I shared a link on Facebook to an article called "3 Ingredients to Stop Feeding Your Kids."
Great article. Read up here stop feeding your kids this stuff...
The article goes into detail about why to avoid the following:
1 - High Fructose Corn Syrup
2 - Aspartame
3 - MSG
I won't cover all the why's and why not's in this blog. You need to read the article to get that information.
Following my posting that link, a woman asked this question:
"Who is feeding their kids junk like aspartame and MSG? AMAZING!!!"
I thought it was a fair question. For those of us who have nearly removed that kind of stuff from our lives, it is now hard to imagine allowing it in. Some people have always been smart and NEVER touched the stuff. That is nice for them. MOST of us living in the US ingest these chemicals without ever knowing, AND MOST of us have no idea about the harm those items REALLY cause. We just stay ignorant, buy the cheapest food on the shelves, and plan our meals on speed, convenience, and price - not quality.
I was that mom.
I had NO IDEA how bad any of the above-mentioned items were. I saw signs on some restaurants that advertised "no MSG", but I didn't know why some people thought that it was a big deal to not have that in food.
Aspartame? No idea even what it was in the first place - NO CLUE! Now I know how dangerous it is, and we ALWAYS put ANYTHING back on the shelf that contains aspartame - no matter how much we USED to like it.
HFCS (High Fructose Corn syrup) is in EVERYTHING! Can you buy ketchup, bread or yogurt without consuming that stuff? It's nearly impossible if you are just grabbing the cheapest stuff on the shelf.
I used to NEVER read ingredients. I bought food only because the price was low. Period. Only the cheapest food on the shelf was what used to feed my kids. Back in those days I said I did it out of necessity. I couldn't afford to be picky. (So I thought.)
A lot of GREAT mothers feed their kids this crap. Not because they are NOT great moms, but because they have no idea how harmful those items truly are. My job is to share what I have learned with the other amazing moms who are just struggling to get by.
This month is Mental Health Awareness Month. I understand that many mental health issues are NOT related to food. BUT MANY ARE!
Take ADD, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, Bi-polar disorders and MANY MANY more that are either caused or made worse by chemicals we ingest every day!
Most of us moms didn't even know this at all. I was one of the worst. I raised my older kids on the worst food on the planet and thought nothing of it.
4-5 years ago, my son in 2nd- 3rd grade was getting in fights at school every day, struggling with attention, and I was told I needed to medicate him in order for him to have a normal life or function in society and school. His anger at home was out of control. When he lost his temper, it was seriously frightening. What I saw in my sweet little boy was a monster capable of doing something awful to anyone who rubbed him the wrong way. He scared me. I was considering medication for him but as I pondered and even prayed about it, I knew there had to be other answers as to how to best help him.
My daughter that was 6 or 7 was having EXTREME bursts of anger, several times a day, to the point she was uncontrollable. I could not handle the unbelievable outbursts. Some say it was just "hormones" but it was beyond that. It was something much worse. My husband and I were considering getting her to a psychiatrist that could help us determine what was seriously wrong with the "demon child" in our home. Also, I had started reading up on drugs to help with whatever it was she was going through. I could not live in the same house as that crazy thing. I didn't want to even be near my own little girl.
Then there was me.
A serious mess. Crying all the time. Unable to handle the stresses of my life at the time. I would think of leaving my family. I nearly did leave. I was So depressed and never told a soul. Outside in the public, I put on a super happy face and was a "super mom". At home I screamed at and hit my kids. It is hard for me to even write this now. I was not a good mom. I was not a good wife and I was not good to me or my family, including my husband.
I wanted out of my family and what's worse I wanted out of this life. I didn't care if I lived or died. I half joked that if my daughter ever reported me for abuse and I went to jail it would be a relief from my life. Seriously - I have tears as I write this. I am embarrassed about who I used to be and it hurts to know that I was that sick and didn't know why.
My family was so sick.
