Diet Matters!

I can be a little dense sometimes... I might learn something and even believe it but not necessarily apply it. I am 22 weeks pregnant with #4 as I write this. My last pregnancy was horrible. By the time I was 20 weeks, I could barely push a grocery cart EMPTY. I could not pick up a 22 pound 2 year old from a sitting position without pain. I could barely walk. It hurt to get from the car to the front door of a store let alone wander around! I couldn't carry clothes up the stairs or stand for more than a few minutes. I have too much relaxin and boy had it kicked in... I learned a few things since my last pregnancy though. The biggest one being that flour and flour products are NOT for the body! Sprouted grains- YES! flour- NO!

So, like I said, I am 22 weeks pregnant. I am still in karate (no, I am not taking any falls and no one can punch me, but I am still training), I go to the YMCA and work out twice a week (at least try), I can carry my 30 pound nearly 3 year old up the stairs, I am WALKING (no waddle here!) and I have a cute tummy (it seems like this baby is fitting inside better than my other 3 kids). I cheated a few times and had some flour product food (flour tortilla or something like that) and the next day I HURT and didn't want to move. I could tell that those things were harming me. So, I am off flour and flour products and I am doing great...
What else am I eating? Greens, fruits, veggies, sprouted grains, nuts, seeds, beans, and occasionally a little fish and raw cheese or goat cheese... although those last 2 really aren't good for the body but sometimes those cravings are a little overwhelming! I don't eat processed foods, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, flour and flour products, sugar, meat, or much dairy.

Dry Skin... My battle and an answer to a comment question

As a small child I had skin on my feet that would peel. When it was cold, my skin would get very dry and my hands would crack and bleed. My elbows and knees were ALWAYS white because they were so dry... even when I lived in a very humid location! After I had my first child, I had chronic dry fingers that were so bad that the tips were scaled and would crack and bleed. They HURT. They were so scaly that my fingerprints were no longer visible. I have finally healed my hands... but now my fingerprints are scarred.

Severe dry skin is not a problem with the skin on the outside... it is a problem on the inside. Applying ointments and lotions won't solve the underlying problem. It may sooth the pain and can help the problem from getting worse, but it won't solve it. There are several causes, and in my case, I dealt with all of them... most would work for a short period of time and then would stop working.

Diet is crucial. Avoiding processed sugar, flour, and dairy are biggies. For me, the biggest were the sugar and the flour.

Hydration is crucial- drinking plenty of fluids and eating fleshy fruits is great. Fluids should be distilled water or herbal teas or fresh juices. NO SODA or milk... nut milks are fine.

Avoiding chemicals in your soaps. Most soaps, shampoos, and toothpaste contain Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or other derivatives. Using a soap which has only natural ingredients (and I don't care if Tom's of Maine says that SLS is naturally derived from coconuts, it is not natural!) is also very beneficial. I found the best soap for me to be one made locally. I love the handmade soap by Running Wild Spirit. For the dry skin, the Dry Skin Bar is fabulous and lasts a VERY long time (unless it is in the shower but on the sink it lasts forever because it can dry out between washes). For shampoo, I use Aubrey Organics or Dr. Christopher's. For teeth, I use Dr. Christopher's tooth powder, or read the labels of the toothpaste in the healthfood store... there are a few without SLS or any of the derivatives without fluoride. Weleda is one, ONE of the Tom's products is ok now, JASON has 1 or 2, etc. Liquid soaps at the kitchen sink are also all natural now. The less SLS the better!

Make sure that the EFA intake is appropriate. Udo's oil is a good one. Also adding flax seeds to a morning smoothie works very well. Walnuts are another Omega-3 source.

Plenty of raw food... skin issues are a sign that the liver is needing help. Raw food not only nourishes the body but is also cleansing and rejuvinating. Eat those greens!

A high quality moisturizer is also helpful if other stuff is not quite enough. I like Dr. Christopher's complete tissue formula for MANY things, but the version you buy in the store has too much beeswax for a hand lotion in my opinion. I have heard that some people use the Conditioner as a lotion. I have not tried that. I found a lotion that I really like that is all natural as well. The name escapes me though so I am not posting it. One of the body oils from Running Wild Spirit may work as well... or you could make some oil from local plants yourself...

I did not do this directly, but mentioned it briefly- the liver needs to be paid attention to. Some good liver foods are dandelion greens, burdock, milk thistle, etc. I did do lots of green smoothies and I used plenty of chickweed, carrot tops, kale, chard, collards, etc. in my green smoothies... BTW if the green taste is offensive, add some citrus or pineapple and a couple of inches of cucumber to cut the green taste. One of my favorite combos is carrot tops and peaches and pineapple.


