Archive for Smoothie of Day

Dandelion, Beet Greens, & Honey Comb; Plus, Is Your Butt Really Your Biggest Problem?

pestoWoop Woop!  I’ve been MIA from my blog, but I’m back, and I have a new Mantra! Instead of just “Food is Medicine or Food is Poison”, I’ve expanded that to:  “Moving Is Medicine, and Not Moving is Poison”, and “Good Thoughts are Medicine, and Bad Thoughts are Poison”.

The science behind each of those phrases is rock solid.  Today, though, we’re just talking about food.

Look at my title, does it sound silly? It’s not. I’m amazed at how many people obsess over their weight/thighs/butt/stomach, when their health/ energy/ mood is dangerously poor; when they’re constantly sick, or sore; when they struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

Feeling good, feeling positive and stable and healthy, that’s the result of our daily lifestyle choices.  Aging… jobs… difficult people.. those are excuses.  Change your thoughts if you’ve been using them to justify your bad habits or poor health.

First thought to change: that food is about calories, and if I could just keep my calories low enough, I’d lose weight, feel great, and be happy.

Load. Of. Crap. Thinking.

Calories-Smalories.  Food is medicine, or food is poison, and American’s eat a lot of poison.  We feed it to our children thinking it can’t hurt them, but it does.

Following is a Recipe Index for Kitchen Sink Smoothies, which is pure Medicine Food.

Americans need more Medicine Food, and here’s why:

The American Institute for Cancer Research predicts a 55% rise in cancer by 2055. The CDC predicts that every single chronic disease will continue to increase through 2030 ( that’s as far out as they predict.).  Depression has been rising since the 1980s and will continue to rise.

It’s not for lack of medications, because we take more medications THAN ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

Hmmm.  If medications make you healthy – which is the total reason for their existence – than why would all of our markers for health be decreasing instead of increasing?

The problem is NONE of us are “low in medicine“;….  we’re low in nutrients – which literally make every single part of our body.  ( We also don’t move enough or control our thought life in the right direction. More later.)

Enter the “Kitchen Sink Smoothies”, so called because I throw in everything except the Kitchen Sink.  These are Real Whole Food Bonanzas!

Most people begin their Smoothie path with Starter Smoothies, and they’re great!  It’s like walking before you run.

Here’s an example of a Starter Smoothie Recipe:

Good Protein Powder (very few ingredients, NO artificial flavors or sweeteners, maybe even organic or grass fed whey – there’s plenty of good ones on the market.)

Berries & Banana

Spinach

Mix it all in a blender with a few ice cubes and go.  Easy Peasy.  Perfect for Busy Moms who also have to make breakfast for a pack of kids.

Unfortunately, it’s not going to keep you full very long, or at least this never kept me full very long.  There’s no fat, and it’s too easily digested.

Pros:  there’s some good nutrients, and it’s fast and easy

Cons:  there’s limited nutrients, especially because we all tend to get in to food ruts, and eat the same foods over and over.

Kitchen Sink Smoothies are a great way to broaden your range of nutrients, and (honestly) use Medicine Food to fight:  weight gain, Heart Disease, CANCER, depression, diabetes, auto-immune, bacterial/viral infections, aging skin, etc etc etc.

I’m going to give you a list of Greens, Fats, Herbs & Spices, and “Fun Add Ins”, and you should try to use at least one from each column to build your smoothie.

This list is by no means “complete”; these are a few options in a sea of more options.

Make accumulating these ingredients a gradual process; in other words, don’t buy all these this week.  Accumulate them over time, and get in the habit of rotating the ingredients.

Mantra:  My body needs a broad assortment of nutrients.

20160221_163012 (1)Greens (other than spinach):  Beet Greens;  Kale;  Chard;  Bok Choy;  Cabbage;  Dandelion Greens; Sprouts ( aka – sunflower sprouts, beet sprouts, kale sprouts, etc.)

20160221_164352TIP:  Wash (if they’re not already), baggie asap, and then freeze.  Greens become like glass in the freezer:  very easy to crush and dispense into your blender.  And this way they don’t decompose before you use them.

Fats: Coconut Oil; Flax Seed Oil ONLY IF YOU’RE NOT ESTROGEN DOMINANT; all Nuts, and all Seeds; Avocado Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, Coconut Flakes, Avocado, Eggs/Raw ONLY IF YOU GET THEM FROM A FARMER/NOT A STORE, AND HAVE A GOOD IMMUNE SYSTEM, Real Cream; Real Yogurt; Real Keifer;  ( Check out Rich Food Poor Food by the Caltons if you have no idea what I mean by “real”).

