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Suzysu... yes, Food Inc is a documentary film. I imagine so is King corn.

By the time my husband and I finished watching the film, we were ready to swear off anything we couldn't grow in our garden! And, we don't even have a (veggie) garden! :lol:

Just out of curiosity, how do you go about finding an organic farmer, butcher, etc.? I seriously would start purchasing my meats, produce from an organic farm but I'm not sure how to find a legitimate one and how do I know that, even if the food really is organic, that they meet appropriate hygiene/cleanliness processes? David, do you have any advice??
 
What you've described about watching the documentaries is how I feel sometimes when I read the main diet forum here. :(
 
My suggestion would be to go to farmer's markets and find local, organic producers there. Then ask to tour their farm and do so.
 
Maree. said:
What you've described about watching the documentaries is how I feel sometimes when I read the main diet forum here. :(
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Really, why? I haven't spent any time there. I do feel frustrated at times when I speak to dieticians who want my daughter to eat nasty processed foods to "fatten her up". Learn what is healthy food, and I might be able to hear you better. KWIM?
 
I continually trip over things that make me question my assumptions about what is healthy. It really is a maze.

Saw some recent posts about grains (particularly wheat), that talked about how much they've been altered over the last 60 years by selective breeding. That suggested that even if there organic modern varieties might not be particularly suitable for human consumption.

I've swapped and reduced Liam's breakfast cereal intake but just can't picture him coping with out bread which is definitely his favorite food. I've found I can buy spelt based breakfast cereal(a medieval wheat variety that's easier to digest) but can't find heritage grain flours here.

I think my hunt for alternative flours is going to have to wait until July when we head to Georgia, in the Caucasus there is a lot of ancient grains grown and products made from these are available in regional markets and supermarkets. As there are no restrictions on importation of food here I plan to buy up several kilograms of flour and other grains products to experiment with. We love Georgia and it has the most wonderful tasting bread, but I'd not realised until I investigated heritage grains that it's because the wheat used is so different.
 
Sounds great, Maree. I didn't know you were moving back in July. Tell me if you find locating heritage wheat any easier to find when you actually get back.
 
Home for us is Australia, and we try to visit each year but I don't see my husband finding work back there anytime soon. We've been away for half Liam's life.

Georgia, is a small country in the Caucasus - former Soviet Republic (only a couple of hours flight from us). It's part of the area where wheat grew wild and was first domesticated.

Georgia is extremely poor, but has beautiful scenery, lovely people and gorgeous food, one of our favorite places. We are taking my uncle and aunt there for a week in July at the end of a tour there doing through eastern europe. So I'll take the opportunity to try and find a good source of Einkorn wheat flour given it turns out it's one of the main places it's grown.
 
Maree. said:
Georgia, is a small country in the Caucasus - former Soviet Republic (only a couple of hours flight from us). It's part of the area where wheat grew wild and was first domesticated.

Georgia is extremely poor, but has beautiful scenery, lovely people and gorgeous food, one of our favorite places. We are taking my uncle and aunt there for a week in July at the end of a tour there doing through eastern europe.
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Take me! Take me! We can call it a fresh air fund trip...you know...where they take the nasty city people and expose them to the beautiful countryside...ask FW...I am a nasty city girl and in desperately need of such a trip.
 
You'd love it at immigration they give your passport a cursory glance, stamp it then say welcome to Georgia and hand you a bottle of wine.
 
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Having tried every health food shop in town, popped into the local supermarket today and they had spelt wheat flour. Last place I would have thought to look, I often go there to pick up a few things as it's just around the corner but not to do a full shop as it's really little and has limited range.

So tomorrow I'm going to make a sour dough starter, then on Saturday morning I'll bake my first set of spelt loaves, to use for the kids sandwiches this week (school week here starts Sunday).

A friend has offerred to lend me a bread maker and if I decide to make all my own bread I'll probably try that, as although I really enjoy making bread by hand it's a bit time consuming to do all the time.
 
Maree. said:
Home for us is Australia, and we try to visit each year but I don't see my husband finding work back there anytime soon. We've been away for half Liam's life.

Georgia, is a small country in the Caucasus - former Soviet Republic (only a couple of hours flight from us). It's part of the area where wheat grew wild and was first domesticated.

