I was wondering what eveyones childhood homes ate? Was it the standard american diet or were your parents health minded and eating lots of raw and exercising?were they vegans or vegetarians or other?Did any of their ways influence you one way or another to the way you are now with eating?thanks taylor

My childhood was healthy by the know standards of the time. Every meal included milk, animal protein and two vegetables, all cooked. Fruit and raw veggies were comsumed in between meals. My grandmother had a farm which produced lots of fruits and veggies, but she also used pesticides and herbicides. I was rarely sick, never fat, and had energy to burn. I have always felt lucky to have had a fairly good start.

However, the diet I grew up on does NOT work today!!!!!!!! It now makes me sick.

Salad was always served with dinner, dark rye bread, meat and potatoes well done. Hardly ever soft drinks in the house. Canned or processed foods were rare.

From my mother I learned a deep appreciation/compassion for plants and animals big and small, even bugs in the house were tenderly captured and released outside.

Ironically, when she asks me what cult has taken over my mind, why I won't eat cooked food anymore or especially meat I tell her it was her.

I didn't eat my first salad until I was in my early twenties. My family was by no means health conscious..and I grew up just consuming whatever I wanted as as much as I wanted. I was a picky eater... and never enjoyed vegetables and was unwilling to try anything new. I have changed my diet DRAMATICALLY (and I do eat salads now regularly and even enjoy them). But my family still eats the same way: macaroni an cheese, chinese take out, McDonald's, all sorts of candy and junk!

My family will be raised very differently!

Mediterranean-SAD fusion to age 16, "healthy" Mediterranean with occasional fish to 28, vegetarian Mediterranean with whole grains to about 38, high f+v to 40, high f+v high raw vegan to current age (43).

My parents were both Greek, my dad from Greece. My dad eats pretty well for a normal omnivorous diet, lots of f+v, about 10 servings a day and veg about 5 days a week. But he has declined rapidly in the last 10 years (going on 78). My mom died 20 years ago when she was 50 of cancer.

My mom was fanatical about the healing powers of raw fruits & vegetables, and denounced the nutritive value of cooked food. We kids didn't see what her fuss was about, because cooked vegetables just sounded gross anyway. Not that we were anywhere NEAR being raw foodists- or even such healthy eaters - but def were not SAD eaters, either. But we def had tons of produce in the house & raw was for us the natural way to eat it. Also we always ate tofu & my mom shopped at the health food store, which we as kids hated because everyone else had shiny, colorfully packaged all-American fun foods in their cupboards (this was the Midwest, 1980's). We thought our mom was WEIRD, and our kithen weirder. Ironically, when I suggeted to my mom that she could eat JUST fruits & veggies, she acted like I was talking crazy!

But thank god my mom gave us such a great headstart, we grew up loving raw fruits & veggies, and I've been eating them my whole life.

I would notice over the years that whenever I'd go a few weeks w/o leafy greens, my immunity to colds & flu plummeted.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2007 12:33AM by sunshine79.

My parents were immigrants raised in a rural farming tradition. Much emphasis was placed on fruits and veggies raw and uncooked. We always had a lush garden and got a lot of exercise. Otherwise, we ate what many would have called a "wholesome," standard American diet. There were a lot of meat, potatoes, and salad type meals with big glasses of milk. We almost never ate fast food but always had plenty of ice cream. In the summer, my mom made me a huge fruit salad every day. My folks have always been suspicious of American culture in every form. When I was ten my older brother died of leukemia. This ignited a strong interest in health in all of us, particularly myself. I know that my parents' love of produce has made it much easier to go raw. A lot of people I know are uncomfortable around fruits, vegetables, nature, etc. I'm not at all. Raw feels like home to me.

Growing up, most dinners were procurred from the drive-thru at either Jack in the Box or Taco Bell. If mom cooked it was fried pork chops and some de-frosted veggie-product. Maybe I would eat a raw apple or something. Honestly, I don't remember, but it was bad. Lots of TV dinners, Hot Pockets, candy. I never had diagnosable health problems, but looking back I had pretty bad childhood depression and ADD.

My mom is about 100 lbs. overweight, she has diabetes, diverticulitis, and massive edema in her extremities. It's a bad scene.

I became a vegetarian at age 16 then became a vegan. Started eating meat again later. Strangely, I never picked up the fast-food habit as an adult. For what it's worth, I grew up to be a food-snob--gourmet everything and always from the health-food store, even if what I was eating wasn't so healthy.

I'm trying to raise my daughter with healthy eating habits, but it's hard with my husband around to mess it all up, lol.

Raised Raw? Not in the least.All cooked,all SID(Standard Indian Diet) of rice,curry etc.Sure we ate fruits but that was about the only thing that wasn't cooked. Due to the influence of my Dad we ate chicken,fish and lamb because I sensed he thought that the Indian way of vegetarianism was old fashioned and the western way of eating meat was healthier.Thankfully I didn't find it difficult to return back to vegetarianism and then to vegan because,I guess,of my heritage.I had little difficulty in going raw too because I think it just felt natural.I don't get many food cravings and my detox symptoms arent bad. Except for a couple of uneasy moments I went from vegan to Raw with hardly a ripple.10 years ago I did Raw for a year and a half and stupidly went back to cooked food.This time its for keeps.Raw liberates.
Brian

My dad made me sit at the table until I finshed my cold liver and onions. My mom fed me sugary cereals behind his back.That made me happy. I love mac and cheese and my grandpa turned me on to ramens

SAD all the way baby! I remember sometimes I got to pick out my own "healthy" frozen dinners to pop into the microwave. We ate lots of pizza, chinese food, hot dogs, McD's, frozen dinners, mac&cheese, etc. Often my breakfast consisted of swinging by 7-11 on the way to school and grabbing a coca cola slurpee and a twinkie or a box of those hostess mini-doughnuts. Yum!

