Whole Foods Defined

Before I get any further into healing our guts, allow me to define a few terms...

First of all, I use the terms "real food" and "whole foods" interchangeably. Whole foods basically refer to those foods that have been minimally processed, containing no artificial additives or preservatives. Whole foods are less refined. I prefer to think of whole foods as foods that are as close to the way God created them as possible.

Highly refined foods like white flour, white sugar and white rice have been stripped of their nutrition while whole foods like seeds, whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables tend to have more fiber and provide vitamins, minerals, protein and high-quality fats which are necessary for optimizing overall health.

So let's take oats for example. The quick-cooking oats most people buy their children which are found in little envelopes and boast all kinds of fun maple sugar flavors, etc...are not only far from the way they grew in the field but they have all sorts of added sugars, and flavors. These kinds of products have been refined and are not as nutritious as their commercials claim. Oats that are closest to the way they grew and therefore "whole" are oats groats. Steel cut oats and rolled oats (old fashioned oats) are slightly more processed but but pack a lot more nutritious punch.

Another perfect example are protein bars that are so popular in our country now. They claim to be highly nutritious and yes, they are full of protein which is important but we have to start thinking "quality" of food, not quantity of fat grams, protein or calories. Protein bars are not real food. It's a conglomeration of powders and preservatives...far, far, far from the way those ingredients grew in the field.

The bottom line is that we have to choose wisely, read labels and think about what we're putting into our bodies. The further foods gets from it's original state, the less nutritious it is. But more importantly, the more damage it causes the lining of our gut therefore leaving us susceptible to sickness, weight gain, disease, depression, you name it.

In future posts I'm also going to be discussing other terms like "traditional" foods and "probiotic" foods. These are whole foods that have been fermented or cultured. In a nutshell, they are foods full of friendly bacteria that feed our gut and keep them happy. More discussion later.

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It All Starts in the Gut

I have come to firmly (and I mean firmly!) believe that most all of human diseases and conditions come from an unhealthy gut. Our immune system lies within our gut. And our gut doesn't just affect our digestive system, it affects our whole body; our central nervous system, our neurological system, our emotions...you name it. Think about it...not too long ago it was very rare to be diagnosed with autism, alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, cancer, even diabetes or heart disease. I believe the Western diet has wreaked havoc on our entire bodies and our society. We must restore the health of our guts by returning to whole, natural foods full of healthy bacteria.

Here is an excerpt from a great article I found by Dr. Cowan that illustrates this point beautifully...

"We have millions of intestinal villi, which are tiny finger-like hairs projecting into the intestine. These villi increase dramatically the surface area of the intestinal lining, making it a more effective semi-permeable barrier, which means it keeps unwanted things out of our bloodstream while absorbing the nutrients. These villi are covered with a layer of healthy intestinal flora, in some estimates about five to seven pounds of millions of varied bacteria, viruses, yeast and other microbes.

These healthy bacteria are vital for healthy life. They make vitamins, they digest food, they make antibiotic substances to keep down pathogens and they function as our immune system. I tell my patients that this system is analogous to a lush meadow with a thick layer of soil (the villi) covered by a lush layer of grass (the healthy bacteria). When both are intact, the meadow is healthy, but if you went to the meadow and stripped off the grass (this would be the equivalent of using an antibiotic in a person, or even not eating probiotic food), a whole cascade of catastrophic events will follow. First, you will get erosion of the soil, then the soil that’s left will be weak and unsupportive of healthy grasses. Weaker varieties of grass will grow or even no grass at all. Next, as the soil develops erosion cracks, poisons, runoff, etc., will start to seep into the ground water. At this point the land is dying.

This is exactly what happens inside us. First we strip our grass, then the soil erodes - the villi get weak and blunted, and then can’t support healthy micro-orgnisms. The cracks develop, and finally poisons seep into our groundwater, the blood. We now have foreign proteins in our blood, which either directly poison our nervous system (i.e. autism) or create antibody formation in reaction to these abnormal proteins, which is the whole process of auto-immune illness. Diseases which are the direct result of this process include not only intestinal diseases such as IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, but all the auto- immune problems such as eczema, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and on and on. It is not a stretch to confirm what natural medicine has claimed for literally thousands of years: The majority of human illness starts in the gut and must be healed by treating the gut."

More about this tomorrow...

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Pure Bliss

I was going to blog about avocados or herbal teas or something of the like today. But then I came across this video and felt like I HAD to share it. This is my child who has been hospitalized several times for "failure to thrive". He had seizures, was blind and generally grumpy all the time. He has a feeding tube and the docs were prescribing him commercialized formula out of a can. Since switching him to "real food" he hasn't had a single seizure, he's flourishing and happy and joyful all the time. He's even gaining some eyesight! If that isn't a testimony to real food I don't know what is.

It's a shame that too many kids these days are being prescribed pills by the bucket load for all kinds of physical and behavior problems. I know medical intervention is necessary sometimes, however, food is the best medicine there is regardless of the condition/diagnosis. Kids are at our mercy to provide for them. If parents were to provide their kids with whole foods then they wouldn't have behavior problems in the first place. I'm not blaming parents for their kids' problems...I'm blaming the Western diet...but parents can intervene with more conservative measures to heal their kids. We don't need to rely on Western medicine. In fact, I believe that traditional medicine can do more harm than good, in most cases. There are other ways that not only help kids but HEAL kids. Nate is one of many that proves that real food works!!

For more information check out gapsdiet.com.

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Buying in Bulk

In an attempt to save money on our grocery bill we have decided to join Costco. I often read that buying in bulk is the way go but I've been skeptical for awhile about whether or not we could buy organic items at a place like Costco. Much to my surprise, we can! I've only gone twice but here are my favorite finds so far:

organic, range-free chicken broth
Muir Glen organic soups (for busy days)
cold pressed olive oil
nitrite free bacon
"naked" chicken nuggets (w/o breading...that was a FUN find!)
Kirkland brand cleaning products...most of them are natural and don''t have perfumes
organic tortilla chips
organic butter
100% maple syrup
all-natural peanut butter
organic jelly
Newman's Own juice

There also seemed to be lots of organic produce, fish and meats. We've been buying those through our co-op but I saw some good deals.

We've been buying our rice, oats, corn, etc. in bulk at a local health food store, but you can check out these great resources if you're interested:
somethingbetternaturalfoods.com
azurestandard.com

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