Flashback…….to the 1960’s: While the day of home delivery of milk had past, home delivery of pop was thriving. It was a day of celebration when the Brio truck would drop off a case of pop at my Nona’s. Pop was a treat; a “once in a while beverage”, rather than a daily consumption that has taken over the twentieth century.

Summers were particularly enjoyable growing up in the 1960’s. Along with making tents to camp out in with lawn chairs, blankets and clothes pegs there were chilled fruity jugs full of Kool-Aid.

In between those childhood and starting a family years, I spent 8 years as a competitive bodybuilder. Here I learned and practiced food as a source of fuel for athletics. I saw directly how good nutrition fueled a workout, a mental attitude and focus.

Moving forward to the arrival of my own offspring……I thought I was doing everything to keep my kids their healthiest. I use to think as well that my kids don’t eat a lot; their busy kids, active kids, growing kids. Aren’t all kids grazers? Eating around the clock.

In wanting to connect my kids to the same sort of nostalgic memories of my summers, ginger ale and Kool-Aid were always chilling in the fridge. Our pantry looked quite a bit different 15 years ago that it does now. My kids laugh at the thought of what was regularly in their lunches. Those little packages with the cracker and “cheese”-like dip or worse “chocolate”-like dip, yep. Along with a little bit of education and taking a step back and observing WHAT my kids were eating did I realize that food (and drink) is different now.

The constant grazing was the spiking and crashing of blood sugar. Perhaps even some mild scholastic challenges in those early years can be attributed to poor choices in nutrition.

Hence, my journey, my families journey…….Koolaid to Kale.

I KNOW your kids mean the world to you. Are you doing everything you can to keep them healthy? Tune in to The Dr. Mehmet Oz Show on Tuesday March 25^th, 2015 to find out.