In the movie The Princess Bride, the protagonist Westley (aka Dread Pirate Robert) was being held in the Pit of Despair to be used as a human guinea pig for Count Rugen’s ‘pain tolerance’ machine. As he lay on the table, The Albino was administering first aid to Westley’s severely gouged shoulder from the attack of a ‘rodent of unusual size’ from the Fire Swamp. Looking dubiously at Count Rugen, Westley questions him about being healed only to ultimately suffer pain on the machine. Very calmly, Count Rugen replies, “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.”
I thought of my own three children and what that might entail with regard to attaining our full health potential and what stacking the deck for healthy aging could look like. I’ve spent many hours communicating my thoughts about nutrition choices with my children over the course of their young lives (sometimes to their interest, and more currently, their dismay), especially now that they have children of their own. And now more than ever, realizing the mess our nation is in with regard to our health, and the observation that aging seems to be in and of itself its own disease, I penned this note to my two daughters attempting to simplify as best I could the often complex nutrition puzzle message:
Dear Kristi & Jodee,
I know you guys think I’m a radical about this stuff, but I cannot help myself when it comes to your health, and your children’s health. I’ve learned that virtually every medical condition or symptom we have that negatively impact our bodies is a result of what we eat. Period.
This will take just a few moments, but this link is a good place to begin to learn about the foods that cause inflammation which leads to food allergies, skin conditions, asthma, autoimmune diseases, to name a few - - and what to do about it in terms of the foods we should be eating - at least it’s a place to start.
Of note, the inflammation message is critical to understand because I’ve learned that EVERYTHING that happens negatively to our bodies stems from this concept – and this concept alone.
Where to begin? Besides being aware of the foods we should be eating, it’s possibly simpler to consider what NOT to eat as we descend further into the global health crisis we’re now facing.
Consider eliminating one food from your diet at a time:
sugar, then
grains, then
vegetable oils
For me, I began by eliminating sugar, followed with grains, then vegetable oils. Since my initial forays into this way of eating, I’ve read many more books and research including: The Big Fat Surprise & Deep Nutrition, with regard to the deleterious effects of sugar and grains, and have especially learned how vegetable & seed oils (corn, soy, canola/rapeseed, sunflower, safflower) deeply affect us. These are all Omega 6 polyunsaturated oils which completely throw off our microbiome along with a milieu of downstream problems, as these are truly foreign oils to our bodies, and as such, we have trouble digesting them. This creates the perfect storm making them the primary brain killers over time that can compromise you as you age & are especially pro-inflammatory for your skin, respiratory & autoimmune systems. These oils can also lead to a whole host of other metabolically compromising problems and illnesses I’ll discuss later. Just know that these oils are in virtually ALL processed/packaged foods (breads, doughnuts, cakes, cereals, snack foods) & used by ALL restaurants & fast food places, because it is cheap and stores well. This is in large part why we eat at home most of the time now, and carefully select menu items when we are out.
I could go on and on, but consider some of the ideas presented here…you won’t regret it.
I love you and want you to live long, HEALTHY, productive lives!
~ Love, Mom