TIP:  Don’t be afraid of using Fats.  Fats make us:  our hormones, our brain, our organs, our tissues, the membrane of every single cell in our body is made from fats.  Fats also assist many nutrients into the cells to be used.

Herbs & Spices:  Ginger ( real/powdered ); Cloves; Turmeric; Nutmeg; 0401162017Cinnamon; Salt; Parsley, Cilantro; Lemon Balm.

Tip:  Herbs & Spices are SERIOUS Medicine Food.  Check out www.greenmedinfo.com and and match your body/health/conditions with different herbs.  It’s a database of Pub Med Research articles.

More:  Cherries; Cranberries; Mixed Berries; Black Berries; Blueberries; Raspberries; Oranges; Carrots; Beets.

Tip: Don’t get stuck in a rut with your berries, their nutrient content is very different, and we need them all.

What else do I throw in?   Maca Root powder; Baking Soda, Greens Powders; L-Glutamine; Magnesium; Rose Hips; Collagen, and any leftover herbs from teas I made the day before.

You can really start your day off with a bang!  Here’s my last tip, and actually, I got this from my daughter Macy over Easter Break: add more water, and make enough to have a breakfast smoothie and a lunch smoothie.

Whew.  That was a lot. I hope you see how creative you can get with your smoothie.  A breakfast of bagels, cereal, or toast is fast, and easy, and….. Poison.

Take the steps, make the plan, do the shopping and the chopping and the prepping, to eat Medicine Food all day, every day.  What are some ingredients not on these lists that you use in your smoothies?

How To Avoid Fatigue Induced Food Cravings; and more Food Pics

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALast night I had a very rare bad night’s sleep.  Normally, I’m the type that when my head hits the pillow, I don’t slowly drift off, I plummet into oblivion.  I don’t even move very much and some mornings my hair’s perfect 🙂

Anyway, something went wrong last night, and I couldn’t get to sleep until around 3:30.  I get up at 5, so clearly, I been “off” today.

What wasn’t off?  MY EATING.  Honestly, a few years ago a bad night like that would of had me snacking or binging on and off throughout the day.  I would have gone from feeling bad to feeling miserable.

These past few years of eating more fat, and these past several months eating GOBS of fat, and …. nothing.  No desire, no cravings, no inkling of an idea that eating might make me feel better.  What a relief!  I wish I had known about this when all my kids were little and I had over a decade of interrupted sleep, but better late than never.

Food cravings strike for many reasons; and food cravings can strike for absolutely NO REASON AT ALL.  You just want the food,.. because.  I think the science is pretty clear that CRAVINGS are a symptom of a high carb diet.  Here’s a line from a study published by the NIH, comparing Low CARB diets (LCD)  with Low FAT diets (LFD): Compared to the LFD, the LCD had significantly larger decreases in cravings for carbohydrates/starches and preferences for high-carbohydrate and high-sugar foods. The LCD group reported being less bothered by hunger compared to the LFD group.

Exactly!  Our body is made out of Water, Fat, and Protein; a little bit of mineral, even less vitamins, and just a teeny, tiny bit of Carbohydrate. ( Most carb is converted to fat and stored.) For the past several decades, during the Low Fat push, our dietary fat’s decreased and our carb consumption has increased, greatly.  What’s been the result?  Obesity and disease, with the CDC predicting NO END IN SITE TO THE RISE OF EITHER.

(When they talk about statistics in 2030 or 2040, they’re talking about what OUR KIDS will be facing.)

Eating disorders, food compulsions, they’re also on the rise.

A day of cereal or toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, pasta for dinner, and carby snacks in between are a recipe for exactly the health and weight situation we’ve got.  It’s also a perfect way to create food addiction.  Substances in grains and sugar trigger the addictive pleasure centers in our brain.  The glucose nature of grains and sugars causes them to quickly be digested and absorbed into the blood, sending blood sugar HIGH, along with the Insulin necessary to lower it.  High Blood Sugar and High Insulin lead to:  Inflammation, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Cancer, Auto-Immune, Migraines, and I could go on and on.

