Archive for Food Additives

Toxic Drinks for Pregnant Moms and Their Babies? It’s Part of the System.

I’m on a mission:  I want to convince everyone that we all have the power to be in charge of our own health care.  I want to convince everyone that handing over your health to the Conventional Medical System (Big Phuvernment**) is crazy.  I’m not saying doctors are useless, but that our bodies have ENORMOUS capacity to heal and regenerate; and if we invest some time in learning what makes the body run well, and then taking the actions to implement what we’ve learned, our health, our energy, our outlook on life, could be so Optimal. Like I always say, no one is sick because they’re deficient in meds, no one. 

Do you ever read FoodBabe?  You should, she’s an activist who’s been a driving force in getting a few Big Companies to quit using  deadly chemicals in their food products.  Her post yesterday was on the glucose drink they feed to Pregnant Mothers when we go in for the glucose test.  I want to say that again:  the drink they have pregnant mothers, and the little babies growing inside of them, drink to test for gestational diabetes.

Here’s the Ingredient List, read it and weep that babies get soaked in this crap:

glucose drink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s enough toxic chemicals in that drink to kill a bird, and yet it’s given to pregnant women and their babies.  Please read the whole article here,  it’s pretty enlightening.

News about the Medical Establishment failing us isn’t new, and statistics are astounding.  Here’s some words from Dr. Mercola’s post today on the Dangers of Modern Medicine:

Preventable medical mistakes are the third-leading cause of death in the US, right after heart disease and cancer. In all, preventable medical mistakes may account for one-sixth of all deaths that occur in the US annually. Despite spending more on health care than the next 10 biggest spenders combined, the US ranks last in health and mortality when compared with 17 other developed nations. We may have one of the best systems for treating acute surgical emergencies, but the American medical system clearly gets an “F” when it comes to treating chronic illness.

Please don’t blindly throw yourselves at the mercy of your doctor, the pharmaceutical Meg Macchu Pichucompanies, Big Food, and the Government.  You ARE capable of staying healthy, improving your health, and losing weight if you need too.

Real Whole Food, sleep, controlling your stress, and exercise, these are the foundations for Optimal Health, and they’re all within our control.  Evaluate where you are with each of those factors. We can always take steps to improve our health, and it’s never too late to start.  Carve out some time to make a plan, then post the plan everywhere. Commit to your plan! Don’t wait for next week or next month, start now.  You have the power and the ability, now use it.  Let me know if you need help, or a jump start.  I’m good at that!

On a less serious note, here’s a picture of my oldest daughter, Megan, who’s in Peru. This is Machu Picchu.

Remember, Mark and I are doing a Partner Detox next week while we’re on the Low Carb Cruise.  We’ll be posting and/or facebooking every day about the steps we’re taking in the Detox.  If you’re not friends with me on FB and you want to be, find me under Debbie Brockett Abbott.

**Big Phuvernment: the sexual union of Big Food, Big Pharma, and our Government

 

Blood Chemistry Analysis and Health Pearls

5 of us snorkelingMy blog’s been a little quiet lately because I’m having a few issues with it. I’ve got help on the way and by the end of this week, all should be well in Rock Solid Land:)

I’m writing regardless because I have so much information to pass along.   I attended a seminar this weekend where I was trained in Blood Chemistry Analysis!  Oh My Gosh was it fascinating!  I’ve got a computer program which allows me to input data from any blood panel, along with personal and specific health information.  The computer uses an algorithm to look at all the test results and information from an Integrative, Comprehensive point of view, and then spits out recommendations based on WHAT CAUSES THE SYMPTOMS, as opposed to a focus on just the symptoms alone.  It’s Brilliant!!  It also recommends supplements and foods to address those issues.

For instance, why is your blood pressure high? why are your cholesterol numbers off?  what’s up with the thyroid?  why are your sex hormones off?  what’s going on with your white blood cells? and so on and so on.

I’m installing the program this week, and after I work out the bugs, I’ll let you know.  I can’t wait to use this!

The doctor teaching this has FOUR medical degrees, plus he speaks multiple languages – smart man.  The pearls of health wisdom didn’t stop flowing, so let me pass some on in no particular order:

* If you have unresolved constipation, despite loads of fiber filled fruits and veggies, and a ton of water, think GALLBLADDER.  The gallbladder squirts bile into the small intestine. That bile is supposed to break down fats and CREATE PERISTALSIS IN YOU INTESTINES.  No Bile, No Peristalsis.

* Pumpkins and Sunflower seeds contain several nutrients that are good for bringing down an enlarged prostate.

* Raw eggs are Nutritional Powerhouses ( YES ME!!)  Their nutrients are more potent when undamaged by heat;  very gently cooked is good too.  Don’t do this with STORE BOUGHT EGGS.  Only with Farmer Eggs.

* Cortisol shuts down Gut Function.  Shuts It Down.  If you’ve worked with me, you know I talk about this all the time.  You can have the most perfect diet in the world, but it’s not benefitting you much if physical and/or mental stress are causing cortisol problems.   You’ll need to either employee stress reduction techniques and / or use adrenal supplements to normalize your cortisol.

* PPIs and other acid reducing drugs cause SEVERE NUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES AND EVEN DEATH. ( What did you think is the end result of severe nutrient deficiencies??)  Our body builds, runs, and repairs from nutrients.  We need a HIGHLY ACIDIC STOMACH, like the one God designed, to break down our foods, kill pathogens in the gut, trigger the pancreas and the gallbladder, and essentially flip the switch of every single digestive action from the gut to the butt.

* PPIs (acid reducers)  are only approved to be used for 6 to 14 weeks, and they’re NOT approved at all for children and babies.  Do you really want your child to NOT be able to get their nutrients?  They’re trying to GROW!

*Alzheimer’s and Dementia are the fastest growing conditions in the US.  7,000 Americans a MONTH are being diagnosed.   The brain is 60% fat.  Feed it, and don’t poison it with sugar, grains, or chemicals.

* Have you seen the recent news on pregnant women taking SSRIs and the link to Autistic babies?  Google it.

* Licorice ( not the candy kind, but the real herb) can raise low blood pressure, and DGL ( deglycerized licorice) can lower it.

*Take your Magnesium at bedtime on an empty stomach.  Magnesium binds to fat which can inhibit absorption.  You want that Mg inside your cells.

* Avoid prescription drugs as much as possible – their side effects are very real.
Every year, more than 2 million Americans suffer from serious adverse drug reactions. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these reactions cause about 100,000 deaths per year, making prescription drugs the fourth-leading cause of death in the country.

* If you’re eating real Sushi, raw meat, or  even cooked fish, take your HCl.  It’ll kill the bugs. ( Hydrochloric acid, the same thing our stomach makes – if it’s working.  It’s not working in most people.)

* You need great gut flora/bacteria to convert your T4 to T3 ( these are thyroid hormones).  You need lots of acid in the stomach to have great gut flora in your large intestine.

