So we have been keeping track
 

and decided to fill the kids in on what we noticed. Simon gets into trouble at school after lunch, a carb filled overly sugary lunch. Lala tends to get really irritable if she has too much sugar and easy carbs. Justin gets more flighty with the same types of food (flighty as in you tell him something and two minutes later he has forgotten). Gav is the hardest. He will "forget" to eat, get really irritable, load up on a bean and cheese burrito fest, get really happy, then an hour later he's irritable again.

So, we clued the kids in on their behaviors in relation to their food intake. All of them seem extremely sensitive to sugar intake and two of them have trouble with dairy, though only Gav seems to react negatively in a behavioral sense to dairy. Simon just gets all snotty (literally snot coming out of the nose, spitting up snot, etc.) which leads to tummy aches, so he hasn't had dairy in a few years. We explained that the easy carbs (white foods) will be gone, and we will limit the use of grains.

This discussion went well with the younger three but Gav started saying, "well, when I'm not home I'll eat whatever I want.....etc etc" I simply told him, "that is your decision, but don't think you will walk into the house all grumpy because you want to eat whatever you want." OK so this leads to him having an all out fit because I called him "grumpy". GRRRRRRRR OK, he's 15, I can't control what he eats at school or with his friends, but I don't think it was wrong for me to point out that I don't want to deal with the aftermath of his bad eating. So, how do I get through a discussion about diet with a child who obviously doesn't want to change his eating habits and is in complete denial about the effects of his bad diet?

Re: So we have been keeping track
 

:think would he be willing to conduct an experiment for 30 days, keeping a food journal (what eaten, when), and noting how he feels, and how others perceive him in the few hours following that? and/or giving your suggestions a try for 30 days, keeping track, then after that re-evaluating?

Re: So we have been keeping track
 

Oh, Don't Engage! Just say "well, that's true enough, but this is what we are doing in our family. Even a little change will help" and then move on. Maybe not event hat much, just "that's true, I guess you can" and change the subject to something else, like what lala might like to eat instead of white grains .

Teenagers love to pick fights. Well, preteens do too? But in a neutral time, go back to him and say "hey you had a good point about being able to eat what you want, would you be willing to....(insert Anika's suggestion"

Re: So we have been keeping track
 

Thank you!! I think I'll combine those two ideas like Marsha said. Just, in front of the others don't engage and then maybe have a nice discussion later. He's 15 and honestly, part of me thinks he LIKES pushing buttons. It's like having a two year old with a massive vocabulary and he's taller now. But it feels like that same fight for independence that a two year old has. You know, saying "no" just to see what happens at 2 yrs. old turns into arguing every detail in the teenage years.

Re: So we have been keeping track
 

YES!!! (Or at 10 in my daughtter's case LOL) Plus, he wants to feel independent. So acknowledging that why yes in fact he can eat outside the home....defuses that a bit.