My Mother was the original healthy eating advocate (probably not really the first) back in the '50s. Soft drinks were rarely in the house, rarely as in she might by a 6 pack of Dr Pepper once a year and since I didn't and still don't like Dr Pepper I never drank any of it. Candy, snack food, junk food etc were never in the house. We all love veggies of almost any sort so we ate lots of them, a salad every night with oil and vinegar or oil and lemon juice dressing. All meats were baked or broiled or boiled, never fried. She did bake a cake or a pie or some brownies occasionally but not all that often. We ate very little bread, not a lot of cheese ( I had never even seen mac and cheese until I moved out, which probably explains why I don't like it), some potatos, usually baked or mashed, with very little butter and the liquid to mash them was usually the water they were cooked in with just a smidge of milk. I never developed a sugar addiction and to this day I get tired of sweets very easily. I never thought I was missing anything so I never felt deprived in any way. Looking back now I'm really really glad I got a good start. Of course then I got out in the real world and discovered most people thought I was nuts and refused to live on that diet and to this day DH and I battle. I feed him a healthy meal and he's immediately looking for junk food for dessert, even with the diabetes.