* Americans take about 75% of the Pharmaceuticals In The WORLD, yet remain fat and sick.   CDC predicts weight and disease rates will continue to climb for at least the next 30 years.  How are those pharmaceuticals working for us?

* Our health depends upon us treating our bodies like temples, not destroying it with drugs, sugar, grains, chemicals, and stress.  Take control of your health.  It really is in our own hands.

 

Chronic Constipation Isn’t From a Lack of Laxatives

Wow, I didn’t expect so many responses to Monday’s post on Amanda, Miralax, and the Manuka Honey!  Thank you all for your concern; she’s recovering, going to class, trying to be normal, and so far the new seizure drug isn’t causing any mood side effects; hope that continues to be the case.  She’s still a little beat up, but should be back to normal in another day or two.

vintage exlaxI definitely shocked a lot of you with that report on Miralax, as many of you wrote that your doctor has prescribed it for either your children, your older parents, or you’ve used that or other laxatives yourself.  American’s don’t spend $700 million a year on laxatives because they’re fun, Americans are chronically constipated.  NO ONE’S CONSTIPATED BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ENOUGH LAXATIVE IN THEM. NO ONE.  Laxative’s don’t even work for a lot of people, and yet, they keep taking them, or worse, they take more in an effort to make things work.

Here’s another shocker:  high fiber grains, and high fiber supplements can make things worse.  Grains/flours get reduced to glucose/sugar in the gut, and then they go on to wreck havoc with blood sugar, pH, and gut bacteria.  Fiber supplements? Here’s the ingredients in Benefiber:

Ingredient: Wheat dextrin                            benefiber
Benefiber Orange also contains Wheat dextrin, citric acid, natural orange flavor, potassium citrate, aspartame, gum acacia, acesulfame potassium, maltodextrin, lactose (milk), triglycerides, sucrose acetate isobutyrate (adds a trivial amount of sugar), modified cornstarch, yellow 6, red 40

GROSS! Wheat, chemicals, artificial sweeteners, food dyes, and cornstarch. YOU DON’T HAVE CONSTIPATION BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT CONSUMING THIS. Honest.

Why the chronic constipation?  So many reasons:  OTC and prescription meds ( which either change the pH of the gut, the motility of the gut, or both),  a diet full of sugars, grains, and chemicals;  sitting too much; not enough exercise;  EMOTIONS greatly affect the gut via either constipation or diarrhea;  and of course, the biggie what you’re NOT eating: tons of vegetables, fermented/cultured foods and drinks, fruit, good fats, good proteins, and lots and lots of water. ( hey, that sounds like a Real Whole Foods prescription!)

What if you’ve been on laxatives and fiber supplements for years?  You’ve upset the hairdolaxnormal bacterial environment, the normal pH environment, and conditioned (addicted)  the muscles along the gut wall that they’ll be stimulated by chemicals.  It’s going to take some time, along with a real consistent program, to get regular again.  Unfortunately, if living “kind of healthy”, with the occasional/few times a week meal or snack of constipation causing foods or meds is your norm, it’ll be hard to correct the constipation.  Persistence and consistency will be key to reversing this, but wouldn’t “normal” be great?  It’s within your grasp, you just need to be patient and vigilant about the habits and actions of your every day life.  There’s no secrets or tricks, it’s always about planning, shopping, packing, and cooking.  Always.

However, if you’re addicted to chemical stimulants to make you go to the bathroom, get in touch with me.  You’re going to need a program.

Our body wants to be fed it’s necessary nutrients every day, every meal.  Food ALWAYS has an effect, either good or bad.  Always. There are no neutral foods.

I’m going to link to a TED talk by Dr. Terry Wahls.  She’s not known for her work with constipation, but no one demonstrates how food affects us like she can.  No one.  She’s an MD who’s REVERSED her Multiple Sclerosis with FOOD.  Food is Medicine, or Food is Poison.  It’s an incredibly slow acting poison (thanks to our body constantly trying to repair itself), so the eventual toxicity/effects can take years to manifest. ( The average disease, from cancer, to heart disease, to diabetes, takes 20 years to develop.)  I honestly can’t think of a better example to demonstrate that our body and our brain, are the result of the manuka garlicfoods we eat every day.  Your child’s body and brain are the result of what they eat every day.   If you’re struggling with staying on track with a Real Whole Foods eating program, watch this youtube.  It’s short, but it’s very, very powerful and motivating.

Oh! One more thing!  About the Manuka honey, here’s my tried and true Immune Boosting Magic Elixir:   garlic that’s been allowed to “air” for 15 minutes (that activates it’s beneficial nutrients) with the honey.  I swear, it kills germs FAST.  Swallow fast without chewing and it’s no big deal, honest.

 

 

 

 

Food: The Good (my Green Smoothie), The Bad(Balance Bar), and The Ugly(Quaker Oats Bar)

I met with a nutrition client this week and our main discussion was gut issues, as in, she has Major Bloat every day, has for years, and it’s affecting her life.  Not a surprise, Bloat is epidemic;  these outward symptoms ( bloat, skin problems, heart burn, allergies, etc) are SIGNALS from our body that “all is not well” inside.  Everyone, listen to your body when it talks to you – seriously, it’s important.

The average disease, from cancer to diabetes to heart disease to an auto-immune condition, takes about 20 years to manifest.  Usually, those 20 years are spent taking either OTC medications to suppress the symptoms, or prescribed medications to suppress the symptoms.  Taking medications for your symptoms allows the REASON for the symptoms to continue on quietly, plus, you get to accumulate all those medication side effects ( for example, Tylenol – #1 cause of liver failure in the US)  Don’t let that be you; the temptation to quickly suppress symptoms so you can continue unbothered is very strong, but the end result of that is never good.

Back to Tina.  This case was easy, she’s a new client, just diving into Real Whole Foods, and she eats a lot of “bars”.  Oh, the lure of the Bar…..  I’ve been there.  Sometimes I still miss my bars…. even though they made my stomach bloat to about a 5 / 6 month pregnant roundness every afternoon.  Actually, that was the bars plus the whole box of Kashi I used to eat in 2 days.  In addition to the Bloat, was excessive farting – which never happens any more Thank God!  ( my family Thanks God too.)

I keep digressing, bars bars bars.  Bars have an undeserved healthy reputation, after all, the weight lifting/fitness industry created them.  Zero Carbs, or Zero Fat, Tastes Like A Snickers!!!!  What’s not to love?  The ingredients – pure poison!

Here’s some of the ingredients for a Carmel Nut Blast Balance Bar: soy protein isolate, fructose, glucose syrup, sugar,fractionated palm kernel oil, maltodextrin, soy lecithin, carrageenan,  artificial colors, artificial flavors, glycerine, soybean oil, and dextrose.  After that there’s a whole slew of synthetic vitamins made in China.  Sound like a solid food for building a healthy body? Not.  Something to pack in your kid’s lunch box so that their brain will focus well?  This is “anti-brain function” food!