It matters what we eat; stay away from the Cereal, the Bread, the Pasta, The cookies/cake/croissants/muffins/pretzels/crackers/waffles.  Load up on good meats and eggs, healthy fats, TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some full fat dairy if you tolerate it.  You’ll say good by to health issues, good by to excess body weight, and good bye to cravings, I promise.

Meals for the past two days:

Smoothie Tuesday: water w/flax and chia/Jay Robb protein/2 raw eggs/MCT oil/frozen spinach/frozen banana/cinnamon/ginger/coconut flakes/pumpkin seeds

lunch 9:10Lunch Tuesday:  sardines/basil/tomatoes/S&P/balsalmic   and a coconut oil fat bomb.  It doesn’t look very good but it tastes fine – honest.

 

dinner 9:10

 

 

 

Dinner Tuesday:  ground sausage and liver fried in butter topped with a little cheese;  roasted potatoes;  and in the bowl:  cauliflower, tomatoes, mushrooms in butter, w/ thyme and oregano.

Today / Wednesday:

Smoothie: I KNEW I NEEDED TO EAT VERY HIGH FAT TO GET THRU THE DAY:  a cup of full fat coconut milk ( can, not box), flax, 2 raw eggs, vanilla and stevia, MCT oil, raw greens powder, coconut flakes, blueberries, nutmeg, and mace.

Lunch:  out to eat:  a big cobb salad with salmon, olive oil and vinegar.

And that’s it so far.  Oh, Tip For The Day:  Plan.  Did you think each day would be a different tip? Planning is EVERYTHING.  Plan your lists, plan your meals, plan around your schedule, plan when you’re going to chop and cook and pack.  The busiest people in the world get the most done because they Plan.  Eat well!

How To Get Healthy and Lean With NO RECIPE PALEO MEALS. Food Pics!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI’m about to embark on a whole week of posting What I Eat, the How To’s of making it, and the Why’s of what I’m cooking.  Frequent complaints I hear are “I don’t know how to cook, I don’t have time to cook, I get confused in the grocery store, I don’t know what’s healthy, I’m too busy to cook, No one likes my cooking and I feel like it was a waste of time and effort.”

These negative thoughts pony on the back of massive amounts of advertising convincing us that frozen food, processed food, and fast food are PERFECT for each of these situations, and look:  everyone in the ad is slim and beautiful!  What could go wrong??

A lot:  a nation that’s 70% overweight, tired, sick, and stressed, and kids who take more drugs to control their behavior and moods than ever imagined.  Its time to take back out health, and that only happens by eating Real Whole Food.  

To all of you who are either intimidated by cooking or always looking for ideas, this week will be for you.  If you check out my What I Eat page, you’ve noticed that most of our dinners are just meat, vegetables, fats, herbs, and spices, thrown together without a recipe.   Honestly, I rarely even get out a measuring spoon; most of the time I either pour spices into my hand, or chop and throw herbs right into my pot, depending on my mood.

If you’ve been obsessed with the Food Network, or Food magazines, you’ve been convinced that Cooking Is A Science for the Gifted In Cooking.  I’m here to tell you, it’s not.  Honestly.  Throw a bunch of Real Whole foods together, and it ALWAYS comes out good.  But food, food is a science;  Food is Medicine, and it’s important to learn the benefits of particular foods, and then use that knowledge to lose weight, stay lean, get healthy, boost energy, recover, repair, and sleep well.

Food can also be Poison; feeding your kids Pasta and Chicken Nuggets is a really bad idea.   True it’s fast and easy, and they’ll LOVE it, but the Simple Carbs, the Gluten, the Chemicals, and the total LACK of any nutrients, will set your kids up for a life of poor health, weight issues, foggy thinking, fatigue, and learning problems.

All week I’ll be giving tips that are tailored to you overcoming all those typical excuses for why cooking just isn’t possible.  Today’s tip:  Plan.

Get out your day timer, look at your schedule and your kid’s schedule.  When are you home? when are you working/driving/working out/activities/sports etc?  Write it down.  If you’re in the car from 3 to 7, you need to either pack dinner, or have something ready in a warm over (175*) for when you get home.  You might have to make dinner in the morning or early afternoon, if that’s when you have time.  Dinner doesn’t have to be prepared right before you eat, dinner needs to be prepared WHEN YOU HAVE TIME TO MAKE IT.   If you leave for work early in the morning and don’t get home til late, you need to have food already prepared in a crock pot, or refrigerator via Power Cooking. ( I’ll do a Power Cook this week, for now, read this post for an explanations/how-to’s.  )

Really, there’s very few surprises in life, and I’m saying that as a working mom of 4, one of whom’s epileptic.  Life is pretty routine;  if you want to accomplish much, plan around your routine.  This takes attention, effort, and practice if you’re used to winging life by the seat of your pants.  If you’re a parent, choose what you want to teach your children:  planning or winging.  Which do you think will be more helpful to them?

