What Mom Had Right

I see a lot of food websites that claim to be “not your mother’s ______.” I get it. Perhaps our mothers didn’t cook with olive oil, or prepare fresh vegetables, or venture out from her weekly repertoire, or experiment with exotic spices. Sure, we can all relate to that. (No offense, mom.) This morning, as I was filling up the re-usable popsicle containers with organic yogurt, I got to thinking; what about all of those things my mother DID do that we may have underestimated at the time, or lost sight of, but now research is telling us that mom had it right. For example, my mother made her own popsicles. She was the Tupperware generation and so we always had apple juice, orange juice or yogurt popsicles in Tupperware popsicle- ware ready for snacking in the freezer. As an adult, I enjoyed buying pre-packaged popsicles until I had kids and started reading the ingredients. Sure, you can find all natural ones. But it’s much cheaper and less time consuming to read those labels to simply make them yourself. So when I fill up those popsicle containers, I think of my mother. She had it right.

What other things did she have right? I already posted an article about getting your nutrition from food rather than vitamin supplements. That is something my mother always told us. Now research is backing her up.

My mother insisted that every dinner was made up of a protein, a vegetable and a carbohydrate.

Breakfast and lunch were self-service at our house growing up but dinner was eaten together, as a family, every night.

My mother refused to accept the microwave. Although everyone had one, she insisted that there was something not right about the whole concept, and therefore unhealthy.

My mother bought frozen vegetables.  We now know that frozen vegetbles retain their vitamins almost as well as fresh ones.

My mother never trusted fresh fruit and vegetables that came from a large grocery store.  She always bought fruit and veggies from more locally-suppled markets. 

My mother bought fruit and vegetables that were on sale and therefore, in season.
Tell us what your mother had right all along.