What about the Doctors Carb Rite Bar, it has the word Doctors in it, so maybe it’s good?  Nope.  Here’s some of the ingredients:  isolated soy protein, maltitol ( several times), sugar free white coating, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, maltitol syrup, polydextrose, lecithin, natural flavors, and glycerine.  Bring on the Bloat.

Let me finish with Quaker Oats Granola Bites, Chocolate Flavor: WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, WHOLE GRAIN PUFFED CEREAL (WHOLE GRAIN WHITE CORN, WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR, WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, WHOLE GRAIN BROWN RICE FLOUR, SUGAR, CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, BHT [A PRESERVATIVE]), SUGAR, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM KERNEL AND PALM OIL*, NONFAT DRY MILK, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, POLYDEXTROSE, SOYBEAN OIL, DRIED WHOLE MILK, SOY LECITHIN, COCOA, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, MOLASSES, HONEY, SODIUM BICARBONATE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS.   This is gross, just like the first two.  They’re all candy bars loaded with artificial and real sugars, grains, and chemicals.  I made this the “ugly” bar because it’s so obviously marketed to kids, so this isn’t just a “diet” gimmick, this bar is supposed to make you believe it tastes like candy but actually has health benefits for your child; in other words, feel good about letting them eat this.  Oh please.

They’re all created in labs by brilliant food scientists who want to addict us, and advertised by brilliant marketing executives who know how to appeal to us.  These fake foods will always cause harm and disease for our body, always.

What to do?  Eat Real Whole Foods.  Need something fast for your kids?  Buy nuts, dried fruit, and dark chocolate chips in the bulk bins and throw together your own mixes.  Make a big batch of homemade cookies or bars, cut up, baggy up, and freeze. Fruit/celery and nut butters; meat and cheese. ( It’s not complicated, just a different way of thinking.) Are there any good bars on the shelves?  Oh yeah! Read the labels and find ingredient lists that contain ONLY Real Whole Foods, like nuts and seeds. If there’s words you can’t pronounce, don’t buy it.  Plan, shop, cook, and pack.  You can do this, honest.

smoothie411On a different note, I get asked about my morning smoothies a lot, so I’m going to post them for the next couple of weeks.  Here’s this mornings:   Raw Milk Keifer, chia seeds, frozen avocado, frozen banana, frozen chard/dandelion greens, carob powder, raw egg, gelatin ( Great Lakes brand), spirulina, ginger, nutmeg, and coconut flakes, and *** something new I just learned last night is great for the liver:  carrot seed oil!!   Have I told you I’m really into Essential Oils?  I’ve been using the Carrot Seed Oil ( along with several others) on my face…wrinkle prevention.  This morning, it’s in our smoothies.

Hey, don’t forget, guest post by Mark coming this Sunday.  He’s turning 50 on Saturday, and he’s promised me he’d write a post on how to stay fit, energetic, and full of Testosterone despite 80 hour work weeks and long commutes.  And being old enough to get an AARP card!

Estrogen, Cortisol, and Thyroid; GIRLS SCOUT COOKIES, Recipes

blood spotOkay, Full Disclosure:  I’m Going Through Menopause. Ugh. This picture to the left?  That’s a “Blood Spot” test I did this morning. More on that in another post, I promise.  I’m actually just letting you know because today I’m tying Hormones to Health, Mood, and Food. What We Eat Affects Our Body and Mind.  I’m doing this after being inspired by a client email last night, asking if eating a few Girl Scout cookies would undue a “good” day. Let me tie my menopause, YOUR body, and her girl scout cookies together, because they are.  Our body, our energy, our emotions, our health,.. they’re one big connection.

Here’s some interesting facts:

*The Ingredient list for Samoas:(Don’t be hatin on the Messenger!)

Sugar, vegetable oil (soybean and palm oil, partially hydrogenated palm kernel and/or cottonseed oil), enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin,reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate [vitamin B1],riboflavin [vitamin B2], folic acid), corn syrup, coconut,sweetened condensed milk (condensed milk, sugar),contains two percent or less of sorbitol, glycerin, cocoa,invert sugar, cocoa processed with alkali, cornstarch,salt, caramelized sugar, soy lecithin, dextrose, natural and artificial flavor, carrageenan, leavening (baking soda, monocalcium phosphate).

Pure Poison.

* Since our body could CARE A LESS about calories, and is DOMINATED by the hormones Insulin and Cortisol, does “food” like this undo a good day?  YES!,  “food” like this is ALWAYS harmful for your body. Always.  After eating this, your blood sugar and insulin spike, your Immune System is suppressed for 24 hours, you’ve allowed in Cancer Causing Sugar and Flour (glucose – cancer’s favorite food), Chemicals (artificial colors, flavors), soy, hydrogenated oils and Omega 6/Inflammatory vegetable oils. If ONLY the worst side effect was a little weight gain.

* What if you’re in the Majority of Women, and struggle with Bloat and Headaches; bile beanswhat affect will this “food” have on those issues?  Bloat, which happens in the Small Intestines, is from Bacteria or Yeast that DOESN’T BELONG THERE.  BLOAT IS NOT NORMAL. EVER.  Eat “food” like these Girl Scout Cookies, and you’ve just fed that bacteria and yeast it’s most favorite, fortifying meal.  It’s like when Popeye eats the can of spinach and then he can beat up Bruno.  That’s what’s going on in your “dysbiotic gut” (overgrowth of the bad stuff, not enough good):  you’ve just empowered it and prolonged your condition.

* Headaches are highly linked to Sugar/Flour/Insulin/Cortisol/Thyroid/Estrogen.  There’s a cascade effect going on that’s too long to write about, but eat this “food”, and if you’re prone to headaches, you’ll get one.

* Eating “food” like this suppresses/destroys our beneficial gut bacteria.  Here’s one surprising side effect from that: after our body produces estrogen,(this is for MEN and WOMEN) and uses it, it’s sent back to the liver to be broken down.  After leaving the liver, the “conjugated” estrogen is sent to the small intestine to be further broken down, or actually consumed by, the bacteria “lactobacillus acidophilis”.  If you’ve destroyed your gut bacteria with: SUGAR (the kind in Girl Scout Cookies), Processed Refined Foods (like a Girl Scout Cookie), Antibiotics, Cortisol/Stress, chemicals in water (fluoride, chlorine, etc), birth control pills, anti-inflammatories, acid suppressors, or Splenda,  you’ve likely impaired your bodies ability to break down and get rid of “old estrogen”;  back into the system the estrogen goes instead of being pooped or peed out of you.  Not Good.  (Bryan – there’s your favorite word again)

*The Sugar, Flour, and Chemicals in this product will ABSOLUTELY STIMULATE AND NURTURE the Addiction Centers in your brain.  And your child’s brain.

