Why is the government making us fat? Good question! Personally, I think it has everything to do with being in bed with companies like Monsanto. Bear with me on this post, I've got ideas!
Last week I read an article about the government considering making smokers and citizens with Type 2 Diabetes pay for their own health care. As in, no Obamacare and no private insurance. Okay, smokers do it themselves, right? (of course, smokers usually start their habit before they are able to comprehend the implications of smoking - and at that point in their lives, they think they are invincible, so none of that applies to them.) But, Type 2 Diabetes??? Well, if you don't know, Type TWO Diabetes is completely preventable. (Type ONE is NOT). Type 2 Diabetes is completely curable with the proper diet and exercise.
So, I delved back into a topic that I've been researching off and on for the last several years. (Note: I am not going to post links to the research articles that have brought me to my own conclusions, as somebody somewhere will have an article claiming the exact opposite. So, I encourage you to read and think about what I'm posting here - and then do your own research to satisfy your own mind.)
This article may be a completely jumbled mess and I'll try not to jump from topic to topic. I promise it will make sense in the end.
I'm going to start by saying that I am allergic to casein, the protein in milk. I'm not talking about a lactose intolerance or sensitivity (although I'm sure it is probably hand in hand with the allergy). I'm talking about a true allergy. If I have dairy I sneeze and sneeze, uncontrollably for up to 30 minutes. My head gets severely congested, but clears up within an hour or so. I have drastic digestive issues. And, if I go just a tad bit overboard, I can have gall bladder attacks that can last up to two weeks. Serious, excruciating, not able to sleep or function, gall bladder attacks. **as it is with gluten and celiacs disease, there tends to be "that spot" in your digestive tract and/or intestines, that is damaged enough (prior to diagnosis) that it is particularly susceptible to the allergen. Mine just happens to be my gall bladder. When I finally figured out the dairy/gall bladder connection and am vigilant in not having any dairy at all (and scanning every product label to ensure no hidden dairy - Fooducate has a 4.99 app for that) I have had NO gall bladder attacks.
Funny thing, though, I was raised in the country. I had a glass of milk with every meal, even a bologna sandwich. My allergy started in the mid 90s and the first sign was these "cute" sneezing spells every day after lunch. My co-workers teased me about having a sensitivity to the sun. It took YEARS and many bad symptoms to finally get the proper diagnosis. Now, I know that a person can develop allergies to anything at any point in their life, but milk?!?!
As it turns out, back in the late 80s, scientists discovered that if they injected bovine hormone into dairy cattle, they would produce more milk. In an effort to produce the most amount of milk for an ever growing population, this seemed like the perfect solution. But, guess what happened in 1993? They started making SYNTHETIC bovine growth hormone. As in a lab. With test tubes. And chemicals. And, they are putting it in our COWS that make our MILK. **on a side note, when the doctor first suggested a milk allergy, back in the early 2000s, I couldn't find ANYTHING about milk and sneezing, milk and allergies, milk and gall bladder, on the internet. Nothing. Now, it's all over the place.
Speaking of when I was growing up. My mom was "fluffy". My dad was tall and skinny. My mom was raised "in the city" (as in, in town where her parents had jobs). My dad was raised on a 1,000 acre farm in the country. His family consisted of my grandpa, my grandma and nine kids. They farmed the old fashioned way, with a team of horses and all manual labor. The women cooked, cleaned, gardened, rendered lard, etc. all day. The men planted, harvested, hayed, etc. You get the picture. With obesity on the rise in this country like it is, I've always thought, based on my own family, that a sedentary lifestyle was the culprit. You know what they say about calories in vs. calories burned. But, do you know any true athletes, you know the ones that work out every single day, or run 8 miles in a foot of snow at 5:30 in the morning, that are still overweight? Yeah, me too.
So, what is it that causes obesity? What has caused Type 2 Diabetes to nearly quadruple since I was a child? What causes people to suddenly be allergic to things like milk and wheat? (when did you first hear of a gluten allergy/intolerance? That's a new thing!)
Going off what I've learned about my dairy allergy and the synthetic bovine growth hormone, I decided to do some research into just what exactly is going on with our food. (Watch Food, Inc. if you haven't already).
I'll start with wheat. Wheat has been around since the beginning of the agricultural age. Wheat normally has one growing season. However, maybe that's not enough to feed the enormous population on this planet. In short, back in 1943, scientist started trying to increase production of wheat to solve hunger in third world countries. They did this in Mexico, because the climate allowed for two growing seasons per year. All is well and good so far. By the 80s, to keep up with the enormous yield of wheat they were trying to produce (and the thousands of strains of wheat all growing together), they had to use nitrogen rich fertilizer. However, this made the 4' thin stalk of the wheat plant too flimsy to hold up to the enormous seed head the fertilizer produced. This caused the stalk to buckle, so a geneticist, Norman Borlaug, genetically engineered "dwarf wheat". The shorter stalk was also thicker and could hold up to the heavy seed head and it matured quicker. This dwarf wheat matured quicker, required less fertilizer and had a shorter growing season. Wah-lah! World hunger was on the way to being solved! *dwarf wheat is now what is grown in 99% of the world.
