Eating healthier as a family

Vegan. Vegetarian. Flexitarian. Organic. Locavore. No industrial beef. What’s a parent to do about feeding a family amid all the food lifestyles that are out there?

Valerie Showalter and Christine Burkholder, both of Harrisonburg, Va., tackle this topic as guests on the Shaping Families radio program this week. Showalter spent a year in Mennonite Voluntary Service in Albuquerque, N.M., where she says her understandings grew about hunger and world food shortages which led to her decision to first become flexitarian–someone who is mostly vegetarian but occasionally eats meat–and then vegan–someone who eats no animal byproducts.

Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market almost from its beginning. The Burkholders were led away from chemicals in their farming because of physical illness resulting from fertilizers, pesticides and fumes on a dairy farm.

Both women talk about how faith impacts their cooking and selecting of food, and they both appeared earlier in the Peace DVD curriculum for youth produced by Third Way Media. On Shaping Families, Rebecca Thatcher Murcia adds a “My Turn” reflection on helping teens who may become vegetarian out of an eating disorder.

The weekly 15-minute Shaping Families program, produced by Third Way Media on behalf of Mennonite Churches through Mennonite Mission Network, airs each weekend on 17 local stations and online at www.ShapingFamilies.com.