*Eat enough of these to raise your blood sugar way above normal, and your pancreas will respond with a big dose of Insulin to push it back down.  Unfortunately though, when blood sugar crashes, Cortisol is called in to correct it. Boom!  Stress.   Like I said above, Cortisol and Insulin are our 2 Dominant hormones, whether we’re male or female.  Too much Cortisol and too much Insulin mean that Sex Hormones and Thyroid Hormones will have to take a back seat.  Reproduction and Metabolism are not priorities.  Balancing blood sugar ( because SUGAR IS TOXIC), and Fight/Flight (staying alive) are priorities.

What’s all this have to do with my peri-menopause?  So far, my only symptom has been losing my period.  I’m sleeping well, no hot flashes, no up and down moods.  If pretend foods like Girl Scout Cookies were a normal part of my diet, I’d be a nut case.  ( to my husband and children, ……..)  Being a hormonal nut case IS NOT NORMAL.  It’s the food, it’s the food, it’s the food.  It ALWAYS matters, always.

When you look at that cookie or cake or chip or whatever it is that’s calling you, STOP.  Ask yourself, “how will I feel about this in an hour”;  practice thinking about the long term consequences from our actions.  Isn’t that what we tell our kids?  It’s great advice for us too!

Parchment-SalmonHere’s a recipe we made last night, oh my gosh it was delicious! Samoras-2-0051 I used cod instead of salmon because it’s cheaper and I can always find wild caught.  The parsley and lemon together were so good!  Did you know that parsley helps the body detox heavy metals, and that’s it’s LOADED with Vitamin’s K, C, A, and Bs, and a whole bunch of minerals.  And here’s a Paleo Samoa cookie Meg made – it was excellent!  You can have a dessert that doesn’t shoot up your blood sugar and instigate destruction of your brain and body, or your kids brain and body.  Real Whole Food is the answer.

How to REALLY Lose Weight (it’s not by dieting!) and Looks Healthy But Isn’t

debbie (27)I had the opportunity to look at a diet plan that a very large employer has probably paid a whole lot of money for their employees.  This plan includes a P90X style workout several days a week, and meal plans around 1300 calories.  You know how I say that Diet Plans (pills, programs, menus, foods, drinks etc) are just money makers, not actual “ways to lose weight and keep it off”?  This falls right in that category.

GOOD NEWS:  plans that have you starve yourself and work your butt off AREN’T NECESSARY.  No matter what Main Stream Media/Medical/Business/Government  would have you believe, the science Truly Truly Truly doesn’t support the THEORY that restricting calories through diet and burning more calories through exercise EVER works long term.

What the SCIENCE actually says is that if you Diet, you can be pretty assured of GAINING WEIGHT and causing Nutritional Deficiencies that will cause health problems for you down the road, or possibly immediately.

Here’s some pretty sobering statistics:

* A government review of 55 studies found NO SUSTAINED WEIGHT LOSS AT ALL AFTER 12 MONTHS.

* Between 95 and 98% of everyone who loses weight on a DIET, Gains It All Back

*2/3 of DIETERS REGAIN MORE WEIGHT THAN THEY LOST

* The more weight initially lost, the greater the rebound weight.

What’s going on here?  Why doesn’t restricting calories, limiting fat, and exercising a ton work?  Simple:  You’re a chemistry set, not a math equation.  Traditional, typical dieting SCREWS UP YOUR HORMONES.  Eating Diet Foods and Drinks screws up your liver.  Following a low fat plan depletes your hormones and messes up your brain (which is 60% fat).  Restricting calories shuts or slows down the thyroid almost immediately.  The neurotransmitters take an immediate hit with low cal dieting – there goes your mood/energy/thought patterns.  Cortisol increases BECAUSE LOW CAL DIETING IS SEEN BY THE BRAIN AS STARVATION, which equals STRESS.  Insulin ALWAYS increases when Cortisol increases.

Are you getting the picture?  Probably.  Here’s what’s harder for DIETERS to believe.

If you eat a diet of a couple thousand calories or more FILLED with FAT, PROTEIN, VITAMINS, and MINERALS from TONS of good fats, fish/meat/eggs/seafood, and tons of vegetables, you will lose weight.  Honest.  Your body doesn’t want to starve. Your body doesn’t want to diet. Bad things happen when you force it too.  Your body wants to run correctly:  it wants to have normal cell turnover, it wants to make all your sex hormones in normal amounts, it wants to repair every day damage, it wants to run thousands and thousands of chemical reactions that rely on the FUEL YOU PROVIDE YOUR BODY to complete.

Again, You’re Not A Math Equation, You’re A Chemistry Set.

Let’s look at a couple foods included in this program and other large programs; look at their ingredients and honestly access if you think these ingredients could in anyway make your body permanently slimmer, healthier, and more energetic.

Diet Cherry 7Up Antioxidant:  Filtered carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup or sugar and less than 2% of natural flavors, citric acid, potassium citrate, calcium disodium EDTA (to protect flavor).   ***** The FDA “plans” to study (it’s “high” on the priority list) the calcium disodium EDTA because it’s suspected of mutagenic, teratogenic, subsacute, and reproductive effects. Those middle two words – I don’t even know what they mean and I’m not looking them up.  I don’t need to.  This product contains dangerous chemicals in addition to high fructose corn syrup and sugar.  Antioxidant my ….

Weight Watchers Brownie Bliss ONLY 2 POINTS! Note the flours, sugars, hydrogenated oils, and chemicals:

Powdered Sugar, Sugar, Semi-Sweet Chocolate (Unsweetened Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin, Natural Vanilla Extract), Water, Enriched Wheat Flour Bleached (Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Condensed Skim Milk, Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Corn Syrup Solids, Inulin (Natural Extract of Chicory Roots), Glycerin, Soybean Oil, Pea Fiber, Dry Whey, Chocolate Liquor, Egg Whites, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Propionate (Preservatives), Nonfat Dry Milk, Caramel Color, Whole Milk Solids, Reduced Mineral Whey Powder, Dextrose, Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate), Xanthan Gum, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Red 40.    

Let’s wrap up with a real shocker:  The American Heart Association APPROVED Subway meal:  Black Forrest Ham Sub, Apples, and Skim Milk:

The Ham:  Water, dextrose, 2% or less of modified food starch, salt, potassium lactate, seasoning [potassium chloride, pork stock, sugar, yeast extract, salt, lactic acid, fructose, sunflower oil, cysteine hydrochloride, calcium lactate, modified food starch, flavors, grill flavor (from sunflower oil), polysorbate 80, rendered pork fat, and smoke flavor], sodium phosphate, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite, caramel color.