On to Today’s Meals:

I always start the day with Intenzyme ( anti-inflammatory enzymes), Bromelein ( enzymes for my sticky blood), and Tyrosine ( amino acids for energy).  I take digestive enzymes with my meals, and a good fish oil,  and a vit B complex after breakfast, along with HCl ( stomach acid).    Shelby takes Primrose oil ( good for fluctuating hormones), Fermented Cod Liver Oil ( all my girls are on this, it’s good for the immune system), and B complex.

FYI, all my water has Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar added, I love the taste, and all those live enzymes are good for me.

Breakfast for Shelby ( she’s my only kid home right now. )

banana & egg pancake

 

This is a big pancake made out of a mashed ripe banana, 2 eggs, cinnamon, mace, and ginger, then cooked in coconut oil.  She tops it with butter.  This has been her breakfast for the past 8 days.  I’m expecting it to change soon, but we’ll see.

 

9:8:14 smoothie

 

 

 

 

To the right is my breakfast:  a Smoothie.  In the glass:  water with chia/flax/hemp seeds, a scoop of Jay Robb protein, and my newest find:  Amazing Grass Raw Reserve.  Then I added some of the frozen collard greens ( from last nights dinner), a few chunks of frozen avocado ( baggy ), a raw egg, some frozen blueberries, a little MCT oil, and ice.  Also: cinnamon, mace, and cloves.  I measured NOTHING, and there’s no recipe, but there are reasons for choosing my ingredients.

The seeds are high in Omega 3 and phyto nutrients, and great for pooping.  Flax seed is also good for eliminating old estrogen from the body. The Grass, well, check out how many nutrients are in there. Jay Robb:  easy, clean, quick digesting whey protein; I’m lifting in less than 2 hours and I want amino acids in my blood, ready to be used by muscle cells.  Collards: greens are Nutrient Bombs, and I had leftovers.  Avocado:  great source of mono-unsaturated fat.  Raw eggs:  where do I start?  MCT oil: great for producing Ketones.  Cinnamon/Mace/Cloves:  spices are NUTRIENT BOMBS.  Check out Worlds Healthiest Foods to learn about these spices, and why you should incorporate them.  Blueberries:  vein health, heart health, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, phyto-nutrients.

Lunch for me:  Sardines w/ tomatoes, basil, S&P, olive oil and vinegar.  Shelby took a Cliff Bar, a big apple, and some nuts.

Dinner:  Pictures tomorrow, but cod, and spaghetti squash loaded with a vegetable tomato sauce, topped with cheese.

Start making your plan now, and let me know what you come up with.  Cooking is NOT rocket science, you can do this!

 

 

Does a Fast Food Meal Here and There Hurt? Habits Are Everything!

Yea!  It appears my blog is fixed!  Thank you so much Sarah Albright of Web Designs by Sarah Albright:) She figured out a pretty big problem for me and I really, really appreciate it!

I’ve had some great questions this week from busy people about eating on the run.  (really, who’s not busy??)  I relate to this.  Work, kids, driving, that’s Real Life, right?   This is an area of stress and anxiety that Big Food has (successfully) spent a lot of time and money on.  Some of the messages:  ” If it looks real, it’s good for you.”  and   “A fast food meal or two during this busy time can be incredibly time saving and helpful. No harm done and your kids will LOVE you for this! “.  It’s an incredibly effective strategy because the message LET’S YOU OFF THE HOOK FOR COOKING.  This has made us sick and fat, and created a generation of kids who take more medications than anyone could have ever imagined.

So how do we manage to eat Real Whole Food when we’ve got work/kids/clubs/appointments/traffic/pets/etc?  We Plan Plan Plan Plan, and then Plan; stick to the plan, and make the smartest choices possible when we HAVE to eat on the run.  Here’s some solutions, but first, please take a look at the ingredient lists for 2 of the most popular fast food items IN THE WORLD.   Look at those ingredients and ask yourself,  “how could this NOT cause harm??”

mcdonaldsf9new2

There’s 7 oils, all of which are either hydrogenated or Omega 6 (cancer/disease/inflammation), artificial color, preservatives, and ANTI-FOAMING AGENT ( what the heck?);  here’s the ingredients in the SALT:  silicoaluminate( also called ALUMINUM SODIUM), dextrose ( SUGAR), and potassium iodide .  Umm.  That’s not really salt.

