Even the wheat berries used for making homemade flour, has been genetically modified to contain more gluten. No wonder so many can’t tolerate gluten anymore. We weren’t meant to digest so much of it! Diabetes and Hypoglycemia run rampant in our country, even among youth, but almost everything under the grocery store lights contains refined sugars! Margorine is disgusting, I want butter made from real cream! Even our fresh fruits and veggies are sprayed with so many chemicals either to make the bugs not eat them or to make them ripen on the shelves or to prevent them from rotting on their way to the store. Corn and soy products are being genetically modified so that deer even pass thru the fields without taking a bite. And then taking that same corn and soy and turning it into every conceivable “food” product. Go read your labels in the pantry. How many things in your pantry contain either soy or corn? Soy is a great food and all, but contains estrogen. Why are we raising our young ones on such a food? Boys are becoming more feminine (which I know is not only due to soy but the lack of real men today) and girls are starting puberty earlier than ever before.

I’m sorry I got on my soapbox today, but I’m just so frustrated every time I hear of another strict diet or health concerns. Eat real food!! Most of us aren’t going to be able to erase our previous eating mistakes, but we can prevent it from getting worse. We can demand healthier food by shopping wisely (and locally). We CAN make a difference. Need some more convincing? Watch Supersize Me for the effects of this SAD (Standard American Diet) food and then watch Food, Inc. (you can get both from Netflix) for the reality of the food industry.

Stepping down now and hoping I got you thinking about exactly what you are putting in your mouth.

Since I’m not homeschooling I have more time to experiment and if I go raw I can avoid heating up the kitchen. And going raw doesn’t mean you have to eat salads and fruit three meals a day. There a lots of fun recipes to try. I will list a few of my favorites.

Now salad is one of my favorite foods, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. There are so many variations. And my favorite part of a salad is the dressings. There are so many choices! Here is my favorite classic salad:

I fill up a large plate with lettuce (go for the green kind, not iceberg) and your choice of fresh veggies. I like red bell pepper, avocado, olives (the raw kind, not the canned), onion, cucumber and tomato. Next comes the dressing! Now I make mine right on top of my salad. First I put all the dry ingredients: onion powder, black pepper, and a salt-free seasoning (or add sea salt if you want the salt). Then I sprinkle on a bit of minced garlic, a little maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. Yummy!!

Now for an untraditional salad, I enjoy a base of sprouted quinoa. This sprouts very quickly, so soak in the morning and then rinse and serve for dinner. I will make a Greek salad out of this, piled high with tomato, olives, feta cheese (if you aren’t 100% raw), bell pepper, cucumber, marinated mushrooms, pine nuts, and onion. Top with black pepper, sea salt, Italian seasoning, minced garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil.

And for one of my favorite salads . . . rice salad. Take wild rice and soak for 2-3 days. (Make sure you rinse the rice daily.) Once the rice is budding open, rinse and place in bowl. Mix with veggies of your choice and salad dressing of your choice. A vinegar based salad dressing suits this recipe as well. It is amazingly filling.

Other non-cooked meals (although not all are raw) that would be great for the summer months are sandwiches (get creative – you don’t have to stick to the same ol’ sandwich), marinated vegetables (let veggies soak in olive oil, Braggs liquid aminos and seasonings), fruit and yogurt parfaits, cold soups (like gazpacho), chips and dips (there are so many creative recipes for tasty dips away from the regular), sprouted beans, seeds, and rice add a nice touch, and ice cream is always good (try making your own and avoid all the artificial stuff).

For fun, I will post my favorite homemade ice cream recipe.
In an electric ice cream maker (I use a 4 qt) pour 2 cups agave nectar, 1 T lemon juice, 1 t vanilla, 2 cups half&half or heavy whipping cream, 2 qts milk, and if you want it fruity add 2 cups pureed fruit. Turn on the ice cream maker and eat when thick. So very yummy and great for those of us with blood sugar issues.

I hope I motivated you to turn off the stove and turn on your creativity!

Does what we feed our children affect their school work, behavior, health, etc? Let me begin with my story.

4-5 years ago we started changing the way we were eating. Mostly myself due to some stomach problems, but soon my son and then the rest of the family. The real concern started when a doctor said two things, all in the same appointment, that made the gears in my head start turning. It was an appointment for my oldest daughter because of a sudden illness, but while there he looked at my 2 year old son and told me he could get me some ritalin for him. What?? Then, focusing back on my daughter, he finally had to break down and tell me that he thought she had the mumps. Again – What?? Didn’t she have vaccine for that? He explained that due to the large amounts of antibiotics she had been on over the course of her short life, they pretty much made the vaccines void. We late found out that she just had a weird reaction to strep throat, but I was really trying to process of this new information. What was the point of pumping her little body full of medications that were just counteracting each other? And why would I put my busy little boy on medication just to calm him down? This began the research . . .