The Bread: ITALIAN HERBS & CHEESE BREAD Subway® Italian Bread, Monterey Jack cheese (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, artificial color), cheddar cheese (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, artificial color) potato starch and powdered cellulose added to prevent caking, natamycin [a natural mold inhibitor]), garlic powder, corn maltodextrin, long grain rice powder, salt, toasted bread crumbs (wheat flour, dextrose, modified wheat starch, sugar, salt, yeast, caramel coloring, paprika), spice, parmesan cheese solids (milk, cheese, cultures, salt, enzymes, calcium chloride), cellulose, modified palm oil, oregano, natural and artificial flavor (including butter extract), sunflower oil, whey, gum arabic, citric acid, yeast extract, lactic acid, calcium lactate, disodium phosphate and not more than 2% silicon dioxide added (as anticaking agent).

I’m not even going to print the Apples and Skim Milk ingredients; trust me, they’re LOADED with flavors, preservatives, and additives.

Back to my original topic, Traditional Dieting/Calories In /Calories Out is a BUSINESS.  It promises weight loss and rakes in money.  In 2012, about 108 Million Americans were on a Diet, and the Industry brought in $20 BILLION that year, $20 BILLION.  It promises weight loss, but it doesn’t deliver weight loss.

Want to lose weight:  get your head on straight.  You need to eat Real Whole Foods Every Single Day.  You need to plan, cook, shop and pack, and make smart choices when you eat out.  Not because the food is “fattening”, but because it’s loaded with flours, sugars, bad oils and chemicals that make you sick and addicted.  Focus on the word “addicted”, because that’s the biggest struggle I see:  not being able to stop eating or resist foods calling to you.  As long as you’re eating addictive foods containing  Flour, Sugar, and chemicals, you’re going to stay addicted.  It’s just like cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs.  Trying to be “moderate” just ensures the addictive patterns continue.

I do a lot of work with Julia Ross’s Mood Cure and Diet Cure.  It’s an Amino Acid supplement program that restocks/replenishes the neurotransmitters in your brain.  You become ” Normal “, as opposed to Food Driven.  It’s an excellent program that I’ve used on myself, my husband, and several clients.  The results are unbelievable.  If you think you can’t stick to a Real Whole Foods program because the Fake Foods/flours/sugars/chemicals constantly call you, get in touch with me.  You can change.  You can get healthy.  You can be normal weight and full of energy.  Honest. You just need to become a Real Whole Foodie.

Bloat; Leaky Gut; Hamburger Helper; A Recipe

stomach problemsWho struggles with:  bloat, gas, indigestion, diarrhea, constipation, IBS, reflux or GERD?  Statistically, at least half of you; actually, since you all are health seekers, I bet more than that.  Please read this, because your gut issues are EARLY WARNING SIGNS THAT SHOULDN’T BE IGNORED.

What I mean by that is if you’ve had any of those conditions long enough, other conditions will arise: headaches, depression, thyroid issues, rheumatoid arthritis / auto immune disorders, fatigue, skin problems, allergies, IBS, Crohn’s, colitis, even autism and behavior disorders.  Seriously.  It’s a big deal, and band-aiding your symptoms with anti-gas/anti-pain/anti-acid medications will absolutely set you up for disaster down the road.

Hippocrates said, ” all disease begins in the gut.”  Science has proven him to be completely correct.

Let me stop here for a second:  suppressing symptoms with medications, instead of solving the reason for the symptom, is not a good idea, ever.  Unfortunately, that “brain washing” I talk about comes into play here:  got a headache, take a pill, got a stomach ache, take a pill, something hurts, take a pill, feel sad/down/anxious, take a pill.   For all of you who take pills, ASK YOURSELF, HAVE THEY RESOLVED YOUR PROBLEMS?  OR ARE THOSE PILLS JUST A REGULAR PART OF YOUR LIFE NOW AS YOU TRY TO SUPPRESS YOUR BODIES CALLS FOR HELP DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY?

Back to the gut, here’s a little 411:  all those gut symptoms I listed above are NOT NORMAL.  They shouldn’t happen in a well functioning gut, but that doesn’t mean you need medication.  It’s a sign that your food isn’t digesting quickly or well enough. You can fix that without medications.  Gut medications have serious CONSEQUENCES; pull out your sheet from the pharmacist, or look in / on the box, and you’ll be able to read all about them.  Note this:  6 to 8 weeks is the MAXIMUM amount of time the FDA says ANYONE should be on most gut meds.  That’s because of the damage they cause.  It’s not hypothetical, and that damage won’t just happen to other people, it will happen to you.

What’s the first issue to address?  Your stomach isn’t acid enough. God made our stomach to be incredibly acidic.  Acid kills virus, bacteria, parasites, yeast, and pathogens; acid starts the initial break down of protein and fats; and it triggers the correct steps for the rest of the “southern digestion” in the small and large intestine.  Reduce your acid, and you inhibit all this, and create a gut condition ripe for problems.

There’s a great book by Dr. Jonathan Wright called Why Stomach Acid is Good For You, it’s awesome, and I wish everyone would read it.  If you want the short version, here’s a You Tube of Dr. Wright explaining it in 9 minutes.

There’s some simple tricks to acidify your stomach BACK TO NORMAL, which would hasten your digestion and allow for the proper digestive path to be followed.

What reduces acid, or actually, what suppresses acid production in the gut?  Many prescription and OTC drugs, stress, simple sugars/flours, phosphoric acid from sodas and drinks, certain chemicals in foods, and again: stress or more specifically, the hormone Cortisol.  Imagine the damage we’ve done to our gut after years and years of the Standard American Diet (SAD) and the pills we’ve used to conceal the symptoms.

The second issue to address with bloat, gas, reflux, constipation, diarrhea, and GERD, is the “consequence” issue; or what happens after you’ve had this condition for years.  This was me.  I started having BLOAT in my mid thirties.  I thought it was because I ate so healthy (pounds of fiber cereal, fiber breads, and fruits and vegetables).  I thought my bloat/gas/pain was actually an outward sign of my healthiness!!  I developed really bad asthma and had blood clots in my late thirties.  I took several meds for the asthma, but when the blood clots happened, that was a wake up call.  I wasn’t going on blood thinners, and I made the connection between the two conditions:  they were both “inflammatory” conditions.  I made no connection to my gut at this point whatsoever; but there was.

When you have Bloat/Gas/Reflux/GERD etc, that means you have Low Stomach Acid.  Low Stomach Acid means your food isn’t digesting properly down to the little tiny molecules that absorb through the small intestine wall into the blood stream.  Not only does that make you nutrient deficient, but big proteins (as opposed to tiny amino acids), break through the intestine wall and create “leaky gut“, aka Intestinal Permeability.  Now that you have holes in your gut lining, bacteria and virus that didn’t get killed ( because you don’t have enough stomach acid), and metabolic waste products, ALL OF WHICH SHOULD BE CONFINED TO YOUR GUT, and these big protein chains, “leak out” through the holes, into the bloodstream, where your Immune System sees them and ATTACKS THEM LIKE THE FOREIGN INVADERS THAT THEY ARE.  This should be good, right?  Wrong.

