Dr. Oz is venturing into the family kitchen and dinner table to address some of the important health issues with a change in food choices.

This is the most refreshing development that I have seen this season on Doctor Oz!

He and his family eat better than most Americans, but he still has a lot to learn about whole foods and food preparation. Give him time and he’ll do better…

The Doctor Oz Show and the 100 Item Grocery Shopping List

Dr. Oz went shopping with a mom and her brood to see how challenging this regular outing can be for one family that represents most people in this country. It was a ‘zoo’, instead of a shopping experience. If a mom is going to take her young children to the grocery store, she needs to maintain control and manage their behavior much better than this mother.

I would advise mothers or fathers to have one parent stay at home with the children while the other parent goes shopping. That parent can take one child and instruct that child in the ‘ways of the world’ with little interruption, interference, or stress. It’s the smart thing to do, instead of taking all four through the aisles in a spectacle of monumental proportions.

The 100 Foods that Doctor Oz wants you to shop for is a ‘compromise’ between the common unhealthy processed foods that families purchase at the store and the ideal ‘whole foods’ that will eventually lead to a truly authentic healthy Lifestyle. Dr. Oz cut his guest family a lot of slack, especially the spoiled young children who need more lessons in appreciation of even having food on their table when so many kids are starving or hungry in the world.

This 100 Food List should NOT be considered the ‘be all to end all’ List of foods and beverages to buy when you go shopping, but it is a place to start for those who have compromised the diet and the health of the next generation, because they are too busy or too unskilled to prepare healthy food in their kitchen to ensure that their family eats well.

One parent needs to have the skills to prepare health food and beverages in the home for the adults as well as the children. It’s better when the entire family gets involved in the kitchen and pitches in to prepare, eat, and clean up after each meal. I learned how to poach an egg, make scrambled eggs and bacon, make toast, butter toast, cook a pot of oatmeal, and whip up the batter for waffles and pancakes when I was young…from the age of 3 on up I spent time in the kitchen with my mother. Occasionally my father would demonstrate how to cook a steak, how to make tea, and how to do dishes…

The first memory that I have in the kitchen is when my mother asked me to hold the paperbag while she put in cinnamon, sugar, and the fresh Italian donuts she made herself. It was my job to shake them up, so the cinnamon sugar would coat the donut holes completely. I always got to eat the first one and that was my reward for all that hard work at age 3! I learned to prepare Italian food and American food from scratch as any woman from the ‘old country’ learned to do and it’s time for all parents to do this again.

That young son of the guest family on Dr. Oz and his sister needs to be humbled while they change their taste buds to include healthier food. The soy burger idea from Dr. Oz is realistic and we would recommend GardenBurgers to you which have the best texture and flavor of any that we have eaten. The poaching of enough chicken for the week is also a time saver and that mother could learn a lot from Rachael Ray on how to prepare 5 meals in one day for the rest of the week for her family for better time-management.

I cannot condone the canned tomatoes or the canned mushrooms (Rocco DeSpirito) as a healthy alternative to fresh produce. It’s more of an issue with time-management which can be arranged by both parents, so that one parent can slice the fresh tomatoes, prepare a salad, steam some fresh organic vegetables, and offer fresh organic fruit to their family for meals. Canned food is a great idea for Preparedness for emergencies and natural disasters, but while you still have fresh organic produce available or you can garden, that’s the only healthy choice.

Dr. Oz did make the points for organic dairy products. Organic milk, butter, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, and specialty cheeses like ricotta, parmesan, marscapone, and others are like ‘day’ and ‘night’ when compared to their counterparts that are poisoned with agricultural chemicals, synthetic growth hormones, pasteurization, unnecessary anti-biotics, and other toxins that are commonly used in the commercial agricultural industry. Regardless of price, you simply must use all organic ingredients and grass-fed, free-ranging meat and eggs. Anything less will still risk the health of the next generation!

Please, please, please do not swap out applesauce for oil in any baking recipe. Any recipe that calls for flour should not have any acid or sub-acid fruit combined within the mixture. It interferes with the needed digestive enzymes and impairs digestion. Use healthy oils like olive oil, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, and other healthy selections, but refuse to use canola oil!

These children need to eat fresh organic nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, snacks, and desserts, instead of pushing the preferable alternatives to chips, fries, and cereals. It’s important that you don’t cater to the bad habits of your children, but introduce them to real healthy solutions instead of making a compromise to avoid those ugly frowns and sulky faces. Dr. Oz had to plead and pray that those kids would say, “yes” to his alternative suggestions. In my house, the children were more than happy to eat the whole foods that were delicious, instead of going to bed hungry. Our family knew how to cook, so that the organic and natural foods all tasted great! It does, it can, and anyone that says it cannot is lazy and uninformed…

Even Rocco has a learning curve… His lower calorie, less fat Lasagna was less than ideal. It was passable, but not the probable dish that most women would prepare once a week for their families. It’s still too much cheese and where’s the whole grain? It would be better to roll some of the ricotta mixture in a slice of zucchini or eggplant, place some grated cheese on top of the rolls, bake them to melt the cheese and warm the interior of the rolls, an then top them off with an organic marinara sauce that includes roasted garlic. That would be a miracle meal for the health-conscious trying to improve the quality of their food with simple recipes!

Do NOT microwave your frozen whole grain brown rice! Do steam or boil the packet until defrosted and heated to the ideal temperature for serving. Whole grain dishes don’t take that long when you use a pressure cooker or plan your time in the kitchen. Rocco may be known for his brownies and his dinner parties, but he’s not the best model for parents or individuals who want to learn to make genuinely healthy food for themselves and their families. Dr. Oz needs to book better chefs and people who know how to prepare organic whole foods as the ‘cuisine of choice’.

There are people around the country that the Food Network staff is familiar with and can refer to the producers of Doctor Oz! You can find demonstrations of whole food preparation methods at your local Whole Foods Markets or comparable stores like the PPC Coops in our area. You can even hire a professional chef to train you to prepare a few new recipes, instead of compromising and only going half-way to healthy!

For parents who want to expose their children to the ‘whole foods’ movement in America: just take your children shopping at your local Whole Foods Market. There are aisles upon aisles of healthy options and alternatives that taste much better than the old choices you must stop eating. There are taste tests by the manufacturers offered during the day in most stores. The Deli in these stores also allow you to taste a dish before you purchase some. Let your children sample this healthy food and you’ll find them saying, “YES” to these amazing new whole foods. You’ll be a better parent and you will save money in other areas of your health care budget. The kids will be well-behaved and happier! You’ll be smiling all the way to the store, too.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2011 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.