"Failsafe" eating

For the past few weeks I have been looking at the food we eat, and making changes. We always ate what I would have thought of as a reasonably healthy diet, but after chatting to one of the other Mums at Alfie's school, I did a bit more research and started to wonder.
The first big shock was to find out that many of the additives which have been banned for years at home are perfectly legal and very commonly used here. So in looking through my larder imagine my horror when I discovered the "straight to wok" singapore noodles I had in stock were coloured with not only Sunset Yellow, but a dash of Tartrazine for good measure. Both illegal in the UK. That was enough for me, we had a mass clearout and I am now very careful as I do the weekly shopping, reading labels as I go while I get used to what's safe and what isn't.
Next was the serious web searching with reference to behaviour in kids etc. Alfie, although reasonably bright, has the concentration span of a gnat which can impact his school work and regularly gets him in trouble. The teacher says words to the effect of "I know he's able to do the work, he's just too busy chatting, or watching the fly that's buzzing around, anything, it's such a shame" Add to that the silly and often extremely defiant behaviour at home from both of them and I find I'm at the end of my tether quite often. I know they're only little, but they seem to be a lot more difficult to handle than some of the other kids I meet.
I found a website by a lady called Sue Denham, and a book by her too called "Fed Up". She talks about not only nasty additives, but also the fact that children can be affected by natural chemicals in foods (such as salicylates and amines) leading to big problems for some, and having no effect whatever on others. The website can tell it all far better than I can,
http://fedup.com.au/
but suffice it to say we've been having a bit of a go at following the ideas behind it.
 It seems very odd, because we've actually had to reduce the amount of fruit the boys would normally eat, but keep up with certain veggies ( the old fashioned ones like cabbage and swede) and other normal things. It would be hard to be very rigid with it I think, but I guess if you had a child with serious issues it would be worth a try.
Anyway, Alfie's teacher has called me over at pick-up a few times recently to say he's been much better at getting on with his work/ eating his lunch etc. Then last Monday after a particularly slack weekend when Brian was away and we went, amongst other places, to McDonalds, she called me over to say she didn't know what had gone wrong, but he'd had a dreadful day. He'd even been in the naughty corner. Only then did I tell her about the food thing, she'd had no idea, and we had to conclude there may be something in it.
So I'm baking my own fairy cakes and oaty biscuits called Anzacs that are popular here. It's actually great as it reminds me of my own childhood days, and I'd got rather lazy about such things. The boys of course love it too. Licking out the bowl, nibbling warm cakes or biscuits, and getting to add ingredients or give a stir. I'd forgotten how lovely that all is.
So here's to food of all kinds, but particularly stuff without the additives (or too much salicylate). And here also is to my being able to keep up the momentum of a somewhat restricted diet for long enough to really, really test out if it works.
Wish me luck!