And they eat pizza

This documentary is about kids with ADHD on medication.

I just get really disturbed that diet is a non-issue here. Medication is the only thing. And then they eat pizza... I just wonder. Is it really an unexplainable phenomena that can be "cured" by medication. Or is it an undetected (wheat/milk) allergy?

How to quit the addiction

The past few days, I've had a few friends commenting the need to do something about their own sugar addiction. I congrat them, recognizing you have a problem is always the first step!

For me it took years between understanding that my cravings for sweets was a problem and me doing something about it. Maybe even decades. I somehow always knew. Craving sweets like I did was not a good thing. I also felt ashamed. How can it be that I can't control myself and eat healthy food?!?! Why do I again and again end up eating the whole 200 g chocolate bar, or the whole cookie package? Where is my self-control? It didn't really help that hubby insisted that I should just control myself and that buying home sweets shouldn't be a problem.

So what did I do at the end? The whole thing was a process, a learning curve. I quit sugar several times before I gave it up for good. I went back several times before I understood that I couldn't go on like that. Jumping in mood and in kilos every six months. Not good.

It isn't so hard to set up a goal and quit sugar for one or two months. I think many can do that. The challenge is to quit it forever.

Now, the real answer to the question of how to quit sugar has to do with changing the focus. Instead of focusing on quitting sugar, I started focusing on getting my body back in balance. Instead of restricting my diet, I started thinking what should I eat so that I do not want to eat the crappy food instead. Lucky me, the low carb high fat diet (LCHF, check www.dietdoctor.com for details) worked wonders in the beginning. It really took out the edge of my cravings. I started eating full fat yogurts with nuts for breakfast, I drank my coffe without milk and only cinnamon added, I ate oven baked broccoli soaked in cream, goat cheese and cashew nuts. I stuffed my self so full on proteins and fat (bacon and eggs for breakfast kept me going until 3 p.m.!) that there was no room for craving sugar. Bread was a complete no-no. Pasta, potatoes, and rise as well. Instead I ate cauliflor rise, and a lot of puréed cauliflor with cream. And it worked!

After a few months on a diet like that, I felt extremely heavy (but was loosing weight all the time)  but my cravings were gone. I then stopped stuffing myself with the cream, yogurts, and fatty cheeses and instead turned to more vegetables, smoothies, berries (which I had avoided due to their sweet taste in the beginning), and a lot of nuts and coconut oil. I even started baking sweet stuff, unheard of in the beginning when I did not even allow myself anything remotely close to a sweet taste. I learned how to bake with dates and bananas instead of sugar, and almond and coconut meal instead of wheat flour. My body didn't seem to react like it had done before. I could still continue to feel a balance, but without that heavy and stuffed feeling that I had gotten from all the fatty dairy products.

Today I am not avoiding carbs per se anymore. I eat quite a lot of potatoes, some rise and from time to time dessert with sugar in it, as long as it doesn't contain gluten (the process involved my realizing I am gluten sensistive). And despite the amout of sugar (lactose) in milk, I still enjoy a glass of raw unpasteurized full fat milk every now and then. I still feel in balance. The focus in our family has shifted from feeling that we are worth treats all the time (read: icecreams, buns, cookies whatever happens to be "in season") to trying to stock up on really good ingridients to make REAL food sourced from local and organic farms. Eating real food three times a day has meant that there isn't really that much room for any kind of craving anymore. Lately I haven't even craved 86% chocolate anymore (might have to do something with the fact that I have started to supplement magnesium, chocolate cravings have been reported to correlate with magnesium deficiency). I haven't even craved coffee. Strange feeling. But a good one.

So as said, it has all been a process. At the beginning I was only focused on staying away from sugar, and I did it by eating a lot of fat. Today I am still eating fat, but not so much dairy, and I am a lot more focused on the quality of the food. For anyone who is starting this journey, I'd give the advice to be consistent but take the shift in stages. First, get rid of the cravings. Then, start thinking of where and what you are buying.

And I am still learning. My next challenge is to detox the kitchen ustensils from chemicals. Bye bye Teflon and plastics!

Hope in new generations

Yesterday I got the book "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon and "Deep Nutrition by Dr Cate. Great reads. Fallon's book has a wealth of information, even how to cure naturally most common child diseases. It is also a good guide to how to "produce" excellent offsprings, by eating the right kind of nutrient dense food  previous to conception. Wish I would have known about the book some 7 years ago..There is always a small sense of guilt for not having known all this stuff before. At least I am grateful that everything went quite well still. I mean, we could have had it a lot worse, heavy allergies during lactation, defect teeth, skin issues, behavioral issues, allergies, asthma... My kids are after all in the books of any doctor almost perfectly normal!