I was glad I got my wake up call and found out how messed up my world really was. As I started my journey toward a better self in 2008, I was introduced to this concept called "eating clean". It was strange and foreign to me. Some of it I knew and it made some sense. Things like, eat more veggies. No processed food.... well... what did processed mean anyway? Another new rule was to cut out the chemical laden foods... ok... wow... I started reading labels. I had no idea... I was SO clueless, and - what's worse - I had studied basic concepts of nutrition when I was working on my personal training certification nearly 15 years ago. Nutrition rules had changed over the years. There was a LOT I still needed to learn about being healthy.
Nothing was overnight. We still had a few issues, but something that I noticed almost immediately was that I was able to think more clearly. My mind was no longer foggy. I could handle stressful situations more calmly. I believe we are spiritual beings put into physical bodies. I believe that we need to learn how to communicate with the spiritual side of ourselves. When our mind is cloudy our communication with that spiritual being is cloudy. What I noticed was a peace and love that came over me as my body began to be cleansed from the garbage inside of it.
It took several months before my kids were on board. Some took longer than others to realize that the days of boxed foods and top ramen were over. But they are on board with me and reading labels as well these days.
Today the kid that was failing in school even though he was truly a genius (no really, my kid's really a genius) he is doing amazing in school. Better than I ever hoped! No more fighting with kids at school. No more fighting with his siblings. I used to fear he would one day kill someone because he had no control of his anger. That is GONE! He now handles stress with peace. It's now fun for me to see him take a situation where he would have exploded in hostile anger and use reason and HUMOR instead! He is a funny and FUN kid! WOW. That is the power of real food versus chemicals.
My daughter who I once was looking for a place to take her off my hands, is now a joy to be around. An occasional outburst (about once a month that is normal for a girl in puberty) is about all we get these days. No more screaming and kicking and throwing and breaking things for hours on end.
For the past few years she has been eating real food instead of chemicals.
I dropped about 60 pounds. The first 30 were just from exercise, the last 30 were stubborn until I removed those 3 items from my food consumption. A clogged body doesn't function well - doesn't burn fat - doesn't have a functioning metabolism - holds onto toxins and is just PLUGGED UP!
Remove the toxins and you can lose weight easier, but more importantly than that - your brain and spirit function better.
So change the title of that article from "3 Ingredients to Stop Feeding Your Kids" to "3 Ingredients for EVERYONE to stop eating."
NOW...
even if you have this education is it possible that a good parent could possibly still mess up?
Well of course!
Even when trying to be really really good.
Here are 3 examples of times I found out I had accidentally taken in substances I normally avoid:
1 - HFCS... I used to LOVE Grandma Sycamore's whole wheat bread. It USED to NOT have HFCS. I bought it all the time. It was a big loaf of bread for a decent price. I read the ingredients when I first began purchasing it. They changed their formula. Guess what folks... at some point they added HCFS and didn't call me up and tell me! I was so mad. I had to continually check labels of products I USED to trust (Kashi - same thing...but that is another story for another day. we will discuss later).
2 - Aspartame - the main sweetener in diet sodas. Known to cause cancers, and mental disorders. As soon as I learned how harmful this was I made sure NEVER to drink Crystal Light again and avoid any diet product that added this awful chemical. One thing I NEVER read ingredients on was... my favorite way to suppress my appetite...CHEWING GUM! Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh..... Gum. gum? Gum! NO!!!! Not my GUM, too!!!! So, guess who quit chewing gum this year? Never thought I would say that one. It was so disappointing to be at the grocery store and trying to find a package of gum that didn't contain aspartame. I am still very sad about that. Who knew that all that time I had been preaching against the dangers of aspartame I was chewing on it? I mean really, who thinks to check Gum ingredients? Me, now!
