Marketing Strategies: Also for three year olds.

"Mommy, does that check mark mean that this is healthy?"

 

 

Those are the words that came out of my three year old's mouth when we were on the cereal aisle at the grocery store. We've been talking a lot about healthy and not healthy foods lately. She knows that healthy foods are good for her body, and that not healthy foods could make her get sick. And at the tender young age of three and a half, the marketing techniques of General Mills are reaching her.

 

We made a major overhaul on the kids' diets about two months ago. As you know, I've been on the GAPS diet since just after the first of the year, and I've seen some pretty incredible improvements in my health. When I first started out, I was the only one doing the diet. The DH wasn't particularly interested(and didn't have any pressing health issues that he was concerned about), and since the diet is fairly difficult to get started on I wanted to get adjusted to it first before I thought about getting the kids involved. That didn't last long though. I couldn't stand feeding my kids food that I knew was going to damage their gut and their health, particularly the gluten and sugar! I couldn't justify feeding them food that I wouldn't dream of putting into my own body.

 

It was hard, but I planned ahead and we went cold turkey, completely removing grains and all sugar(except fruit and honey) from their diets. The first week was really tough, but we all made it and have seen significant results! Naturally, as we made such big changes to the kids' diets, we did a lot of talking about what we were doing and why. I did a lot of explaining about how healthy foods helped your body to grow strong and how unhealthy foods were bad for your body and could make you get sick. The last time Hayden had a doughnut, instead of just dealing with the meltdown that followed, I decided to explain to her what was happening and why she felt the way that she did. She ate the doughnut, and then about 15 minutes later had an absolute meltdown. Nothing tragic had happened, but because of the sugar in her system she totally overreacted and started sobbing. I calmed her down a little, and then explained to her that she was feeling so sad because of the doughnut that she just ate. I explained that the doughnut had a lot of sugar, and that when she eats a lot of sugar it makes her feel really yucky and sad. Her eyes got really big, and she thought about it for a minute, and then said, "But doughnuts taste really yummy!" I replied, "Yeah, I think they taste really yummy too! But the problem is that they taste really yummy in your mouth, but then when they go down to your tummy they make you feel really yucky, and they could make you sick later too." I know she's young, but I could really see the wheels turning as she thought about it, and she seemed to really understand the concept. The more that she understands about what foods to eat and why, the more empowered she'll be to make the right choices herself, even when I'm not there to guide her.

 

 

For the next several weeks, she'd ask this about nearly every food, "Does this have sugar in it?" Even Tristan asked a couple of times. We'd talk about nearly every food item that she saw. "Is this healthy?" "Does this have sugar in it?" "Could this make me sick?" We did a lot of talking about healthy food and unhealthy food. Then one day as we were watching tv, she saw a commercial for some kind of processed "health food". She heard the advertiser talking about how healthy the product was, and she said something like, "Look, mommy, that's a healthy food! Can we get that?" Oh boy. This is exactly what these big food companies want you to think!!! "Healthy whole grains" are not healthy! Processed food in a box or bag is not healthy! Grains and sugar with added vitamins are not healthy! These things will not nourish your body. I explained to Hayden that these foods are actually NOT healthy, but the people that make the food and the people that are on tv are lying to us, telling us that the food is healthy so that we'll buy it. She laughed, and thought that was pretty funny, and we talked about how it's not good to tell lies.

 

 

So then as we're at the grocery store, she asks, "Mom, does that check mark mean that it's healthy?" What a perfect teaching moment! I explained to her that, just like the commercials on tv, the people that make this cereal are lying to us, wanting us to think that their product is healthy when it's really not! I showed her how we could turn the cereal box around to look for ourselves at the ingredient list to see if it was healthy or not.

 

I read, "Corn, that's not healthy. Sugar- is that healthy for your body?" Hayden shook her head no. "More corn, and then corn syrup, which is just another name for sugar! More sugar! Is this sounding like something that we should eat?" Hayden: "Nope." Then I got down near the bottom of the list and started reading, "Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1, and other color added. Those are colors! Are we supposed to eat colors?" Hayden started laughing really hard. "Mom- that's not food!" I said, "You're right, it's not! Colors are for coloring with, like with your markers. They're not even food- why would someone want to put those in cereal and eat them?!?" We had a good laugh and decided that the cereal wasn't a good choice for us to eat.

