The Paleo Mama

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Holiday

5 Foods to Avoid this Holiday Season

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5foodstoavoidholiday

The season – the month – has begun, and people from all over are cooking, baking and stuffing their faces with holiday foods. Did you know that the average person consumes an extra 600 calories a day during the Holidays?! No matter where you live or where you go, you can’t miss it. The Holiday foods will find their way into your belly and when January comes, you are going to be googling Detox diets, Whole 30, The 21 Day Sugar Detox, Weight Watchers, Insanity…you get the picture. But it’s all fun and it’s only once a year. I hear you, I really do. I never claim to be 100% Paleo, in fact I’ve declared that I never will be 100% Paleo. However, when you are splurging this Holiday season and indulging in “junkier” foods, remember what these 5 most terrible foods are and try to avoid them for your health.

5 Foods to Avoid this Holiday Season: 

1. Store-bought Egg Nog 

There’s nothing like a Holiday drink that is loaded with seaweed extract, high fructose corn syrup, and just a little egg. Yes, that is the ingredients of store-bought Egg Nog. You really didn’t think you were going to get a high quality traditional drink from a carton, did ya? The only thing healthy about this drink is the possibility that there are some of the traditional spices in it. However, this picture I snapped didn’t even have spices in it.

eggnog

Make Your Own: 

2. Store-bought Cookies, Pies and Holiday Treats 

Bottom line, these will all contain vegetable oils or vegetable shortening. Not sure why this is bad? I mean it’s made from a vegetable, right? First off, it is loaded with trans fats (found in partially hydrogenated oils) which the FDA has recently declared unsafe for human consumption. GASP! They did something right! And, second, they have nothing to do with vegetables, but are loaded with weird stuff like soy, rapeseed(WTH!) and processed in really unnatural ways.

Make Your Own: 

3. Gift Sausages and Other Processed Meats 

I’ve never trusted any meat that require no refrigeration. That’s just plain wacko. Makes me question how they are able last so long. SODIUM NITRATE. Sodium nitrate is a preservative found in many packaged meats that keep the meat fresh and pretty. Rotting meat doesn’t look or taste too good. Sodium nitrate has, also, been linked to cancer. These pretty cancer packages can be found in shopping malls during the Holiday season and inside pretty, little gift baskets. I’m not sure why these make a good Christmas gift…why not try giving something a little less “poisoning” and a little more homemade?

What to give instead: 

4. Those Giant Tubs of Caramel Popcorn 

I know they are sooooo good. Trust me, this is my biggest weakness during the Holiday season. Just one bite turns into 20 bites. But listen, corn is the number one food that is genetically modified. Read this for all the ways generically modified food is dangerous for you. And these tubs of popcorn, aren’t just popcorn. They are saturated with “carmel” sauce that includes ingredients like high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavorings.

Make Your Own: 

5. Stuffing in a Box

The problem with store bought stuffing is that they contain questionable ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup and monosodium glutamate, or MSG. MSG has a whole long list of dangerous side effects and is one of the most dangerous additives to food.

Make Your Own: 

 

I hope you all have a fantastic Holiday season and make the best decisions that you can for your health!

 

Jackie

(Photo Credit: WebMd)

 

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5 Reasons Why I Let My Kids Believe in Santa Claus

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I am very grateful that, as parents, we are given the choice for so many things. We choose what we believe is best for our children everyday. We make big decisions from the day we learned that we were pregnant with them. We decide if we are going to vaccinate them. We decide if we are going to circumcise our sons. We decide if we are going to spank or homeschool them. When they are older, we decide if we are going to give our teenage daughters birth control, or leave condoms out for our son to use if we know they are sleeping around. These are BIG decisions that every parents must make. I mean BIG. These decisions have lasting effects on our kids in some way or the other; whether they are positive or negative, they do affect our children. And then the Christmas season rolls around, and if you have very young kids, you are going to decide whether you are going to let your kids believe in Santa, “tell them the lie” as so many call it, or tell them the truth. I don’t think this is a BIG decision, but I guess after mentioning something on my Facebook page, many do think it is. So, to each their own. However, I do and will continue letting my kids believe in the fairy tale of Santa.

5 Reasons Why I Let My Kids Believe in Santa Claus

1) Because the story of St. Nicholas is a true story.  Saint Nicholas (15 March 270 – 6 December 343) also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus (1).

