Mind Fodder!

So I am reading yet another book. This one is "The 100 Year Old Lie", by Randall Fitzgerald and I wanted to point out some figures from his book for all you non-believers that nutrition is so important. (Obviously Nutrition is something we have control over...the environment on the other hand..)

DEATH IN AMERICA - 1900

Heart Disease 1% (Heart attacks were rare and almost unheard of by Doctors)
Cancer 3% (breast cancer in the 1960's rose to 1 in 20 women now it is 1 in 3)
Chronic Respiratory Diseases practically non-existent in the US
Diabetes .10% (one tenths of one percent)



DEATH IN AMERICA - 2006

Heart Disease 26 %
Cancer 23.1 %
Chronic Respiratory Diseases 7.4 %
Diabetes 3 %

So what has changed in these past 106 years?

Diet and the Environment that surrounds us. From the air we breathe, to the food we eat and the water we drink...even the chair you are sitting on! These burdens on our bodies has made this past 100 years of technological, pharmaceutical and chemical advancements, which were meant to improve our quality of life, has actually done the opposite. Look at the numbers again!

I cannot control the air I breathe. Well lets face it there is a lot I cannot control. BUT, I can control what I feed and rub on my body. What I clean my house with, spray on my hair and paint on my walls. I can eat organic, non-processed foods. No Sugar, No White Flour and No Hydrogenated Oils!

I have been detoxing my body and my house and I feel better for it!

As far as nutrition goes, I have started to call this the Quarter Pounder Diet! In the last 3 months of eating this way my husband and I have both lost on average a quarter of a pound a day of excess fat! I look great and best best best of all, I feel great.

Just something the chew on other than that artificial sweetener laced gum!

Another Reason to Read These Two Books!

My Sister sent me this link http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090714104002.htm . Every parent needs to read this article if they still need convincing that they are what they eat! And that your children are what YOU ate! There is no time like the present to change the eating habits of yourself and your family. I believe strongly that Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price hits the nail on the head. He has case study after case study about the effects of malnourishment - thus leading to malabsorbition of certain vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins and enzymes, that are in charge of running our bodies from the top down. If you eat fast food, you will live a fast life full of disorders, disease and discomfort. It is so important to learn about proper nutrition. You have to seek this information out on your own because it is not what we were taught in health class. My family has stopped eating hydrogenated oils, white sugar, white flour and anything that contains these items. This means all prepackage foods and all restaurant food. In the past three months of us doing this, My husband has dropped all excess weight as have I and our son has gained healthy weight, his speech has improved, his cognitive skills have vastly improved and so on and so on. I started this before I read Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon because my husband and I were going crazy trying to figure out what was wrong with our son. I thought I was feeding my family healthfully but as soon as I took Colin off sugar (I literally threw it all out of my kitchen) we noticed a change within the first three days. He wasn't banging his head on the walls and screaming for no reason. He was able to fully communicate when before he was frustrated that he could not articulate his thoughts into words and fixed the emotional issues that corresponded to these frustrations. The changes were so dramatic I had to educate myself to why. Then it snowballed. I continue my self education on proper nutrition, not government issued agricultural commodity driven nutrition. In a world where people are suffering from degenerative diseases as early as childhood. In a world where it has become TV market place for drugs and diabetes monitors, something has to change. I may not be able to change the world but I can change mine. And you can change yours. So when the rest of the world is suffering from aliment after ailment due to nutritional deficiencies, blindly taking a pill to treat this symptom or that, my family and I will be around happy, healthy and disease free. I have always wanted to be Queen anyway :) Survival of the fittest you know!

Some Things that Get My Goat!

You know what bugs me....
USDA Requires Sterilization of almonds that are packaged in the US from California and since almost all of the almonds found in the supermarkets are from there you are not getting raw almonds, even though they say on the package they are. This means that they will not sprout! So if you want to enjoy the nutrients of almonds, you will have to buy them from a foreign source like the almonds you can find in the Indian food section, however you have to assume these are not grown organically unless stated otherwise and I have yet to find any. Or you can buy them in the shell and crack them yourself then sprout them.... Just a random thought but it does irritate me.

AND...Bottled water. I am an avid drinker of bottled water (do not worry, I recycle) more recently Nestle Pure Life. Sounds pretty "pure" right? Then I read the back of the bottle and found the source... Dallas Municipal Water Supply! If I freaking wanted to drink tap water I would drink our Houston water. How misleading advertising can be!!! This coming from someone who has been in the advertising business since college. Duped. So please read the source of your bottled water before you buy it. They are not going to put that in their pretty logo you have to turn it around.