 

 

Marketing techniques are powerful, especially the ones targeted at kids and the ones that want us to believe that anything out of a box is good for us! Don't fall for it! No matter how fun the box looks, this cereal is not a healthy choice for anyone's breakfast, much less a child's. When your child starts to ask for these types of foods, I challenge you to consider using the situation as a learning experience for your child, instead of buying it for them because the package looks exciting. Consider teaching them about how marketing works, why the food they're asking for isn't a good choice, and how to read an ingredient list for themselves. Not only will they be a little healthier now for having not eaten the food at question, but they'll have learned valuable lessons that will be useful throughout their entire lives!

 

 

 

Have you noticed your children picking up on marketing techniques? How do you handle that in your family?

Thank you, GAPS!!!

I've been on the GAPS diet for about 8 weeks now, and boy oh boy have I seen some results!!! I'm very excited about how I'm progressing. I'm still doing full GAPS- I haven't done the intro yet or added in any supplements. I do have some fermented cod liver oil on the way, and I'm planning on ordering some probiotics in the next day or two, so hopefully adding those two things will only help accelerate the healing!!!

 

One awesome change that I've seen is that my seasonal allergies have all but disappeared!!! I've had awful allergies since my teens. I couldn't even really call them seasonal because they bothered me year round. Springtime was the absolute worst though! Months at a time would go by without me being able to breathe through my nose at all. It sucked, but after so many years it was just a normal part of life for me. I'm so, so thrilled to report that I haven't struggled at all with my allergies this year- even with spring approaching(and basically in full swing here in south Texas- we've hit 90 degrees already). I'm breathing through my nose! I don't have to carry kleenex around with me wherever I go! I don't have to keep toilet paper(for blowing my nose) in every room of the house! So awesome!

I wish I'd had a tissue box this cute!
 

One of my biggest reasons that I started GAPS was to try to get a handle on my hormones/PMS/anxiety. It's been something I've dealt with for years, and it's really been a thorn in my side. A couple of years ago, I was so depressed that I could barely function. I was on the edge of being suicidal on my worst days. Now that I know what I know about GAPS, I realize that I was literally poisoning myself with my diet, and that my gut disfunction was having a direct impact on my mental health. (GAPS stands for Gut And Psychology Syndrome- my gut was messed up and it was effecting me psychologically, big time!) My lowest point was just before I cut gluten out of my diet. Not only did I have a leaky gut, but I was feeding my leaky gut something that I was extremely allergic to! No wonder I felt so horrible!!!

 

I started taking a quality fish oil(Norwegian gold critical omega- I highly recommend them) and exercising, and that made enough of a difference so that I was able to function on most days. But when that time of the month rolled around? All bets were off. Seriously off. I literally felt like a crazy person whenever my hormones would start going nuts. I would get panicky. I would think horrible thoughts about myself and others. The slightest irritation would seem huge to me- things like music too loud, the kids touching me, or even anything out of place(OCD?) would be enough to almost send me over the edge. I felt like I had no control over myself. I tried really, really hard to control the way that I was feeling, and to not lash out, but it was almost impossible. Sometimes I'd just erupt- even as I was trying not to. I hated it. My family hated it too. It was like something was taking over my mind and body, and each time I couldn't wait for it to be over so I could get back to being me again.

 

Not only did I deal with that before my period started, but I dealt with it before I ovulated too. Twice a cycle I'd become a crazy person with little control over myself. It'd last for 3 or 4 days, with the last day being the worst. On top of all that, I'd had 40 day cycles for several years- 10 or 11 days longer than a normal, healthy cycle.

