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OK, I have some legitimate (I think) concerns here. Very soon, we will be implementing a perfect whole foods diet for our family of 4 (once I locate key ingredients and find some main recipes we all like). This includes a 9 year old and a 4 year old. They, of course, are NOT excited about this. I am NOT trying to make up excuses, but I have to admit, I am having a hard time with the idea as well for the following reasons:
1) We will be denied the pleasure of eating almost all of our favorite foods, and this is hard emotionally for us (I know, we will gain the rewards of wellness). So, I need a list of allowed snack treats, such as Fritos (didn't see anything in the ingredients that was a no-no, right?) Looking for your best ideas please!
2) My kids will be the only ones in their classes in school who will have to have an alternative snack and will not be allowed to join in eating the goodies that are available for class parties, birthday parties, pizza parties, etc. There is NO denying that this is all part of the fun of being a kid! I NEED some FUN alternatives for them. I don't want them singled out every day even more than they already are (one has a severe peanut allergy, the other is autistic). Ideas??
3) Eating out will become a VERY rare treat, and my cooking time in the kitchen will more than quadruple. I have a very small kitchen, I am very busy, and I do not enjoy cooking. Ideas please!!
4) We will not be able to accept dinner invitations for home-cooked meals at friend's houses, eat anything cooked by relatives, etc... Can I tell friends that in one year we can eat with them sometimes??
5) I am concerned about the likelihood of becoming hypersensitive to traces of sugar. It sounds like when you completely eliminate a substance for a period of time, your body freaks out when you get a little accidentally. Is this just a temporary problem? I am wondering if we could benefit just as well by following a more lenient diet, such as, the whole foods diet recipes that include dried fruits or honey, etc. in them. I am concerned about "normalcy" in our lives.
6) If we followed the PERFECT whole foods diet for a period of one year, can I promise my kids that after that period is up, they WILL get to share in the occasional treats that their friends have? That they won't have to be the only ones at the birthday parties declining the cake and ice cream? Will these sorts of treats be acceptable in small quantities on special occasions once we get through this first year? I need to tell my 9 year old what to expect in the future. I am SURE he will cheat any chance he gets if he feels like I'll never let him drink another Coke, etc.
So, everyone who is doing this, especially if you have children, please tell me how it is working out for you. Let me know how you handle their own birthday parties, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, and all the other junk-out occasions that we associate with candies, etc.
Thanks! I WILL get there, it is a process of learning for me!
In Reply to: Looking for everyone's input on Whole Foods and your kids posted by KMD on February 11, 2000 at 13:53:48:
This is meant to be a continuation of the original message I just posted...
How do you handle medications, when they are needed, when your kids are on the whole foods diet. They all seem to contain sugar (neither of my kids can swallow pills, so they take the liquids or chewables).
Thanks again for any advice, suggestions, etc!
In Reply to: I forgot to ask about this too... posted by KMD on February 11, 2000 at 14:13:50:
OK, I have some legitimate (I think) concerns here. Very soon, we will be implementing a perfect whole foods diet for our
family of 4 (once I locate key ingredients and find some main recipes we all like). This includes a 9 year old and a 4 year old.
They, of course, are NOT excited about this. I am NOT trying to make up excuses, but I have to admit, I am having a hard
time with the idea as well for the following reasons:
1) We will be denied the pleasure of eating almost all of our favorite foods, and this is hard emotionally for us (I know, we will
gain the rewards of wellness). So, I need a list of allowed snack treats, such as Fritos (didn't see anything in the ingredients that
was a no-no, right?) Looking for your best ideas please!