I have learned many things since that day 7 years ago. And I won’t be able to cover them all here, but I did want to share with you how it impacted our lives. The first thing we cut out was white sugar. That stuff is awful!! I even did an experiment with it on my son. He was constantly hungry (still is) but it was getting out of control. I went one week and recorded everything he ate and included 0% any kind of refined sugar. I made everything from scratch using sucanat or honey. I was just trying to prove that the refined sugar causes increased appetite. By day 2 or 3 he stopped asking for food incessantly. He ate like the rest of us by the end of the week. It was amazing!

The next thing we eliminated was anything artificial. Granted, it took us a while to figure out what all those ingredients were, but we slowly took out all food colorings and flavorings. And of course, if you can’t pronounce it you probably don’t need to eat it. Wow the difference it made! We really only first noticed a difference in our son. He could think better and he was capable of standing still longer than 5 seconds. After a year or two I started to notice that my oldest daughter had mellowed a bit. And when we slip and have some junk, she becomes moody. Looking back, I have always been an emotional basket case. For at least 4 years I have been normal! I didn’t know what normal felt like! I gave birth to our fourth child in 2008 and was even tempered, felt great, gained little weight, lost it all and some after the baby, and didn’t have any emotional breakdowns! My husband considers me a whole new person. Yes, sometimes we slip. I was real strict at first because I wanted to protect my family, but the kids always felt like they were missing out on something. So we made exceptions, like birthday parties. You may have one of whatever is being served, but only one. The kids still like to treat themselves, but they understand what it does to them and most of the time make the decision to not eat it themselves.

Over the years we not only avoid artificial ingredients, but try to fill our bodies with the best quality. Whole foods are best. Eat as much raw as you can stand. Drink lots of water everyday. We use extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil instead of the standard version at Wal-Mart. I cook almost everything from scratch to avoid hidden ingredients and offer my family the freshest meals. Eat animal products void of hormones. Eat organic if you can afford it, but if you can’t make sure you wash it well. Just give your family the best you can with what you have. You will be glad you did!

Another area we have seen vast improvement in has been our health. My oldest daughter is deaf and a dwarf which created chronic ear infections. She lived on strong antibiotics and repeated ear surgeries. That day at the doc’s office ended all that for us. I refused to give her more antibiotics and was trusting God to heal her ears from each and every infection. We used all kinds of natural remedies and changed our diets. After about a year of no antibiotics, she decided she wanted a cochlear implant. She can have no fluid in her ears to be eligible for the surgery. So after months and months of telling me that she had a severe infection and needed surgery, they finally got to go in and place her 4th set of ear tubes. To their surprise, it was full of fluid, but it was not infected. She received the implant and went on with life. Seven months later she started to develop another ear infection in the ear with the implant, which meant she had to have it taken care of immediately. That was her last set of tubes and her last ear infection, 5 years ago.

My kids very rarely get sick. I truly believe it is because of our diet. Their bodies are better able to defend themselves because they are fed wholesome foods. As I am writing this, I have to admit that they are ALL sick right now. But that is actually what got me to thinking about this topic. I get that feeling, “What do I do?” because they aren’t sick very often and I forget what to do sometimes. I imagine that they would be much worse off than they are if they didn’t have strong, healthy bodies. It was obviously something contagious because they all have it. The baby is actually fairing the best. We use natural remedies like juice, essential oils, rest, and soup.

Like I said before, I can’t get into every detail here, but wanted to get your gears to turning. Think about it. If you put junk into your body, its gonna come out junk. If you put good stuff in your body, you can have healthier skin, less health problems, and a better mood. I resolved stomach cramps, moodiness, migraines, low blood sugar problems, and more just changing my diet. Try a new recipe this week – an all natural one! I’ve got some great recipes posted on the website and on my facebook page. Check them out and let me know what you think.

My rule is you can go to Grandma’s and eat anything that is offered, but only one of each questionable item. We don’t eat pork, so on Christmas my kids can go eat ham, but only one slice. They can pick one dessert, etc. This gives them some freedom and doesn’t upset their stomachs too much. Who wants to spend Christmas and have to say “no” all day?

Of course, I offer lots of special, sugar-free or low-sugar, treats! Here are some ideas and recipes.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
I use bittersweet all-natural chocolate chips to melt and dip the strawberries in. The trick is to melt the chips with a little milk. Then dip, cool, and eat!

Homemade Hot Chocolate
6 cups milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup agave nectar
pinch of salt
1 t vanilla

Mix cocoa with salt in saucepan. Add milk and wisk together as you heat on low. Add agave nectar as you stir. Heat to just under boiling. The trick is to heat it slowly so it doesn’t get that scalded milk taste. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve!