3 - MSG - I gave up Doritos and most flavored chips and chips in general. Then I saw this beautiful package of salsa-flavored, dehydrated bananas in a green packaging cleverly designed to attract the crowd looking for healthy options cleverly placed among the nuts and seeds in similarly designed packaging. I KNEW by the design of the packaging and wording "Healthy option instead of Chips" - this was good for me. I had no need to read the ingredients. Obviously this wonderful company that cared so much about my health that they would use dried bananas to create chips would care enough to make sure all the ingredients were top notch. My husband and I finished the bag. They were so amazingly good! I turned the empty package around to see what kind of amazing goodness they had used to make these healthy and delicious banana chips............. msg..................ugh....one of the most highly addictive substances in the world used to get lab rats fat before they tested diet products. One of the big 3 I had removed from my life. WHY????????
So.... why would a good mother allow her kids to eat that garbage?
1 - No idea why these items are so bad.
2 - Not reading labels
But now that YOU know better, you will make more of an effort to remove them from you and your family's life as well.
Today, go through your cupboards and DUMP items with those 3 things. Live your life without them. A year from now you will be amazed at the change. I promise. I know my life is so very very different from what it was relatively recently.
Hold on a minute...
I told you about the change in my kids. What about me? Beyond the peace, beyond the weight loss....?
Yeah, well ...
Happiness - real, true, honest happiness I do not ever remember ever having in my life. Patience. This is something almost miraculous to me. It is more valuable and transforming than any number on a scale. It is more life changing than anything I have ever experienced before in my life.
The combination of good foods and exercise has transformed me and my family. I invite you to join this REAL true "miracle cure". What is keeping you from making that first step? No excuses! YOU and YOUR FAMILY are worth the sacrifice. OR... just trust the doctor that's telling you to just medicate yourself and your family before he tells you to dump the crappy food first. Who are you going to trust the doctor that gets paid a commission on all the meds he sells? Or your personal trainer that doesn't get a PENNY from you when you do this on your own?
PS - Speaking of which, today I spoke with a man that quit his path to becoming a medical doctor to become a health and fitness professional where he felt he could make more of a difference in the real health and curing of the people most diseased. Pretty cool. We had a lot to discuss!
Great article. Read up here stop feeding your kids this stuff...
The article goes into detail about why to avoid the following:
1 - High Fructose Corn Syrup
2 - Aspartame
3 - MSG
I won't cover all the why's and why not's in this blog. You need to read the article to get that information.
Following my posting that link, a woman asked this question:
"Who is feeding their kids junk like aspartame and MSG? AMAZING!!!"
I thought it was a fair question. For those of us who have nearly removed that kind of stuff from our lives, it is now hard to imagine allowing it in. Some people have always been smart and NEVER touched the stuff. That is nice for them. MOST of us living in the US ingest these chemicals without ever knowing, AND MOST of us have no idea about the harm those items REALLY cause. We just stay ignorant, buy the cheapest food on the shelves, and plan our meals on speed, convenience, and price - not quality.
I was that mom.
I had NO IDEA how bad any of the above-mentioned items were. I saw signs on some restaurants that advertised "no MSG", but I didn't know why some people thought that it was a big deal to not have that in food.
Aspartame? No idea even what it was in the first place - NO CLUE! Now I know how dangerous it is, and we ALWAYS put ANYTHING back on the shelf that contains aspartame - no matter how much we USED to like it.
HFCS (High Fructose Corn syrup) is in EVERYTHING! Can you buy ketchup, bread or yogurt without consuming that stuff? It's nearly impossible if you are just grabbing the cheapest stuff on the shelf.
I used to NEVER read ingredients. I bought food only because the price was low. Period. Only the cheapest food on the shelf was what used to feed my kids. Back in those days I said I did it out of necessity. I couldn't afford to be picky. (So I thought.)
A lot of GREAT mothers feed their kids this crap. Not because they are NOT great moms, but because they have no idea how harmful those items truly are. My job is to share what I have learned with the other amazing moms who are just struggling to get by.
This month is Mental Health Awareness Month. I understand that many mental health issues are NOT related to food. BUT MANY ARE!
Take ADD, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, Bi-polar disorders and MANY MANY more that are either caused or made worse by chemicals we ingest every day!
Most of us moms didn't even know this at all. I was one of the worst. I raised my older kids on the worst food on the planet and thought nothing of it.
