Top 12 Foods to Add to Your Diet!

Breakfast looks a lot different these days in our home than it used to look. For example, me and the baby shared 1 small shredded zucchini and 1/4 Mayan Sweet onion shredded and cooked in a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil. It was filling and very healthy! I am really relying on cookbooks to get me thinking outside the box that I've been in for so long and one good book/cookbook I like is "The Candida Albican Yeast-Free Cookbook". This type of diet is intended to starve the bad yeast in our bodies by not eating what they feed on, gluten, lactose, sugar, mushrooms, vinegars, etc... In this book is a list of the top super-foods to include in our diets because most of them are naturally antifungal and will kill the candida. (The list below is taken from the book) Just a tip...these foods are good for anyone who is sick with colds and flu too! These ingredients will give you a "natural healing diet" that is very nourishing. 1. Avacado - contains antifungal fatty acids and is a sugar-free fruit 2. Fresh basil - contains antifungal volatile oils 3. Grass fed beef - contains curative factors of selenium & amino acids 4. Chicken broth - supplies amino acids that help the body detoxify and is a good medium for garlic intake - take the time to read the article "Broth is Beautiful" by Sally Fallon 5. Cumin - antifungal essential oils 6. Garlic - natural antifungal agent 7. Horseradish - antiseptic enzymes and oils 8. Onion - antifungal and provides sulfur 9. Ginger root - antiseptic enzymes and oils 10. Oregano - potent antifungal activity due to antimicrobial volatile oils 11. Radishes - provide selenium, sulfur and antibiotics 12. Yogurt - providing probiotics to nourish the good gut bacteria I will add to the author's list: 13. Coconut oil- contains lauric acid which is recognized for its antibacterial, antiviral and antiprotozoal functions. I am in Phase 1 of the Whole Approach program which uses Capryllic Acid (from coconut) to kill the yeast. I make sure to include it in my baby's diet because those good fats benefit her brain development among other things! If you are unfamiliar with the health benefits of coconut oil read about it on a website called The Coconut Research Center.

Pure Water

Since starting the candida diet, I have been especially concerned with drinking pure filtered water because I am trying to get toxins out of my body not put them in while drinking 10 glasses of water a day! All of the cookbooks I have been reading with a focus on allergy sensitivities, rotation diet and anti-candida specify "filtered" water in the recipes. It has been so inconvenient to purchase distilled water at the grocery store and my Brita filter only filters out chlorine, leaving behind many toxins. Remember that chlorine is not a substance that you want to be part of your diet. I have been reading books about the relation of water to our health and was on the lookout for the best and most economical way to drink clean filtered water. Luckily, I went to an emergency preparedness seminar and attended a very informative water class! The instructor showed and discussed all types of filtration available and she recommended a carbon block system like the Multi-pure Water Filtration System. A friend of mine is a distributor and has been advising me to get one for almost 2 years so I finally did this week! If you know you need pure filtered water and you want to compare the taste of the water to what you are drinking now, she has 3 counter top units that she will loan out for a week at a time so you can taste the difference for yourself. If you purchase bottled water or replacement filters for a Brita-like system and you switch to this system you will save hundreds of dollars! They are having their first price increase in 10 years starting May 1st so get one now! Email Deanna at deanna@drinkwaterforlife.net and tell her Lucinda referred you! After reading an article today on a super bug found in water even in the United States, I feel so much better knowing that my drinking and cooking water is now safe! This was an important step in assisting my body with the detox process it is going through. I am on my way to better health one step at a time!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Baking with Stevia requires a lot of trial and error. We have made about a dozen batches all with different ingredients trying to make the best cookie. Because Stevia is so sweet you only use a tiny amount and then have to add something to add moisture and replace the bulk of the sugar.

