A few months after my gallbladder was removed, a friend of ours had his appendix removed. This reminded me that my grandpa had to have his appendix removed during World War II, and I remember thinking to myself how ironic it would be if I ever had to have my appendix removed since I already had my gallbladder removed. Eighteen months and five days after I had the surgery to have my gallbladder removed, I went to bed on a cold Thursday night in February, feeling just fine. I woke up around 1:30am that Friday morning and quickly realized that I didn't feel quite right. I wasn't nauseous, but I was just kind of in pain throughout my abdomen. I tossed and turned for a couple of hours, and it seemed the pain kept growing more intense. I finally drifted off to sleep. My alarm clock woke me up shortly after 6am. I wasn't in the same intense pain as I had been during the night, but I noticed that my lower right side was very tender when I took a deep breath or bent over. Since it was Friday, Brad convinced me that I should visit the doctor just in case the pain was something that needed to be addressed. I called my doctor's office that morning, expecting to only be able to get an appointment with the nurse practitioner, but she was off for the day and my doctor was taking emergency appointments only. The receptionist had me talk to my doctor's nurse, to try to determine if my symptoms warranted a visit to the doctor. She had me push on my belly where it hurt, and asked me several questions about the pain. By this time, I had a nagging feeling that the pain was my appendix. I think she must have too, because she told me to go ahead and come to the office to be seen by the doctor. After running several tests, my doctor determined that it may indeed be my appendix, and he sent me to the hospital to have a CT Scan. After the CT Scan, I waited patiently in the hospital X-Ray waiting room to hear the results. I waited and waited, and Brad showed up to wait with me. Shortly after he arrived, a lady in a white coat walked up to me and introduced herself as a surgeon. She said that my appendix appeared to be inflamed on the CT Scan and that she wanted to do surgery right away to remove my appendix. I walked with her down the hall to outpatient surgery, where a nurse was ready with my hospital gown. She told me to change into the gown, and said she would be back to put in my IV. It all happened so quickly, I barely had time to worry, barely, but I still managed a very nervous prayer.
I now have seven scars on my abdomen, four from the incisions during my gallbladder removal, and three from the incisions during my appendectomy. They say that an appendix infection is just random, and that gallbladder problems are quite normal for a woman in her thirties and forties, but that has just not ever sat well with me. After my gallbladder was removed, I knew that I needed to make some changes to my diet in order to prevent other health problems for me and my family in the future, but as a busy working mom with two small children, I didn't always find the time to plan and prepare healthy meals. My appendectomy was another wake up call that I needed to seriously look at my family's diet and make changes. I no longer have any "non-essential" organs, and wondered what could eventually happen to the rest of my digestive tract, and my whole body, if things didn't change. We ate wheat bread, drank low-fat milk, and tried to include fruits and vegetables in our diets, but we were also very busy and ate take-out, fast food, and highly processed foods way too often. The wonderful thing was, that several weeks after my appendectomy, Brad and I made the decision for me to stay home with our kids. This provided me more time with our kids of course, something I had longed for since Addi was born, but it also provided me more time to research and plan healthy meals for my family. After Wyatt was born, I started cloth diapering him. Learning about cloth diapers led me to blogs written by other moms who cloth diaper, but were also into other "counter-culture" things such as drinking raw milk, buying grass fed meat and free range, pastured chickens and eggs, buying only organic fruits and vegetables, never using white sugar, only honey or maple syrup, never using modern vegetable oils, only butter, coconut oil, and olive oil in their cooking and baking, and avoiding processed foods. Doctor's often tell patients with gallbladder issues to eat a low fat diet, however the Standard American Diet is so full of industrialized fats that eating a low fat, healthy diet in today's modern, industrialized food system is a minefield.
Walk into any large grocery store's produce section and what do you notice? You can find almost any type of fruit or vegetable you want any time of the year. Everything is always in season at the grocery store. Walk through the meat section and you see perfectly red beef wrapped in plastic from all over North America and the world. There are rows upon rows of highly processed food, full of ingredients that many of us can't pronounce and have no clue what they mean. Drive down any North Arkansas road and you can find fields with chicken houses that contain hundreds and hundreds of chickens living in cramped conditions. It always makes me so sad to see hundreds of chickens cramped on a truck that can barely move, on their journey to being slaughtered. But more importantly, how is this food that we eat that is raised in conditions I don't even want to think about, healthy for my family? How can hundreds of different preservatives, food dyes, and artificial ingredients that are made in a lab, be healthy for my family to eat, every single day? What is our modern, industrialized food-whether it's bought at a grocery store in a cardboard box or a take-out window on our way home from work-doing to our bodies? I truly believe that modern, processed foods led to the demise of my gallbladder and appendix.
The health benefits of locally raised meat, that grazes on grass, and spends it's life happy and stress free, chickens that roam free to eat bugs, fruits and vegetables that are grown without any pesticides or fertilizers, sugars that are natural in nature and not highly processed, oils that are natural and not highly processed...the health benefits of these things are so unbelievable that we owe it to ourselves and our families to take our food seriously. I strongly encourage you to watch the documentary "Food Inc". If you have a subscription to Netflix it is under the documentaries section. This movie gives an incredible overview of our current food system, and how important it is to make serious changes for our health and the health of those we love. SO MANY current diseases and conditions are being traced back to the processed food our culture now sees as normal. We have to make changes! We need to eat REAL food and not the processed junk that does harm to our bodies. Below I want to outline the changes I am seeking to implement for my family:
1.