KFC boneless

 

 

 

Extra Crispy™ Boneless Chicken – White Meat
Skinless White Chicken Pieces, Potassium and Sodium Phosphates, Salt, Seasoning (Potassium Chloride, Rice Flour), Monosodium
Glutamate. Breaded With: Wheat Flour, Salt, Spices, Monosodium Glutamate, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate), Garlic Powder,
Natural Flavorings, Citric Acid, Maltodextrin, Sugar, Corn Syrup Solids, With Not More Than 2% Calcium Silicate Added as an Anti
Caking Agent.
Contains Wheat.

Gross.  Two sources of MSG, sugar, phosphates (good bye bone and kidneys), and “anti-caking agents”.  Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking that a little bit of this can’t cause damage, because it can.

Want a Plan?  Sit down on Sunday with your schedule in front of you, note everything that both you and your kids have to do.  Plan accordingly.  When can you power cook batches of food?  When can you shop/chop/prep/baggy and freeze?  When do you need to pack for yourself, and your kids?  What needs to go on the grocery list so that happens? Are there evenings with multiple practices in a row that necessitate you stopping somewhere?  At least make it one of the less offensive Fast Foods, like Chipolte or Panera.  These meals aren’t even close to making Real Whole Food at home;  there’s always going to be a degree of Chemicals, Flour and Sugar that are unavoidable when eating out.  So just think of these as Emergency Options.  ( Kind of like my “Emergency Bras“, which is when I forget to pack a bra for after my gym shower, and need to immediately consult or train someone.  When this happens, I head to Walmart for a $10.00 Emergency Bra and put it on in the car.) ( I just realized I’m much more likely to forget to pack a bra or underwear than to ever forget to pack a lunch and water bottles!)

About the Emergency Options:  emergency’s don’t happen every day.  Things that happen every day are HABITS.  There really aren’t that many emergency’s in most of our lives, percentage-wise.  Really, there’s very few surprises day to day, and I’m a working mom of 4, one of whom’s an Epileptic who surprised us a few times a month:  “Surprise, I’m about to have a seizure.  The day needs to change right now.”    95% of our days STILL aren’t a surprise with even that scenario.  *** ( to my friends whose children have issues much, much, worse than mine, your days do contain more surprises; focus on your health and energy as much as you can.)

Worried because living life by the seat of your pants is your norm?  You were brought up that way or have nurtured those habits for years?  Just because you’re an adult and haven’t established these Planning Habits yet, doesn’t mean you can’t.  You can.  Everyone can Create and Establish Good Habits.  Initially, this’ll cause some stress, because we’re forcing ourselves to take actions that are better for us in the LONG TERM than the SHORT TERM.  The other day I was at a lecture called “Solutions for The Overactive Brain”, the neurologist giving the talk said that our BRAIN DOESN’T WANT TO DO WHAT’S BEST FOR US, IT WANTS TO DO WHAT’S EASIEST FOR US.  Wow.  I can’t stop thinking about that.

The stress we feel when we commit to living our life according to what’s best LONG TERM depends on HOW MUCH PRACTICE WE’VE HAD DOING THAT.  Parents!!  It’s really important that we teach our kids boundaries and self control. Apparently, those skills are muscles in the brain, and they’re stronger with use.  However, just like any muscle, they can be built any time with focus and effort.

One last tip for eating on the run:  it doesn’t have to be special or delicious, it just needs to supply nutrients.  Turkey/cheese roll ups, bags of nuts, fruit and nut butters, hard boiled eggs, chunks of cheese and fruit, celery and pb and raisins, leftovers in a tupperware, heat up a good sausage or one of the new hotdogs that aren’t full of disgusting ingredients.  Tell your kids that you’re packing because eating out is too expensive.  When I said, ” We don’t have the money to eat out”  that was rarely met with resistance.  If I  said “pack your dinner for after soccer because after that so and so has gymnastics and we’re not stopping at McDonalds because it’s gross”, now that was met with resistance (whining, begging, arguing).   (ps – Macy, you’re not really just “so and so ” to me, you’re much more than that honey.)

