Thursday, January 20, 2011

Diet Dilema

Ah, that lovely word....'diet'.  Some of you who have been reading for long will probably know that that lovely little word has come up many a time.  I even went back to the past couple of 'new years' posts (well at least for the month of Jan.) to see that we have tried implementing a new diet.  Some might wonder why we keep changing our diet around.  For me, diet has to do with the ongoing way to eat, not some way to lose weight.  We try one thing, then go back, try another, then go back to our regular way of eating.  Granted our normal way of eating is considered "healthy" at least by the Standard American Diet.  But that hasn't stopped some people from calling us the "healthiest sick people" that they know.  Tis true, tis true.  But it's not the diets fault, nor am I being careless or slack in trying to get us to stay healthy.  The truth of the matter is we ARE sick, sick in our core.  And even the healthy foods are not truly healthy for us due to our system's not being able to tolerate them. 

I have been searching for years for the 'right' diet for our family.  How are we supposed to eat, what are we supposed to eat, how should those foods be prepared?  I've learned a lot over the past few years.  As I've learned I've tried to implement the things I've read about.  But there has been this barrier for me.  That barrier has been how to resolve what the Bible says is good food, and what science and my experience with foods has been.  They didn't seem to match up.  I *know* that the Bible wouldn't be wrong.  After all God was the one who made the foods for us that we are to eat, He should know what is good and bad.  But my experience wasn't lining up with that.  Enter the GAPS diet AND a new source I just read about.  We will need to wait to continue until Jeremiah picks himself up off the floor :-)  Ha, ha!  Someone on the GAPS email loop sent a link to an article on "The Science Behind Candida". Oh. My. Goodness.  I'm not even sure where to start. Maybe just give you all the link to read for yourselves. 

This new resource (well new to me) has been yet another piece to the very long standing puzzle that my sister and I have been working on.  We have answers as to why certain things haven't worked for our health.  I learned that 90% of sinus infections are fungal.  Ninety percent!!!  I've been plagued by them most of my life.  The short of it is that the candida can take on three different forms.  The yeast form is not the problem.  It is a small round shaped organism that has resided in our guts since we've been born.  The yeast itself doesn't cause any harm.  However....when it gets out of control, due to antibiotics or steroid use then it becomes out of control.  In order for it to preserve itself from the bodies natural mechanisms to keep it under control it then transforms into its fungal form.  The fungal form is the problem.  The little yeast ball grows a long projection that can then burrow or intertwine itself together to 'invade' our body's tissues.  It will migrate to other areas of our body.  In essence, it starts to wreak havoc with our health.  The scary thing is that this form can not be killed off!  If that were the end of the story I'd be sitting here feeling very defeated and lost.  But thankfully there is a way to change the fungus back into its yeast form, where the body can then gain control of their numbers.  There is a protocol.  It's very similar to GAPS, but a bit different here and there.  So for now I am reading.  And reading.  And....you guessed it, reading.  Why have I been nearly obsessed with this health endeavor.  Because for as long as I can remember, well at least as far back as middle school, deep down I knew that it just wasn't right for our family to be so sick.  Yes we live in a sin filled world, where one of it's byproducts would be sickness.  But God designed our bodies to overcome, battle and fight so many of the germs around us.  Why wasn't our bodies working as they should.  Sickness takes it's toll in many ways.  Whether its time, money, lack of ability to take care of every day tasks, or impeding your call to a bigger God given task.  I don't doubt that God uses illness to teach us things. But I can't believe that sickness should be our way of life.  God is a wonderful designer.  Yes, sin, has messed with His design.  And in the end all of will die.  But between now and then I don't see why most of the population has to suffer with illness to the extent that we do.  So that has led me on this life long search for health.  Piece by piece we've seen a picture come together.  A little here and a little there.  I wish I could say that it was a one day thing, I looked up "health" online and boom---got my answer.  No, no God doesn't work that way :-)  He gives us what we need when we need it.  Although all too often I think I need it sooner!!  Ha, ha.

Ok, so after that not so short explanation, where do I stand now on this diet thing?  Like I said, I still have some reading to do.  One way or the other there is going to be hard work involved.  Hard as far as the limitations of what you can eat.  Hard because this will take *time*.  Hard because it will cost us money (well, either way I look at it our health costs us money, whether in doctor fees or food, or supplements).  I would rather spend the money and have health, then spend that same money and be sick.  Because we WILL stay sick if we just keep on continuing with the way we are.  Right now four of us in our family are overweight.  One of us is underweight.  We have rashes, fatigue, stomach pain galore, hyperactivity, failure thrive, intestinal issues, cycle issues, allergies and I am sure another good ten or a dozen other symptoms.  It all comes down to the health of our gut.  And yeast is a big factor into that health, or lack thereof. 

The good news is that people are healing on the above mentioned diets.  That means they make their way to eating the foods that God designed for us.  That also means that to maintain that health one can not go back to eating the Standard American Diet.  But I finally have a peace and a resolve.  It's hard to stick to a diet if you can't reconcile the disparity between your beliefs and what science or experience is telling you.  But now I see that these two diets are designed to heal the gut and make it possible to eat Gods provisions.  Ah, that is a good feeling.  I certainly am not sure if I have it 'right' or not, but for the fist time in a VERY long time I feel like I'm on to something :-)  Between the diet and homeopathy.....well its just a wonderful combination.  Two wonderful ways to heal our bodies, to bring them back into health without side effects, without hurting another system in our body, or disrupting the balance that is needed for each system to work.  A beautiful thing.  Yeah, I know, I'm weird like that.  All I can say is I remember being all of 5 or 6 and watching Nova on TV and being in total awe of the workings of the human body.  Although the one program about the dust mites and little microscopic 'thingies' that live on us almost did me in!!!  I'm not joking, I still remember laying awake at night for DAYS in absolute terror of the thought of these little bugs crawling all over me.  It took me a long time to get over that one!! 

Alrighty, well nothing like a novel eh?  Sorry about that.  I'm just so excited.  Confused and excited.  Ha, ha.  I'm gonna have to see about blending the Candida diet and GAPS diet together.  I'm excited for my children.  Excited that they will not have to face a lot of the dangers that my extended family has faced.  Cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, mental illness, allergies....and the list goes on.  Excited that I can reverse the path that they have been on.  Excited to maybe, just maybe (it does seem like a dream) to not be sick all the time!!!  I hear of those families who maybe get one cold a year.  ONE cold a year.  Yeah, sign me up :-) 

Here are the two links that I've been reading on lately.  I've already shared the links on GAPS, I believe if you click on the link in my sidebar for "GAPS" you'll find that post. 

Science Behind Candida

Dr. McCombs Plan

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