Other ideas are substitutions!
Sucanat is great in cheesecake, brownies and pies.
A dab of maple syrup is great in salad dressings or smoothies.
Agave nectar works wonderfully in beverages.
Use molasses in cornbread or other quick breads.

Hope that gets you off to the right start for your holiday season!

The foot funk is still no where to be seen. I haven’t added in the grapefruit seed extract yet, but still taking probiotics. I plan on taking those through the pregnancy since the pregnant state can alter your body chemistry. Even the dry, scaly skin is gone!

On another note – my midwife called me yesterday to let me know that my iron was low and my blood sugar was high. What!?!?!? I have low blood sugar, not high! She is having me test my sugar levels 4 times a day for about 2 weeks. I started testing last night after dinner and I have yet to be high. Actually I have hit as low as 62! (Anything below 70 is considered hypoglycemic.) So I will be testing and go see my midwife next Thursday. I am very curious to see how the rest of the week plays out. I am keeping a diary of what I eat and any other major changes that occur during the day.

And another note – I’ve had this “foot funk” for the past few months. It is unbearably itchy. I’ve tried several anti-fungal creams and salves with no relief. I was researching about how food affects my children’s behavior and discovered something very interesting. If the fungal growth is high in your gut it will come out through warts, athlete’s foot, yeast infections, etc. Interesting! So I started with simple probiotics daily. Three days later, my foot stopped itching. It has been a week now and still no itching or burning. I am very excited. I plan to continue my regimen with grapefruit seed extract.

Sucanat – this is the closest thing we can buy to unrefined sugar. Since the molassas has not been extracted yet, sucanat has a very “molassas” taste. It is a larger granule than white sugar so it does take longer to dissolve. I have substituted this for white sugar in equal amounts. It works great in baked goods and gives it a nice brown sugar taste. It does have it’s own distinct taste to it so you may want to gradually add it in to your cooking. It will give anything you put it in a nice brown color. I’m not real sure on its affects on blood sugar, but it is still sugar so will affect blood sugar to some extent. We have noticed that it doesn’t bother us as much as white sugar though. This can be bought at most health food stores and online.

Molassas – I use this in breads and my granola. It has a strong flavor, so use sparingly. Molassas will still affect your blood sugar, as do any liquid sugars. This can be bought at most grocery stores.

Honey – I love to use honey, but like Molassas, it will affect your blood sugar. Honey will differ in taste depending on where the bees gathered their pollen. Also can be bought at most grocery stores. Look for pure honey.

Stevia – this is an herb that is naturally sweet. You can purchase it in liquid, powder, or leaves. We have only used liquid. It is very sweet and we only put 3 drops per glass of tea. I have yet to try cooking with it. You need recipes tested with stevia because it takes very little stevia to equal the sugar called for in a recipe. They also now have flavored stevia. I have been wanting to try some of the flavored stevia in my homemade yogurt. You can purchase stevia in the pharmacy/herb section of your health food store. Some Wal-marts are carrying stevia granules in the sugar aisle. Since this is an herb it will not affect your blood sugar.

Maple Syrup – We only buy pure maple syrup, not corn syrup flavored like maple. But once again this will affect your blood sugar, but tastes wonderful in corn bread. But if you are going to eat cornbread what difference is a little maple syrup (since the corn will raise your blood sugar too)? This can also be found in most grocery stores. I found the best deal at Sam’s.

Maple Sugar – Yum! This is crystalized maple syrup. This is wonderful to sprinkle over desserts or fruit or yogurt. I’m not sure how it affects your blood sugar since it is not liquid, but it is still sugar. You can find this at most health food stores or online.

Juice – This can be used as a sweetner when baking. Applesauce can also be used. It is a sugar and a liquid one at that, but I feel that the health benefits of juice balances out the affects on blood sugar. Of course I don’t drink juice, but I will bake with it. Drinking juice causes it to be absorbed very quickly into your blood stream, but when it is baked into something it doesn’t seem to have to same effect. When buying juice look for juice not made from concentrate.

Powdered Milk – Powdered milk is very sweet. Using it in baking instead of store-bought milk, will add a little sweet to your baking. I buy quality brands that are very fine, not granulated. You can find these at most grocery stores.

Agave Nectar – Since I wrote this article a year ago, we have discovered agave nectar. This has a low glycemic index so doesn’t affect your blood sugar much. It has a mild taste and is wonderful in beverages. I have also used it to make sugar-free chocolate syrup. What would life be without chocolate?!?!? It is a little on the pricey side, but we are enjoying the benefits of using it.

Hope that will help you know what is available and give you a selection to chose from. Once again, please share your ideas with me.