I WANT TO COMPLETELY CHANGE MY FAMILY'S DIET....Help!

The best way to start is just to eat REAL food. Lots of veggies, grains, fruit, beans, meat, fish, etc. Avoid anything overly processed. I say "overly" because you will want to buy some foods somewhat processed, like pasta or cereal or cheese (unless you want/are willing to make your own!)
If you have a local farmer's market, shop there once a week, WITH the kids! So fun and it gets them excited about preparing what you pick out.
And please don't jump on the gluten-free bandwagon unless there is a real allergy in the family. My pediatrician (who is a young, hip health food lovin' guy) says that it is THE most misunderstood allergy out there right now, and gluten has just become that latest fashionable thing to avoid :(

With regard to buying organic, Drmercola.Com (a free site) just put out a list of what organic foods are a must buy or not... check that out.. if you type in organic, I am sure it will come up.. it's a nice list of what fruits/veggies are most sprayed and if you can't always buy organic, then what's a better choice of veggie to buy.. also, many other GREAT articles on there..
additionally, I don't buy anything with nitrites in them but instead opt for non-cured << this is a good starting point if you eat lunch meats and or other processed meats... buy less the nitrites..
As for breakfast, we keep it simple, both my son and I eat Morning Os (a cheerios equivalent.. ) a non sugar cereal, 1% organic milk ..
lunch.. we do just about anything, from non-nitrate cold cuts on good bakery bread with olive oil and balsamic (As oppose to mayo)
dinners , we tend to ALWAYS add some type of RAW food.. by that I mean, could be cut up apples or other veggies and fruit (whatever is in season)
and for example tonight, my son and husband are having chicken skewers and patty pan squash along with fresh apricots...
there is no theme or rhyme or reason to our meals perse, it's whatever is IN season and what looks good, like say whatever fish of the day is at our local store..
you can start out slowly, just start adding NEW and organic , nutritional things and slowly take out the lesser.. Oh and although our water is good here, we still use a water filter... and one for the shower, we use that one to take out the chlorine... which I think is VERY toxic.. also since doing as such, my skin (esp on my back) isn't as dry...

best of luck..

I revamped our diet to fix my son's asthma. His personality changed when we went off sugar! It was amazing. The only sugar we eat anymore is maple syrup. I try to avoid gluten, too, and we eat far more fruits and veggies than before.
Here are some breakfasts I use:
Oatmeal/cottage cheese pancakes: Combine eggs, unsweetened Almond Breeze, cottage cheese, oatmeal and vanilla in blender. Fry pancakes in coconut oil - super good for you!
Oatmeal with frozen organic blueberries stirred in.
Chicken sausages with no antibiotics or hormones.
Almond flour crepes: Almond flour (just fine grind almonds in processor), a dash of salt, a little Stevia natural sweetener, if you like add some brown rice flour, 7 or 8 eggs, vanilla, Flaxmeal (I add this to just about everything baked. Get organic and keep in freezer), add enough unsweetened Almond Breeze to get a runny consistency. Fry in coconut oil.
Fruit smoothies: Frozen berries, plain unsweetened yogurt, flaxmeal, unsweetened Almond Breeze. NO sugar - you won't need it. Whirl in blender - they'll love it!
You might like my article about getting in the five-a-day:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Busy-Families-and-the-Five-a-Day-...
It includes helpful tips for sneaking in veggies.
For dinners, try using brown rice spaghetti noodles with spaghetti. It's pretty easy to do dinners gluten-free. Just be sure to serve at least two veggies at dinner, and if you have the dessert habit, now's a great time to break it.
Peanut butter is a great, high-protein snack if you don't have peanut allergies in your family. Add to apples, celery, etc.
Check out the dirty dozen and clean 15 lists for organic guidance:
http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/
I hope it goes well! I would add, be sure to teach your kids about diet. They are much more likely to get on board if they understand why.
God bless!
L.
P.S. Forgot to add: stay AWAY from milk! My son's ear infections totally cleared up when we stopped drinking it. Our colds became a lot less severe, too. For calcium, drink almond beverages. Soy is turning out to be rather harmful according to some sources, so I stay away from that, too.

