Eat Yourself Well

Beautiful friends and fellow foodies,
This is the content of my last newsletter, members had this emailed to them. If you are interested in receiving this just sign up on the main page of this site!

As many of you know, it is my own journey with an illness that brought me to my food passion and last week in an effort to stay on top of things I attended the “Future of Nutrition” on line conferences. Armed with my legal pad I listened, replayed and took many notes.
The first was Dr. Mark Hyman, he got on the topic of “diabesity”, a condition he named for those obese and suffering from or pre-disposed to diabetes. Both Chronic Disease and Obesity are contagious, social threads have an important role in this. Health does not begin in the doctors office, it begins in the kitchen so if your friends all overdo it in food and drink, it is likely you do too. Taking back your health can be as simple as learning to cook, the right kind of foods!
The average person consumes 146 pounds of flour and 152 pounds of sugar a year, we are sicker, living shorter lives and 2008 data says our kids have adult onset diabetes at the rate of 1 in 4. Sadly most doctors prescribe prescriptions not lifestyles so many people find alternative sources for seeking wellness, like I did.
Think about this fact subsidized disease…., food stamps pay for soda and sugar laden foods, so we can turn it around and pay for medicare when they are sick and obese? Really????? This was brought before the USDA and they refused to study it. Our government is not protecting the food, they are in the game and pushing the buttons, watch this trailer for the new documentary that is coming soon called aptly Fed Up.
 http://youtu.be/qeh_ZKxYwYo

Donna Gates of the Body Ecology was next, she is a breath of fresh air and a spokes person for fermentation which we will be adding to the list soon! She is all about good digestion and passed along these nuggets of wisdom. To empower digestion she says to add fermented foods to every meal, eat mindfully (chew your food) eat to build your immune system and meditate. This is critical to good digestion and brain care, it all begins in the gut, adding back the good enzymes from fermented veggies creates a balance in our bodies. Children who are given fermented foods from a young age never crave sugars, she recommends babies get a few drops of coconut kefir and gradually increase as they age. Imagine that!
I love her idea that we should not grow old and get sicker as we go. Native Americans stayed healthy and chose their end many times, present in mind, body and soul until the last minute. It is our dumbed down culture that says dying diapered, sick and half conscious in a nursing home is dignity. Strong ideas? yes but should we not be trying to make our body experience better?
I choose to die with dignity not in total defeat.
Maglie Calcio poco prezzo
Dr. Liz Lipski…she is amazing! Another one very big on digestive wellness. She said our diet consists of many things, the things we eat, the people we see, TV shows we watch, conversations we have and friends we keep. Everything has a direct impact on our body. She talked of the Indigenous groups that lived here, the Native Americans, The Inuit tribes, they were immune to our diseases, disease only entered their world when they advanced toward the white mans culture. The way of life we brought was a package deal, the white food, the diseases followed equaling sickness and stress.

I have said it before, I say it again, we are, after all made of what we consume, so the question prevails, are you eating it or is it eating you?

She went on taking about how we “were”, we are after all hunter gatherers…. women married good hunters, they brought food home, women gathered around community ovens to cook, families knew that the seasons produced different harvests and ate accordingly. Then enter GM foods, these man-made molecules are not recognized by our bodies, we are changing the internal codes over time. Your genes are what predispose you to certain illnesses, they turn on and off through life, the things that do this are food, our thoughts, our beliefs, sleep or lack of, and nutrition. Consider the toxicity all around us, women are exposed to 160 toxins a day just via products and the environment. We are letting doctors drug our children (10 to 20% of kids are on psychotropic drugs), there is an epidemic of Autism (1 in 88 kids, 2% more are boys)…this scares me.

As many of you my age, we began life in the era of Froot Loops and Kool Aid, our mothers went to work and convenience food trumped the pots and pans.
We were set up and in 1996 when the GMO’s rolled onto grocery shelves many moms never even knew it…we have to stop the madness, dinner was hijacked and it is my life’s mission to bring it back!
We must vote with our dollars, the time is now, buy from trusted sources, look for the GMO verified symbol.

Another speaker I listened to was Robynne Chutkan MD, a integrative gastroenterologist. Did you know there are 1 billion microbiome in every drop of fluid in your digestive tract? They are your lifeline and we kill them with antibiotics, GMO foods and prescription drugs use. Once the PH of your gut changes your entire body will suffer, your gut is the portal for disease to enter, from the gut it travels to your hair, skin, joints and tissue. She has a food list to avoid if you are rebuilding a damaged gut. It spells SAD GAS…
S -Soy, a cheap GMO additive, avoid it!
A -Artificial Sweeteners, ferments in the body, causes bloat and insulin spikes. (yes you were lied to on this too)
D -Dairy, aging increases your intolerance, also we are the only species that suckles the milk of another mammal, a little weird when you think about it.
G -Gluten, she says going gluten free is not the answer, elimination is, you won’t see true improvement until you take it out.
A -Alcohol, it is a toxin, irritates the digestive tract, kills vital enzymes.
S -Sugar, overlaps with gluten, destroys the gut microbiome.

Do eat, organic leafy vegetables, raw food has enzymes,  vegetable juices, salad, soups . Especially women, we are more sensitive and complex, we actually have 10cm, more intestine in our lower gut, most likely why we struggle with bloating. As a doctor who performs colonoscopys she did say she has actually seen healed cases of ulcerative colitis and croon’s healed with the elimination of triggers and the addition of the right foods. Damage to the gut causes Leaking Gut, a very real issue. Envision a net, one with holes, lets things go through that should not be there. The digestive membrane is damaged as a result but this is not the end, the body can begin to heal in as little as 48 hours. The bodies default setting is health, our bodies are individual and as a rule we the individual should be writing our own book of health for our body, the body tells you what is working and what is not.

Last was David Perimutter MD, he wrote the best seller Grain Brain and talked long about the danger of gluten. Our Western diet is linked to disease of all kinds but he focused on the brain. Autism, Alzheimer’s, ADHD…all preventable, all linked to diet. Trans fats and hydro fats shift our lives and are coffin nails, they need to be banned completely. High carb and low fat diets also detrimental…our brains need fats, good fats. Gluten has an impact on autoimmune function, creates inflammation which is the portal for disease.
Many argue that bread has sustained us for millennia…yes but wheat changed, gluten was added.
His passion is ADHD a problem close to my heart…he spoke of kids who get labeled and committed to amphetamines, this is criminal. Schools pressure parents to get a diagnosis, they go to him and he tells them to change the diet, go gluten free, add Vitamin D, Omega Oils, Good Fats, Probiotics, no drugs. After time the schools thank the parents for medicating the kid. He claims anyone who takes the Hippocratic oath should be seeking to heal not harm and drugging children is not the answer. (I know sometimes medication is necessary, I am not referring to that, this is the growing trend  I speak of).
Integrative health and doctors look to root causes of disease and illness, they will be the ambassadors who help us to know our bodies better and heal from the inside out.

In summary, the mission of this buying club, my mission is to restore our food, bring back dinner, let the kitchen festivities begin. Turn on some music that nourishes your soul and get cooking! We will find the best sources, make it affordable and make this possible. No need to run to the corners of the world for quality, we can be your one stop.

Please tell a friend, family member or co-workers about who we are, tell them you belong to a food community that believes in restorative health and taking charge of the food. We love new people, we want to spread the word far and wide! We need your help!

Blessings from my house to yours,
Marla