Inheriting Bad Genes

I hope you'll forgive me, but I always get fumed up when I hear someone say, "I must have inherited bad genes" when a person is talking about "inherited" illness, obesity, or poor health.

It's true, our genes have a part to play in our health, our stature, our longevity. But more often what we inherit from our parents to our detriment is our lifestyle. That includes the foods we like to eat, how, when and why we eat, whether we exercise or not, etc., etc.

My husband and I are making a concerted effort to model a healthy lifestyle for our children to copy. And it seems to be working. They're not fussy eaters. They enjoy going outside to play (even when it's -30 degrees Celsius, like it was today!). Hopefully, they're inheriting a healthy lifestyle and attitudes from us.

Afterall, it's the little daily habits that add up to either good health or poor health. With young children, we have the opportunity to make a healthy lifestyle "normal". It's about choices.

Tammie

Where's the Real Food?

Yesterday, we stopped for groceries before heading to the pool. Our shopping trip took about 15 minutes start to finish. Part of the reason for this is that we didn't have many items on our shopping list. The other part of the reason is that I'm becoming more convinced that Kevin Trudeau is right about what's on the shelves. Most of what's on offer at the grocery store just doesn't provide good nutrition. So, we ended up passing by a whole lot of stuff.

Later, our family talked about the way grocery stores are set up. Have you ever noticed all the small ticket impulse junk-food stuff that surrounds the till area. There's gum, candy, chocolate bars, pop in a small cooler. It's pathetic. "They" know that you've got nothing better to do while waiting your turn in line than muse about how to spend your loose change polluting your body and mind (I forgot to mention all the cheap tabloid reading material situated on racks around the till).

When we go shopping, we do the circuit route: produce on the outside wall near the entrance, back wall past the meats to the opposite far outside wall where the frozen veggies are kept and then back along the front of the store to the tills. I think Kevin Trudeau (author of Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About) is right. What's in the center of the store has just about "0" nutrition in it. Think about it: all the crackers, sweetened instant cereals, canned and packaged soup mixes, boiled additive-loaded juices, and tinned meats and sauces have nearly no nutrient value whatsoever. And all that stuff makes up the bulk of what's in the store.

It's no wonder North Americans have such a problem with obesity and disease. Most of us are undernourished and overfed. The stuff in the middle of the store is loaded with artificial flavourings, preservatives, fat, sugar, and salt. If I make crackers at home, they won't last indefinitely on the cupboard shelf the way the commercial ones do. There's a big difference in nutrient quality as well.

Believe me or don't. In my opinion, the grocery stores have a large part to play in our unhappy state of health. Don't believe what the marketers say about their products being good for you. If it's packaged and preserved, it's not the best. Skip the centre aisles and go for the fresh, natural foods on the outskirts of the store. That's where the real food is at!

Tammie

Cilantro and Quinoa

I'm sure glad we've got cilantro in the freezer and cumin in the cupboard. My husband said he read about a group of guys who went on a ten-day canoe trip and forgot the salt and seasonings. He said, "I'd go back. I would. I'd say, 'See you guys, but I'm going back for the salt!'"

Right. I think I'd go back for the cumin and cilantro! Healthy eating (read: eating mostly raw, natural foods) wouldn't be half as much fun without the cumin and cilantro...and freshly squeezed lemon.

Lunch today: quinoa, fresh guacamole (with lots of cilantro and cumin), grated beets, grated carrots, and sprouts (the crunchy pea sprout mix and broccoli mix from Mumm's Sprouting Seeds:http://www.sprouting.com/). All this was topped with a splash of Bragg Liquid Aminos and a squirt of flax seed oil. (There was also a creamy cashew dressing for the sprouts - the kids'll eat the sprouts with a bit of dressing!) Macro munchies to fuel the afternoon!

My favourite guac:
4 avocadoes
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup frozen/fresh chopped cilantro
juice of 1 lemon
1 t cumin (or more)
1/2 t coarse sea salt

Mix all in food processor. Yum!

Glutamine and the Allergy/Gut Connection

I’ve been swamped with work lately. We’re sticking to our allergy elimination diet, though and have begun taking our supplements to aid in the candida cleanse. My husband and I are taking drops and two capsules twice a day and are supplementing with probiotics and glutamine.

