Freedom

"Defend your beliefs with courtesy and with compassion, but defend them." --Jeffrey R. Holland

I experienced a long list of health benefits when I broke free of my sugar/refined flour addiction and started eating whole foods. So much so that I made it my crusade to see that my family also broke free of the addiction as well. When you stop the dopamine surge cravings for carbs you not only see how much it affected your body, but also how much it affects those around you. Needless to say people didn't like my crusade to improve their lives. Even my dear husband, who loves me so much and tried so hard to be supportive, was frustrated with me.  My kids and husband were at the mercy of my eating beliefs because it's my job to buy the food and prepare it. As the pantry started changing, and they didn't even have the option to make something else because it wasn't available, moods started to be tested.  Our food storage still had some carbs, after all fiberous, nutrient-dense foods don't store well so what is in store is the addictive refined foods, so my children turned to that. The once passed over granola was now a highly coveted treat, the canned peaches started disappearing. Even though I served three meals a day the kids were wandering around behind my back making food they wanted to eat, and if a meal didn't satisfy the carb cravings it was picked through and not finished.  I saw my kids choosing not to eat at all rather than eat an "unsatisfying" meal.  Since gaining freedom from food's grip I have different glasses on, and I can see that our culture and the food I used to serve my children and the food I ate in the womb created sugar addicts out of my children.
Its not just about our health, it's about freedom from addiction.
I like using the analogy that our body is a vehicle. There are different sizes, makes, models, and types of vehicles. But no matter what your vehicle looks like, there are commonalities among them all--we all have an engine, a battery, a steering device, a radio, and brakes. The engine is our digestive system and cardiovascular system, it is what ultimately allows us to keep going.  The battery is what motivates us to get moving, what inspires us, drives us to action, and keeps us "charged".  The steering device and brakes are our agency to go where we wish to go and need constant vigilance to keep us on the right track and stop us when danger may be ahead. The radio is our mind, emotional state, what we tell ourselves, allow ourselves to be influenced by, and our perception of this road trip (life). Bumps in the road, construction and road hazards, and tedious stretches of driving represent the challenges we will face in life, seat belts represent people and angels that protect us. Our spirits are the drivers of our vehicles, we are not our vehicles, we are just the drivers. In other words, we are infinitely more than our physical body, but we are part of it in this life and sometimes identify ourselves with our bodies and thoughts.
As you can imagine, it is very important to keep our vehicles maintained in order to negotiate the difficulties the road may present us. We need constant fuel, oil changes, and occasional tune ups on the engine.  If you were to put the wrong fuel in your car, your vehicle would not go very far without breaking down. If you don't change the oil the engine will seize.  If you don't charge your battery you will not be able to start at all (spiritual fuel).  And the radio--what are you telling yourself? Watch your thoughts, your words and your intentions, and change the station if you are on a negative channel, how well you overcome road blocks will have much to do with what is playing on your radio.  And lastly, we constantly protect our agency, freedom of choice, so we can get to where we want to go. People have given their lives in pursuit of freedom.
I know that my vehicle is a lemon. I will freely admit that I have a much more fragile system than the vehicles around me. I have to be very careful about the fuel I put in my tank, and careful about the station my radio is on, and careful to keep moving or I may stop and never get started again.  My fuel has to be completely sugar free and can't have too much of any one thing or it's going to clog my filters.  Not every vehicle has to be as conscientious about what they put in their tank, well-made engines can go 100 years on any gas as long as it has methane in it! But just because they can live with it, doesn't mean it's wise to take it in, and any gas that is addictive will cause problems.  Maybe not engine problems, but steering and braking problems.  The long lasting model vehicle may not have to care what quality oil and gas it is consuming, but they will be hurting when their addictive gas is no longer available.
Being in the mental health profession I have seen the signs of addiction and the outcomes of losing one's ability to choose. I think we all have had experience with ourselves or someone we love falling prey to addiction. If you have, you know that a person needs the complete ability to brake when they need to brake and steer where they need to steer, and addiction deprives one of this.  Craving certain foods and only wanting certain foods, not being able to stop eating certain foods, not being satisfied with other foods, not having pleasure in certain foods, having too much pleasure in certain foods, these are signs of addiction and whether they cause your engine to seize or not, they will compromise your brakes and steering.
These days we have a lot of food options and not very many people are aware of their addictive hazards. My doctor told me to drink Sprite when I had to go on an all liquid diet. I told him that wasn't going to happen, so he suggested Gatorade because that doesn't have the calories. I kindly asked him if I could just juice my own fruit and veggies, but inside I was screaming "It's not about calories!!!" He didn't want to hear what I had to say of course, so I couldn't explain that I'm a lemon and my vehicle will start to shut down on sugar water. Still, I couldn't believe that a health care professional would prescribe sugar carbonated liquid as a cure for anything, just because it provides some temporary relief. A concerned family member told me I should listen to him, that it would probably help me feel better. In fact I should probably have some caffeinated drinks to help me have more energy, she said. I love this person, and it's more important to me that she feel loved than that I be right, after all I am a lemon. So I compassionately and with as much courtesy as I could muster tried to tell her that anything that causes me to experience cravings I try to stay away from.  I know I'm not a model of health, but I also know with every fiber of my being that I have experienced freedom from food addictions by eliminating refined food and sugar and thereby helped my engine run more efficiently.  Neither doctors, family, pancreatitis, nor society at large will ever stop me from lovingly defending this belief!
Try going off white bread, pasta, and all forms of sugar for one week, read the books listed in my "resources", watch "Fed UP", and THEN tell me whether you belief in the sugar addiction epidemic, and then I might consider talking to you about whether or not I should use soda as a healing agent.

