Making the change to clean eating sounds daunting. I really sympathize because it's not just about replacing what you used to eat, its about making different choices completely and it takes time. Its a process and you must be patient especially with a child who can be combative about eating new foods.
Some of the brands that I find to be pretty "clean" are the Enjoy Life Brand, Van's, Amy's, Sugar and Spice Market, Jason's, Mara Natha, Plum Kids, Hain, Bob's Red Mill, Frontier, Dr. Praeger, Rudi's, Ian's and Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cheese.
Enjoy Life has some great cookies that are GF/CF and corn free. My son loves their sugar cookies which only have 3.5 grams of sugar per cookie! Enjoy Life also makes chocolate chips for baking that are made with non alcoholic (meaning no corn) chocolate liquor.
Vans is awesome because they label their foods with all the allergens that have been removed including CORN!! Right now corn is not considered one of the top 8 food allergens so many brands do not call it out and you must then decipher the ingredients to see if corn is hidden in there somewhere. With Vans there is no guessing! They make a tasty cinnamon cereal, granola bars and multi-grain crackers (although I use these sparingly as I have tried to remove most processed foods from our diets).
Amy's makes a delicious GF/CF and corn free cheese pizza and the cheese tastes like mozzarella! Can't go wrong for a quick meal.
Sugar and Spice Market all purpose flour is amazing and I use it to bake with a lot. I make GF/CF pancakes and they are loved by everyone in my family. I have also spoken with them on a couple of occasions and their customer service is top notch. They answered every question I had about their flour.
Bob's Red Mill is another great brand for all kinds of flour. They have a wide variety and I buy their almond and coconut flours for making muffins. Going grain free is liberating and when I eat these muffins I have no idea that they are grain free. They are just YUM.
Jason's and Mara Natha make almond butter and chocolate almond butter. They are both pretty low in sugar. Need I say more?
Plum kids makes fruit crushers that are purely fruit with no citric or ascorbic acid, meaning no corn! I throw them in my kids lunchboxes when I'm in a rush and can't cut up fresh fruit. I like the berry ones and so do my kids.
Hain makes a baking powder that is corn free!!
Rudi's is the bread of choice if we are making sandwiches. Its GF/CF and corn free. Its soft when you toast it and has a really great flavor. Its by far the best gluten free bread I have tried and I have tried almost all of them!!
Frontier makes a non-alcoholic vanilla flavoring. Wonderful for for baking.
Dr. Praegers makes GF/CF fish sticks, broccoli and spinach bites that are made with potato. Nice way to get those extra veggies in.
Ians makes letter potatoes that my kids love because they spell words out with them and they contain no gluten, dairy or corn.
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese was the ONLY cheese I could find that was truly casein (dairy free) and that also did not have pea fiber in it. Cole happens to have an intolerance to green peas. So we got the block of mozzarella and I put it on his grilled cheeses, quesadillas, and burgers.
Everything else I cook for my kids is from scratch or is a whole food. We eat turkey, grass fed red meat, grilled chicken, salmon, cod and pastured pork. Our sides are usually potatoes or brown rice (from California) and vegetables. I cook with olive oil (extra virgin unrefined and cold pressed), coconut oil and sometimes grape seed oil.
I hope this information can help you break into cleaner eating. I'm not going to lie, its more expensive. I shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Natural Foods Warehouse and Kroger. I have to say that Kroger is amazing at carrying almost all of these brands so I usually can get what I need when I am there.
When I tell you that I had nightmares about pulling all these foods from my kid's diets, it would be an understatement but looking back, it really wasn't that hard to do. Now Jake is eating much cleaner as he wants to try all of Cole's foods and he seems to really enjoy them. So I didn't have to force him, I just let psychology do its work and he is now eating almost as good as his brother. I also give him a pro biotic and a whole food multi-vitamin everyday.
I'm glad Cole presented with TS at 5 years old because he was still young enough where I could change his diet and teach him better and healthier eating habits. I'm hoping these habits will remain with him throughout his life.
Recipes in my next blog!!
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