My advice is to start with one simple idea. If God doesn't make it, don't eat it. That leaves you wide open for meats, veggies, fruits, etc.
Examples:
Peaches in syrup in a cup--NO! Peaches from the market, washed & ready to go: YES!
Hamburgers from a drive through window: NO! Hamburgers from natural ground beef that you make at home: YES!

Good for you...there is so much for you to learn~ here are just a few things to help.

-eat as close to the ground as possible. Try to have your diet made up primarily of things you would find naturally. There are lists out there of what is good to buy organic and what you can get away with not.

-meat should be organic and grass fed

-only healthy fats such as olive oil

-seeds and nuts are great snacks

-quinoa is gluten free and an excellent source of protein

-greek yogurt is so good and can be substituted for dessert.

if you really want to go hardcore check out the Raw Diet.

If you have a Whole Foods that will be a terrific place to shop.

I think the best way to start is to buy local. Check out your local "Slow Foods" movement online - they will post links to farms in your area where you can buy fresh, organic foods (meats and fruits/veggies). If you can't afford to buy all organic, then try to buy meats that do not contain artificial hormones (the package will say so), and then for fruits and veggies, try to buy organic for the items that do not have a peel. Things you can peel, such as oranges, bananas, melons, I would worry a little less, because the part you eat inside has not been touched by any pesticides.

From there, you can figure out other changes you'd like to make. But I would say to start small and work your way up from there. Good luck!

Good for you! I wish i had done all this when my boys were younger.
I also agree that any Godmade food is great. Stay away from all processed foods.
At Whole Foods, the locally grown produce is usually as close to organic as they can get, but not certified. Talk to the produce manager.
Look for a movie called Forks over Knives. I think it still showing in Houston or opens this weekend. The dvd will be out in August.
Another important factor in diet is alkaline vs acidic. Meat and dairy are acidic. For a very comprehensive list of foods and whether they are acidic, check out a book called Save Our Bones. It is for people with osteoporosis but we should all follow the plan. There is a great website at: http://www.saveourbones.com.

Start by focusing on lean protein, good fats(check your condiments and oils and snacks) fresh RAW, fruits and veggies and products that are full fiber.

tinker with the organic, non g.m.o. and gluten/casien/peanut free things later, once youve mastered the basics. You dont want to go all in at once.

My best recommendation is to stick with fresh, mostly. fresh veggies, and fruits and fresh bread. When you tinker with the top of that food pyramid (the fats, salts, oils sweets) i have a few recommends.

Apple cider vinegar(you can make your own hot sauce, salad dressing with this)
braggs liquid aminos(soy sauce)
agave nectar(u can make your own jelly, syrups, and sweeten anything with it)
e v olive oil
ev coconut oil
vegenaise (instead of mayo)
get hot mustard (it revvs the metabolism)
sea salt
nutritional yeast (use instead of parmesan)
natural ketchup (or the regular brands that are going rogue and taking out the high fructose corn syrup)
stevia (it s sugar sub thats good for you, it comes in flavors, i add it to perreir, or water to fake a soda or koolaid)
puffed chips,
air popped popcorn,
(fage)greek yogurt, you can replace your sour cream with this.

Get spices and herbs out the wazoo that perk up flavor!, my personal faves are herbes de provence (great in anything tomato based) garam masala gives a very indian feel to potaos and stir fries, unsweetened cocoa powder, awesome in soups, chilis and things with beans.

My absoltely favorite thing i want to mention is salsa, its mixture of super foods that complement each other and absorb perfectly together, and can really add flavor where normally youd load on the salt and butter.

Start slowly and ONE big food item at a time.

So, say you cut out gluten first. Give yourself a few weeks were you are trying and testing what you like and dislike.