*You* have the control here, at this early point in your kids' lives, regardless of what the chocolate-frosted sugar bombs commercials on TV are subliminally trying to imprint into *your* thinking, as well as your childrens' psyches. I know from personal experience that this is scary. My kids will reject me if I don't give them what the other kids are getting foodwise. They will feel ostracized, weird, as different if they don't get to indulge in the same c--p as their "normal" classmates, who obviously can handle sugar with no problem. Why are my kids different, and how have I/am I failing them? I've gone through this one too. I still go through it. I've also learned that my sons have habituated quite easily to snack foods such as sliced green apples, ruby red grapefruit sections, hulled pistachio nuts, and blue corn tortilla chips. They've assimilated the reality that sugar makes you hyper very easily. I've presented this to them as "Sugar does this to every kid. Have you noticed what clas party sweets do to your friends?" The boys get it. They have also largely lost their desire for processed sugar. My eldest son (8 1/2) flat-out rejects it, even in a class party situation. Occasionally he gets that look in his eye and asks "Mom, could I have some Captain Crunch for a snack, please?" I gave it to him twice on request. He felt the effects in his body acutely. Now he doesn't ask for Captain Crunch anymore. I've given him the authority to make his own decisions about claas party sugar. He feels empowered and rarely eats it. With the 5-year old, it's harder. He doesn't get sugar at home, period. The school thing is harder on him because he's still too young to discern that not everything that's offered to him is ok. I just brought him home with 2 classmates bouncing off the walls after a Valentine's Day party. All the kids got a lecture about how sugar causes fighting, and would they please stop screaming and killing each other... The little guy's learning though, just like his brother has. It's worked best for me to give them an empowered choice about what they take into their bodies. The one little fellow I know who's folks tell him to *never* eat sugar in outside social situations has rebelled and is frighteningly addicted to processed sugar. I'm constantly trading the fine line...
2) My kids will be the only ones in their classes in school who will have to have an alternative snack and will not be allowed to
join in eating the goodies that are available for class parties, birthday parties, pizza parties, etc. There is NO denying that this is
all part of the fun of being a kid! I NEED some FUN alternatives for them. I don't want them singled out every day even more
than they already are (one has a severe peanut allergy, the other is autistic). Ideas??
See above.
3) Eating out will become a VERY rare treat, and my cooking time in the kitchen will more than quadruple. I have a very small
kitchen, I am very busy, and I do not enjoy cooking. Ideas please!!
Make meal preparation a sacred time involving real food. Carry over the sacredness of food into a real family dinner, even if dinner is 10 minutes long. We've been conditioned to believe that real food preparation takes an impossibly long time. It doesn't. Sure, we still have take-out pizza or frozen fish sticks on total overwhelm nights. On the whole, though, it takes a half an hour to make a real whole foods meal as opposed to microwaved junk in 10 minutes. That additional 25 minutes is doable. We're remarkably adaptable organisms.
4) We will not be able to accept dinner invitations for home-cooked meals at friend's houses, eat anything cooked by relatives,
etc... Can I tell friends that in one year we can eat with them sometimes??
Your friends and family may be happy to do it your way, or not. This is a quick way to find out who your true friends are. We eat at home most of the time...
5) I am concerned about the likelihood of becoming hypersensitive to traces of sugar. It sounds like when you completely
eliminate a substance for a period of time, your body freaks out when you get a little accidentally. Is this just a temporary
problem? I am wondering if we could benefit just as well by following a more lenient diet, such as, the whole foods diet recipes
that include dried fruits or honey, etc. in them. I am concerned about "normalcy" in our lives.
You will become hypersesnitive to sugar, as will your kids. You'll also all stop craving the stuff. whe you eat it it will no longer carry the instant gratification/comfort clout it used to. Life will be absolutely normal, and no one will feel deprived.
6) If we followed the PERFECT whole foods diet for a period of one year, can I promise my kids that after that period is up,
they WILL get to share in the occasional treats that their friends have? That they won't have to be the only ones at the birthday
parties declining the cake and ice cream? Will these sorts of treats be acceptable in small quantities on special occasions once
we get through this first year? I need to tell my 9 year old what to expect in the future. I am SURE he will cheat any chance he
gets if he feels like I'll never let him drink another Coke, etc.
From my experience, read the bit about the rigid parents above.
So, everyone who is doing this, especially if you have children, please tell me how it is working out for you. Let me know how
you handle their own birthday parties, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, and all the other junk-out occasions that we
associate with candies, etc.
Thanks! I WILL get there, it is a process of learning for me!
Hang in there, honey! You're going to make it. So will your kids. We all did here.
Love, Kyra
In Reply to: Looking for everyone's input on Whole Foods and your kids posted by KMD on February 11, 2000 at 13:53:48:
Hi, KMD.
I will answer #6 since there are many on this BB who can answer the rest.
The answer is yes, By that time a very different capacity for taste will have developed and they will no longer be satisfied with the sweet/fat taste so promoted by the manufacturers which drown out all the other tastes. Besides, by then, they will be feeling so much better and functioning at so much higher level, they will have lots of other reasons to not eat the garbage most people eat. They will look at their friends with pity instead of envy.
If they go back to garbage, they will soon feel so bad that even THEY will see the connection. Eventually, it is THEY who will have to choose. NOW is the time for YOU to choose for them.
