How to Get Your Husband on Board WIth Healthy Eating

A lot of times we wives and mothers give up on feeding our families healthy meals because we think, "Oh, my husband would never eat that!" Men have traditionally been stereotyped as not caring about their health, but the real food community is full of guys that have decided to give priority to healthy eating. You may find, that if you use this approach, your husband will be a willing convert to real food meals:

1. Come to an agreement on your health goals. If you are a real food purist but your husband only wants to cut back on junk food, you might have a few disagreements. The best thing to do is to sit down and discuss honestly what kind of goals you have for your health and that of your children. Share why you think real food is important and ask him what changes he is willing to make and what he is outright opposed to changing.

2. Be honest with him. Do not try to sneak things into your husband's food. While this may be a good way to get your kids to eat some veggies, your husband will not appreciate being treated like one of the kids. Instead you may say something like, "I'd like to cook a new vegetable tonight. Would you mind giving it a try and letting me know what you think?"

3. Make small changes. I know I've said this already, but it is especially important when husbands are involved. For example, if your husband grew up on Wonder bread, he's not going to switch to 100% homemade whole wheat overnight. You might try switching to 100% whole wheat bread in the brand he already eats, then gradually add more whole grain flour to your homemade bread dough.

4. Realize that he might not have the same passion as you do. While my husband listens good-naturedly to my raves about the health food store and my recent findings on the additives in cereal, he does not go out of his way to research it himself. He also has some lines he's not willing to cross and some foods he will never give up. Food is a way to nourish a family and a family is all about individuals coming together...not one person making everyone else conform to his or her way.

5. Be patient. If a recipe doesn't work out or if your husband turns up his nose at a new food you fix, don't get discouraged. Just tweak it later on and move on to something else in the meantime.
You may be surprised what will happen. My husband now prefers dark greens to iceberg lettuce and roasted vegetables to slimy, canned ones. On a recent busy week when I didn't have time to cook our regular, healthy foods; he told me, "I can't wait to get back to the meals you've been fixing." That's what I call progress!