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LaZuli Organics Body Care Products Review and Giveaway!!

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Published on March 17, 2013, by in Recipes.

I cannot tell you all how excited I am about this post! A few years ago, I discovered why the things we put on our skin are just as important as what we put into our guts, and nothing’s been the same since. I learned the problems with deodorant, conventional makeup, and especially those conventional lotions filled with carcinogenic chemicals. But finding safe and effective alternatives is not an easy task! I’ve found a few here and there over the years, but every once in a while, something wonderful will come along.

And that’s what this post is about! You can probably already guess whether I liked these products or not! I enjoy doing giveaways and most of the time I enjoy the products. This time, I not only enjoyed these products but plan on buying them for myself and especially as gifts for my friends!

First, we must get the technical mumbo jumbo out of the way. I was not paid to review these products and do not have a financial interest in such. The company generously gave me some products to sample and review and has offered products for a giveaway as well (details below).

The company is LaZuli Organics, http://www.lazuliorganics.com/, a body care products company committed to educate consumers on the dangers of chemicals in conventional body care products and how to be healthy, wise consumers. They differ from other body care companies by having:

NO PROPYLENE GLYCOL
NO PARABENS
NO SOY
NO BISMUTH OXYCHORIDE
NO CHROMIUM OXIDE GREEN
NO CARMINE
NO DYES/LAKES
NO FERRIC FERRACYANIDE
NO BORAX
NO POLYSORBATES
NO DIMETHICONE
NO BETAINE

Let’s discuss a little bit about why some of these are bad and what I think of LaZuli Organics’ alternatives.

Most people use cosmetics and other personal care items without a second thought, believing that the government oversees their safety. Not so. No health studies or pre-market testing are required for these products. Personal care products are manufactured with 10,500 unique chemical ingredients, some of which are known or suspected carcinogens, toxic to the reproductive system or known to disrupt the endocrine system.

Cosmetic ingredients do not remain on the surface of the skin. They are designed to penetrate, and they do. Scientists have found many common cosmetic ingredients in human tissues, including phthalates in urine, preservatives called parabens in breast tumor tissue and persistent fragrance components in human fat.

One of the most important things we must remember when it comes to our skin: it is our body’s largest organ. Whatever we put on it will be absorbed into our bloodstream. It will not go through the digestive system and all of it’s digestive filtration processes to dilute and filter toxins the way food does. What we put ON our body is just as important, if not more important, as what we put IN our body!

You can go to Environmental Working Group’s website and see where the current body care products (lotions, make up, hair care products, sunscreens, fragrances, baby care products, etc.) you use rank for toxicity and safety by going to their website here. Most people are very surprised to see the extent of toxic chemicals in the products they apply to their body every day!

Here are the specific products I was given to sample from Lazuli Organics and why I was especially seeking safe alternatives for these products:

Deodorant/Antiperspirants

There are at least a few problems with conventional deodorants and antiperspirants. The first is that antiperspirants interrupt a necessary natural process–sweating. Sweating is our body’s way of eliminating toxins, especially those that the body is overloaded with and unable to eliminate efficiently through bowels and urine. The more smell a person has, the more toxins their body is trying to eliminate. When the bowels are not moved efficiently (at least one but preferably two per day), when that person is not hydrated adequately, and when other factors are present that prevent the body from eliminating toxins well (such as liver, kidneys, etc. that are not functioning well and/or an environment/lifestyle that is constantly taking in toxins), the body works very hard to get rid of excess toxins. This is part of God’s great design, yet we interrupt this important process with antiperspirants.

To make matters worse, the more toxic a person gets, the more they smell. Rather than understanding the reason behind this, conventional medicine prescribes prescription-strength antiperspirants instead.

Aluminum is another problem as it is present in antiperspirants. Aluminum has been established as a neurotoxin, adversely affects the blood–brain barrier, is capable of causing DNA damage, and has adverse epigenetic effects (meaning it can actually alter genes which would effect future offspring).

A medical review of 15 years worth of research examined the many studies done on the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s, and found that aluminum is definitely a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18392545

Medical research also shows that this chemical in deodorants applied to the underarms increases the risk of breast cancer as well. In addition to blocking the release of toxins, antiperspirants containing aluminum deposit this heavy metal into breast tissue.

In a 2007 study published in the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, researchers tested breast samples from 17 breast-cancer patients who had undergone mastectomies. The women who used antiperspirants had deposits of aluminum in their outer breast tissue. Concentrations of aluminum were higher in the tissue closest to the underarm than in the central breast.

Conventional deodorants contain parabens (methylparabens, propylparabens, etc.), which mimic estrogen and can act as potential hormone (endocrine) system disruptors. This is important because if you have followed my page for a while, you know that estrogen dominance (overabundance of estrogen in the body) is one of the most common causes of women’s health problems and women’s cancers. We have estrogen-mimicking compounds in our food supply and our body care products that cause problems such as irregular menstrual cycles, PMS, early menopause, breast cancer, etc.

So let’s just go with the natural/organic deodorants, right? They are aluminum-free and do not block the body’s natural sweat process. Unfortunately, I discovered that just about every “natural” and “organic” deodorant on the market, brands such as JASON (which is labeled as “Pure. Natural. Organic”), Desert Essence, Tom’s of Maine, Kiss My Face, and more contain propylene glycol, often as the first ingredient (meaning there is more of that than any other ingredient)!

So what’s wrong with that? Propylene glycol is used to prevent a product from melting in heat and freezing in cold. It alters the structure of the skin by allowing chemicals to penetrate deep beneath it while increasing their ability to reach the blood stream. Sounds lovely, right? So even if propylene glycol was good for you, it’s main job is to help any other chemicals you come in contact with reach your bloodstream.

Propylene glycol has been rated by the Environmental Working Group as a 4 by them, which is categorized as a “moderate” health issue. It has been shown to be linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive issues, allergies/immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption.

What about crystal stones? Dr. Mercola points out that this option commonly chosen in natural health circles may not be a good alternative either:

“Crystal” deodorant stones, which are a popular natural deodorant alternative often used by health-conscious shoppers looking to avoid aluminum, often claim to be aluminum-free, but some actually contain a different type of compound known as an alum, the most common form being potassium alum, also known as potassium aluminum sulfate.

Potassium Alum or Ammonium Alum are natural mineral salts made up of molecules that are too large to be absorbed by your skin. They form a protective layer on your skin that inhibits the growth of odor-causing bacteria. These deodorants are recommended by many cancer treatment centers, but while this may be a better alternative to most antiperspirants and deodorants on the market, it is not completely aluminum-free.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/17/aluminum-containing-antiperspirants-contribute-breast-cancer.aspx

So what does LaZuli Organics’ deodorant contain? In the deodorant I received to review, the ingredients are: Organic Arrowroot, Organic Distilled Lime Essential oil ,Organic Mandarin, Organic Oregano, Organic Virgin Coconut Oil. No alums/aluminum, parabens, propylene glycol, etc.

This is LaZuli’s Coconut Lime Spritzer deodorant. The first day I used this product, I was so excited about the way it smelled. Little did I know that unlike conventional deodorants with chemical/artificial fragrances, this naturally-fragranced product had a very long-lasting scent. I skipped my shower the next day and still had the lovely smell of coconut lime under my arms!!! I have never had that happen with conventional and “natural” or “organic” deodorants!

Because it has coconut oil in it, I imagined it could potentially cause oil staining of shirts in the underarm area. Fortunately, I have not noticed that happening with this product.

I find the price of $8.75 to be very reasonable, considering the high-quality ingredients in this product and the fact that only a very small amount is needed to be effective and for the great long-lasting smell!

LaZuli also currently offers another deodorant scent, Wheatgrass and Manuka Deodorant, and will have another great one for men in the future, Bearded Rum Deodorant! These sound great, and I know I will have to get my hubby the bearded rum when it comes out, but for me I will stick with the coconut lime deodorant because I just like it that much! You can see more about this product on LaZuli’s homepage: http://www.lazuliorganics.com/

Check out our giveaway below where 2 winners will receive a deodorant and an eye shadow of their choice from LaZuli!

Perfume

Another product I got to try out from LaZuli Organics was their perfume. This one took me by surprise because I did not even KNOW that it was possible to get a safe, natural perfume other than just using essential oils!

A couple of years ago, I began noticing that I would get a headache whenever I was around someone wearing a lot of perfume. After some research, I discovered that conventional, chemical perfumes are very similar to gasoline in that they are made with petroleum products and are very harmful to the body, even just from breathing them. Conventional perfumes are basically bottles of liquid toxic chemicals that have the potential to harm us and those around us. According to Rodale in an article discussing a 2010 study on the toxic effects of perfume:

Researchers found that labels of popular perfumes don’t list harmful perfume ingredients linked to sperm damage, hormone disruption (which is linked to some cancers, thyroid disease, obesity, diabetes, and other serious health problems), reproductive toxicity, and allergy problems. And chemicals that may play a role in cancer were found in many of the fragrances analyzed.

Researchers found unlabeled chemicals in many popular perfume brands that cause immediate health problems such as asthma, wheezing, headaches, and contact dermatitis, in addition to the long-term ones listed above. See which perfumes were included in the study, as well as which one had the most unlabeled toxic chemicals, in Rodale’s article here.

Knowing these problems, I had sworn off perfumes! When the owner of LaZuli Organics sent me a perfume, I was elated to find that there was a safe alternative!

The one I received to review was LaZuli’s new organic gluten free DULCHE DE COCO perfume with notes of vanilla and coconut. The scent is wonderful; it is refreshing but not overpowering. And like their deodorant, LaZuli’s perfume has a long-lasting scent, which I find absolutely amazing for such a natural product!

Eye Shadow

Here are just some of the standard chemicals found in conventional eye shadow products, none of which are found in LaZuli Organics’ loose mineral eye shadows:

CHROMIUM GREEN OXIDE — According to EWG, this chemical, is rated as a level 2 because of enhanced skin absorption, ecotoxicology, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), and persistence and bioaccumulation.

TALC — This ingredient which often contains aluminum also contains asbestos fibers, posing risks for respiratory toxicity and cancer. Studies by the National Toxicology Panel demonstrated that cosmetic-grade talc free of asbestos is a form of magnesium silicate that also can be toxic and carcinogenic. (This is why it still blows my mind that baby powder with a main ingredient as talc is still used today!)

CARMINE — A red pigment/dye derived from beetles, carmine has been associated with severe allergic reactions in some people.

PARABENS (see info above in deodorant section on problems with parabens)

Aside from the benefits of not containing these ingredients, loose mineral eye shadow has added benefits of allowing skin to breathe and is hypoallergenic so it will not contain ingredients that are likely to cause allergic reactions in some individuals.

LaZuli Organics has over 30 different colors to choose from, so there are colors for every skin type and personality!

It was my first ever experience with loose mineral eyeshadow (I am not a big make up person), so I found this video to be helpful–it explains how to apply loose mineral eyeshadow:

It seems with this product, I am turning into more of a make-up person after all! I really enjoyed the natural shimmer of the eyeshadows, the very small amount that was needed for full coverage making it budget-friendly, and the many colors to choose from. This will definitely be my go-to eyeshadow from now on!

A full-size eyeshadow from LaZuli Organics is $13.50, and you can also get a sample or two (or three or more) for $1/each to experiment with colors and find which one(s) you like best!

And don’t forget to enter the giveaway below where two winners will receive a LaZuli Organics loose mineral eyeshadow color of their choice and one of LaZuli’s wonderful deodorants!

Body Butter

Ahhh, body butter. Just the name of it is soothing! But lotions and body butters are one of the most difficult products to find without harmful ingredients, such as many of those listed above. Even sitting in Whole Foods Market for an hour when I first learned about the toxic ingredients in lotions, I could not find a natural or organic one there that I felt was safe!

Body butter, especially LaZuli’s, differs from lotion in that is a thicker, less watered down version of lotion. It provides a lot of moisture with just a little bit of the product.

