It feels like I have spent the last few days with my head in a book and a pen and notebook right beside me. Most likely because this is true.
I have taken a lot of time to read and research different different type of diets and why they work or don't work. I have tried to understand the reasons behind why certain authors portray certain diets as the best. Since I was/am so confused about who is right I tried to focus on what all these diets had in common. What foods did they most advocate omitting and why? What I came away with is almost every diet recommended that dairy be given up along with gluten. Third runner up was all grains in general. This was followed by nightshades, certain oils, nuts, meat, and finally certain fruits (think citrus).
I have decided that our family is going to give up dairy and gluten to begin with. I really have no idea what I am doing in terms of what I am going to serve since I am eliminating the two food groups that we probably consume the most of in this house. I have no idea how to implement this process and I have no idea how to sustain it. What I do know is that from what I have read several children in my house would benefit from the elimination of these two food groups as well as myself. Gluten &/or dairy can cause acne, stomach issues, ear aches, & rashes among other things. Gluten and dairy can also cause inflammation.
I will take things slowly. One step at a time. Instead of focusing on what we cannot eat I am going to try and focus on what we can eat. I have run this idea by the boys and Andy was ready to start making these changes right away. (We are going to ease into this new concept by eating the foods that we currently have in our pantry and then just not replacing them with dairy or gluten products.)
By not eating gluten I need to make sure that I am not substituting my pantry with boxed non-gluten items. I am trying to get away from processed stuff so going from gluten based boxed stuff to non-gluten based box stuff defeats the purpose of what I am trying to do.
I think it will help my budget greatly that we will no longer be eating dairy because organic dairy is really, really expensive. I have no idea what I am going to replace those items with though.
I went to the library today and got some cookbooks out to try and give me some ideas on gluten and dairy free recipes. I am hoping that once I get a handful of items to serve for breakfast, lunch, and dinner I will feel more comfortable to experiment and try out new things.
I am going to need to be very careful about our diets in terms of making sure Andy & Sarah get the nutrients that they need as neither of them are big meat eaters. Bob, Josh, and Elizabeth will still be eating meat. I will need to incorporate both vegan and meat entrees into our diet to meet the needs of everyone. Again, I have no idea what I am doing or how I will do it.
I was trolling through Sarah's medical records last night trying to find answers to questions that I have. I came across her IgG test again which measures the level of inflammation in her body. She was first tested for this back in 2014. Her markers were much higher than where they should have been, and this past test in December 2015 showed that her levels have dropped off significantly, but they are still very high. Knowing this, and then also knowing that food can trigger inflammation is enough motive to keep me going even though I have no idea on earth what I am doing. Knowing that I have 3 other children who are genetically predisposed to developing autoimmune diseases as well makes that desire to push on through this initial struggle over hauling our diets all that more real and strong.
As I read through most of the information I have found I am finding a strong desire to make it all myself. Growing a garden, raising my own eggs, maybe even our own cow is an idea that is steadily gaining momentum in my heart. It doesn't surprise me that I feel this way as it seems my whole life was building towards this idea. And as crazy as the idea my seem to those closest to me it is an option that I will have to truly consider in the future because it seems like no one can be trusted anymore to grow my family's food.
I don't know whether you want any input or not, but have you read much about the differences between raw dairy and pasteurized dairy? From the research I have done over the last many years, I have found that pasteurized dairy is what is being implicated as possibly contributing to ill health, but raw dairy actually can contribute greatly to better health. For instance, there have been numerous studies in Europe (where raw milk is much more common) showing increased health in raw milk drinkers. Those studies are looking at very large numbers of raw milk drinkers, and seeing decrease in things such as asthma and allergies. You can read about one such study here:
ReplyDeletehttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/11/12/raw-milk-benefits.aspx
Switching from pasteurized to raw milk was actually one of the very first steps my family took in making our diets more healthy, and we've been consuming raw milk now for ~10 years. And we consume fermented raw milk (in the form of milk kefir), which is also very healthy (kefir has much stronger probiotics than yogurt, and even has some very strong probiotics that can kill bad bacteria in the gut).
Anyhow, I just wanted to mention this. Let me know if you want more information, and there are also a couple books that I could recommend if you want to read more.
Also, if you are interested, I have two grain-free ecookbooks that I could send you, since we have done grain-free so often (and did exclusively for over 18 months). It really did give us mixed results in the long-term (although initially it gave us great results).
ReplyDeleteAlina is still gluten-free and mostly grain-free, although we are making headway in her grain sensitivities through her constitutional homeopathic treatment. The grain reactions that my husband and I were both exhibiting have now been greatly improved as well (I don't react to gluten anymore like I did after the grain-free diet, and my husband reacts far less now), but Alina's sensitivities seemed to be more deep-seated.
Let me know if you'd like me to send you the cookbooks.
I am pretty interested in both cookbooks. For now, I am going to try the dairy free thing, but if it doesn't work I will definitely be open to having a bigger conversation with you about your research.
ReplyDeleteI'll send you the cookbooks!
ReplyDeleteOh, I thought you might also be interested to know that, while the Paleo diet started out advocating lean meat and no dairy, over the years it has changed as more information has come to light, so that now many paleo writers and adherents consume high-fat (esp. saturated fat) and raw/fermented dairy. If you want to read more about that, here are some links:
http://chriskresser.com/raw-milk-reality/
http://thepaleomama.com/2013/10/paleo-family-drinks-raw-milk/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dairy-fat-healthy-paleo-primal/
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/the-diet/
I'm not trying to convince you one way or the other; just trying to share more info in case you are interested.
I do know that, in our experience with a grain-free diet, being able to reintroduce dairy was a godsend in terms of having enough easily-available options for the kids and myself to eat, especially since Ian was still nursing exclusively at that time and Alina was only 3 years old. With the GAPS diet, we did completely eliminate dairy for the first while, then slowly reintroduced it (starting with ghee, then butter, slowly moving onto fermented raw dairy, and finally moving onto raw cheese and milk) it so we could see whether or not it was causing any negative reactions. If you decide to reintroduce dairy at some point and want to know about that protocol for reintroduction, let me know.
(Oh, also, the Perfect Health Diet is a good book that you might want to check out. It is available at the library here.)
Next park day I plan on grilling you about the dairy thing as both Michael Pollan and another author that I read up on today (I cannot remember his name) both talk of the advantages of eating/drinking raw milk. For now, we are going to remain dairy free, but I am definitely open to looking into other options.
DeleteSounds fun! I love talking about food.
Delete