Pancreatitis and an ovarian cyst

When I went on the 21 day sugar detox I ate a lot of cooked vegetables and meat.  Poultry, pork, beef, seafood in various types. And I cooked my food in ghee, bacon fat, and coconut oil.  I ate no sugar or grains of any kind.  Three meals a day of meat and cooked veggies. My dizzy spells and headaches disappeared, I had increased attention, slept better, I lost 8 pounds, my fingernails grew strong and little baby hairs sprouted all over my head and I felt strong and had good endurance.

About a week after I started incorporating grains and fruit back in my diet and trying to ease off the meat, I got sick again.  My belly bloated, even though I wasn't constipated I had intense rectal pressure, and I had a lot gas. I went through three painful days of gas pressure and abdominal pain before I went to the doctor, knowing something was wrong, because I wasn't eating anything that used to cause me bloating yet I was bloated, and it was at the wrong time of the month for it to be cause by my menstrual cycle. The doctor did an x-ray and found no obstruction, so he took my blood, and I went home angry because my labs always come back at "normal levels." I was left for the next 24 hours wondering what I ate or did that would cause this pain. The doctor called the next morning and said my pancreatic enzymes were high, which means I have pancreatitis, caused by gall stones or alcohol use.  Pancreatitis? I had to look it up: a disease in which the pancreas becomes inflamed, pancreatic damage occurs when the digestive enzymes are activated before they are secreted into the duodeunum (small intestines) and begin attacking the pancreas; symptoms include pain in the abdomen and weight loss caused by poor absorption (malabsorption) of food because the gland is not secreting enough enzymes to break down the food normally.  Since I have no gall bladder and I haven't had a drop of alcohol, the Dr. didn't know what the cause was and told me to eat an all liquid diet (in fact he suggested sprite of all things) for three days and don't eat anything with fat in it.

I was in a conundrum. I can't eat sugar and I can't eat fat? Despite all my efforts my body seemed to be falling apart. I felt like I had somehow damaged my pancreas with the 21 sugar detox and high meat/fat intake, and it discouraged me.  No matter how I tried to pick up a positive consequence for my body, my choices seem to pick up a negative one.  "Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" became tempting to believe since fasting, being sober and disciplined wasn't keeping me alive.  It was frustrating. My mother empathized with me, and informed me that my grandfather had pancreatitis so she feels the cause was hereditary, and she encouraged me to find balance. "I'm not a doctor, but my brain is telling me you can have a little fat and a little sugar and you will get back in balance."  It gave me hope. My brother Jesse told me that sometimes people with no gall bladder sometimes get pancreatitis because the sphincter of oddi which controls the flow out of the pancreas and the gall bladder sometimes malfunctions.  I don't know the cause of the pancreatitis, but I do feel that my pancreas is damaged and this is probably in part why I've had a "hypoglycemic complex" and why I've had so many digestive issues. But I didn't damage it by eating fat!

