Hi N.~
My family and I eat no refined sugar or white flour (almost 100%). We love it and all feel very good with our diet. We take it a few steps farther and eat purely vegetarian, which has many health benefits as well.
It's a great idea to avoid commercial, non-organic sugars now more than ever as Kellogg's and other companies are about to begin using Genetically Modifed beet sugar in their products without labeling it as such.
As for advice on some alternatives:
Replace sugar with honey or (our favorite) agave nectar. It comes from the agave plant and has a mild flavor that is quite sweet and is a 7 on the glycemic index (meaning that it won't spike and drop your energy the way white flour and sugar will. They are in the 200s range on the index). Also, if you need a granulated form of sweetener, try turbinado sugar or evaporated cane juice crystals.
My kids have never had anything different and they don't even know what the candy is at the checkout. They love eating dried fruit which is quite sweet. Their favorite dried treats are dates (a special treat that is very sweet), apricots, figs, mango slices... With dried fruit I make sure it does not have sulphur dioxide in it as a preservative, which is really not very good for the body and is easily avoided by checking the ingredients.
Which reminds me, CHECK THE LABLES! For us, our rule of thumb is if we can't pronounce it and don't know what it is, we don't eat it. That simplifies things a lot.
Try shopping at Trader Joe's. They have lots of organic stuff and truly, their prices are not much, if any, higher than non-organic food. And refined processed food is more expensive than simpler foods anyway. Whole Foods is a little more pricey but they have some things Joe's does not.
Ok, my last piece of advice for this letter: Try the grain called Quinoa. It is a complete protein, tastes delicious (slightly nutty flavor), and has lots of great nutrition in it. It cooks just like rice (2 parts water, one part quinoa... put it all in the pot with a lid, boil rapidly, add olive oil and/or seasoning salt if you desire and stir, (do not stir or remove the lid anymore), reduce heat and continue to boil for 10-12 minutes with lid on, turn off heat without removing the lid and it will finish cooking without burning.)
Diet and nutrition affect every asspect of life. It is a really great decision to become more informed and selective about what you and your family are eating (or not eating).
Best wishes,
L.
PS~ feel free to contact me with any other questions.