Being pregnant with a growing belly, you can bet I was more than excited to receive LaZuli Organics’ organic whipped body butter! The main ingredients for their body butters are organic Shea butter, organic macadamia nut oil & organic cocoa butter. If you’ve been pregnant before, you already know how great these are on a pregnant belly, as well as any part of the body! But with being pregnant, and knowing what we know about the things we put on our skin being absorbed into our bodies (and our baby’s), it was even more important to me to make sure the moisturizer I used on my growing belly was safe!

LaZuli has many different wonderful body butter scents:

Pina Colada
Grapefruit
Coconut Cream
Lavender Dreams
Jasmine Tea
Lemon Souffle
Chocolate Truffles
Java Latte
Dulce De Leche

I received the pina colada one and LOVE the smell! Even though the tub of body butter costs $22.50, I have been using it for weeks and have barely made a dent in the tub. A little goes a long way with this product! It is very moisturizing but not greasy, and the scent is long-lasting. Not only will I continue using this product for myself, but I think this will make an excellent thing to have a few on hand for gifts!

 

Other products LaZuli currently offers include foundation, chocolate acai lip berry, acai facial therapy serum, bar soap, and shampoo bar.

 

I usually like to try and include some cons to a product I review, but I am hard-pressed to find one with LaZuli Organics products. The cost may be a factor for some but for those who have researched the points mentioned above and worked hard to find safe alternatives, they will know the value in these products! Our health is worth it!

And now I hope this is okay with the owner of LaZuli, but I want to share with you my favorite reason for making these products my new first choice. Unlike buying from big companies where profits go towards things like marketing and high-paid CEO’s, profits from the small company LaZuli help the owner, a homeschooling, single mom, continue doing what she is doing for her family. Getting a great, safe product AND helping another mom is a blessing to both the consumer and the manufacturer!

LaZuli Organics has offered to give away both an organic deodorant and a loose mineral eyeshadow of choice to TWO fortunate winners! Sign up for the giveaway below, and be sure to follow LaZuli Organics’ facebook page to watch for specials and new products!

Thank you, LaZuli Organics, for sharing your product with me and with HFFG’s fans!

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Essential Books & Movies for Pregnancy and Childbirth

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Published on February 1, 2013, by in Recipes.

If you’re like me, sometimes you’d rather curl up with a book (or movie) and a blanket during pregnancy than sit on the computer to gain some knowledge! Fortunately, this is probably a much better way to gain knowledge and empower ourselves with information.

So I’d like to share some of my favorite resources for pregnancy, childbirth, and afterwards. There are many out there, of course, so this can just be a starting point. Whatever you start with, I encourage you to read, learn, and glean some knowledge from your own research. A lot of what you will learn is not what you can expect most healthcare workers in modern medicine to tell you, and not learning these things is likely to put you and your baby at risk. So to get you started on your path to knowledge and empowerment, here are some of my favorites:

Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth From the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank

Picking this up one day from my library, I had no idea that learning about history when it comes to childbirth would provide so much insight into the failings of modern-day obstetrics! The author, Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D., a medical journalist who has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Daily Telegraph, provides some amazing insight into the entire history of childbirth, including what it was like before childbirth became a medical event. The book discusses the tradition of midwives and how difficult the transition was for women to accept male doctors for childbirth. I cannot recommend this book enough to every pregnant women, as it helps us get our minds out of the only way we’ve known things to be and provides thousands of years of insight into something women have been doing since the beginning of time. Because it’s extremely intriguing, the book is a fast read.

Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth

In case you have never heard the name, Ina May Gaskin is the leader in the field of midwifery. Having practiced as a successful midwife for decades, she now helps run The Farm, a birth center town where midwives live and women come from all over to deliver their babies under the care of expert midwives. Gaskin is also the founding member and former president of the Midwives Alliance of North America and author of Spiritual Midwivery.

In her book on childbirth, she provides some amazing insight into why some of the problems that happen with conventional medicine do not happen under the care of a midwife. I found these things extremely fascinating and when reading this book after already having had four children, I realized that every pregnant woman needs to know these things!

In addition to information, the book also has an extensive collection of birth stories, most of which are extremely different from the birth scene we see in today’s movies and reality shows. Another of HFFG’s highly recommended books for pregnant women and their spouse!

Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care

This is the book, friends. Written by writer and editor Jennifer Block, this book provides expecting moms and dads with the hard truth about the modern medical field of obstetrics and how it is doing more harm than good. Block’s information is heavily-researched and statistically accurate. Unfortunately, this accuracy is also very difficult for some to accept. But if this information is not accepted and women are not informed of these things, their health and the health of their baby is at stake. This excellent book is a definite wake-up call for America, and I really hope and pray that more and more pregnant women will get their hands on this book before becoming a victim of modern medical care travesties.

Movies

Here are some of the movies I really enjoyed and recommend that all pregnant women grab a bowl of air-popped popcorn (with grass-fed butter or virgin coconut oil and unrefined sea salt of course) and watch with their hubby:

The Business of Being Born

Ricki Lake finds new purpose in helping show what modern medical care has done to the process of childbirth in her excellent documentary. A must-see!

Birth In America

This movie had great information showing how American differs from a large portion of the rest of the world in childbirth. It’s a great movie but I have to admit that I was kind of disappointed at the ending. Still definitely recommended!

Full-length movies of these documentaries are available online and also through instant view on Netflix.

Of course, childbirth is only the beginning of a healthy baby, so don’t forget to do your research on things like breastfeeding and vaccinations before baby is born! I remember hearing a mother whose infant died as a result of vaccinations say, “We researched everything we could for a healthy pregnancy and healthy delivery. Why didn’t we approach the topic of vaccinations with the same effort?”

VACCINATING

What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations

After my fourth child had suffered an adverse vaccine reaction, a friend told me about this book. I borrowed it from my library and was astonished at the information none of my children’s healthcare providers had every told me. This wonderful book is written by Stephanie Cave, MD, a family practitioner in Baton Rouge, LA, who specializes in children with autism and related disorders. She has been featued on CNN, has testified in congressional hearings, and frequently speaks around the world on the topic of children and vaccinations. Dr. Cave approaches the topic with well-researched information from both sides of the debate, providing information on why each vaccine is used, what the risks are, etc. It is a good book for those who want an unbiased, factual start into the topic of vaccinations.

Vaccine Epidemic

This book provides the information most doctors and none of the pharmaceutical companies want parents to know. It is factual, documented evidence of the problem associated with vaccinations, the side effects, the role of the medical industry in shaping media coverage, constitutional issues about the government’s right to mandate health care; and many other related issues. Information every parent must know and consider before vaccinating their children.

Saying No To Vaccines: A Research Guide For All Ages

The BEST information on vaccines, however, comes from Dr. Sherri Tenpenny in my opinion! She is hands-down the most knowledgeable and active doctor on the topic, and backs up EVERYTHING with proven facts. Many parents find this to be the best resource available with easy-to-find references when you need the information right away.

BREASTFEEDING

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

Written and compiled by the wonderful La Leche League, this thorough book covers all of the basics and then some for women on the topic of breastfeeding. It helps address the common questions that arise, as well as helping moms through some of the complications and difficulties that can come with breastfeeding. An excellent resource to have on hand!

You can find more information on these topics on my website:

Inadequate Breastmilk Supply: Causes & Solutions

Ecological Breastfeeding: What It Is & Why It Doesn’t Always Work

Extended Breastfeeding: What Is It and How Long Is Too Long?

Vaccinations: A Physical AND Spiritual Decision

May God personally guide and lead each of us into decisions that will give us good health and most importantly, give Him glory.

~Sara

 

My Personal Prenatal Nutrition Regimen

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Published on January 13, 2013, by in Recipes.

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is “What vitamins and nutrients do you recommend for pregnancy?” As I like to do, I thought I would compile this information into a blog post so I don’t have to type it over and over all the time!

After experiencing my share of pregnancy complications, including preeclampsia twice, three preterm babies and our fair share of the NICU, I focused my nutrition education on prenatal health. More than any other specific topic, I have devoted hundreds of hours of research on this particular topic. I mostly did it as a result of my information-seeking personality. Fortunately, it is now also helping me benefit others through my Prenatal Nutrition Counseling and my upcoming job as prenatal nutrition counselor at a local birth center.

The following is my personal nutrition regimen. Everyone’s will vary somewhat because we all have different health histories and nutritional needs. Because I do not have any chronic health problems, it is not as in-depth as some people’s protocols will need to be. I recommend simply using these as a guideline, in addition to the care of a natural health professional that can test your vitamin and mineral levels to adjust accordingly.

Diet

This is, of course, the #1 most important factor for prenatal health. More important that prenatal vitamins or any supplements, our diet has the biggest impact on our prenatal health and the life-long health of our baby.

Many traditional societies knew and valued the importance of a nutrient-dense diet before pregnancy. As you can see in my post on Conception Nutrition, some cultures even required a woman to be on a nutrient-dense diet before being allowed to be married.

Nutrient dense foods are foods that provide our bodies with a large amount of nutrients without negative health effects. Oftentimes, these are also nutrients that are hard to find in the Standard American Diet.

Here are some of the nutrient dense foods I like to prioritize in prenatal nutrition:

      • Whole fresh unprocessed (raw) milk from grass-fed cows
      • Fresh eggs (raw or cooked) from hens allowed to roam outside and fed organic, non GMO feed. (Because I want the most nutritionally-dense eggs possible, I went ahead and got my own hens! See my post about that adventure here!)
      • Beef from grass-fed animals that are not given hormones or antibiotics (But I personally don’t do TONS of meat, and my post on Precautions for Paleo/Primal Diets explains why.)Liver at least once/week (beef from grass-fed cows and chicken liver from organic hens). I know it’s nasty, but this is one of the most nutritionally-dense foods on the planet! I could write a whole separate blog post on this, but know that it is a very good source of heme iron, useful for prevention of anemia which is increasingly common in pregnancy. (As a tip: I grate up frozen beef liver with a cheese grater and add it to ground beef to hide it!)
      • Wild fish, especially wild salmon
      • Homemade bone broths (Nutritionally incomparable to store-bought broths)

In addition to these foods, here are some of the other things our family’s diet includes (or doesn’t include):

    • Absolutely no refined sugar in any food, especially during pregnancy! And for so many reasons, including preventing preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, orthodontic problems, etc. (See more info on my No-Sugar Challenge) For sweeteners, we use pure maple syrup and local raw honey. (Of course, honey is not safe for babies under age 1. It is, however, safe for pregnant and breastfeeding moms.)
    • NO GMO’s! (This is a hard one, so gradual progress is best. I’m Type A personality, so when I set this goal, I set out to achieve it!) And no meat from animals fed GMOs.
    • No caffeine, except the miniscule amounts found in homemade kombucha.
    • No vegetable oils (corn, canola, soybean, etc.), margarine, or any foods containing them.
    • No foods containing artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners and no foods containing chemical preservatives.
    • Almost seven years and counting without fast food. (Except with an occasional splurge at Chipotle, which has been reduced to a couple times a year due to knowledge of GMO soybean oil in their food.)
    • Over a hundred pounds of fresh, completely organic, produce each week (see my post on how to get organic produce for CHEAP here!). Some of this is used for juicing–carrots, beets, celery, and apples are our favorite homemade juice. Homemade vegetable juice (with fruit to make it taste good) provides our body with megadoses of condensed nutrients without the bulk (fiber) that would prevent our stomachs from being able to fit all of these in! (Watch Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead or The Beautiful Truth if you’re not sure of the benefits of raw vegetable juicing!)This also includes frozen and fresh fruits for smoothies and snacking, including 20 pounds of organic bananas per week, lots of organic apples, organic oranges, etc.
    • Daily consumption of various organic leafy greens, including romaine, baby greens, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, and beet greens.
    • Homemade probiotics, including milk kefir, kombucha, and fermented vegetables such as kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles, etc. For introductory info on probiotics and why they are nutritionally superior to probiotic supplements, read my post Probiotics 101.
    • Good fats including virgin coconut oil, avocados, nuts, butter from grass-fed cows, etc.
    • Lots of filtered water. (This is a whole ‘nother post but I have found well water from a good well and spring water to be most beneficial. City tap water is NOT recommended.)
    • Organic rolled oats, which provide an extremely cheap breakfast option for our big family!
    • For various reasons, our family has also chosen to be gluten-free. One of the reasons for pregnancy is because of my history of anemia during pregnancy. Gluten, in addition to other things like corn, caffeine, etc., has a tendency to block iron absorption.Okay, I think I covered the bulk of our diet. If you’re wondering what a menu with this kind of diet looks like and want to get them for yourself, you can check out my 40-Day Challenge.