Our first attempt was to make cookies following the exact same recipe on the chocolate chip bag except we just added Stevia instead of sugar using the proper conversion ratio. We liked them a lot although they were dry and white....almost more like a sweet biscuit than a cookie. Since then I have learned that baking with Stevia requires a 25% reduction in dry ingredients or else an addition of something to add moisture such as applesauce, yogurt, peanut butter, etc... You can get creative...we have! In one recipe we used applesauce but the liquid boils out of the cookie and makes a shiny smooth outer surface on the cookie almost like a bagel. It also changed the flavor significantly. In one batch we added chia gel which is just soaked chia seeds that get very gelatinous. Those cookies had the best texture and the chia gel didn't change the flavor at all.

Last night I decided to use apple butter because in making apple butter most of the liquid is boiled out already so I was hoping it would make the cookies moist without the boil-off affect of applesauce. Success! Those were the best of all the cookies we've made so far! Also having the Stevia chocolate chips made them even better because we could eat them guilt-free! Here is the recipe:

2 sticks of butter at room temperature

1/2 cup of SteviaPlus

Mix together until creamy and fluffy. Then add

2 large eggs

1 tsp. alcohol-free vanilla (if you are on the Candida Diet)

1/4 c. apple butter (our apple butter was made with green apples and no sugar)

Beat together. In separate bowl mix dry ingredients.

1 cup Organic White Wheat Flour from Bob's Red Mill

1 cup oatmeal blended into a coarse flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix together until just blended. Add chocolate chips.

1/2 cup Kona Kava Stevia sweetened chocolate chips

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Usually we have to press down the cookies because they are so dry but these were moist going on the pan and they spread out just enough! Enjoy!

Alternative Sweeteners

Lakanto This product is recommended in "The Body Ecology Diet" so we wanted to give it a try in baking. In our apple pie, it didn't taste any different than sugar. In cookies, it had a "cool" taste...almost cold...hard to explain. We agreed that the coolness came from the sugar alcohol Erythritol and not the fruit extract. I would not make cookies with it again but I would use it in pies!



Steviva Blend (with Erythritol) Stevia extract is so sweet it requires only a fraction of a teaspoon to sweeten. It makes it more difficult to use in baking so manufacturers add bulking agents to stevia extract. Look for the stevia blends that contain erythritol (an all natural, gluten-free fermented grain extract) which doesn't affect insulin levels making it safe for diabetics and doesn't feed yeast, making it safe for those suffering candidiasis. Stay away from Stevia mixed with Maltodextrin! Table sugar is at 65 on the glycemic index and Maltodextrin is at 100! Watch out for it in packaged foods as a hidden sugar. Because Maltodextrin is considered a "complex carbohydrate" and not a refined simple sugar, manufacturers are allowed to state "no sugar" or "low sugar" on product labels but it will impact blood sugar more severely than table sugar!



Stevia Plus This product is blended with Frutafit Inulin Fiber which is considered a prebiotic because it is digested by the good instestinal bacteria. It feeds them and makes them happy and doesn't feed the bad bacteria. This NSI brand says it contains Maltodextrin listed under "Other Ingredients" so I called the company and they said there is less than 1 mg per serving and because it is too small to quantify it is listed under other ingredients. One serving includes 475 mg of Frutafit Inulin Fiber and 25 mg of Stevia Extract.



Green Stevia Leaf Powder If you really want to be healthy and avoid even refined stevia, this is the way to go. You can even grow your own stevia, dry it in a dehydrator and grind it up with a mortar and pestle when you need it. Or, you can boil down fresh leaves and make your own liquid extract!



Stevia Extract Powder Used in conjuction with other sweetener such as honey, maple syrup, molasses and it will mimmick the flavor of the other sweetener. This means you won't taste the aftertaste of stevia and the other sweetener flavor will be intensified. This is also why, when shopping for liquid stevia extract you will see many flavored extracts such as Vanilla Creme.



