The "No Sugar Added" Challenge

So, the hubby and I watched a documentary about food. We've done this many times, and are very aware of the decline of the quality of our food here in the United States. It's a big problem, but after watching most documentaries, I feel that I can rationalize my actions to continue eating the way I do. It seems that you can argue for and against eating meat, for and against having some dairy, for and against eating all organic or going Paleo or Gluten-free. But after watching the documentary "FED UP" http://fedupmovie.com I really did feel fed up with the abundance of unhealthy food. Fed up with how the food industry is making us sick. Fed up with how government has yet to take a serious stance against the powerful food lobby (and they are very powerful). But very glad that I watched the movie. It talks about a number of issues with our food, but deducts that the most pressing one is the amount of sugar we consume as a society. Sugar that is not just in sweets, candies and breads, but in things that shouldn't have sugar, like TOMATO SAUCE. Sugar in canned tomatoes with flavor additives. Sugar in flavored waters, in yogurt, in baby food and baby formulas. After watching the movie, hubby and I couldn't just go to bed as if we had watched another episode of "Modern Family". Instead, we went to our pantry and threw out the left-over candy from easter. We know that as a family our crux has always been our addiction to sweets. We've always justified that having dessert every day after dinner is fine because we eat fairly healthy and stay away from sodas and fruit juices. But we didn't realize that we were so dependent on high amounts of sugar. So we've taken up a 10-day "no sugar added" challenge. And it is a big challenge. I will be posting what we've eaten every day for the next 10 days--a food diary of sorts. The whole family is involved, although we've come to realize that the children may not stick to the "no sugar added" verbatum. But they will not be having desserts or sugary snacks. So what is off limits? Any processed food with sugar added. This means: breads, cereals, anything that has had sugar added to it. We can eat fruits, vegetables, proteins. legumes and starches, like rice and potatoes. It doesn't sound too dificult but I can tell you that giving up sugar will be difficult for our family.