I did some research on chronic and acute pancreatitis, and my symptoms were more in line with chronic type.  Acute causes intense pain and inflammation (I was inflamed, I felt my gut was a flame of fire, but the pain they described didn't really match the pain I'd experienced), chronic pancreatitis causes weight loss, malabsorbtion of food, dehydration, and oily stools (me, me, me).  What a bummer, apparently this has been going on for a long time, it wasn't just an isolated instance. What to do? If I go to a specialist or the Mayo clinic and find out exactly what my GI track is doing, what are they going to do?  Take out my pancreas?  The complications are somewhat severe (scar tissue in the pancreas that can cause cysts, diabetes or cancer), but I haven't experienced them yet, so I started taking pancreatic enzymes and Beta Pluce to manage the problem of malabsorbtion.

A month later the "flare up" pain returned, exactly on the first day of my period like it did the first time. It was so painful I couldn't ignore it, even though the doctor had already diagnosed me and given me a solution (juice fast).  In my heart, I knew it wasn't due to pancreatits, it had something to do with my menstruation. I went back to the doctor, he scheduled a pelvic ultra sound for me. The pain was being caused by a complex ovarian cyst, which wasn't big enough to be removed surgically and the only solution was to wait for it to burst or go away, awesome! but at least we knew what it was. My pain was not being caused by pancreatitis and healthy fat intake, it stopped when my menstrual cramps stopped three days later, and it came back the next month. Fun times!

I have hopes that the chronic pancreatitis and the ovarian cyst are just more problems from a lifetime of sugar/gluten abuse and that with time on a healthy diet they will resolve themselves. Not everything can be healed immediately. The headaches and dizzy spells resolved immediately, but these two issues are going to take a little longer to resolve. Some miracles take time.

Fed Up

Last night I went to a Dave Ramse live event in Salt Lake City, I love seeing motivational speakers express the truths they've learned in hopes they can inspire others to live better. I found that Dave had some very similar experiences with financial issues that I have had with health issues.  He said "Stupid woke me up.  Some of you don't have to stop and look, I had to stop and look.  When that happens you shake your fist and say 'That's it! I'm not living like this any more!' Its an act of passion, you have to have a healthy level of disgust if you are going to get out, it's an emotional decision to change behavior."  I didn't experience bankruptcy or massive debt, but every word he said applied to my experience with the Standard American Diet. 
Some of you don't have to stop and look, being as sugar sensitive as I am I had to look.  I developed a disgust for refined sugars that will stay with me the rest of my life, and that is what helped me change behavior.  I was FED UP.
As my passion for eliminating sugars grew, my desire to talk about it grew as well.  I had to create this blog because people don't really want to talk about it.  I laughed when Dave Ramse said last night, "If you want to be skinny find a skinny person and ask what they eat."  We all know that some skinny people eat very unhealthily so that was an overgeneralization, however, I do wish people would ask me what I eat.  Sometimes people hear or I let slip out that I have found the answer to my health problems and am on the mend, so at first I get a listening ear.  "What did you do that helped you?" they ask.  I try to ease in, I don't just say, "Stop eating sugar!" I give some back ground information and prep it with "I've found this is true for me" and couch it with "every one has a different metabolic type" and start talking quickly and passionately hoping to get as much information in as I can before I let the bomb drop. Because inevitably when I get to the part about eliminating all refined sugar/flours from the diet, and tell them that's the secret, they get this blank look on their face and the conversation is diverted or stopped completely.  I think this means either the person does not want to know that is the secret and is not willing to go there, or they simply don't believe me and everything I said previously is dismissed because now I am just viewed as an extreme raving lunaitc. This response leads to some feelings of sadness and loneliness on my part, even though I have read the books people have written testifying to the same principle, and the thing that keeps me moving forward in this direction is that I tried it myself and found it helped. I just don't like for others to think I'm wrong, I guess that's hard for everyone.  Dave quoted his pastor as saying, "The man with experience is not at the mercy of the man with an opinion," because a lot of people have told Dave he is wrong, but his 25 years experience is his proof his financial principles work! I have tried the principle and proven its true, my experience is my ally.
One day I was feeling alone in all this and I came across a movie trailer on facebook that looked intriguing. It was called Fed UP and seemed to be about how sugar is the source of the current diabetes obesity epidmic in our country.  It filled me with so much joy to see that there were others out there that shared my "healthy disgust" and were saying something about it.  The title says it all.
View the trailer at that link or watch it below. I am going to see the movie at its first release time in Salt Lake City tomorrow and I can't wait!