Then go to the next one, like Refined white sugars(which is in my opinion the biggest group to cut out because it is in everything)

Do that until you have removed all the foods and substances you no longer want in your diet.

Seeing a nutritionist wouldnt be a bad idea either.

I would also look into supplements. You dont need to take hundreds. but a vit B, D and a multi are usually good to have in your daily routine.

My family has transitioned onto a Gluten Free, most meat free diet. We drink Coconut milk. And do alot of from scratch cooking. It has taken about two years to make it a permanent switch. It took ALOT of trial and error, before we found things that we could all agree on. It was a bit expensive in the beginning too. But now My grocery bill is half of what it used to be.

My son is Autistic so we do follow an allergy friendly diet in my home. We've eliminated, gluten, casein (bovine derived dairy) and soy but then went a step further and had my sons blood tested and found that several other items his body didn't like. Here are some blogs/websites I follow for great recipes:

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/
http://www.nourishingmeals.com/
http://www.cybelepascal.com/

There are a ton more sites, but these can get you started. I buy majority of my families groceries organic and definitely all natural (Whole Foods knows me by name here). I choose to keep out all unnecessary preservatives and especially artificial dyes to help my son heal. Here is a couple of meal ideas for you:

Breakfast: GFCF pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, turkey bacon and coconut milk yogurt.

Also, homemade granola cereal in Hemp milk is a favorite at my house.

Lunch: PB&J (or sunbutter) on GFCF bread, plain potato chips, carrot sticks and some applesauce.

Dinner: Chicken soft tacos (use corn tortillas), chips and salsa, honeydew melon salad mixed with lime, mint a little local honey and fresh pepper over organic arugula.

If you need specific recipes or more meal ideas send me a private message as I've been doing this forever it's sort of second nature:)

PS: Tonight, I whipped up some blueberry pancakes for dinner with a side of scrambled eggs and a fruit salad, my kids loved it!

You can start with dairy. Buy organic milk or you can use almond or rice milk they both taste great. You should cut out WHITE foods such as white rice, white flour etc. I switched from rice to Quinoa it is so good but be sure to purchase already washed it can be a pain to rinse if you don't have a good mesh type sifter. There is a list on line that tells you which foods are the most important to purchase organic. We also eat only Laura's beef or store brand ALL NATURAL processed without hormones or steriods or anitbiotics and Cage Free or Organic Eggs they taste so much better. We get only the NATURAL CHICKEN and TURKEY processed the same way as the Beef. Congratulations on wanting to eat healthier.

Hi RM,

Small changes that don't freak your family out is the way to start....substitute red potatoes or sweet potatoes for white ones, brown rice instead of white....whole grain breads instead of white. Google the low glycemic diet and learn how to balance the right types of carbs with the right foods. This will help weight management and will can prevent type 2 diabetes.

Organic food is great but the budget gets in the way when you first change over. After you've eaten organically for a while you will notice you eat less because you are getting more nutrition and you are being satisfied earlier in the meal. After a while the budget will balance out and you can start purchasing everything organically. Produce from Washington State and Oregon state standards are up to federal organic requirements so go to Washington for your apples instead of locally... :)

Avoid fast foods and processed ones. Most restaurants have the same supplier and have loads of chemicals in their foods. Unless you go to a place that makes things from scratch, I guarantee you are getting too many chemicals...and even some of those type restaurants don't use the best foods. Make eating out a treat.

Consider detoxing your home as well. People absorb chemicals through their skin and respiratory system just like they do ingesting foods. It's actually quite simple and inexpensive the way I did it. If you're interested, let me know...

Hope this helps.
M.

Sprouts has a gluten free guide you can pick up in the store for free or look at their website.

I don't personally have any experience with this, but these look like GREAT places to start! Good luck!
http://glutenfreemommy.com/a-frugal-healthy-grocery-budget/

http://www.whattofeedyourkids.blogspot.com/