Your First Assignment: Eat A Slice of Cherry Pie with a Cool Glass of Milk

If you can, take a moment this June to eat a slice of homemade cherry pie, drink a nice cold glass of milk, and sit in the summer sun. Better yet, have everyone in your family do it. And try to linger on each flake of crust, burst of sour cherry, warmth of sunlight, and, of course, feeling of sweetness that everyone is together.

That, my friends, can be the start of a new tradition, and a new attitude about food and family.

June, as you may know, is National Dairy Month. But, what do dairy products and healthful eating have to do with cherry pie and the sun?

Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough sum it up best in their new book, Real Food has Curves: How to Get Off Processed Food, Lose Weight, and Love What You Eat.

I’m going to start with their most attainable suggestion: love what you eat. I love cherry pie. Enough said. Well, ok, maybe you don’t love cherry pie. You can substitute apple pie, peach pie, or even chocolate brownies. But, here’s the key: use real butter, real eggs, real sugar, and real fruit or good chocolate. And, if your baking skills are as weak as mine—just buy a pie from a really good bakery that uses real butter, real eggs, real sugar and real fruit or good chocolate.

We’ve just covered the “love what you eat” and “get off processed food” part of this scenario, but how about the “lose weight” promise?

Bruce and Mark, who have written 15 cookbooks, and been longtime contributors to Weight Watchers.com say that when you use real ingredients, with real flavor and complexity, you will actually eat less because your body will feel satisfied sooner. Better a small slice of good pie than a huge portion of a tasteless “diet” imposter.

Now for the milk and sun.

Unless it takes you a very, very long time to eat a slice of pie, the ten minutes or so that you sit in the sun—without sunblock—will be just enough to give you the vitamin D synthesis you need. And, the glass of milk? That, along with a few other servings of dairy a day will give you the recommended amounts of vitamin D and calcium. This is National Dairy Month, after all, and Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency are of growing concern to health professionals.

What better example is there for your kids than to see you drinking the very milk you tell them they need?

JoAnn Hattner, a registered dietitian and specialist in vitamin D insufficiency prevention thinks milk and other dairy super foods deserve to be celebrated not only in the month of June, but throughout the year. Kids need these foods because it’s in our childhood that calcium is deposited in bones. And, adults benefit because Vitamin D, which most Americans get by drinking milk, has been linked to reducing Type I diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and colon cancer. Milk—unlike the absolutely delicious but otherwise unnecessary cherry pie— is a nutrient-rich food.

So, how exactly did I manage to work this amazing cherry pie into this scenario for healthful eating?

It goes back to Bruce and Mark’s book, Real Food Has Curves. In their mission to get readers to get off processed food, lose weight and love what they eat, they developed seven steps. And, the first three can help any family with kids regain some sanity and joy not only in their eating habits, but in their lifestyle.

First, they say, learn to taste. To do this, you must slow down. And, apparently, sit down. (As a mom of a toddler, I don’t actually do that very often.)

Second, make informed choices about what you are eating: is it real food, almost real, or not real? Just be honest, and try to move one category over. How reasonable. Instead of trying to be perfect, simply nudge yourself in the right direction. Slowly, and with a great amount of forgiveness to your imperfections, you’ll be making sustainable modifications.

Third: relish what you eat. Diets, they say, will fail. But, if you take your time and enjoy the shopping the cooking and the eating, you will take pleasure in the experience, and eat less.

So, let’s assume you’ve taken the dog for an extra long walk and avoided too many snacks throughout the week. It’s ok to devote the afternoon to family time and a little celebratory pie and milk in the sun.

Let it be a reminder of a simple, common sense approach that seems reminiscent of another era: to eat real food, with real taste, without any rush, and in moderation. It’s such an old fashioned idea, it’s almost new… all over again.

Thanks to Mamapedia and the California Milk Advisory Board for hosting a Webinar with the authors of Real Food Has Curves, and the Dietitian, Jo Ann Hattner. Although I am from the dairy state of Wisconsin, I have nothing against the cows in California.

Sarah Vander Schaaff is the mother of two little redheaded girls, a drama teacher, and a writer. She started the blog, Lunch Box Mom in an effort to save her sanity and her brain. She posts once a week about topics related to parenthood.

Editor’s Note: Sarah’s post is the first of two winning entries in celebration of June Dairy Month. This post was sponsored by the California Milk Advisory Board.

Add your thoughts and comments and you may be a lucky winner of a copy of Real Food Has Curves, courtesy of the authors.