As you may remember, not too long ago I read a book called In Defense of Food, which rang true for me in many ways. Although I’m not quite ready to completely forgo all packaged food (yep, that was my kid with Ruffles on the beach yesterday), I have tried to bring more “real” food into our house since reading Michael Pollan’s book. Probably the biggest change I’ve made is that I focus more on the ingredient list than the nutrition label these days. It’s amazing what you find in your “food” if you stop and look!

That said, I recently read an article in the NY Times called, The 11 Best Foods You’re Not Eating, and I am definitely not eating the top three: beets, cabbage, and swiss chard. And sardines, which came in at #8, don’t often make my grocery list either. I mean, yuk! I don’t care how you dress them up, I’m probably not going to declare beets tasty anytime in the near future. And cabbage? No way. I know that these are VERY “real” foods, but I have my limits.

In fact, a surprising little tidbit about me is that until a few years ago (okay, fifteen or so), I didn’t like spinach, green beans, or cooked carrots. (Still don’t like cooked carrots.) Even more surprising, I think, is how narrow my food choices were. Hamburgers were definitely at the top of my favorites list (and I still like them), but I didn’t like Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Mediterranean or really any kind of ethnic food. Sad, isn’t it? Thankfully, I have come to embrace all sorts of delicious spices, but my kids–not so much. They’d rather have McDonald’s, thank-you-very-much. Double yuk.

But as I shop for my “real” food, avoiding Doritos as often as possible and choosing plain organic yogurt that the boys are sure to complain about, I’m left to wonder: how much do my food choices for them matter? If it took me 25 years to really enjoy variety in my food, isn’t there always hope for my brat-loving, sugar-craving kids?