 

This January's cycle was unforgettable. On January 1st I cut out sugar completely. I wasn't expecting that change to dramatically shorten my cycle, but it did. So when I started getting those horrible PMS symptoms, I didn't realize what was going on. I thought I was just having a really bad couple of days. On the third day or so, I was having a really crummy day, and DH said something to me that he shouldn't have.(To his credit, it wasn't nearly as bad as my reaction.) I fell apart. I got in the shower and sobbed. I had super powerful thoughts of hurting myself. I spent half an hour in the shower trying to silence those thoughts and regain composure. I was so scared. I hadn't felt or thought that way in over a year, and I had no idea what was going on. I eventually got control of myself, and DH apologized, which helped me to feel a bit better.(I was too scared and emberassed to even tell him what had happened.) Even though the worst was past, the range of emotion I had felt was so huge that I felt like I had been hit by a truck, even the next morning. When my cycle started that evening, I was shocked! I hadn't had a 29 day cycle in about 7 years.

 

That was my last cycle before I started GAPS. My first cycle on GAPS was a bit better than that, but still pretty awful. But the second one? Big difference. First of all, I barely even noticed when I ovulated, vs. the crazy hormonal mess that ovulation used to throw at me. Three days before my period, I started to feel a little emotional. I teared up near the end of a killer Crossfit workout. I was a little irritable. Nothing too bad. The next day, I was fine. The third day, the day before my period started, things got a little worse. (This would normally be the worst day for me, the day where in January I totally lost it.) I definitely felt hormonal, irritable, and a little anxious. But I was able to keep it under control!!! It took effort, quite a bit of effort. With just about every thought, I had to consiously remind myself to calm down, that this was just PMS, and I could make it through. I'll be honest, I did yell a couple of times. But before I would have yelled, and kept yelling, and wouldn't have been able to make myself stop. But I was able to make myself stop this time, and calm down almost instantly. It was definitely still a struggle, but one I can handle! I'm hoping that things continue to improve the longer that I'm on GAPS, but even if they don't, I've at least got something I know I can handle now!!! That's a huge deal.

 

And another 29 day cycle! I've had 40 day cycles for almost 7 years now. Isn't that amazing- that after just a couple of weeks of dietary change, my cycles changed from 40 days to 29 days??? I've known that diet can make a difference in your health. But to see it with my own eyes, in my own body, and in such a dramatic way, is just amazing!!! Thank you, GAPS!!!

 

Sugar: The wonder drug

Did you know that sugar is addictive? Yes? No? Kinda-sorta? I always knew in the back of my head that sugar was bad for me, and I'd heard that it was addictive. But I didn't really think about it that much or feel like I needed to make any real changes with regard to my levels of sugar consumption. But all that has changed...

 

On January 1st, I joined a 6 week long weight loss contest with several other local moms. There was a cash prize, so I decided to really put some effort into trying to win! (Sadly, I didn't win, but I did get second place! Not too shabby.) One of my weight loss strategies was to cut out sugar. I went cold turkey- no sugar at all, except for fruit and honey.

 

I didn't think I'd have too hard of a time with it. I knew I could stand to cut back a little bit, but I didn't think my level of sugar consumption was all that bad. I'd have a couple of gluten free cookies here, a piece of chocolate there. I did go a little crazy with sweets over the holidays, but doesn't everyone? And I did have baked oatmeal with sugar in it almost every single morning- but that was in oatmeal! Didn't count. Needless to say, I was in a bit of denial.

 

The first couple of days were not fun. Big cravings, which I expected. But what I didn't expect was the total downer! I felt like I was seriously down in the dumps. Depressed even. I remember at one point my mind was just racing with all the reasons that I was a horrible failure at life. I was just miserable. No other reason for it, except that my body was having sugar withdrawals. I was a bit shocked that just cutting out sugar could have that much of an effect on me.

 

Around day 4, I cut open a pear and ate a slice. It tasted AMAZING. I couldn't remember the last time that a piece of fruit had tasted that sweet! My taste buds were starting to re-adjust! It took about 5 or 6 days for the feelings of depression to subside. The cravings went away too. I have no problem now looking at cookies, cake, or ice cream and not eating any. I honestly don't have any desire for them anymore- and I had a huge sweet tooth before.