What to NOT eat

The following sugars may affect your blood sugar/insulin response or they may not, depending on how sugar sensitive you are so its important to pay attention to your body's response (craving more, feeling happy, feeling sick) and check the label of whatever food you just ate. Here is an extensive list of covert sugars you will want to check for on the ingredients list labels on every food product:
Amasake
Apple sugar
Barbados sugar
Bark Sugar
Barley malt
Barley malt syrup
Beet sugar
brown rice syrup
cane juice
cane syrup
carbitol
caramel coloring
caramel sugars
caramelized foods
concentrated fruit juice
corn sweetener
d-tagalose
date sugar
dextrin
dextrose
diglycerides
disaccharides
evaporated cane juice
florida cruystals
fructooligosaccharides (FOS)
fructose
fruit juice concentrate
galactose
glucose
glucitol
glucoamine
gluconaolactone
glucose polymers
glucose syrup
glycerides
glycerine
glycerol
glycol
high fructose corn syrup
inversol
invert sugar
iso malt
karo syrups
lactose
levulose
"lite" sugar
malt dextrin
malted barley
maltose
maltodextrins
maltodextrose
malts
mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, malitol
mannose
microctrystaline
nectars
neotame
petose
polydextrose
ployglycerides
raisin juice
raising syrup
ribose rice syrup
rice sugar
rice sweeteners
rice syrup solids
saccarides (any)
Sorbitol (Hexitol)
Sorghum
Sucanat
Sucanet
Sucrose
Sugar cane
cellulose
molasses
monoglycerides
monosaccharides
trisaccharaides
unrefined sugar
Zylos

Also, Kahtleen DesMaisons tells us to be aware that if the chemical structure of a carbohydrate has more than two sugar molecules, it will be called a complex carbohydrate on a food label instead of sugar, so the label may say it has no sugar but has 35 grams of carbohydrate. Your body will respond to it as a sugar, so read the food labels in detail and learn the subtleties of where sugars are hidden. 
Many people will ask you if you can just have a sweetener substitute, like stevia or Agave, and that is entirely up to the individual.  I personally get triggered by just about any sweetener, so I have to be very careful about what sugars I ingest, healthy or otherwise.  I abide by the rule that if it is a nature-made-whole food it's more safe than a man-made chemically altered sweet food.

There are more toxins in our food than we realize, sugar is just one of many. I focus on sugar because it makes me sick, but its worth noting that there may be many other toxins affecting your health.  Chris Kresser a health professional who quotes from Francine Kaufman's. book "Diabesity" stated that 6.5 trillion pounds of different chemicals are manufactured each year, and the average person has over 91 toxic chemicals in their body. He warns that the Standard American Diet itself is highly toxic as processed and refined foods, industrial seed oils, high fructose corn syrup, and so-called healthy foods like whole grains and soy all have a toxic effect on the body. He further states that environmental toxins interfere with glucose and cholesterol metabolism and induce insulin resistance, disrupt mitochondrial function, cause oxidative stress, promote inflammation, alter thyroid metabolism, and impair appetite regulation. The first step in detoxifying your food is to get rid of processed and refined foods, industrial seed oils, high fructose corn syrup, and toxic grains. The second step is to reduce your exposure to chemicals at home, choose non toxic household cleaning supplies, bath and beauty products, and organic foods. There is no way to completely avoid toxins, but using compounds that support health and liver detoxification will help, i.e. bile stimulants, bile motility enhancers (such as Beta Plus), antioxidants, vitamins C, E, B, and zinc, magnesium, and selenium.

