fried Chicken before it changed it's oil. But I can tell you that, at least for today, I am feeding my kids guilt free. Don't get me wrong, we certainly have our fair share of pizza, burgers and lemonade. By forgoing pepperoni on our often, but not always, homemade pizza, using organic bison in our burgers, and sweetening our real lemon and water with stevia or xylitol I am able to sleep better at night. Although our lemonade doesn't have the glow-in-the-dark color, much to my kid's dismay.
My nutrition courses and seminars gave me a solid base of information which I have used in my practice for years, but when I became pregnant with Benjamin this mission got personal. I read every "I love tofu and sprout" book I could find. Now that I had the opportunity to practice what I preached, I wasn't going to let one unhealthy morsel to pass my or my unborn child's future lips.
Of course it's not so easy. We don't live under a health conscious rock. When we are guests at someone else's home I tend to smile and nod when their big eyes are begging for a plate of red icing from a birthday cake. At some point you just have to let go. When the kids are choosing meals or snacks they know to pick a protein first. When their friends come to visit they know the same rule applies to them. Once they pick their cheese stick, turkey stick, houmous, yogurt, egg or handful of nuts or chickpeas they pick a vegetable and then a carb. It was a beautiful day when I found the pasta made from lentils and egg whites. We noticed that having only healthy choices in the house meant the apples and carrot sticks didn't rot in the fridge. There is that stash of chocolate chips hidden in the back top shelf of the pantry, but I'm only human. It's chocolate for gosh sakes, that's a protein right? Well, I want it to be.