I will admit that it took us 6 years to get to this kind of diet, so do not expect yourself to be the same as us. I am listing this as proof that even with a very good diet, supplements are necessary and very advantageous during pregnancy and otherwise.

Before I got pregnant with #6, I was convinced that our diet full of organic, nutrient-dense foods would only warrant a few supplements. But let me tell you that because even organic soils are so nutritionally-depleted nowadays, I soon found out from testing that supplements are still very necessary, even with a diet like this! But the good news is that when vitamins are sourced naturally from food, there is almost no chance of toxicity or overdose with most nutrients, so it can’t hurt to get more than enough! This brings us to the next category of Supplements:

Supplements

Let’s start with prenatal vitamins, as this gets asked often. I worked hard to research this one, emailing companies for specific answers. I personally decided on Garden of Life’s RAW Prenatals for a few reasons, including:

    • The nutrients are food-based, meaning they come from food and not synthetic nutrients. This was very important for me to confirm with the company, which I did. Unlike other prenatal vitamins that contain the constipating ferrous sulfate, this contains food-based iron which will not cause constipation. (An added problem we do NOT need in pregnancy!)
    • It contains added benefits of probiotics, digestive enzymes, and more things not commonly found in standard prenatal vitamins.

However, there are other food-based prenatal vitamins out there. This is just the one I have chosen.

Additional supplementation with vitamin D is necessary as prenatal vitamins do not contain adequate amounts for pregnancy. For this, I take an additional D3 supplement. There are many out there, just choose one that does not have soybean oil or other bad fillers.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny recommends pregnant women take 6,000 IU’s per day (this would be a combined total of the vitamin D in prenatal vitamins and additional vitamin D supplements). However, I highly recommend getting vitamin D levels tested as many women need much more than this to obtain the idea Vitamin D blood levels of 60ng/mL.

In addition to prenatals and vitamin D, I also take fermented cod liver oil from Green Pastures. More information on fermented cod liver oil, including where to get it, can be found on my post here Fermented Cod Liver Oil: What’s the Hype And Is It Really Nasty?

Dosaging and information on the benefits of this nutrient during pregnancy, as well as counter-arguments to myths about taking cod liver oil during pregnancy, can be found in this article on the Weston A. Price Foundation’s website.

*NOTE: Fish oils/cod liver oils should not be taken by anyone on blood thinners or with health problems related to thin blood.

I also eat 1-2 Brazil nuts/day for selenium. This amount of Brazil nuts will provide all of the selenium a pregnant women needs for many benefits, including having a protective effect on the thyroid. Pregnancy can take a heavy toll on the thyroid, sometimes resulting in postpartum thyroiditis, a common cause of inadequate breastmilk, postpartum hair loss, and future thyroid problems. Medical research has proven that selenium has a protective effect on the thyroid, and since Brazil nuts are a perfect, whole-food source of selenium, I eat one to two of them per day!

Orthomolecular experts also recommend additional supplements of vitamin C and vitamin E during pregnancy, especially for those with a history of miscarriage. http://www.doctoryourself.com/miscarriage.html While I have not instituted this protocol yet, my in-depth research proves it to be very advantageous.

If you are not taking food-sources of probiotics, then I would recommend adding an additional probiotic supplement to your protocol. A mother’s bacterial balance is extremely important for giving baby good immune health.

Sometimes, additional iron supplementation is necessary. Floradix is an herbal-based iron supplement that is recommended by some midwives. Because the iron is naturally-sourced, it does not cause constipation and has been shown to improve iron levels quickly. I plan on adding this supplement to my protocol if my iron levels get low.

Of course, this is just a brief overview of my personal prenatal nutrition protocol. As stated above, everyone’s will differ according to their own health history and nutritional needs.

If you have any information to add, please leave a comment and tell us about your protocol!

Blessings of good health and a healthy baby/babies,
~Sara

 

How Truly Knowing Jesus Affected My View On Guns

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Published on December 21, 2012, by in Christian Encouragement.

Okay, I know this isn’t about health, per se. But it is. It’s about spiritual health. And that is, after all, the most important aspect of our health, isn’t it?!

There have been so many tragic and unfortunate situations lately that are causing lots of debate over the issue of guns. In my circle of friends, the debate centers around the problems with gun control. And I want to say up front that I share those sentiments. Most of them.

I agree that the problem is not with guns per se. The problem is with the people who are holding the guns, just as forks don’t make people fat, and cars don’t make drunk drivers kill people. And I do not believe that government intervention on this topic, especially from a government that has proven to not have its citizens’ best interests at heart, is going to help reduce tragic situations such as these.

That said, I want to share the story of Jim Elliot and his missionary friends. If you have never heard of this story, I hope you enjoy it. If you have heard, I encourage you to read it again. It inspires me every time I read it. Read on and see what this all has to do with Jesus and Guns.

James Elliot (October 8, 1927 – January 8, 1956) was an evangelical Christian who was one of five missionaries killed while participating in Operation Auca, an attempt to evangelize the Waodani people of Ecuador.

The Waodani people (aka Auca Indians) were an extremely savage tribe of people living in the rainforests of Ecuador. They killed others for almost no reason at all, including their own wives and children. There was constant danger of being killed at any moment by anyone.

Knowing that the knowledge of Jesus Christ would be the only thing that could truly set this people free from this savage way of life, Elliot and four other missionaries – Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Nate Saint set out to evangelize these people.

They worked gradually to establish contact and make friends with this tribe of savage barbarians, for they knew that walking right into their tribe would mean immediate death. These missionaries made contact from their airplane with the Waodani using a loudspeaker and a basket to pass down gifts.

After several months of successful contact, the men decided to build a base a short distance from the Indian village, along the Curaray River. There they were approached one time by a small group of Waodani and even gave an airplane ride to one curious Waodani whom they called “George” (his real name was Naenkiwi). Encouraged by these friendly encounters, they began plans to visit the Waodani, without knowing that Naenkiwi had lied to the others about the missionaries’ intentions.

On January 8, 1956, the men radioed their wives to tell them that they would finally approach the Waodani. Their wives never heard from them again. Elliot’s body was found downstream, along with those of the other men, except that of Ed McCully which was found further downstream.

What is interesting to note in their death is that they were killed with spears, even with guns in the missionaries’ possession. Yes, folks, they had guns. Hm, guns over spears, what do YOU think would win?! They could easily have protected themselves and saved their own lives. So why didn’t they?

BECAUSE THESE MEN KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS CHRIST, AND ABOUT HEAVEN. THEY KNEW THAT IF THEY KILLED THESE MEN WITH SPEARS, THOSE MEN WOULD BE DESTINED TO HELL FOREVER. However, because the missionaries had the promise of heaven in Jesus Christ, they gave their lives to save these Indians from Hell. Motivated by the love and promises of Jesus Christ, these men set out to ensure that these men did not have the eternal punishment of Hell. And that is exactly what they did.

Do me a favor, and read that again. We must remember that when we take someone’s life, we may be sending them to an external existence without any hope, joy, love, laughter, or anything that we could even consider good. It is a place of eternal torment, sadness, loneliness, pain, hopelessness, and utter misery. Randy Alcorn says in his book Heaven:

If we understood Hell even the slightest bit, none of us would ever say, ‘Go to Hell.’ It’s far too easy to go to Hell. It requires no change of course, no navigational adjustments. We were born with our autopilot set toward Hell. It is nothing to take lightly–Hell is the single greatest tragedy in the universe.

Jim Elliot’s journal entry for October 28, 1949, says this:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

For those of you that know this story, you know that this simple act of sacrifice, along with the forgiveness and subsequent evangelism of these missionaries’ wives, brought the Waodani tribe to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Many professing Christians do not know nearly enough about Heaven and Hell to make a decision about guns. Many do not meditate on the amazing promises we have in Heaven because of Jesus Christ and are willing to sacrifice someone else’s eternal destiny for our own temporary life on Earth. My soul cannot help but scream out that this is the exact opposite of Jesus’ mission for us!

And guess what?! Raising our children with this view of protecting oneself at all costs is going to make our society worse, cause more tragedies and promote more selfishness! We need more Jesus, which means more sacrifice, not more Every-Man-For-Himself!

Sadly, this view is looked at as radical or misinformed by many people, including those who profess Christ as their Lord. But quite honestly, earlier in my walk with Christ, I would have looked at it that way. Sacrifice is NOT an easy thing to accept. But if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about anything, it’s about sacrifice!

Over the years, I have ready many accounts of missionaries and evangelists, those people who were truly motivated by eternal purposes. These stories have revealed to me the truth about Christ’s intentions for our lives.

Of course, I am not saying that we should let someone kill our children without defending them. I’m not saying we shouldn’t either. I’m not saying anything either way.

I’m simply saying that we must analyze every situation to consider the eternal ramifications of our actions, because God wants our minds to be set on eternity, not on the temporary things of this life. We must consider what God wants us to do as our first weapon, not turning first to protecting ourselves.

So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4:8 NLT

If you haven’t already checked out the movie End of the Spear, depicting the mission of Jim Elliot and his missionary friends with the Waodani people, I encourage you to watch it as soon as possible.


(Spoiler warning: Movie is rated PG-13 and has graphic images for young children.)

You can also check out the documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor:

Or Jim Elliot’s wife, Elisabeth Elliot’s, book Through the Gates of Splendor. Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven is also a great resource for learning about our true destination and how learning about that destination changes the way we live now.

Jesus Christ’s followers must get their hearts back on track with the original mission He has given us! I pray that God will use these resources to remind you of our mission!

For those that are still contemplating what I’m saying about personal defense, I encourage you to read this article that I agree explains this issue well–Biblically and in-depth. http://www.biblicalselfdefense.com/

Though we see sanction and even a qualified directive from Christ to possess personal weapons, we must remember three points. First, in the remainder of the New Testament, we have no further examples of believers taking up the sword. Secondly, the emphasis in the remainder of the New Testament is decidedly not geared toward the issues of physical self-defense or righteous use of lethal force. Rather, we see more emphasis on Godly living, suffering affliction and persecution for Christ, and grasping the precious doctrines of Christ and the Gospel. Thirdly, possession of weapons and acquiring the skill to use them in self-defense is permitted but not required by Scripture.

Believers should be conscious that personal self-defense is legitimatized by the Scriptures, just as the use of construction tools, cooking tools, transportation tools are legitimized by Scripture. And these matters of self-defense should hold in our minds and in our affections the same position as those other legitimate, but transitory, matters.

The tendency in some circles is to make the topic of self-defense of primary importance. Though heavenly beings do battle and render judgments with the sword, in the perfection pictured in both the garden of Eden and in the Heavenly city, the primary activities are fellowship with God, fellowship with His people, singing in worship, and living in peace.

That is our destination.

In Christ’s love and mission,
~Sara

 

Trying To Conceive? Here’s The Nutrition Info You Need To Know!

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Published on December 18, 2012, by in Family Health, Natural Families.

Part of my job offering nutrition counseling includes offering prenatal and trying-to-conceive nutritional counseling and advice. The more I do this, the more I realize that it is often the very same factors for many couples trying to conceive. So rather than everyone having to come to me for personalized TTC counseling services, I thought I’d just offer out a freebie with that information!

