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“Empowering others to take a balanced approach to their own health and wellness by focusing on all aspects of the whole person.’

“Focusing on the whole person to maximize health and wellness for life.”

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Nutrition

You Are What You Eat. . . Or What’s Eating You?

Food is the most natural way to get one’s nutrition for their health and well-being. Hippocrates said, ‘Let thy food be thy medicine.’ I’m really beginning to see the truth in that statement.

Face Made of Fresh Produce

In order to maximize one’s physical health, it is important to address one’s nutritional concerns by feeding the body healthy, nutritious food.

I will explain to you my understanding and my practices, but I know from trial and error that what works for me may or may not work for you… I cannot and will not say that any one program of nutrition is the end-all, be-all. (Please consult your own health care provider to find out what is best for you.)

I don’t think my parents or anyone in their generation really paid much attention to food and nutrition. As long as it was cheap and kept us full, that was about as far as it went.

‘Standard American/Canadian Food Pyramid’ (SAD diet)

I grew up on the traditional Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) ~ high carbs, lots of meat, potatoes, some boiled vegetables, a narrow choice of fruits (apples, oranges, and bananas – anything else was a luxury), pasta and of course BREAD – lots of bread. It was cheap and it filled us up; there were five of us kids in the family!

• Breakfast often consisted of porridge or dry cereal with powdered skim milk.
• Lunches were generally sandwiches on white bread made with peanut butter and jam, or processed lunch meat such as bologna or mock chicken loaf and processed cheese slices and a piece of fruit.

• A standard supper meal in our family was hamburger (either as patties, or more often than not, meatloaf, Shepard’s pie, or Hamburger Helper); a starch such as potatoes, rice or pasta; and a boiled vegetable like canned peas, or corn.

• The most common drink in the house for us kids was powered skim milk, or ‘Kool-Aid;’ the ‘healthiest’ drink was reconstituted frozen orange juice.

• Snacks were of the high-carb variety – cookies, chips and pop, popcorn, etc.

And, not knowing any better, I brought up my daughter pretty much the same way. I even prided myself on having the modern conveniences of a microwave so I could ‘cook’ nutritious food faster for her and me.

Even though I’ve been overweight most of my life, as I climbed in age, my waistline climbed also and I began having health challenges such as vision problems, fibromyalgia and Type II Diabetes.

As a life-long ‘truth seeker’ and researcher I started searching out the best in health and nutrition information. The first thing I stumbled across was the damaging effects of Aspartame (Now called AminoSweet®). Aspartame is in pretty much ALL ‘diet’ foods and diet pop; it’s even in lots of dairy products like yogurt. I even had to give up chewing gum in order to avoid Aspartame!

The next item was MSG (monosodium glutamate). Truth in Labeling website calls it, ‘a neurotoxic flavour enhancer.’ It is in nearly everything and it is disguised by so many names. Other ‘killer’ ‘foods’ I watch out for and try to avoid are:

• Hydrolyzed anything
• Partially Hydrolyzed anything
• High Fructose Corn syrup (HFC)
• The many different forms of artificial sweeteners: Aspartame, Nutra-Sweet, Splenda®, etc.  (Now, it’s important to know that as of 2014 Aspartame may be disguised as a new name in your favourite foods – AminoSweet®.)
• And gluten (mostly white bread, flour products, or as I call it: the 4 P’s ~ Pizza, Pasta/Perogies, Pastries, and potatoes.)

Other Aspects of Nutrition to Consider

• Dairy
• Good Fats
• Juicing vs. Smoothies
• Protein
• RAW
• Soy
• Supplements

Inspiring People in the Field of Nutrition

• Joe Cross
• Jon Gabriel
• Ann Wigmore

RAW Food Pyramid

If you have any favourite nutritional stories you would like to share with our readers, please feel free to fill out our online form.

 Books on Nutrition I Recommend

Click on a link to read my book review.

• Raw Food: a complete guide for every meal of the day by Erica Palmcrantz Aziz, Irmela Lilja

• Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD

• Eating for Energy: transforming your life through living plant-based whole foods by Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN

• The Gabriel Method: the revolutionary diet-free way to totally transform your body by Jon Gabriel

• Maximized Living Nutrition Plans by Dr. B.J. Hardick, Kimberly Roberto and Dr. Ben Lerner

• Ultrametabolism Cook Book: 200 delicious recipes that will turn on your fat burning DNA by MD Mark Hyman

• Ultrametabolism: a simple plan for automatic weight loss by MD Mark Hyman

• 17-Day Diet: a doctors plan for rapid results by Dr. Mike Moreno

STANDARD DISCLOSURE: In order to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please note, that I only ever endorse products that are in alignment with my ideals and I believe would be of value to my readers.

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