The bottom line: We don't eat toxic food if we can help it!  We won't be perfect at it, but we must be intentional about it.

What to Eat

The answer to my dad's question "what can you eat?" is actually simple. Simple yes, but not EASY.  You can eat anything you can make yourself, and don't add refined flour and sugar.
It probably sounds like you are still limited. Are you still asking "No really what can I eat?"  Let me answer your question with a question.  Have you ever made your own mayonnaise? How about pickled your own cucumbers? Do you own a wheat grinder?  Ever considered owning chickens?  If you answered no, that may be why you are wondering what to eat.  How do I have mexican food if I can't buy tortillas and chips and enchilada sauce?  How do I grab a snack without granola bars and trail mix?
 In the 21 day detox Diane gives you a whole recipe book of foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, sauces, dressings, seasonings, and condiments, that have no sugar added, contain no white flour or pasta of any kind, and taste quite good. But you have to work for it.  I was exhausted at the end of every day when I cooked a healthy detox meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I felt reverence and awe for my female ancestors who made everything from scratch. But I also felt the best digestively and strength wise than I ever have in my life.
It's about going back to basics.  Our "land of plenty" has bombarded us with an abundance of fast, easy, affordable, great tasting food, and in our entitled state of mind of "if I want it I deserve/need it" we have gone along with it without thinking about what we were giving up. If not entitled, then the stress of modern living will drive us to the fast and good-tasting foods that help us feel a sense of well being and comfort.
The Lord never intended it to be this way in this life. "By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread all the days of thy life."  We were giving up nutrient dense, omega and fiber rich foods with naturally occurring vitamins with no chemical additives, antibiotics, and hormones, and replacing it with sugar dense, chemical dense, nutrition deficient foods that store well. 100 years ago the average intake of sugar was 5 pounds per person per year.  Today it is 150 plus pounds of sugar per person per year.  If you make your own food you can control the sugar content, go ahead and have sweet food now and then, just make it yourself and use naturally occurring sugars! If you don't work for it, there will be consequences, that may come in the form of obesity, disease, mental illness, and death.

Here is a Standard American Diet (SAD) 1-day meal plan:
Breakfast (if any): cereal or pancackes/syrup and juice or fruit
Lunch: sandwich and chips
Snack: candy from school/work or the recent holiday
Dinner: spaghetti and meatballs
Dessert: ice cream
Easy right? and all the fast preparation, comfort food you need to get through the stress of modern life. Easy but not simple. Complicated with all sorts of negative sad health effects.

Here is an example of a home-made, sugar free, recovered-sugar-addict meal plan, with recipes:

Breakfast:

Tomato Basil Quiche   

10 slices of bacon                   2 cloves garlic, minced                       2 TBSP fresh chives

10-12 eggs                              ¼ cup fresh basil leaves                      ½ tsp salt         1 tsp black pepper

2 cups chopped spinach          2 TBSP bacon fat                                12 cherry tomatoes halved

Preheat oven to 375.  Slice bacon into ¼ inch strips. Cook bacon in skillet and reserve the fat. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, garlic, chives, basil, salt, and pepper until well combined. Stir in the spinach.  Grease a 9X11 inch baking dish with bacon fat, then pour the egg mixture into the pan. Top with bacon pieces and cherry tomatoes. Bake for 30 minutes or until the eggs puff up and become golden brown on edges.

Snack:

Grain free banola

2 cups whole or halved nuts of choice           1 cup slivered almonds                       ½ cup seeds of choice

½ cup almond meal*                                      2 green tipped bananas pureed                     1 egg

2 tsp vanilla powder                           2 tsp cinnamon                       ½ tsp nutmeg              ¼ sp salt         

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, pulse the whole or halved nuts until they’re partially ground and partially still in small chunks. Pour the nuts into a large mixing bowl, then stir in the slivered almonds, seeds, and almond meal. Place the bananas, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in the food processor and process about 20 seconds or until all ingredients are pureed. Pour the banana mixture into the nut mixture and stir until the nuts are well coated. Pour the mixture onto parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes, checking every 10 minutes and turning the chunks of granola with a large spoon to break up large pieces. This allows it to dry out and lightly brown on all sides. Remove from the oven and let cool uncovered. Store in fridge for up to 1 week. 

