by Cyndi Thomas, ND

When I announced that my family needed to change its diet somewhat... well, to say my children weren't as excited as me would be an understatement.

More than once they cried: What? Salad again! When are we going to have some real food?

My understanding reply was usually, "This is dinner...eat it or starve." After all, I had taken it upon myself to get my family in best possible health -- NO MATTER WHAT!

I had decided no more junk food. We were going to sprout alfalfa and have produce delivered by truck once a week. We were going to have meals made up of just fruits and vegetables. We were going to drink juice made from... gulp, barley grass and carrots. My kids were going to be thrilled with change!

So I sat them down -- all seven of them -- and gave a brilliant lecture on importance of good nutrition. I even had charts and graphs. I knew that once they understood, change wouldn't be a problem at all. After all, I had intelligent kids. They would understand. Right? Wrong!

C'mon mom... do you really mean no more hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream, brownies, potato chips and soda pop. You don't expect me to give up soda pop -- DO YOU?

I no longer recommend anyone do what I did. My path to healthy living was paved with good intentions. But my family suffered potholes that accompanied my attempt to overhaul their eating habits overnight.

You won't have to endure as much agony. I've compiled a few guidelines to make such a transition easier for caring mother (or father) wanting what's best for her or his family: 1. Do not say anything to family about what is to transpire. (The exception here is if family already has an excellent, above-average level of communication and they would rather have apples instead of Ding-Dongs for dessert!) So like I said, "Don't say anything."

2. Without comment -- and over a period of months -- meals should gradually become more nutritious.

3. To complement to regular meat main course, you serve lightly steamed vegetables and a tossed green salad. Less high-fat dairy products, fried foods, pre-prepared foods and canned foods appear on table.

4. Make a deal with kids: We eat like I say five days a week... twice weekly, you can pick menu. Most kids would be agreeable to that. Mine were. Of course, it took me a month to realize importance of letting them choose occasionally.

(It was during that month that my then 16-year-old son came home one night with two large pepperoni pizzas. He walked in with a smile and a grin-delivered greeting: "Gee mom, you work so hard. I thought I'd take care of dinner tonight!" With his minimum wage salary from sacking groceries, takeout pizza was something he couldn't afford very often.) The transition is much smoother when mom AND Dad agree on diet change. Still rule is less fanfare, better. Slowly introduce more nutritious menus and set a good example of eating and enjoying. Make positive comments about how good vegetables taste -- and how good they are for body.

I've been doing some extensive research on supplements. The information I'm discovering points to importance of getting our nutrients from whole foods. Science is beginning to realize that our bodies use whole foods better than vitamins, which are bits and pieces and parts of whole food.

It's no accident, they tell us, that an apple, for example, is filled with a hundred or more different vitamins and nutrients (and, as yet, unidentifiable "good stuff") that are designed to work TOGETHER to feed our bodies well and to energize us. There's Truth in old saying: "An apple a day, keeps doctor away." That apple, a whole food, "knows" how to protect and build up our immune system to keep us healthy!

All Nature's Gifts are designed in that way: Nutritious foods like fruits and veggies - apples, oranges, bananas, pineapple, grapes; carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, corn, string beans.