BUT, no animal or human testing was done during this genetic alteration of one of the world's most used "staple" grains. Ooops.
In today's time, genes can be added to or removed from wheat for specific purposes. Need wheat bred for disease resistance? They can do that. How about for pesticide resistance? Yep, that, too.
Think about this: the difference between human males and females? A single chromosome. WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO OUR FOOD?!?!
Being very simplified: carbohydrates convert to sugars in the human body. Wheat is a carbohydrate (bread, pasta, etc). However, with all of the genetic modifications, some scientists and health professionals consider today's wheat to be somewhat of a SUPERcarbohyrdate. There has been a push over the last few years for whole grain and whole wheat breads and pastas. Guess what? The glycemic index of a slice of whole grain bread: 72. The glycemic index of a Snickers candy bar: 41. Go ahead, look it up. (again, I am posting no links, so you can do your own research). "Wheat products elevate the blood sugar levels more than virtually any other carbohydrate" ~ Dr. William Davis, Wheatbelly (Dr. Davis has a whole book on this subject, so I won't go into any more detail here. Just the highlights!) But, I will add that consumption of today's wheat also increases a person's general appetite and craving for sweets and carbohydrates. Sometimes, you're not really hungry, you're addicted to wheat!
Another thing happened back in the early 80s. The United States imports most of our sugar and sugar tariffs were high. So, scientists engineered a little thing called high fructose corn syrup. It's as sweet as sugar (some studies say it's sweeter) and it can be made from US grown corn. Win-Win. By 1984, Coke and Pepsi were using high fructose corn syrup almost exclusively to manufacture all of their beverages. **You can buy sugar sweetened Coke and Pepsi products during passover in some markets.
So, we've had dairy, wheat and sugar all manipulated and genetically altered sometime during the late 70s/mid 80s/early 90s.
As a side note, but utterly important, Type 1 diabetes accounts for only 5% of the diabetes diagnosis' in the United States. That means 95% of the diabetes patients in this country have the "preventable" kind. The annual number of NEW diabetes cases (adults between the ages of 18-79) diagnosed in 1980? About 475,000. In 2010? About 1,600,000. (Check the Centers for Disease website). The numbers for obesity are even more staggering.
Another thing I want to bring up is the incidence of autism, asperger's, ADHD, etc. I graduated high school in 1984, so I went through elementary school in the 70s. If you are somewhere around my age, answer me this:
How many students did you go to school with that had to take medication to function?
Yeah, me neither.
How many students at your lunch table couldn't drink milk or eat bread?
Yeah, me neither.
How many students did you go to school with that were severely obese?
Yeah, me neither.
The government tells us we need to reduce calories, increase healthy whole grains and get off our butts and exercise! Is that all there is to it?
Again, if you are somewhere around my age, how many moms did you know that ran 8 miles in a foot of snow at 5:30 in the morning to stay fit?
Yeah, me neither.
Did they even have "consumer gyms" back then????
All of that, brings me to this. A couple years ago, we thought I had a gluten intolerance and/or celiacs disease. When we discovered the true dairy allergy, I kind of "forgot" the whole wheat/gluten thing. It had to just be diary, right?
In order to be truly diagnosed with Celiac's disease, you need to undergo a blood test that identifies the antigen necessary for Celiac's disease. To further PROVE the disease, they will have to go in and do a biopsy of your intestines. This does not prove gluten intolerance, just Celiac's disease. The cure for both is the same, though. Avoid gluten!
Instead of going through all of that, my doctor suggests a 30 day trial of gluten free to see what happens. If you have symptoms that disappear or get better and you FEEL better, chances are, you have a problem with it. After 30 days, reintroduce gluten and gauge your reaction.
SO, I have convinced Bossman to try gluten free with me for 30 days. We started last Sunday (27 Jan 13) and it is now Sunday, 03 Feb 13. Guess what? He has lost FIVE pounds this week! He keeps talking about how good he feels and how he hasn't had any digestive issues at all this week. Score!
As an additional note, by gluten free, I do NOT mean all those processed foods labeled "gluten free" on the grocery store shelves (those are usually full of added fat and tapioca starch and other things that can actually add weight to you). By gluten free, I mean mostly meat, produce, vegetables, eggs and nuts (what you are now seeing on this blog). We have kept a small amount of corn in our diet - hard corn taco shells the other night for instance. (by the way, that can of corn in your cabinet is a grain, not a vegetable). Other than the taco shells, we haven't really had any processed/packaged food. We also haven't counted a single calorie or limited our portion size. We have limited sugar intake, but haven't cut it out completely. And, we are still having regular oats and steel cut oats. **oats are naturally gluten free, but unless marked "gluten free", there is a chance they have been cross contaminated during harvest and packaging as it's done alongside wheat.
I encourage discussion and comments on this matter. I am just going where my personal experience and research is leading me. I will talk more about our experience with this as we go along.
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