Vanilla Creme Liquid Stevia Make your own flavored yogurt by purchasing one of the many flavors of the liquid stevia and adding to plain yogurt. I haven't found stevia sweetened yogurt in stores! What a great way to make your own! We compared the amount of added sugar to yogurt compared to ice cream and it was much higher and doesn't even take into account the natural sugars in the added fruit! How about Chocolate Raspberry flavored yogurt? Or lemon? I like adding lemon or lime halves to our green smoothies to make them taste great. We'll have to try this liquid extract. With the stevia adding sweetness, I will be able to make green smoothies without adding any fruit! So far our favorite drink that replaced soda in our home is carbonated mineral water with lemon or lime squeezed in and a few drops of liquid stevia extract. It's great! The convenience of the liquid drops has me sold. I will most likely try all the available flavors in different applications. I did melt down bittersweet baking chocolate and added drops of the vanilla creme to it and it tasted delicious. Now I can't wait to buy the Chocolate extract for next time!



Liquid Stevia Root Beer Flavor Purchase inexpensive carbonated mineral water and add this flavoring to make your own healthy soda! I will have to buy this, try it out and post my results on the blog!

Daily Diet Recomendations

I listened to Donna Gates speak today and she recommended following a daily diet regimen such as this:

Upon arising drink 2 glasses of water. Drink the best filtered water that still retains it's minerals. Brita water filters remove chlorine. Carbon block filters such as those by Multi-Pure remove chlorine and many other impurities but leave behind the minerals we need. My family is using Brita and adding Concentrace mineral drops to our smoothies but we want to buy a Multi-Pure under sink filter soon. My friends at Blessings Nutrition sell that water filtration system.

30 minutes later drink 3 oz. of probiotic juice. Kombucha is great naturally fermented drink just not for anyone who suffers from Candidiasis because it is a naturally occuring yeast. Donna Gates recommends young green coconut kefir. You can make it yourself or purchase it from the Body Ecology website or Amazon. The product is called Cocobiotic.

Follow with a green smoothie. Donna's recommended recipe:

Fill your blender 1/2 full with filtered water and/or filtered water ice cubes
add 1/2 lime (if organic leave peel on)
celery
zucchini
fresh mint leaves
cucumber
Barleans Swirl These come in many flavors and is a great way to give kids their omega 3 oils without having to swallow a big pill or chew a sugar-loaded gummie. Barleans Swirls are a great sugar-free way to sweeten up a smoothie.
Potent Proteins powder
Vitality Super Green powder

She didn't give any specific amounts so you'll have to taste it as you add ingredients.

Starting your day this way will keep your digestive system healthy and give you so much energy. Then at lunch time you are ready for your largest meal of the day and the meal that will include your meat dish if you aren't vegetarian/vegan. She suggested:

eggs
cultured vegetables
salad with salmon
soups with quinoa or millet
organic miso soup with komub and shiitake

Your last meal of the day should be vegetarian. Eating meat at the end of the day when you are less active can create all kinds of problems with digestion which can lead to health issues. For more information you'll have to read her book. I am just passing on the information as I understand it and from experience. Before starting this diet, my stomach churned all night long and I woke up with a stomach ache. Since quitting sugar, eating meat earlier in the day and striving to combine foods properly I have seen huge improvements in my digestion and I don't have any more gas or morning stomach aches. Everyone in my family experienced the same change!

Tips For Giving Up Sugar

Two things inspired me today to get back to posting on my blog! One was listening to a recorded call with Donna Gates, author of "The Body Ecology Diet". You can hear it and many other great speakers at http://www.wishsummit.com/. The second motivation to begin blogging again was receiving an email from a college student who is like my daughter telling me that her and her roomies are giving up sugar! They already got everything out of the house with sugar in it and they want tips to make the process easier. It makes me happy when I hear people making healthy changes in their lives, especially people close to me. Today Donna is passionate about finding cures for autism and she advocates mothers eating healthy diets before conception so as to pass on healthy DNA to her children and her grandchildren. She spoke about female fetuses developing their ovaries in the first month in the womb and getting all of their eggs in the 6 month. The quality of the pregnant mother's health affects the quality of those eggs. So, in effect, every pregnant woman is affecting the health of her grandchildren! For that reason alone, I am happy to hear about an apartment full of college age women making big changes in their health.

Tip #1 - Drink lots of water. When you give up sugar, all forms of sugar, you will detox and possibly not feel well. Drinking more water than normal will greatly help the process. "You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty" is a fantastic book on the healing power of water. I highly recommend it!

