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When it comes to food, most parents are concerned with safety, health and getting children to eat what's good for them.  No doubt, the need is great. Pound for pound, children not only consume more food and water than adults; if they're hit with toxicants during critical windows of development, diseases can occur later in life. But feeding kids healthy food can be difficult when you can't always find or afford organic, and are up against a food industry spending billions of dollars annually to convince kids that products low in nutrition and high in sugars and fats are cool. Since the 1970s, when the U.S. adopted a farm policy resulting in cheap corn and corn-syrup sweeteners, Americans have been eating about 200 extra calories a day, Michael Pollan writes in The New York Times Magazine. No wonder 64 percent of us are overweight.

Still, you can improve the odds each time you shop for and prepare a meal. Here are seven small ways that add up to big change:

1. Buy Organic Where It Counts Most

Recognizing that it's not possible to eat organic produce 100 percent of the time, you can prioritize by picking the top 10 fruits and vegetables that are most often contaminated by pesticide residues and thus best bought organic: apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, hot peppers, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries.

For meat, eggs and dairy, certified organic is your best choice, because federal standards mandate 100 percent organic feed (eliminating the risk of mad cow disease, for one). But when organic isn't available or affordable, ask the following questions: Was the animal fed only grass and/or 100 percent vegetarian grain? Were growth hormones used (in cattle)? Were antibiotics routinely given? Were the animals confined?

2. Buy Food Directly from Local Farms, and Ask Your Grocer to Sell Local Food Too

In a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group, each member buys a share of the entire harvest (usually $300 to $600) from the farmer before the growing season starts, and is rewarded with weekly produce gathered at peak ripeness. There are more than 1,000 CSAs across the U.S.