Georgia is extremely poor, but has beautiful scenery, lovely people and gorgeous food, one of our favorite places. We are taking my uncle and aunt there for a week in July at the end of a tour there doing through eastern europe. So I'll take the opportunity to try and find a good source of Einkorn wheat flour given it turns out it's one of the main places it's grown.
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Boy! I was sure confused. I thought you were moving back to the state Georgia in the US! Thanks for the clarification. That is really cool you are going to the country Georgia and that you'll likely have access to the good wheat! Will you be able to get it home in ample supplies? So, you'll stay where you are long-term or are you planning a more permanent move? Just trying to get it straight in my head :).
 
There are 4 of us. On the outbound flight we'll have 3 cases of less than ~20 kg each. Then coming back we can get upto 40kg per person in checked baggage. 20kg cost $13 per person 40kg cost $40 per person. I think I'll buy a cheap 4th bag while we are there and pay for an extra bag for purchases.

We are total nomads we go where ever my husbands current job is. We had 2 years in Saudi Arabia and now 3 in Emirates. Would love to go to Sth East Asia (our long term goal but job market there is soft at present.) So think at the moment another year here looks likely.

My husband does IT consulting and is away 80 - 90 % of the time which I find hugely frustrating. He's basically based here because there is a lot of work in the Middle East and Dubai has a super connector airport. Next week he is in Saudia Arabia then 3 weeks in Ghana. Home for a week to handle visa renewals then 3 weeks in Saudi followed by a month in Lebanon. With projects in London & Oman also on the cards for the next 6 months. The boys and I struggle to keep up with his travel plans.

This summer where planning to travel with him as much as we can as he's been away so much this year that I think boys need to spend more time with him around.
 
Maree: I grew up with a dad who travelled the same but when he was home (which was rare) he was 100% home and present with us kids (no computers back then). We also travelled all summer with him and the adventures we had and the exposure to his business (he was in sports and news trelevision) was invaluable.

My hubby also travelled quite a lot when my kids were young. It was hard but I have to say the hardest part was living alone with the kids, I got into a routine, set all the rules etc. Then he would come home and muck it all up! Had his own idea of the rules, screwed up our schedule etc. He quickly got the hint that though.
 
Mobile phones are awful. Particularly with global teams there is no such thing as a weekend or out of hours. In this region Saudi Arabia & Oman have Thurs/Fri weekends. Here our weekend is Fri & Sat and in most of the rest of the world its Sat/Sun. He has collegues and customers working every day of the week who ring with questions of looking for advice. Then add time zones, Pete's supervisor is in London and work hours there run until about 11pm our time and his line manager somewhere in the US so team calls are always late night.

This is why when planning family holidays I actively seek out remote destinations with no mobile signal.

Totally agree about the disruption part. Life here with the boys tends to be really busy but we get into the swing of our routine and then things go haywire when we've got an extra person to incorporate into our schedule.
 
I love Australia, Melbourne our home town is still our favorite city anywhere. But I also love to travel and explore new locations.

Dubai is 90% expatriate and the expatriate community is very diverse. It's a travel and trade hub. The groups I'm most involved with is my school community, which I really enjoy because it's really diverse. Some nationalities have their own schools. My boys are in an IB school (International Bacclaluret school). It has 1660 kids from over 100 nationalities and it's very unusual to have more than 2 or 3 kids of the same nationality in a class. French and Russian are the two languages most commonly spoken at home, followed by Arabic and English I'm on the PTA and run the support programs for non english speaking parents which means I have contact with a range of fascinating people from a vary diverse set of places.
 
I think so too, I can see they are going to struggle when they finally have to return home for university but I hope in they'll take with them fantastic memories of our travels and the friends they've made and that in the long term these will be experiences that they benefit from.
 
They will be much better for it in the long-run. But I agree, that they'll struggle trying to fit in - they won't be able to relate to everything... Our kids were sheltered for about 4.5 years on a missionary base in Colorado where there weren't many other kids. They really struggled when they moved here, my oldest two especially, trying to assimilate back to the normal American culture. I guess we've deviated from topic!
 
We definitely have, shocking. Carolin I'm going to blame you for that detor (despite the fact that I contributed heavily). Now you need to come with some pearls of wisdom on the topic as penance
 
I don't have any pearls right now as my daughter can't eat anything except broth and sweet potatoes so far! (crying alligator tears! I'm so bad!)
 
Damn guess I'll have to try to come up with something on topic.

Liam needs to gain weight, his BMI Percentile 4 (BMI 14.3) although not shocking compared to many kids here. It has been dropping all year and I really don't want to see it go any lower, so have decided it's time to take action & that I'll start adding Ensure to his diet.

