Moving Strongly Forward

Guest Post - Gluten-Free For Life

This fantastic post is from my friend Shelly. Many gluten sensitivities and intolerances are undiagnosed, causing people to suffer and medicate. Hopefully Shelly’s success will bring inspiration and hope to others who are suffering with similar symptoms.

 

Stomach issues have plagued me for years now. I cannot even recall when they initially started. It has been that long. Symptoms included lower abdominal pain (similar to menstrual cramps) and sometimes so severe that I could barely stand up straight to walk, and extended belly. I have seen many doctors throughout the years and have been given prescription medication to try to curb the pain when it happens, but actually those meds made me feel really loopy and almost in tears. I have ingested gallons of Mylanta, Tums, Pepcid AC, etc. with only brief moments of relief. I have tried to read and self diagnose, but couldn’t determine if the problem was dairy, acid (from coffee, wine, spicy foods, tea), fried foods, processed sugar, of what exactly the culprit was. Recently, the problems have become more frequent. What used to be every few months now had turned into twice a week. The only way I could get relief was to only eat white Basmati rice and lay on my couch with a heating pad on my belly until it subsided.

My friend Laura recommended going to see her doctor, Ken Morehead at Oriental Health Solutions in Durham, NC. I had never been to this type of doctor before, but at this point was willing to try anything. The night before I went to my appointment, I had to fill out a very lengthy questionnaire dating back to childhood listing ailments and accidents over the years. When I met Ken the next day, I felt that he was a very knowledgeable and likable individual.

After an hour with him on my first visit, he suggested that I change my eating habits to eat 3 squares a day and incorporate 2 healthy snacks in between the meals. He also told me things that were lacking in my diet, such as “healthy fats” (i.e. meat broth, organic butter, nuts) and protein (i.e. bacon, salami, eggs). I usually would skip breakfast and when it came to eating any type of “fat”, shied away from it because I was a calorie counter. I always worried about gaining an extra pound. Also, was never much of a snacker. This style of eating was totally different from how I was used to eating before. Funny thing is that instead of gaining weight from eating more, I actually dropped a few pounds. Ken also suggested that I stay away from Gluten. He thought this may be the underlying cause of my stomach problems.

After eating differently and excluding Gluten from my diet, I could literally feel an improvement in as little as 3 days! The food I ate “went down well.” My stomach felt settled and I didn’t experience any more belly cramps or bloating! A week later, I decided to test out eating items I knew included Gluten, and after 3 days experienced the belly cramps again. I went back to eliminating it from my diet, and felt better immediately.

At my next visit with Ken, he gave me a supplement called Gluten Flam and instructed me to take two at night for the next 30 days before I went to bed to help me heal. He also said that if I accidentally ate something with Gluten, then to take 5 to counteract what I had eaten. I did as he said and felt even better! We decided to do a blood test next to find out definitively if I was allergic to Gluten. There are two different results that can test positive to Gluten intolerance; one being that the allergy is temporary and you could one day heal and not have issues with eating it again, and the other being that you have a lifelong problem with it and should never eat it again. My results came back as the latter.

This would explain why I have had problems for such a long time! I am still learning what does and doesn’t have Gluten in it, but will be Gluten free for life! I feel so much better and my quality of life has improved tremendously! Whereas before, during the week, I had low energy, and couldn’t go out and do as much because I was usually home on the couch in pain, I now feel great and am out and about all of the time. I had no idea I was causing my own issues by my daily choices. It’s definitely an adjustment to change your diet, and Gluten seems to be in everything, but it is so worth it to feel good again. Also, it has been a couple of months since I have made this change, and I really don’t crave the stuff that I used to eat (i.e. pasta, bread, battered food, cereal, etc). More and more restaurants have Gluten Free menus, and I am now seeing all kinds of Gluten Free items in the grocery store when I shop.

It is amazing to me how after years of physicians only treating my symptoms and never giving me an explanation of the root cause of my issues, then I see Ken the first consultation and he hits the nail on the head with exactly what my problem really was. I am thankful to finally have an answer and am on my way to a permanent Gluten Free, happy, healthy, life!

First Fast Completed!

Yesterday Ryan and I easily and successfully completed our first fast (but not Colson, the 8 year old eating machine). In a nutshell we:

1. Ate dinner the night before (it was paleo)

2. Drank nothing but water for 18 hours

3. Ate a small snack and then normal dinner later

That was it. My understanding is that we brought our insulin levels down and promoted human growth hormone (HGH) production. Apparently the peak benefits of fasting occur at around 16 hours. If a person goes for more than about 28 hours, cortisol production elevates, which we want to avoid.

