one of the first group of items to go in my clean out phase was the relish and pickles. practically every.single.jar had sodium benzoate, calcium chloride, natural flavors, polysorbate 80 and yellow #5. it was so shocking to me at first. i remember being so mad and disgusted at how virtually every condiment item i had in the house had artificial ingredients. luckily, there are real replacements for everything and it'sallgood. i just had to start looking at the labels and now i simply buy something different.
i am loving this brand i found at whole foods and i am also going to try making our own easy dill pickles from scratch with the kids. chop chop mag has a great recipe and i can't wait cuz i am going to let the kids take the lead... oooohhhhhhhhh yea!! that post is in the hole and coming on deck soon.
get ur pickle on.
ps
lookie lou who just posted her famous summer salad!! miss food revolution long grove is online... welcome to blogland bri!!! hollah that!!! this is the salad she demo'd at our food revolution day picnic and it's super duper delish.
one of the biggie bad additives we've been avoiding is monosodium glutamate (MSG). oh man oh man, just stick some tape between my glasses. i have turned into quite a label hawk. i look for anything that is a preservative, artificial color, artificial sweetener or additive. i think they cause abbie to have numerous symptoms under the umbrellas of ADHD and sensory processing.
when i read the above label, i thought it was clean, right? i was just trying to find some clean yummy crackers for my kids. and after watching the video i linked to below, i found out that "natural flavors" and "yeast extract" from the above label can really mean sneaky poo poo MSG in my pantry.
(update: the amazing health food store i frequent called the company of the cracker/chips and they are clean. whew. moral of this post: if i really want to buy a processed food and it has a vague ingredient, i gotta call to make sure they aren't being sneaky. and once i find a good company, i'm stickin with em!)
drop kick to the face averted.
the video below is 20 minutes long, so be forewarned & put your nerd glasses on with me:) this dr happens to be a neurosurgeon. MSG & dr blaylock. i looked around at dr blaylock's wellness site and found this next little ditty. it has a scary title when you link to it...but i guess that's the point...
i was a college athlete and am still an athlete with my hubby in trying to keep our rears high and tight.
i hope my kids find an athletic passion someday too:)
kinda makes my heart off skip a beat...no pun intended...i warned you it was nerd day.
my hubby's heart jumps too fast from time to time and i'd like to avoid those infrequent episodes.
i've always wondered if there is a food link...we may never know...so, now i'll be even more vigilant in my label-looking. for him, for abbie and for all of us mullie folk.
i kinda like saying excitotoxic. especially with a jim carrey like face and voice. i know it'll make my kids laugh when we talk about labels together and real food.
all i know for sure is that MSG and all this other fudgeness isn't real food. and either are the super not-so-secret-anymore spy names which may or may NOT mean MSG:
yeast extract
casienate
vegetable extract
protein concentrate
natural flavoring
carageenan
soy isolate
...
so we'll be trying to avoid them
(without a double blind placebo study or a reference check of dr. blaylock...cuz some call him a quack)
confused by labels? feeling lost in the grocery store? ...it's like a freakin jungle and we're all getting swamp arse.
i used to trust the labels and the promise of good, fast, and easy health. such a marketing sucker i was. it's such a learning curve and the link below is super awesome.
i am so happy to be freed from the "middle isles" of the store. i still buy some chips, granola bars and the like... ohhhhhhhh, stop your whining panic, there is some good stuff out there still!!! you just have to do some comparison shopping now. no more being food dummies my honeys:)
i am so happy to share this with you so you can start weeding out the poo-poo from your pantry.
are you ready to get off the merry go round? here's a recap of the mullies day 1 through day 95
...and you know i had to add some cheesy music:) play it kris
1. i made the decision to go for the real food change & started the blog to hold me to it. figured i'd give it 8 weeks. two months. that's it. if there was no impact in her sensory issues, inattention, fidgeting, social behavior and ultimately academic success, and i gave it 100%, then i'd never have regrets i didn't trysomething before going to an ADHD doctor. (i mean come on, if i made it through 8 weeks of an NU semester without keeling over, i could at least do this! focus lindsey!!!). fear check: what if it doesn't work - i am kinda scared of drugs...what if it does work - then i have to change forever!?!?
2. i got the support of my spouse & some close friends. i needed them... i could not give up during the "trial" period.
3. i cleaned out my fridge and pantry of any and all items that had artificial colors or preservatives. i wish i had known about these links to help me...it would have made the first purge a lot easier and i wouldn't have kept finding so many "oops" items: the top ten additives to avoid and a comprehensive chemical cuisine. i threw some of the perishables out, gave some away that weren't tooooo bad and donated the rest. yes, it was some $$ but i just looked at it as if i was cleaning out my closet...and i couldn't say, "oh, maybe i'll eat (wear) this again. no, this is not an outfit...it's poison. (if you're not willing to do this, go back to step one. you really haven't jumped ALL IN yet - roll up your sleeves and do it when you are ready.) ...and before you say, "it's just too expensive...check out this link: a real food budget on a weekly food stamp allowance.
