I've had an interest in natural living for a fairly long time. But I was also a chemical addict for most of my youth.
I LOVEEEED processed food. I would rather eat a tv dinner than my mom's cooking. My favorite foods were Cheetohs and Lays...yes Lays...not potato chips in general because I to this day don't care for Kettle Chips or Ruffles, but lays in particular. I am guessing it must have a chemical that makes it particularly addictive? I don't know.
I also really loved the "shitty" cafeteria food. It was so overly processed and most likely void of any nutritional value but for me, it tasted amazing. Some people like chocolate, some like burgers, I liked Banquet frozen dinners, especially the fried chicken. It did not taste like chicken at all, and once I got older I realized it wasn't really food, but I still had it as my "junk food" and as a child I had it as actual dinners!
I never got fat or had an major health problems (aside from a cat allergy I developed when we got a cat) but I did develop gallstones when I was 20.
Apparently, gallstones are genetic, and my father had his gallbladder taken out, and my sister had hers out soon after I got mine taken out. The difference is, both my sister and my father were a lot older when their surgery happened. My sister was 40...I was 20. I strongly believe that the reason my gallstones developed was because of my childhood diet. I do not believe that having a genetic predisposition means you will actually develop a disease/disorder, it just means that you are more likely to. My sister was raised in South America where processed foods and fast food chains like McDonalds were only really made wildly available in the past 20 years. She was raised on whole fruits (in my opinion, the best fruits in the world- Cherimoyas, starfruit, and granadilla are wildly available in South America and incredibly cheap!), veggies, grains and meats. I was raised in the United States, so aside from my parent's cooking, I had the added element of frozen dinners, cafeteria food, fast food, and "fruit" snacks that probably sped up the development of my gallstones.
When I first started getting symptoms- abdominal pain, vomiting, I would go to the doctors and they always just assumed I had food poisoning. No one would bother to do an ultrasound. My roommates though i was bulimic and even went to the Resident Advisor concerned about me. I thought I was lactose intolerant so I cut out milk and switched to soy. I noticed that when I ate fatty foods in particular, I would develop pain, so I tried staying away from meats and started eating more fruits and vegetables.
At the time (perhaps my body was trying to fix itself) I was also learning about the raw food diet and trying to incorporate more fresh raw fruits and vegetables into my diet. I have always been fascinated with food and forms of eating. I remember when I was 10 I did a lot of research on the Atkins diet, although I never actually went on it (love carbs too much).
Anyway back to the stones...
It eventually got to the point where even a salad would set off a gallstone attack and one day I finally had to go to the ER where they finally took an ultrasound and found the real cause of my problem. They dosed me up with morphine for the pain (which by the way, I do not understand how people do it recreational-y! It just makes you drowsy!) and had me stay in the hospital overnight to have surgery the next day.
After the surgery they told me I could eat whatever I want, but after doing research I learned that people without gallbladders run the risk of developing liver stones. So I think you should not always blindly follow what doctors say. After all, doctors were the people who kept diagnosing my gallstones as food poisoning.
The surgery made me more motivated to switch to a healthy lifestyle. I used to love eating sandwich meat with canned veggies. I don't do that anymore. While I still ate my junk food, I learned to recognize frozen dinners as junk food and stopped eating them as my actual meals.The more I learn about food the more I realize that so many of today's illnesses that are seen as a natural part of growing old, are actually avoidable with proper care of ones body. We live in a society where we slather ourselves in perfumes, spray our hair full of chemicals, put highly toxic substances on our body to make our skin soft, mask our face with makeup full of chemicals we can't even pronounce and then we use even more chemical products to try to eliminate the pimples and age lines that develop from years of abusing our skin. We eat food with little to no nutritional value full of preservatives and then take chemical drugs to try to mask the symptoms of being malnourished and overly toxic.
I do not believe in masking problems, not in life, not in relationships, and not when it comes to your health, and so I have chosen to get to the root of the problems.
In the past few years I have
-developed clearer skin by switching to mineral makeup (I've noticed people who wear MAC in particular, have horrible skin) and taking supplements of plants with high progesterone levels. Hormones play a large part in the development of acne, which is why some people find that going on birth control pills clears up their skin. But it also comes with the added risk of breast cancer.
-went from being sick every month to never getting sick at all simply by juicing.
-cured a cavity without having to go to the dentist.
And now I want to get really serious about it.
I am
- Starting to compost
-growing my own herbs
-looking into a community garden to grow my own fruits and veggies
- giving away my toxic cookware and replacing it with safer alternatives
-cooking/preparing my own foods and eating out less
- switching to natural hygiene products
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