Just a FYI on WIC (Woman, Infants & Children), it goes very well with McDougalling. Things are a bit tight right now, but the WIC foods really, really help and our coupons all fit in the McDougall plan. You have to be under 185% of the poverty level (http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/wic-income- ... -2013-2014) and have a nutritional risk to qualify for the program. Because I am on a WFPB diet, I qualify with "limited diet" as the nutritional risk.
Our family WIC for a month for an exclusively breastfeeding mother of a 4mo. old and another child under 5 (only pregnant/nursing mothers & children under 5 receive WIC - there are actually 8 of us), no diary/meat diet is this:
4lbs of grains (only whole grains, can be 4 loaves of WW bread, rice, oatmeal, etc.
4 boxes of cereal
4 lbs of tofu
3 gallons of soy milk
4 - 15 oz cans of beans
1 lb of dry beans, peas, etc
3 cans of frozen juice 100% concentrate
2 bottles (64oz) 100% juice
1 - 18oz jar of peanut butter
$16 voucher for fruits/veg, can be frozen or fresh, no mixes and no potatoes
They also printed 6 cans of tuna, 1 lb of cheese, 2 dozen eggs & 2 gallons of milk on the latest month of coupons, because of course we can't survive without those... I will reexplain and ask for no animal products the next time I go in...
I"m very thankful that this program is available to us at this point in my life. It is so nice to see that pile of veggies as I check out. There are no substitutions and no exceptions allowed in the program. You get the food that is printed or nothing. Everything is whole grain and 100%, and only store brand or certain brands (I have a little book of the allowed foods that I carry to the store). At one store, they don't even allow sweet potatoes because of the potato exclusion. It averages out to something like $100/month looking back at my receipts.