Keep eating the SAD, keep taking the drugs, and the holes stay open, because you’re perpetuating the situation.  INFLAMMATION IS DEVELOPING AND BUILDING as the Immune System stays on ‘over drive’.  Pretty soon, it’s attacking other proteins that “mimic” or resemble the big proteins; proteins in your Lungs, your Thyroid, your Heart, Your Joints, your Brain.  Remember, there’s plenty of proteins in those organs because the body is built from proteins and fats.

My point:  if you have Gut Issues, resolve the cause, don’t try to cover the symptoms.  If you have the Resultant Damage from years of gut issues (crohns,colitis, …), you’re going to have to “heal and seal” your gut if you want Real Healing and Improvement.  How long will this take?  I don’t know, from weeks to months, it depends on the damage you’ve done and how hard you work; but everyone can heal.

Everyone has the power to feel energetic, clear thinking, positive, and healthy, but only if you’re ready to commit to a different path.  If you’re struggling mentally and physically, all you have to do is look backwards and make an honest assessment of what you’ve done to get there. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out, you just need to turn off the brain washing and really focus on making that serious connection between what we put in our mouth to our mind and body.  The food we eat becomes us. The food we eat becomes us.  The food we eat becomes us.  hamburgerhelper chicken

box coverLet’s look at another very SAD food product, Chicken Helper, Crispy Ranch Chicken.  Betty Crocker’s/General Mills market shares are down a little, they’ve taken a hit from Kraft’s Mac N Cheese Skillet dinners and frozen food items.  Still, the Hamburger Helper line sells around (2010) $350 Million A Year.

A serving size is one third of a cup. Does anyone eat a third of a cup of food for dinner?  Anyway, a THIRD OF A CUP is 350 calories of crappy fats, crappy carbs, and crappy chemicals.  Cancer in a box!

uncooked roastInstead of falling prey to food products like this, do the Real Whole Food thing, here’s some ideas:  Slow cook a roast for 24 hours:  salt/pepper/herb it; wrap it in a couple layers of aluminum foil, put it in the over at 180*, 24/25 hours before you want to eat it, and DON’T LOOK AT IT.  When it’s done, pull it out finished lamband shred it with two forks.  Keep some in the fridge for the week, and freeze the rest, flat, in freezer bags. Here’s the before and after pictures of a lamb roast I just did.  It was about as big as a loaf of fat bread.

Next, in a big frying pan, put in some broth OR butter and water, and cook onions, broccoli and carrots; or cook a bag of frozen vegetables.  Bake a few whole potatoes in the oven for an hour at 425.  Dinner’s done without a lot of effort.

We are the end result of what we put in our mouth.  What we eat matters.  Take the action steps necessary to be healthy and whole.  Eat Real Whole Food, and remember, focus on your health and your weight issues will resolve.

Cereal Stumbling Blocks, and Recipes

Wow!  My little post on Thomas English Muffins struck several nerves – good!  It’s pretty eye opening when you realize that food you’ve put in your body for (decades?) years, and are now feeding your kids, is toxic sludge that’s setting you up for disease.  And weight gain.  And depression.

Let’s look at a few more products that are pretty embedded as healthy breakfast options, and examine their ingredients.

Total-Blueberry-Pomegranate-750General Mills Total Blueberry Pomegranate 100% Nutrition Cereal

Oh good grief. 100% Nutrition? Are you kidding?  By the way, 3/4 cup of this stuff is 100 calories, and 0 fat – it’s a Dieter’s Dream! Plus look: it’s healthy!  There’s Blueberry and Pomegranate, which we all know from Dr. Oz are really good for us, and it’s America’s #1 Source of Whole Grain.

Just kidding, there’s no actual fruit, they just concoct a smell and taste effect fromwheat chemicals, and there’s no actual “Whole Grain”.  Here’s what a whole grain of wheat looks like:

See the first 7 ingredients listed?  Ingredients are listed in the order of their predominance; this means that the first 7 ingredients in this cereal are SIMPLE SUGARS.  There’s no complex carbs here that might take a while to break down and slowly seep from your small intestine to your blood stream.  There’s a bunch of Simple Sugars that your body (or your child’s) will have no problem quickly breaking down to glucose (bc it’s so highly processed), shooting through the intestine wall, into your blood steam, creating high blood sugar, the resultant insulin reaction, and then inflammation, glycation, brain fog, and finally, low blood sugar fatigue and hunger.

All the chemicals, many of which are linked to cancer and behavior problems, will go to your liver, as that’s one of it’s jobs: break down chemicals and dispose of them.  Your liver has around 500 jobs.  It’s actually the BIGGEST PIECE OF OUR DAILY METABOLISM, around 50/60% of our total daily calorie burn.  What do you think happens to your liver, or your child’s, when it’s hampered from it’s duties because it’s trying to breakdown and dispose of Red dye 40, Blue dye 2, “and other color”?

Notice there’s also Sucralose.  Ugh.  Remember that from the Thomas English Muffins?  It kills beneficial gut bacteria, it causes migraines and headaches, it raises blood sugar, it’s highly linked to cancer.

All those vitamins and minerals on the list:  They’re Added in, let’s be very clear that they’re in NO WAY a natural part of this cereal.  Anything of nutritional value was destroyed in processing the wheat, the barley, the sugars, the rice, and the corn.  Destroyed.  Those synthetic vitamins and minerals you see listed were manufactured in China (that’s where most cheap vitamins and minerals come from now) and added to the cereal.  Trust me, those are rarely EVER the body’s preferred forms of those vitamins and minerals. Ever.

Now I’m going to expose a Dieter’s Dirty Little Secret.  Cereal like this isn’t just for kids; adults eat it too, often times for dinner, or after dinner snacks.  HELLO STOMACH BLOAT:)  Wheat/carb products like this are incredibly addictive.  Remember the link to Dr. Davis’s site, Wheatbellyblog, he does a great job of breaking down the science of gliadian proteins, their opiate effects, and the resultant appetite stimulate they cause.

What are some good alternatives to Cereal?  There’s plenty, and I’ll list them below, but a few more words about Cereal and how it’s a very common “stumbling block” food.

I get questions all the time asking me how to lose weight.  Many of the people who ask this are highly, highly addicted to both whole grains and simple sugars, and when it comes down to it, they have a really hard time thinking of giving them up.  So don’t focus on that.  Don’t focus on what you can’t have and how sad it makes you feel.  Focus instead on the nutrients in your food, what exactly those nutrients OR ANTI NUTRIENTS are doing in your body, and ASK YOURSELF THIS:  If I eat this, how will I feel in ONE hour:  Not even thinking about food?  Stuffed?  Depressed? Hating myself? Bloated? On to the next project? Level? In a Tailspin?  HINT:  An hour after you eat, you shouldn’t even be thinking about your meal; that would mean you ate healthy food that satiated you, and your digestion worked perfectly.  You can MOVE ON.