Here are a couple of additional findings:

1. Ryan and I tried juice fasting five years ago before we learned about the Weston A. Price Society. We were sort of healthy eaters then. It was super hard, as we were weak, shaky and sweaty, and we did it too long. This time around, though, we were a little hungry around hour 16 and easily could have kept on going after hour 18. Scheduling demands and exceeding our peak benefit at about 16 hours caused us to pull the plug.

2. Even though we felt solid and fine during this fast, I don’t recommend fasting when you are going to the Farmers Market or Whole Foods. Whole Foods was a little tough, but the blueberries at the Farmers Market about put me over the top. Clearly I have blueberry issues: The Blues and Blacks are Here!

3. How did I break our fast? With those sweet and delicious, local, pesticide-free blueberries! We had a small snack when we broke the fast and then ate a normal dinner about 3 hours later.

Are Ryan and I going to do it again? Absolutely! Every week. Here’s to jumpstarting our healthy middle age bodies and going to the next level. You really can feel better the older you get, and, as my Oriental medicine doc says, “If you aren’t feeling better every year, you are doing something wrong.” We’ve lived it and hope you will too.

Clogged Pipes? (I mean the sink)

If you are a believer in real food and all of the natural animal fat and coconut oil that comes with it, you have probably clogged your kitchen sink more than ever. For me, it is a couple of time a year experience, when prior to that it never happened.

What to do? My natural reaction (or unnatural if you will) is to go for the store bought mega-toxic drain cleaner, but at 10:00 last night we were out and the kitchen sink was scary! It is amazing how it can be free flowing one minute and blocked the next. My brilliant husband got online and looked up natural solutions. The first hit was to use baking soda and vinegar. Not in a million years did I think that would work, but I was wrong as wrong can be and will not purchase another commercial drain cleaner.

Here is the link in case you are in need: Homemade Drain Cleaner. As an added note, our drain stopper was not strong enough to block the drain after applying the concoction, so we filled our blender with water and rested it on the drain stopper.

State of the Oceans – What I am Doing About It

Nothing like a little time to reflect and develop a way for me to combine all of my loves: homeschooling, environmental activism, and teaching others how to affect government and shape their communities (see State of the Ocean Report – Time to Act). And I will still have time for my health stuff.

I started the Revolution 2011 club for my homeschooling group, and hopefully we will take it national and make it available to other homeschooling groups. So far 18 kids are interested.

Here is the email that I sent out, which may be useful for some of you who might be interested in doing something similar with kids (regardless of whether or not they are homeschooled):

Hi all. I am writing with two new homeschool offerings, one or both of which may
be interesting to you.

1. I want to teach kids how to become involved with and influence our government
and their communities to make changes they think are important. I am planning
this Fall to lead a group of kids (14 years+) to work on a city or county issue
that requires the city or county commission to take action. We would start from
identifying the issue, researching it, preparing our arguments in support and
preparing to defend against opponents, and ultimately lobbying the local
government to take action. This knowledge is such a fundamental part of our
country’s history and it is being lost much to our detriment.

2. I want to start a group or two (or three) groups of homeschoolers to take
action regarding the 2011 Oceans report. I blogged about it here, and it will
help you understand where I am coming from:
http://movingstronglyforward.typepad.com/moving_strongly_forward/2011/06/state-of-the-ocean-report-time-to-act.html.

I want to have it open to ages 7 and up, but may divide it into two or three
groups, depending on the age of our participants. If it breaks into multiple
groups I will need some help facilitating them all.

Who am I and why do I want to do this? I was an award-winning environmental
planner and lobbyist in Florida. My focus was manatee and ecosystem protection,
a contentious effort that taught me the realities of our political process and
the impact we can have on it. I spent 20 years working in government, for an
environmental non-profit and as a private consultant. I have helped bring
lawsuits against government and defend government from frivolous lawsuits. I
have drafted legislation and lobbied at the local and state levels, and this
year I had two health care related legislative victories in North Carolina.

If you are interested in participating in one or both of these groups, please
drop me an email and let me know the ages of your interested children.

Thank you!