4-5 years ago, my son in 2nd- 3rd grade was getting in fights at school every day, struggling with attention, and I was told I needed to medicate him in order for him to have a normal life or function in society and school. His anger at home was out of control. When he lost his temper, it was seriously frightening. What I saw in my sweet little boy was a monster capable of doing something awful to anyone who rubbed him the wrong way. He scared me. I was considering medication for him but as I pondered and even prayed about it, I knew there had to be other answers as to how to best help him.
My daughter that was 6 or 7 was having EXTREME bursts of anger, several times a day, to the point she was uncontrollable. I could not handle the unbelievable outbursts. Some say it was just "hormones" but it was beyond that. It was something much worse. My husband and I were considering getting her to a psychiatrist that could help us determine what was seriously wrong with the "demon child" in our home. Also, I had started reading up on drugs to help with whatever it was she was going through. I could not live in the same house as that crazy thing. I didn't want to even be near my own little girl.
Then there was me.
A serious mess. Crying all the time. Unable to handle the stresses of my life at the time. I would think of leaving my family. I nearly did leave. I was So depressed and never told a soul. Outside in the public, I put on a super happy face and was a "super mom". At home I screamed at and hit my kids. It is hard for me to even write this now. I was not a good mom. I was not a good wife and I was not good to me or my family, including my husband.
I wanted out of my family and what's worse I wanted out of this life. I didn't care if I lived or died. I half joked that if my daughter ever reported me for abuse and I went to jail it would be a relief from my life. Seriously - I have tears as I write this. I am embarrassed about who I used to be and it hurts to know that I was that sick and didn't know why.
My family was so sick.
I was glad I got my wake up call and found out how messed up my world really was. As I started my journey toward a better self in 2008, I was introduced to this concept called "eating clean". It was strange and foreign to me. Some of it I knew and it made some sense. Things like, eat more veggies. No processed food.... well... what did processed mean anyway? Another new rule was to cut out the chemical laden foods... ok... wow... I started reading labels. I had no idea... I was SO clueless, and - what's worse - I had studied basic concepts of nutrition when I was working on my personal training certification nearly 15 years ago. Nutrition rules had changed over the years. There was a LOT I still needed to learn about being healthy.
Nothing was overnight. We still had a few issues, but something that I noticed almost immediately was that I was able to think more clearly. My mind was no longer foggy. I could handle stressful situations more calmly. I believe we are spiritual beings put into physical bodies. I believe that we need to learn how to communicate with the spiritual side of ourselves. When our mind is cloudy our communication with that spiritual being is cloudy. What I noticed was a peace and love that came over me as my body began to be cleansed from the garbage inside of it.
It took several months before my kids were on board. Some took longer than others to realize that the days of boxed foods and top ramen were over. But they are on board with me and reading labels as well these days.
Today the kid that was failing in school even though he was truly a genius (no really, my kid's really a genius) he is doing amazing in school. Better than I ever hoped! No more fighting with kids at school. No more fighting with his siblings. I used to fear he would one day kill someone because he had no control of his anger. That is GONE! He now handles stress with peace. It's now fun for me to see him take a situation where he would have exploded in hostile anger and use reason and HUMOR instead! He is a funny and FUN kid! WOW. That is the power of real food versus chemicals.
My daughter who I once was looking for a place to take her off my hands, is now a joy to be around. An occasional outburst (about once a month that is normal for a girl in puberty) is about all we get these days. No more screaming and kicking and throwing and breaking things for hours on end.
For the past few years she has been eating real food instead of chemicals.
I dropped about 60 pounds. The first 30 were just from exercise, the last 30 were stubborn until I removed those 3 items from my food consumption. A clogged body doesn't function well - doesn't burn fat - doesn't have a functioning metabolism - holds onto toxins and is just PLUGGED UP!
Remove the toxins and you can lose weight easier, but more importantly than that - your brain and spirit function better.
So change the title of that article from "3 Ingredients to Stop Feeding Your Kids" to "3 Ingredients for EVERYONE to stop eating."