If that’s not your reality, try to not be so mindless about eating, which is hard if you’ve got an addiction.  Addictions highjack your brain neurons, make them throb and pulse and send signals that compel you to dig in.  If you’re addicted, make a promise to yourself that at least you won’t keep cereal, crackers, pretzels, chips, bagged cookies, and other hand-to-mouth munchie/easy/brainless foods in your house.  Start there.  What about the kids and their need for snacks?  THEY DON’T NEED THIS POISON, AND THEY DON’T NEED TO FIRMLY ESTABLISH MINDLESS MUNCHING IN THE LITTLE BRAINS. Why set them up for a life time of struggle? They’ll not only live if you get that stuff out of your house, they’ll actually thrive.  So will you.  You can do this!  Pledge today that you’re on your way to being a Real Whole Foodie.  Now for the Breakfast Ideas:

1. meat and cheese roll ups

2. eggs scrambled in butter/coconut oil, veggies added or not

3. nitrate free sausages and bacon

4. assorted smoothies:

Wheat Withdrawl Zinger, Dr. Davis;  Elana’s Pantry Smoothie list

5. paleo pancakes ( make a big batch and freeze the leftovers for another morning)

6. apricot power bars  ( love Elana’s Pantry!!!)

7. egg cups  ( super fast to reheat; great for “on the road”)

 

Looks Heathy But Isn’t; Two Good Bread Recipes

I get to do a “Looks Healthy But Isn’t”! So excited! Got a great email asking my opinion on breads; as in, if I HAD to feed one to my kids, wouldn’t whole wheat at least be best?  (I don’t think she’s read my blog – but I hope she starts!)  I’ve got to answer here, because I know this will interest other people, especially busy people who turn to processed food for convenience, and people who are completely convinced that bread is a biblically mandated food item.  It’s not.  If you’re feeding your kids most of the breads on the market, you’re honestly feeding them a crappy, chemical, sugar concoction that contains indigestible proteins that will affect their behavior negatively, their gut negatively, their weight, their hormones, their skin, and I could go on and on and on.

Here’s an ingredient list of Thomas Whole Wheat English Muffins:

english muffins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whole wheat bread has this weird halo above it, as if we’ll all be thin and healthy if we eat it.  Look at these ingredients.  Do you honestly think there won’t be repercussions from that stuff? Here’s a few ingredient breakdowns:  azodicarbonamide:   Azodicarbonamide is manufactured by the reaction of dihydrazine sulfate and urea under high temperature and pressure. The product of this reaction is then oxidized using sodium chlorate and centrifuged to yield a slurry containing azodicarbonamide. The slurry is washed to remove impurities and dried to obtain the azodicarbonamide powder. This is then micronized to a fine powder before packaging. This product is banned in Europe and Australia because:  it’s killed dogs in experiments, many links to asthma and skin problems, and is found to be a mutagen to bacteria,    Sucralose:  kills beneficial gut bacteria, highly linked with migraines and headaches, causes cramping and intestinal discomfort, raises blood and has many links to cancer. Carmel Coloring:  caramel coloring is created by heating ammonia and is considered a carcinogen when created this way. Calcium Propinate linked to irritability, restlessness, inattention, and sleep disturbance in children. The Ecologist Online claims that it is linked to allergic reactions in bakery workers.

That’s gross.  These are NORMAL ingredients in Normal (processed) foods.  If you eat these, or feed these to your children, you’re creating a disease state in the body.  I really believe that.  Our body uses the food we eat to make ALL OF OUR CELLS.  We are what we eat. The average disease takes about 20 years to manifest. This stuff is poison.

What about the effects of blood sugar with an english muffin? It would be different for everyone, depending on the shape of their pancreas and liver, and how readily their muscle cells uptake glucose, but even if everything’s working well, this is a big hit. Dieters love english muffins because they’re low cal/low fat. ( 120 calories, 1 gram of fat).  Big deal.  There’s 23 grams of sugar in them.  The label says “sugar – 2 g.”,  that’s ADDED sugar.  LOOK AT THE TOTAL CARB COUNT BECAUSE THAT’S ALL THAT COUNTS.  ALL CARBS BREAK DOWN TO EITHER GLUCOSE OR FRUCTOSE.  ALL OF THEM.  That’s the job of our digestive system: break all carbs down to single molecule sugars, and there’s only two, glucose or fructose.  They both wreck havoc on our body.   Ignore everything you’ve ever heard about Whole Wheat being good for you.  The glycemic index of Whole Wheat is actually WORSE than white flour! Honest!  This means that the speed with which it can go from mouth, to stomach, to small intestine to blood stream ( causing a big blood sugar rise), is super quick.  That’s NEVER good.  Hormonal disaster.  Avoid it.

Next, let’s talk about the ANTI-NUTRIENTS in wheat, and I’m going to quote from the Wheat Belly blog (you should check it out!) :

“–Gliadin–While some gliadin is degraded to small peptides that act as opiates on the human brain, a substantial proportion of gliadin remains undigested. The intact, undigested form is the form that initiates the zonulin mechanism that increases intestinal permeability, the first step in generating the diseases of autoimmunity.
–Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA)–The complex, 4-part protein present in wheat, rye, barley, and rice is completely indigestible. WGA that enters the mouth comes out the back end–except for the small quantity that penetrates intestinal barriers, causing direct intestinal toxicity and entering the bloodstream to activate antibodies, mimic insulin, and block leptin (the hormone of satiety).
–Trypsin inhibitors–Trypsin inhibitors block–no surprise–trypsin, a protein required for protein digestion. This further reduces the digestibility of grain proteins, a fact that organizations, such as the World Health Organization, grapples with when starving nations are fed grains but then struggle with malnutrition despite the calories.

There is a digestible component of wheat and the seeds of other grasses: the amylopectin A carbohydrate, highly susceptible to digestion by the amylase enzyme of saliva and stomach. This explains why two slices of whole wheat bread raise blood sugar higher than six teaspoons of table sugar. ”

Really, between the chemical ingredients and the simple sugars and the toxic proteins and the opiate/addictive properties of wheat, why would you feed this to your kids or eat it yourself?  And before you write me off as an extremist, ask yourself, what is making cancer rates rise every year, what’s making heart disease rates rise every year, what’s making autism rates rise every year, what’s making asthma rise every year, what’s making weight, auto-immune disease, diabetes, lyme, neurological disorders, rise every year?  It’s the NORMAL every day foods that pervade our lives.  Read the ingredient list again, please, wrap your mind around the fact that our government is in bed with big business and neither cares one bit about our health and well-being.  This is all about money.  Thomas English Muffins racks up 500 MILLION ANNUALLY in sales.   That’s a lot of money!  Please don’t think they’re the only bad bread;  these are very common ingredients in a whole bunch of different processed foods.  These chemicals and this level of simple carb is NORMAL.