Laura Combs

State of the Ocean Report – Time to Act

Yesterday the International Programme on the State of the Ocean released this report: International Earth System Expert Workshop on Ocean Stresses and Impacts. It is a must read and only takes a few minutes.

Conclusions are:

The participants concluded that not only are we already experiencing severe declines in many species to the point of commercial extinction in some cases, and an unparalleled rate of regional extinctions of habitat types (eg mangroves and seagrass meadows), but we now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation. Unless action is taken now, the consequences of our activities are at a high risk of causing, through the combined effects of climate change, overexploitation, pollution and habitat loss, the next globally significant extinction event in the ocean. It is notable that the occurrence of multiple high intensity stressors has been a pre--‐requisite for all the five global extinction events of the past 600 million years (Barnosky et al., 2009).

What can we do? According to the report:

Technical means to achieve the solutions to many of these problems already exist, but that current societal values prevent humankind from addressing them effectively.

What one little thing can you do to reduce your impact? My family will raise our thermostat, better plan our car trips, and take at least one less car trip a week.

And I will have to decide which battle I am going to fight – health care freedom or environmental protection. Environmental protection clearly is more fundamental and critical, but it is a battle I fought for 20 years. I did my time and I am not sure I want to jump back in.

This year I waged a couple of health freedom battles in the North Carolina legislature (and won I might add). The return on investment as far as my human body energy output is concerned is much greater in these battles, and I enjoyed them. Environmental battles, in contrast, became a grind. Maybe taking the last five years off was the break I needed?

What to do, what to do? As my wonderful calculus professor used to say in his cool Polish accent.

I had human race survival concerns when I was little - the commercial of the Native American walking through the trash on the shoreline always upset me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OHG7tHrNM. My earliest belief has always been "We need clean air and clean water or we will not survive." It is why I became an environmental planner and fought hard for 20 years. It is why I stood up to those who lied and threatened and stomped on the planet and then threatened my family, resulting in police protection for my home and family.

I have had a quiet five years in North Carolina and loved it. Now I have a decision to make. I am no longer into being an environmental martyr, and I have relatively buried my head in the sand. I love being a homeschooling mom! But what good will that ultimately do my son?

Who knew that a little girl in the 70s would be reading this Oceans report? Hopefully my little boy from the 2000s will not see it come true.

If you are wondering what you can do, just do something. People do not understand how easy it is to influence society and the political process. You could:

• Stop buying crap and stop supporting the stores that sell it

• Take one less car trip a week

• Call your federal and state senators and representatives and actually write them letters. Calls and letters have more impact that emails and petitions

• Start your own local small group of people to take action. Don’t do it under an umbrella organization such as Sierra or Audubon. Just do it as yourselves with no group name. That was a new technique for me this year when dealing with the NC legislature, and it was far more powerful than working for or with an organization.

I am sure you get the idea. Be creative and make your voices heard.

More on Fasting, Un-college and Giving Credit

More fasting info came to my attention this morning as I glanced through this Mercola article. I don’t know how correct the information is, but it sounds convincing and is readily accessible. If you want to catch up with on the beginning of my fasting journey, read this post: Marks Daily Apple – Intermittent Fasting.

I am purchasing the book Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon on the recommendation of a doc I know. He says that is the best source/guide out there for fasting. I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, but I will be on it today as my fasting day will be here before I know it.

This doc – he is amazing. The information he nonchalantly shares…I don’t think I can chat with him for awhile because there is so much to process. He is another example about why I keep emphasizing that we need to take the health journey as a community, not in isolation. I would almost certainly not have found the resources that he has brought to me – and stand by because there is more. Low profile guy that he is I don’t need to keep giving him credit, which is tough, because I always like to give credit.

Thank you!

Now off to my other wacky endeavors…like exploring Un-college. In addition to this site, brought to my attention by my friend Jen, my friend Maria tracks these other resources:

“I'm subscribing to that blog and watching several other projects, like OERu and P2PU and Ashoka U and edupunks (DIY U)... The landscape of college-level education will be very different ten years from now.”   

Thank you, ladies!

I think there needs to be five of me – one for marriage, one for food and health, one for homeschooling, one for activism, and one for rest!

Marks Daily Apple – Intermittent Fasting

I have been reading Mark’s Daily Apple on and off for a few months and finally I signed up for the email news. Today’s email article was especially timely, as my dog is fasting today, but I still am not. It is just one of those things I have been dragging my feet on. Today’s article, though, has me convinced to take the leap and fast this coming weekend. We will see if Ryan joins me.

