Friday, July 25, 2008

What not to eat

Basic of nutrition
I have a degree in Exercise and Sports Science and a master’s degree in health and yet none of what I learned regarding nutrition would I ever want to teach anyone. The food pyramid is ridiculous – probably funded by the markets promoted by it.

SH turned his health problems with psoriasis around by focusing on every single bite that went in his mouth. God has given this earth a bounty of nutrients in the vast food supply on this planet. Our princess sprout suffered with ear infections. Our Wildman Prince Charming Sprout suffered with acid reflux. I suffered with Epstein Barr, fibromyalgea, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, headaches, migraines, trembles, sleep disruption and more…all of this for all of us was reversed by diet (and a few supplements). The brownies at the potluck are simply not worth the misery that repeated “oh just this once” moments creates.

Some might get irritated by our strict adherance to our rules, but I just don’t even blink twice anymore because what we do works. We don’t deal with flus that go ravaging through our home keeping us out of commission for a month as we all fight it…we hardly ever get colds…we feel really great, most of the time, so I have never looked back.

I want to share it with whoever reads it hoping that some will be inspired to make changes that could change their lives.

What we don’t eat
1. SUGAR. Period. It’s never in our house. Sugar is viewed by your liver as pure poison. It’s been out of our home since Jan. 2005. There is nothing in it that we need and it needs to be processed and gotten rid of, causing the body to divert energy like fighting viruses to getting rid of this invader. Studies have shown that 150 mg of sugar reduce the immune system by half for 5 hours!!! It’s not that a “cold is going around” – instead it’s that your body was not strong enough at the moment it came in contact with your body to defend itself. You are constantly surrounded by strep, staph, viruses, and other pathogens and most of the time your body can defend itself, but when weakened by stress, lack of sleep, or diet it opens the window to infection. Without sugar, SH has had 2 years in his classroom without catching a single cold. And it contributed to the disappearance of his body wide psoriasis. If your body is battling inflammatory diseases like Epstein Barr, Fibromyalgea, arthritis, auto-immune diseases like lupus, cancer then your body needs all the resources it can get to successfully fight these diseases. If you are constantly depleted, how can you overcome a long-term virus like Epstein Barr (aka. Chronic fatigue syndrom)?

2. No wheat. Now this one is hard to be 100% on, although I would like to be. It bogs the digestive system down. It creates a sticky type mucous in the skin tissues that cause psoriasis outbreaks. It contributes to excess mucous – ear infections, sinus infections, bronchitis, long-lasting colds. It can cause symptoms that range from fibromyalgea to just a feeling of being in the fog. I feel awesome when wheat is out of my diet completely. I think I even have noticed less grumpiness in the Sprouts. I’d attribute this to more stable sugar levels in their systems as wheat products cfause a surge in blood sugar and then a quick drop.

3. No dairy. I simply am sensitive to it and it single-handedly was the nauto-imminumber one factor in causing my son’s acid reflux/stomach aches and my daughter’s ear infections. If you don’t see any problems with it then it might be OK for you. We try to use raw milk if we do get it. I will someday blog about that. Basically, homogenized and pasteuroized milk is dead and is contributing to many diseases. The benefits of milk are stripped by these processes.

4. no processed foods. We cook from scratch, making food in bulk for future convenience.

5. No hydrogenated oils at all. No corn syrup. No nitrites/nitrates (found in lunch meats, hot dogs, and other processed meats).

2 comments:

Tipper said...

Very interesting post. So true what we eat effects us in every way.

Anonymous said...

Ah, yes. Such good tips. I'm going to try and do my best with eating better so that I will hopefully not get any flu this year and get stronger physically. I'm so excited to start my new look at life from behind a pile of gorgeous veggies.