Alison Carter shares food, family connections

“Eating better, I think logically, is just choosing food that really fuels your body in the best way for you, and that's not the same for everyone,” Alison Carter said.  

October is National Eat Better, Eat Together Month, which encourages families to make healthier choices and share more meals together. We are featuring Alison Carter, author of “My New Normal: Learning to Thrive with Chronic Illness.” Carter shares how food has helped shape who she is today. She is a wife, mother, blogger, mentor and speaker who has learned to confront and manage her chronic illness. Carter says food is a key aspect of managing her illness and that she eats better by actively choosing foods that work with her body rather than against it.  

“I was really used to cooking a certain way with certain ingredients,” she said. “Suddenly, I found myself in the kitchen thinking there are things that just really do not do well for me.”  

Carter says she loves food and experimenting with it, but she did not discover that love until she was truly tasked with providing for herself and her own family. Though only her youngest child still lives at home, Carter’s family of six loves to share meals together when possible. Sharing meals is something Carter credits having learned from her grandmother.  

“You know, I think when I think back to history of food for myself, really I think of my grandmother,” Carter said. “I think she was a really strong influence. She was the woman who always made the home cooked meals- the home baked goods- and always made sure the family was gathered around the table with something very delicious.”  

Despite hectic family schedules, Carter said eating together was always a goal for her own family.  

“I will be honest there are seasons of life that that was just harder than other times, and we were just okay with that,” she said. “I can still say, even in those seasons, I don't think we ever went a full week where we didn't come together at some point. … We gave ourselves grace if it didn't happen every single day, but it still remained the goal.”  

After Carter’s diagnosis, sharing meals as a family was still a goal. She had to adapt her cooking and learn to cook with new ingredients. Carter has a connective tissue disorder, that becomes very painful with inflammation. She quickly learned what foods to limit or eat less often.  

“I had to get in the kitchen and then find out what can I eat that is still emotionally fulfilling for me but still good for my own body and fuel me in the right way, so I won't have consequences later,” she said. “It took me awhile. There was a lot of trial and error to figure that out.”  

Despite her recipes changing, Carter said she worked to develop recipes that would not hinder her health but also still be enjoyable for her family.  

“I will say at this point we have a really good routine, and I have a really good understanding of how to do that in the kitchen, so that feels good,” she said.  

Eating better is not just a choice for Carter, it is a necessity. However, what is better for Carter may not be better for everyone, so she encourages people to research and discover that for themselves. Eating better is as much about mental health as it is about physical health, Carter said.  

“There's a larger aspect to eating better that really kind of revolves around the psychology of food,” she said. “We tend to place things on to the food as though food is bad or certain foods are kind of villainized. … I think if we have an attitude around food that isn't quite healthy it's hard to eat better as well.”  

She encourages people to reshape the narrative around making home cooked meals.  

“I think we create these ideas in our heads that things are complicated or hard or they have to be a certain way,” she said.  

Rather than thinking that it is too hard, Carter said to try to reshape the thought process to “this is actually enjoyable; it's good for us; there are good consequences for eating together as a family.”  

Carter has a simple strategy for families wanting to either eat better or eat together more often: “just start.”  

“That may sound so simplistic, but that's what you have to do with anything,” she said. “Really the only way to do that is to take the time to make the change and just start trying.”