Here is the article:

Drop that fork (or pair of chopsticks, or piece of meat, or handful of nuts) and pay attention. Today, you're going to skip your next meal. Skip your next two, if you want, but make sure you at least miss the next meal. Consider this a Primal Directive, the nudge in the right direction toward Intermittent Fasting that you've probably been mulling over but have yet to fully embrace. I talk about it enough in the blog, but actually fasting can be a difficult thing to try. For one, food is awesome. Food tastes good, especially good Primal food. It's natural to want to eat it, but it's also natural to avoid it for relatively long stretches of time in order to capitalize on the metabolic benefits.

In an evolutionary context, the idea that there are benefits to fasting makes perfect sense. Grok experienced times of plenty and times of scarcity. Sometimes the hunt didn't go well. Sometimes he might only get one big meal in a two-day span of time. Now, conventional nutrition "experts" would suggest that a fasting Grok would experience a slowed metabolism, cannibalized lean body mass, and increased body fat. But would that make evolutionary sense? Why would our bodies develop a response to scarcity that promoted physical infirmity, weakness, and decreased mobility? If we were without food, wouldn't it make sense for our bodies to conserve strength and burn fat for energy, rather than reduce it and burn muscle? In a tight spot like possible starvation, we needed that strength more than ever. And so, on a purely theoretical, logical level, the Conventional Dietary Wisdom regarding skipping meals doesn't add up.

The actual research tells a different story, too. In past MDA posts like this one, this one, and this one, I touched on some of the science behind Intermittent Fasting. There have been some pretty comprehensive reports on fasting, including this one which looked at a variety of animal and human studies and found it improved insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake (important for fat loss), increased resistance to lipid oxidation damage, and it increased fat loss, while providing protection for certain diseases. Another study noticed that fasting significantly increased longevity in rats. We aren't rats, but we are mammals, and several other studies suggest similar benefits in fasting mammals, including this one that looked at the effects of Intermittent Fasting on elderly, otherwise healthy hominids; Dr. Eades discussed the same study some time ago, noting that the fasting scientists experienced "health benefits... in insulin resistance, asthma, seasonal allergies, infectious diseases of viral, bacterial and fungal origin (viral URI, recurrent bacterial tonsillitis, chronic sinusitis, periodontal disease), autoimmune disorder (rheumatoid arthritis), osteoarthritis, symptoms due to CNS inflammatory lesions (Tourette's, Meniere's) cardiac arrhythmias (PVCs, atrial fibrillation), menopause related hot flashes." Quite a laundry list, and it's largely anecdotal, but interesting nonetheless.

Of course, just skipping a single meal won't result in all the benefits of fasting, but it will get you on the right track. Consider this an order, rather than a tip. Skip your next meal, no questions asked. If you feel okay, skip two. Hopefully, you can use this as motivation to more fully explore the world of IF. Once you're on board, I'd check out LifeSpotlight for a fantastic primer on fasting, or you could browse my "How-To IF" post. Both will help you integrate fasting into your lifestyle.

To sum up, if you're interested in the following...

• Mobilization of adipose tissue for energy (burning body fat as fuel)

• Improved insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake (again, good for burning body fat)

• Increased resistance to oxidation damage to lipids

• Increased human growth hormone secretion

 (utilizes body fat for energy while preventing protein/muscle catabolism)

...skip that next meal.

Omega 6/3 Imbalance in Almonds – What Does it Mean?

All of us Weston A. Price-ish people have been dutifully soaking and dehydrating our almonds in an effort to reduce the nutrient inhibitors and phytic acid that mess with nutrient absorption and irritate our guts. While all of that is great, a recent chance meeting with a paleo-oriented MD has expanded my food world yet again.

In addition to doing all of the Weston Price things that we do, some of us are also playing around with Paleo/Primal eating approach. Here are a couple of sites to check out if you aren’t familiar with this approach (thanks to the MD):

Mark's Daily Apple (ok, Melissa actually turned me on to that one awhile ago)

Archevore

 Gnolls

 The Healthy Skeptic

The doc informed me that the Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio is way out of balance in almonds and that contributes to an out of balance body if you are striving for a healthy Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio. Ideally, we want the ratio in our bodies to be 2:1 or less. In many Americans it is 30:1 or worse.

