My MD has told me to take nutritional supplements. Lots of them.
So I do. And they have made a huge difference as I recover from the malnutrition caused by undiagnosed celiac disease.
But I don’t like buying supplements. They are very expensive, and I would rather spend the money on top-quality food for my family. So, now that I feel healthy, I want to wean myself off supplements.
When I discussed this goal with my MD, he was blunt. My only chance, he said, is to eat fanatically well, and even then I may still need some supplements.
It occurred to me that healthy people should be able to greatly reduce their supplement requirements and increase their health if they eat as I was told to. Therefore I’m sharing this information with you.
Here’s what my MD, an expert in nutrition, recommended:
While continuing to follow the general rules for good nutrition, focus on
- Vegetables
- Raw foods
- Organic foods
- Fresh, raw vegetable juices
- Sprouted and soaked grains and legumes
- Cultured foods—not just yoghurt, but also home-cultured vegetables
Is this a realistic list? Yes and no.
It’s easy to eat more vegetables. It’s also easy to eat them raw. (Note that too much fruit is too sweet for most people; it’s more important to enjoy vegetables.)
If organic produce is not an option for your family, you can concentrate on produce that contains fewer pesticides. We grow as much of our own food as possible for this reason.
If you don’t have a juicer, you can’t make raw juices. Commercial juices are often not raw, and I cannot afford a juicer, so I’ll ignore this step and concentrate on the other ones. (And when I’ve saved supplement money, I’ll be able to buy a juicer.)
Don’t know how to soak, sprout or culture your food? That’s where things get tricky for us, too. We’ve tried all three, but have never become comfortable with them. However, there’s so much information out there about these time-honoured food preparation methods! I’m going to reread my soaking/sprouting recipe book and I’m going to spend more time with Wardeh at her information-packed blog for encouragement and practical tips.
Undoubtedly my family and I will become healthier. Then we will be able to save money on supplements and use that for real food instead. If you take any (or all) of my doctor’s recommendations, your family will benefit as well.
For more great tips, see Works For Me Wednesday , Women Living Well Wednesdays, Healthy 2Day, Raising Homemakers, Encourage One Another Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, and Frugal Friday.
Good luck on your journey. I would also recommend checking out Kelly the kitchen Kop and her blog hop Real Food Wednesday.
http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2011/10/real-food-wednesday-10192011.html#comment-99108
There are a lot of people that post there and the recipes are all real food based. Plus there are a lot of cultured recipes and information.
I am also impressed that an MD is recommending sprouted and cultured foods. Most still think saturated fat is bad for you. You are lucky to have an MD that knows nutrition.
We use supplements even though we’re eaters of real foods. For one thing, our budget is such that the supplements are cheaper than the grassfed beef, for the most part. For another thing, the food being grown now is just not as full of nutrients as it was in the past. We do grow a lot of food in our suburban yard which helps.
I think of eating real food as a journey. There are times when I have to take 2 steps back, and I keep trying to move forward. As you mentioned, not all the food works for my family. My kids and I love kombucha, but not my husband. I still haven’t mastered a good homemade kefir. And, I just keep working at it!
That’s very interesting. I believe in the power of real foods, but could stand to eat more!
Hi, Annie Kate, I love the direction you are heading. We’ve been married for almost 38 years and soaking has made a huge difference in our son ( and me) who was wasting away with leaky gut after exposure to Stachybotris mold (much like your celiac issue). I posted an article (with some of my own thoughts added) by Weston A. Price Foundation when I first started blogging b/c it was so foundational to us. http://www.deeprootsathome.com/?p=533
Also, we just made soaked breakfast cookie this morning (an experiment). We soaked the rolled oats all day yesterday to get out the phytic acid, put them in a sieve for an hour and pressed the excess water out, then spread them on a tray on parchment paper and into the oven overnight. amazing that they were almost dry this morning. Then we added almond butter, sea salt, baking powder, and 4 or 5 bananas. They bake about 15-20 min. and come out warm and digestable! There are many trick, but be encouraged…it takes time and motivation, but the Lord will lead you into it little by little. Thank you for linking up, sweet lady!
So very good points. I don’t have a juicer and I don’t know that I will try and culture food, but I can always increase my veggies and raw food. 🙂
Suppliments are helpful, but they can’t replace a good diet. Thanks for the tips!
Sounds great. It is one baby step at a time. It took me years to heal myself and get off medicine and supplements(I am now a naturopath). I have had a juicer and I totally recommend a blender instead. I like having all the veg and fruit for the fiber and to help it to digest slower. Broccoli sprouts are good to start with and one of the most nutritious. Try only one new recipe a week so you don’t get overwhelmed. I would try it and if the family liked it we would write it on a recipe card as a permanent addition. The way we saved money is when we got our income tax back we would prepay for a CSA so we would have our veggies and fruit paid for for 5 months and then buy our grass-fed meat in bulk. The first year we even had to share a freezer with family. The CSA worked out to $23 a week and the beef/pork/chicken was a better price then the organic or natural at the grocery store. If you can have rice and lentils… we had fun one month trying to find all things we could make with these 2 affordable stables. The kids would help to. We had lentil rice burgers with horseradish dip, homemade rice pudding for a breakfast cereal(we don’t eat boxed), stuffed squash, stuffed peppers, and lentil stew. It was fun and affordable. I hope that helps. Keep up the great work on this new journey!