You know what else bugs me, MSG (Monosodium glutamate) which has been attributed to allergies ranging from serious to mild like sneezing (as in my little brother), does NOT have to be listed on the ingredient label of any food that contains it. Isn't that irritating!!!!! Some things you may never know have it like sausage, bacon, beef jerky, even some spices...they put the stuff in everything. One more reason not to buy prepackage foods. BUT...just when you thought it was safe the EPA approves the use of processed free glutamic acid (MSG) in sprays that are used on fruit, grains, veggies and other vegetation, like herbs! Not to mention that these items do not come with labels so we really have no way of know what has been sprayed on them, absorbed into them and bioaccumulating in our own bodies! It makes me wonder about processed free glutamic acid is even used on organic produce since it is not defined properly by the FDA. Hummm???

And since I am on the subject of MSG....

These "natural" products are showing up all over the supermarkets now a days. Great Right? Wrong! Did you know this is an advertising ploy!!!! The Food and Drug Admin has no formal definition for natural like it does for organic. It just means that it is minimally processed with no artificial flavors, colors, synthetic ingredients or chemical preservatives. Now that kind of makes you wonder about MSG, since these "natural" chickens are usually injected with "stock" as a "natural" flavor enhancer and we all know most commercially made stocks have MSG in them, wether the label says so or not! And I guess I should mention that MSG does not have to be synthetically made (although it can be) as I have mentioned above called process free glutamic acid can occur when certain enzymes and proteins are combined during the processing of the product. FDA regulations allow certain MSG containing ingredients to be included under the label descriptions; Flavor, Flavoring, Natural Flavors and Natural Flavoring with out mentioning process free glutamic acid (MSG) which would "naturally" scare consumers away. So "naturally" I am a little pissed.

Conflicting Data

OK, so I have been thinking, if 90% of the beneficial nutrients in whole wheat have been lost within 72 hours of grinding it into flour, there is no point in buying store bought whole wheat flour to make bread. It is a compromised food, devoid of any nutrients and acts as an anti nutrient since your body has to remove your own enzyme stores for the digestion and metabolism of the bread that is made with it. RIGHT? So I bought my own whole wheat (organic obviously) to grind. I just used a coffee grinder which didn't give a light airy flour like I am used too but it is not as corse as say corn meal (I digress), anywho...then I went to ferment my sponge (since I am making sourdough bread I will call it proofing) and it has to do this for about 12 hours (overnight). So I got to thinking, if it only takes 72 hours for the flour I laboriously ground in small batches to be oxidized thus raped of it's nutrients after being ground, then being mixed with my starter, then being proofed, then being kneaded (I do not have a bread machine) then rising, then being cooked killing all of the enzymes which are necessary for the digestion of the bread anyway, how many nutrients will we actually get from it? That is assuming we can eat all the bread within the 72 hour time limit for total oxidization. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon stated that all grains should be fermented to aid in digestion. Since I am reading yet another book on Enzyme Nutrition, I now understand why this must be done. For those who do not know, adding whey or lemon juice to your flour and water acts as pre -digestion so your body has to use less of it's own enzyme stores saving your tummy some work and allowing your body to focus on other important jobs...like writing this blog, that no one reads :). So this step if you haven't sprouted your wheat is an important one. So the enzymes have done their work by the time I murder them in my oven. But then Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price states that making bread from freshly ground whole wheat to be used that day will provide the most nutrient dense bread. So.....how can I meet these two expectations? Anyone? Anyone? Oh yeah, the sourdough bread turned out pretty darn good! If you want some, you had better get a slice before it isn't good for you anymore.

In Progress

So this is my first real blog!!! Yeah me. Just another avenue for me to bother random people about the reeducation and "betterment" of nutrition and the importance proper nourishment has on every level of our lives. It is a sad state of affairs when a 32 year old mother of one, learned the lesson of proper nutrition after her crippled uterus was removed. 10 some odd years of misdiagnosis from mystery pains and illness said to be a wheat-allergy and actually I just had a hole that wouldn't heal. It makes me wonder what could have been if I had read these books in my 20's. Maybe I could have kept it. Why are these lessons not taught? It is my sincerest hope, my greatest wish and my new life quest to educate all who will listen (or read in this case) about the importance of reeducating, reprogramming if you will, what our society has come to believe nutrition is. Everyone HAS to read these two books, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon!!!