Lunch: soup with home made broth, or green salad with no dressing/homemade dressing/guacamole

Smoky chicken tortilla-less soup 

2 TBSP coconut oil or bacon fat            1 small onion, diced             red bell pepper, diced

2 carrots                                                  2 celery stalks, diced            1 poblano pepper, optional

Salt and pepper to taste                           2 tsp cumin                          2 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp chipotle powder                             7 ounces tomato paste          1 quart bone broth

½ pound boneless, skinless, chicken, cooked and shredded

Garnishes: ¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves                 1 avocado sliced

In a large soup pot, melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Put the onion in the pot and cook until it becomes translucent and the edges begin to brown. Add the bell pepper, carrots, celery, roasted poblano pepper, salt and pepper. Add the cumin, coriander, and chipotle powder and stir until well combined. Cook for a few more minutes until the vegetables are soft. Stir in the tomato paste and bone broth and season with salt and pepper again if needed. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the flavors are well combined. When the soup is nearly done, add the cooked chicken to the pot just to heat it all the way through. Taste once more and adjust the seasoning if needed. Serve garnished with the cilantro and avocado slices, if desired.

BONE BROTH

2 pounds meat bones, any kind          1 TBSP apple cider vinegar                 4 quarts water

1 TBSP salt                  1 clove garlic, smashed

Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high 1 hour and low for 8 – 24 hours

Basic 4 Guacamole      

4 avocados            juice of 2 limes      1 medium shallot, minced                  

 ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves      Salt and pepper to taste           ½ jalapeno pepper, minced

Slice each avocado in half lengthwise around the pit, remove the pit, then scoop the flesh into a mixing bowl. Mash the avocado with a fork. Stir in the lime juice, add the shallot, cilantro, salt, and pepper and stir until well combined. If you like spicy guacamole, add the jalapeno and stir to combine. Serve chilled or at room temp.

Snack: beef jerky, grapefruit, yogurt, apple, almonds

Simple beef jerky

1/3 cup cocoanut aminos                   1 tsp granulated garlic        1 tsp onion powder

½ tsp sea salt                                      ¼ tsp black pepper             1 pound lean beef (London broil or roast)

In a large bowl, whisk together the marinade ingredients. Taste it and adjust the seasonings as desired, it should taste stronger than you want the jerky to taste. Cutting against the grain of the meat, slice the meat in to approximately 1/8 inch slices using a very sharp knife or meat slicer. Place the sliced meat in the marinade and allow it to sit for up to 1 hour. Arrange the meat on trays in a food dehydrator and heat at 145 until the meat reaches desired dryness, 3-5 hours. In oven, set it to 200 degrees and bake for 2-4 hours until reaches desired level of dryness.

Dinner:

Pesto Spaghetti Squash       

1 spaghetti squash (4 -5 pounds)       salt and pepper to taste

½ cup shelled pistachios, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pecans, or pine nuts              

1 clove garlic              ½ cup extra virgin olive oil                 1 bunch fresh basil                  

Preheat oven to 375. Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and inner membranes, then sprinkle  liberally with salt and pepper. Place the squash halves face down on a baking sheet. Roast for 40 minutes or until skin gives when you press on it and the noodles inside release easily from the skin. Combine the nuts, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the basil and continue to blend until mixed in. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, pepper, or basil if needed. While squash is warm, use a fork to remove the noodles, then toss with the pesto. [I found with one spaghetti squash you need to double the pesto sauce recipe!]

Before bed

Baked Potato with skin on or plain oatmeal with blueberries

 

Simply delicious, every recipe contains whole foods, some protein, some carbs, lots of veggies, and there are hundreds more delicious non-addictive, energizing and healthy recipes out there. We don't need excessive amounts of sugar, we need real food. To eat real food I have found that I have to work for it.