Love,
Uma

The first 5 years of my life, my father was a Marine, so we just had whatever what at the store on the base. Then from age 5 to about 9, we lived with my grandparents and my grandma cooked everything to mush. As a little girl, I hated everything she ever cooked. We never had fresh fruits or veggies crisp and uncooked. We did have bananas though. From 9 to 18 my mom was a single parent and we lived on frozen dinners and fast food, which made me happy that I didn't have to eat grandmas mush anymore. I'd sit at the table with my cheeks packed with food, then after everyone else left the table, I'd spit it out and feed it to my dog Fran. Ewwwww! I was a skinny nobby elbow & knees little girl. At 18, I became a hippy vegan and was a vegan and vegetarian until now.

I have this inner conflict in me, with food, where my pride will not let me eat "old people food, which is soggy, cooked to death food. I like my food to be fresh, colorful, alive & vibrant with culture and suprise. If its cooked, like rice or legumes, I like it mixed with live food.

SSSAD. Southern Style. My grandparents grew up on farms in the South at a time when everything was made from scratch and food was preserved by canning, drying or smoking. My mom grew up in town as the youngest child in a large family and was my grandmother's kitchen helper. She could make a pan of biscuits in her sleep, all by feel, no measuring. So when I grew up in the 1950's we did not eat commercially preserved food; it was either fresh or home preserved by canning or freezing, depending on the season. Freezing was a new thing for middle class folks. As the years went by our diet changed to more convenient things because my mom worked full time in a florist. My mom kept a kitchen garden in our big suburban back yard until she no longer had the time to work it and had to scale it down.

Having meat at every meal was a sign of abundance for my parents, who grew up during the great depression in families that could not afford meat all the time. Hunting and fishing were not just sport in my family, they were a way to put food on the table for free.

Raw was for salads and maybe a few appetisers.

I was raised on a farm in QLD Australia until I was 16. It was by no means vegetarian but alot of raw fruit and vegies. We grew (in small quantities but enough to feed the family - bananas, mangoes,lots of passionfruit, watermelon, lychees, figs,mulberries, tomatoes, spinach, pumpkin and macadamias.

We had a few cows and I can remember squeezing 'Missy's' teat into my mouth when I was about 5! Mum used to make cheese & yoghurt. Once a week or so we dad would kill a chicken for dinner and nearly everyday we would have eggs and fish caught at the back of our 40acres (I was forced like coconut cream) to eat fish - I used to spit it in a tissue and put in my pocket!- early sign of vegetarianism maybe? but we had red meat maybe 1-2times per week and I must admit I loved it! Can't even bare the smell now.

Once a week we went into town and had a 'treat' of McDonalds or Kfc (my parents knew it was crap).

At school I got a snack size crunchie once per week as a treat & inbetween I was munching on lollies a fair bit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2007 11:28AM by Mangolover.

I grew up vegetarian with lots of health foods and home cooked meals. We had raw goats milk for every dinner. The milk was really the only raw foods that we had other than some fruit but most meals were heavyily cooked and heavy on the dairy.

uma Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SAD all the way baby! I remember sometimes I got
> to pick out my own "healthy" frozen dinners to pop
> into the microwave. We ate lots of pizza, chinese
> food, hot dogs, McD's, frozen dinners, mac&cheese,
> etc. Often my breakfast consisted of swinging by
> 7-11 on the way to school and grabbing a coca cola
> slurpee and a twinkie or a box of those hostess
> mini-doughnuts. Yum!
>
> Love,
> Uma

OMG! The 7-11 breakfast! That was a staple for me too. In Jr. High I was obsessed with the "capuccino" that came straight out of the machine.

wow-this is all really fascinating.I like uti have alot of the southern thing going on.My dad was a hunter and he would hunt for frogs in the swamps of lousiana.or another nite we would have squirrels...for dinner .or duck.or deer.he built his own boats and made his own beer in our basement.he loaded his own shot gun shells.i would go to his moms-my granny and man-she made biscuits and we would put louisiana pure blue ribbon cane syrup on them soo good. I can make biscuits in my sleep too.we would have red eye gravy alot and alot of bar-be-que.then met my hubby who was into being a vegetarian and will not kill bambi. i even told him-i'll kill bambi and i will dress him out.he did not believe me.i just feel we don't need to take a life(now) to supply our body with food.also-you buy meat at the store and u really don't know what the heck you are getting.thanks everyone! really cool stories.taylor

hmm well then where do i start??? my body at only 21 has been worn out with so many diets and eating habits that i don't think i ever had a set standard of eating...It was always "healthy cooked" from the time i was 2 i was on a diet...i started slim fast in a bottle because i started gaining weight for no reason.....at 5 i was on weight watchers so your typical fruits veggies grains and such...i always told my parents i didn't like meat and didn't want to eat it but it was always forced onto me with a healthy COOKED grain for dinner with soggy veggies....i had pre packaged "healthy" jenny craig dinners ect.....my body never seemed to give in to any of these diets and lose weight....always staying the same....i gained weight until i hit a steady weight no matter what i did...or what i did or didn't eat......i know have been doing raw for the past 1 and 1/2 and although it is hard to give up my vegan burgers and such i am doing really well......so my typical eating was nothing on the ordinary side and nothing usual it was always changing...but now it has changed for the best...

red_willow: wow, we were on on the same page, the twinkie/slurpee brekky!
Love,
Uma