There are many factors in our environment today that are negatively affecting fertility and reproduction rates, but first I have to start with a disclaimer. Ultimately, the Lord decides when life is created. The Bible says in a few places that He is the one who opens and closes a woman’s womb. Here are some of them:

For the Lord had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Genesis 20:18

When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Genesis 29:31

Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb. Genesis 30:22

While there are scientific and medical facts proving the detrimental affects on fertility in our food system and environment, I just want everyone to keep in mind that our faith must first be in Him to open our womb. Sometimes, we lose faith in Him when it takes too long, and we subject ourselves to endless hospital tests and procedures, many of which have the capabilities to further decimate our chances of maintaining a healthy pregnancy. Our faith and our trust must remain in Him alone.

That said, here are the things that are putting a sad detriment to the proliferation of our families. These are things that, not coincidentally, are a result of Mankind getting away from God’s design. We must get back to God’s design for our bodies, our environment, and our food if we are to decrease the rates of infertility.

Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span. (Exodus 23:25-26)

So what are the things that have gotten us away from God’s blessings? Here are the most common:

GMO Foods–Genetically Modified Organisms

Have you ever heard of Contraceptive Corn?! This genetically-modified corn was being researched, with a plan of being implemented, a dozen years ago. Since then, not much has been found about it. But we know that scientists have developed many plans, including this one, to reduce their perceived problem of over-population.

Researchers discovered a rare class of human antibodies that develop sperm, causing the body of a woman who consumes the corn to attack the sperm, making fertilization nearly impossible.

For more information on this, read the UK’s The Guardian article on it here.

Scroll forward a decade and now farmers are realizing that their livestock are becoming infertile when they consume GMO corn:

Farmers throughout America had already been complaining about GMO corn that caused their livestock to become infertile and also spontaneously abort, wiping out their entire operations, in some cases.

( http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/08/04/roundup-herbicide-blamed-for-corn-crop-demise-vilsack-taylor-fda-usda-elizabeth-dougherty-food-nation-radio-network-gmos-pathogen/ )

Organic consumers covers an Austrian study that proved the damaging effect GMO corn has on the reproductive system:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15588.cfm

This is just a small taste of the latest trends in our food supply regarding Genetically Modified foods, namely corn, canola, and soy (with a few others showing up in our food supply). GMO soy is the other one occurring in a large majority of our food supply, especially in the form of soybean oil. Most people don’t even realize they are consuming soybean oil, and have no idea that it’s found in things like breads (even whole wheat breads), salad dressings, chips, crackers, canned soups, pretty much all restaurant food, and even some vitamin supplements. A recent study found the following about this detrimental food ingredient:

After feeding hamsters for two years over three generations, those on the GM diet, and especially the group on the maximum GM soy diet, showed devastating results. By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies. They also suffered slower growth, and a high mortality rate among the pups.

And if this isn’t shocking enough, some in the third generation even had hair growing inside their mouths–a phenomenon rarely seen, but apparently more prevalent among hamsters eating GM soy.(For more information, go here: Genetically Modified Soy Linked To Sterility

Trans Fats

According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, consumption of trans fats can increase a woman’s chances of infertility by a whopping 70 percent or more. The amount that caused this difference was the equivalent to what is found in one pack of French fries or one doughnut! (Am J Clin Nutr January 2007 vol. 85 no. 1 231-237)

Trans fats can be found by looking on ingredients’ labels for the words “partially hydrogenated…”. In restaurant food, anything fried will likely contain trans fats. It is even found in peanut butter, some bread items like tortillas and bakery items. Another more common and unknown source of trans fats in the diet is found in most coffee creamers.

Unfortunately, food manufacturers have found a little loophole in advertising requirements. Foods that contain .5 grams or less of hydrogenated oils PER SERVING can be labeled on the front of the package (or anywhere else) as “ZERO
TRANS FAT.”

The problem with that is they can make the serving size incredibly small in order to say that their product is free of trans fast. Another problem is that even half of one gram has never been found to be safe for human consumption! NO level of trans fat consumption has been deemed safe by the government. Still, they allow it in our food supply. You’re best off avoiding any and all sources of trans fats! So make sure to avoid being deceived and read your food ingredients lists. If the words “partially hydrogenated” appear on that list, reconsider!

Natural News details the results of the study that proved a woman’s infertility
risk skyrockets from eating trans fats:
http://www.naturalnews.com/021500.html

Soy (and estrogen dominance)

Aside from the reasons stated above regarding genetically-modified soy, soy adds another problem to the issue of infertility. The issue of hormone imbalance is so incredibly common in our society today that we often equate the symptoms of estrogen dominance with normal female life. But it is anything BUT normal!

Soy is one of the biggest sources of estrogen-mimicking compounds in our environment. Birth control pills, soy/soybean oil, meat/dairy from animals given growth hormones, plastics, and other unnatural additions to our environment and food system all contain estrogen-mimicking compounds that cause an overabundance of estrogen hormones in a woman’s body, thereby leaving a deficiency of progesterone. Progesterone is the hormone necessary for implantation of an embryo in the beginning weeks of pregnancy. Without adequate progesterone, the embryo will not implant into the lining of the uterus and can result in miscarriage.

Symptoms of estrogen dominance include:

  • Breast cancer
  • Decreased sex drive
  • Depression, irritability, mood swings, etc
  • Headaches
  • PMS
  • Menopause
  • Ovarian cysts/Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
  • Weight gain (estrogen hides in fat)

This abnormal and unhealthy increase in estrogen is not just happening in women. The overabundance of soy in our food system, especially with all of the soy-based protein shakes and bars today, are a main cause of low sperm count.

“Estrogens are female hormones. If you’re a woman, you’re flooding your system with a substance it can’t handle in surplus. If you’re a man, you’re suppressing your masculinity and stimulating your ‘female side,’ physically and mentally.” Jim Rutz

According to information from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston:

The researchers looked at 99 men who went to a fertility clinic between 2000 and 2006, and their intake of soy-based foods, including tofu, tempeh, soy sausages, bacon or burgers, soy milk, cheese and yogurt.

The author of the study reported that men in the highest intake category had 41 million sperm-per-milliliter fewer than men who ate no soy foods, prompting him to suggest soy has a “deleterious effect” on the reproductive system.

(Source: http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/11/2584.short )

In fact, monks incorporate soy into their diets specifically to reduce libido. For more information on what soy protein shakes are doing to our health, check out my post Could Visalus, Herbalife, Shaklee, Reliv, & Other Soy Shakes Actually Be Harming Your Health?

To balance hormones naturally, be sure to avoid the things mentioned above, including meat/dairy from animals treated with growth hormones (which is all conventional, non-organic meat/dairy that does not specifically state that it comes from animals not treated with hormones rBGH/rBST), all foods containing soy (including the many, many processed foods containing soybean oil–breads, crackers, chips, salad dressings, all restaurant food, etc.–read ingredient labels on everything); consume more fiber-rich natural foods to help the body eliminate excess hormones; lose weight since estrogen likes to hide in fat; and talk to your health care professional about using a natural progesterone cream.

Pesticides/Insecticides/Chemical Fertilizers

Spraying our homes for bugs, dousing our lawns with chemicals to kill weeds and make the grass picturesque, and eating foods from produce grown with chemicals is another problem in our journey of having children.

Studies prove over and over that maternal and paternal exposure to farm and lawn chemicals causes infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and cancer. These chemicals are absorbed into the body through skin and through the air. Our skin is our largest organ and unlike being filtered through the stomach, chemicals that are absorbed into our skin go immediately into our bloodstream.

Even though the United States was charged with illegal war crimes for using these chemicals in Vietnam during the Agent Orange Operation, the government still allows them to be used on our food and on our lawn. These are the very same chemicals that are still affecting subsequent generations of children from both people in Vietnam and American soldiers who fought in Vietnam, ranging from miscarriage and still birth to birth defects.

Here are some findings from studies:

“Maternal exposures to pesticides used around the home are associated with risk of stillbirth and fetal deaths. Pregnant mice exposed to very low and low doses of an herbicide mixture during the period of preimplantationorganogenesis (gestation days 0-15) resulted in significant reductions in implantation
sites and live births.”
(http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info:doi/10.1289/ehp.6774)

A study by Swan et al (2003) showed that men studied in Missouri who had traces of alachlor, atrazine and diazinon in their urine had increased risks of poor sperm quality. This study concluded that “fertility of American women
and men is being undermined by today’s use of agricultural chemicals.”

And while lawn fertilizers are known to cause the same problems, certain chemicals (such as those listed in Swan’s study) are only allowed for farm use. Living on or by a farm can be extremely detrimental to a couple’s dreams of having a family when that farm uses chemical fertilizers, insecticides, etc.

Check out my post on Natural Lawn Care 101 for alternatives.

Malnutrition/Nutrient Deficiencies

Let’s face it–a woman’s body knows when it does not have the nutritional reserves necessary to support life. This is part of the intricacy of God’s design to protect life. Although you don’t hear it much from the ob/gyn field of medicine, it takes a lot of nutrition to create a new life! And if mom does not have enough stored up for both herself and a little one, we run into complications, whether it’s miscarriage, prenatal complications such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, or birth defects.

Traditional societies knew (and some still know) the importance of ensuring adequate nutritional reserves for mother before conceiving. For example:

The Maasai only allowed men and women to marry after spending several months consuming milk from the wet season when the grass was especially lush and the milk much denser in nutrients. Maasai milk is higher in fat and cholesterol and lower in sugar than commercial American milk.

The highest quality Maasai milk used for preconception diets, however, is even richer: compared to commercial American milk, it has over twice the cholesterol, nearly three times the fat, and over five times the quantity of phospholipids (see Figure 2).7 The phospholipid content is particularly important. Since most of the choline in milk is contained in phospholipids,8 this means that high-quality Maasai milk is probably about five times richer in choline than the milk you would find in the grocery store.

Compared to grain-fed milk, grass-fed milk is much higher in fat-soluble vitamins, pigments, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and omega-3 fatty acids.9 Price showed that the content of vitamin A, activator X (which we now believe to be vitamin K2), and essential fatty acids markedly increased in butterfat during the rainy lush season.10 As the quality of grass increases, we can presume that the content of other grass-related nutrients—such as pigments, vitamin E and CLA—will also markedly increase in the milk.
(Weston A. Price Foundation)

These traditional societies also spaced their children out by around 3 years (by using the natural contraceptive benefits of ecological breastfeeding) in order to allow their nutritional reserves to be built up before subsequent pregnancies.

As you may have noticed, the mention of Vitamin A in the information above is important, because vitamin A is necessary for the production of testosterone. Interestingly, low-fat protein sources such as soy actually deplete vitamin A reserves, which is why men on protein shakes often have to resort to steroids to increase testosterone.
(For more really good information on this, read Vitamin A: The Forgotten Body-Building Nutrient from the Weston A. Price Foundation.)

In addition to the lack of nutrients listed in the above example, here are some other deficiencies that, when corrected in both the woman and the man, could have an amazing impact on fertility and prenatal health:

Vitamin C:

According to many sources, vitamin C is the underplayed vitamin deficiency of the century. In fact, even heart disease is really just a case of chronic scurvy. When it comes to fertility, here’s what Dr. Andrew Saul has to say about it:

If you want to conceive, or just play as if you might, try having the man take megadoses of vitamin C for a few weeks prior. At least 6,000 milligrams a day, and as much as 20,000 mg/day guarantees very high sperm production. Divide the dose throughout the day for maximum effect. And that effect is what, exactly? More sperm, stronger sperm, and better swimming sperm all occurred, at even lower daily C doses, in a University of Texas study. Take more C and you’ll make vast quantities of super sperm. You think this won’t work? Have I shown you my baby pictures? Dr. Andrew Saul, author of Doctor Yourself

Zinc:

Zinc is another deficiency that is affecting fertility, playing a large yet unnoticed role in male impotence. This crucial mineral is found in foods that were a large part of traditional societies’ diets but not so much today, including oysters (although I don’t recommend this based on Biblical principles), liver, pumpkin and squash seeds, and wheat germ (which is removed from the wheat kernel in the processing of refined flour). Dr. Saul has something to say on this one too:

Listen to this, guys: Zinc and plenty of it nourishes the prostate and increases seminal fluid production. There is a scientific literature a mile long about zinc and male fertility. About five to ten times the RDA will do it. That is approximately 50 to 100 mg of zinc daily. For best absorption and best results, divide the dose into two, or better yet, four doses. Zinc gluconate is well absorbed, and zinc monomethionine better still. These are available at any health food store without a prescription. Dr. Andrew Saul, author of Doctor Yourself

Gluten Intolerance

For reasons relating to some of the things mentioned above, plus a society filled with gut-damaging things like antibiotics and chlorine, with the changes in wheat, gluten intolerance is a common factor behind infertility and miscarriages.

