If you haven't noticed, there's a food movement creeping across the world right now. I've been caught up in it myself, delving into books like "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver and "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. They're asking us to go back to whole foods, eat local, cut back on meat and eat more fruits and vegetable.

But wait a second, all of this sounds vaguely familiar, yes? We've heard it all before.

One of the most prominent features of our faith is the Word of Wisdom. Much is made of our abstinence from coffee, tea, drugs and alcohol.

But can we just talk for a minute about the fact that we were commanded to "eat local" more than 150 years ago? How does one eat fruit "in the season thereof" unless it comes from someplace pretty near your home?

Then there have been the recent stirs about the quality of our meat, especially in the United States. A cover article in an August issue of TIME magazine featured a mound of ground beef with the label: "WARNING: This hamburger may be hazardous to your health. Why the American food system is bad for our bodies, our economy and our environment -- and what some visionaries are trying to do about it."

The ensuing article, which highlighted the dangers and detriments of CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), only helped to solidify what we've always been commanded to do: "eat meat sparingly." Michael Pollan, in his book "In Defense of Food", suggests that we use meat as more of a flavor enhancer than main dish.

Additionally, Pollan focuses on how we need to eat a greater amount of genuine, whole foods, mainly fruits and vegetables.

Again, I take you to section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, which says, "All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine; that which yielded fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground --"

Finally, he focuses on how we need to simply eat fewer calories than we are now consuming. In really delving into the Word of Wisdom, I was struck for the first time by these words in verse 11: "all these to be used with prudence, and thanksgiving."

So, how are we doing? It's a topic I've written about before, and it created a bit of a stir.

There aren't easy answers, I know. The culture surrounding our church has been caught up in the fast food/junk food movement just like everyone else. I've been to many church functions where the dessert table was twice the size of the main dish table, and salad was more of a suggestion than an option. A cousin told me of a recent youth activity on healthy eating. After the inspiring message, the youth were invited into the kitchen for soda pop and brownies.

Why are we not willing to change? I know in my own family, this is what we've bumped up against:

My family just won't eat the good stuff.

At a recent meal, where I slid spinach into the sandwiches, my son came to the table and announced, "Thank you Mom ... for this disgusting meal." (At which point, like Max from "Where the Wild Things Are," he was sent to his room without any supper at all.)

I know the difficulty of feeding kids who turn up their nose to healthy eating. I have a kid who won't eat onions, another who won't eat beans and a husband who wouldn't eat a squash if it were the last option on the desert island. (This is made all the more tragic because I think onions, beans and squash combined might just create the perfect food.)

But my kids will eat salad (off all things!) and most green vegetables, because I serve them first at the dinner table, as the only option, and they're only allowed to eat carrots before dinner, so they come to the table nearly starving. I've found the technique to work smashingly. I cook one meal (no mac 'n' cheese alternative), and if it is bomb, I offer a plate stacked with whole wheat bread and butter.

It is also a matter of retraining the palate. If we are feeding our family on a steady diet of Cocoa Puffs for breakfast, a bowl of steel-cut oats is going to feel like swallowing playground pebbles. (Actually, no matter how many times I eat steel-cut oats, they taste like pebbles, but I believe in taking one for the team.) A real strawberry isn't going to be as sweet as a strawberry-flavored fruit snack, and cotton-candy yogurt is always going to win against plain old vanilla. The key is just to not have those options around. Teach the kids to drink water instead of juice. Make fruit the dessert. Retrain your palate.

I don't have time to cook whole foods.

There is no getting around this. Eating healthy, whole foods takes more time, makes more mess and creates more dishes.

A friend walked into our house recently and said to me, "Is it me, or are you always doing dishes?"

"Thank you," I told him, "for validating my entire life." I am in the kitchen a lot. It gets tedious, and a bit tiresome, but it's a cause I believe in. I remember doing a college study abroad in Russia. The woman I lived with went to the market every day. She spent hours in the kitchen simmering cabbage soups. The results were incredible. I've never eaten so well in my life.

We don't invest that kind of time in our cooking, especially not in America. We're way too busy. So the first step is simply slowing down. If feeding our families wholesome meals is important, we have to be willing to invest the time.

And there are shortcuts. We eat fish tacos once a week because they are easy and quick. Whole wheat pizza is every Friday night. When we eat treats I try to make them myself (so I know what's going into them) and freeze them in big batches for later. I plan ahead. I keep apples on-hand for snacks, as well as carrots and hard-boiled eggs. We eat a lot of air-popped popcorn.

Sometimes I burn out and we have eggs for dinner.

But what I've found from all this time in the kitchen is that I want to be with my family, so they're in there as well, grating, chopping, stirring. Mealtime is a family affair again, one that takes time and preparation, but has brought us together.

It's expensive to eat healthy.

Whole wheat bread costs more than white. Lean cuts of meat come at a premium. Fresh produce brings our monthly food budget to its knees. These are real concerns that swirl through the conversation in our home as well. We have four boys who know how to pack away food like nothing else. How do we eat health and within our means?

Interestingly, Americans spend less than Europeans on food, only 10 percent of their budget. As Pollan points out in his book, we've managed to squeeze cell phone and cable bills into our monthly budget, but gawk at the price of eating well. We obviously need to change our mindset.

And there are ways to eat healthy without eating lavishly. Planting a garden is an obvious one. (Remember that old primary song? "The prophet said to plant a garden/So that's what we'll do ...") Buying vegetables or fruits in large quantities and preserving them is a great way to eat cheaply when fruits are out of season. Homemade bread made from food-storage wheat is cheaper than the fancy kind at the store.

Of course, there are the long-run benefits of better health, which will hopefully lead to fewer doctor bills. Healthy eating is a long-term investment.

Eating local is just too hard.

This one can be tricky, depending on where you live. There are areas of the world where you drop a seed in the ground and out springs a buffet. We live in Texas, and my forays into gardening have brought forth a few measly tomatoes, but mostly a generous array of rocks and tomato hornworms the size of my thumb. The local farmer's market has a bit better selection, but not much.

So I can't be as pure in this one as I would like. But several months ago I glanced at a bottle of apple juice I bought at the store and saw these words: Processed in China.

China?

My mind began to reel. What possible nutritional value could be left in a juice that's been picked, peeled, squeezed and packaged from across the world? I made a commitment to at least be more aware of my food sources.

Of course, the added benefit of buying local, or at least "fruit in the season thereof" is that it's usually the food that is on sale. So, apples in the fall, strawberries in early spring and copious amounts of lettuce in the winter. (Besides cactus, it is the only vegetable I have successfully grown year-round here in Texas.)

As Latter-day Saints, we have a responsibility to shift the food culture of our families, and even the church. After all, we want access to those words found at the end of section 89, promises more miraculous than the headlines in any health magazine:

"And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

"And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures

"And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint."

Words of wisdom indeed. The challenge now is in heeding them.