Tip #2 - Read labels. Become aware of the names of ingredients that are used to hide what is really in a product. Even potato chips contain maltodextrin which is one of the worst forms of sugar and causes an addiction to those chips...you know, "once you pop, you just can't stop"...the infamous Pringles jingle.

Tip #3 - Stop eating out of boxes. Make simple meals at home with fresh ingredients such as grilled chicken with steamed veggies rather than packaged convenience foods that really cost you more in the long run. Large salads with baked salmon, tuna, or hard boiled egg on top are a good option. Learn to make simple salad dressings to avoid the added sugar.

Tip #4 - Be patient. After 4 or 5 days you will overcome the cravings. Adding more healthy foods to your diet will also reduce cravings for sweets and treats.

Tip #5 - Have stevia sweetened treats around the house for those times when you do want something sweet. We are learning to bake with stevia and we found a diabetic bakery that makes delicious desserts with stevia. One of our favorites is the bowl of caramel from Just Delicious Diabetic Bakery (only $3) that can be used to dip apples or drizzled on crepes and homemade cookies. I recently purchased chocolate chips that are sweetened with stevia. They are $7 for an 8 oz. bag which sounds like a lot, but, if you just snack on 3 or 4 when a craving hits, you will save your health and stick to your goal for not much money. I have only found one source for these chocolate chips.
http://www.shamansgarden.com/p-211-chocolate-vegan-chips.aspx
There are other sugar-free chocolate chips but do your research on alternative sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners can be very dangerous to your health. We found another diabetic bakery that sweetens with Acesulfame K. After reading the research on this sweetener, I know I will not eat that again! I got a headache shortly after eating one of their cupcakes, which is the same result when I eat aspartame. Here is a link to a good article on several artificial sweeteners: http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html

Tip #6 - Have a support system. I tried to quit eating sugar alone several times but this time I was successful because my whole family committed to doing it together. It's a fun experiment for a group of college roomies. I think they will be proud of themselves for their accomplishment especially when they start seeing one of the positive side effects...weight loss!

Tip #7 - Write! Writing about your experience in your journal, keeping a daily food journal or blogging about it will keep you motivated and accountable. I decided to blog about our family's journey for that reason because I knew there would be hard times. After a month of being sick, I was glad I started my blog because I did start to wonder what I was doing to my body. My next post will be about that month of illnesses that kept me from blogging but didn't make me go back to life with sugar.

Tip #8 - Stay motivated. I have been motivated to keep on going because I have been reading so many books and articles relating to the damage sugar can do in our bodies. If you don't have time to read and study on the subject as much as I do, take an hour and a half and watch the video I posted previously: Sugar: The Bitter Truth That will be all the motivation you need to give up sugar!

You can do it! Once you start, you will find so many people who are on the same path with you!

What Are We Eating?

Foods that are listed in the book "The Body Ecology Diet" that I can eat are:

Raw Veggies/ Salads/ Green Veggies

Almonds soaked and sprouted

Red skin potatoes

Ocean Veggies - hijiki, dulse, wakame, arame, agar, nori, kelp, kombu, sea palm (not familiar!)

Winter squash & root vegetables

Quinoa, buckwheat, millet, amaranth (preferrably soaked then cooked)

Fish, fowl, beef, eggs

Celtic Sea Salt or Pink Himalayan (sold at Trader Joes)

Organic unrefined oils - coconut, safflower, hemp, evening primrose, flax seed, pumpkin seed

2 alternative sweeteners - Stevia and Lakanto

Seeds except sesame

Filtered/mineral/distilled water

Lemons, limes, cranberries, black currants (planning to make gluten-free scones!)