So what is the 6:3 ratio for almonds? According to one website, it is 1987:1. But here is the caveat – the amount of actual Omega 6 is relatively small and not a big worry if you don’t eat tons of them (see Mark's Daily Apple). In addition, almonds and other nuts have other benefits. For my doc friend, who is striving for 2:1 or less, almonds prevent him from achieving his goal, but macadamia nuts don’t because of their low ratio.

What am I going to do? Because we are fairly regular nut eaters, especially in the summer because I use nuts for my pie crusts, I am going to finish off my almonds and try out some macadamia nuts. The price change won’t be much of a factor, as organic, truly raw almonds are running at about $9 a pound and organic raw macadamias are at $8.50 a pound at Living Nutz. Macadamia’s are even cheaper at Whole Foods.

Cholesterol and Statins – Aggregation of Resources

Below is part of an email I sent the other day when someone wrote to me asking for help to lower and balance his cholesterol before his doc put him on statins. This person was expecting to be on statins some day, but just not yet. Here is part of my response (as with this person, you should consider the information and ultimately make the decision that is right for you).

The Email

I am sorry to hear that you are struggling with this. Before answering, I need to give a little perspective. 

High or out of balance cholesterol means that your body is trying to repair insults/injuries to it. Medication will reduce the cholesterol but it will not take care of the insult/injury that may eventually lead to heart attack, stroke or death. Statins save almost ZERO lives, weaken the body's musculature dramatically, including the heart, and can kill people. 

Check out this link from my blog: http://movingstronglyforward.typepad.com/moving_strongly_forward/2009/01/victory-cholesterol.html 

Cholesterol "problems" can be hereditary, but it doesn't mean that they have to be problems. Chances are that your parents ate processed food that aggravated their problem, requiring medication. Further, the standard cholesterol numbers are not scientifically based, and the 200 number was pulled out of a hat. Read this post:

http://movingstronglyforward.typepad.com/moving_strongly_forward/2009/02/conference-with-sally-fallon-day-1.html

The history of the cholesterol and statins is mindboggling based on the information provided by Sally Fallon. But don't take Sally's word for it, read Norman Hadler's book (MD from UNC Chapel Hill), mentioned in the first blog post above. It would be interesting to see what your doc would say if debating Dr. Hadler.

Further, your cholesterol may have lowered when you took fat out of your diet because you took the illness causing fats from processed foods out, thus removing the processed foods that hurt the body and raise cholesterol. Keep this in mind from Sally Fallon's lecture: "Lower rates of heart disease are associated with higher levels of saturated fat in the diet: The French, Swiss, Dutch, Icelandic, Belgium, Finnish and Austrian paradoxes!!"

And this point: "The Japanese developed statins, found them to be poison and rejected them. They sold the patent to Merck, and now the rest of the world is being poisoned."

So, I don't know your numbers - they might not even be that BAD. Out of whack cholesterol screams inflammation. Take out the inflammation causing foods and you should normalize your cholesterol - AND AMAZING OTHER CHANGES WILL OCCUR THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. You will start getting rid of problems you didn’t even know you had until they are gone.

Take out grain, all sweeteners (except a bit of honey if you need a little something), all dairy (except the kefir you make at home, cheddar cheese and other hard raw cheeses), all beans (except navy, lima and green). That will cool your inflammation quickly. Go to www.gapsdiet.com to learn more.

Finally, check out these links from another MD:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/the-cholesterol-myth-that_b_676817.html

Natural therapy: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/06/06/tips-to-lower-cholesterol-naturally.aspx

And here is an MD that eats all the "wrong things." I learned about him from a radiologist I met a couple of weeks ago - there are clear-thinking, open minded, non-drug beholden MDs out there. http://www.archevore.com/

Hope all of that helps. If you need more reassurance, I URGE you to go see my doctor of Oriental medicine.

I hope you do all you can to avoid the statins. I watched them take apart an adopted grandpa we have. He was a ripped 70 year old guy who suddenly lost his muscle tone when they put him on statins. It occurred to him that his heart was losing tone too, and he took himself off. His cholesterol was not out of whack and below 200, but you know...prevention. Needless to say, at 73 he is ripped again and doing inverted pushups to show off in front of Colson just 2 weeks ago.

The Blues and Blacks are Here!

Yes! How many berries can I fit into my belly? If I could stop eating them long enough I would actually make this pie: Raw Blueberry Pie – YUM!

