the Waste-Not Blog

A lot of parents treat picky eaters like a given. Memes about kids who eat nothing but cheerios and chicken nuggets abound, as do memes about animal crackers all over the house and kids who aren't hungry at dinner but want a gogurt twenty minutes later. "Oh, yeah, mine do that too." "Have you tried letting him put ketchup on it?" "Wow, your kid eats raisins? You're lucky, the only fruit my kid eats is Welch's Fruit Snacks." So when people meet my kids and see their eating habits, they are... incredulous. Because my kids eat literally everything. I've had to stop them from picking up the baby's... used... animal crackers off the floor ("But we like baby slime!"). So how did this happen? Did I starve them for weeks so even the most repulsive foods became desirable? Do I put ketchup on everything? Did I hire a voodoo practitioner to pull the stuffing out of a voodoo doll with my kid's name on it, to make their stomachs fee...

In case you haven't noticed, I am very phytic acid aware. If I'm going to be feeding a whole grain or a legume to my family, you can bet it's going to be soaked for a minimum of eight hours before I start cooking or baking. This is because I want my family to receive the full benefit of the good food I'm cooking, and phytic acid is an antinutrient that latches onto minerals in your diet and carries them right out the back door. It doesn't matter how much magnesium you eat if it all ends up in the toilet, and that's exactly what happens when you consume whole seeds, grains or legumes that haven't been soaked. So when I look at the bags of pelleted grain or ground, dry "mash" that people feed to their animals, I have to wonder: why would I feed uncooked, unsoaked, unaltered grain to my animals when I wouldn't feed them to my family? Beyond my desire to take good care of my animals, I'm paying for their feed, and if they aren't absorbing...

Why do you eat vegetables? A few of us will say it's because we like them, love them, can't get enough of them. And there are days when we even mean it! But what about the rest of the time, the rest of us? When there are so many delicious, easy foods to be had in the world, what gives vegetables the pride of place as the food everyone feels they ought to eat more of? Of course it's because they're healthy, right? Because they have fiber to help us digest. Because they have vitamins and minerals to supply our bodies' daily needs. Because for many of us, a meal of straight protein, fat and starch doesn't feel right--we instinctively know that while all those things are great and delicious, they need a little help along the way--an oar, as it were, to help them row their boat to Valhalla. A Charon to steer their ferry across the river Styx. I could go on. I won't. Instead, I'm here to tell you that while these vegetables you're eating do perform...