But they’re kids… right?

I eat pretty well. I track my macros. I drink my water. I consume a small-sized planet of protein each day.

But then I have these kids.

And with them, I completely cave.

I’ve actually got a cabinet filled with junk snacks I toss into lunchboxes without thinking twice. Fruit roll-ups. Pringles. Chocolate-covered pretzels in little bags.

(But there’s fruit and carrots in the lunchbox, so it balances out, amiright?)

“Ay, let them be children,” I tell myself.

Except… that stuff inevitably ends up in my mouth too.
It’s gross… yet delicious… and addictive.
(A 2023 study argued that highly processed snack foods high in refined carbs and added fats can trigger dopamine reward pathways the same way some drugs do — that’s how powerful this is. I know it. I’ve written it. It was in my book.)

So I became really fascinated by this chart in a powerful new report I helped work on — The Health of America’s Grocery Carts. The study, produced in collaboration with NielsenIQ, uses a 1–100 health index that shows how Americans really shop, measured by household grocery receipts across the country.

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And the chart shows that we tend to make poorer choices as the kids get older and hit school-age.

When kids are little? We try hard.
We buy the overpriced toddler snacks at Whole Foods. We willingly do the quinoa puffs.

Then… elementary school.

Less time. More chaos. Kids get opinions. They want so many things—like the Lunchables. They spot the colorful boxes in the cereal aisle. They ask, beg, plead.

And the data show it clearly:
The school-aged family cart is significantly less healthy than both the stage before (little kids) and the stage after (empty nesters!)

There’s so much data in this report that flips assumptions — including the belief that eating healthier has to cost more. It doesn’t. (In fact, the report found that the cost of healthier food items in roughly 30% of categories is the same or lower than unhealthy ones).

I went to Aldi’s yesterday and bought a week’s worth of food (chicken thighs for bone broth; a couple packages of steelhead trout and a bunch of fresh fruits and veggies). Pretzels instead of chips for the lunchbox. A sign at the door read “Receipts Don’t Lie”. Total: $87.15. I’m serious. I skipped the crap and that’s all I ended up spending.

And this was my favorite finding, and the one I want to talk about this week:
Making just THREE simple swaps is associated with lower risk of chronic disease such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. In fact, the study showed if a household replaced three items in the “unhealthy” category with healthier ones their scores would go up 19 points. On a population scale, think of the implications.

Examples:

• Seltzer instead of soda

• Oatmeal instead of sugary cereal

• Dried fruit instead of cookies/chips

So on my shopping trip today, that’s what I did. I made three swaps for the lunchbox cupboard. I didn’t eliminate it completely. Just made it a little less bad.

I skipped the vanilla wafers and BBQ chips “for the kids” (yeah right) and replaced them with freeze-dried apples and freeze-dried strawberries. I skipped the chocolate bars and replaced them with hot cocoa mix (I’ll split an envelope in half and stir with whole milk). Not incredibly heroic, but better.

Because good health isn’t one giant choice — it’s the thousands of tiny ones we make all day long. It’s what we grab in the pantry at 3pm. It’s whether we decide to get some exercise. It’s what we reach for when we’re tired, stressed, distracted.

The research is clear: meaningful, long-term improvement comes from micro-decisions. Small, seemingly insignificant swaps — made over and over again — compound into enormous impact. Not perfection… repetition.

Hey, I’m still fun.
I’m just replacing the junk in the lunchbox.