If the paleo doc is reading, I am going to convert to macadamia nuts, but I need to wade through all of those almonds first. Macadamias v. almonds is a whole other blog post that will be written shortly thanks to the doc. Just when you think you have something pretty under control…here comes a new fact, a new source, and more change and growth.

Just a reminder about which is better for you in case you are wondering: Blackberries Better than Blueberries?

For a little more information on blues read: It’s Blueberry Season! I would love to know if anyone has some insights as related to this story. Blueberries don’t have B6, which I wondered about in that post, but according to the Fab Fit Squad’s post Feeling Sluggish? Try Blueberries, they do boost energy. This article explains a little more on increased energy: What do Wine, Peanuts, Blueberries and Chocolate Have in Common? That would explain a lot in relation to Colson’s and my energy levels.

Enjoy the berry season!

Burzynski the Movie – Must See Cancer Movie

Hi all. A little off my usual political/take action emails, but I needed to forward the link to this movie: Burzynski the Movie.

It is about the amazingly successful cancer treatment work of Dr. Burzynski and the battle he had with the FDA to perform it.

This film hits me hard, as I had an amazing friend from NC who went to the Burzynski clinic at the end of her second battle with breast cancer, which she lost at age 34. She told me that she realized the chemo and radiation were killing her and she was getting to Dr. B as quickly as she could. Unfortunately, she was too far gone and died in a hospital near Dr. B’s clinic before she could undergo treatment.

Here is what I wrote about her on my blog:

“She is beauty, grace and strength. She fought hard to maintain this life, but she was spiritually at a higher level and able to accept what her life brought her. Now she is free of her struggles and on to another amazing adventure. I am grateful to have known her for the short time I did and I am grateful that she was my friend. She infected all around her with her love and warmth.

“Smiles and love to all.”

Here is another blog post with some more info (it is short): Cancer.

Almost everyone you know will be diagnosed with cancer. Not everyone needs to suffer to treat it or succumb to it.

Between Dr. Burzynski and Dr. Gonzalez (whom I have blogged about intermittently - Have Cancer [or Know Someone Who Does]? Get Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez), and the others who practice as they do, there is hope.

Wishing you all health and vitality.

Calcium Bentonite Clay and Cancer Prevention?

I posted about my family’s clay experiment here: Mmmmm…Delicious! Calcium Bentonite Clay.

Today I learned about an interesting experiment regarding the use of clay to drive down human liver cancer rates in San Antonio, Texas: Liver Cancer Study on Tap.

Another interesting find in the article is that aflatoxin, associated with peanuts, may be the cancer causing agent. My guys eat a lot of peanuts and I have been warning them about aflatoxin. Wonder what they will say now?

GMO – Keep Fighting the Fight

I have blogged about GMOs in the past and highlighted a great Jeffrey Smith article here: Genetically Modified Foods and Your Health. To learn more, keep reading at the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT). I met Jeffrey Smith, who heads IRT, last November, and what an awesome and truth driven guy he is. The GMO information he provides is crucial as you seek to maintain and improve your health and longevity.

The battle over GMO is being fiercely waged in America, but the GMO industry is still winning. Take this article regarding Whole Foods and their efforts to keep GMO out:

Depsite its Efforts, Even Whole Foods Can't Keep GMOs Out.

How are you going to avoid GMOs? Stop purchasing pre-made food. So then what?

You are going to have to purchase organic food or non-GMO labeled food and you are going to have to cook your own food from scratch. And then what?

You will be healthier than you thought possible.

Are you going to want to cook and clean every day? Probably not. It is not what I like to do every day, but it is worth the effort. And if you are a better planner than I am you will cook double batches, save the leftovers, and stockpile some meals.

By not purchasing GMO food and cooking your own food, you will

• Help defeat the GMO industry more quickly

• Protect yourself and your family

• Protect the generations to follow

It really is that simple.

Damn Vibram Shoes - Episode 22

I reported here that my ankles hurt again: Damn Vibram Shoes (aka OUCH!). That injury took about three weeks to put behind me, and I couldn’t even do pushups, as it hurt my ankles to come off of the pushups!

I was finally able to walk the dog, which I did gingerly at first. Then I started running up hills, which was fine. Next I was running up hills and flat surfaces and slowly increasing the running distance to about 2 miles, with 1 mile walking, which seemed fine.