I have had many, many women report reduction of problems such as PCOS and endometriosis with the elimination of gluten. Many more women have reported getting pregnant from eliminating gluten after problems with infertility. There are many reasons why, including that for many women (and men), gluten creates a constant source of inflammation, as well as causes the body’s adrenal glands to go into overtime, causing the stress hormone cortisol to flood the body constantly. And we can see that stress hormones are a contributing factor to PCOS as well.

For more information on the link between gluten and infertility/miscarriages, go here: http://www.healthnowmedical.com/blog/2013/01/11/infertility-miscarriage-gluten-sensitivity-may-be-your-problem/

For more information on dietary measures to eliminate PCOS including eliminating gluten and sugars, check out Dr. Mercola’s very concise article on the topic: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/pcos.aspx

In summary, it’s important to remember that straying away from God’s design has detrimental effects on many areas of our health, including our reproductive health. But no matter what, God is sovereign and decides whether to open or close a womb according to His plans and purposes. My prayer for you is that He opens your womb and that you have the blessing of Psalm 115:14-15:

May the Lord cause you to flourish,
both you and your children.
May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth

Blessings of good health,
~Sara

If you would like personal help with conception nutrition counseling and help implementing the changes above, please check out page Prenatal & TTC Nutrition Counseling Services.

 

My Breastfeeding Journey, 5 Babies Later…

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Published on December 12, 2012, by in Family Health, Natural Families.

Every time I post information about the benefits of breastmilk or the dangers of formula, I tend to get a lot of criticism and condemnation. This saddens me for many reasons, one of them being because the people making those comments may not know that I have not always breastfed my children very well. I am writing not from a one-sided perspective but from the perspective of having lived and learned. This is the motivation behind my posts on the topic: sharing what I have learned to help arm young mothers with information that I wish I would have known sooner on in life.

Because I have personally seen the amazing difference that breastmilk makes in the health of my children, I only want other parents to experience this same abundant health for their children. Precious little babies who are getting formula spend so much more time sick and their parents spend so much more time at the doctor’s office, and I firmly believe that God’s design gives us so much better health than this vicious cycle.

However, I’m not going to go into the amazing benefits of breastmilk or the dangers of formula in this article. I am simply going to share my personal story (because who can argue with that, right?!) and then share some additional resources at the end.

Baby #1: Born 1996 To A Teenager


A 16-year old girl having a baby. That was me 17 years ago. I think we can all guess how unsuccessful I was at breastfeeding. Like many young moms, I wanted to give it a shot. So in the hospital, I had the nurses show me how to breastfeed. Also like many young moms, I did not grow up with other mothers breastfeeding around me, so I honestly didn’t even know what it looked like to breastfeed. My son was a preemie but was fortunately still able to breastfeed with ease, so I continued breastfeeding after he was released from the NICU.

After a few weeks however, my son went through what I didn’t know at the time was a growth spurt. Like all babies do, he was hungry all the time. I did not know that when babies go through growth spurts, they must nurse very very frequently (even up to every hour) in order to increase mother’s milk production. (Looking back, I know–How else would a mom go from making a mere ounce of milk to a few ounces or more in the span of 6 months?!!)

I just thought that I was not making enough milk for my baby and that I wouldn’t, but I kept on feeding him (probably on a 3-hour schedule like the hospital staff told me) and still, he was fussy and hungry. So in my frustration and my lack of knowledge, I went to the cupboard in the middle of the night and made him a bottle of formula with the free formula I had been given at the hospital. My son was quickly satisfied and went to sleep soundly with a full tummy.

Of course, that was pretty much the end of our breastfeeding journey together. My body would no longer make what he needed because that’s what supplementing with formula inevitably does.

In combination with the antibiotics for ear infections (caused in his case by pasteurized milk/formula), amalgam fillings, and not getting the benefits of breastmilk longer than a few weeks, my first born has the worst health of any of my children. Of course, our dietary and environmental changes (and lack of medical intervention) have vastly improved his health, but I wish we could have avoided them as much as possible!

Onto baby #2: A Little Better


Being a little older (like 21!), I had a little more knowledge this time. Not much of course–I ate a horrible diet of fast food and processed box junk during this pregnancy and ended up with preeclampsia as a result. Nonetheless, I was ready to give breastfeeding another try. So I breastfed this baby from his birth.

One of the most helpful things from the beginning was the breast pump that I received. I was told by a nurse that our insurance would cover a breast pump, and I subsequently found myself getting an incredible, $200 Medala breastpump. This was and has been a huge blessing to me, and a large part of my ability to continue breastfeeding.

A couple of months into it, baby went through a really tough growth spurt. Fortunately, I had a friend and a neighbor who had successfully breastfed her daughter. I called her late one night and she rushed over, encouraged me to keep feeding him on demand, and that his growth spurt would soon be over and I’d soon be producing more milk.

She was right, and I will never forget her kindness and encouragement on that night.

Unfortunately, we made it to the 6-month mark and I thought that was long enough. So we gradually ended our breastfeeding relationship around that point and naively switched to soy formula. (I will not get on my soapbox on this one but will suffice to say that as a result of being on soy formula for 6 months, he has signs of too much estrogen, had to have surgery on his undescended testicles at age 5 because of GMO soy, and has an extremely sensitive thyroid which results in heart palpitations and related hyperthyroid symptoms upon consumption of anything with soy, including Chipotle’s food. Super sad.)

Baby #3: My first (and thus far only) girl


Along comes baby girl, who we chose to call Faith because she was praying in her ultrasound pictures. I’d like to say I was committed to breastfeeding her, but I wasn’t. I still just did not have the facts about the benefits of breastmilk and naively thought that formula was almost as good. I can say that my kidney problems and the kidney imaging that I had with dye (which I knew would be toxic through my breastmilk) was why I quit, but I could have pumped and dumped. (Better yet, I could have just realized that my kidneys were bad because of all the prescriptions Big Pharma kept giving me and toxifying my kidneys, especially the imaging dye which is ironically extremely hard on the kidneys, and my poor diet, but I didn’t at the time.)

So in all honesty, I used these obstacles as an excuse to quit breastfeeding my precious baby girl at 2 months old. She had done so well and thrived amazingly on 2 months of mama’s milk that I can’t believe I quit. After a few months on formula, my baby girl suffered from eczema (as a result of formula of course) and to this day has occasional lingering skin problems that appear once in a while. (Although a healthy diet, cod liver oil, probiotics, etc. have made a drastic improvement.)

But the thing I regret the most is the emotional bond that I missed out on for not breastfeeding my baby girl longer. Having breastfed my subsequent babies much longer (we’ll get to theirs in a minute), I can see a clear difference in the psychological bond between the babies I breastfed for an extended period of time and those I didn’t.

Baby #4: We’ve Finally Got It!

Daddy (my handsome hubby) feeding baby #4 mom’s milk soon after bringing him home from the hospital

Praise God for La Leche League, because this organization made all the difference this time around. After baby #4 was born, my husband and I (hubby was the only dad in the class, which I know now contributes to successful breastfeeding) took a breastfeeding class in the hospital. Afterwards, I enjoyed receiving LLL’s magazines and the inspiring breastfeeding stories it contained. (Little did I know that I would one day have my own story in there: http://www.llli.org/nb/nbmarapr07p60.html)

But it wasn’t easy at first. Born at 35 weeks, this little guy had to spend a little time in the NICU. In time for every feeding, I would rush down to the NICU with a bottle of freshly-pumped breastmilk because he was not latching onto my breast yet. One nurse was very supportive and called me in my hospital room if baby was hungry a little earlier than the feeding time. Other nurses, I later discovered, tried to resort to giving baby formula when the bottle of breastmilk was not there right away (or when they didn’t feel like looking in the fridge for it.) I had to make it very clear to all of the nurses that this baby would have breastmilk only.

Many of the NICU nurses were very unsupportive of me trying to spend time teaching my little one to latch on, but I persisted despite what they said. After all, he was my baby, wasn’t he?

Along with help and information from LLL and the support of my husband, I set a goal to breastfeed my 4th baby for 6 months. When the 6th month came and went by with ease this time around, I set a goal to breastfeed him until he was 1 year old. That, too, came with ease and I really began to enjoy breastfeeding an older baby. When baby #4 lost interest in breastfeeding and weaned himself at age 14 months, I was satisfied with our journey together.

Baby #5: Difficulties Didn’t Stop Us This Time!

Baby # 5 getting mom’s milk while mom picks fresh blueberries. Breastfeeding’s gotten so easy now!

This time around, I was more than committed to exclusive and extended breastfeeding. I had not only seen the health benefits of it with #4, but I had also seen the amazing differences it made in the psychological bonding process with baby. I also learned more about the nasty ingredients in formula, many of which were things that we had eliminated out of our diet, so why would I want a tender infant to have them?

Born at 34 weeks, the breastfeeding plans met with a little obstacle. But being the persistent person that I am, I immediately started pumping breastmilk while my poor little guy was hooked up to a ventilator downstairs in the NICU. I pumped, and I pumped, and I pumped!! I was tired, but I knew that if I didn’t get my milk supply off to a good start now, it may eliminate my hopes to breastfeed this one for at least a year.

Fortunately, my pumping was a success and baby continued to exclusively receive breastmilk through his feeding tube. After 2 weeks in the NICU, baby began taking a bottle with my milk. Nurses said that his mouth and breathing were still too immature to nurse, so we kept giving him bottles of my milk. (But because I did not have much trust in the medical field at this point, my husband and I took shifts in his NICU room so that one of us was always with him, making sure he was not getting shot with vaccines or given formula.)

I immediately posted a sign on the cupboard in his room containing the formula that this baby was NEVER to receive formula, and that there was a fridge full of mother’s milk. (Within the first few days, I had filled up the fridge.)

The freezer full of breastmilk for baby #5

At one point, our favorite NICU nurse said, “You know what? Let’s just take the formula out of his room.” So we did!

As he got better, I began working with him to latch on. I again had the help of a lactation nurse and while the nurses still wanted him to receive milk through a bottle, I immediately tossed out the bottles as soon as we took him home. Never again did he take a bottle!

Of course, it wasn’t always sunshine and roses. In the beginning, he started projectile vomiting and having horrible diaper rashes about 6 hours after vomiting. I would watch other babies nurse and peacefully fall asleep from being milk drunk and was jealous. My baby would scream in pain after nursing.

But thanks to God, I somehow figured out that it was an allergy to corn. I eliminated all sources of corn from my diet (including baking powder which has cornstarch!) and he was a happy, content baby, especially after nursing!

And that brings me to where we are at now. He is over 2 1/2 years old and still breastfeeding. I practiced ecological breastfeeding with him (see my post on that here) which not only helped us bond incredibly well but also successful delayed the onset of my menstrual cycle until just a few months ago. This has also given me time to replenish my nutritional reserves so that I can hopefully prevent a preterm birth with my next baby.

Anyway, that’s just my (long) journey of breastfeeding. Knowledge is power, and I sure wish I would have had more of it sooner! We need to break through the taboo on this topic and give our young women this knowledge so they, too, have power to make their own educated decisions.

I know there are many reasons why women physically cannot produce enough breastmilk for their babies, so I have some other information on that topic:

Inadequate Breastmilk Supply–Causes & Solutions

I also address the issue of extended breastfeeding by discussing the importance of our young women seeing babies breastfed and the truth about breastfeeding a toddler: What Exactly Is Extended Breastfeeding? And How Long Is Too Long?

I bet you’ve got a journey to share too! What’s your story?!