Meats
such as Beef and Pork, Chicken, and Eggs (and seafood, but we’re not big seafood
fans). We prefer our meat to be local
(why should all our meat be from hundreds of miles away or from a different
country?) and raised without any added hormones or antibiotics. We prefer that our meat grazed on open
pasture or its natural food source (i.e. cows should eat grass, not corn). We prefer that the grass was not treated with
pesticides or fertilizers and that any additional feed was organic and/or
non-GMO (genetically modified) feed. We prefer chickens that were free to roam around outside and that were not treated with added hormones or antibiotics. We
are what we eat eats!
2.
Milk,
Cheese, Yogurt, and Butter. We
prefer our milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter to be organic or to come from animals that were raised using organic practices. However, this is the one area that is the most cost prohibitive, both for us and many others on a strict budget. If organic milk is not feasible, we want to at least avoid milk that comes from cows that were treated with any growth hormones. We prefer yogurt that has little or no added sugar. Many name brand and store brand yogurts have
so much added sugar that they are little more than a dessert.
3. Fruits
and Vegetables. We prefer local, in
season fruits and vegetables when possible.
A local farmer’s market is a great place to purchase these (ask each
farmer about his use of pesticides and fertilizers). Or…if you have the time and the space, grow
your own! Local and in season produce is
extremely yummy! When buying non-local
or out of season fruits or vegetables, we prefer organic when possible. Non-organic produce is usually treated with
pesticides and fertilizers that are harmful to our bodies. Each year a list of the 12 “dirtiest” fruits
and vegetables is published. These are
the non-organic fruits and vegetables that have the most pesticide residue on
them. These are called the “dirty
dozen”. If you can’t afford to purchase
all organic fruits and vegetables, purchasing these 12 organic is a great place
to start! The current dirty dozen are:
1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines
7. Imported Grapes
8. Sweet Bell Peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Domestic Blueberries
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/Collard Greens
1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines
7. Imported Grapes
8. Sweet Bell Peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Domestic Blueberries
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/Collard Greens
4. Limit
sugars and use only whole, unrefined sugars in cooking and baking. White sugar is bleached and stripped of all
of its vitamins and minerals. Brown
sugar, unless stated on the package, is usually just white sugar with molasses
added back to it to give it the brown color and denser texture. Raw sugar and agave nectar claim to be more
natural, but are still highly processed.
All sugars should be used in moderation, but when using whole, unrefined
sugars in cooking and baking, we are at least getting some vitamins and
minerals. Examples of whole, unrefined
sugars are 100% maple syrup, raw, local honey, and organic sucanat. Sucanat stands for SUgar CAne NATural. It is dehydrated sugar cane and can be used 1
for 1 in any recipe calling for brown sugar.
5.
Limit processed
and refined flours. White flour has
been stripped of most or all of its fiber and many of the nutrients. We aim to use more whole wheat flour when
baking. If we do use white flour, we use
unbleached flour, as bleached flour can contain traces of the chemicals used to
make it look so pretty and white. I have
made pancakes using part whole wheat flour and part unbleached, all-purpose white flour. The pancakes are still delicious,
but the whole wheat flour adds some fiber and more nutrients to them. We also eat whole wheat pasta that contains only whole durum wheat flour and brown rice instead of white rice.
6. Limit
processed oils. Processed oils are
oils such as canola and vegetable oil.
These oils are marketed as creating less risk
for heart disease, however new research is showing that the opposite might be
true. Unprocessed oils include olive oil
and organic coconut oil.
7. Limit
processed convenience and snack foods. We
try to limit “foods” that can sit on a shelf in the grocery store or in your
home for weeks or months without going bad.
These foods usually contain preservatives and other highly processed ingredients
that are harmful to our bodies. Examples
of these types of foods are chips, crackers, cookies, cake and brownie mixes,
cereals, granola and breakfast bars, boxed dinners, canned soups, breads, and
sauces such as mayo and salad dressing.
If we buy a convenience food, we look for items with a short list of
ingredients, make sure we know what each ingredient is, and look for items that
are USDA certified organic if possible.
USDA certified organic items don’t contain GMO’s. GMO’s are genetically modified plants or
animals whose DNA has been altered. Most
of the corn and soybeans grown in the US today is genetically modified;
therefore most processed products on the typical grocery store shelves contain
genetically modified ingredients. Since
only short term testing has been done on the effects of GMO’s on humans and the
environment, we are all being used as one big science experiment. We are also trying to stay away from MSG and
food dyes such as red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, and blue 1. MSG (monosodium glutamate) has been linked migraines,
headaches, and other health issues. It
is sometimes listed in the ingredient list under other names such as autolyzed
yeast, yeast extract, maltodextrin, hydrolyzed protein, sodium caseinate,
mono-potassium glutamate, textured protein, and even natural flavorings. Food dyes are usually made from petroleum
and have been linked to hyperactivity in children and allergic reactions. Food dyes can be found in many processed
foods including pickles, macaroni and cheese, lemonade, fruit snacks, chips,
and yogurt.
We are not perfect, but we are striving to eat better for our health and the health of our children. If you haven't taken a good, hard look at the food your family eats, I encourage you to do so, and don't forget to watch "Food Inc". I dove in after I watched that movie; Brad says that I drank the organic kool-laid, but food is such an important part of our everyday lives, and it impacts our lives in such a huge way, that we need to spend some time giving this part of our lives just a little more attention. I hope this has been an encouragement to you and please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you on your real food journey. There are links on my facebook page to several real food blogs and facebook pages written by moms that have been on this real food journey a lot longer than I have, and they offer a lot of wisdom and advice. Please take advantage of their wealth of knowledge and information! "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
