Why This A-Lister Doesn’t Keep Processed Food at Home: ‘Kids Deserve Better’
Movieguide® Contributor
You won’t find Cheetos and Reeses at Jennifer Garner’s house — she didn’t eat junk food growing up, and neither do her kids.
“We didn’t have processed food at all. Not because my mom thought of it that way. It was expensive. So we had only what she could make,” the actress explained in a recent podcast.
Garner “[tries] not to get too freaked out about any of that” but doesn’t buy it for her pantry at home. “I’m not one to love having processed food around.”
No matter whether kids are at home or not, Garner believes they should be healthily nourished.
“Kids deserve better. It really matters what you put in a child’s body,” she said.
“I’m not worried so much about junk food, because we don’t have it in the house — although I don’t want to be a freak about it, so that they just want to get their hands on it at all costs,” she told PEOPLE in 2018. “It’s more that you just want to make sure they’re getting a rainbow of flavors and of foods.”
READ MORE: Jennifer Garner Didn’t Think She’d Be an Actress …
Garner has an organic baby food line called Once Upon a Farm, and some of the fruits and vegetables used come right from her mom’s family farm in Oklahoma.
“Of anything I’ve ever done, this means the most to my mom, that her farm is being brought back to life, and it’s growing things for babies. It’s just the coolest,” the YES DAY star said.
Garner’s father passed away seven months ago, surrounded by loved ones.
“We were with him, singing Amazing Grace as he left us…” Garner said. “While there is no tragedy in the death of an 85-year-old man who lived a healthy, wonderful life, I know grief is unavoidable, waiting around unexpected corners.” She said her family is “grateful for Dad’s gentle demeanor and quiet strength.”
Garner is very close with her surviving mother, Pat, and they often cook wholesome meals together.
In June, Garner brought Pat with her on the TODAY SHOW, where they shared memories, laughs and an old family recipe.
“We made no money — it was a subsistence farm — but we ate well,” Pat recalled about her childhood. “My mother was wonderful cook, and I tell you, the best meal in the world is fried chicken, corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, green beans and gallons of sweet tea.”
READ MORE: HOW JENNIFER GARNER’S MOM SUPPORTED HER THROUGHOUT ACTING CAREER
