After research a lot about sugar, the body, mood control, etc... we decided it was in our children's best interest, for many reasons, to stop consuming sugar. I am really glad that we did. It was not that hard of a transition. They still eat plenty to fruits which have natural sugars. The one exception that we have is birthdays. It has always been our tradition to let the birthday child pick out all the food they want to eat on their birthday. And if they choose to have sugar, then that is OK. We want the children to learn how to have a proper balance in life.
Another thing that we do very little of is processed foods. If you study the research, anytime processed food is added to a diet, the health problems rapidly begin to rise. There is much research and documentation on this topic. Below is a documentary is an interesting documentary. In this documentary one of the things they talk about how the introduction of processed food to different cultures has made changes to the people's overall health.
Many use the excuse of they don't have time to cook whole/real foods, as their reason as to why they eat processed foods. That is just not a valid excuse. I am many times crunched for time and can't cook a time consuming meal. But I can easily throw together a mean for 13 people (our family size) in 15 minutes or less. Some examples are:
1. Chef Salad and toasted ezekiel bread
2. Boiled eggs and rice cooker full of rice along with raw cut up veggies
3. Salad and quesadillas (toss a bunch of tortillas on a cookie sheet, top with cheese and broil.....they are done in just a few minutes.
4. Egg Salad on toasted ezekiel bread.
5. Chicken & potatoes ( I have a huge roasting pan that I use as a crock pot, just throw the potatoes in, along with a couple onions and a 1/2 bottle of salsa, and let it cook. Take all of 5 minutes to rinse and dump everything in. And voila a piping hot meal with no effort.
6. Breakfast for dinner --scrambled eggs and toast.
7. Fried rice, using chicken from a leftover meal, or just make veggie fried rice & then combine with a salad.
8. For breakfasts, instead of cold cereal we do ezekiel bread toast and peanut butter. We also do huge pots of boiled eggs for a quick breakfast, coupled with fruit.
Another excuse people use for not eating healthy is, "I can't afford it." That again, is just not true. Processed food are much more expensive pound for pound than whole foods. A bag of potatoes, a bag of rice, a whole chicken, etc... don't add up to be more than processed foods. They key is to stay away from packaged foods. Don't buy the lettuce in the bag, but buy the heads of romaine lettuce, the head of broccoli or cauliflower, vs the precut up veggies. They are cheaper and they don't go bad as quickly. We do a lot of our shopping at Costco and Aldi, Trader Joes (just for select items) and then order most of our bulk grains from Dutch Valley organics. I know exactly which of those 3 places has the best deal on the items that I want. We keep our diet simple and I stay out of the main stream grocery stores, like Wegmans, Giant, etc... where the prices are considerably higher. If I run out of something , I just wait to get it from one of those 3 places. By keeping a simple diet, that really helps to keep the costs down.