A few weeks ago I posted about the various harmful dyes and additives to many of our processed foods here in the U.S.
Since then I’ve read and researched further. Initially when I read about the chemicals and dyes, my first step was to get rid of all the junk food and sugary, processed foods in our pantry. I am ashamed to admit we had more junk food than I realized! 
My teenage sons were not happy about the loss of their favorite junk foods and soda. To help them along with adjusting to a healthier lifestyle and to avoid an outright riot ease them into the upcoming changes, I made a plan to take smaller steps to reach our overall goal of eating and living healthier.
Step two was time to clean our household pantry of all foods that contained questionable or harmful additives. My husband and I were shocked at how many of the products that we had in our pantry contained harmful dyes and high fructose corn syrup!
Why in the world would bottled Worcestershire sauce need high fructose corn syrup? That mercury laden substance (HFCS) is in 90-95% (if not more) of all of the processed foods!
We ended up reducing our pantry goods to less than 1/3rd it’s original size!
While I don’t do extreme couponing, I do coupon and have for years. It has helped me fill my pantry and freezers with at least a 4-6 month supply.
Keeping our pantry/freezer that full has saved our family several times when life has surprised us with unexpected events. It also has allowed us to help family, friends and our community when they’ve hit hard times too.
The pantry items are rotated with each shopping trip and about every 3-4 months I go through and donate items to local centers so nothing really goes to waste. I have to admit I’m very nervous about having a such a small stock pantry right now!
The next steps …
1. Rebuilding our pantry supply with healthier items. I am looking into how to use couponing to help rebuild our stock supply using healthier and organic items. I’ve never done that before but there has to be a way!
2. Staying home for meals and not going out to eat as often. Keeping healthy homemade snacks on hand as well as more fresh fruit and vegetables.
3. Growing a small garden and learning how to put up our produce by both water canning and pressure canning.
4. Spend less time in front of the TV and computer and get outside!
All I’ve read and learned so far leads me to believe that homemade is the healthiest way for our family to go. I’m not sure where I’ll find the time to create everything from scratch but I am committed to making this work.
It’s going to take some time to change the way we are living and each small step is part of the path to reaching our goals. Some of those changes will be harder (much harder) than others but those changes will result in a happier, healthier and better way of living.