Cultured veggies like homemade sauerkraut

Kefir and young coconut kefir

Raw organic apple cider vinegar (a lot of condiments have vinegar, some are made with this)

Butter & Ghee

Follow Your Heart Vegenaise

Quinoa Flakes cereal/ Cream of Buckwheat cereal by Pocono

So with this list, what are we making for our daily meals? One thing is for sure, we aren't beating ourselves over the head with this diet trying to do it perfectly especially since none of us have had tests to find out if we have candidiasis yet. We are shopping for bread that doesn't have sugar in it while adding the other grains to our diet. I purchased buckwheat, ground it in my grain mill, ground up oats in a blender for a coarse oat flour and made delicious, fluffy pancakes for breakfast! The kids are eating their pancakes and french toast with a tiny bit of pure maple syrup (not me) or with almond butter and banana slices. I spread on coconut oil and eat it like a piece of toast. Delicious! We have been starting our day with green smoothie (fruit added for the kids and just veggies for me).

If you cut out the sugar, which means most packaged quick-fix foods, you are eating a lot more vegetables. The hubby made brown rice and stir-fry with snow peas, water chestnuts, onions and carrots that was delicious!

I made the millet porridge recipe from "The Body Ecology Diet" which is basically a cup of millet, 7 cups of water or chicken stock and any chopped veggies you want to add cooked in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes. The next day I reheated it in a skillet and served with sauteed zucchini, red pepper, onion and spinach. It was yummy! Seared Ahi Tuna Salad was one super easy, fast meal that was a family favorite. We purchased marinated ahi tuna steaks from Trader Joes and a bag of baby greens. We put the greens on a plate, pan seared the ahi on all four sides leaving the center rare, sliced it up and placed it on top of the salad. We topped it off with pepper and Pink Himalayan salt. My husband said, "My taste buds are bursting with flavor!" The kids loved it too!

We have really relied on cookbooks to give us ideas of what to eat. We already cooked with a lot of the ingredients on the list but have been experimenting with Stevia, the four grains and cultured milk and fermented veggies. I went to a yogurt and kefir making class and the tasting samples were so good! We had potato salad made with kefir cheese instead of mayonnaise, spelt crackers which were soaked overnight in kefir, ranch dressing made with piima, lemon cheese and 2 kinds of smoothies made with homemade yogurt and kefir! I got the culture for making piima and made it this week! Now I have a very healthy probiotic yogurt to make the dressing for our salads! I have been making about 2 cups of kefir every day and adding it to our green smoothies....more probiotic goodness for our tummies!

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

A friend recommended I include this video on my blog. It took an hour and a half to watch it and it was worth every minute. I even watched it again with my husband! This doctor compares a can of Coke to a can of beer and shows how they do exactly the same thing in your body, everywhere but the brain. When he gets really deep into the biochemical explanations, he quickly explains how my step-daughter developed auto-immune hepatitis. I knew it was food related! She grew up on ramen, velveeta, white bread and meat. She hated every fruit and vegetable (except canned peaches) and only started eating salads at about age 18. It was too late by then. Her liver gave up!

If you are trying to lose weight, you need to watch this. This video (on youtube) is life changing!

It has been just over a month since giving up sugar and my husband has lost 14 pounds and I lost 12. I started at 135 which was my pre-pregnancy weight and I am down to 123! The last time my scale showed that weight was years ago! We gave up sugar for health reasons and didn't expect to lose so much weight. We feel better and look better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

He tells the truth about high fructose corn syrup and even recommends going to the sweetsurprise website to see how they are trying to push their agenda that it's ok in moderation. I added google ads to my website and they posted that website right on my blog! Just so you know, I do not support the claims made at sweetsurprise.com!

Probiotic Salad

Cutting things out of your diet that feed the yeast is very important but equally important is adding things to your diet that feed the good bacteria in your digestive system. You can purchase expensive probiotics and/or add fermented foods to your diet. Culturing your own veggies is an easy way to start. In Asian culutures they eat a cultured vegetable with every meal to aid in digestion. This was my first attempt and they were delicious, easy and very healthy!

Recipe:
1 med. size head of green cabbage
1/2 bunch of beet greens finely chopped
1 peeled green apple
5 carrots
1 inch piece of ginger finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
3 tbsp. kefir whey
1-2 tbsp. celtic sea salt
1/2 cup filtered or distilled water

I watched a 6 minute video and followed the directions exactly. Then I let it ferment for about 5 days before putting it in my refrigerator. I eat it as a snack after a meal. My family isn't as excited about eating it as I am but the baby loves the taste!

