This is a very informative program.  It is available on Netflix.  A family friend who works downtown in the dept. of agriculture recommended it to me.  

I'm having a hard time weeding out the junk from my kids' diets.  We've been avoiding fast food and switching out their old favorites for healthier/more ethical options, but sensory issues and desire for sameness make it difficult to make many changes.  Getting them to tolerate brown rice was a major accomplishment! Maybe if I work at it through the summer, we'll be in a better place.  It is mostly my oldest who is resisting changes.  He's such a good boy, so eager to please, but this is hard for him.  I feel so guilty, letting him get used to eating this way

For myself, I eat a vegan diet that is minimally processed.  The most processed thing I consume is almond milk.  I don't think that the kids need to eat a vegan diet.  If they want to make that choice as an adult, then they can.

You may wish to check out Food Matters, also.

Netflix also has that

I'm needing to fix up a diet and exercise plan.... :-/

Try mixing different types of rice together.  We mix whole wheat pasta with the regular kind - also because of the cost.

Try a sandwich with one slice regular and one slice whole grain.  I eventually got my husband off white bread doing that.  Now he thinks it tastes bad.  I found out that he does not like a particular brand of whole wheat bread.  Usually I bake my own.  I often use atta flour instead of white flour for pancakes and such.  It is not whole wheat in that it does not have all the bran.  Some people do better on rye bread or other types of bread and with sour dough or slow rise cultures.

I don't think I've seen Food Matters, I'll have to find it.  

I love wild rice, its my favorite grain.  Quinoa is good too.  I can't get the kids to eat whole wheat pasta, but they'll eat whole wheat bread.  Sourdough is fun, I used to keep some starter but it flipped DH out that this thing was living in the kitchen! I guess it didn't help that I named it.

You can see parts of the documentary on youtube.

Yesterday was a public holiday for me, and I had a cold so I stayed home and channel surfed.

Dr Oz, the Oprah spin-off, did a show on "obesegenics". Food additives that are fuelling the obesity epidemic. Plastics and pesticides got a few mentions. But high fructose corn syrup is the #1 culprit. Not because it is any worse than sucrose, but because it is so cheap that it gets added to almost everything.

Spurred me to start a more natural diet without processed carbs. Almost 24 hours so far. I literally feel better already. I expect the cravings to kick in in a day or 2, but if I can ride that out I'll be fine.

Good luck!  

It is very, VERY difficult to find foods without added sugar in some form here.  Yogurt is the toughest, even the organic/natural/etc. kids' yogurts have too much added sugar.  

There was a hilarious commercial here for a while about high fructose corn syrup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68XsOf5n0U

hilarious!   

The key is the last bit about "fine in moderation."  It isn't used in moderation if it is packed into everything.

simple cooked or raw foods, not always too much effort.

Breakfast:  twice per week cook porridge and then reheat in the microwave or make a batch of granola with honey in it.  Another choice is soup and rice or whole grain bread with eggs.

Lunches and dinners:  salads or soup.  Spup is easy put some water (of stock) in a pot and throw in some chopped vegetables and herbs, simmer until tend.  I use a hand blender for a smooth texture.  

slow rise bread is easy to make.

Food Inc. was the result of me failing English Composition II for the second time.

HFCS is the issue. Real Cane Sugar is much healthier (in moderation) than the ammonia dowsed HFCS. HFCS also contains Ghrelin which stimulates the person's appetite to eat much more than they normally would.
BTW--HFCS is almost always GMO(Yummy!) and is not processed by the Human Body in the same way as Real Cane Sugar is. Thus, HFCS is a major contributor to Obesity especially in America.

Diet Cokes are bad, according to a documentary I saw. Apparently, the Aspartame in it is a neurotoxin.

Although that's controversial.
It could be that it's okay, I'm not interested enough to do real research on this subject.

Have you seen the High Fructose Corn Syrup ads?
Watch one, and then watch these spoofs. This first one is serious, the others are spoofs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68XsOf5n0U




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbMkwc3Qe1k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6QSq6h4XDc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRicUInkYQM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYk4o_flKPk

What I found most interesting about this documentary was the intellectual property component of it.  Monsanto is basically the Microsoft of the food world.  Put in those terms, the Monsanto corn commercials make a lot more sense.  When you compare them to commercials for Apple or Windows, you see the same themes.  They also pursue a lot of the same strategies.  Monsanto makes a product called roundup, to which their genetically modified corn is resistant.  As the weeds evolve resistance, more and more roundup is used, and the money pours in.  In similar fashion, planned obsolescence is taking games off the PC and putting them onto consoles.