A long term result?  I have 4 kids who hate fast food, and are great about throwing little baggies in their back packs for long days.  They also pack their own water bottles.  It’s a habit they were trained in, and it’s never too late to develop habits.

What have I been eating lately?  Here’s a smoothie, a lunch salad, and a dinner:

Smoothie: Raw Keifer/blueberries/carob/stevia/avocado/spinach/raw egg/cinnamon/ginger/rose hips/hemp seeds, topped with coconut

breakfast smoothie and waters

 

 

 

 

 

Packed Salad for Car Lunch:  greens/broccoli sprouts/whole shredded beet and carrot/salmon/gouda/walnut oil and balsamic

salmon salad

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner:  brussels/onion/leeks/garlic/cabbage/bacon/lots of butter, herbs, and salt – this freezes and re-heats GREAT, and tastes good cold!

brussels bacon

 

 

 

 

 

I get asked for recipes often.  I NEVER use a recipe.  Half the time I use my hand to measure the spices and herbs.  Real Whole Food tastes delicious so you can’t go wrong with it.  If cooking is stressful, start with recipe books or sites, build up your skills and confidence, and go from there.  Start simple!  Don’t make recipes with 17 ingredients because your stress ( and cortisol) will go through the roof ( hello belly fat!).  Set up a podcast, or TV, or talk on the phone with an ear piece (not wireless – those EMFs are horrible for us!), because multi-tasking does work sometimes:)  You can do this! You can become healthier, thinner, and more energetic, and you can instill good habits in your kids.  We have Power, we just need to use it!

 

Man Post, Seizures, Constipation/Miralax, Green Smoothie

Where’s Mark’s Man Post?  It was due on April 13!  We hit a snag with our weekend plans.   Our epileptic daughter Amanda ended up in the hospital much of the weekend with “break-thru” seizures.  She’s pretty beat up.  She was put on a new anti-seizure drug a month ago which caused such a depressive state of mind;  she quit cold turkey last Sunday.  She should have weaned off the brain med; however, she’s had plenty of seizures when she’s been on her meds too.

Epilepsy Sucks.  That’s all I can say.  No, actually, I have to say she’s amazing.  Last night, after a she got home and took a nap, because there’s no sleeping in a hospital, she worked on a problem set due at 11 today.  And this morning she’s going to get up and make the walk across campus for her 11 o’clock class.  She’s the toughest person I know.

Testosterone post coming soon, I’ll let you know the date.

In honor of meds causing side effects, today’s post will be about constipation, Miralax, and it’s dangerous side effects; inspired by the lady in the bed beside Amanda.  Her name was Susan and she had a brain tumor that was causing seizures.  Her most recent seizure, that landed her in the hospital, was “different” .  Her words.  (There’s ZERO privacy in the rooms, so I heard all her conversations with the doctors, plus her conversations with her husband and daughters.)  Susan’s on Miralax twice a day, and has been for MONTHS, and Colase, once a day, but now will take that twice a day also, per doctors orders.  Poor thing can’t poop, probably a combination of her meds and Standard American Diet (SAD).  ( She was eating pudding, fiber cereal, and pancakes, with a diet pepsi, in the hospital bed.)

Did you know Miralax, an incredibly common laxative, has had a FDA warning on it since 2011, stating that it’s correlated with “NEUROPSYCHIATRIC EVENTS“?  Besides Miralax, this warning also applies to these other meds:  Movicol, Dulcolax, Colyte, Colovage, Co-Lav, Clensz-Lyte, ClearLax, GoLYTELY, GaviLyte C, GlycoLax, Go-Evac, GlycoPrep, E-Z-Em Fortrans, Halflytely, Lax-a-Day, LaxLyte, MoviPrep, Macrogol, NuLytely, OCL, Peg-Lyte, Prep Lyte, Softlax, TriLyte, and all other brands with Polyethylene Glycol 3350 (PEG for short) as their active ingredient.   PEG breaks down to toxic byproducts that first affect the central nervous system (CNS), then the heart, and finally the kidneys.

People give this stuff to babies and children, with a doctors blessing. Please read on, because American’s spend more than $700 MILLION on laxatives a year, and STILL remain the most constipated people on earth.  We’re also the most medicated people on earth, consume the most fiber supplements, and consume the most high carbohydrate fibrous grain products.  Not the most Fruit, Vegetables, Water, or Probiotic Foods,  which are actually the Fix For Constipation.   Of course, there’s not a lot of money to be made on Real Whole Foods, so Big Phuvernment’s* not going to be pushing that real hard any time soon.