I hope my experience can help someone...


Updated to add:
I used the Hand Cream from Naturally Right. It is not as expensive as some of the other natural lotions on the market. Also, a little goes a long way.

An Uplifting story- there are no incurable diseases

I love the Herbal Legacy newsletter I get every 2 weeks. This week had a very lengthy story about a boy who is healing with natural remedies- starting with Slippery Elm. This story is written by one of the students at the School of Natural Healing. Please, take a moment and read it.
Elijah's Story

There are no Incurable Diseases, only Incurable People

Dr. Christopher always said that there are no incurable diseases- there are only incurable people. I believe this whole-heartedly. I must say that when I first heard it, though, I was a little taken aback. We are brainwashed most of our lives that there are all these incurable diseases. If we are constantly funding research for the cure for a disease, it must be incurable right!? I have come to learn that Dr. Christopher was right though. There really is only one disease. That disease is constipation. Most people think that means constipation of the bowels, but it really means a blockage of some kind. Think about it. If you work on the problem- the constipation of the area, then the condition will clear. Sometimes this requires a lot of work and other times it requires less work. In the end, though, it always requires cleansing the body and healing the systems. It requires making changes to what we are doing- changing the what we did that caused the condition.

We live in a society that is rather fast paced and expects instant gratification. One reason the standard allopathic methods are so popular is because they generally give a big bang fast. However, this bang is either driving the condition deeper, creating side effects, or just covering the symptoms so the person doesn't realize that they are still suffering. Take, for example high blood pressure. There is an obvious constipation of the circulatory system. If we give the person high blood pressure medicine, it doesn't truly lower the blood pressure but instead blocks the signal the brain sends to up the blood pressure because parts of the body are not getting enough blood. As the brain's signal is not recognized, the brain sends a bigger signal and the high blood pressure returns. Ooops. Then the medicine is increased. Is it any wonder that the most common side effect of high blood pressure medicine is.... drum roll please.... high blood pressure! The cause was never addressed. Yes, we got an initial bang fast but did it last? Is the person any healthier? Did they learn to be responsible for their health or did the drug allow them to continue their life as it always was? In other words, allopathic medicine appears to be convenient. We don't have to make any changes, we just need to let someone else take care of our bodies and be responsible.

So back to incurable people. Sometimes a person has a condition which will require quite a bit of work. Generally the person didn't get to that degree of dis-ease overnight and the condition won't be fixed overnight either. It will require work. It will require lifestyles changes- diet changes, exercise, thought processes, etc. Many people are unwilling to change their lives. What they have been doing has been working, "just fine," so why change!? I have had so many people come to me and ask, I am on drug x and I would rather use something natural. What can I take instead? When I explain to them what will be required to fix their condition, which causes the daily dependence on the drugs they don't want, they would rather stick with the drug. The fact that eventually they will be drug free and healthy escapes them.
The saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink!" definitely holds true.

Here is to being curable people!

The School of Natural Healing is having an introductory Special

This year is the 100th anniversary of Dr. Christopher's birth. I just had to tell all my blog readers that The School of Natural Healing is having a special on tuition in honor of his birth. They recently introduced their first course online. Normally tuition for the course is $495 but for a short time, it is $100. Dr. Christopher dreamed of a Family Herbalist in every home and a Master Herbalist in every community. This course will teach you the very basics to be a Family Herbalist. What herbs are in your kitchen that you can use to heal your family in first aid situations? What can you do to improve their health? I will forever be grateful for the knowledge I learned so long ago in that first course.

When should I feed the baby solids?

I have heard lately from several people that they are worried about food aversions or texture issues or pickiness in children if solids are not introduced early. I have heard of people taking their kids to specialists for oral therapy. I think this is a bit silly. How on earth did we survive all these thousands of years without oral therapy and rice cereal for 4 month olds!!!!?????

I sent the following to an email list about this topic. (I have slightly edited it for readability) The woman asking about solids was looking at specialized tables that have been "scientifically" calibrated to tell you what texture to introduce, how often during the day, and in what order to be sure that the child doesn't have texture issues later on. What?!?

This is a soapbox for me... I have heard over and over and over and over again that if you don't feed your kids solids until they are older they will have food aversions or texture issues. I personally think that barring something like autism, this is mostly hogwash IF the family eats a variety of textures etc themselves. Children want to do what we do. Most families eat things that are all the same color, similar texture, etc. Most families today eat a lot of processed junk and don't have variety. Furthermore, these families often want their kids to "eat healthy" so they start pushing foods that they themselves won't eat and is it any wonder the child refuses!? I am the mom of 3 and have delayed solids with all 3. They are the least picky kids I know.