Last night I went on a stroll with a friend of mine. I assure you it was a stroll, as we were talking about a math book that I am helping her to write, and that takes more brainpower than anything else I do. Sometimes I am thinking so hard I even stop strolling just to think! My left ankle started to tweak out, DARN IT! Then the right one. This morning they still hurt, although I am not limping.

This is getting really, really old!

I spoke to a physician that I met an amazing sleep conference I attended last weekend (more on that later). He is a paleo/primal eating, Weston A. Price believing doc who tried the Vibrams. He thought he started slowly too, but they didn’t work for him. Smart guy that he is, he switched back to old school running shoes more quickly than I did, and he isn’t still paying for his experiment.

LESSON OF THE YEAR: Be very careful with Vibrams. The doc has concluded that they just don’t work for some people no matter what you read, which I now believe. And this is one out there doc who knows his alternative stuff. He takes a bit of heat from his colleagues for his food choices (lots of good fats, protein and low carbs), and he is one physically fit guy with stellar bloodwork – fitter than the rest of them. The other MDs attribute his avoidance of the heart attack they keep predicting to genetics. They just don’t get it, he says somewhat ruefully.

Mmmmm…Delicious! Calcium Bentonite Clay

Yes, you read that correctly. We are eating clay. Not just any clay, but calcium bentonite clay (CBC). I first learned about it in a Weston A. Price letter to the editor, where a woman stated that calcium bentonite clay taken daily relieves allergies. Colson’s sneezies have been a concern for us since he was born, so that is 8 years of pent up concern. Diet helps, but it is far from the magic bullet.

I did some reading about CBC and asked my doc what he thought about Colson using it. He said that he was open to it and he uses it with his patients that are heavily detoxing. I did some more reading and settled on purchasing Living Clay. One of the things that attracted me to Living Clay is that it has low levels of aluminum (6.85%). You can learn about its composition from this chemical anlaysis data sheet. According to this Weston A. Price article by Kaayla Daniel, most clays contain more than 15% aluminum and many are highly processed: Mad as a Hatter. Dr. Pentti J. Nupponen, a highly credentialed dentist and clay use proponent is speaking at this year’s Weston Price conference, so I had to check him out as well. You can learn more about Dr. Nupponen and his views on clay here: Dr. Nupe.

As an interesting aside that I will hopefully never need to utilize, Dr. Nupponen states that CBC kills the MRSA virus.

Need more information? Amazingly, a friend of mine sent to me this article that just came out on Science Daily: Eating Dirt Can Be Good for the Belly.

My Family’s Clay Use Results

Clay is pretty amazing stuff! Colon took 1/8 the recommended dose before he went to bed. Instead of his usual multiple sneezes when he wakes up and is still in bed, he only sneezed twice. While drinking his smoothie, Colson usually uses between 10 and 15 tissues to blow his runny nose. The morning after his clay – NO TISSUES USED! That night he took another dose. His mouth was closed and he was breathing through his nose – amazing! Next morning, minimal sneezing and tissue use.

Then the boycott started. Colson has a hard time drinking the clay. It was only a quarter cup of water with 1/8 teaspoon of clay. It really isn’t a big deal and is very smooth and liquidy, but in his eight year old mind this was unacceptable. Now he was back to his sneezy and blowy self.

When he was off the clay for two weeks, it finally occurred to me today that he can drink little sips throughout the day, so that is what we are trying. Hopefully that will give him good results and I will report back.

As for Ryan and me, our goal was to do a 14 day detox with it. We started with ½ the dose with loads of water two times a day. The usual dose is 1 teaspoon. It caused me a bit of constipation for a few days and then it subsided. Apparently that isn’t uncommon. And then things began to change. Bowel movements smelled different than ever, and some mucus was being expelled. My burning allergy eyes went away overnight too. Ryan will only say that there were some minor changes for him. I suspect that our toxic release was less than others, as about seven years ago we did a colon cleanse with the Colema Board and washed out the toxic lining of our colon, parasites and all.

We were running low on our trial 8 ounces of clay that we ordered, so Ryan and I quit taking it in order to save the rest for Colson. Soon we will be ordering more and we will use it for about another week. Then I need to figure out a maintenance schedule. ]

How is that for different?

It is nice to be back pondering food instead of all of the terrible North Carolina public health decisions I have been fighting and blogging about. Cool thing about those efforts, though, is that they led me a really cool lobbyist job, which is leading me to even more amazing ideas and efforts. As Ryan would say, stand by!