What you don’t know…will harm you.

I have been so excited to blog since I started back to school at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition three weeks ago. I am absolutely loving school and making major changes in our life (for the better). My instructor is the owner of Organic Lives in Vancouver and is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met. He truly lives up to the saying “Be the Change.” I think most of my excitement comes from knowing that what I am learning will benefit my family (especially Nolan) and anyone around me that wants to listen.

It all starts back in the early 1930’s when the amazing Dr. Otto Warburg found the cure for cancer. Yep…you heard me right, he even received a Nobel Prize for it. His knowledge about sugar and how it ferments in our bodies and creates cancer was a much too easy fix, so they shut him up. Dr Warburg believed that food was not meant to be altered and whole food was the ONLY way to get the essential nutrients we need. Years later, many doctors were discredited because of their passion for their work around “Whole food”. Things took a big turn for the worse in 1955 when a report came out that said “sugar was not fattening and did not cause any danger to our health.” This is when sugar started to be processed in many ways and chronic disease started to increase.

Time line of Sugar: How many pounds of sugar, per person, per year!

1700 4 lbs per year

1800 18 lbs per year

1900 90 lbs

2009 145 lbs

2010 165 lbs

2012 165 – 180 lbs per person / per year

That is 54 tsp per day of sugar.

One of the very interesting things I learned in class was that cancerous cells have 8 times the amount of sugar receptors than a regular healthy cell. When we have a diet that is high in sugar, we feed our cancerous cells (which we all have because of cellular regeneration). The more sugar in the cell, the less oxygen there is which turns the cancer cell black. If you take a cancer cell and expose it to pure oxygen, you can revert that cancer cell back to a healthy cell. This is why oxygen therapy has become so popular for cancer patients. Flood the body with oxygen and then cut out all processed sugar and you will reverse the cancer that much faster. Exercise is also important as it brings in more oxygen to your cells. (Class notes from Nutrition and the Environment).

Sugar is also linked to neurotoxicity and affects the behaviors of children with ADD, ADHD and Autism. According to Medications.com, neurotoxicity describes a condition that occurs when the human body comes into contact with certain substances that damage neurons, or nerve cells, throughout the central nervous system. Common neurotoxins include pesticides, industrial chemicals, cleaning supplies and some foods.

Note: eating fruit (which has natural sugar) is not the same thing as eating sugar on it’s own (cane sugar, stevia, agave, rice syrup, corn syrup, white sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, coconut sugar). Fruit does not have a high glycemic index as it comes with pectin, which naturally controls the blood sugar and manages it’s flow into the blood stream.

It seems that we have become a society of convenience and have completely become disconnected with our food. We are always looking for the cheaper price but will it cost us later?

For class we were given a project to go through our entire house and find the most toxic products, write down all their ingredients and research what those ingredients do to us (especially our children). This has got to be one of the biggest eye openers for me…ever! It is one thing to see these words you do not recognize but another to know what they are and how they will harm your family. I have literally gone through every cupboard (kitchen, medicine, bathroom, laundry room, fridge, etc). What I have found in the food (I thought we ate pretty healthy) was not only scary but horrifying! What have I been feeding my family and not knowing?

Things I would never have imagined to have toxins in them did. There were two things that really stood out for me. The kids Tylenol had three food colors in it. Food color is all carcinogenic, have lead as a binder and causes ADD, ADHD and increase hyperactivity. Sadly “Color” is in almost all kids foods. OMG!

The other one was my dill pickles which had polysorbate 80 in them. It acts like an emulsifier in foods, medicines, skincare products, vaccines… and, of course, mouthwash. It causes many harmful effects including increased risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attack, heart failure and tumor growth or recurrence in patients with certain types of cancer. Crazy! See the two articles at the end for more information.

I have only scratched the surface as to what I want to share from my first class. The big picture is that here in North America we have chemicals in almost all of our food, personal care products and cleaning products. The crazy thing is that ALL other countries (in the world) have banned these chemicals in their food and products, but because the big corporations here in North America have so much control and power over our government…we ingest, inhale and come in contact with many chemicals every day. What is even more maddening to me is that many of us don’t even know it. Our children are especially vulnerable to all these toxins as they have a different metabolism, their immune systems are not fully developed and they are much smaller. My instructor is going to be working with Nolan and feels that we can significantly help Nolan progress forward by moving to a whole food diet. I know this is going to require some extra time and love but if I can help my family be well, I am ready for the change.

The good news is that throughout history, the people have prevailed. We have the ability to “be the change” one person at a time. The way we consume food is directly related to how it is produced and I encourage you all to read your labels and check the Skin Deep Data base for more information.

I also wanted to mention that my sister in law (Sabrina) is starting to making some beautiful (non toxic) personal care products. The name of the company is Bodhi Bar. Everything from: deodorant, air freshener, soap, hairspray, yoga mat spray cleaner, and more products being created every day.

Website: is being created…

Email: bodhi8@gmail.com

Shannon

Articles of interest:

http://www.naturalnews.com/033406_vaccines_polysorbate_80.html

http://thegoodhuman.com/2012/05/31/what-is-polysorbate-80/

http://www.naturalnews.com/032169_tartrazine_food_colors.html

Natural News: some great information!

http://www.naturalnews.com/

Skin Deep Database: type in the chemical and you will find all you need.

http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/

Great recipes.