What A Differnce A Diet Makes!

So with My Friend Mia's permmision,here is her story,of overcoming allergies,weight gain,heaadache and INFERTILITY...it IS relevent,however much it's poohoo'd.But I will let you all read her story and decide for your selves

I was 27. I'd been married for 4 years and suffered from a variety of health problems including: migraines, brain fogs, irrational irritability, severe intestinal pain, urinary tract problems, boils and blisters on my skin, fatigue and infertility. I wanted a baby sooo bad but had been completely unsuccessful.

One day, curious to see what would happen, I began looking at labels and stopped buying anything I believed to be made using preservatives (any word I couldn't pronounce, anything abbreviated (MSG, BHT etc) and hydrogenated oils) 6 weeks later I'd lost 16 lbs and became pregnant! Most of my health problems disappeared leaving me with only urinary problems and boils. If I cheated and ate something bad --they would come back. What an incentive!!

It changed my whole perspective on food! Once pregnant, I continued to avoid preservatives. After Hayden was born I started making more of an effort to buy organic and soon was eating about 50 to 60% organic. Once that was accomplished, I then went from eating 90% organic dairy to eating only a small bit of dairy altogether--limiting it to treats like organic pizza on a saturday night. Once I'd mastered that, I then took beef out of my diet and suddenly my urinary problems and boils disappeared. This left me with ZERO health problems as long as I was careful to stay way from these foods.

My children are also sensitive to chemicals. For example---My daughter is so allergic to chocolate (I suspect it's the vanillan ingredient which is made from petroleum ACK!) that it puts her into respiratory distress! Both of my kids get very hyperactive and irritable followed with a bout of diarrhea if they eat any artificial colors. Aly normally sleeps like a log but has terrible screaming nightmares whenever she eats anything genetically modified (corn in particular)

Some might see our sensitivities as a curse but I'm so thankful for them To me--the average person's body is "mute". There is no warning signs to heed until one day--they suddenly have cancer, leukemia, heart disease or just drop dead from a heart attack.

It's taken me 8 years of little steps forward to get where I am and it's been worth every penny, every label check and every extra mile driven to get to "that one store". I NEVER feel like I'm missing out on anything. If I want something sweet I bake an organic chocolate cake or organic cookies. If I'm dying for some meat I eat some organic chicken. If it's pizza I crave, I put an organic pizza in the oven. I don't miss the old food either. At some point along the path, additive-filled food starts tasting REALLY nasty. So plastic-y and you get to where you actually taste the "fake-ness" of it.

As far as the cost of organic goes-I look at it this way: We invest in houses, stock etc. Why not invest in the health of our most precious commodity; our health To us--affording that extra bit of organic food is often as simple as not eating out a couple times



A bit the Burton Family's eating habits

My most used kitchen appliances are my pressure cooker, my rice cooker/steamer, my bread machine and my vitamix (blender)

Pressure cooker: This is a LIFE SAVER for me! I make soups in about 18 minutes and beans in 55 minutes using it. So fast and easy and so good for you!

Rice cooker/steamer: I use this to make my easy mexican rice (I just replace part of the water ratio with tomato sauce and throw in garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper. yum!) Then steam veggies using the steamer part.

Bread machine: Runs about $100. I just got a new one. It's awesome!!!! Really saves you money on bread and you wind up with a yummy and healthy loaf any time you want it!

Vitamix: It's a powerful blender I use mostly for smoothies. I can't say enough good about daily smoothies! they really help your immune system. The kids and I only have 3 colds a year on average and very rarely have a flu. Hayfever is almost nil and I've noticed also that my kids don't have a nose booger or eye booger problems at all! I've noticed that i can skip a day but 2 days skipped and i feel the difference. my nose starts itching and i sneeze more--I'm more tired and if i go 3-4 days without it--tehre's a chance i'll catch a cold so i'm pretty careful to keep them daily most of the time.

