Jennifer Garner Says She Never Ate Processed Food Growing: 'We Had Only What' My Mom 'Could Make'

Mar. 15, 2025

Jennifer Garner and a childhood photo of the actress.Photo:Tommaso Boddi/FilmMagic; Jennifer Garner/Instagram

Tommaso Boddi/FilmMagic; Jennifer Garner/Instagram

Jennifer Garnerhad a junk food-free childhood.

The actress toldMolly Simsabout how she feeds her children compared to how she ate as a child.

PEOPLE has anearly look atthe Nov. 12 episode of Sims' podcastLipstick on the Rim, which recently joined Sony Music Entertainment’s Global Podcast Division.

In the episode, theDeadpool vs. Wolverinestar, 52, told the model host, 51, about her go-to and no-go mealsfor her three children.

While Garner frequently cooks up ground turkey burritos and butter noodles, she said she avoids keeping processed foods in the pantry out of habit from when she was young.

“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,” the13 Going on 30alum explained, adding that she “[tries] not to get too freaked out about any of that,” but she doesn’t purchase it for her family. “I’m not one to love having processed food around.”

Giving children natural food is important to Garner even outside of her household, she explained to Sims.

When discussing herOnce Upon a Farm organic foodline, Garner said, “Kids deserve better. It really matters what you put in a child’s body.”

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Jennifer Garner, Patricia Ann Garner and Melissa Lynn Garner.Jennifer Garner/Instagram

Jennifer Garner/Instagram

She said that her mom was happy to see her childhood home utilized: “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,” Garner told PEOPLE in 2020.

On Sunday, Nov. 10, Garner posted a sweet photo onInstagramof herholding hands with her momand sister, Melissa Lynn Garner, while going for a stroll in her home state of West Virginia. The touching photo comes seven months after the death of Jennifer’s father,William John Garner.

William Garner and Jennifer Garner.Steve Granitz/WireImage

Steve Granitz/WireImage

“We were with him, singing Amazing Grace as he left us …” wrote Garner at the time. “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,” adding that her family is “grateful for Dad’s gentle demeanor and quiet strength.”

source: people.com