I’d like to think that I’m the opposite of a snob.

I’m not ashamed to only own one pair of jeans- my “going out” pants. The rest of the time you can find me in comfy stuff.

I have no idea what is in style.

My favorite shoes are my duct taped camouflage Muck boots that I’ve owned for years.

I drive an old truck that is alllllways dirty.

You will see my hair done up usually in one of two ways because, let’s be honest, I’m not out there winning any fashion shows.

Or hearts (I’ve already got the ones that matter).

I turn up my nose at modern interiors, high heels, and girly drinks (unless, of course, the beer runs out).

But when it comes to our food, I cannot deny.

I’ve been known to be, at times, a bit of a snob.

Yet, not in the Mean Girls snob sort of way.

My convictions in the kitchen have ebbed and flowed through the years, and I’ve finally found myself settling into what feels right for my family.

And today, I’d like to share those with you.

I’d also like to help you in your journey in deciding on your own food-related convictions, because we all have them whether we realize it or not.

What is a conviction?

You’ve probably heard the term “conviction” before. Perhaps you’ve heard it on your favorite law & order-type show when criminals get convicted of crimes.

You’ve also likely heard of religious convictions. Our belief system that we hold close and that we stand up for.

Whether we realize it or not, we all have convictions in many areas of our life.

Including what we eat.

It may be your conviction that you don’t care about where your food comes from, as long as it’s cheap.

It may be your conviction that we are all going to die anyways, so bring on the Diet Coke.

It may be that you will only buy grass-fed, or organic, or non-GMO.

But one thing is for certain: when it comes to food, there’s a multitude of options, information, studies, and opinions out there.

It can be difficult to navigate what’s truth, what’s not, and ultimately where we draw the line in our own life with regard to what we overlook and what we can’t.

My deal breakers.

For me, there are a few things that I absolutely will not bend on:

Raw or grassfed/organic milk.

We are absolutely blessed to be able to purchase raw milk from our one and only local dairy. To be honest, raw milk isn’t even technically legal in Minnesota. But this local dairy farm who has served our county for over 100 years has been fighting the system while providing this amazing product to people like us. And we will definitely support them as long as we can.

When we first switched over to raw milk several years ago now, the change was difficult. I remember thinking that raw milk literally tasted like cow. But now, it is the most delicious stuff on the planet, and if I have the unfortunate experience of tasting store-bought milk , it tastes like aluminum. The only exception I will make for raw milk- in the event that they are sold out for the day at the farm- is I will buy organic grassfed milk from our local co-op. And as good as that second option is, the kids immediately taste the difference and will moan and groan about the terrible “store milk”.

So why raw/organic/grassfed only? There are several reasons, beyond the benefits of drinking raw milk. Conventional milk cows are often subjected to hormone injections to increase milk production (hormones that are illegal in dozens of countries due to evidence that they may lead to an increase in IGF-1, a cancer causing hormone), which then lead to more frequent cases of mastitis, which then leads to treatment with antibiotics. We are then, in turn, exposed to these hormones and antibiotic residue in the milk we drink. Which, in itself, lends to our increase in antibiotic resistance. Not only that, but conventional milk cows are also fed a diet consisting of crops that have been exposed to herbicides & pesticides, which are then transmitted into the milk that they produce.

There’s just too many reasons not to drink conventional milk, and they are enough for me. Therefore, they are one of my personal food convictions.

Organic cane sugar & flour.

I ditched white sugar and bleached flour long ago.

Let’s start with sugar. Now, to be honest- sugar is sugar, and nutritionally, it just plain isn’t good for you and should be used in moderation.[This, by the way, is where you might part ways with me on this conviction- you might decide that you don’t want to use any sugar at all in your home, and that is just fine. Own that. But for me and my family…we will consume sugar in moderation].

But if you must use it (and I get it, I like me some sugar too), then you need to decide which form you are going to settle for. Conventional white sugar or table sugar goes through an extra refining process and is grown using conventional farming methods which include the use of herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, etc.

Raw organic evaporated cane juice or sugar is still sugar- it still undergoes some refinement, less than that of white sugar, but is not exposed to the levels of chemical treatment that you find in conventional sugar. I use both this type of sugar, as well as turbinado sugar in my baking. And of course I opt for natural sweeteners like maple syrup and honey. Once again, moderation.

The use of organic flours in my home is another of my personal food convictions. Conventional wheat is treated with herbicides that feature glyphosate, the deadly ingredient at the heart of the $289 million dollar Monsanto lawsuit. Residues of these herbicides & pesticides (15+ different ones in fact) then show up in the flour that is milled from these crops.

