Hello, I'm Chelsea. I'm a change-my-diet addict.
What I mean by that is that ever since the summer I graduated from high school, I've focused heavily on food to solve all of life's problems. It started as a way to lose weight. We all know that for a girl who carries a few more pounds than she wants, it can definitely seem like losing weight will solve all life's problems. At that point in my life, I didn't view food as medicine, but just a tool to get me skinny.
I still care as much about food as I did back then, but for different reasons. Don't get me wrong, weight is definitely still on my mind. I just had a baby three months ago, after all. But now I see a change in diet as first and foremost the biggest health tool I have. I figure the weight thing will fall into place without much effort once I'm eating the way I'm supposed to be.
If we're honest, we have to see that if we were living the way God (or if you're not the believing sort, nature) intended, we wouldn't be overweight. I'm completely guilty of living in a way that our bodies weren't created to thrive on. I don't exercise much and until recently, didn't consistently eat healthfully. Barring disorders that make it nearly impossible for people to lose weight on their own, I don't think that counting calories was the way we were designed to live. It makes much more sense that if we were eating healthy foods when we're hungry, stopping when we're satisfied and getting some exercise every day, we would never have to think about our weight and we wouldn't be slaves to My Fitness Pal or whatever calorie counter of choice you use (because honestly, it's not a sustainable lifestyle). This all hit me sometime in the last few months, when I decided to delete the My Fitness Pal app off my phone, stop obsessing about calories and protein and fat grams and just...live. I figure my body will let me know when I've found my own ideal diet. For me, that means shedding these baby pounds and the nagging, annoying health problems that have been plaguing me for a few years.
Over the years, I've used Weight Watchers, Atkins, a carb/fat/protein ratio diet, fasting/cleansing, and - worst of all - just plain starving myself. When I started caring more about the quality of food I was putting into my body, I went vegetarian and then vegan. And now I'm off wheat. To the outsider, I'm sure I look like the most indecisive food nut to walk the planet.
That's not the whole story.
You see, I'm actually searching for something. All this time, I've been searching for something. At first I thought it was the perfect way to eat. Like there was one perfect way to eat for everyone. But then I stumbled across the idea of bio-individuality and it's like the clouds parted and all of a sudden I could really see! It all made sense! We're all unique, every last one of us. I've seen people thrive on diets that didn't work for me (like veganism). I wondered what I was doing wrong. Now I don't think it was anything. Why does veganism make one person sick and lacking in nutrients while others become world-class athletes in the best shape of their lives? Why does vegetarianism make some people skinny and glowing while I just got fatter and unhealthier? Why is is that some people can eat wheat all day long with nary a symptom while others can't even be around it without becoming sick (I'm not even referring to allergies here)?
I've been searching out the perfect way to eat for me. All these diets aren't failures in my eyes anymore, but stepping stones on my walk to the best diet and lifestyle for myself. I felt worse as a vegetarian than I did eating whatever I wanted. I felt better as a vegan, lost a few pounds but my energy levels completely dropped, my eczema got even worse and I didn't notice any drastic changes in my health. Because I was so anemic (I was pregnant, and always have anemia during pregnancy but this was the worst), I had to start eating meat again to help bring my iron levels up. I was *thisclose* to losing my homebirth because one's iron levels have to be a certain amount to legally give birth at home and mine didn't reach that amount until about a week before giving birth. Once I started eating meat/dairy again, I realized that veganism was also not the diet for me. At first I got depressed; I considered myself a failure. Why weren't these things helping me? Was my entire philosophy that food is the best medicine actually wrong? Was I fooling myself that by eating better, I could make my body healthier, stronger, fitter and more able to serve God?
I don't think so.
I have a friend who is incredible. She is a shining example of health, runs insane amounts, eats ridiculously healthy and is an all-around inspiration to me. She's a vegan. It serves her well as she is radiant, beautiful and at the pinnacle of health. That diet obviously is the right one for her. My mom is also a vegan. She's skinny, glowing, youthful and beautiful. She feels great. It's obviously the right diet for her.
Since stumbling across Wheat Belly, I've changed my diet yet again. For the most part, I've given up wheat and tried to cut back on all other grains drastically. I've been feeling great. I've lost seven pounds in a few weeks without a smidge of effort. My skin is glowing and healthy (I've been battling acne as an adult, strangely enough, but never as a teenager). But the kicker is that when I've reintroduced wheat (on five occasions now because I didn't want food to go to waste), I have paid big prices. Prices with my weight (due to bloating) and prices with my breathing. (PS - If you can't afford the book or don't have time to read it right now, this is a fabulous summary!)
My asthma was so bad three nights ago after having pizza with wheat crust that I had to take my inhaler five or six times overnight. Not only is that probably dangerous (I couldn't help it! I couldn't breathe!), it's not good for my body. I don't want to be dependent on medicine. I don't want to have to pay for it or pollute my body with it. If there's a better way, why would anyone want to depend on medicine? It's expensive, synthetic and it's not good for your body. I've watched friends become addicted to medicine, too. I've watched them suffer horribly when trying to remove the medicine from their systems.
I think I may have finally found my perfect diet. This diet has done such drastic things for my body in the past few weeks that I can't go back. Two days ago I had delicious cake with whipped cream frosting (my absolute favorite) staring me in the face, and all it took was thinking about the previous night and having to puff on my inhaler five times for me to easily resist that cake. Easily! And I'm a carb and sugar addict! And it was like, dude, I don't want that cake. Yuck. Not to mention that I am finally starting to fit into pre-pregnancy pants. And last night, for the first time in so long I can't even remember, I actually wanted to go to the park with my husband and kids. Horribly enough, my husband usually takes the big kids to the park after dinner at night and I stay home to kick my feet up and relax with Landon in peace and quiet for 30 minutes because I feel lousy and my energy levels are depleted. All of a sudden I've got this energy surge like I only experience during that nesting period of pregnancy. I want to clean and play with my kids and socialize!
