How I Came to Really Love Real Food: Part Two
It didn't take long for dietary change number two to come into the picture. Faced with issues of infertility, and having the recent ability to access the internet for research purposes, I became aware of the side-effects of antibiotic usage in causing an infinite number of health problems by wiping out the "good" bacteria in our digestive tracts and allowing yeast and fungus to proliferate. This is when I first learned of the work of Doug Kauffman, who many people probably know from his television show "Know the Cause". His main point is that many if not most of the health issues people face today are a result of an imbalance of gut bacteria. The fungus gains an upper hand and begins to wreak havoc on any or all of the body's systems - digestive, circulatory, urinary, reproductive, neurological, etc. What does fungus feed on? Sugars. Once I learned this, I began to realize how dangerous sugar can be for a person. It can precipitate a huge number of physical and even mental/emotional ailments by feeding antibiotic-induced fungus. I knew right away that this was likely an issue for me since I took some serious broad-spectrum antibiotics as a young adult in an effort to get rid of acne.
I went sugar-free based on this new information, and eventually was able to have three great kids. After the first baby, though, I became a sugar-free backslider. I had what I wanted (a baby), so I really got careless with my diet. My downfall was chocolate. My motto was (still is!): any sugar without chocolate in it is a waste of sugar (ain't it the truth).
After several winters with children in the house, the one thing that became really discouraging to me was the numbers of colds and flu that we all experienced. There's almost nothing worse than being constantly sick between October and May. Around February 2005, I just started thinking this should not be normal. Certainly it's not normal.
This is what began my interest in internet health research. It didn't take long for me to discover the work of Dr. Mercola (link in the sidebar) and his internet articles and blog. I found out that there actually existed people with young children who didn't catch every single bug that was going around. Rarely did they ever get sick. And if they did get sick, it was minor. And it seemed the biggest contributing factor to sickness in general was sugar consumption. Well, I sort of knew that already, but things finally began to click for real. I found out all the other awful health effects of sugar, and the first real permanent change was made in our diets. We cut out refined sugar.
In all honesty, after three years of gradual diet changes, cutting out sugar was the most difficult thing we ever did. We started out very strictly, but decided it wasn't too big of a deal to have ice cream occasionally in the summer. We found it more advantageous to be especially strict in the winter, when viruses are at their worst. But the cravings you have when you first cut out sugar are incredibly strong. Especially if you are used to having it every single day. Fortunately, I found that using honey, maple syrup, and Rapadura or Sucanat (natural unrefined sugar) makes things taste just as good as refined sugar.
There were several changes we could have made to begin with on this "good health odyssey". I chose sugar because it seemed to be the greatest hurdle to me. I felt that good health would always be elusive so long as refined sugar was on the menu. There are many other good changes you could start with, but it seemed that once we cut out the sugar, I was able relax a little and enjoy the trip. While cutting out the sugar was a stressful thing for me, the rest has truly been a joy. You might think me crazy to think that, but it's true.
We still struggle from time to time with getting off-track (too much ice cream!). All we need to do is read this list again, and we remember how important it is to cut out white sugar all together. Many people would say that sugar is not that big of a deal, but I have found that for myself anyway, it is difficult to have something with sugar just once or twice a week. Once it gets to be habit, I have to have some every day. Better to avoid it altogether!
If you have ever been on antibiotics of any sort, chances are, cutting out sugar is probably one of the most beneficial (and difficult) things you could ever do.
In part three I will talk about how I determine what sources of health information to trust.
I went sugar-free based on this new information, and eventually was able to have three great kids. After the first baby, though, I became a sugar-free backslider. I had what I wanted (a baby), so I really got careless with my diet. My downfall was chocolate. My motto was (still is!): any sugar without chocolate in it is a waste of sugar (ain't it the truth).
After several winters with children in the house, the one thing that became really discouraging to me was the numbers of colds and flu that we all experienced. There's almost nothing worse than being constantly sick between October and May. Around February 2005, I just started thinking this should not be normal. Certainly it's not normal.
This is what began my interest in internet health research. It didn't take long for me to discover the work of Dr. Mercola (link in the sidebar) and his internet articles and blog. I found out that there actually existed people with young children who didn't catch every single bug that was going around. Rarely did they ever get sick. And if they did get sick, it was minor. And it seemed the biggest contributing factor to sickness in general was sugar consumption. Well, I sort of knew that already, but things finally began to click for real. I found out all the other awful health effects of sugar, and the first real permanent change was made in our diets. We cut out refined sugar.
In all honesty, after three years of gradual diet changes, cutting out sugar was the most difficult thing we ever did. We started out very strictly, but decided it wasn't too big of a deal to have ice cream occasionally in the summer. We found it more advantageous to be especially strict in the winter, when viruses are at their worst. But the cravings you have when you first cut out sugar are incredibly strong. Especially if you are used to having it every single day. Fortunately, I found that using honey, maple syrup, and Rapadura or Sucanat (natural unrefined sugar) makes things taste just as good as refined sugar.
There were several changes we could have made to begin with on this "good health odyssey". I chose sugar because it seemed to be the greatest hurdle to me. I felt that good health would always be elusive so long as refined sugar was on the menu. There are many other good changes you could start with, but it seemed that once we cut out the sugar, I was able relax a little and enjoy the trip. While cutting out the sugar was a stressful thing for me, the rest has truly been a joy. You might think me crazy to think that, but it's true.
We still struggle from time to time with getting off-track (too much ice cream!). All we need to do is read this list again, and we remember how important it is to cut out white sugar all together. Many people would say that sugar is not that big of a deal, but I have found that for myself anyway, it is difficult to have something with sugar just once or twice a week. Once it gets to be habit, I have to have some every day. Better to avoid it altogether!
If you have ever been on antibiotics of any sort, chances are, cutting out sugar is probably one of the most beneficial (and difficult) things you could ever do.
In part three I will talk about how I determine what sources of health information to trust.
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