In addition, conventional bleached flour has undergone a chemical bleaching process to expedite whitening in flour that otherwise occurs naturally (albeit slowly) This bleaching process strips the flour of the majority of its nutrients, and produces a byproduct that is known to produce diabetes in lab rats.

Chocolate.

As much as I love me some chocolate chip cookies, I must admit- paying the high price of organic, fair trade chocolate can sting a bit.

But I do it.

There’s more than one reason to buy fair trade chocolate, including supporting sustainable farming practices which benefit the environment. But for me, the change came when I learned of the child labor, slavery, and trafficking involved in the chocolate industry. The majority of our cocoa beans come from Ivory Coast and Ghana in West Africa, where children are bought, sold, and trafficked (often by their own family members), but also voluntarily go to work on cocoa farms at a very young age. Just a little bit of research will reveal the horror behind cocoa farming and be enough to scar you for life. The BBC documentary “Chocolate the Bitter Truth” which can be found in parts 1-5 starting here delves into this topic, and explains why buying Fair Trade is the only way you can even get close to (and this still is not foolproof) consuming chocolate that was not harvested by the hands of trafficked and enslaved children.

Potatoes & apples.

You are likely familiar with the dirty dozen– a list of produce with the highest pesticide load (as well as the clean fifteen– those with the lowest). Apples and potatoes have long been prominent members of that dirty dozen list. Conventional potatoes “have more pesticide residue by weight than any other crop”, and almost all conventional apples were found to contain “diphenylamine, a pesticide banned in Europe” and has notoriously been at the top of the dirty dozen list for years. Other chart toppers? Strawberries, spinach, grapes, tomatoes, peppers, and more.

What this means for us is we typically only eat apples seasonally- when we get loads of them during apple harvest time, and in the couple months that follow when they are priced affordably at the co-op. But when they are $10/pound out of season, we go to our canned apples and applesauce until the season comes back around.

This is also why we grew 600 pounds of our own potatoes this year. They store for many months in our crawl space, and when they are too long gone, we have our canned potatoes to get us through for the short couple of months before the garden is giving them up once again.

Meat, especially chicken and pork.

We raise and harvest all of our own meat- with the exception of treating ourselves to the occasional organic grass-fed ribeye steak once a year, as well as grassfed beef, mainly when our venison runs out.

But it has been years since we’ve purchased chicken or pork at the store. Enter super snob mode right here.

There are few things more repulsive to me than 6 pound slimy conventional chicken breasts.

They are so unnatural it makes me crazy.

I don’t even want to get into ruthless conventional chicken farming (and really all conventional meat production) practices because I can’t stomach the lengths that the industry has gone to to produce cheap meat. (Have you watched Food, Inc.? No? Do it).

Not only that, but since switching over to eating our own meat, many of my former stomach issues have completely disappeared. I actually used to think I had a problem with cheese or dairy. It wasn’t until we eliminated conventionally produced meats from our diet that I realized that they were to blame. Now, if I go to a restaurant and have chicken on my Caesar salad, I’m sick within the hour.

But stomach ailments aside, it’s the cruel conditions and treatments of those animals that does it for me. Raising your own or buying from a small farmer whose practices you can witness for yourself, whose motives are not driven purely by greed or by supplying the demand for more at less cost, will always get my vote. I will willingly pay more to those who are doing it a better way.

Coffee.

This one is admittedly new for me. Like, a month ago new. Not only is conventional coffee known to expose its consumers to pesticide residue, but the coffee farmers are subjected first hand to those pesticides used on those farms. Not to mention the hybrid coffee plants that are now designed to grow in full sun, leading to mass deforestation.

Coffee beans raised on sustainable coffee farms grow their coffee in the shade, providing habitat for the creatures who live there. They are also given a fair price for their coffee, so that they don’t get undercut by the big conventional companies. And while organic does not mean fair trade, or vice versa, you will often find that the two go hand-in-hand and is what I try to reach for now when making my coffee purchases.

Real maple syrup & honey.

My good friend Becky and I started tapping maple trees a few years ago and have not looked back. We tap about 80 trees which give us several gallons of pure maple syrup. While table syrup is little more than high fructose corn syrup and caramel coloring, real maple syrup is made from just one, good, natural ingredient- maple sap that has been boiled down. When you think of it in those terms, what do you want poured onto your morning pancakes?