To make a long story longer (sorry, I'm wordy), I do believe there are universal harmful foods in our world. I believe preservatives and pesticides and genetically modified foods are harmful for everyone walking the planet. Some people are better able to handle these than others, though. As for me and my kiddos, we aren't the hardiest people around. We have sensitive systems and our bodies revolt against this stuff in the form of eczema, asthma, allergies, and for my kids, digestive troubles. My husband, on the other hand, is a hardy breed. His body can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. That doesn't mean I'm feeding him processed foods and conventional produce, though, because I think even though he isn't showing outward signs that this food is harmful to him (that I can see), I believe strongly that even the hardiest people can't escape the ultimate damage that conventional food causes. Even the hardiest people will pay for conventional food somewhere down the road through either cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity or some other diet-related disease (which kills 3 of 4 Americans and was virtually non-existent a century ago). I am a believer that paying more for food now will all but guarantee we'll pay less in medical costs down the road.
From a Christian perspective, like Lindsey from Passionate Homemaking, I don't think I can change the course that God has planned for me by eating healthy. But I do believe that our bodies are meant to be cared for and when we know this food is damaging to our bodies, it's our duty to do better. I know now that by eating wheat (and processed foods and using chemicals in my home, etc.), I'm making myself weaker, sicker and less able to do God's work. With less energy, I'm less likely to serve. With poorer health, I'm less able to be hospitable, but instead rely on others to be hospitable to me. With mental health struggles, I go to church less, serve less and fellowship less.
Whether you're Christian or not, it's hard to deny the very simple fact that people are sicker and fatter today than they were 100 years ago (or 50 years ago for that matter). It's not a radical idea. It's something that's on the news every single night. I don't think it could be because we eat meat or wheat or dairy, because we ate those same things 100 years ago. I think it's because we eat conventional meat and wheat and dairy (and produce and so on and so forth). I think it's because we've changed the nature of our food so much. A large percentage of our food is now modified on a genetic level - in a lab. We add chemicals and preservatives to our food. We spray it with pesticides. It's such a simple concept when put in these terms. We eat way too much stuff that isn't natural; food that is brand new. Conventional foods - meat, produce, dairy and processed foods - are the simple denominator. Solving the problem of the current obesity and health epidemics should be as simple as being more physically active and reverting back to the same diet we ate 100 years ago: organic, whole foods. Period. It's not crazy. It's not extreme. It's not radical. If anything, it's the exact opposite. It's the natural, God-given way we've lived for all of time until now.
Regardless of the fact that there are certain foods that are universally harmful and eliminating these foods is bound to reverse so many current problems, I also can't deny that some people aren't able to tolerate foods that others are. For some people, they're plagued by food allergies which can actually be confirmed through a simple test. For others, it's sensitivities that you have to discover on your own through trial and error. We've all evolved from different cultures all over this globe, and it makes sense that we evolved to eat what is available to us in our part of the world. Who knows, maybe someday we in America would evolve to eat a diet of processed foods loaded with chemicals, but clearly we aren't there right now. If your ancestors came from Africa, your body is probably capable of eating foods that might not be tolerated by someone whose ancestors are from Scandinavia, as the example in the link on bio-individuality above states.
If you want to eliminate your own weight struggles or health problems, first try to eat whole foods in organic form only and see if your weight issues or any health problems you're experiencing subside (give it at least a month). If they don't, I'd encourage you to perform some trials - remove things from your diet for a minimum of two weeks and then reintroduce them, one-by-one. Start with the common problem-causers like milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish, shellfish and then maybe even meat. It might be a little time-consuming initially. It might be a little more work for a short period of time and you might feel worse before you feel better while your body is withdrawing, but I promise you that if you do have any sensitivities to any food group that are causing health problems, you won't regret the initial work or deprivation. Imagine a life without chronic pain! Without digestive troubles! Without weight struggles! Without skin problems! Without depression!
It's not about taking a magic pill. It's about fixing your body from the inside out, and that looks different for everyone. If someone guaranteed you that you could eliminate your, say, chronic pain, by working really hard for two or three months, would you do it? Who wouldn't? I can't guarantee it, but I've read enough stories, seen enough in my own family/friends and experienced enough in eliminating my own health problems that I can tell you it is absolutely, positively, 100% worth the extra money and time to try. You'll never know until you do, right? But be thorough and be honest with yourself. I can't tell you how many times I mostly improved my diet or I mostly gave up all dairy or all meat or what have you. You never know how sensitive you might be. For one person, eliminating most wheat sources is fine, but for someone else they may be so sensitive that if any tiny bit of wheat is in their diet, they won't improve. Make sure to do your research, too. If you could be allergic/sensitive to milk, you have to not only eliminate obvious dairy sources, but you may have to eliminate everything with casein (a milk protein), too, which is a surprising amount of foods.
When you think about it, the current practice is to do the same with medicine. When they put me on an anti-depressant during pregnancy, it was explained like this: everyone's body tolerates medicines differently, so we'll start with this anti-depressant, give it a few weeks and see how you're feeling. If that isn't working for you (or, worse yet, it makes you suicidal), we'll switch to something else. Why is it that we'll happily go along with this trial-and-error of medicine, but scoff at the idea of going through elimination diets?
As for me, there is no going back to wheat. Ever. And I think I've finally honed my food philosophy. :)
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