We started just over a year ago on our capsules and chews. One of the main things I wanted to do was to help my children. They were very much like their dad. While we attempted to eat healthy, if given a choice (or with daddy) they would pick pizza rolls, pizza, mac n cheese, chicken nuggets and hot dogs.
We did not have a lot of variety in the house unless mom went shopping! Then we added things like pineapple, apples, green beans, brussel sprouts and well you get the picture.
So one day on Facebook a friend posted about the CHS (Children’s Health Study). I was at
my personal breaking point and I was fed up with arguing with the kids about what they would or would not eat. I reached out to her. Found out what was really involved. Walked away and prayed on it.
Was it worth paying for two adult portions to get two free kids duos for up to four years? It wasn’t really free. The company and the rep was actually paying for it so that the children could participate. So here I was, in this huge debate about if it was worth doing.
I complained on a regular basis that my children were not getting the nutrition they needed. They would take vitamins if I bought them, however it was a supplement. Plus no matter what I purchased for them, it had a warning label on it. That was a huge worry for me because my children love gummies and most vitamins come in gummy form or are like a candy. They overdose on that and I am in the ER with them.
Here was something that didn’t have a warning label on it. Here was a way to get them the nutrition they need from whole foods in the form of a gummy. They could overdose on it and I wouldn’t end up in the ER because of it. On top of all of that, for up to four years their product would be free.
What was I waiting for? Daddy to agree it was a good idea. Which he did, but it was more about me being at my breaking point than about the kiddos getting the nutrition they needed.
We are taught at such a young age that we need to eat good foods. We are what we eat. We 
hear it all to often, and yet most of us in this world don’t get what we need from the foods we eat. Even when we are making good and healthier choices, a good portion of us supplement what is lacking from vitamins. It sounds great at the time, but if you can take a product that is from food why wouldn’t you?
Our bodies were created to use food for nutrition and energy. Our bodies were not created to break down supplements to get the nutrition you need. If we were back when our grandparents or great-grandparents lived, if we were eating farm fresh foods, eating meats we had raised and processed ourselves, very little of these things would be needed.
In 1747 surgeon James Lind realized that something in citrus fruits could prevent scurvy. In 1912 biochemist Casimir Funk came up with the term “vit-amine”. He defined it as important substances in food that are vital for life – “vita” meaning life and “amine” from nitrogen compounds found in the thiamine (vitamin B-1). Finally in 1935 vitamin C became the first vitamin to be artificially synthesized by Dr. Tadeusz Reichstein.
The interesting thing about all of that is that as you read the history of supplements, all of these people realized that it was important for them to come from foods. They knew that and believed, “Ancient cultures understood the principle that a life force within the foods of nature could maintain human health and even restore it.”
Amazing that ancient cultures knew this, understood it, used it as best as they could and then all these doctors and scientists started to look for a way to get the important nutrition out of food and create a supplement with it. Why would they do that? Why wouldn’t they work on finding a way that would keep it the same, keep the nutritional value, keep it in a form that the body can fully use?
We did join the children’s health study. It has changed things in our house. It is a slow move but when your son turns down cupcakes and fruit drink at a school party and opts for cucumbers, carrots and water you know something is working! We still are not where I would like to be at but I am so much more confident in the nutrition they are getting now versus what they were getting before!
My family still makes unhealthy choices at times. I still get upset when daddy takes them to the gas station and they come home with a slushy. Still I am happy with the progress we have had with them. They are both eating more fruits and veggies. They are both making healthier choices, even when I am not standing right there. They are more willing to try new things and even sometimes they like it!
We do have a ways to go but change does not happen instantly. Change doesn’t happen
overnight. We are making small, simple changes and they do take time. I am really thankful that we have the option to improve our family’s health with real foods. We have made the choice not to use supplements if we have the option to have a nutrition label.
I could go and pick up carrots, beets, broccoli, tomatoes and try to force feed my kiddos. Instead right now we are choosing to participate in the CHS. We are choosing to pull open the pouch of orchard, garden and pull out 2 chews from each and have them eat those instead. I do not have to fight with them. I do not have to argue with them. I don’t even have to watch them, it just goes in the mouth, down the throat and I know they are getting whole food based nutrition!
We are blessed and truly thankful for this opportunity! If you would like to learn more about what is involved with the children’s health study please contact us!
know thanks to our woman’s Bible study! She found us one day when it was a bad day for her. I would have said a long time ago, she found us on accident but the truth is she found us just when she needed us. God lead her to us and for that we are very thankful!
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