Making the Transition to Whole Foods
A typical child's diet contains high amounts of refined grains, processed foods, sugar and fats. It is not a major catastrophe to sometimes let your children eat these foods. Children love a special treat and it is often hard to avoid it at birthday parties and other events. But if these foods are the majority of your children’s everyday diet, their health will suffer. Filling up on foods that provide little nutritional benefit can cause serious nutritional deficiencies. Before giving your children processed food or sugary snacks, a good question to ask yourself is what whole foods have your children eaten that day that can provide the nutrients they need. The majority of your children's diet should be whole foods.

An organic, whole foods diet may seem a little overwhelming at first, if this is completely new to you. Relax, go slowly, and have fun with it. You don't have to make major changes overnight. Start by making small changes to your family's diet. If your children have been exposed to a lot of unhealthy foods and do not have very good eating habits; that's okay. It's never too late to start healthy eating. It's amazing how quickly poor health disappears when good nutrition is established.

Choosing Whole Foods
You may be pleasantly surprised at how delicious and readily available whole foods can be. Brown rice is a delicious whole grain that can be added to many recipes. You may want to introduce brown rice to your family slowly, at first, by mixing it with the white rice they are used to. You can also try brown basmati rice, buckwheat groats or whole grain bulgur if you feel adventurous.

Fortunately, whole, organic foods are becoming more readily available, since there is a growing awareness of the necessity of these foods. I live in a small city that has at least three large health food stores with an abundance of bulk, organic, whole foods. Bulk foods are cheaper and better for the environment than buying the already packaged foods. I find a huge variety of beans, nuts, seeds and grains as well as excellent organic produce at these stores. Delicious whole grain breads, cookies and crackers are also available. Try to find a natural foods store in your community.

You may also be able to join a food buying coop. Coops are great because you can get excellent whole foods at wholesale prices and share the cost with other families. In addition, there are a growing number of organic farmers who sell their produce at Farmers' markets. Unfortunately, you may live in an area that does not have such an abundance of healthy foods. If so, there are some things to keep in mind when shopping at a typical grocery store.

Reading Labels to Determine What is Whole Grain
It may be difficult to determine what is whole grain and what is refined. Some food companies will try to make you think you are buying something that is whole grain when, in fact, it is refined. If a whole grain is listed first, the bread is mostly whole grain. Whole wheat, oats, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, millet and popcorn are whole grains. Wheat flour, unbleached wheat flour or enriched flour are refined. If the label says "made with whole wheat", the product is often refined. If you find labels that say cracked wheat, multi-grain, oat bran, seven or nine-grain, stoned wheat, wheat, rye bread, wheatberry or whole bran, you are looking at mostly refined grains.

The pasta you find in most grocery stores is usually not whole grain, although this is beginning to change. Ask your grocery manager to stock whole-wheat pasta. There are several companies that sell whole grain pastas, but usually these are found in natural foods stores. There are pastas made from spelt, amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa and other grains that can be delicious.

There are some cereals found in a typical grocery store that are made from whole grains. These include oatmeal, granola, muesli, Grape-Nuts, Shredded Wheat and Wheatena.