Honey is another sweetener where I opt for raw and organic over the stuff in the squeezable bear container. It’s no secret that raw honey has like a zillion health benefits and that the fake stuff has none. This one is an easy choice for me and my family. And while it’s next to impossible to raise bees where I’m at, I’m happy to pay the price tag for the good stuff instead. If we are going to be using something, why shouldn’t it be in the natural, original form created by God before humans got a hold of it and turned it into something so far from what it was?

Eggs.

I have been raising my own laying hens for so many years that I almost forgot this one. But it’s such a good one. I cannot tell you the last time I have purchased eggs from the store, but I tell you what- it is such a treat when I hear from someone who has bought eggs from myself or from my 8-year old (who has his own egg business) how vastly different they are from what they are used to. From the color to the flavor to the shells themselves- it’s no secret that good eggs just make people feel…good. There’s something about homegrown eggs from happy, free-ranging chickens that makes breakfast extra special.

The health benefits of eggs grown in this way were outlined in a super old article I wrote almost five years ago, which quoted a study published in Mother Earth News. This study revealed that free range chicken eggs vs. commercial eggs resulted in a nutritional profile that revealed the following:

1/3 less cholesterol
1/4 less saturated fat
2/3 more Vitamin A
3x more Vitamin E
2x more Omega 3 fatty acids
7x more beta-carotene

But even putting these things aside, by boycotting commercial chicken eggs, we are not having a part in supporting battery hen operations. Even the so-called “free range” label on commercial chicken eggs cannot offer peace of mind. Often, “free range” means they are not locked up in cages, yet they are still stuffed by the thousands into dark chicken barns.

How to decide on your own convictions.

So where does one even begin with this process of deciding where you draw your own line, in your own life?

My number one tip would be to start slow. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Pick one area at a time, and go with that. Do your research. Find what moves you. Where does your conscience guide you?

For me, I first started with raw milk. And then I started making my own bread and buying only organic flours for doing so. Along the way, we eliminated more and more store bought meat from our lives as we built up the livestock that we chose to raise on our homestead. This meant ducks one year, then meat rabbits, then turkeys and pigs and sheep- but all over time. Do both you and me the favor of not overwhelming yourself with radical changes all at one time. Because you will burn out and give up.

Sit down and put some things to paper:

1. What am I eating right now that makes me feel just gross, both physically and mentally?

2. What am I consuming that I know is bad for me (ex./pop, candy, and other processed/packaged foods)?

3. What kind of foods make me feel good when I eat them?

4. What things do I enjoy making from scratch? What are the ingredients in those foods? Are they made from a lot of prepackaged things that I could be making myself (ex./cream soups, canned biscuits, packaged gravy, etc.)?

5. What kinds of fruits and vegetables do we eat most often- and where do they sit in either the dirty dozen or the clean fifteen lists? If they’re in the dirty dozen, start buying organic- one at a time, starting with the one you eat most often.

6. What can I be growing myself?

7. What could I be sourcing locally?

And as you make this list, break each individual piece down further:

Take, for example, those things you are eating that you know are bad for you. Maybe there are several things on that list. Pick one. Maybe it’s drinking pop- because, come on- we know pop is so not good for you. Can you go without it for a day? Can you go without it for a couple of days? And so on. Believe it or not, I used to be a Diet Coke freak. Something happened during my pregnancy with my middle child- the day he was born, I ordered a Diet Coke on my very first meal tray. I had never been a pop drinker. But after that, I couldn’t put it down. It took a couple of years of frustration and substitutions- from super syrupy fizzy drinks to cappuccino to everything in between. Until I discovered that what I was really actually craving was the carbonation. Which in turn led me to sparkling water every day to now the occasional one.

Sometimes these processes take a long time to see completion. You might not be able to give something up overnight. And that’s okay. It’s also okay if you don’t always stick to your own rules, too. I’ve bought a cheap steak here and there. I have a hard time resisting potato chips that my husband brings home. Don’t let these parameters become chains of guilt. We already have enough of those in life.

For those who would really like to start putting their thoughts into action today, I’m including some worksheets for you. Print them off, do a bit of journaling, and put these worksheets on your refrigerator where you can be reminded.

In closing, I just want to say that ones’ journey with food can be very personal, and while I may food snob at times, it’s not directed at those people who eat differently from me, but rather at the goings on behind the foods I’ve banned from my home. My own convictions have taken years to develop, and I still feel that I have so much further to go.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these thoughts today, and that you are excited to start on your own journey.

Until next time,

don’t be a snob, my friends.

Unless it’s about foods you believe in, of course.