11/12 - Some Food Changes

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So I've been researching some stuff over the past few weeks and have scared our family into a different direction.
1. No more sugar-substitute foods. It's the real thing or nothing. No more diet or low sugar or low calorie. I was never open minded enough before to even contemplate this but wow, my eyes are open now. No more Splenda and aspartame (among a few others).
2. No more dairy!!!! I know. That's crazy. I love milk, cheese, and ice cream (frozen yogurt actually). This has been the hardest by far, to give up. After reading more research on the area of milk, I freaked out Brad and I and now no one in the house can have any kind of milk product. It's a huge change for us but the research out there is just too scary to be trying to drink it. We are the only species that tries to drink another species milk. You can read on one of the 2 links below if you want more information.

Link to a fairly long article about the negative affects of milk:

http://josquin.tripod.com/milk.htm

Link to a shorter article about milk and addresses the common myths many people have heard about milk:

http://lorton.patch.com/articles/milk-it-does-nobody-good

These adjustments left me starving for a few days because I didn't know what I could eat!! Haha. OK. So I went to the library and checked out a few books. I made my own granola and muffins (made from almond meal, not white or wheat flour). We are looking for a dehydrator now so we can make our own dried fruit and beef/turkey jerky so we have some more snack options.

After reading the library books I checked out and some other stuff on the web, we decided looking into the Paleo way of eating might be right for us (hard, but healthier than what we have been doing). So, I got a book and this is it:

We are not trying to lose weight. We are trying to allow ourselves to feel better and have more energy. The more I read about kids and milk and eating foods with preservatives in them, the more I get scared that I am just setting myself up for health problems and my children. I love them and don't want to doom them chronic sickness. In the real Paleo method of eating, you are not allowed to have any grains (nope, not even whole grains). However, based on the research that I have done, I feel comfortable allowing us to continue to consume some grains but we are trying to make them healthier ones. We had roasted butternut squash the other night along with some kale chips I made. Squash = yummy; Kale chips = we'll try those again in a week or two :)

We even bought a book that explains to the boys what we are doing and how we are chaining our eating patterns right now. We are doing this as a family for 6 weeks and then we will reassess how we are feeling.

The boys are doing just fine with Almond Milk but they are struggling to try and find a non-dairy yogurt that is okay. I've tried an almond milk based yogurt and the consistency/texture is much different and neither of the boys liked it. I also tried goat's milk yogurt (at least it is similar in make-up to human milk and supposed to be much easier to digest) but they don't really like that either. We are trying to find replacements for their most common foods and it's going pretty well so far. Aiden and I are likely to see the most benefit from this non-dairy change but Eli could as well. Asthma and eczema are both related to dairy consumption (along with chronic ear problems from all the mucus milk makes you produce) so we'll see. We are just keeping an open mind and trying to find something that works for our family and allows us to feel a bit better. We'll keep you updated.