Question:
I was hoping you might be able to guide me on what I should be giving Elle, who is now 13-months-old. I understand what is ideal, but since my husband and I are not eating “ideally” then I think we are going to need to compromise with some of Elle’s diet. She has always been the kind of baby who thinks she is an adult so she wants to have every single thing that we eat. I have been able to keep a lot of non-ideal foods from her. Elle’s typical routine is she likes lots of water (w/stevia) through the day (she loves sweet things), most of her meals are still baby shakes ‘cause she loves them so much (usually comprised of spinach, bananas, and avocado), a little fresh veggie juice, snacks on banana, and then dinner is usually eaten with us and concluded with some more shake.
The heaviest things she has are raw puddings/shakes that have nuts and fruit in them (and sometime a little agave), white potatoes, and butter on cooked veggies. To make this easy for you, I’m going to write down typical foods we have in our house in a list form and I was wondering if you do have time, maybe you could run through them and put yes or no next to them and help me decide what is okay to compromise with, and maybe some alternatives? All of these things are usually just accompanied by a lot of veggies (like sometimes I will chop up a corn tortilla or a piece of sprouted wheat bread and add it to a veggie-mixture to stuff squash with, or I will add one egg to millet pancake batter or to vegetable fritters, or boxed almond milk to my smoothies).
Organic butter Hormone-free cream cheese Hormone-free heavy cream Organic eggs Pastuerized sheep’s feta and pecorino romano (and other sheep cheeses) Jarred salsa Boxed almond milk Coconut butter Vinegars Millet puffs Millet flour/whole millet Quinoa Oats Brown/wild rice Buckwheat Sprouted wheat bread Corn tortillas Z bars Lara bars Beans Corn White potatoes Thank you for your help! I appreciate everything you do for us!
Answer:
The diet as described is great! See our bold responses below for a few upgrades you can consider:
•Organic butter
•Hormone-free cream cheese
•Hormone-free heavy cream
•Organic eggs – Just make sure these are really high-quality, free-range, organic eggs. If you can find a local source that you trust, that is the best way to ensure you are getting the best eggs!
•Pastuerized sheep’s feta and pecorino romano (and other sheep cheeses). If you can find raw goat/sheep cheese, this would be a good upgrade. The pasteurized cheese isn’t horrible, it just lacks the enzymes that assist in digestion. These enzymes are killed in the pasteurization process so again, it’s not critical, but would be a good upgrade if you can find the raw version of goat/sheep cheese you like. We sell Natalia’s favorite brand, Alta Dena, raw cheddar style goat cheese through out online store if you can’t find anything local!
•Jarred salsa – You could consider making your own fresh salsa!
•Boxed almond milk – Boxed almond milk is fine as long as it is a high quality brand like “Pacific.” However, if you are feeling ambitious, you could make your own nut milk. This way, you can feel confident about all of the ingredients! Check out our Homemade Nut Milk recipe in the Recipe Section.
•Coconut butter – Just make sure it’s organic!
•Millet puffs
•Millet flour/whole millet
•Quinoa
•Oats
•Brown/wild rice
•Buckwheat
•Sprouted wheat bread
•Corn tortillas – These are fine but you can also try the sprouted grain tortillas.
•Z bars
•Lara bars
•Beans
•Corn
•White potatoes – White potatoes are good but an upgrade would be sweet potato – it is just a little higher up on the “alkalinity” scale than white potatoes although both are fine and biochemically superior to grains!
