One giant step

Little did we know that our journey away from the Standard American Diet (SAD) began with the birth of our sweet nine year old daughter.  Within hours of her birth, she began not just spitting up, but vomiting.  The first three months of her life were misery for her and for me, helpless to understand what pained her and exhausted from a newborn that never stopped crying and slept very little.  Because she was gaining weight, the pediatrician dismissed my concerns.  Matt was working 100+ hours a week in his intern year of residency.  When he was home, he was exhausted.  Besides, none of his training in medical school addressed the link of nutrition and health beyond the basics and as related to treating diabetic patients. 

Thanks to the internet, when she was six months old I finally made a connection between her extreme fussiness and a milk protein allergy.  Being that she had never had formula, this meant the milk protein was coming from my diet.  I initially switched from cow's milk to soy milk but she became even fussier.  I don't know if the statistic has changed, but up to 40% of children that cannot tolerate cow's milk will also be intolerant/allergic to soy.  Now that much is coming out about the negatives of soy, I am very thankful that she didn't tolerate it.  As she got older, it seemed she could handle yogurts, cheeses and butter.  It was not until we switched to raw, unpasteurized milk that she and also her also dairy intolerant younger brother could make the transition from rice milk to cow's milk.

However, at many seasons over the past nine years, she and more recently her brother, have struggled with reflux and GI issues, seemingly related to food.  Allergy tests revealed some minor allergies, but after a time avoiding those foods (eggs for her, peanuts for him) they were given the all clear to go back in to their diet.  Endoscopy, allergy tests, prescription medications, etc. etc., it seemed our kids were headed for a lifetime of tummy troubles. 

As we began to take baby steps to eliminate some of the modern convenience foods and other processed foods from our diet, we began to see improvements.  The switch to raw milk seemed to provide improvements in their health and, for the first time ever, our daughter could have milk without vomiting.  The more baby steps we took, the easier it was to take that next step.  At some point in the past three years, our diet came to look rather radical from the SAD.  Yet, nagging issues remained.  Our son continued to battle reactive airway disease and was covered in eczema.  Our daughter still suffered periods of reflux.  Deep down I felt that an elimination diet would be helpful, but was so overwhelmed with how to make it happen.

Ten days ago, at our daughters request, we took the plunge and decided to see what would happen if we eliminated wheat/gluten/corn/soy/dairy/eggs/chicken/beef/pork free for at least two weeks.  Once we make the two week mark, we will likely begin to add some things back in one at a time to see how they are tolerated.  I must say, though it has been a lot of work cooking three meals a day from scratch, I am loving the way I am feeling.  My sinuses are clearing up.  My ears that have been chronically itchy most of my life are no longer itchy!  My energy level is improving and I have shed a few unneeded pounds! 

I have seen some evidence that the dietary changes are helping the kids as well.  The Tornado's bumpy skin is clearing up which is huge!!  On Saturday evening, I cheated and added a little butter and sour cream to mashed potatoes.  Our daughter vomited upon waking on Sunday morning.  We stayed home from church assuming she was coming down with something, but as the day went on it was clear that her troubles that morning we caused by reflux and not a virus.  It seems possible that the dairy we thought she was tolerating could be what has been causing her issues all along.  We pray that in time we will have a clear answer for both of the kids.  In the meantime, we are learning to become practically vegan with a little bit of fish and turkey on the side. 

To help in our new mostly vegan efforts, I picked up some beautiful lettuce transplants yesterday.  Hopefully in the next few weeks, we will be harvesting our salads from the back yard!

 

Comments

[Derek]

My wife and I had a similar experience with high frutose corn syrup. After cutting that from our diet, we felt so much better and shed a few pounds. We now have a big salad for dinner a few days a week, and have discovered that it's helped us both lose weight and feel better. And what we also discovered, is that switching over to this kind of diet has actually saved us a ton of money at the grocery store.

[Jason]

I am still learning about it, but have you looked into lacto-fermentation? Real naturally fermented foods have great nutritional value and encourage intestinal flora(good bacteria) which may help your children tremendously. I have not read through a lot of your blogs, so if you have already learned about this, forgive the repetition. I have discovered that I'm not lactose intolerant, more like pasteurization and homogenization intolerant-Raw milk is great! I have started adding real sauerkraut to my diet, and it seems to help.

[SaM]

Thanks for the suggestion, Jason. It sounds like we are about at the same stage of learning. Last week, I pulled out my copy of Nourishing Traditions and hope to migrate that direction from our current "starvation diet" as I have jokingly referred to it.

I am not sure how long I should keep my daughter dairy free, but I have decided that the first bit of dairy we will try will be kefir made from raw milk.

[SaM]

Thank you for your comment, Derek. HFCS was one of the first things we cut out (or cut waaaay back on) as well. I agree that eating a whole foods diet is cheaper in the long run. Yes, the organic apple costs few cents more than the conventional one, but when you cut out (or back) the cost of convenience/processed foods, you save a bundle!

[Julia]

Have you considered the GenoType Diet? It makes sense of the "milk is good for you; milk is bad for you", "beef is good for you; beef is bad for you" issue, and explains why some people have great success with stuff like coconut oil and others get sick on it.

For instance, I am a Teacher GenoType. Teachers do not make enoughh stomach acid to digest red meat. That explains why I always got a bad tummy ache when I tried to eat steak! The GTD makes the most sense to me of all the eating plans.