What is “normal” food?

My husband and I want our children to have a new standard around food. That a meal should not revolve around pasta and rice, for example. By simply removing it we needed to eat more vegetables, which the kids do too. It has become normal. However, the problem lies outside our home. We have come so far that the boys who today are 18 and soon 11 year old choose to eat as nutritious as possible. They know everything about cause and consequence and it's nice to see how uninteresting pasta and bread becomes when you know how bad it makes you feel.

We have one day a month when we "eat like people". We do this to shake things up and not least to remind ourselves of how it feels. In addition, it is the day we can refer to when we talk about things that come up along the way. It can be anything from hot dogs to cake. This day of the month can look like this: sandwiches for breakfast, pasta for lunch and last time when it was meat loaf with potatoes and lingonberry jam. Everyone is swollen, dizzy, tired and besides, we start arguing shortly after breakfast (it´s a fact) because we all have such bad temper already there. Of course we quarrel otherwise too but not in the same way and in normal cases we have more surplus to these discussions.

The guys know and Doris knows. The guys can get further out in life and make their choices and at the same time know how to do to feel the best in body and soul. Doris can know as much as she wants but will be very reliant on the good will of others and the norm that is in society.

And what is the norm then? I think the norm is swedish sausage (25%) and mashed potatoes (50%) with a little cucumber, tomato wedges and ketchup for the rest. That it would be a plate that would actually be considered normal. Breakfast may consist of a sandwich at best with liver pate and cucumber and maybe a glass of juice. Coffee is good and we want it. The cinnamon bun slips down and soon it's time for dinner. Two cooked meals a day is great but it should be a slightly easier meal so then we can maybe pick out that once heated old pasta from yesterday and a delicious so-called pasta salad. 85% pasta and the rest vegetables and tuna.

This would be perfectly ok by the norm, but for Doris it would be crap. She would lose in everything. Cognitive function, bowel function would cease, skin would regain eczema and blisters, she would swell up and fatigue would take over completely. Her future may be in a group home where the food is governed by the norm (yes, I know that it is the National Food Administration's recommendations you follow and lean towards, but I really do not give much for them, because it is not something that is adapted to today's portions and finished products) and there we have the problem. This is why I write about food. I want us to help each other and our children to focus on nutrition and good food and to focus on what is necessary and on what we actually do not need at all.