Educating My Family On Nutrition

"Let Thy Food Be Thy Medicine, And Thy Medicine Be Thy Food." - Hippocrates

 

In my previous post I shared how I am on a mission to get healthy and teach my family to make healthy choices.  The wonderful thing is that both of my girls, especially my youngest, are so excited about juicing and finding ways to change our eating habits to live longer, feel better and be healthier. It's been music to this momma's ears!

Our TV has been running nutritional documentaries all week long...and we're all learning some very interesting information.  Netflix has been such a great tool for me in educating my girls (and hubby) about how important nutrition is.  If you have Netflix, go to the documentary section...that section that no one ever goes to.  The list of food/nutrition documentaries is small at first, but as you watch them the list begins to grow.

 

This list of documentaries have been so wonderful in helping to understand what no one seems to teach us these days about our food and our bodies.

• Food Matters
• Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead
• Forks Over Knives
• Hungry For Change 
• Chew On This ~ TED Talks
• Fed Up!
• Vegucated (not kid-friendly; I'm not ready to go vegan yet though)
• The Beautiful Truth (not kid-friendly; documentary about a 15 year-old boy regarding nutrition, cancer & disease including eye-opening experiments)

The Gerson Institute and their therapy absolutely astounds me.  Since high school I have seen how I can fight things from a non-pharmaceutical approach, but to learn that all of this was known and practiced for so many years (yet not talked about or promoted with any of my physicians) prior to my digging is thrilling to me. 

What I didn't know is that it is against the law in the U.S. to treat patients nutritionally in a hospital setting...it has to be treatment with pharmaceutical solutions.  And if I were to try to treat my daughters strictly naturally if they were diagnosed with a cancer, it would be considered child abuse.  WHAT?!?!  Wouldn't you think that a parent has the most to lose if they didn't pursue what they believed to be the BEST treatment for their child?  And how many precious little lives hit with cancer are lost in the midst of throwing all of the poisons into their systems? 

Our Kiddles & Nutrition
A man that I have so much respect for is Mr. Jamie Oliver.  He has been pushing all of us to open our eyes and acknowledge what we are doing to ourselves and our children.  His Food Revolution is something that I support 100%.  The website also has great recipes, talks about school food and offers support tools.  

 

Here's a quick little bit he did (22 mins. long) during TEDTalks in Long Beach, California back in February 2010. It's even more relevant today.

 



 

Last week I sat in our elementary school's lunch room and realized why my girls don't like the lunches...there is no way that I would eat what I saw in front of me. There is a fresh fruit and veggie bar, which I am thankful to see, but what I saw on the plates was unappetizing to say the least.  In fact, the 1st grade class that I was sitting with basically just played with their food instead of eating it and then threw it all in the trash.  That was $2.50 that went straight into the garbage instead of something nutritious going into their stomachs.  Spending that same amount of money on fruits and veggies and blending them up into a smoothie would have been so much more productive in the sense of giving their bodies what they need...and that's if you just go a smoothie route.

 

Do I still have some changes and tweaks that I need to make?  Of course I do.  And I'm the first to admit it.  We all have our vices and the love of convenience is something that is predominant in our daily lives.  But here's what I'm doing...

 

I'm making a conscious effort to bring more good than bad to the table.  Will I still use some processed foods?  Yes, but I'm going to be limiting them more and more as my family adjusts to the changes that are going into motion.  Hopefully I will be able to make adjustments that will allow next to no processed foods.

Will I still make our traditional homemade pizza? Yes, but I'm going to be making adjustments there too.  My goal is not necessarily to remove everything that we are familiar with but instead to add more good while removing the bad and occasionally having the opportunity to enjoy an "old favorite" if wanted.  Okay, to be honest my goal is to remove everything that has toxic traces eventually.

 

Here's what I've noticed, my new Jack LaLanne Juicer is something that my kids are excited about, it's basically a new family "toy".  They love mixing veggies and fruits to make their own drinks. 

My Grace is a no-veggie girl, even in the realm of carrots. (What kid doesn't like carrots?!)  She now loves mixing her carrots with apples, grapes and mangoes (we add frozen mangoes in a blender) in the juicer and drinks it like it's a milkshake.  That alone was a major victory for me!  One veggie down, more to go.  If I spend time in the kitchen teaching my girls how to use veggies and fruits then they get excited and want to help cook/bake and eat.  That's what I love, my kiddles excited about learning about food and what it does for their bodies.

Even Charming is getting on the bandwagon of health! 

You have no idea how huge that is. He has always fought me when I comes to nutrition.  If it doesn't taste right, then he's always backed away from it.

Three months after we were married he was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes...which was frightening.  The drugs that they gave him to regulate his insulin caused rapid weight gain of over 60 pounds in 1 1/2 months!  After over a year of going the traditional medical route he decided to take himself off of the drugs and injections.  Instead we supplemented with lots of cinnamon, water and raw nuts & seeds.  My husband went from 320 pounds down to 202 today!  That was the beginning to his eyes being opened to changing his health by nutrition.

Last Friday & Saturday he had a juice combination and a blended combination...those were the two days that he felt best and slept soundly.  Today he told me that he's ready to make a change to be healthy because he felt the difference and didn't like the change he felt on Sunday & Monday when he didn't have a juice or smoothie blend. 

My husband is like most men and just hasn't taken the time to understand nutrition and vitamin/herb supplements.  So this is all on me to research and relay the information that I learn.  The wonderful thing is that now it's him who wants to make the change.  He's seen that my blood pressure has reduced significantly in the past week as I've begun juicing and blending my fruits & veggies.

I urge you to educate yourself, simply so that you know what is in our foods and what foods can be consumed to minimize or even elevate different health issues. You'll be amazed at what you have never been taught before and you just might decide that there are some things that you want to change for your health too.


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