I grew up eating the Standard American Diet (SAD) complete with Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Top Ramen, and white bread (without the crust!). I really never knew much different until I met my husband, Brett. At the time we met, he was eating the SAD – however, he grew up eating whole, unprocessed foods void of wheat, eggs, and cow milk dairy. He drank raw goat milk and ate carob-soy bread. As soon as he gained independence, he changed his diet completely catering to his on-the-go working lifestyle to include fast food, donuts, soft drinks along with plenty of coffee & sweets.
For the first four years of our marriage, I did my best to provide home cooked meals and Brett exclaimed over my abilities in the kitchen. Even though I was cooking some at home, I wasn’t reading labels or paying attention to the nutritional quality of the food I was preparing. I went on to work at a restaurant where I gained experience and training in food matters. Between that and watching the Food Network I began to learn more and more about the varieties of food, ways to prepare it and about which flavors/ingredients work well together. I realized at this time that I enjoyed cooking delicious food, especially for people who exclaimed the fruits of my labor :).
When my husband graduated from college, we decided to seek work in northern Idaho to be closer to his immediate family and for the change of pace & scenery. At this time we were feeling very burned out and fatigued physically and were thinking about starting our family. We decided to see a Naturopath for physical wellness exams with the intention of preparing our bodies for conception. One recommendation he had was for us to do a Candida cleanse diet for 30 days. We took his advice and did it very strictly. After that time, we started incorporating real, whole foods back into our diet. My research on recipes and foods during that time would catapult me into a whole new world with information that I never knew existed!
Over the next 3 years, we learned to eat whole grains, fresh organic fruits and vegetables, farm fresh free range eggs, raw milk and more. We ate at home the majority of our meals for multiple reasons, one of which was because we lived 20 minutes from the nearest food establishment!
Since giving birth to our son and moving back to the Seattle area (which happened within a 3 week time frame – but that is another story for another day) we compromised our in our eating and began to eat out more and more and worried less about the consequences of poor nutrition.
Fast forward 9 months to the present and Brett recently completed a food allergy test via blood sample and it showed that he is to avoid gluten, cow milk and cheeses, beef, pineapple and almonds. Well, that narrows things down a bit!
I made an executive decision to put our whole family on a new diet avoiding the same foods as him and we’ve been on it for two weeks now. The first week was rough! We all experienced different symptoms of carb and sugar withdrawal and detox. Now, Brett and I seem to have lost our cravings, are sleeping deeper, and feel more satisfied after eating. Our 3 year old daughter’s mood swings have evened out more and I am really looking forward to witnessing results over the next 90 days as I know our bodies are still changing and adjusting.
I have so much on my mind I would like to share in regards to this topic, I will be posting several articles over the next few weeks. Stay tuned…tips for getting started on a new way of eating along with recipes and more information about food allergies to come!
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