Growing up, my mom always managed to get a homemade meal on the dinner table while working full-time outside of the house.  Now that I’m in that position, I can really appreciate her hard work and efforts because I know that it’s hard. Some days it seems impossibly hard.

When my kids were younger, and we didn’t have the variety of food issues that we face today, we often relied on the convenience of processed foods. The foods we find in the middle of the grocery store – boxes, cans, frozen meals to “nuke” in the microwave (who thought that was a good way to talk about food preparation?). They helped us get something resembling a dinner on the table at a decent time after work.

Until we started to notice things that didn’t seem right. 
The kids were frequently sick (more than friends their age). They would often get out-of-control hyper after certain foods – like the bright orange mac n’ cheese stuff.
 There were other, less noticeable things too.

But then one day I watched (in horror) my son spinning, flapping, jumping & almost convulsing right in front of me. When we repeatedly asked him to stop, he kept telling us that he couldn’t. Over and over. Until, with tears running down his cheek, he asked for my help. As I held him tightly in my arms to answer his plea, I knew something was very wrong.

Enjoying naturally delicious hot cocoa

Later we learned that he had drank what appeared to be a healthy sports drink earlier that day. It was a clear drink that we picked up at our local recreation center but still contained artificial food coloring, along with high fructose corn syrup(HFCS) and other artificial additives. While he had negative experiences before with HFCS, nothing was this extreme. And it was a clear beverage!

His various doctors aren’t sure what triggered the reaction but they all told us that many children respond negatively to artificial additives and overly processed foods. Most children consume these ingredients so frequently, that parents just don’t recognize the signs any more. Their hyperactive state has just become the expected, the norm.

But they are there. The thing about high fructose corn syrup is that, like many things, in small quantities isn’t horrible, but can be concerning in larger doses, especially for young children. And since HFCS is everywhere (juice, bread, snacks, sodas, etc.) it makes it hard to avoid in our daily diet. And the more we consume, the more long-term impact
 it has on our health.

This kid is a superhero in my book

How do we avoid it? Let me tell you that it is not easy, but possible (and totally worth every effort!). In our home, we simply don’t buy food with high fructose corn syrup. Since we eat mostly fresh foods and do a lot of scratch-cooking, meals at home are the easiest. Given my son’s dairy sensitivity, we make lunches for him and our daughter to take to school so I know what’s in their lunches as well.

But outside of the meals we make at home, it’s frustratingly difficult. Restaurants serve
 condiments like ketchup with HFCS and I really don’t know what else on their menu uses the sweet preservative. At school or events, there’s always the temptation of a fruit roll-up, yogurt or other tasty treat most likely containing food dye. In these situations, we do our best to be prepared with snacks of our own.

We still enjoy smores, with food-dye free marshmallows

My daughter thought she was making a good choice recently by choosing a cupcake at school with white frosting. I didn’t want to break her heart to tell her that the white frosting has just as much artificial food dye as the Smurf blue frosting.

My son is old enough to remember his reactions and doesn’t want to feel that way again 
so he knows to politely decline or read labels. If there’s any ingredient he doesn’t recognize, or one that he knows is forbidden, he won’t eat it.Yes, he’s only 6 years old. That’s how memorable and horrible his reaction was.

Although I know that avoiding high fructose corn syrup and other artificial food additives is the very best for my children, there are trade offs. The disappointment of a child who can’t enjoy cotton candy at the fair, a hot dog at the ball park, the same snack as his baseball team or a popsicle at a friend’s house. I often reflect on these memories from my 
own childhood and how different his memories will be.

I hope that our berry picking adventures, homemade ice cream, cookouts with friends, and visits to the farmer’s market will be the cherished food memories of his childhood that he looks back on fondly someday.

These will be their childhood food memories

*Photos in this article are all property of Gina Rau