Lets talk FOOD, Part 1

Notice: I started this post in January! Eeek.

It’s the beginning of the year and most people I know are making resolutions to , “Eat healthier,” “Eat cleaner,” “Stop eating junk food” etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And I think it’s a joke. Seriously.

I’ve come to the conclusion that what you believe about food guides how you eat, truly. Convenience in food has sold us on the idea that healthy food lasts over a year on your shelf, whole food now comes with stickers and labels that say “Just add water,” and things like dextrose, fructose, and nitrate are now ingredients in anything you put in your mouth at each and every meal. And its all a lie.

Let me take you back to the start of November, where we took Bogie to see a new doctor for his skin. He had been having severe breakouts of eczema and the only thing that seemed to help was progressively stronger steroids. He’s four. He’s been on steroids for over two years. Over half of his life, I had allowed topical steroids to be part of my child’s daily regimen. And when I looked around I saw that I was not the only Momma hocking her kids up with drugs; daily. But when I thought about it, or when my mom would ramble off about how kids did not have all of these problems when I was a kid, I would just push it back to the ‘nod a smile’ and move on. But, I don’t want my kids hocked up on meds each day AND I’d like to be a grandmother someday, so the steroids had to be stopped.

This new doctor really believes it’s a food allergy/sensitivity Bogie has. How do you relieve the build-up in a body from a food allergy, you detox. You take all of the “bad” stuff out of your diet, fill it with “good” stuff and let your body do what it was designed for and get into optimum health from the inside out.

Sounds pretty simple, right? Sounds like common sense, right? It is, but it is damn hard to do. And I don’t think I would have ever changed the way I fed my kids had somebody not told me that what I was putting into their bodies was HURTING them, meal after meal.

Let me tell you all of the “No’s” of his diet.

• No gluten.
• No wheat or whey.
• No dairy.
• No eggs.
• No red meat.
• No pork.
• No processed sugar or processed foods.
• No corn.
• No peanuts.
• No oranges or grapes or lemons.

I’m sure there’s more… it just became easier to say what he could eat.

• Lean white meat (chicken, poultry, or fish.)
• Fruits.
• Vegetables.
• Good fats.
• Beans.
• Rice.

I was like, “WHAT? You want me to give my kid what to eat?!? It’ll never fly. We will starve! He will starve!”

When I was put into the  position that something that I was giving my kid was making him sick, literally sick, I had to re-think my whole idea of food and how we eat. I had to wipe away everything I’ve ever thought or cooked and start from scratch. And after a bazillion trips to the market-multiple markets, and a doubled grocery bill, I am finally figuring it out.

Its crazy hard. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of planning.  And that’s why I think starting at the beginning of the year with “I’m cutting out sugar” or “I’m going to eat healthier” is just bogus because these statements do not correlate to true change. It it  is a lackadaisical approach to something that we don’t really want to change. Because it is HARD. And these statements tell me that the person has not truly arrived with a whole belief that food can either aid or hinder your health. People who do, eat differently every-day-of-their-lives.

In the coming days and weeks, I’ll show you what a I feed my kids, what I’ve discovered, what has happened to Bogie’s skin, and what we teach our kids about food. Join me?