The Stay at Home Dad Blog

Being a healthy eater requires you to become both educated and smart about what healthy eating  actually is.  Being food smart isn’t about  learning to calculate grams or fat, or is it  about studying labels and counting calories.

Healthy eating is all about balanced and moderate eating, consisting of healthy meals at least  three times per day.  Healthy eaters eat many different types of foods, not limiting themselves to one specific food type or food group.

Eating healthy requires quite a bit of leeway.  You might eat too much or not enough, consume  foods that are sometimes more or less nutritious. However, you should always fuel your body and your brain regularly with enough food to keep  both your mind and body strong and alert.

A healthy eater is a good problem solver.  Healthy eaters have learned to take care of themselves and their eating with sound judgement and making wise decisions.  Healthy eaters are always aware of what they eat, and know the effect that it  will have on their bodies.

When someone is unable to take control of their eating, they are also likely to get out of control with other aspects of life as well.  They could
end up spending too much, talking too much, even going to bed later and later.

You should always remember that restricting food in any way is always a bad thing.  Healthy eating is a way of life, something that you can do to enhance your body or your lifestyle.  If you’ve thought about making your life better, healthy eating is just the place to start.  You’ll make
life easier for yourself, those around you, and  even your family.

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My son has Eczema and allergies. The Eczema was easy to diagnose early on. The allergies came on sudden one day. It was a scary moment, complete with vomiting, constant sneezing and coughing, and don’t forget the hives! The next day, I took my son to an allergist and discovered he was allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts. We never found out what triggered the reaction.

For parents that have children with allergies, it can be a pain going out to a restaurant. Many times, the server won’t know the ingredients in the food he’s serving. Increasingly, however, restaurants do have allergy information available to their patrons.

I know, locally, that my neighborhood Arby’s (Click here for Arby’s Allergen list) & Taco Bell (click here for Taco Bells’ allergen list) offer either ingredient sheets or allergy information to the customer who asks. I have been to a local Wendy’s that has a poster as you walk in that details allergy information.

Surprisingly, I talked to a Mcdonald’s employee, a manager and even the local regional corporate office and found that none of the three people I talked to could answer the question about allergy information being made available to the public.

I talked to four franchised sit-down restaurants that most Americans have heard of. Three of the four did not have readily available info on allergies. One of the few five star restaurants in my area did say that they had partial information on ingredients or allergies in their food. The woman insisted that the restaurant plans on a more complete list available shortly to their patrons.

My suggestion to the dad that takes an allergic kid to an unfamiliar restaurant is to just plan ahead. Call the restaurant  first and ask for the information and also check their website. If they can’t answer your questions and you still want to go, prepare the kid a meal before taking off.

Be mindful of cross contamination by yourself or another member of your party. Talk to the manager about the need for you to know this information and how having it makes the customer happy. Also, always be prepared for a reaction with Benadryl or an Epi-pen, regardless of where you are going.

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