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Oct. 25, 2007
How Far Should I Go In the Name of Good Health?
My family and I are in relatively good health. We have a couple of little things, but overall nothing life-threatening. I have voluntarily opted to change our diet to consist of mainly whole foods. I use only fresh ground whole wheats. I do not used processed sugars or flours. I try to use mainly honey and fruit as my sweetener. I am not obsessed with buying only organic, but I am not adverse to it. In my quest to avoid man-made chemicals, I try not to buy products that have words I am unable to pronounce in them.
I have several friends who are not so lucky. They have members of their family who have to be on a controlled diet. They have all sorts of issues in their lives that CAN be controlled if they avoid different things in the food they eat. Some are easy to control, others are not.
I have tried to make it my goal to educate myself in these areas so that I can support them. I supply many of them with grain through my co-op. I also head up a produce co-op in an attempt to help our families eat healthy at a better cost.
There has been a running theme. You go along trying to cook well for your family and then BAM! Suddenly, everything has to change. You cannot use gluten. No more casein (dairy) for you. Wheat has caused many intolerances in your system. Yeast is a big NO NO. Where do you go from here? Well, it should not be too bad, I will just cut out bread if I cannot have gluten or wheat. Wait, there is gluten in canned vegetables. I will stop drinking milk. What does sodium caseinate mean? No yeast? I will just eat flat breads. Natural Yeast Extract?
Have you ever really read the ingredients on the can? For most of us, these ingredients are scary, but not life threatening. Yet, for many, eating the wrong thing can mean the difference between living well or living in pain and agony. I believe this is a small minority, but the minority is growing.
So what are we to do? I will go back to me, who has few health issues. I will do my best to put whole foods on my table (do we get into the degradation of the soils?). I will study and research what I can and try to apply that to the choices I make. I will try to teach my children to make good choices about the foods they put into their mouths. It sums up to this, only through the strength of Christ can I do all things. He gives me the ability to do what I can do. I will use the intellect that He has given me to learn and the strength He has blessed me with to apply what I continue to learn.
The most important thing is be at peace with the direction your life is taking. So often we rush to do everything, especially when it comes to our health. Take the time to research what information you are given. Make changes slowly. The "baby steps" that you take now have a better chance of sticking around than huge leaps of change made haphazardly.
For some further study, I encourage you to start at these sites:
MSG information
Artificial Sweetener information
and more
Gluten Free Casein Free information
Wheat Intolerance information
Low Carb information
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Posted by Anonymous 
Oct. 25, 2007 - Untitled Comment
BTW, thank you for adding the information about how many people the baked pancakes served.