 

You'd think that experience with withdrawal would have been enough to convince me of the dangers and addictive powers of sugar. But it wasn't. I was still off of sugar, because of the weight loss contest and because I had also started the GAPS diet, but it still hadn't sunk in to me just how serious it was until I ate some sugar again.

 

My aunt and uncle were in town visiting, and at kindof the last minute, we had to leave the kids with them and go somewhere for a couple of hours. Normally I would have had food pre-prepared, but since it was a last minute thing, I showed my aunt where the ingredients were and explained how to make the dish- a simple chicken green curry stir fry. When we got home that night, I walked in the door and scooped myself out a bowl. I was about halfway through eating it when I remembered that since I have a food allergy, it would be a good idea to double check that she didn't add anything extra in there. When I asked, she admitted that she had added a little of the sugar that I had on hand. (Let me just interject here that this was a "natural" sugar! It wasn't even the super bad for you granulated white stuff.) Now again, I didn't think it was going to be a huge deal! I knew that sugar wasn't allowed on GAPS, but I didn't want to hurt my aunt's feelings, so I finished my bowl. I thought the sugar might set me back a little bit, but I didn't think it would matter much.

 

I was sooo wrong. Within about 15 minutes my heart started racing. I started feeling hot. My arms started feeling tingly. I felt like I needed to throw it all back up. Not only was my body affected, but my mind was as well. I felt like I needed to just curl up into a ball and cry, and yet at the same time, I wanted to go into a rage. I'm a little embarassed to admit it, but I yelled at both my husband and the kids. I couldn't hold it together!!! I was totally flabbergasted at the affect that just a little bit of sugar had on both my body and my mind. How could I have let myself eat this stuff every day, sometimes multiple times a day???

 

The next morning I woke up with diharreah. Fun stuff. I continued on with GAPS as well as I could, hoping to bounce back quickly. I avoided sugar for the day, but that next evening I wanted a snack, so I made myself a couple of celery stalks with almond butter and raisins on top. I ate half a celery stick, which had maybe 10-15 raisins on it, and I started to feel the symptoms coming on again. My heart started beating faster. My left arm started tingling. I was in tune enough to notice it before it got too bad, and I didn't even finish my snack. I was so frustrated- I had been tolerating fruit and honey just fine for weeks, and just one slip up with sugar had set back my gut healing process so much that I couldn't even tolerate a handful of raisins?!? No wonder my gut is so messed up when I've been throwing tons of sugar at it for so long!!!

 

That crazy experience only strengthened my resolve to stay on GAPS and continue to heal my gut, and to stay off sugar for the rest of my life. Nothing good can come of it! It really is addictive- some say it can be just as hard of a habit to break as cigarettes or even some drugs. That experience also lit a fire under me to get my kids off of sugar- I know that Hayden's addicted too, and that's my fault! I know it will be a crazy couple of days when I first pull her off of it, but the rewards for her long term health will be totally worth it. And by the way, after another day or so of gut healing, I'm now able to tolerate fruit and honey again just fine- thank goodness!

 

Have you ever cut out sugar? Ever thought about doing it? What's holding you back?

 

 

For the Love of Dishes- GAPS Update # 1

As I write this, my dishwasher is running for the third time today. The THIRD time. And that's been pretty much normal since I started on GAPS. I'm enjoying it though! It's a good feeling to be eating only real, homemade food. I joked to Thad today that I was pretending that we're living in the 1700s and I'm having to make everything. It really has been fun experimenting in the kitchen. Right now I've got several things fermenting on the counter- pickles, sauerkraut, yogurt, and kombucha, and I've also got bone broth cooking in the crock pot. I let my kombucha SCOBYs die when we moved, and I've been growing a new one. It's taken longer than I thought it would, but I finally have a real SCOBY in my jar! I'm hoping this batch or the next one will be drinkable. This week I've also made coconut milk, coconut flour, and several batches of yogurt, and that's not even counting all the breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks.


