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[quote=Anonymous]I come from a similarly disordered eating background so no judgment here. I've been on a journey the last year or so to learn and change my eating patterns and relationship with food.

I highly recommend the PCRM podcast The Exam Room with Chuck Carroll. It is very educational, the guests are more often than not physicians and the emphasis is on a whole foods plant based diet, all or as much of the time as possible

Ditch the added sugars, ditch refined sugar except on occasion (not every day occasion, like maybe once per week), ditch all ultra processed foods most of which are laden with added sugars and/or seed oils and other unhealthful additives.

Cook and eat at home as much as possible, focusing on whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

Read Dr. Robert Lustig's books, watch his video Sugar: The Bitter Truth on YouTube.

Food should be about fueling your body and gut/brain, not about feeding your emotions, not about a party in your mouth. You can make lovely tasty recipes using healthy foods that you can enjoy for the taste - and once your gut/brain are properly fed, you won't crave crap food the way you probably do now.

Those cravings are deep seated in an unhealthy gut/brain, and they typically cannot be overcome by 'willpower' alone - you have to heal your gut to give your brain the power to turn away from ultra processed chips, cookies, cakes, candy, ice cream and fizzy sugar laden drinks.

You can have those things sometimes - but for some people, trying to have them every day just doesn't work. It is different for each of us, but for some of us it is best to abstain from junk food except on special occasions or at most once per week - and then make those treats really count, make a super high quality cake or cookies at home or from a good bakery made with fresh ingredients, don't buy the toxic ultra processed crap from the store shelves.

It's a journey that lasts for life. You will backslide in the beginning. But you have to develop the mentality that every day is an opportunity to fuel your gut/brain - either you will fuel them with wholesome food that promotes positive mental health and learning, or you will fuel them with sludge that makes you feel sick and unhappy.

In the case of your children, there are tons of studies showing the negative connections between UPFs and sugar in the diet with all the behavioral issues and learning difficulties that are epidemic today. There are also plenty of studies that show a strong correlation between kids on a whole foods diet who consume lots of fruits and veggies and who enjoy better mental health and intellectual growth. Fuel the gut, fuel the brain.

I admire you wanting to make this change. It isn't easy especially if we have no positive model growing up. I always thought I'd be okay if I ate what tasted good and made me happy - but I finally realized those foods were at the root of nearly all my health problems, not just weight gain as I got older and couldn't tolerate them as well. I'm glad to be on this journey but often think how much better life could have been and all the health issues I could have avoided had I been taught healthy eating in childhood.

Huge kudos to you for making this effort to give your kids a better foundation. Expect some difficulty - most American kids are addicted to sugar. (Watch the Lustig video, he explains the biochemistry of it - sugar is absolutely addictive!) They will have to detox and won't feel good and will likely act out. But in the long run, you are giving them the tools to preserve their health and avoid overweight/obesity that so many American kids are struggling with earlier and earlier in their lives. [/quote]

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