I picked up a tin of the powdered Ensure, they had the ready mix too but that had Carrageenan in it which I've read worrying things about on the forum.

My usual smoothy recipe is:
1/2 cup fruit juice (low acid fruits)
1/2 cup yoghurt
1 bannana
1 cup frozen fruit.

I found if I replace the yoghurt & the banana with 1 serve worth of the Ensure powder I get a smoothy with a similar texture.

This afternoons smoothy was:
56g Ensure powder (1 serve)
1/2 cup Mango/Banana/Apple Juice
1 cup frozen Boysenberries

With the Ensure I'm using Mango/Banana/Apple Juice & Strawberry/Banana/Apple Juice as my bases as they have nice strong flavors which means the Ensure after taste is somewhat hidden. (Also because there GERD friendly and Liam has an acid reflux issue.)
 
Nor in mine but it's in the premixed Ensure (the ready to drink ones) which was why I bought the powder.
 
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I never knew they made a powder!!! Is it sold OTC or do you have to get it from medical supply companies. I am thinking I may be slipping some into O's smoothies...although after a week of stuffing her full of food she looks like she may have gained a few...going to doc tomorrow so fingers crossed she has moved into 5th percentile!
 
It's OTC here and I suspect everywhere as the label doesn't say it has to be taken under medical supervision.

I haven't mentioned to Liam that i've been adding it to is smoothies and he hasn't noticed. I can smell it but that's because I know it's there.
 
I used to sneak veggies into my kids food all the time. Even though we raised them as vegetarians, they wanted to be bread-atarians. Especially my youngest. Before he got sick he was trying to live off pb&js, spaghetti and bean burritos.
 
Does anyone else's child lay the flattery about how fantastic the food is really thick before leaving their meal barely touched.

Tonight Liam said "mum this is brilliant" and as soon as he said it I knew he was going to eat badly.
 
LMAO! That kid is smart! If he says he doesn't like it you will fight...try it...eat a little...but if he says it tastes good then doesn't eat it you will be all, "oh no, he likes it so he must be feeling poorly" and will leave him alone. Don't let him talk to my kids.

Unless he is feeling poorly:confused2: Or just ate right before:ymad:
 
My kids always told me exactly what they thought of my meals. Often, before they even tasted them!

One thing I learned early on was to ONLY put the salad on the table at first, when everyone is really hungry. And we have salad most nights. Another thing I did was chop up fruits and veggies for them when they were mindlessly engrossed in t.v. and low and behold, the plate would soon be empty. And giving them one plate seemed to bring out sort of a competition, like a pack of wild dogs. ;) I remember it took them about 5 minutes to make an entire cantaloupe disappear.
 
Dear everyone...I did not come here for a long time, almost a year... after suffering almost a year with Crohn's disease, my dd finally has been taking her food intake seriously. Now, believe it or not, it has been weeks, she has no symptoms of Crohn's disease. Her blood report is perfect. She just stop eating all junks, and process foods, all sugary and diary products, and soft drinks. She is eating home made healthy Desi food, spices including. Lots of fruits and vegetables. And purify water. No store made drinks. She is taking black seeds oil one table spoon two times a day. Now, by the mercy of God, she has solid poop, no blood, no pain. Today she had an appointment with her dietitian . The dietitian was amazed with her diet's result. Now, for the future we are hoping for the best. If this diet works, then the conclusion is: sugar and dairy products is responsible for her flair. God knows the best :)
 
Well, we are just learning what foods our son can tolerate while they try to get the right meds for him.
This is one thing I have found...with Pediasure if I add two ice cubes and two tbsp of peanut butter, he can drink it down! Otherwise he says it is "too sweet". He is up to being able to drink 2 a day and GI says a good goal is 4-5 a day - they are expensive though.
Also, made some gingerbread men yesterday and he can eat those. Did a study on ginger on webmd and found that ginger actually has anti-inflammatory medicinal properties especially in the intestines, and is good for nausea. That is when I remembered all those ginger snaps I ate when pregnant and having morning sickness. This is all I know so far....I like reading the posts here. It makes me feel like we are not alone in this :)
 
Your GI can write a script and submit it to your insurance companies durable medical equipment provider with a letter of medical necessity
The pedisure can then be covered at least partially
Ds is peptamen jr covered
Good luck
 

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