I tried a new salmon patty recipe today, and they were absolutely AMAZING. I modified the recipe a little, adding onion and garlic and leaving out the lemon pepper. Then I whipped up a little dipping sauce from yogurt, dill, dijon mustard, and lemon juice. They were seriously the most delicious salmon patties I've ever tasted. I gave Tristan a little piece of one as I was cooking them, and he just couldn't get enough. He kept asking for bite after bite, so I finally just sat him up in the highchair where he devoured two whole patties. Hayden even liked them! I had to bribe her with the promise of mac'n'cheese to get her to try one, but after she tried it she liked it! Then she even ate another half of a patty along with her macaroni- amazing!


I've finally got a good lead on some raw milk, for only $6 a gallon! I'm really excited about that possibility. I've been wanting to get raw milk for a couple of years now, and it just hasn't been realistic for us. The farms have either been too far away, or the milk was too expensive. But this farm is fairly close to our house, and I've got a friend who wants to get milk too. We figure if we take turns we'd each only have to go out to the farm about once a month.


Like I said in my last post, I am seeing some improvements already! The bone broth seems to help tremendously with my allergies. My digestion is improving- or was until I had hot sauce on Sunday during the super bowl. (Note to self- just because something is GAPS-legal does not necessarily mean that your body will be happy to digest it.) It took me a couple of days to recover from that. It was a little discouraging, but all just a part of the learning process. And I am super proud of myself that I didn't have a single bite of the gorgeous spread of food that was at our house during the game. Willpower FTW!


One of the main things I've been hoping to see is an improvement in my mood/hormone issues. I'm pretty sure I started to see that happen, because about a week ago I felt really, really good. I just felt so calm and peaceful-more peaceful than I can remember feeling in a long time. And then my ovulation time rolled around. Ugh. I don't know what it is about the ovulation hormones, but they make me feel like an absolute crazy person. I literally feel like I'm not even myself. I feel so anxious, and the tiniest irritation can send me over the edge- even things like people touching me or the tv being too loud. Sometimes it makes me feel panicky, or like I just need to go into a rage! Yesterday was pretty bad- it was all I could do just to hold it together. I did feel a little better after a good cry, but not a lot. It's just so frustrating because it's all the opposite of the real me. I'm normally a calm, somewhat patient, reasonable person- just not when these hormones are coursing through my body. I know it's not just my mind playing tricks on me, because I have physical symptoms too. For the past two days I've had off and on dizziness, nausea, and a racing heartbeat. Does anyone know what that's all about? I think even just understand the process of what's making me feel this way would make me feel a little better about it. I'm hoping GAPS will help alleviate these issues and then I won't even have to worry about it.



So that's my GAPS update for the week. I'll leave you with a list of things I've learned:


*You can never have too many mason jars.
*Don't look too closely at what comes out of the can of salmon- just look at the tv or something until you've stirred it all together. And make sure you crush all the little spine bones before you go to fry the patties. Yum. (Seriously though, they were delicious.)
*Don't put a jar of half frozen broth into an already hot pan of water. It will break.
*2 whole coconuts can produce about 2 quarts of milk, and only less than 2 cups of flour.
*It's not a good idea to lose the blade to your food processor right before you start GAPS.
*Homemade bone broth makes for an amazing chicken soup, with a beautiful layer of fat on top after it's been in the fridge for a couple of hours.
*My dishwasher deserves a hug. Because I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for my dishwasher.

Celebrating a gluten free year- and moving on to the next step!

It's hard to believe, but it's been a whole year since I've gone gluten free! A whole year without deep dish pizza, brownies, or regular bread. And you know what? I honestly don't really even miss those things. There are so many delicious foods that are naturally gluten free, that I really don't even think about the gluten containing foods very often. And when I do, there are decent GF substitutes for most of them. Except deep dish pizza. Haven't found a gluten free substitute for that yet. Thad came home with a deep dish pizza from BJs tonight. I'm not going to lie- I was totally drooling over it. I wouldn't cheat though- last time I accidentally ingested gluten I felt like I was digesting glass for the next 12 hours or so. Totally not fun.