Back to the question, what breads do I feed my kids?  Grain free breads, I’ve become pretty good at them (that’s what practice does – makes you good at things).  Here’s two recipes that are big hits at our house:

Coconut Flour Biscuits
Ingredients
3/4 cup Coconut Flour
1 stick Butter, softened but not melted
4 eggs
1/2 -1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Put all ingredients into medium sized bowl and mix well with immersion blender or hand mixer until well incorporated
Using your hands, carefully form into nine small balls and mash each one down with a spoon to make it about ½ inch thick.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until just starting to brown.

We also make this: Coconut Flour Bread

Ingredients
¼ cup flax meal
½ cup filtered water
¾ cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
½ cup coconut oil ( I always use butter – I like the taste better in baked goods)
1 Tablespoon raw honey
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine the flax meal and water. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease a loaf pan with coconut oil.
In a food processor, combine the coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, coconut oil, honey, flax mixture and vinegar.
Transfer the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about an hour before slicing.

Overweight Kids, Food Addiction, and Stupid Diet Tricks

thanksgiving groupCan you handle yet another post on Food Addiction?  Because I have one in my head, and it needs to get out.

One of my favorite radio programs is a syndicated talk show called New Life Live. it’s four psychiatrists on Christian radio, they get all kinds of questions and give great advice.  Until the other day.

A mother called in, concerned about her young, very overweight daughter.  Her description of the problem goes like this:  she’s athletic, involved in sports, is very, very heavy, eats fast, eats often, and eats more than her parents or her brothers, now she’s being teased at school and is feeling very sad about it.

Their advice:  get her to eat more slowly, it’s all about portion control, put down her fork between mouthfuls, chew more, and convince her to verbally express her feelings over the teasing and the weight.

O.M.Gosh.  Portion control?  Chew more?  Fork placement??  Oh, and how does she feel?  That’s easy: embarrassed, heavy, humiliated, starving, can’t control herself around food, wishes she looked like the skinny girls in class;  doesn’t take a mind reader.

Their advice was very well-meaning, they wanted to help; but it was horrible advice that doesn’t work, ever, for food addicts.  Food addicts are compulsively driven to eat food:  when they’re full; when they don’t need it; when they’re so stuffed they feel sick.  Telling a food addict to use portion control to lose weight and feel better about themselves is a joke.  Even the catchy buzz word “Mindfullness”, which is a practice I totally agree with and am trying to work on, is meaningless to an addict.  Mindfullness is impossible when the mind is full of buzzing neurons and hormones driving you to eat – fast,.. now,.. as much as possible.  The addicts brain isn’t “right”, and trite advice that really doesn’t work for anyone, makes them feel even worse about themselves when they can’t do it.

The Counselors didn’t spend one second examining the food situation in the house.  Not a second.  Like food doesn’t matter!

Here’s the facts:  if you’re eating processed foods, foods full of refined sugars and grains, hydrogenated oils, and chemicals, you’re eating foods that’s been chemically created in a laboratory to STIMULATE your BRAIN and MAKE YOU WANT MORE.  Honest!  Read Sugar, Fat and Salt, by Michael Moss, read The End of Overeating, by Dr. David Kessler.  These are just two books about the science and marketing behind the Food Industry.   It’s shocking and amazing, and it’s the truth:  processed food ( that includes fast food and chain restaurant food) is DESIGNED to make you want it BAD.  If they’re a regular part of your food habits, there will be no “managing” your intake.

There is no “portion control” with Doritos, Lays potato chips, commercial ice cream, fast food french fries, Keelbler cookies or CapN Crunch cereal.  If there was, they’d remake the formula. Big Food is big, serious business;  mistakes and failures are quickly corrected.  If processed food is part of your diet, even a little tiny part like just a little cereal, a few cheese crackers, or a bagel every day, then you’re stimulating your brain with substances that keep you enslaved and coming back.  Ending food addiction means 2 things: (1) giving up processed foods, it just has too.  ( Yes, breads, pastas and grain flours are “processed foods”, 100%), and (2) eating a diet of nutrient dense foods.  In other words, you have to quit eating foods that stimulate addictive neural behaviors and have bad hormonal affects, and load up on foods that don’t stimulate your brain, cause the right hormones (satiety hormones) to be released, and satisfy your bodies demand for necessary nutrients.

Are you thinking that you’ve lost weight before on Processed Foods, like frozen diet meals, diet drinks, diet candy bars, and diet ice cream?  Did you keep it off forever, or did you gain it back?  There’s almost a 100% chance you’ve gained it back.  You didn’t CHANGE YOUR BRAIN, you just white-knuckled/will powered through a period of dieting.  When your will power was gone, it ended.  Studies show that your period of dieting probably created even worse neural patterns than you had before, something called “famine brain”:  neural and hormonal patterns that make you compulsively seek out and eat food.

I’m telling you that if you change your diet to one of Real Whole Foods, and figure out how to make that work for you all the time (through work, weekends, nights out, vacations, and STRESS), your compulsive eating will end.  If you need help with this, work with me.  It’s only effort til it’s habit!

There’s so many great books out there on this, but two I recommend time after time are the Diet Cure and the Mood Cure by Julia Ross.  They’re fantastic.  Trust me, if you’re anywhere on the spectrum from full-blown addict to annoying food habits you can’t break, you’re going to need help.  These books and my blog are a great place to start:)

What should these counselors have said to this mom?  Time to change your kitchen and your pantry.  You’re going to have to use Real Whole Foods to make your breakfast, lunches, and dinners.  Everyone’ll have to get on board.  Processed bags of cereal, chips, and cookies will have to go.   You can’t control your kid’s whole world, but you can control your house.

(umm, actually, the other day I went upstairs and Shelby – who’s 17 – had bought crackers and candy, and had hidden it behind a chair!  I tossed it;  it happens in my house too!! )

If your child was addicted to cigarettes, would you smoke around them? If your child had a drinking problem, would you keep alcohol in the house?  It’s the same with food.  We all have to eat – food makes our body.  But we DON’T have to have foods in the house that cause addiction, stomach issues, bad skin, headaches, attention disorders, heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and cancer.  We don’t.  Seriously.  Fill your kitchen with meats, healthy fats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, good full fat dairy;  foods that have to be cooked and prepared, not just munched right out of the box.  Real Whole Foods.  Will your kids complain, whine, cry, and rebel?  Yes……Learn to tune it out.  They’ll live; and you’ll live through those first weeks of negativity flying off them and onto you.  Persevere.  Nothing is easy in the beginning, but everything gets better when it becomes the norm.  If they don’t eat, they don’t eat.  Again, they’ll live.  Take control of your own and your children’s health.  Be a leader, a role model and an example.  Don’t let your kids go down the path of obesity and poor health that’s plaguing our country and shows no signs of slowing down. Processed foods are killing people.  Don’t let this happen to your family.  Be a Real Whole Foodie.