The importance of maintaining a healthy nutritional diet cannot be overemphasized or stressed enough, and like most habits, good or bad, start at a very early age in the home.

I was fortunate coming up in a small Midwestern community at a time not long after World War II. There were nine of us including Mom and Dad. We were all dependent on the ability of my dad to provide and he was very good at it, so much so, that I didn't have a full realization that we were "poor" until much later in my life, and having to face the budget challenges of raising a family of five of my own.

What I learned from a small like minded community, my parents, grandparents and Aunties,that food is love and no one would go without as long as the community knew about it. It was common for folks to have a garden in their back yard and any surplus was always shared. Since there were so many of us, it seemed like we were always getting lots of corn, beans or tomatoes, even homemade jams and jellies.

Now it seems to me, that times have changed to where the things we took for granted then,have now somehow become a luxury.Through the commercialization,processing of foods,truth in labeling and FDA requirements,transportation costs, etc.prices keep going in an upward spiral.Most processed foods are devoid of nutrients,creating a need for supplements. "Healthy" fresh foods which are the best source of vitamins and minerals, have become so expensive and at such a premium that folks raising families or on fixed incomes have to make a major budget decision as to whether they can afford to be healthy.The bottom line is this.We can't afford not to develop a good nutritional base, because the price, later on down the road will be much higher than a week's worth of groceries.

As a citizen of this great nation and all that implies, those are not the kinds of decisions we should be grappling with.Those are the things our leaders/wannabes should be focused on. But some of them give me the distinct impression that they belong to the "Marie Antoinette" school of thinking.(Upon hearing that the people had no bread to eat,she allegedly said " Let them eat cake!")

Having said all that,the foundations of good nutrition haven't really changed. People need good clean drinking water, up to eight glasses a day. As a rule of thumb, the less processes the food is subjected to, the better! First choice is fresh, then frozen, then canned. Most people can do a combination of the three.

Here are some good food sources of antioxidants that your family may already enjoy. You can always rotate the selection and buy according to sales. Avoid waste when buying perishables, don't buy more than your family will eat.

Vitamin C is water soluble and probably our first line of defense but this powerful antioxidant cannot be stored in the body, so it's important to eat some regularly. Most of us know the best sources for this vitamin but I'll start with 1. citrus fruits 2. leafy green vegetables 3. strawberries 4. potatoes 5. broccoli 6. cabbage and green peppers

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