For healthy families you have to follow a plan. For yourself you can make your diet up as you go along, but when you want a healthy family you must plan for everyone, taking into account the likes and dislikes of everyone.
Fresh Air
There is less fresh air in your home than beside a busy street, even if there are no smokers to make it worse. Bear in mind that kids lungs may be less tolerant than yours. Formaldehyde is an insidious poison that is in most home atmospheres. You can get rid of it by growing rubber plants (Ficus rubusta) and Peace Lily (Spathyphyllum) in your rooms. They are easy to grow (robusta means that they are robust) and isn't it worth a little effort to have a healthy familiy? If you are able to get a copy of B.C. Wolverton's book about How to Grow Fresh Air it would be well worth reading. Try your lending library.
Recent research has startled everyone. You probably believed that breathing dust mites is dangerous? Well, the research failed to show any effect whatsoever of dust mites, which is good because they are about impossible to get rid of.
Which Bacteria-Killing Cleanser is Best?
They are all bad for your health. It is now believed that the increasing number of children with allergies and asthma can be blamed on keeping the house spotless. The old wisdom said "You've got to eat a peck of dirt before you die." I don't know how much a peck is, and I don't particularly want to eat dirt (or die) but your kids immune system needs lots of practice to become really vicious.
You don't want the white cells in your kids blood to ignore bacteria because they are unfamiliar. You want white cells eager to gobble down millions of bacteria that they have enjoyed before. Buy vinegar and baking soda or chalk powder in bulk. Sprinkle the baking soda on your working top and spray it with vinegar, then wipe it off. Tests show that you will get everything just as clean, much more cheaply, without using commercial cleansers and killing the bacteria.
In one of the world wars more Americans died because they were unused to filthy conditions, than were killed by the enemy. Sterile conditions are for operating theaters, not for a healthy lifestyle.
Diets
A diet isn't necessarily for slimming. Your diet is just what you eat. It can be very unhealthy like a diet of Big Macs or have a wide variety of healthy nutrients. The important thing from the point of view of a healthy family is that the children will refuse to eat some foods, so you must find alternatives.
I like food with ginger, mustard, hot chili, horse radish, hot curry, garlic and I just love Cajun cooking. All of these make healthy meals, but what are the chances of all your children liking them all? That is where the art of substitution comes in. If your children don't like broccoli, try them on spinach, or brussel sprouts, or cabbage, or chinese cabbage, or weeds.
Healthy food should include plenty of potassium, found in bananas, but raisins or prunes will also give you lots of potassium. My feeling is that you shouldn't keep worrying about what each thing you eat is doing. The experts only understand a tiny fraction of what each nutritient does, so as long as each kid eats a wide variety of foods you should be fine.
Political Correctness Diets
Sorry, if your kids refuse to eat a particular food group (such as vegetables) you are going to have to force them. Our digestive systems were invented long before political correctness. Fasting is good for you, so if youngsters refuse to eat vegetables, let them do without food until the next meal then give them only vegetables until they have eaten them all. This approach to healthy families may be politically incorrect, but it is an excellent attitude to a healthy diet.
