I just finished reading, The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World, by Betsy Block. I wasn't sure if I'd like it or even connect with it, given food and cooking are not (yet) passions of mine and that my child is not even eating anything other than mush yet. I am, however, concerned about food safety and sustainability - although admittedly more about safety. Well, thanks to Betsy's amazing writing style and fabulous descriptions of the emotions around food and the details of family dynamics with food, I LOVED the book. She is passionate about food and very badly wants her family to eat more healthily and more variety, but understands that they may not be as passionate as she is, and comes to realize that's okay. Her family loves her and even the children do their best to humor her throughout the process. Her strong relationship with her husband, a hater of many foods, is refreshing. The picture she paints is not a perfect one, which makes the stories she tells that much more compelling.
In addition to all of this, I learned so much about food choices, including that I'm not crazy to think that the information out there about what's healthy and good to eat vs. what's not (e.g. types of fish) is confusing, complicated, and conflicting. Instead of throwing up her hands and giving up (like I am sometimes prone to do when it comes to making good food choices), Betsy trudges on and comes up with things like the Everymom's Middle-of-the-Road Fish List which I will actually reference when buying seafood from now on. No matter where you are on the spectrum of feeding yourself or your family, this is a fabulous book full of great information within even better stories about families, love, and the trials of every day life. Maybe some day, when HD is refusing to eat more than bread, and I can't figure out how to eat more green things (my palate is only slightly more adventurousness than Betsy's husband's), I'll even make one of her suggested recipes at the back of the book. Oh, and the title of this post, a quote from her friend in the book, applies, of course, to more than just food.