4. i had a family meeting about what i was doing. here is a great link to help you explain why food dyes are toxic: the reasons to avoid artificial food coloring & which food additives affect us the most. since my kids are younger, i kept it simple: food coloring is made from coal tar, which is petroleum, which is gasoline...EWWWWWWWWWWW, YUCK MOM, THAT'S GROSSSSSSSSS! nuff said.
5. adopted a new meal-time family policy/philosophy. there was BIG whining at first...much discomfort on my my part that they weren't eating enough...but we all adjusted. i would never have believed my picky eaters (including my husband) would change. they did. it just took me and chris being consistant, being the parents, not offering the crap anymore, not giving into the whining, being calm & firm (we aren't perfect though...), giving options and wrapping up food for later. kids will push hard here to go back to the "good ol days". i love this article and have read it several times... especially the last 9 points on "how to do it" a guide to feeding healthy kids. be patient we're on day 95 and improving everyday.
5. i took a breather. let that first step settle for about a week or so. i began to meal plan & cook more. it helped me grocery shop and be more organized. this is when panic set in a little bit. holy ballz, i have to cook MORE!?!? it was like getting used to running again...a little painful, and it took getting used to:) leftovers are my friend. i started to wear an apron & play music. it's like getting new workout clothes/shoes and a new playlist when you run...it makes it so much more fun.
6. within 4-5 days of the food change, we noticed a shift at home with abbie. she started to fidget less and actually read on her own. no noticeable shift at school yet, so i took it to the next level and eliminated diary and gluten. yup. just did it. panicked a little. calmed down and figured one more month. i could do it!! within two weeks the classroom teacher noticed total, huge improvement and we all celebrated. there was no more ADHD symptoms in our abbie. zilch. holy moly in my holies, it worked.
7. i added back some gluten (spelt flour)...and she got worse. not like she was at the beginning of the year, but she reverted back to being off-task and not paying attention. fartbags.
now if kris is done...you can play this one now:)
i really should keep it for another post...but you'll just have to hear it again i guess. it's quickly become the mullies theme song in the car and we all sing it together. tommy sings it the best.
8. i once again cut out gluten and she's back on track. this article helped me to understand the relationship between gluten and ADHD. i was thinking about doing an elimination trial of fruits and veggies that are high in salicylate, but do not feel the need to do that at this point. i have read and heard some kids can really be sensitive to highly salicylic foods, so this would have been our next step if she was still showing symptoms.
9. if we "slip up" and she ingests something she is sensitive to, it only lasts for about a day or so. this is really great news. it simply must move through her system and she's back on track. it's like the typical expectation that the kids are going to be crazy the day after halloween...:) she also is beginning to realize how these substances in food effect her which is beautiful!
10. i'm spreading the real food love and singing it to the mullies. i am not a doctor or a nutritionist. i am a mom who decided to do try something different. whether ADHD touches your family not, i hope the real food message touches your family somehow like it has ours. research might never be done on this. how can you set up a double blind study when it comes to real families, real lives, personalities and genetics? i didn't want to wait for the next conclusive study. my kids are 3, 6 and 8 years old. i'm 35 and my husband will be turning the big 40 soon. i don't have much time left with them at home. i want to make it count. the mullies is going by fast. start falling in love with real food, kick up some dust with me, i'm right there with you:)
no more confusion, wondering and wishing i could have all of my information on food additives in one place! here she is! thank you center for science in the public interest, glad someone's looking out for us:)
you know when you get a new car and feel so great about it and then you start driving and everyone has that same car all of a sudden? it's everywhere and why didn't i notice before??!!! or you have babies on the brain and all of sudden all you see are pregnant women everywhere!!???
well, now that my eyes have been opened, everywhere i look i am finding out more and more and more...sometimes i just have to laugh! remember the first batman movie and people start dying because of the combo of products but together are toxic?
now that we are into our 2nd month, i am happy to say i am beginning to adjust and that i am super crazy lucky my hubbie signed on. cuz if he didn't, i would be up poo creek in cheetos still.
definitely would have given up, no doubt.
speaking of cheetos, smokin hot article about them in the chicago trib today.
see what i mean dog?
here is the article my dad sent me and this is how i found the feingold institute.
the veggie sticks i bought have potassium chloride. how did i not see that? i was giving those to abbie & mac to munch on in the car to school and sometimes in their lunches.
then i looked at the calcium magnesium supplement.
i honestly didn't even think about checking the label because i bought it at a health food store!!!!
i looked up sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate and just felt like an idiot. i mean hello, they even have (preservative) written after the words you lameass.
i swear i have a college degree.
i just started putting the cal-mag in the smoothies this past weekend to see if they could detect it.