Glutamine is an amino acid which the cells of the small intestine use as an energy source. It is necessary for the repair and maintenance of the gastrointestinal lining. Supplementation may be helpful in healing leaky gut syndrome. It’s the small holes in the gastrointestinal lining that allow undigested proteins to circulate in the blood stream which leads to the development of allergies.

We’ve been on our candida cleanse for about a week and a half now. My husband has been having fewer symptoms of indigestion and seems to be feeling better overall. Our son Samuel, who has attention deficit, hasn’t shown any behavioural improvements that are noticeable. I’m wondering if there’s still something he’s eating that’s irritating his system.

As we read and learn more about our health, I’m amazed by the complexity of the human body and its ability to cope with the junk that we put into it. I’m praying that God will lead us in our quest for great health and show us how to care for this wonderful body He’s given us.

Tammie

Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About

Errands Day Today

First stop: the post office to see if my supplements order had arrived from Nature's Fare (great place to order vitamins from: http://www.naturesfare.com/.). It hadn't. I'll check again tomorrow. I'm anxious to get my family started on enzyme therapy.

Next stop: the book store. I stopped at the local book store and picked up a copy of Kevin Trudeau's book, Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, for a friend of mine who has cancer. It's a great book - lots of common sense truth and advice. The book offers hope to all of us who are suffering from poor health or disease. Trudeau starts off by saying, "I should be dead by now." In his own quest to find an answer to a serious heart problem while he was still in his twenties, he stumbled across a conspiracy to keep real, natural cures from the public. Check out his website at http://www.naturalcures.com/.

Finally, the grocery store. Picked up some lovely deep red roma tomatoes (hoped they weren't genetically modified and part fish or frog or something else!), two bags of avocadoes (ooh, how I love guacamole stuffed with garlic and all that wonderful cilantro we stored away in the freezer from our garden), lemons, celery, and...that's it!

Came home starving and whipped up a vegan protein shake: 1 cup soaked almonds, 1 T carob powder, 2 scoops soy protein, 1T tahini, and liquid stevia to taste. Mmmm. A lot like those malted milks I used to buy at the mall when I was a kid.

Great health to you!

Tammie

Do What You Love

I recently started an exercise program. Years ago, I was very active, cycling, skiing, running, etc. But, I haven't been regularly exercising in quite some time.

It's so hard to start and stick to a new exercise routine when you've become accustomed to a sedentary lifestyle. I suppose having stairs in the house helps. But running upstairs for laundry, bathroom breaks, cleaning, and fetching things on a random basis throughout the day is not the same as participating in a focused, prolonged, pulse-raising activity.

I'm supposed to be engaged in my workout now. See, it is hard to stick with it. Besides, it's really cold out there today. Truth be told, I really would rather be writing at this moment.

I'm going to go out. Really I am.

Anyway, I started my fitness routine because I remembered how great I felt when I was really fit. Besides, I know that great health requires regular exercise.

For one thing, it's good for the heart. Exercise strengthens the heart muscle. Everybody knows this. For another thing, it's necessary for the removal of toxins from the body. This is crucial. The circulatory system has a strong pump - the heart. The lymph system has no pump and relies on exercise and heat-inducing activities for circulation of lymph fluids. Simply stated, sweating rids the body of deadly, toxic poisons that might otherwise manifest themselves in some dreaded disease.

So, out the door I go.

Sticking with my new program is really not as hard as I'd convinced myself it would be. I really love being outdoors and being active. It does feel great and I'm glad I'm back at it!

Raw Foods and Enzymes

"The totally cooked food, processed food, radiated food, chemicalized food diet is actually the extreme diet, as no other people on the face of the earth have ever before existed on it and there is no scientific evidence that they can." Carolee Bateson-Koch in Allergies, Disease in Disguise.

We're finding out just how easy it is to subsist on a mostly raw foods diet. Bateson-Koch recommends a 70% raw foods diet and supplementation with plant enzymes when cooked food is eaten to improve digestion, strengthen the immune system (the gastro-intestinal tract is an important part of the immune system), and ultimately defeat allergies.