PEG is classified as a “NeuroToxin”.  The scary term, “neuropsychiatric events”?  That means “neurological conditions”, such as autism, MS, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, seizures, etc.  (Miralax and it’s sisters work by artificially stimulating the nervous system so that you can squeeze out a poop. Apparently, listening to Susan, it doesn’t always work.)  PEG has several other side effects that don’t include the Nervous system, and I hope you read about them all here; medications always come with side effects, even meds that are deemed so normal that they have a tag line like this:  MiraLAX® is safe and effective – and available without a prescription.  It’s not safe.  The FDA has ONLY approved it for adults, and ONLY for a maximum of 7 days.  Pregnant women and children who’ve used it should be very worried, as it’s consequences for small, undeveloped or developing brains is very serious.  Please read the full report here.  There’s this blind trust that we’ve put in the medical system and pharmaceuticals that is very, very undeserved.  Know what you’re putting in your body!

There’s NO MEDICATIONS that don’t have SOME negative effect on your digestive system: they either slow motility of the bowels, or affect the pH of the gut, or both.  And I mean, NO MEDICATION.  Some of the worst offenders?  Anti-depressants, pain meds, antibiotics,  and diuretics.  Again though, Every Single Medication affects the gut in one way or the other.

Some people are going to read this and think, No Way.  If the medication was that bad or that dangerous, it wouldn’t be on the market.  Wrong.  Money Talks,… loudly.  In 2012 a petition was filed with the FDA in an effort to get PEG out of our medicine and FOOD supply:  For the pdf look here.

“As of March 2012, the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System showed 2257 reported adverse events related (in any way) to PEG products – up from 7 in 2001. Included in the adverse events reported are serious kidney, urinary, bowel, blood, skin, and neuropsychiatric symptoms – and at least 3 children’s deaths.”  

Note the word, “products”, because PEG’s not just in laxatives, it’s in several other products also:  “food grade polyethylene glycol (under the Carbowax Sentry trade name) is commonly added to chewing gums, table-top sweeteners, and energy drinks. It is also used as a base in solid and liquid soaps, shampoos, bath and shower gels; body and face creams and lotions; toothpastes, ointments and suppositories; as a tablet binder in drugs and supplements; as a lubricant in vaginal gels and eye drops; and as a solvent in cough medicines and elixirs. ”

The resource for this post is a scientist named Konstantin Monastyrsky.  He runs a site called “gutsense” and it contains more specific and applicable information about the gut and constipation than I’ve seen anywhere else.  You should really check it out if you want to learn the super gritty nitty details of what you can do if you have chronic constipation.

In the meantime, what about Amanda’s reliance on pharmaceuticals for her epilepsy?  We can’t stand it.  She’s been on a pretty solid ketogenic diet for almost a year, and she doesn’t drink alcohol, which has to help, but she’s in college.  College life is NOT conducive to epilepsy, at all.  The stress, the deadlines, the lack of sleep.  We feel tied to these horrible drugs yet want more than anything to get off them.  In her own words, she “wonders who she is if she wasn’t on brain medications.”….  We’ve been seriously investigating Medical Marijuana, which isn’t legal in Virginia yet, but hopefully will be soon.  What is legal is Hemp oil ( it’s lacks THC, which is the illegal substance, and contains Cannabidoil, which is deemed by some scientists to be the most Anti-Inflammatory substance in the world.)  We’ve ordered some and will be trying this in conjunction with her meds.   We’ve got to get the laws changed so that more studies can be conducted in the US.  Other countries are light years ahead on this and so far, the science looks incredibly promising.  All neurological conditions and cancer seem to be the main focus, and there’s some great information on this site here.

smooth4:11I want to end on a lighter note:  my morning Smoothie!  Today’s ingredients:  raw keifer, frozen spinach, frozen avocado, frozen cranberries, scoop of dark cocoa, spoon of Stevia, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, chlorella, and topped with coconut.

The two jars next to it are my waters that I take with me, and that little jar?  Manuka Honey – a powerful antibiotic honey from New Zealand.  Great immune booster:)

** Big Phuvernment: the sexual union of Big Business, Big Pharma, and Government.**