 

Lead-Free Solar Christmas Lights Giveaway!

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Published on December 7, 2012, by in Family Health.

I recently learned of the incredibly high levels of lead in Christmas lights. I guess most people see this, roll their eyes, and say, “Is anything safe anymore?!” But I read stuff like this and say, “Is this one simple change I can make right now to create a healthier future for my family?” You see, my family is incredibly healthy and has a much, much lower exposure to dangerous environmental toxins because 7 years ago, I started to make some changes. Now, my children aren’t exposed to chemical body care products, chemical fragrances (candles and perfumes), toxic cleaners, dollar store toys full of lead, etc., because I made these changes one at a time in the last seven years.

So what did I learn about Christmas lights?! Here are the facts:

A CNN analysis of four common brands of Christmas lights shows levels of lead experts say are high enough to be dangerous to children.

Manufacturers do not hide the fact that lead is part of the PVC insulation that insulates Christmas light wiring. Lead is used legally to stabilize polyvinyl chloride so it does not crack or crumble with age. The lead also acts as a fire retardant.

But the levels of surface lead surprised Dr. Leo Trasande, a specialist in children’s environmental health at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

“There is no level at which lead exposure is safe,” Dr. Trasande said. “Even at one microgram/deciliter — the lowest level in a person’s blood stream that we can detect — that level has been associated with cognitive impairment in children.”

In the four brands of lights tested, Quantex found surface lead levels far exceeding the CPSC’s recommended children’s limit of 15 micrograms.

Wal-Mart brand lights had the highest levels of surface lead, with levels ranging from 86.6 to 132.7 micrograms. GE lights showed surface lead levels from 68 to 109.1 micrograms. Sylvania had surface lead levels from 59 to 70.3 micrograms. Levels of surface lead in the lights made by Philips ranged from a low of 3.2 — well under the 15 microgram limit — to 107.2 in another sample.

For Trasande, the high levels of surface lead in the lights are a real concern.

“I wouldn’t needlessly expose [children] to a lead-based hazard that could have significant lifelong consequences for that child’s cognitive capacity or their attention or other health problems,” Trasande said. He recommended leaving lights off trees entirely.

In written statements, the four companies whose lights were tested all expressed concern about safety.

http://articles.cnn.com/2007-12-10/health/christmas.lights_1_christmas-lights-light-sets-high-levels?_s=PM%3AHEALTH

Lead exposure affects cognitive ability and behavior. Studies have shown that children with elevated blood lead levels have problems such as hyperactivity, attention dysfunction, aggression and lowered IQ. Lead can also harm the kidneys and reproduction and cause hypertension and gastrointestinal issues such as colic, nausea and constipation.

“I don’t think anyone thinks there is a safe level of lead,” said Dr. Jeffrey J. Fadrowski, a pediatric nephrologist at Hopkins Children’s Center

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/08/health/la-he-lead-20100308

Clinics and doctor’s offices offer many promotions to help parents get their children tested for elevated blood lead levels, but I’m going to choose to be proactive and let everyone know some of the ways we can prevent that from getting high, rather than just testing it to see if it’s high. (BTW: I don’t recommend doing blood lead level tests through most hospitals/clinics. That blood can be used for “research” purposes–at least in my state it can, which could involve a lot of things you wouldn’t want your child’s blood to be used for! That’s why government programs encourage so much blood lead level testing–not because they care but because they need this blood for research on things like vaccines and other profit-driven things.)

And this particular situation happens to be one more thing that I can make a small difference in the health of my children with, so I pursued it. Knowing what I knew, I knew I had to do something. There was no way I was going to be able to keep my toddler from constantly touching the Christmas lights on the tree. That would just give me a headache and him elevated blood lead levels.

So I researched, and found ONE company that offers Christmas (and other) lights held to a very high standard. Environmental Lights offers lead-free, RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) compliant. I contacted the company and they offered to provide me with lights for me to review and to giveaway.

I received the lights earlier this week and was really excited about the fact that they are solar-powered. Our family is looking for some land out of the city to become more self-sustainable and not to have so many darn bills, so solar-powered anything catches my attention lately!

These solar batteries can be charged in a window instead of outside, which is a nice feature for those of us living in the frozen northern tundra. (I’m in Minnesota. Please hold the northern accent impersonations like oofta and yah.) Since they need to be charged before use, I set them in my kitchen window (where the toddler can’t get them and break them, although they seem pretty darn durable!) and charged them for the whole day. That night, my hubby came home, wrapped the lights around the tree, and plugged in the solar batteries. And voila, just like any Christmas light, they came on bright and with many different modes to choose from–flashing, chasing, blinking, steady, etc.

We have a massive 12-foot tree and the 2 sets of 43-feet length (each) strands strung around the tree right up to the top. I didn’t think 2 sets of lights would make it, but they easily did. And I like that the lights are spaced only every four inches, so they’re closer together than some of the toxic light strands I’ve had.

We did have a problem with the lights turning off after being on for a couple of minutes, and I thought I didn’t charge the solar battery long enough. But my techie-teenager discovered that these lights (which are for indoor or outdoor use) are set to turn off when it is daylight, so they were just turning off because they sensed light. (Our house has lots of windows and lots of lights.) After turning the solar battery panels upside down on the floor underneath the tree, they stayed on!

In the morning, I unplug the solar panel and place it back in the window to charge, although I’m not sure it even needs it. The lights also have a very long (10-feet I think) lead in the cord so that you can keep the solar panel hooked up to the strand of lights and just put it in a window or through the window to outside. (If you do put it outside and live in a snowy area, the representative from Environmental Lights pointed out to make sure that you keep the snow brushed off of it.)

The lights are beautiful and I am extremely excited about these lights. In fact, I plan on buying some for next year while they are on sale! Here’s the link for the lights with more information, and lots of pictures! http://www.environmentallights.com/led-christmas-lights/led-solar-string-lights.html

(I’d post a picture of my tree but taking a picture in the dark of a Christmas tree with lights is very difficult for someone like me with no photography gifting and a hand-me-down cheap camera. If only I could get Nikon to let me “review” a high-quality camera… ;-) )

Another part I like about the company is when you buy from them, you are supporting people, not big conglomerate corporations.

EnvironmentalLights.com was founded in 2006 by Anne and Greg Thorson. Greg received an MBA and MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Brown University. Anne holds a BS in Management from Texas Woman’s University. EnvironmentalLights.com is a 100% American company founded in California, and when you buy from us, you are helping us provide great jobs that support local families.

And of course, Environmental Lights was kind enough to provide lights for me to review and to giveaway!

To enter the giveaway, follow the Rafflecopter instructions at the bottom of this post. A winner will be announced Monday morning, December 10th.

In the meantime, feel free to hop over to Environmental Lights and check out their lights. Right now, their solar lights (the ones I got to review) are on sale for half price. That price is SO worth it to me to not have to use electricity and especially to not have to worry about my children being exposed to lead every Christmas!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Kids Sick Constantly? Here’s how our family got out of that nasty cycle!

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Published on December 4, 2012, by in Family Health.

Having sick kids is NOT a normal part of life. It is common, yes, but not normal. We are led to believe that because a child’s immune system is not fully developed until at least age 6, they should be sick often. And we are told that every sickness they have makes their immune system stronger. So how come the kids that are always sick grow up to always be sick as teenagers and adults?!

Since changing our family’s dietary habits and lifestyle many years ago, I am amazed at how scarce sickness is in our home. While I once was part of the many parents finding their kids sick constantly through the winter and many times throughout the year, I can now count on one hand the amount of times our family gets sick in a few years!

Before we could get healthy, we first had to get rid of the many myths about our children being sick!

Myth: Frequent illnesses in childhood make their immune system stronger.
Truth: While occasional exposure to illness does stimulate a child’s immune function, overloading the system with constant illness does nothing but weaken a child’s immunity and ability to fight things off. Do we honestly think that indigenous tribes without hospitals had to have their children sick all of the time in order for them to be healthy adults?!!

Furthermore, frequent illnesses in childhood can indicate a higher risk for cancer. And at least 2/3 of all other chronic illnesses. A weakened immune system that cannot fight off a simple cold will most definitely not be able to fight off invading cancer cells or environmental allergens.

Myth: Germs are the cause of childhood illnesses
Truth: “The germ is nothing; the terrain is everything.” At the end of his life, Louis Pasteur realized that it was not the germ/bacteria that was the problem–it was the host for which that germ/bacteria invaded. If a person’s immune system is strong, they are able to fight off invading pathogens. A weak immune system and an unhealthy body is a perfect host for dangerous germs and bacteria.

Many children today are very often recurrently sick with ear infections, allergies, asthma and then, later in life, may develop autoimmune illnesses such as lupus, ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis. This is not because children just naturally pass around germs or have bad genes, but it is because their diets are inadequate. Antibiotics cannot prevent these problems. Only a diet of nutritional excellence can.
~Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Once we addressed these myths, we were able to move onto making some changes. Here are the ways our family avoids being constantly sick:

Healthy Foods

NO SUGAR

This is the #1 key to a healthy immune system. Here’s why: A study found that consumption of sugar reduced immune function for up to 5 hours after consumption. And the reduction of immune function was dose dependent, meaning more sugar equals a larger suppression of immune function.

So if a child consumes sugar at every meal (which is the case in at least 98% of American children’s diets because sugar is added to just about everything), their immune system is almost not even functioning at all.

Eliminating refined sugar has made one of the biggest differences in our family’s health, and it will in yours! Read all ingredients’ labels on the food your family eats and avoid anything listing sugar, evaporated cane juice, brown sugar, powdered sugar, etc. For more information, check out the information on how to do this in my No-Sugar Challenge.

Probiotics

The medical field often overlooks the most important part of our immune system: the gastrointestinal system, aka the gut. 70% of our immune system health lies in this overlooked part of our body, and much of the medical treatment we have today only damages it. (See below regarding antibiotics and vaccines destroying the gut.)

A healthy gut should be about 85% healthy “good” bacteria and 15% bad bacteria. Unfortunately, that ratio is virtually the exact opposite in most people today. This is for many reasons, including antibiotics, sugar, vaccines, chlorine, etc. (For more information on how our gut health is responsible for such a large part of our health, read my first post, part 1, of gut health here. And to read about the things that destroy our gut health and how they do that, read my second series of my gut health posts, Gut Destroyers, here. )

Probiotics, or foods/drinks/supplements containing healthy live bacteria help increase the good bacteria, thereby reducing the bad bacteria, thus strengthening the immune system. There are many different ways to get probiotics. Here is Part 3 of my series on gut health explaining probiotics and fermented foods.

Of course, a healthy diet is important to reduce risk of constant illness, but these are two of the dietary changes that will make the biggest difference.

Avoiding Vaccinations

As we briefly discussed above, vaccinations actually reduce immune health in many ways, one by destroying gut health. In our family, we didn’t stop vaccinating until child #4. We can see a clear difference in the children’s immune health for those who received vaccines vs. those who didn’t, as well as those who we used to give medications for and those we didn’t. (See below for more on that.) For more information on vaccines, you can read my post ‘To Vaccinate or Not: A Physical AND Spiritual Decision’ here.

Avoiding Medicines and Other Medical Intervention

Like vaccines, injecting or giving our children’s bodies chemicals will never help them become healthy. Period. It will only cause their body to have to raise its defenses and work even harder to fight off foreign pathogens, which actually weakens them. Here are some of the drugs (prescription and over-the-counter) that are used in common childhood illnesses which actually make them sicker in the long run:

Antibiotics

As described in my post about Gut Destroyers, antibiotics are infamous for destroying good gut bacteria, which you’ll remember is where 70% of our immune system lies. Like sugar, antibiotics are one of the most detrimental things to our children’s immune health. And they are being used way too often in America. So much so that doctors in other countries condemn American doctors for handing it out like candy for every little cold and flu that children get. Every time the doctor prescribes your child antibiotics for ear infections, colds, flus, and even things like strep throat and bronchitis, it is a giant step in the wrong direction. It may help temporarily, but it predisposes the child to even more problems in the future.

