Jo’s beautiful eight-year-old daughter Eva is the whole reason behind her shift towards an Additive-Free Lifestyle. We have so many questions from mums and dads around the country even the world, about what it’s like to live additive-free, we thought it was a great idea to interview Eva herself on living an additive and preservative lifestyle.  As you know, kids can be brutally honest and say the most unexpected things, so you know that what you hear in this interview is the straight truth. But there is a twist here… We get our listeners to ask all the questions!

What have some of the challenges been, in going additive-free?

Jo: Wait, you were just three-years-old when food changes started to happen in our household, so you weren’t exactly at an age where you would remember these. In saying that, you do remember eating lots of packet food don’t you?

Eva: Yeah, I miss my favourite rainbow coloured ice cream. But still have chocolate, vanilla or homemade mint ice cream so I don’t feel like I’m missing out too much.

What is your favourite meal that mum makes?

Eva: Nachos. Oh and lasagne, spaghetti, and chicken pasta.

Jo: When we go out for dinner we have chips, pizza or spaghetti. We pick a food that we know is made in the kitchen, not made in a factory, don’t we?

Eva: Yeah, back in Queensland I was invited to a McDonald’s party and all I was allowed to choose were the chips. Mum makes homemade chicken nuggets and puts them in a McDonald’s container!

What do you say to your friends when they ask ‘why do you eat the way you do?’

Jo: Actually I don’t think your lunchbox looks very different to other kids’ lunchboxes. Anyway, you take it away Eva?

Eva: Umm, sometimes people ask me but not often. People don’t ask me where all my junk food is.

Jo: What would you say if someone asked ‘why do you have a healthy lunchbox?’

Eva: Well I’d probably say, “well sorry, I have this lunch, you have that lunch”.

What’s your favourite meal for breakfast?

Eva: Um toasties and cereal. We don’t buy the bread anymore we make the bread, and the cereal is made out of cornflakes and granola.

Jo: So Eva’s not into smoothies, well spinach, and like what people would think of a real whole food diet, so you tend to stick to your cereal and milk don’t you?

Eva: mmhmm

Jo: And I just get a granola that has some nice, healthy linseeds and stuff, and it’s not your favourite so we mix half and half with cornflakes don’t we?

Eva: Sometimes I just have granola, or sometimes just cornflakes.

My three-year-old is sick of what we have, so I would love to hear what you like?

Eva: Umm, for lunch probably a sandwich or left-over food. You can put left-overs in a thermos to take to school. For snacks probably plain biscuits or apple, or cheese and biscuits.

Do you find it hard to eat additive-free?

Sometimes if I’m at a birthday party, but I always think if I have the better food I’ll stay good.

Jo: So what happens to your body when you have lots of food, that has colours in it and maybe MSG and you know, additives that aren’t good for you?

Eva: Naughty. Upset. Yelling. I don’t like the word NO. I get very emotional and in trouble a lot because I don’t make good choices. I get sick, like asthma, belly aches, and a cough.

Jo: If you’re at a birthday party and there’s all this yummy food on the table, is it better to just have a little bit or pig out?

Eva: Probably I’d grab the popcorn or some corn chips, or I would get a plate and choose what the healthy options are, and put it on the plate and that’s what I’m going to have. Sometimes if we know there are no plain chips we’ll bring them with us.

(Question for Jo) Can you recognise symptoms in Eva when she hasn’t eaten real additive-free?

I reckon I can, I can see that she gets emotional and has belly aches, you don’t sleep and sometimes you have nightmares, achy legs or jelly legs, all of that comes back to the food that she eats.

What food did you have at your birthday party?

Umm, I can’t remember. Umm, honey joys, homemade caramel popcorn, popcorn, lollies, birthday cake (of course) with pink icing, fruit, jelly, icy poles, fruit box popper, chips, savoury toast, and pinwheels. All additive-free.

Jo: And did anyone at your party even know that it was additive-free?

Eva: No, some girls didn’t like the icy poles, but that’s OK.

What would you say to another mummy who wants their child to start living additive-free?

Well, it’s probably their choice, but I think they should eat additive-free. You can still have packet food sometimes, but just not all the time.

What do you take when we go to the movies?

Probably Maltesers, chips, and popcorn sprinkled with ghee, veggie powder or butter.

 

(Eva turns a question to the Jo) When you eat bad stuff, do you feel like you’re just about to vomit?

Jo: I don’t feel like I’m ‘gonna vomit, but I do feel sick. I get a headache and get really sore legs, and get really bloated in my tummy.

(Jo) I have a question. Do we need to make everything from scratch? What about when we’re camping or we’re away, or when we travelled from QLD (to Tasmania)? Is it still possible to eat additive-free?

When we drove from QLD, we probably had a sandwich for breakfast, cornflakes, probably spaghetti for dinner and anything easy. We still ate additive-free, we just had to know what to buy and what not to buy.

Do you help mummy in the kitchen?

Mmmhmm, I’m a good cook.

Do you eat the birthday cake at parties?

Of course! I showed mummy a birthday cake I want for my next birthday, it had black, pink, light purple and green. If I went to a birthday party and saw that cake I would only have a tiny bit, or peel some of the icings off and eat just the inside of the cake. Mummy will make me an additive-free version.

What about when you go to dancing, and it’s 12pm on a Saturday what do we tend to do?

We probably go to the closest shop and get a roll of sushi. Hey, all this talk about food has got my belly hungry.

As you can see, it’s not really that hard to eat additive-free, and Eva agrees that she never really goes without that much food. Hopefully, Eva’s interview has cleared up some of your fear about going additive-free when you have kids.

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