One Snarky Chica with Issues

I did not grow up eating healthy. In fact, I grew up in the South here in the States and that means lots of fatty foods - and fried foods. On weekends my mom or dad would make these huge breakfasts. I am talking biscuits, gravy, pancakes, fried eggs, bacon and sausage and yummy fried potatoes. Note how there was no fruit served with this heart attack inducing meal. Not even juice - chocolate milk was the breakfast beverage in my house.

When there were vegetables as part of a meal, they were never prepared in a healthy way. For example, my mom puts a teaspoon of sugar in a pan of peas. Why?! It is a mystery to me.

As a result of growing up like this, I never tried broccoli until I was in college. Isn’t that a shame? I freaking love it.  And after reading today’s post on broccoli on the diet blog I am sure thankful that I eat it now. You see, broccoli is good for you for a whole host of reasons, one being that it can cut down your risk of cancers. (click the link to see the other benefits as listed by Diet Blog) And as someone that has a sickly bunch of relatives on both sides of my family, I need to be eating all the broccoli I can handle!

Fortunately for my arteries, I no longer eat the way that I was raised to, and the way that my parents still do. Whenever I ended up back at their home I try to get them to eat some veggies with their food. My dad will eat broccoli now - but only with a heaping spoonful of nacho cheese on it. (sigh) And yes, my mom still puts sugar in the peas.