I should start by saying that I was your typical believe-everything-you-hear-about-health-in-the-media-kinda-girl! I was eating the 100% shredded wheat everyday at breakfast, the glass of milk with dinner, the yogurt for the mid-morning snack...I mean, you NEED to get that calcium, right? And those cereals and breads full of all those glorious nutrients and minerals and FIBER - that's SO necessary...I mean, that's why it's the BASE of the food pyramid, right? I also made sure I switched all my white rices and breads and flours and pastas to browns and whole wheats. I used the organic sugar - which makes it so much better for you. (Please sense the sarcasm.) All the shams that I've been sold since I could make sense of them were imbedded in my nutritional logic. So now, when I try to share the insight I've gained, it's easy to understand others' skepticism, because the REAL truth about our health and what we eat goes against practically everything we've been taught since Kindergarten.
I think I'm someone who has always been interested in nutrition. I wasn't always nutritious, per se, but I did care about what I put in my body and I cut things out slowly over time that I knew were no good for me. I collected little habits each time I read something new. Like dropping all fast food because McDonald's chicken nuggets may actually be made from kangaroo meat, and then dairy that wasn't organic because I may have been drinking cow's pus, and then eggs that weren't on an all-vegetarian diet because I may have been eating cannibals, and slowly the mass-quantities of candy that I SO enjoyed because they contained Aspartame and other sweeteners, until finally, I started my own brand of veganism.
I find this sort of comical since I never truly enjoyed vegetables. And before you make assumptions about my reasoning, let me explain that, as cold as it may seem, I didn't drop animal products from my diet because of my feelings for the way animals are treated. (Although, I will admit it saddens me. See my story on KFC chickens from my Senior Media Studies class at UH :) - http://www.winc.tv/cgi-bin/artman/exec/search.cgi?keyword=KFC%20Demonstration&cat=38&perpage=10&year=1999&template=search/search_results.html)
Instead, I did it because I knew that the meats that our grocers and restaurants are selling us are not good quality, and so naturally, I assumed all meats were this way. I was furious when I read about the steroids and hormones that the U.S. legally gives its farm animals and we, in turn, consume. Most of these steroids and hormones and antibiotics are ILLEGAL in the U.K. and other countries, mind you. But my veganism was more in depth than just that, I had exceptions. I would eat buffalo, which by law, must be grass-fed and organic. I ate eggs, that were free-range and organic on an all-vegetarian diet, but only the whites (got to watch out for that cholesterol, right?)
The sad thing about my vegan story, like so many others, is that not only are we misled, but we aren't as vegan is intended to be. We substitute all these bad things for the alternatives that the big DOGS have produced for us. Like genetically modified soy products, tons of breads, pastas and fortified cereals, and snacks filled with...well, FILLERS. The problem is, this stuff is just as bad, if not WORSE! But again, we fall victim to the packaging and advertising and get sucked into the fads that we're sold.
The more I read and learned about the foods I ate, I became disappointed and angry, especially with the big DOGS, the mass "farmers", manufacturers and advertisers that pushed this crap down our throats. Especially because not everyone has the time of day to read up on it, or the access to healthy foods, or the means to support such a diet, or the self-restraint to avoid the mass-commercialism and brain-washing advertisements that stop us at every turn.
After trying my own style of veganism for a year or so, (I lost a little weight and was in the BEST shape of my adult life...or so I thought). I visited a nutritionist with my husband. I was curious as to how healthy we really were. My husband had been doing the Paleo diet for a while as most CrossFit athletes do. It's great for supporting an active lifestyle and CrossFit had become such a huge part of our lives.
I was excited about our first appointment. I knew the doc would ask questions about our health and diet. What I didn't expect was the 6 pages full of symptoms that we had to check yes or no to. NOT to my surprise, I didn't have many at all. Like I mentioned before, I thought myself to be pretty healthy. David and I are always saying how lucky it is that we rarely get sick. The few things on the list that I did suffer from, I attributed to my working out or 'poor circulation', i.e. tingling toes and swollen fingers..."I'll just drink more water," I thought.
I WAS surprised when the doctor said that David was doing right by the Paleo diet. WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE WHOLESOME WHOLE GRAINS his diet lacks? What about all the negative additives he's eating in his meats? Ten minutes in and I already knew my world was changing. By the end of the appointment, I was in tears and realizing that I was no longer to eat ANY gluten. I had an intolerance and what was worse? My doctor could tell this just by looking at me, and didn't want me to wait for the genetic test results before I took it out of my diet completely. (Little did I know at the time that in 'real' terms gluten-free means absolutely NO GRAINS or OATS whatsoever...none of that 'gluten'-free stuff they sell at your local Kroger.)
Although that first appointment changed me forever and it wasn't long before we received our results on paper and found out we BOTH had a gluten intolerance, I still found myself trying every substitute there was for the 'bad' stuff. Whether it was agave syrup or almond flour or LARA bars...YUM! (None of these things are necessarily 'bad' either...at least not in moderation. But when it's all you have left that you believe is ok and still tasty, you tend to over-indulge. This is where I get into trouble.
As with many gluten-intolerances that go undiagnosed too long, I had multiple vitamin and mineral deficiencies. A major one being chromium. With chromium deficiency often comes the inability to metabolize glucose properly. Therefore leading to a glucose-insulin resistance in my case. In simple terms, I'm forbidden sugar until I am healthy.
I'm learning slowly, and quite painfully, I might add, that the ONLY things you can over indulge in are raw, organic vegetables, fruits and nuts and all-organic, grass-fed or wild caught meats and fishes. And that's basically what I eat. PLEASE don't take me SO literally as to point out every time I use something other than these items in my recipes. OBVIOUSLY, I'm human. But I like to use a good rule of thumb for moderation, because as we know, we're not really tracking our 90% good/10% bad theory. And as my doctor pointed out, 'just on the weekend' adds up to a whopping 43% of the time...so, instead I say ONCE a week. And that means one TIME, not one day. I mark it on my calendar and THAT'S IT! Once it's gone, it's gone. This might seem harsh, but by my doctor's standards, we're pushing it. He encouraged us to only indulge in these things on birthdays...I wanted to believe that he was referring to the birthdays of EVERYONE we knew...
I hope you all enjoy this blog...if nothing else, it may help keep me sane in this time of insanity that will be known as the first 3 weeks of my GLUTEN-free, GLUCOSE-free, all ORGANIC, no DAIRY, minimally-PROCESSED diet. They say the first 3 weeks are the hardest. But I think what's harder is knowing that this is a LIFE-change, a point of NO return. I am gluten intolerant, I should NEVER enjoy grains and oats as I did before, my children WILL BE gluten intolerant...otherwise known as the freaks who don't get cake on their birthdays...so I'm choosing to look at this situation in a different light. Not what I can't eat, but all the fantastical things I CAN!
ENJOY!
