GMO corn is everyone's problem!

I am painfully aware of the prevalence of GMO corn in the food system of America. This awareness is a necessary by-product of learning to live with a corn allergy. When I speak to people (even friends and family) of the problems that are caused by our dependence on GMO corn, I am met with an attitude of "That's something we don't have to worry about, luckily we aren't allergic like you are." I wish I could make people understand why it is a problem for our whole country right now and is on its way to becoming a problem for the whole world. I found this neat video that helps to explain why genetically modified foods are so bad. Enjoy:





I think all corn allergy sufferers should be active in the fight against genetically modified crops. Tell everyone you know to watch this ten minute video. There are feature length films and books out now that help to illuminate the problems we face because of our dependence on GMO corn. Here are links to my favorites:




If  you would like to know more but don't want to purchase any of these books or movies, you can rent most of them from your local library.  Also, doing a search on YouTube or Google will produce thousands of videos and articles. If you need help explaining the danger of GMOs to others, there is an excellent printable brochure by Jeffrey M. Smith on his website. He is the author of, "The Seeds of Deception" and a famous activist for safer food. He also has a blog on The Huffington Post site.

No matter how you choose to spread the word, the important thing is that you help in some way. Even if you just mention the dangers of GMO corn to a young mother picking out yogurt for her baby at the grocery store, it helps. The continued ignorance of the American public on this issue is the only thing that biotech giants have in their favor.

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Weight gain is a symptom.

Image via Wikipedia

This simple fact eluded my doctors for 20 years. Every doctor that I visited refused to believe that I wasn't doing something wrong to cause my weight gain. In the beginning, I knew that my eating habits hadn't changed but I gained weight anyway. I followed the doctor's orders but still gained weight steadily. As time went on, I did begin to eat more, but the weight gain started first.

We live in a fat-phobic society that just doesn't believe that weight gain is proof that there is a malfunction in the body. If the medical industry were to acknowledge and embrace this simple truth, imagine how health care could change. Doctors might actually cure people instead of simply treating symptoms.

It took me so many years to stop listening to conventional doctors' recommendations on how to lose excess weight. My health crisis proved to me that weight gain was one of the first symptoms of a much larger problem. I was allergic to corn but unable to avoid it without all the facts. My corn allergy always seemed like another random symptom until I realized that continual ingestion of corn every day in the form of food additives was killing me.

If any one of those doctors that I hired would have simply told me to avoid food additives, my health crisis would never have happened. I cooked every meal for my family anyway, I could have easily changed my modern cooking style to embrace traditional foods and pure ingredients. Instead, it took me many years of declining health and trial and error to figure that out on my own. I thought home cooked meals were healthier alternatives to fast food or junk food, but that wasn't true of modern cooking.

What is modern cooking and why is it so bad? Modern cooking is essentially taking a bunch of prepared ingredients and a few fresh ingredients and mixing them together to get meals (like most of the "chefs" on Food Network). I made casseroles from frozen vegetables, "processed cheese food" and white rice. I cooked in a crock pot using canned "cream of" soups, canned vegetables and grocery store meat. I made my own pasta sauce using canned tomatoes and garlic salt, serving it over enriched pasta. I made hamburgers and served them on prepared buns with frozen french fries. I made desserts using cake mixes and frosting in a can or prepared crusts and canned fruit. I made sandwiches using jars of condiments and deli meat on commercial bakery bread with a pickle on the side. I made breakfast biscuits using shortening and enriched flour and served it with eggs and bacon or sausage. I was busy in the kitchen making meals for my family and diligently avoiding snacks and fast foods. I just didn't realize that I was serving up a hefty dose of GMO corn with every meal. In my naivete, I never considered that the food on the shelves of my store could be harmful.

Now I am on a long journey back to health by cooking traditional meals and incorporating now rare health foods like grass fed liver, fermented condiments and raw dairy products. My family is getting healthier every day and, of course, we are losing weight.

For more information on nutrient dense, traditional foods check out Real Food Wednesday hosted this week by Kelly the Kitchen Kop. Learn something new every Wednesday, guaranteed.

GAPS in knowledge

Image by NatalieMaynor via Flickr

My children and I are starting the GAPS Diet soon. We are already starting to get everything together that we will need. I am anxiously awaiting the book that I ordered and I will order the supplements (probiotics, cod liver oil, butter oil) tomorrow. If you haven't heard of the GAPS diet then you most likely don't have serious digestive problems. We do.

I've read many articles and books and expert opinions about nutrition and digestive health. So many people are so sure that they know what constitutes the best diet for everyone. I have learned a lot in the last two years but I still have so many questions. I have decided to do this: Use the ideas that seem the most logical to me and trust what our bodies tell us as we proceed. We have already eliminated all foods that we seem to have trouble tolerating. I feel that we are no longer harming our bodies (by eating foods we can't tolerate), but we aren't actively healing either. The GAPS diet is designed to help us heal us do that.

I have assimilated a lot of information in a short period and have formed the following opinions:

• Americans are killing ourselves with food additives and we don't even understand the depth of the problem yet.
• Traditional foods and healthy fats are very important for longterm health.
• I'm not even sure we should be eating wheat at all, much less in the worthless refined and enriched form that we gulp down in America.
• GMO corn, soy, and canola are dangerous and should have been studied over generations before being allowed into our food supply.
• We shouldn't be eating vegetables that insects are too smart to eat. (example: GMOs that produce their own insecticide.)
• Meat is only bad for the environment when it is raised on feed lots in huge numbers. There are smaller farms all over this country that manage to raise pastured beef without harm to the environment.
• If you cook everything from scratch there is no need to restrict calories from sugar. Dessert is so labor intensive that there is no way you are going to "have something sweet" at every meal.
• Purified Water Enhanced with Minerals for Taste is the next big scheme by those gems that run the food industry. The "minerals" in this case just happen to be a desiccant, baking soda and a laxative. Can you conceive of a reason to add those three things to bottled water if you sell bottled water?
• The same family and friends that rant about how the government is screwing the "little guy" in this country won't even entertain the idea that food companies are putting harmful additives in our food for profit while the FDA sits by and does nothing.
• The new food safety "crackdown" is only going to make it harder for small farms to compete with the huge agribusinesses. When have you ever heard of pastured beef, eggs, or organic vegetables causing food-borne illness? Is it a coincidence that Tom Vilsack is the Secretary of Agriculture?

Remember, I said these are my opinions, not documented facts. Most of these ideas will never be proven simply because it would profit no big company to have them proven. I have been accused of being extreme in my views on diet and nutrition but I just use logic to try to regain health. By cutting out all prepared foods, I am hoping to "first do no harm". By taking in nutrients in the form of bone broth and cod liver oil I aim to increase the amount of nutrition I am able to absorb from my food. And finally, by ingesting high quality probiotics I hope to heal my gut flora so that I can properly digest food. It makes perfect sense to me.