If they are reasonable about adding small amounts of garbage to their diets, they may get away with that forever. If only everyone would do that. The problems arise when garbage is ALL that we eat. THEN, when the machine is broken we wonder why.
Walt
In Reply to: Looking for everyone's input on Whole Foods and your kids posted by KMD on February 11, 2000 at 13:53:48:
Hi, KMD.
I will answer #6 since there are many on this BB who can answer the rest.
The answer is yes, By that time a very different capacity for taste will have developed and they will no longer be satisfied with the sweet/fat taste so promoted by the manufacturers which drown out all the other tastes. Besides, by then, they will be feeling so much better and functioning at so much higher level, they will have lots of other reasons to not eat the garbage most people eat. They will look at their friends with pity instead of envy.
If they go back to garbage, they will soon feel so bad that even THEY will see the connection. Eventually, it is THEY who will have to choose. NOW is the time for YOU to choose for them.
If they are reasonable about adding small amounts of garbage to their diets, they may get away with that forever. If only everyone would do that. The problems arise when garbage is ALL that we eat. THEN, when the machine is broken we wonder why.
Walt
In Reply to: I forgot to ask about this too... posted by KMD on February 11, 2000 at 14:13:50:
Hi, KMD.
There are many prescription (and now even non-prescription) medications that are sugar and alcohol free. You have to know enough to ask and be going to a doc who will cooperate.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: Hang in there, honey...from one mom to another posted by Kyra on February 11, 2000 at 16:22:31:
I guess most of the folks who have perfected the whole foods diet are not hanging around this board any longer? Thanks Kyra for your ideas, they were great!
Walt, I'm getting the idea through my head finally that once I get into this I really won't crave the junk and I won't miss it either, so it won't feel like a sacrifice or a sad thing anymore! Can't wait to get THERE, cuz I don't like being HERE now.
If anybody else wants to pitch in, I'd love to hear what works for you and your kids...
In Reply to: Re: Hang in there, honey...from one mom to another posted by Kyra on February 11, 2000 at 16:22:31:
Hi:
I'm another Mom whose been on 'allergy' diets for a child. I did mine when my son was 5yrs. Didn't know about the whole foods diet back then, but was basically doing it by instinct. Anyway, parties aren't that hard. We found the kids actually loved it when we brought in Fresh fruit and special energy bars (no processed sugar). Today at 12 my son wants nothing to do with sugar ladened Coke. He realized very quickly which foods make him ill (corn) and now checks all food labels. We also left his teachers a box filled with stickers, pencils, nuts, raisins etc to be used as reward versus the 'junk' candy they normally give out. Hang in there. I'm still on the learning curve also.
Pam
In Reply to: Thanks Kyra and Walt! Anyone else out there? posted by KMD on February 13, 2000 at 02:58:39:
KMD, Krya & Pam,
I'm trying to do it to for our family. My son has been on it since November (after his birthday). He is 7. Let's please get each other's emails mine is strawberryisland@yahoo.com and trade tips, recipes, coping strategies, heart to hearts, whatever. We need the support, cause I don't know anyone else who does this.
Glad you got this thread going, because we need to know each other! :) Looking forward to getting to know you guys!
Straw
p.s. My son improved 70% in 4 days when I started him on this. He has had gradual improvement since then. (Now, I need to start it 100% for me!)
In Reply to: TO: KMD, Kyra & Pam posted by Straw on February 14, 2000 at 11:30:02:
The Carrot Club. For us moms who need to support each other in this. :)
Straw
In Reply to: TO: KMD, Kyra & Pam posted by Straw on February 14, 2000 at 11:30:02:
Hi Straw!
Sounds good! I can be reached at knkitts@yahoo.com or ckitts@calpoly.edu
Love, Kyra (busy with today's batch of carrots...)
In Reply to: P.S. I already have a name for our group! posted by Straw on February 14, 2000 at 11:31:45:
Sounds like a winner to me. I'm in the process of changing e-mail addresses. The new one will be plong@directlink.net. It won't be ready for at least a week. I'll email when up. Pam
In Reply to: Re: TO: KMD, Kyra & Pam posted by Kyra on February 14, 2000 at 12:40:51:
Please update your whole foods group. I would love to see a new section on Dr. Stoll's website dealing with the process of going thru dietary changes with the help of support groups. Your group is already e-mailing probably and it would be fun to learn from your experiences.
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[ Diets other than Robert's Archive ] [ Main Archives Page ] [ Glossary/Index ] [ FAQ ] [ Recommended Books ] [ Bulletin Board ] |
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