To Give is To Get!

Although it has nothing to do with Food, on the Martha Stewart show today (Yes I happen to be home in the middle of the day,) Bill Clinton appeared as a guest talking about how to give.  Of coarse, the Leo I am, I want to jump off my couch and move to Africa or any other country that will take me to help in ANY way poss. However, the reality is I have commitments at home and most likely will only visit these countries one day.  A wonderful website Bill Clinton advertised is something called Mycommitment.org a site dedicated to help people volunteer their time, money, or trades.  It's nice to have a site that can help guide you if you have never donated anything in your life before!  I thought it was so cool I had to post this site for everyone to visit. Another very inspiring story is about my good friend named Sherry who is moving to Africa to donate time in her life to help in Kiberia, you should all see her story at: www.shahrzadinafrica.com, go Sherry!

The latest Dietary bad boy???

Good Lord... 

Not one but two recent articles I have recently read, one being from US Today and the other in the LA Times, both have focused articles on how the gluten-free diet is beginning to become a "fad," and people who eat this way are receiving too much fat in their diet and no folic acid.  As if it doesn't take the average American over 10 years to diagnose celiac or a gluten intolerance in this country and all the media wants to focus on is the negative aspects on this mysterious and deceptive disease! It is beyond frustrating for me to read that the media would even consider to write in a negative tone when it comes to this subject, clearly not considering how difficult it is in this country to get the word out about this very topic. My sister denice, who was the first to figure out why her health was failing after having her second little girl Jenna, basically had to diagnose herself for the simple fact that NO doctor knew how to diagnose her, (Uh SCARY.)...  Specialist after specialist, in and out of Stanford Medical Hospitals, she was becoming their mystery patient with mystery symptoms.  It wasn't until a work colleague suggested she research online for celiac disease and she ended up diagnosing herself with this issue long before they would test her for it. In fact, I also found myself in a similar situation however I did have her to model after since it was around the same time all four sisters began to become effected from this issue. 

In one of the articles it suggested that the gluten-free business is booming and that it is becoming "trendy" to buy such products... Hello??? Thank God for these products!! Thank God for brownies, pizza, and cake for gluten-free people!!!! Seriously, if you are a normal eating person reading this.. just imagine not eating these pleasure convenient foods again! Trust me, it's not fun, so I say boo to USA today for publishing this article and boo to the LA Times, even though my boyfriend does pay wkly for his Sunday times ;)

As far as the intake of folic acid and not too many fats point they failed to make, I think these authors need to go take a nutrition course before they write on nutrition topics. Listen, when one no longer has the option to just shove a pizza, bagel, or even chinese take out for lunch, the first thing that typically is offered or thought of is "oh I can have salad at least," thus eating plenty of leafy greens that happen to contain folic acid. As for the fats, when people are forced to start thinking about the food they are putting into their mouth you are CONSTANTLY reading the labels, and yes it is hard to miss the fat content on labels and you begin to be VERY aware of EVERYTHING that is in our foods. Beside the fact that when you no longer are eating the high starchy foods you were once eating, your body's blood sugar is not spiking up and down and all around for fats to be much of an issue! In fact, your blood sugar probably has a moment to level out and most likely stay at a healthy level so that any fats are not as threatening to ones body. I think some reporters just like to stir up topics and argue against them. Both of these authors had two great chances to help someone and they actually may have just confused many people wondering if they fit the gluten-free mold. Thanks but no thanks to them...

A light unto my path...

Yesterday, I was seeking advice from someone regarding my health issues, my finances, the direction I would like to see my career go, and how I am seeking more balance in all of these areas.  This person sat me down and said very gently, "Laura, it seems that you are very enthusiastic and that is wonderful, but I feel that patience is going to be the key element in your search for balance.  Remember that life in general is a process and even when it feels like there is regression in life, often times it is the very motive that will act as a catalyst for life to gain momentum." 

This was great advice because it is exactly how I feel about my health issues at times.  Even though I have been completely gluten free since Jan of '08, I still have residual issues I am battling such as: working on my digestion from years of having terrible digestion, trying to figure out if my adult acne has anything to do with being exposed to gluten or wheat, and trying to regulate my womanly issues with out having to pop hormones into my body on a daily basis! Uggh!  I'm all for preventing unwanted babies, but I am NOT for putting hormones into a body that is already clearly in an unbalanced status. Sorry, been there done that- not for me.  When one area of the body is not working so well, all organs suffer, thus the reason I am listing above 3 major areas of my health that seem to be thrown off.  I must say, my digestion and stomach issues have gotten about 90% better than where they were even last Spring, so that is wonderful, yet I still have SO much more to handle.  Since Jan, I have decided that this year is the year for cleansing for me.  Obviously my poor little system has been in MAJOR rejection of everything I decided to put in it for over 27 years, and this year I am trying to reverse as much as I can through cleansing.  So far I have done a 6 wk Candida Cleanse that consists of eliminating the body of sugars and loading it with probiotics and healing agents.  I have tried to maintained a low glycemic diet ever since being conscious of just how many sugars I used to gear my whole diet around, and lastly I did my first liver/gallbladder flush about 3 wks ago which was a very eye opening experience!  You would think after ALL of that sacrifice one would think she was healed of anything and everything, but with the help of a little advice, I am reminded that patience is a virtue.  I can't expect immediate results for something that takes time to learn.  I imagine it is similar to being in 1st grade wanting to hang out with the 6th graders just because they are the older.  For me, I very much want to be healthy and eat whatever the hell I want, drink whatever I want, and not have to deal with all of the side affects that come with not caring.. but then I would have nothing to learn about right?  They say we must teach what we need to learn, and I hope one day to be able to give expert advice on food, related health issues, and most important patience ;) One day...