The video is a live presentation by Ellix Katz who is the author of Wild Fermentation a great book with lots of recipes!

Symptoms

In our family, we all had symptoms of unhealthy eating. These symptoms were the motivation behind the change. I want to list them here as a reminder of where we started before giving up sugar and compare the differences in our health along the journey. There are some embarrasing symptoms I want to leave out but I think maybe enough people have similar issues and if this helps them, I am happy to reveal the ugly truth! I am going to list all of our health problems because, even if I can't prove they are directly related to eating sugar, I bet with more research I could easily be convinced. (Read all the way to the bottom to understand why I chose to attach this photo of my boys quietly reading together)



My sugar-filled diet symptoms include:
* metallic taste in mouth
* joint pain - in my knees - just started this year
* headaches
* frequent sinus infections
* cravings - never feeling satisfied - wanting to snack all the time
* eating more even when I'm full
* low back pain, also a very recent development
* belly fat - difficulty losing weight
* dragging myself out of bed feeling unrested
* lack of energy - needing naps
* many hormonal issues - PMS, heavy menstrual bleeding, severe cramps, endometriosis, infertility
* dry skin
* no desire to exercise - exhausted
* brain fog - forgetfulness
* moodiness
* waking with stomach ache in the mornings - stomach churning at night - gas - bloating

That's a lot right there! I could probably come up with more but I had enough aches and pains and was sick and tired enough that I committed to sugar abandonment completely!

My husband's symptoms:
* gray hair
* wrinkles
* frequent sports injuries
* some weight gain around the midriff
* exhaustion
* sugar cravings
* gas - churning stomach

Because of his landscaping business he is much more active than me and maybe has better genetics too! He seems healthier even though he is out all day so he eats out and when the family gave up soda a long time ago, he did not. His main motivation for making this huge dietary change was losing someone he loved just a couple months ago.

My 11 year old son's symptoms:

* He potty trained early and didn't ever wet the bed, but he did have daytime leaky bladder. We tried so many medical solutions but time was the only cure. After what I have read about sugar's connection to urinary system problems, I believe giving it up a long time ago would have solved this issue. Although this problem has been resolved I still wanted to include it for anyone who may have a child dealing with this embarrasing issue.
* cavities
* lots of digestion problems - slow digestion, stomach churning at night, not feeling good after some meals, gas, wondering if he is sensitive to certain foods
* hay fever
* colds

My 8 year old son's symptoms:

This child was born with a complete cleft lip and palate, has congenital heart defects and has had so many surgeries and procedures that his diet has been a factor in our home from the beginning. His sugar was limited so he wouldn't get sick before an upcoming surgery and so his recovery would be much faster. After his last heart surgery I refused all hospital meals and brought whole foods from home. His doctor said his recovery would be 3-4 weeks in the hospital, just like his previous open heart surgeries and he was shocked when our son was well enough to leave in 8 days! In all his years as a cardiologist he had never had a patient recover and leave that quickly. So we have done some things right but with all the social pressure to accept candy at church, eat junk food at birthday parties and every holiday event, we have caved in and been less diligent the last couple of years. Most of his health problems are related to his heart condition but what I am listing, sugar has made a lot worse. For instance, he has been exposed to so much anesthesia which affected his teeth buds as an infant, affecting his tooth enamel and making it that much easier to get cavities. We had to put sealants on most of his teeth when he was a tiny toddler.