Here is my method:

First and foremost, recognize that as teeth come into the mouth, more and more enzymes for digestion are produced. The last enzymes produced are those which are for the digestions of grains. This happens when the eye teeth come in. I think part of this is due to the fact that you MUST chew your grains thoroughly for the enzymes in the mouth to combine with the grains. This is where the primary digestion of grains occurs. Therefore, I delay the introduction to grains until well after a year. Furthermore, I use sprouted grains because they are better for the body.

Second, I wait until the child has lost the tongue thrust, has teeth, sits unassisted, has a pincher grasp, crawls with the belly off the floor, and is grabbing for food. The grabbing for food I am referring to is not the imitative grabbing at 5-6 months. Babies at that age grab at anything. I am talking about purposeful grabbing of food. Until then, I give them spoons to play with or special dinner time toys during meals.

Third, I only give them what is on my plate- I don't un-spice things, make special baby food, or puree foods. I literally feed them what is on my plate. If there are some soft cooked carrots, I might mush them with a fork, but that is usually the extent of my blending foods. I don't do baby food. I have the opinion that if they can't mush it up themselves in their mouth, they really shouldn't be eating it yet.

Fourth, I follow their lead. As they get more teeth, I will put salad, etc on their plate. Salad is kind of hard to eat, so I usually put 1 piece of lettuce etc and expect them to play with it more than chew it. But, they are used to the variety of textures and colors when I do this. I don't stress. I have one who refused food at all until 8 months and then it was a taste here and there because I didn't really want to feed him solids. At 11.5 months he insisted on 3 square meals with the family. One was 11 months before she would taste foods and began to eat at 14.5 months. One was also about 11 months before tastes and then she began to eat at about 16 months. The last one was a partly delayed in eating because I didn't bring her to the table for dinner time until she was nearly a year old. I did this because she was content playing and I didn't think she needed the food since she was well above average for weight and height on nothing but breastmilk. At about 11ish months I felt like she ought to be part of the family at meals and so I began to bring her to the table and she started to take an interest in what we were doing. She is now 2 1/2 and she asked for her second bowl of salad tonight complete with red leaf lettuce, tomatoes (she will eat an entire chopped tomato by herself while I turn my back to get the lettuce washed if I don't pay attention. Then I have to go chop another tomato!), red peppers, and green cabbage with a little of my Annie's Goddess dressing knockoff. My other daughter got angry with me last night because I made some kale salad and ate all of it- kale massaged with olive oil and apple cider vinegar, a tiny bit of greek spices, sea salt, and a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds and a chopped tomato.

All of my kids loved spicy (garlic) and lemony hummus by 18 months. Yesterday's lunch was hummus with carrot sticks and celery sticks. No complaining.

So, I think that as long as YOU don't live on chicken fingers and fries and white rice and iceberg lettuce you can raise a healthy eating child without special equipment or specialized feeding schedules or introducing foods at 6 months before a child is truly ready to eat.

Coughs

Someone asked about what to do with coughs. I like to drink red raspberry leaf tea. If it is really bad, I like Dr. Christopher's Lung and Bronchial formula or I like his cough syrup- it is NOT a cough suppressant though... it helps clear out the mucus so you can heal. I also like to make my own cough syrup- chop onion and place in a double boiler then cover with honey and let simmer on low heat for a couple of hours. Strain and take 1 tsp-1T every hour-couple of hours. I sometimes add some thyme to this because thyme is very good for coughs. If I have some left over, and I didn't dip a used spoon in it, I will put it in a glass mason jar for the next round of coughs. Also, avoiding dairy like the plague helps.
I have also been known to make a tea for really bad coughs. I take red raspberry leaves, mullein leaves, a little bit of lobelia, some comfrey leaves, a pinch of lavender, and a bit of thyme. This works really well for opening up the lungs. I don't have measurements on this one, because I do this one by feel, but if I were to venture a guess I would say about 1 part each raspberry leaves, mullein and comfrey leaves, 1/3 part thyme and lavender, and 1/4 part lobelia.
I do use comfrey leaves and sometimes comfrey root internally. Despite the FDA's claim that comfrey is damaging to the liver, the historical usage of it says otherwise. Here is some extensive information on comfrey on Herbal Legacy: Contentions with Comfrey Studies. Unless a person has a liver condition and is taking copious amounts of comfrey for an extended period of time, I don't find comfrey to be troubling. I suppose the above combination would work ok without the comfrey, but one of the things it does is aid in healing the lungs. Here is another contention written by Susun Weed.