Bringing back the white stuff

I am proclaiming before the world that I feed my children.........

Stuff made with white flour!!!

Dun,dun,dun,dun!

How horrid, how perfectly evil, whatever shall we do?

Ok, so it's not that bad, really. Wanna hear my theory?
It's a good one.

When we were kids, no one told us on every t.v. show, in every magazine article, everywhere we turned, that we should only eat all whole grains, no sugar and no white stuff.

We were told to eat our vegetables, of which there was always 2 at every dinner I had to eat, and fruit was a common part of breakfast.

I usually had a peanut butter sandwich made with white bread that my mom made accompanied by a glass of milk and maybe an apple and carrots for lunch.

What I didn't have was 3 different kinds of fishy crackers, cheez its and granola bars to fill out my already bread complimented lunch.

We filled in the cracks of lunch with fruit, vegetables and dairy. Occasionally there would be a cookie in there or some chips, but not everytime.

We ate dessert. Not everyday. Maybe a couple of times a week. But it wasn't this big taboo food item. Healthy is about moderation, not about denying yourself until you can hardly stand it anymore and then you buy a box of hostess cupcakes at the store knowing full well you are going to eat everyone of them before you get home....

Not that I've ever done that. Ahem.

So what is my point, I am sure you are asking yourself by now.

Do I advocate white stuff or not?

I do actually. But not in the way it has evolved to.

White bread for our sandwiches, pancakes made with white flour, I'm sorry, but these are not the causes of obesity and childhood diabetes in our country. They're just not.

We all grew up this way, and there were not chronic obesity problems among children I went to elementary school with.

I firmly believe it's in the fillers we add to our diets and the couch being just too comfy.

The kids come home from school and what do they eat?

If mom is home the choices sound like this:string cheese, apple, yogurt, maybe a granola bar.

If children have free reign on the cupboards, their after school snack choices would most likely be:crackers, chips, bread, cookies.

Who wouldn't choose that if they could?

But when we were kids there were also not video games in every household. Cetainly no handhelds or ipods to play away the daylight hours.

PE was everyday. Yes, everyday.

And after school we rode our bikes, we didn't just plunk down in front of the tv until dinner time. That could also be because there were no Cartoon Network, Disney Channel or the 100 other different children's all day all night channels the way there are now. Which is also why we only have basic cable in our house. But that's another post entirely.

No my friends, white bread and flour are not the problem.

And, this may get me into trouble, but most of my friends mom's either stayed home, or had work scheduled so that they were there when their children walked in the door from school.

Which provided supervision not only for what food choices they made, but for many other choices that would effect them throughout their lives.

So I will be feeding my children white bread. They like it better and they actually eat their sandwiches instead of throwing them away at school.

And I will be making pancakes and waffles for them with white flour.
Again, they like it better and they actually leave the house in the morning with full tummies. Which you know is better for learning.

I occasionally get on a kick and add whole grain wholesomey goodness where they won't notice it because frankly, I like whole wheat and whole grain better.
But I believe that is because I am an adult.

I also like kidney beans and fish now. But as a kid I would have chosen death by firing squad rather than eat kidney beans or fish.

And if your children love whole grain whole wheat things, then good for you. Seriously, that's awesome.
But for now, this is what makes my children happy.

(that's me making white, homemade, eat it while it's still warm, bread)
So I say:
If you possibly can, stay home with you kids. They need you.
Let them eat bread. The white kind.
Turn the tv off.
And then kick their hineys outside to play until dark.

Childhood Obesity problem solved.
Don't you feel better knowing I have solved one of the countries biggest crisis'?
I know I do.