But hey, I was actually going to post this link: Farmvoices. Wooho!! I am so happy, the new generation is returning to the farms in the US! Now if this would be back in the 1990's when all the young people in this small town wanted was to be like the "Americans" and have our own "MacDonalds" (me included, 90210 succer!), then it wouldn't take long before all the young kids of today would be longing out to the countryside here as well! Change is coming....in our house the plants are faster than speedy Gonzalez, and Kidone is already dreaming of setting up her own veggie stand at the market square this summer. Asking if she can keep the money for the veggies sold. Business woman that girl of mine... and picking up farming. That's my gal, following in mommy's footsteps! :-)

Today we also went for more raw milk from our milk farm. They had several customers there tonight. I said to the farmers "change is coming, be prepared!". When we got home Kidone drank two glasses straight of fresh milk and Kidtwo had two fried eggs with an egg yoke more yellow than a New York Taxi. Guess the chickens have been out eating spring grass!

And about raw milk, may I add that Sally Fallon and Dr Cate are both strong advocates of raw dairy. Pasteurized is a big no no in their vocabulary. They also like pastuered egg yokes. The more yellow the better!

"Hell hour"

There is a new book out in Swedish on the consumption of sugar. They say it's good. I had it in my hand in February and was about to buy it but thought I have learned enough already from Nancy Appleton, Robert Lustig, Bitten Johnson, and all those others who preach the message regarding the harms of sugar. Anyway, because the book is receiving so much attention in Sweden, and actually influencing media to have a closer look at sugar, I have now decided that I need to read this book. So I am line to get it from the local library.
The book is called "A sweeter blood" and it is written by a biochemist and journalist called Ann Fernholm.

Since I haven't read the book I can't really deal with its inner core here but instead I just wanted to comment on some of her thoughts that have been presented on the blog "Naturlig mat i skolan".

First of all, I have to say that I feel an enormous relief that somebody has done such a thorough job to debunk the prevailing assumption that sugar to kids cause little harm, and that fat would be worse than sugar. I feel such a relief that somebody is writing about those observations I made when we switched diets, as something that is not specific to our family, many others are struggling with the same problems! Take for example what she calls the "hell hour", the hour between when you pick up your child from daycare and when you have dinner on the table. I remember how we were walking home from daycare with one child screaming and crying because she was so exhausted. And how that changed when we started eating breakfast with protein and fat included at home instead of at daycare. Or if I go even further back in memory, I remember that first year of daycare when we had a one year old child who was going crazy in the kitchen while I was trying to as quickly as possible get some food on the dinner table. The stress level was high and I hated cooking just because of that.


Second, she talks about the prestige invested in the faulty dietary recommendations (avoid fat instead of sugar)  and that knowing how the research community works, it will probably take a good while before these faulty assumptions are corrected. She adds that if the politicians get involved, then change might come sooner. Unfortunately, I am more pessimistic than Fernholm. I think the politicians have invested just as much prestige, if not even more, in this cholesterol/fat-scare than the scientists. Besides, much of the funding of political campaigns probably comes from the food industry, and if not in form of direct money to finance the fake smiley faces next to the roads during election times, then at least the politicians have consequences to take when food industry starts making losses and jobs are lost. Instead, I think it is now up to each and everyone of us to decide about our future: do we want to have a healthy future or do we want to continue making ourselves sick by the way we are eating? And then act accordingly. The problem is of course up here in the north the school and daycare food, which is steered by the state dietary recommendations. Here once again, I have little hope that change will come from above. Instead I think that as the consciousness grows among parents, we can start putting pressure on the municipality to do something about the food. Particularly once more real stories of success start raising up to the surface. Change will happen, once those parents who have seen remarkable change in their children by changing their diets start speaking up and making everyone else aware of the health gains to be won by reducing sugars, fast carbs and increasing the amount  real food (and real fat) dare to speak up!

Until now we who have noticed the difference have been met with a lot of skepticism when trying to tell the world about our observations. I think it is the natural resistance to change that produces this reaction. But I also think that books like Fernholm's book can help our message to grow stronger. I think it can help many children suffering from food addictions or behavioral problems categorized as ADHD or hyperactivity once their parents understand the connection between getting rid of the sweet tooth and their children's health. After all, I think we all want what is best for both ourselves and our children. But while the establishment continues preaching the risks of fat and the non-addictiveness of sugars, it is hard to let loose and believe in other contradictory stories.

I also think there might be a big step between realizing that Fernholm's book is right to the point and then actually doing something about it.That is the biggest challenge of them all; the challenge of changing lifestyles! More about that in a later post!

Oh, and I am also happy that Fernholm's book will be published in Finnish soon!Yey, yey, happy happy! :-)

Yoggie

Ok, here is the deal. I am now also a real yogurt producer. I got myself a yoggie machine from the local flea market and a batch of real unpastorized yogurt from Helsinki last weekend. I was amazed by the local food movement offering, it is maybe a bit too hipster for my un-hipster lifestyle, but still, amazed. Feel a bit out when I have to travel 500 km just to get a batch of real yogurt! And then another 12 km for the real milk straight from the farmer. But now I have it, and the production is rolling. Let's see what we have in the small glass jars tomorrow morning!