* cavities
* beyond cravings for sugar- he showed signs of addiction - he would wake me up every morning
when he was about 4 years old and ask for candy and it was on his mind all day - he would do
anything to be allowed a piece of candy
* screaming, crying, yelling, defiance, anger, hitting - with everyone but mostly aimed at his
older brother - behavioral problems that would frequently bring me to tears not knowing
what to do
* no desire to learn or do any kind of "school" especially reading even though he can read
* extremely tired but would never take naps
* gas, constipation
* colds

Since eliminating every form of sugar from our diets we have seen dramatic changes in our health in such a short amount of time. The most visual change was dropping pounds of fat easily.
* Weight loss: By day 4 I had lost 5 pounds without trying. It has been 3 weeks and I have lost
10 pounds and my husband has lost 11 lbs.
* Cravings for sweets are completely gone for me and my kids. Hubby still wants sweets but he hasn't given up fruit juice and other things that probably stimulate those cravings although he has noticed a big difference.
* more energy
* vaginal dryness is gone and libido is coming back!
* no more gas
* stomach churning has stopped except when we have improperly combined food such as eating
chicken with a grain
* waking up rested (even with a baby waking me up all night)
* joint pain lessened - we'll see how the knees feel when I do some Zumba!
* more peace and less fighting in our home
* My youngest announced he loves reading now and read 3 chapter books the first week!

I was shocked to find my sons on the floor quietly reading together instead of bothering each other and fighting! I have seen behavioral improvements.

No Milk? No Bread? No Fruit? Really?

We all know that sugar eats holes in the hardest part of our bodies, the enamel of our teeth, but do we ever wonder what it is doing to the soft tissues? The lining of the stomach? Intestines? So many people have digestive problems, food allergies and sensitivities but I bet not many people connect it to sugar. Yeast is naturally on the skin, in the intestines and in our mouths but when we eat a poor diet including too much sugar, we feed the yeast and cause an overgrowth or infection in our bodies. When that happens the yeast bore themselves into mucosal linings of our stomachs, nose/sinuses, intestines, etc... Ever heard of "leaky gut syndrome"? This diet is intended to heal the gut. When the gut is leaky, it lets undigested proteins like the casein in milk and gluten from flours into the blood stream before they are fully digested. The blood doesn't like that and can react causing gluten and lactose intolerance, among other things. Parents may be causing their child's food allergies without even knowing it. It's worth investigating further if you have some of those problems. I haven't noticed any issues with intolerance (sometimes churning in my stomach when I eat toast or cereal) so when I am finished with the diet in 3+ months which is intended to kill off the excess yeast, I will reintroduce fruit sugars (yep, I am not eating fruit either), some dairy products and a small amount of wheat flour back into my diet. I haven't completely given up flour products yet because I am no expert at baking with the 4 grains that are allowed on the diet. I am eating one dairy product, kefir cheese, because when it ferments, the lactose in the milk is gone and when the whey separates from the solids, the milk protein does too! In a future post I will add photos and instructions on making kefir cheese. It's delicious!

Cleaning House

Step one of the journey - throw away everything in the cupboards and refrigerator that contain any form of sugar! We already don't buy soda but we realized even potato chips have a really bad form of sugar that tops the charts on the glycemic index at 100...maltodextrin. It is used as a filler in lots of packaged products so, really, we were tossing the packaged products in our home. That alone will improve our health. We threw out a 5 lb. bag of sugar aka "kiddy cocaine", a candy bar, Christmas candy, cookies, butterscotch chips, marshmallows, sweetened coconut, junk cereal (that my kids get once a year for Christmas and they didn't even want to eat it!), graham cracker sticks, hot cocoa mix, sugar-free gum (it's made with a sugar alcohol that feeds the yeast), chicken bouillon, rice wine vinegar and all other vinegars except organic apple cider vinegar for salad dressings. Yep, the yeast feed on vinegar too so even mustard and mayo had to go! When we finished cleaning house we had to ask ourselves, "What can we eat?"! Well, we got 6 books from the library for making desserts with stevia and cooking with quinoa, buckwheat, millet and amaranth. Yes, gluten in flours feeds the yeast and the lactose in milk does too. What that means is that a sugar-free diet that will kill off a yeast overgrowth is really dairy-free and gluten-free too! Sounds too hard to do doesn't it? That's why most people will just keep getting sick so they can eat whatever they want whenever they want. No one wants to make the connection with sugar and all the illnesses in our bodies. When you are 40 with a baby, you'll do whatever you can to have energy and feel good again. The journey begins!