Improving the Health of the Young Generation One Kitchen at a Time
My husband Kris had 12 inches of intestine removed two days after college graduation.
Crohn’s Disease.
At discharge time his surgeon said, “I’ll see you back in about 7 years for some more…” #yikes
We worried about Paul, Leah, John and Gabe since before they were BORN that they might inherit this lovely little gift. 🙁
But it still took me 10 years to really start doing something about it (in the right way).
Like most in my generation, I wasn’t raised on real food. I grew up on Hillbilly bread, I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter (remember the squirty stuff?!), and my mom’s “homemade” spaghetti sauce started with 2 cans of Campbell’s Tomato Soup.
So I get it – it’s really hard to get healthy when we barely know the basics in the kitchen ourselves. I finally realized that if we don’t start teaching our kids, we’re going to hear the same thing in 20 years:
“It’s really hard to get healthy, because my mom never taught me to cook…”
My husband and I knew we couldn’t change our kids’ genes to protect them from autoimmune disease, but we COULD set them up with a healthy diet AND give them the capacity to do it for themselves.
That’s what I finally started to get right the day my son made that guacamole for his fourth-grade class.
No matter how healthily I fed my family, if they weren’t independent with it, it would all fall apart when they left my house.
I was determined that wouldn’t be the case.
Health is one of the MANY benefits of teaching kids to cook:
Our member families tell incredible stories about the new foods their kids (and even some parents!) are eating because they’re involved in the process:
I won’t know for many years if what we’re doing truly impacts my kids’ long-term health, but I can say that my husband’s surgeon was wrong about that 7 year return date.
Surgery was way back in 2002, and without a single prescription, Kris has managed to avoid nearly 100% of Crohn’s symptoms.
The last surgeon he saw was after a colonoscopy, and we liked HIS calendar planning much better. He said, “I see no sign of Crohn’s Disease, just scarring from your surgery. That can come off your chart, and I’ll see you back when you’re 50 like all the other men your age.”
In case you didn’t know, Crohn’s Disease is a chronic autoimmune disorder…
“Teaching kids to cook and eat healthy food young sets up their genetic blueprint for their health in their adult life.
“It creates a healthy and diverse gut microbiome, and therefore a strong immune system that will allow them to avoid future disease. It’s the single best way to give them an excellent start in life.”
Real food makes big impacts on long-term (and often short-term) health, and it impacts families in other ways too.
Some of my favorite member stories are coming up….