Sadly though, I might not be able to use the yogurt for the intended purpose. Kidtwo fell ill again and we had to cut out the raw milk from his diet... again... Hope we will be able to try it again soon, because whatever Sanna Ehdin says about the dangers of milk (read her post here in Swedish), I still think life is soooo much easier if you can fill up the kids with that white protein drink once in a while!

About my process

Forget the gut healing stuff. I had one good day, Saturday, when I followed the GAPS rules, bone broth, ginger tea, broccoli soup on bone broth, ginger tea, meat soup with some more broth.... And then, what happened? Well life happened. Kidtwo sick again. And I cannot follow such a strict diet when tired and with other issues to take care. So I decided to skip it. We still continue eating soups this week, because I probably made some 20 liters of bone broth. Or more. Not even sure if I need to do such a strict diet. My problems aren't really that big at the end of the day. Skin rash at the nose still there though. Bugger. I've tried many different natural remedies and even thought that garlic finally would take care of it, but not yet. I'll blame it on the weather, too cold for this time of the year! I am supplementing with magnesium though, and that is good. As well as some good probiotic pills, fermented food, kefir. And yes, zero sugar. Not even fruit. But today I think I'll break that rule also.

Ayurveda cooking

I did a course in cooking according to ayurveda principles with nutritionist Nina at "Real Food" (btw, if you need nutritional help in Helsinki I would recommend her- and this is not a commercial, just an advice). The event was really interesting and I learned quite a bit. The plate is supposed to include tastes that activate all your different "senses" in the mouth: sweet, bitter, sour, salty, astringent, pungent. Also it is important to activate the tummy before you eat and in ayurveda eating you do not drink with the food  but before you eat. That was interesting because as I am reading up on the GAPS diet I realize that they have this in common; the GAPS diet only encourage you to drink bone broth together with the dinner. The (filtered) water should be drank in between meals and preferably as ginger tea. All this also to activate the acids in the stomach for better digestion. Chai tea in the ayurveda diet helps with digestion. Only raw milk is ok in the GAPS diet, and that is after the intro-period. So I guess if I'd like to mix the two, I'd have to have raw milk. Lucky me, I have a local supplier for that nowadays!

Also, in ayurveda, what you should eat also depends on your body type, or dosha. There are three of them: pitta, vata, and kapha. We all have a bit of them all but there is one or two that are more dominant. The trick is to find a balance between diet/lifestyle and dosha. Read more here: The three dosha.

Here are some pictures from the ayurveda event:

Mental preparation

I was going to kick off April with some serious detoxing and healing. Still hasn't happened. BUT, I am planning to get myself (and maybe hubby to cure his seasonal allergies) on the GAPS intro diet as of Monday. Why? Because I finally want to deal with my own health issues, and I feel that I am ready. When I first read about GAPS I had so many flashbacks and lights went on all the time, I just knew that this explains so much about everything. But I felt frustrated because the information and guidelines on how to pull through the very restrictive intro-diet and later adhere to the GAPS-diet for over 2 years just did not seem doable. I had never heard of Kefir before I and I wasn't much up for cooking meat stock all the time either. I had no clue were to find organic bones, nor how to prepare liver for that matter. And, the biggest problem of them all, I didn't find the time to stay completely isolated from external food offerings at friends' place or at work.

As I now went back to the yellow book to find some answers to my persistent problems, I realized that in the past year I have gone through a sharp learning curve, and I felt confident that I can at least pull through the intro diet in 1- 2 weeks. The book recommends 6 weeks but since we have been eating something similar for quite a long time I thought I might just shorten the intro stage. Also, right now our social activities are quite low and the focus is on the house that we will be moving to, not on meeting up with friends, and during the day I can even run home to have a home cooked lunch instead of eating out. Another reason that this isn't so overwhelming is that now the focus is on myself, not my children. I recognize that also they would be in need of some gut healing in order to permanently get rid of their sensitivities but the focus will not be on them, the focus is on myself. It is easier to control myself than everything surrounding the kids. If I manage to pull this through, they might be up for a short GAPS intro for a couple of weeks in the summer.

What is GAPS? Never heard of it before? Simply put, the GAPS diet is all about healing the gut lining and curing the body from allergies, food sensitivities and behavioral issues (it has been "invented" by a medical doctor that cured her son's autism with this special diet). You can read more about it on the pages of some "real experts", like the doctor herself: Natsha Campbell-McBride, or Cara at health home happy who has been working with GAPS for several years with her autistic child, or even Domestic Divas who promote a GAPS influenced diet to cure eczema.

So this weekend I start preparing with week planning of meals as well as some serious bone broth cooking!

Nourishing traditions

Today you can still listen to five excellent podcasts of the healthy life summit. I am listening to Sally Fallon right now, and it is sooooo goood. Catch the podcasts here: Healthy life summit.