Creating generational health

The transformational journey of Farm Member Heather Cramer has extended to her whole family. The Cliff’s Notes: incremental steps toward eating whole foods will result in huge healthy-eating strides, from parents to kids.

In the book Fiber Fueled on plant-based gut health, Heather learned about the nutrient density of microgreens. She started a Microgreens Subscription and then added a Farm Box* of seasonal veggies once springtime came around.

Heather has four children (15, 12, 10, & 8). On the topic of introducing whole foods to her family, she shared: "Changing how we eat all at once has never worked for us. Especially for our kids–they just stop eating." Instead, a more successful approach has been focusing on one new thing to introduce at a time–brown rice in place of white rice, for example. After serving it repeatedly, the healthier option becomes the new norm.

Another insight from Heather was how she helps her kids connect what they eat with how they feel. The more nutritious options naturally leave them feeling better, and drawing her children's attention to this fact helps them learn the "why" behind eating certain foods and not others. "We recently went on a cruise and it was interesting to see the kids’ food choices when they had so many different options. They tended to want to eat healthier foods," she said.

When asked why being a Farm Member is a priority for her family, Heather noted a fascinating science experiment she stumbled into. For insurance reasons, she & her husband had to get annual biometric screenings. At first, her results were confusing: even with a family that eats whole foods, her LDL ("bad cholesterol") was low, but oddly, so was her HDL ("good cholesterol"). The year she started eating veggies from a farm box, though, her numbers were "off the charts amazing," with HDL numbers up where they should be. This was consistent summer to summer.

Then one year, Heather took the screening in the wintertime; the Cramers were eating lots of the same vegetables but from the grocery store rather than local farms. In that screening, her HDL was back down, illustrating for her the striking difference between grocery store & farm-fresh produce. "The food [I was buying] at the grocery store [was] just not as nutritious... We were eating the same stuff."

The pay-off of Heather’s choices is striking, from seeing new habits in her kids to watching her own health improve dramatically. We're so grateful for Farm Members like Heather. Her story is a testament to the goodness of eating locally & seasonally as a family.