Check out my post The Creator’s Natural Antibiotics for some alternatives!

Fever Reducers

Reducing a fever is another very big and detrimental mistake parents (and doctors) make in their children’s health. Did you know that it takes a fever of 102 degrees F. in order for the body to send out the troops (the white blood cells)? When we prevent the body from doing that, we weaken their immune system and their ability to fight off infections. In fact, over time, consistently reducing a fever actually increases a person’s risk of cancer.

Instead of treating the fever, we must recognize it as part of God’s great design of our bodies to heal itself. For more information on fevers, read my post ‘Fever: What Every Parent Needs To Know About God’s Design’ here.

Avoiding medical intervention for everyday illnesses helps our family avoid the bombardment of prescription drugs thrown at us that only mask or temporarily relieve symptoms but do not address the underlying cause. In fact, it is shown that more medical intervention does nothing to reduce illness:

In related news, a recent study by the Cochrane Library3, the gold standard for independent medical reviews, found that:

“General health checks did not reduce morbidity or mortality, neither overall nor for cardiovascular or cancer causes, although the number of new diagnoses was increased. Important harmful outcomes, such as the number of follow-up diagnostic procedures or short term psychological effects, were often not studied or reported and many trials had methodological problems. With the large number of participants and deaths included, the long follow-up periods used, and considering that cardiovascular and cancer mortality were not reduced, general health checks are unlikely to be beneficial.”

This may sound shocking to many, as general health checks are typically considered to be part and parcel of early disease detection and prevention. However, after reviewing the health outcomes of nearly 183,000 people, the researchers found that, in terms of making you live longer, getting regular health check-ups doesn’t appear to make a difference…
From Dr. Mercola: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/11/25/excessive-screening-tests.aspx

We can see that having a diagnosis does not reduce mortality rates and also exposes patients to dangerous intervention. For example, X-rays and CT scans pose increased risk of cancer from exposure to radiation; drugs alter the natural chemical processes of our body and lead to worse side effects; mercury fillings from dentists lead to multiple chronic health problems, stupid advice from doctors to do things like quit breastfeeding when mom’s sick, to put baby on acid reflux drugs, to give baby sugary drinks when they are underweight, and on and on. Avoiding regular doctor’s visits has actually really helped keep us healthy! It seems the less we go to the doctor, the less we NEED to go to the doctor!

Homeschooling


If you look at illness outbreaks in history, you will notice that most of them, if not all of them, originated in crowded cities. Discovery Channel researcher Robert Lamb points out:

It wasn’t until humans began gathering in larger populations that contagious diseases had the opportunity to spread to epidemic proportions. The emergence of epidemic diseases closely follows the rise of crowded cities.

Past plagues and outbreaks spread like wildfire in crowded cities. Even today, outbreaks of things like measles, meningitis, and whooping cough all tend to happen in schools and daycares. Because let’s face it–crowding hundreds of children in a single building for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, is just unnatural. Not to mention the junk that these children are fed in school cafeterias which just contribute to the problem more.

Additionally, public/private schools and daycares are filled with vaccinated children. When a child receives a vaccine for a live virus, such as influenza, measles, rubella, chickenpox, and rotavirus, their body is carrying around that disease for days and even up to weeks after receiving the vaccine, which can infect other children with that disease. This is called vaccine shedding and explains why outbreaks often happen at places where children spend a lot of time around other children after being vaccinated. For more information on vaccine shedding, go here: http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2008/02/24/secondary-transmission-%EF%BB%BFthe-short-and-sweet-about-live-virus-vaccine-shedding/.

Homeschooling is another reason why our family has experienced such great health. Not only do we avoid the crowded petri dish-type environment of brick-and-mortar schools and daycares, but we are completely in control of the food that goes into their bodies too! It’s not about avoiding all sickness; it’s about not unnaturally overloading and bombarding our children’s bodies.

Extended Breastfeeding

I’m pretty sure most of us know the amazing health benefits of breastmilk. But just to be sure, let me give you a quick rundown. Did you know that breastfeeding can even help prevent many of the diseases for which vaccines are given? For instance, the inventor of the Polio vaccine, Jonas Salk, discovered in his research that breastmilk neutralizes polio infection! It was found in other research to protect against meningitis, Hib, measles, whooping cough, and even cancer! For more on that topic, check out this awesome article: http://www.vaccineriskawareness.com/Disease-Killing-Properties-Of-Breast-Milk

Not only is breastmilk extremely health-promoting (while formula is very much health-destroying–did you know it contains refined sugar?! and vegetable oils?! which weaken the immune system and cause inflammation), there are other things about breastmilk that makes it keep our babies and toddlers strong. For instance, skin-to-skin contact stimulates the body’s immune cells! And whenever mom is exposed to an illness, her body develops immune cells for that illness that she passes on to baby in her breastmilk! How cool is God’s design?!!

And why stop breastfeeding when they are babies? Their immune system needs all the help it can get until at least age 2! (For more information on extended breastfeeding, read my post ‘What Exactly Is Extended Breastfeeding, And How Long Is Too Long?!’ here.)

I can see a direct correlation in immune system strength and overall health in my five children according to the length they were breastfed. My fifth child is 2 1/2 years old and still breastfeeds multiple times each day. Unlike most toddlers, he does not walk around with a constant runny nose and has been sick about 3 times in his lifetime. And he was a preemie baby! That’s the power of breastmilk!

While not all of these options are available to everyone, they are the things that have made a major change in our family’s health. I definitely do not miss all of the inconveniences and difficulties that came with our children being sick all of the time! And I am grateful that our good health has allowed us to have more time and energy for serving God!

So which of these changes can you begin making in your family to help strengthen their bodies and their spirits?!

For more information, here are some great reads:

Are Antibiotics Necessary for Strep Throat? A great article on defeating strep throat once and for all from the Healthy Home Economist: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/are-antibiotics-necessary-for-strep-throat/

Cod liver oil reduces children’s upper respiratory infections
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21677119

Beyond Antibiotics–A complete overview of the overuse of antibiotics and the implications and health problems of its overuse by Dr. Lawrence Wilson
http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/antibiotics.htm

Consequences of excessive antibiotic use, including the inefficacy of using it to treat ear infections
http://www.healthychild.com/pharmaceutical-drugs/consequences-of-excessive-antibiotic-use/

Why Our Children Are So Sick by Janet Levatin, MD, Holistic Pediatrician, a brief post about the role vaccines play in increasing childhood health problems.
http://tenpennyimc.com/2012/07/16/why-are-our-children-so-sick/

Why Are Kids So Sick Today? One of my all-time favorite articles on the topic–simple, concise, and to-the-point. Highly recommended.
http://www.eves-best.com/why-are-kids-so-sick-today.htm

Too Little Vitamin D May Mean More Colds & Flu:
Researchers found that those with less than 10 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood, considered low, were nearly 40 percent more likely to have had a respiratory infection than those with vitamin D levels of 30 ng or higher. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/infectious-diseases/articles/2009/02/23/too-little-vitamin-d-may-mean-more-colds-and-flu

My post: How To Avoid The Flu Without Getting A Flu Shot

Blessings of good health,

~Sara

 

How to get CHEAP and fresh organic produce!

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Published on November 15, 2012, by in Family Health, Natural Families.

Can you imagine getting organic produce year-round for one-third to one-half of the store price?! Our family was extremely blessed when we were invited to join a new organic produce co-op in our area. Since we joined, we have been able to get tons more fresh, organic produce for way less than we paid at the grocery store. And many of the things that we were unable to find (or afford) organically-grown before we can now get! As an added bonus, this produce is much fresher than the stuff we were getting at the grocery store.

(This is actually a picture of some of my farmer’s market finds, hence the honey.)

And the best part is that it’s easy to start your own co-op (depending on what part of the country you live in of course)! While some produce co-ops offer only fresh produce, others additionally offer local meats, dairy products, and grains.

The first thing you will need is a central pickup location big enough to accommodate a truckload of produce boxes, and a group of other families wanting to purchase organic foods. The amount of families you will need depends on what the distribution company’s minimum order is. Many of them will be around $500 for a weekly or bi-weekly delivery.

Our produce co-op drop site is a local church with a gymnasium. Do one of the parents who are interested in the co-op belong to a church with a big area like that? Or how about a business with a loading site? If you live in colder climates, you will want to make sure that it is indoors because these are year-round.

After you have a drop site location, contact your local grocery store that usually has a fair supply of organic produce. Go with the bigger chain grocery stores if possible. Talk to the produce manager and ask who their distributor is. If you get this information, either find their contact information online or ask the store’s produce manager for it.

If they do not offer this information out, try calling another grocery store and asking them. You can even ask grocery stores up to 50 miles away as the produce distributors will often have a large delivery zone.

Sometimes, you can even find an organic distributing company just be doing a google search online.

Once you contact the distributors, ask them necessary info such as what the minimum delivery order amount is, how often the deliveries are (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.), and what their return policy is (for bad/moldy produce). And make sure they deliver to your area!

From there, you should be able to finalize the details. Some produce companies have an online ordering system where you would give each co-op family their own login information.

Finally, if you are unable to order directly through the distributors, there is still another way you can try and get organic produce for less. This will again require contacting your grocery store’s produce manager. Ask them what the minimum order would be to order in bulk from the grocery store themselves. This will of course not be as cheap as cutting out that middle man (the grocery store) but it will be cheaper than buying from the grocery store at their regular price.

In addition to getting produce for less from our organic produce co-op, our family also orders from Azure Standard, a 2,000-acre farm and distribution company in Oregon. They offer bulk grains, beans, legumes, meats, produce, etc. for excellent prices! For instance, we get organic rolled oats for around 75 cents a pound! This company is committed to avoiding GMO foods and has excellent customer service.

To find out if Azure Standard has a monthly drop site by you, contact them at 541-467-2230 or go to their website http://www.azurestandard.com/ . (Note that not all drop sites are listed on the website so it is best to call them if you do not find one in your area.)

For more information on how to eat naturally on an unnatural budget, check out my other post here.

How about doing some gardening? Yes, it’s even possible in suburbia too! We use the empty lot by our house to garden, and you can freeze/can your produce to last you through the winter too! Did you know that food stamps can be used to purchase garden seeds? Anyone can afford to get cheap vegetables this way!

And of course don’t forget about local farmers’ markets–a great way to get fresh produce for CHEAP! Check out http://localharvest.org/

Do you have any other tips to share on getting organically-grown produce for less? Please share if you do!

Blessings of good health,

Sara Jo Poff
Biblical Health Counselor

 

7 Common Defenses Against Healthy Eating

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Published on November 11, 2012, by in Christian Encouragement, Family Health, Natural Families.

Sometimes when the Spirit of God convicts us about something, we become experts at defending our current position to prevent having to face the need for change.

In the health world, there are a few main defenses commonly used against healthy living and eating. Some of them have good points; others are straight-up excuses. So I’d like to take a few minutes to sort through them together!

Defense #1: Eating natural foods can become a “god”

Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
Philippians 3:19

Oof, did you catch that middle phrase? That was a punch in the gut for me when I first read it! How many times have I rejected something healthy, something my body clearly could have gotten nutrition from, and chosen something without any nutrients whatsoever?! For so many years, I let my stomach be my god, deciding to eat what I craved instead of what my body needed.

So is it possible that the verse above can be used on the flip side, to say that healthy eating can become its own “god?”

Yes, I think so. And I think this is a good point. However, there are also faults in this argument. And it’s not likely that the verse was meant in this context. But before we get to the faults in this argument, I would like to discuss the truth in this point. Sometimes, people seek to eat healthy foods for the wrong reason–they do it to prevent any and all forms of disease and sickness, essentially in an effort to control their future. A small percentage of people have an extreme, unhealthy fear of sickness which dictates their life. This is called orthorexia and while often portrayed in the media as anyone who cares about what they eat, this disorder is rare and does not deserve to be put into the same category as everyone who puts care into what they eat.

