Quote:
Originally Posted by TammiL
I'm sorry but I don't really buy the whole we don't have the money. I grew up dirt poor and still live without much money. I have 27 dollars to last until the end of the month, but you had better believe we always have fruits and veggies in the house. Ifyour daughter is sick then you do everything, and I mean everything you can. If your kid had cancer you would do everything you could to help. You probably will get mad at me and tell me how wrong I am. But I'm sick of seeing people say they can't do for their kids. Try to get her on track with a nutritionist and plain out your meals so everything goes as far as it can.
You've been lucky. The availability of affordable, healthy, wholesome food is not universal. Generally, folks living in rural, semi-rural, and suburban areas, even at the lowest poverty levels have more access to affordable, wholesome foods than do people in urban areas.
I'm not saying this as a personal excuse, because for the most part, I've been lucky too. My husband and I went through a rough patch when our monthly budget for food routinely fell between $25 and $45 for the entire month. We weren't eligible for assistance as our income was too high (but our medical and medications expenses were quite high).
For anyone who thinks eating healthy is easy on any budget, anywhere, I'd like to give them $50 for the month and set them up in a dangerous urban neighborhood with no vehicle, where the only food sources within walking distance are fast food restaurants and convenience stores.
Thankfully, I've never been in that position, but I did work with people who were. It was my job to help people access community services, and it wasn't always as easy as you might think.
To OP: that doesn't mean your situation is hopeless, it's just going to take effort, creativity, and sacrifice on everyone's part.
Fear is going to be the biggest obstacle, especially the fear of new foods. Pickiness is something everyone in the family is going to have to work at overcoming.
It will be difficult to overcome the fear and aversion to strange foods, but food is going to be your medicine and medicine doesn't always taste good.
This advice is somewhat controversial. It even got a recent thread shut down, but when you are dealing with poverty AND health problems there really isn't any other choice.
You can buy healthy food that everyone can eat. Those who need the extra fat and carbs can add them at the table.
Growing up as an overweight kid in a large lower middle class family, my underweight brother and thin father and grandfather ate extra helpings and buttered bread. My mother, grandmother and I generally ate the same meals, even when we were dieting, but without the higher calorie extras.
Exchange plan and calorie counting are convenient ways to gain or lose weight. Exchange plans make grocery shopping easier.
There are TONS of money saving tips in the shoestring meals forum. Frugal living sites online and frugal living books like The Complete Tightwad Gazette are full of tips. Not every or even most of the tips will be useful to you, but even so, you'll find ideas and inspiration you can use.
Involve the kids in the planning, shopping, and food preparation/cooking. Research has shown that kids AND adults are more open to trying foods they've helped prepare.
Cooking skills are built on practice. It's pretty much impossible to find food that's cheap, easy, and healthy. Two out of three is usually the best you can do.
Since you need cheap and healthy, that's going to eliminate easy. You and your children are going to have to work, sacrifice, and learn.
It'll be hard at first, but tastebuds really CAN be retrained.