We must eat the things our bodies need even when we are busy. Here is why and how to feed your family healthy even when you are very busy or a single parent.
| I'm a single parent. Maybe I have a
little less time than a two-parent family. But all of us parents have a responsibility to
feed our families healthy. If it works for singles, surely it will work for
"doubles," too. By RB McLean |
Eating Healthy.
Why don't singles and families with single parents eat a nutritious, balanced diet?
1. Time.
Most singles are pressed for time. Who has time to shop, cook, and clean the kitchen?
Yet, who has time to be ill?
Since illness is the normal aftermath of poor nutrition, maybe we have a choice: Spend time on nutrition or spend more time being ill.
2. Cooking. I have yet to find a way to eat healthy without cooking. I don't like to cook and I'm sure many other singles don't like to cook either. I would venture that many don't even know how to cook.
What do we do? We grab fast food, frozen dinners, and carry-out cuisine--or--we cook. I don't spend much time cooking, but I do cook.
3. Clueless. Many singles just do not understand nutrition. For example: I am certain everyone in the singles' world tries to avoid saturated fats. Maybe we think we are avoiding saturated fat by replacing red meats with chicken and drinking "2%" milk.
Wrong. "2%" milk is 35% fat. It is only 2% fat by weight. In my opinion, a slightly misleading bit of advertising and labeling the federal goverment allows.
4. Future. Many of the benefits of good nutrition are long-term. Most of us believe married folks eat well. We hope to join the married ranks soon. After all, Mr./Ms Right is just around the corner. These hopes make it easier to put nutrition off for our married future.
Forget the future for now. What immediate benefits can we gain from nutritious meals?
A. Thinner bodies.
The Editors of Prevention Magazine write, "A national survey of health habits and attitudes, reported in the early 1990s that a record number of Americans are overweight--just about two out of three adults are above the range of weight that's considered ideal for best health. Experts on such trends say we are the fattest people on earth, perhaps the fattest nation in history."
Many singles look at their body as part of their attraction to the opposite sex. A better diet would allow us to join the nation's minority in that healthy weight range.
Does that healthy weight range produce bodies that are more attractive to more members of the opposite sex?
I think in many ways this is true.
B. More energy.
People who eat well have more energy than their poorly-fed counterparts. When you have more energy, you can chase the opposite sex longer and harder.
More important, though, is that you have more energy to enjoy your life in the "here and now."
C. Healthy kids.
Enter the single parent. Even though single parents seem to have less time than any of us, proper nutrition is part of a parent's health responsibility to his/her children.
Maybe we will be married again before the kids' bodies and future health are at risk from present nutrition. Yet they are growing and storing up future health every day. Maybe we need to think about our kids in the present, not in the future.
Kids can help! Even a little kid can help by cleaning the kitchen, setting the table, washing the veggies, etc.
Don't stint on your families' health. See busy for an easy, quick way to cook healthy.
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