Why not? Because most people have a bigger reason for choosing to eat whole, natural foods: To become a more effective servant for God and His purpose for our life. Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Koop said, “At least 2 out of every 3 deaths in the U.S. result from dietary-inflicted diseases/illnesses.”

Anyone who has made drastic dietary changes are astonished with the difference in how they feel–physically, mentally, and spiritually. This is exactly why Daniel in the Old Testament chose to restrict his and his men’s diet.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food.

Daniel 1:8-15

Daniel’s choice to reject the king’s foods and eat only “whole” foods resulted in a major testimony to God and His people. And as an added bonus, it made His people more fit for battle!

We may not be able to prevent ALL sickness and disease, but we sure can utilize the foods that GOD GAVE US to strengthen us for battle!

Take my word on this one. While so many families around us constantly struggle with flu viruses, strep throat, constant runny noses, constant headaches, fatigue, etc., this almost NEVER happens to us. We are barely ever weighed down with illnesses like these and kept from fulfilling God’s purpose for us to reach out to others in various ways! I remember the days when I had to sit in my van in the church parking lot with a severe migraine while the rest of my family was inside for Sunday worship services. (Of course, I drank Diet Coke back then and no one told me the connection between the two.) I remember the days when I missed Bible study for doctor’s appointments for problems that I know now were related to eating refined, processed foods. And on it goes.

Defense #2: It’s Obsessive To Think of Food All The Time

Can it be obsessive to think about what we eat all the time? Yes, especially when those thoughts are driven by an addiction to sugar and fast food! Lysa TerKeurst says in Made to Crave:

I was just eating too much of the wrong kinds of foods and felt trapped in a cycle of hunger. I felt hungry all the time.”

This is what the current American diet full of sugar and refined carbs does to us! Refined sugars stimulate hunger constantly. And other things in our food like MSG turn off the signaling hormone that tells us when our stomach is full, so we overeat!

Ironically, the same people who use this particular defense are stuck in a cycle of addiction to foods like these. The good news is that Jesus came to set us free from these things!

There’s an additional point that deems mentioning here. Would you look at indigenous tribes whose whole lives revolve around raising/growing food and call them obsessive? How about Ma & Pa Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie–all that time spent milking the cow, making cheese, growing and harvesting wheat, etc. I address these points and more in my article, “Isn’t It Obsessive To Think About Food All The Time?”

Defense #3: All Things In Moderation

All food is clean, but not all things people think are food are actually food! Can you have moderation of anti-freeze in your diet? That is what propylene glycol is, used in almost all store-bought ice cream. How about moderation of wood pulp? Or human hair? Or animal hair? Yes, those things are commonly found in foods, too. Of course, you wouldn’t see them listed as such on food packaging labels.

We do not tell a smoker that they can have cigarettes in moderation, or an alcoholic to have alcohol in moderation. By physical, scientific standards (not societal standards however), refined sugar is a Class A drug. Like cocaine and heroine, it starts out as a perfectly natural, God-created plant. Through chemical refinement, it becomes a white powdery substance that wreaks havoc on our health. In laboratory studies, sugar was found to be three times more addictive than cocaine. In fact, test subjects who were addicted to cocaine chose sugar over cocaine when given the choice. For more information on the topic of sugar as a Class A drug, read my post From All-Natural To Class A Drug: How Refinement Makes Cocaine, Heroine, & Sugar.

Additionally, will we tell someone with a dairy or wheat allergy that they should have these things in moderation? Or a peanut allergy? Just because our bodies do not immediately react with anaphylaxis does not meant that certain foods are not wreaking havoc on our bodies. And sometimes, the effects of certain foods, such as sugar, cannot be seen until that substance is removed from the diet and a person is able to tell the difference in their health and energy when that food is eliminated.

One author poignantly suggests:

Of course the choice to live and choose how to eat is yours and yours alone – do with your life what you will, but please don’t excuse your bad choices and justify by declaring; ‘Everything in moderation.’

(http://divinehealthfromtheinsideout.com/2012/07/everything-in-moderation/)

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 1 Corinthians 10:23

Defense #4: Trusting Health Advice from Doctors and the FDA

Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Koop states that “At least 2 out of every 3 deaths in the U.S. result from dietary-inflicted diseases/illnesses.” It wasn’t until at least the 1970′s when doctors began learning that nutrition played a role in our health. Doctors too quickly cite “genetics” for the cause of chronic diseases and even have the audacity to feed cancer patients sugar, the very thing that feeds cancer cells!

Genetics are not the main issue here–there is something else called EPIGENETICS, or the effect of environment on our genes. Environmental things like food pesticides, lawn chemicals, prescription drugs, etc., actually have the power to physically alter our genes, right down to the DNA level. This is why in Vietnam, four generations later, they are still dealing with the effects of the U.S.’s Agent Orange attack on their land.

Would it make any sense to think that the gasoline we put into our car does not affect how our car runs?

The average person uses more care in selecting the grade of gasoline to put into their automobiles than they do the food they put in their mouth. Rev. George Malkmus

Just because the medical field does not recognize the incredible link between what we put in our bodies and disease does not mean it doesn’t exist. It means that the medical field still has a lot to learn about God’s design.

And the most important reason I want to mention this defense against healthy eating is because many people take their doctor’s word for the denial of a link between nutrition and chronic disease. The reason this is important to point out is because this is placing Man (Doctors) in a god-like position, following their information without humbly seeking wisdom from God. This is a big topic, so for more on it, please read my post In Medicine We Trust.

Additionally, it is common for people to naively trust the FDA the same way we can naively trust doctors. We think to ourselves, “the FDA wouldn’t allow bad things in our food, would they?!” Unfortunately, we fail to realize that the FDA has become too corrupt to care more about its citizens’ well-being than it does about money. “For the love of money is the root of all evil”… Who do you trust–God’s infinite design and wisdom in His Creation or the FDA? It just so happens I have an article on this topic as well. Check out my article Would The Government Allow Bad Things In Our Food?

Defense #5: Time, Knowledge, & Money

One of my Facebook posts had the following comment:

Our food supply has been altered and changed so much that it’s near impossible to truly eat the way God intends. And if you are middle class or above, you have to spend a great deal of time educating yourself on what is truly healthy and what people have done to create sickness and disease in the name of the almighty dollar. Also, inner city and suburbanites who are financially below middle class are sorta out of luck because inexpensive food is also unhealthy and loaded with crap! So… you must either live out in the country somewhere and grow your own food, or, have enough time and money to buy healthy food and research and educate yourself… When I look at the big picture and not just my own little world, I don’t believe eating healthy (truly healthy that is) is possible for all people, at least in the U.S….

How many of you can agree to that? This commenter brings up a fair point and a common defense against healthy living/eating.

But this too, has faulty logic. An organic apple costs the same as a candy bar. A bag of baby carrots costs the same as a bag of chips. And a homemade omelet with organic cheddar and organic eggs costs around $1.50 per serving, compared to $4 per person for a fast food meal.

You see, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

I find this defense to be especially used in favor of not having to cook!

The point made about it being difficult to obtain knowledge and learning about what’s healthy or bad is fair. To that, I want to quote God’s Word:

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
Hosea 4:6

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through wisdom, your days will be many, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.
Proverbs 9:10-12

We are rejecting knowledge, and it is cutting years off of our life. We live in an age with unprecedented technology–media, Internet, libraries full of books…It is easier now to learn about our health more than ever. Thus, this defense is busted too.

Finally, what about the defense about how much of our food supply is filled with bad things? Yes, at least 70% of the stuff at grocery stores is full of chemically-refined, processed, dead food.

Ah, but I digress! Never before have we had so much access to healthy foods! Fresh lettuce in the dead of winter? Aisles full of fresh, tropical fruits like bananas and pineapple? Frozen fruits and vegetables year round? Wild salmon available year round, even to those living 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean?! Yes, this defense bites the dust too.

Defense #6: All Food Is “Clean”

I take issue with this defense because it is so commonly taken out of context and always used as an excuse. Yes, all food is “clean.” We will not lose our salvation based on something we do or don’t eat. But we don’t eat healthy based on the fear of losing our salvation. I struggle to fathom the reason why this point even needs to be made.

And please don’t cite Peter’s vision on the rooftop where God declared all animals “clean.” This verse is too commonly taken out of context as an excuse to eat pork and shellfish. This was clearly and most obviously a situation where God was calling the Good News of salvation to be brought to ALL people, not just the Jews. Such an awesome story of God reaching out to everyone, and yet people use it to excuse their eating habits.

Besides–if you say all food is “clean,” make sure you mean FOOD. As mentioned above, most processed, packaged foods today contain things that are not “food” and were never meant to be consumed as such.

Defense #7: Social Graces

If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake.
1 Corinthians 10:27

Ah, we finally come to the one defense with merit! Yes, this verse brings up a good point. It would be disrespectful in some situations to come into someone’s home upon their kind invitation and reject the food they present before you.

However, I do want to make a few points on this verse:

1. Not everything we “eat” is actually food, as mentioned above. This deems consideration in all defenses.

2. If everyone around us eats unhealthy “foods,” we will find ourselves suffering ill effects as a result. Here’s an example: A close friend of mine had a baby this year. Out of generosity and care for this special woman, many people brought her meals. For an exhausted mom with a new babe, this is such a blessing! Ah, but in this case, it turned out not to be. Within a few days, mom began swelling up with symptoms of edema. Why? Because all of this unhealthy processed food that she was not used to was wreaking havoc on her body! Too often, we bring new moms and ill brothers and sisters JUNK. This has to change. And the only way it is going to change is if we can lovingly educate and encourage others to provide foods for each other that NOURISH!

3. Be the light! Along the same line of the points made above, I have personally seen the difference it makes to encourage others to change their eating habits. Whenever we go to an extended family get-together, I bring food for my own small family and to share with my extended family. After doing this for 7 years, every single person in my extended family has made amazing changes to the foods they eat! Just think of how much sicker and unhealthy they would be right now if I had just eaten junk food with them and not cared enough about them to show them a better way!! Additionally, I have found that when I offer to bring at least some of the food to these gatherings, it relieves the host of at least some work, which is very much appreciated!

In Summary

We do have a problem, Church. A BIG one. (Pun intended.)

“America is becoming known as a nation of gluttony and obesity, and churches are a feeding ground for this problem. If religious leaders and organizations neglect this issue, they will contribute to an epidemic that will cost the health-care system millions of dollars and reduce the quality of life for many parishioners.”
~Ken Ferraro, professor of sociology at Purdue University who has studied religion and body weight since the early 1990s.

This is what the world sees when they look at the Church. The Body of Christ is obese, and everyone else sees it.

I would like to summarize this article with a comment I received on my Facebook page:

We don’t eat healthfully because the Bible demands it or for religious reasons of any kind. We eat healthfully because we believe that since God is the designer, he made people to eat the food he created as close to the way he created it as possible. When we add in extra man-made ingredients even in an attempt to do good, our bodies aren’t designed to handle those things as well as the things God created. His ways are always better. For instance, we attempted to create an antibiotic to kill germs but it is not complex enough to keep the germs from adapting to it. Germs don’t adapt to garlic and other natural antibiotics because they are so complex.

I do not in any way believe it is sin to eat junk food. But I do believe that there are natural consequences for eating junk. As long as I have my 2 year old on a sugar-free, junk free diet full of good stuff that God made, I have every confidence that we can use things God made to fight any illness. When we’re eating food that our bodies have to fight and filter along with fighting the germs, they don’t always do so well.

So, we eat well because we trust God. We trust his design.

Do you trust God? Do you trust the way He designed foods in their original state? Do you ever stop to think about how intricately He designed these foods, and how He designed them specifically for our bodies? Or are you looking for an excuse to continue walking in the flesh?

I’ll close with a verse that proves this is an area that God cares about:

“They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.” Psalm 78:18

The Israelites wanted food more than they wanted God. And what became of them? They never reached the Promised Land. They wandered in the desert for forty years and no one but Joshua and Caleb was allowed to enter the land flowing with milk and honey. Too many of God’s people today are wandering in the desert, unable to enter into the abundant life God has for them because we willfully put Him to the test over food.

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