My husband had a gassy stomach this morning and took a couple of enzyme capsules. He experienced immediate relief. Enzymes appear to be the missing ingredient in complete digestion. A lack of enzymes results in indigestion and other digestive difficulties. Antacids only suppress the symptoms and de-acidify our stomachs. I read somewhere that contrary to what most people believe, more people have a problem with not enough stomach acid, than too much.

On the whole, I'm finding that raw foods are easier and quicker to digest than our normal fare of mostly cooked food. The Standard American Diet, or SAD diet, with its fast-food, high-fat, high-sugar, processed foods is killing us. Devoid of the enzymes necessary for adequate digestion, dpeleted of natural nutrients, the results of this kind of diet can be seen in our soaring rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, depression, and on and on and on.

I think Bateson-Koch is right. The SAD diet is extreme.

Here's a simple point that is completely overlooked by most of us. Humans were created to thrive on a raw, natural, plant-based diet.

"And God said, 'See I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.'" Genesis 1:29

Sure doughnuts and steaks might be the preferred food choice for many. It's what we're used to. But in the long run, the SAD diet hurts us. The closer we can stick to the original diet, the better off we'll be. I really believe it.

Tammie

In For the Duration

So here it is - our first day on the program that will (hopefully) naturally eliminate allergies in our family.

This morning we sat down at the breakfast table and had our two fruit servings for the day: wild blueberries and cherries (both picked last summer, frozen, and thawed overnight). As a family, we talked about how allergy affects all of us and how good it would be for all of us to have great health. "Do you think having great health and being allergy free is worth 6 weeks of self-denial?" I asked. The unanimous vote was, It's worth a try.

There were no long faces over the lack of peanut butter and honey toast and cereal at the table. I'm proud of the children! We reasoned it out and marked the calendar for the date that we will be reintroducing some of the forbidden foods (wheat, yeast-containing baked goods, peanuts, and all sugar-containing products). The natural cure for allergies program begins with a candida cleanse. Since yeast overgrowth in the body relies on a steady supply of sugars, we're cutting sugars (except for the two servings of fruit in the morning) completely out of our diet.

Lunch was mostly raw foods: coleslaw of cabbage, carrots and beets, drizzled with lime juice, flax seed oil, and sprinkled with salt. We also had rice crackers with sesame tahini.

I worried all night about how we would live with no sweets. We're so motivated by food. When we're not indulging in the things we like, we're thinking about them, it seems. But surprisingly, no one seems to have missed the toast at breakfast or the regular sweet treat following lunch. We filled up and are going about our business as usual. No big deal.

I hope we can stick this program out for the full six weeks. When I first read about the all natural program for getting allergy free, it sounded easy. Just a 4 -6 week commitment to be cured of allergies for a lifetime. Not hard at all, I thought. Changing your diet radically is no easy feat, however. Even if it only is for one month.

I'm going to find out if we can use stevia as a sweetener. I don't think it counts as a sugar because it has a different chemical make-up. (We're steering clear of all artificial sweeteners, as well. Stevia is a green plant that has very sweet leaves. You can buy the extract in a liquid or white powder.)

New Year's Resolution

I spent a couple of hours skimming through a book I found in the house. I've no idea where the book came from - was it given to us, did I buy it and forget it, did my husband pick it up at a yard sale somewhere? It's called Allergies - Disease in Disguise: How to heal your allergic condition permanently and naturally, by Carolee Bateson-Koch (Alive Books).

I almost fell off my chair when I realized that what I held in my hand could change our lives. The author presents a clear program for eliminating allergies within 4 -6 weeks. And it's completely reasonable and plausible to believe from the background information that she presents that allergy elimination is possible within that time-frame.

Our 9 year old son has a severe wasp sting allergy. Plus we suspect that undiagnosed food allergies are behind his erratic behaviours and attention deficit problems. I thanked the Lord all afternoon for some hope on the horizon via this book.

My husband suffers digestive difficulties that are sure to improve on this program as well.

The program involves a candida cleanse, enzyme therapy, and avoidance of suspected allergens for 4 -6 weeks. Living on a slightly restricted diet and taking some supplements will be a small price to pay for a lifetime of allergy-free living.

We're going to commit to this program for the duration (by the grace of God). Pray for our success!

Happy New Year to everyone!