So it's clear that I have some sort of gluten allergy, or an intolerance at the least. My digestive issues have improved since giving up gluten (and like I said- I get a pretty bad reaction if I have just a tiny bit). But I'm still not seeing the results I'd like to. I'm still struggling with chronic diarrhea. I'm still struggling with occasional gas and stomach pain. Things have improved since I cut out gluten(I was having blood in my stool- and trust me, that's pretty freaky), but it's obvious that I still have some underlying digestive issues. So I've decided to take the next step! I've decided to implement the GAPS diet.


The GAPS diet is a very intensive, very restrictive, but also very effective, gut healing diet. Not only is gluten not allowed, but no grains or starches are allowed either. Apparently grains are really hard for the body to digest, and actually aren't very good for you. Who knew?!? Processed foods and sugars of any kind(except for ripe fruit on the later stages of the diet) are also a no-no. There are several different stages, starting with the super restrictive intro and moving forward into what's called "Full GAPS", which you're recommended to stay on for at least 2 years to see full gut healing. This diet is not for the faint of heart! Since processed foods aren't allowed, you have to cook everything yourself- and not things like opening jars of spaghetti sauce either. We're talking homemade bone broth, homemade yogurt, homemade ferments. You know- all the stuff you can just pick up at the grocery store- I'm signing up to make it all myself. Apparently the pre-packaged stuff isn't good for you either. That one's kindof a no-brainer, but it can be easy to forget in this fast food world.


So why would I sign up for this? Because apparently years of what I thought was a decently healthy diet really wasn't. Years of eating out, eating processed grocery store food, hydrogenated oils, and genetically modified foods has damaged my gut- leaving me with a gluten allergy and all kinds of other issues. GAPS stands for Gut And Psychology Syndrome, which is the name of the book by Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride. The first several chapters of the book explain how the digestive system works, and just how harmful eating these damaging foods can be. The wrong diet can leave you with what's called "leaky gut syndrome", which means that you literally have tiny holes in your intestines, and pieces of undigested food(particularly particles from gluten and dairy) can get through the intestinal wall and straight into your bloodstream where they don't belong, and where they're attacked as intruders. When that happens, your body develops an allergic reaction to those substances. I'm guessing this is how my gluten allergy developed, because I haven't had it my whole life. The book goes on to explain how the gut and brain are closely connected, and how leaky gut syndrome can cause all sorts of psychological, neurological, and immunological disorders. The focus of the diet then is to focus on healing the gut, because when the gut is healthy then the body is able to heal itself.


Since the diet is so involved, I've decided to take it slow so that I don't overdo things or get overwhelmed. My goal for the month of January was to read the GAPS book, which I did. I'm now slowly easing into "full GAPS". I was already gluten free, but on the first of January I cut out sugar and stopped drinking milk. Within the past week or two, I've also cut out nearly all grains/starches. I'm also starting to incorporate homemade bone broths and ferments. I'm trying to be patient with myself and give myself room to not have to be perfect right away, since this is a pretty complex process and I do struggle with perfectionism a bit. After I get the full GAPS diet down, I plan to go back into intro and progress through the other stages, and also include the recommended supplements.


I have several issues that I'm hoping to see resolved through doing GAPS:
*Digestive issues/diarrhea- I have diarrhea, every single day. Not fun.
*Depressive symptoms- I've struggled off and on with depression for several years now. The worst year was right before I gave up gluten- and now I'm starting to understand that my gluten allergy/gut issues could have played a big part in that!
*Hormone swings- I'm so, so tired of feeling like a slave to my hormones.
*Allergies- I've had "allergies" year round since I was a teenager.


The awesome news is that with just the changes I've made sofar, I'm already starting to see results!!! The very first day I started drinking bone broth my allergies improved drastically. I could breathe comfortably through my nose for the first time in a long time. Today after about a week and a half of being mostly grain free, I've also seen some big improvements in my digestive issues. Knowing that I'm seeing results even before I've even done the diet perfectly, is very encouraging! I can't wait to see how great I feel at the end of this process!!!