Three weeks into the new year and I am pleased to say that my family and I are so far maintaining our 2016 New Years Resolutions. As a friendly reminder on my office desk sits a pretty white 5×7 frame. Within the frame, written on a custom poster card, are three resolutions that we created as a family (you can download your FREE 2016 Family Resolutions here).
One resolution my husband and I are extremely passionate about this year, is to make a conscious effort to educate ourselves more about what we are eating as a family and where we are shopping.
Grocery shopping is such a huge part of our everyday life, and to be honest I will admit that in previous years I have never thought much more about it other then just getting a healthy balance of groceries. But when I started to ask myself, where does my meat come from, where is the produce grown, or even, how far has this milk travelled to end up in my boy’s cereal? – I didn’t have the faintest clue.
Today I am sharing with you my family’s journey“to live well, live organic”,and why you should care about what you are eating and where you shop too!
My husband and I have been fairly healthy eaters are whole life, and when the time came to have kids we wanted to make sure this part of our life did not fade. When our first son was born I was one of those Moms who was so very particular about what my baby was eating (including when I was breastfeeding) from fruit & veggies to ensuring enough protein, calcium and vitamin D was being consumed. I was a lunatic. Thankfully, just before our second son was born I was more relaxed and I felt “experienced” enough to know what I was doing to help my babies grow. However, 72 hours after delivering our second son we were notified to contact Biochemical Disease at BC Children’s Hospital. Our son was later confirmed to have been born with a rare metabolic disease called PKU. Translation – he is severely allergic to protein. While my post today is not to bore you with all the details on PKU, but to simply point out the correlation to which I was forced to think “outside the box” when creating meals and snacks for him. As he grew, so did his appetite. Having an allergy to protein means zero meat, zero pasta, zero dairy, zero soy (or similar substitute). In fact his daily protein allotment is less than 2g per day. That’s four Oreos for some of your kids. I was searching like crazy for new recipes, and cooking different things all the time. Mostly because I wanted him to feel full and satisfied after eating, and mostly because I didn’t want him always having something different than the rest of us at the table. As my visits and my bill to the grocery store increased, so did my frustration when trying to locate “fresh” produce. I began asking questions, I began researching. It wasn’t just about the fruit and veggies anymore, I was researching everything, including the meat I purchased, the eggs, even our milk. The more I dug, the more disappointed I became. Not in my local grocer, but in myself. I spent years focusing on feeding my family properly that it never occurred to me to consider where my food was coming from or how fresh it actually was. We began changing the way we shopped and ate immediately, and eventually was introduced to a name we have all come to love – called Nature’s Fare Markets.
While there are numerous stores and markets to choose from, we made a list of our TOP 10 Reasons Why We Love Nature’s Fare Markets. I do however encourage you to do your own research, and see for yourself the difference.
10 Reasons Why We Love Nature’ Fare Markets
- GMO Free – Nature’s Fare Markets “in no way supports the use of genetically modified organisms in farming or in food production”. Nature’s Fare Markets works extremely hard with all of their suppliers,distributorsandmanufacturers to ensure no GMOingredients are within the products they carry. The fact that theystrive to to always provide anorganic option speaks volumes, and when anorganic option may not beavailable they ensure wearereceiving anitem that is a non-GMO certifiedequivalent.
- Certified Gluten Free Shopping – For quick shopping, I love how Nature’s Fare Markets has come up with a green label system to help identify all the Gluten Free options made available in the store. As a mom who is constantly label reading this saves me a ton of time!
- Organic – At Nature’s Fare Markets their “priority is organic first and foremost”. They are strong believers of the benefits of organic farming and production methods and will strive to carry as many as organic options as possible in each and every department in their stores. For those times when there may not be an organic version, they promise us the peace of mind knowing they have selected a similar product free from any artificial ingredients or chemicals.
- 100% Organic Produce– Nature’s Fare Markets actually guarantees their customers of 100% produce at all times. In fact, they won’t even chance bringing in non-organic produce due to the potential of contamination.
- Animal Welfare – Nature’s Fare Markets will only sell ethically raised and slaughtered meat products. Rest assured, they are committed to working with ranchers and farmers who maintain sustainable and humane farming practices. Their beef products are either organic or grass fed, their chicken is either organic or free range, and their eggs are from cage free hens that are either free range or run free.
- Local – It is actually a company policy to support local vendors whenever possible. In fact, supporting local is one of the company’s core values that makes them so unique in who they are today! I have peace of mind knowing that local products, and local vendors make up a good portion of these stores. Knowing the short distance these products have travelled speaks volumes to the freshness!
- Education – Nature’s Fare Markets is constantly educating us with their in-store events and guest speakers, informative blog posts, newsletters, in-store bi-monthly magazine, and social media posts! Their on-going education and training with their staff in untouchable in my opinion. Which bring me to their customer service.
- Customer Service – Have you ever walked into a Nature’s Fare Markets store and not been a) acknowledged or b) assisted. The answer – Never! Their customer service and employee knowledge in each and every department blows me away each and every time. Ask, and you shall find an answer.
- Vitamins – I could honestly live in this department. Their vitamin selection is one of the largest that I have ever seen. Accompanied by a minimum of one to two employees always available in this department allows me to feel confident with my purchases.
- Feel Healthier– While this last point isn’t a Nature’s Fare Markets promise, it’s definitely the way my family and I feel. There are probably many complicated, scientific explanations for why eating organic and sustainable is good for your body; all I can tell you is we feel better. It’s as simple as that.
By choosing to shop and “live organic” you are supporting a sustainable future for all our children and generations to come.Whether you are already living organic or are contemplating to do so – we would love to hear from you. Share with us your journey or thoughts so far below! Till next time…