My smoothie recipe is:
1 banana
1/2 cup or so frozen blueberries (very important)
3/4 cup or so frozen fruit of choice
2 oz (per person drinking) of POM brand pomegranate juice. Very very important.
Then add either orange juice and/or rice milk to taste (my kids like them less thick)

An average day or two for us:

Monday

breakfast: Organic wheat cereal, homemade bread (toast) with organic butter, orange juice
lunch: lentil, carrot and onion soup (pressure cooker) with homemade bread slice
snack: smoothie
dinner: fruit or left over lentils

Tuesday

breakfast: cream of rice, tea, homemade toast
lunch: sandwich (organic peanut butter, fried organic polenta) and organic corn chips
snack: smoothie
dinner: Cream of Potato soup

Wednesday:

breakfast: organic scrambled eggs and organic fried potatoes
lunch: Pasta with butter and garlic, organic veggie
snack: smoothie
dinner: vegetarian hamburgers made with fried pinto beans, eggs, spices and dried breadcrumbs)
Thursday:
breakfast: Oatmeal (I do 1 cup oats to 1 and 1/4 cup water. much better! less squishy!)
lunch: pinto beans (I make mine in my pressure cooker and don't season them til they're fully cooked. brings out natural flavor) and fast mexican rice (steamer)
snack: smoothie
Dinner: Fried rice with leaks and eggs

Special treats: organic chocolate cake, organic strawberry cake (frosting is vanilla colored with fresh strawberries), we also will occasionally make homemade pizza using our bread machine to make the dough--then we top it with tomato sauce, organic mozzarella and leaks fried in organic soy sauce YUM!

wow all that sounds great holi! and awesome story!!!!! I sure wish we could start out on that. we bought the friggin book and that's as far as we got maybe when we build our new house we can start from scratch. thx for posting the recipes those look great!

it's hard when you have so much going on,I started the diet with Teo like 2 months before we moved here,then quickly abandoned it with a 9 month old who was BFing and trying to pack shit all the time it was just easier for me to shove a bowl of spaghettios in the microwave and of couse I didn't have tiume to read.Best wait until you are settlefd somewhere.In the mean time,just try and be aware as and when you can.when you have moved and settled in it will be way eaiser,I started the very day we moved in here and havn't looked back.Sure there have been a few 'slips',maybe I got the wrong brand of something,or maybe he was fed someting while we're out,but that's going to happen,it's life!

I would like to add for my part just a few of the symptoms alieviated by diet for my son and myself....

obviously the ADHD diagnosis vanished like I mentioned in the other thread,but for anotehr issue we had,Teo was wetting the bed most nights,which was very trying for me as it added to the laundry and work load in general and I was concerned why at age 5 he was still wetting the bed every night depsite being potty trained in the day since his 3rd bday.I began to notice that when I fed him a certain product (wtih a certain chemical TBHQ) in it,he was wetting the bed,on the 'odd' day I would feel mean and let slip with Teo and those were the nights that he wet the bed,I could litteraly turn it on and off like a tap!So I cut that last thing out altogether nad he hasn't wet the bed since last august!

As for me,when I switched to eating a 85-90% vegetable diet,cutting out all processed food (aside from the odd thing like organic bread or organic chips) I felt for the first time in years that i could DO things rather than sit on the couch all lethargic and useless and I didn't have PMS for the first time,no cramps I actually was concerned!I got a pretty pink blush on my cheeks and my eyes sparkled.Of course,I fell off the wagon,I get on anf off with myself because it IS a big lifestyle change and it's still a process even for me,but I have noticed my general well being and my mental and physical condition corresponds with what I eat.I havn't had to use it for a serious ailment for myself but many other people have and I know they usually start changinf the way they eat because they have tried everything else and seen someone elses success with their same problem.it is a big chnage,and may be a little more costly BUT you'd end up spending that money on something else anyway and like Mia said,switching a few dinners out instead in order to feerl better will make up for it.I am not trying to sell you on anything,I just think it would help some people on here,if they were to try it. Yet another firend of ours has put her son (who had ADHD and anger issues on the feingold diet,that Teo was on) and if you want to see how its working out for her,please check her blog. http://bethanyks.blogspot.com/