There are many legends about St. Nicholas of Myra. One story tells how he helped three poor sisters. Their father did not have enough money to pay their dowries and thought of selling them into servitude. Three times, St. Nicholas secretly went to their house at night and put a bag of money inside. The man used the money so that one of his daughters could marry. On the third visit, the man saw St. Nicholas and thanked him for his kindness. He also reportedly saved three men who were falsely imprisoned and sentenced to death (2).

2) Because I believe fantasy is so important to growing children. I am an avid believer in the Charlotte Mason schooling method. It’s the method I use with my kids because it is about giving kids a firm foundation of “living books“. Living books are books that come alive to children. Think of your favorite childhood book…it most likely was a living book; one that evoked fantasy and the desire for the story to never end. Fantasy stimulates the imagination, creativity and wonder, and we need more, not less of it. And I’m not lying to my kids, I’m letting them have a little imagination with something that is rooted in history.

3) Because I believe in the spirit of giving and not taking credit for something makes me even more humble. Santa gives the kids one or two gifts a year…big gifts! I make sure that the kids know that mommy and daddy give certain gifts though. My kids are only young once and when they grow up there will be no more fantasy. Life will be so serious. They will cry over every boyfriend that breaks their heart and every basketball game they lose. Then they will be gone and have their own families and will decide if they will tell their kids the truth about Santa Claus. And, in that moment, I hope when they think back on all the Christmases that they spent with us growing up…I hope they smile. I hope they remember the love we shared together…the anticipation of Christ…the anticipation of Santa.

4) Because the life of Santa Claus does NOT take away from the life of Christ. Santa is not the highlight of Christmas in our house. We recognize Advent and, everyday, we talk about the life of Jesus leading up to His glorious birth. Christmas day we have a birthday party for Jesus with cake and songs and dancing. Jesus is the icing on the cake.

5) Because I believed in Santa growing up and it was awesome. And when my dad told me that HE WAS SANTA I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It never broke me or made me think less of my parents for “telling me such a lie”. It made me appreciate the selflessness that went into Christmas in my house growing up. We were a lower income family when I was a child and my dad worked his butt off to make Christmas magical. And the fact that they didn’t take credit for all the amazing gifts they gave us??? Made me love them even more.

So, what do you do? Do you let your kids believe in Santa or not? 

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Sources:

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

(2) https://www.biography.com/people/st-nicholas-204635

Photo Credit: Flickr

My Paleo Irish Menu for St. Paddy’s Day

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By the way, it actually should be spelled St. Paddy’s day and not Patty. I just learned that and now you did! I bet you also didn’t know that most the Irish actually eat pork on St. Patrick’s Day, not corned beef! However, we are eating our pork tonight and I’m making Corned Beef for St. Patrick’s Day, which is this Sunday, March 17, 2013.

I actually really love St. Patrick’s Day. We lived in Savannah for 4 years and I kind of fell in love with it there. It’s HUGE there. So, here’s our menu for St. Paddy’s day!  St. Patrick’s Day is traditionally a feast day, celebrating the Patron Saint of Ireland and appreciating the fact that Lenten restrictions have been lifted! So, St. Patrick’s Day usually comes with lots of meat and alcohol!

Beverages:

Homemade Kombucha 

Homemade Apple Kvass

Main Dish:

Reuben Style Cabbage Rolls – can make the corned beef yourself (recipe link below)

Homemade Corned Beef – beef brisket on sale at Kroger (Southeast region) for $3.49lb and pretty cheap at Costco

Sides: 

Faux-tato Salad

Irish Soda Bread

Homemade Sauerkraut – will also be used in the Cabbage rolls

Dessert: 

Shamrock Shake – this was given to me by a Facebook follower:

1 can coconut milk or 1 3/4 cup other milk choice
1 avocado peeled and seeded
1-3 Tbsp raw honey
1 cup ice
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Blend and enjoy!!

That’s it! We should be stuffed and plump by the end of the day but our tummies should definitely appreciate this meal. There is quite a bit of fermented foods and beverages in this meal. In fact, the sauerkraut, kvass, and corned beef must be started tonight or tomorrow to be done by Sunday!

Lots of [Irish] luck to you!!!!