The Sugar Challenge

So the second recommendation of Dr Robinson is that you eliminate all sugar (including honey) from your kids diet.  Now every one of us knows we would be healthier for no sugar in our lives, but man eliminating it completely?!  Oh and no artificial sweeteners allowed either because they are equally bad for you in their own way.

Well the artificial sweetener thing was easy - I never let my kids have any of that junk anyhow.  But sugar... man.  So I cleaned out the cupboards, threw out the candy (no WAY was I tossing the ice cream though!).  Didn't have any pop to get rid of, so that was a bonus.  Then I took a look at cereal, and snack bars, and dang,  sugar is in everything!!

So, I won the battle for about 3 weeks, then Brad went shopping... Cookies, more ice cream, pop tarts, and pop have all found their way into the nooks and crannies of my cupboards and fridge.  Not to mention Willows birthday was in August so we had more ice cream and the homemade chocolate chip cookies that she wanted.

Anyway we call this one an ongoing battle, we compromise some, they are allowed cereal, just not the sweetened junk kind.  They can have Kix, Cheerios, Rice Krispies and I buy fruit for them to add.  We buy some granola but most granola out there has more sugar than fruit loops, so it takes a lot of label reading to get a good one.   We don't do pop and when we eat out they get water, unsweet tea, or juice (and we let lemonade count as juice in the summer).  When we visit or go to relatives houses we let them run wild and have whatever is available within limits (a glass of pop or two but they have to eat good food too).  We do keep the ice cream around as a special treat once a week or so.  And I nag Brad to death before he goes shopping to keep him from buying more junk LOL.  Or if I am feeling good I shop myself.

Willows cake was a big huge Choc Chip Cookie made with sucanat, fresh ground whole wheat flour, real butter and cage free eggs, all of her friends loved it.  And those are my favorite too LOL.  I figure if we are going to cheat and use sugar it might as well be whole stuff with some nutritional value.  I do allow honey when we have fruit with homemade yogurt, because otherwise it is just too sour. 

We are learning that watermelon makes a great summer desert, because Pierce always wants desert.  Yogurt with fruit and honey is great for breakfast or desert.  Popcorn is a good night time snack, and life can be ok without cookies and candy. We have not however discovered how to live without ice cream...  I am going to go back to making my own though so at least it will be healthier.

We just do the best we can with this one, and try and make the healthier choice, if we have sugar, its whole sugar (sucanat), raw honey or fresh maple syrup.  Undoing a sugar addiction is hard, but it's the baby steps and little choices that help you get rid of it one step at a time.  We aren't walking quite yet, more like crawling slowly forward, but I have hope that eventually we will be taking more and more big steps.