NOW...
even if you have this education is it possible that a good parent could possibly still mess up?
Well of course!
Even when trying to be really really good.
Here are 3 examples of times I found out I had accidentally taken in substances I normally avoid:
1 - HFCS... I used to LOVE Grandma Sycamore's whole wheat bread. It USED to NOT have HFCS. I bought it all the time. It was a big loaf of bread for a decent price. I read the ingredients when I first began purchasing it. They changed their formula. Guess what folks... at some point they added HCFS and didn't call me up and tell me! I was so mad. I had to continually check labels of products I USED to trust (Kashi - same thing...but that is another story for another day. we will discuss later).
2 - Aspartame - the main sweetener in diet sodas. Known to cause cancers, and mental disorders. As soon as I learned how harmful this was I made sure NEVER to drink Crystal Light again and avoid any diet product that added this awful chemical. One thing I NEVER read ingredients on was... my favorite way to suppress my appetite...CHEWING GUM! Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh..... Gum. gum? Gum! NO!!!! Not my GUM, too!!!! So, guess who quit chewing gum this year? Never thought I would say that one. It was so disappointing to be at the grocery store and trying to find a package of gum that didn't contain aspartame. I am still very sad about that. Who knew that all that time I had been preaching against the dangers of aspartame I was chewing on it? I mean really, who thinks to check Gum ingredients? Me, now!
3 - MSG - I gave up Doritos and most flavored chips and chips in general. Then I saw this beautiful package of salsa-flavored, dehydrated bananas in a green packaging cleverly designed to attract the crowd looking for healthy options cleverly placed among the nuts and seeds in similarly designed packaging. I KNEW by the design of the packaging and wording "Healthy option instead of Chips" - this was good for me. I had no need to read the ingredients. Obviously this wonderful company that cared so much about my health that they would use dried bananas to create chips would care enough to make sure all the ingredients were top notch. My husband and I finished the bag. They were so amazingly good! I turned the empty package around to see what kind of amazing goodness they had used to make these healthy and delicious banana chips............. msg..................ugh....one of the most highly addictive substances in the world used to get lab rats fat before they tested diet products. One of the big 3 I had removed from my life. WHY????????
So.... why would a good mother allow her kids to eat that garbage?
1 - No idea why these items are so bad.
2 - Not reading labels
But now that YOU know better, you will make more of an effort to remove them from you and your family's life as well.
Today, go through your cupboards and DUMP items with those 3 things. Live your life without them. A year from now you will be amazed at the change. I promise. I know my life is so very very different from what it was relatively recently.
Hold on a minute...
I told you about the change in my kids. What about me? Beyond the peace, beyond the weight loss....?
Yeah, well ...
Happiness - real, true, honest happiness I do not ever remember ever having in my life. Patience. This is something almost miraculous to me. It is more valuable and transforming than any number on a scale. It is more life changing than anything I have ever experienced before in my life.
The combination of good foods and exercise has transformed me and my family. I invite you to join this REAL true "miracle cure". What is keeping you from making that first step? No excuses! YOU and YOUR FAMILY are worth the sacrifice. OR... just trust the doctor that's telling you to just medicate yourself and your family before he tells you to dump the crappy food first. Who are you going to trust the doctor that gets paid a commission on all the meds he sells? Or your personal trainer that doesn't get a PENNY from you when you do this on your own?
PS - Speaking of which, today I spoke with a man that quit his path to becoming a medical doctor to become a health and fitness professional where he felt he could make more of a difference in the real health and curing of the people most diseased. Pretty cool. We had a lot to discuss!
Thank you for writing this. My life right now mirrors what your life was. Now is the time for me to change and I'm hoping it won't take too long for the rest of this house hold to embrace that change!
ReplyDelete((((hugs))) be patient as you go through the process. The truth is, you may experience the same symptoms as a drug addict going through withdrawals. It will be hard at first then as time goes on - months down the road, you will be noticing real changes. Hold on tight! it's a bumpy ride at the beginning! Good luck! I want to hear all about your journey as you go through it.
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