I'm very tall right now.......

Because I'm standing on my soapbox.

From the very first time I took Lily to the U.K. she noticed how different certain staple foods tasted. Some she loved and others she hated. She has never loved the taste of milk over there but has always loved the fruits and vegetables much more. She loves the baked goods more and all the dairy products more. Lily isn't a picky eater which is a great thing as 2 picky eaters would push me over the edge. Jacob eats like a pig in England and I devour all of my favourite foods with gusto. Funny thing is none of us ever gain weight. Rosie gained a pound or two but it was short lived.

I came here at the ripe old age of 18 and worked as a Nanny for 2 little kidlets. My oldest charge was 5. He was a very athletic little man who ate like a horse. He was given so much junk that it shocked me. I wasn't in charge of his meals so there wasn't much to be done about it. I knew that when I had kids that was not going to be the way it was. Hah!

My kids do get there fair share of junk but it was I consider decent junk, most of the time and it is a balancing act. This country allows so much CRAP to be put into food that the EU has banned and in many cases banned decades ago. In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, food colouring is the devil. So are preservatives. The kind of preservatives that make a product have the shelf like of a stone. I avoid those like the plague. I learnt this by trial and error.

Many moons ago we were in Orlando at a Chinese buffet and Lily ate her first ever bowl of Jello (jelly to my English readers) and within a few minutes the kid was bouncing off of the tables. We knew it had to be the Jello. A few months late we tried that experiment again and BAM, hyper kid. We started to watch her behaviour from certain foods and it was so obvious. All extraneous food colouring was removed from her diet. No more red, and blue and no more wild child. Don't get me started on Cheet0s and their family members. The very same Cheet0s and D0ritos in England taste completely different.

Slowly but surely I have moved over to organic. It's a bit of a joke because organic farming in this country is not regulated you just have to have faith that the farmers are playing by the rules. I don't buy organic everything but I do buy a lot of organic stuff and or all natural products. It's expensive and can double a grocery bill so to balance things out I use coupons. I am not a coupon whiz but usually save $40 on every $150 that I spend.

I buy very few prepared products for the kids now, with the exception of breakfast cereal. I think that is where they consume most of their rubbish but thankfully they don't often eat cereal for breakfast. I now make my own muffins and pancakes once a week and freeze them that way they are always on hand.

We eat more fruit and vegetables than most people I know and that is a slippery slope. Have you noticed how waxy all of the produce is that you buy in a store? Uhh, oranges and cucumbers do not produce wax, it is added. I peel the skin off of a cuke if it isn't from a farmers market. Food colouring is added to make fruit look more appealing, how nice!

Girls are entering puberty now at the age of nine. NINE! If they are eating a diet rich in foods that have been injected with hormones it shouldn't come as a surprise, really it shouldn't. I see little girls in Lily's class with breasts and wearing bras. I don't want this for my children and I hope by monitoring what they eat I can slow down this process.

This generation of little ones are destined to be the first generation to have a shorter life span than their parents. Good grief, that is wrong and totally avoidable.

This is my opinion. Opinions are just feelings and can't be judged as they are neither right nor wrong so no nasty comments please.