While cleaning or doing the dishes is the time my mind starts racing. If I were a biologist, I would think of a cure for cancer while getting dishpan hands. Wait, is that the right reference? Would it be a biologist to discover the cure? Whatever. Even if it's the wrong profession, it would still happen. That is how amazing my mind is during that time.
Tonight, I started getting upset about how it is assumed that because it's on the shelves of a store it must be good. People seem to forget that baby food in jars is a very new idea. The masses don't seem to question it. Ironically enough, consumers first discouraged and stayed away from commercialized baby food. The market had to become very aggressive in their advertising.
What amazes me the most is that those who are the poorest in this country are the first to pick up their WIC check, or whatever assistance each state offers for women and infants, and spend it on formula. I firmly believe that they could help their children by nursing their babies. Imagine the amount of doctors visits that would be cut because they had healthier babies? (I should stop here and say that I have absolutely no physical proof of this. It's just me ranting...) If we encouraged women to nurse instead of handing them a check each week or month, imagine the money our government would save! Educate these women. Educate them regarding breastfeeding versus formula. Educate them that it's actually cheaper to make baby food at home than it is to buy it. Educate them on how to cook their own meals from scratch rather than buying prepackaged foods. Their health and the health of their children would be greatly impacted. Their health and our fiscal budget! I have to throw in money somewhere in order to grab the attention of those fiscal conservatives, you know.
While researching this, I came across the site The-F-Word.org. How amazing! This blog has an entry entitled Reader Challenge: Healthy meals on a food stamp budget. Perfect. I'm going to take this challenge, even though it's over a year old.
If interested, there is another site by the Hillbilly Housewife that manages to create a weekly menu for $45 a week. I can't imagine. I spend at least three times that a week.
This is very interesting and challenging. Stay tuned...
No comments:
Post a Comment