WHY

We are often faced with situations where food is involved.  Situations like church pot-lucks, camp-outs, preschool, play dates, and eventually school attendance prove somewhat stressful for children and others (like us) with food allergies.  But, it goes beyond that. We live in a society where dairy, food fillers, high fats and sugars, and little nutrition fill the menu.  We have begun a journey in our home to eat to LIVE rather than live to EAT. 

We started down this path searching for better health about three years ago when our oldest son had severe allergic reactions to toxic man-made chemicals used on the field crops around us that resulted in a need for medications to enlarge his airways so he could breath, which further resulted in a year of misery and sickness.  As is often the case, when you loose something as precious as health, you realize how grateful you are for it and want it back.  That was our experience too.

We generally avoid dairy foods like milk and cheese. This started out of necessity to another family allergy but when adopted by the whole family, our general health improved drastically!  We avoid eggs and nuts also due to allergies.  By choice we try to avoid foods containing empty fillers and possible cancer forming substances like artificial food colorings and additives like MSG, Sodium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrite, High Fructose Corn Syrup and other refined sugars, and many man-made chemicals that we can't even pronounce, especially found in pre-packaged empty or "DEAD" foods.   We're trying retrain our minds, behaviors and diets to include less meat and a wider variety of grains and vegetables.  Pump up the natural nutrion and eliminate the dead stuff.  We want to feel ALIVE and enjoy it! We're not perfect on any of these, but we are trying.

I can tell by the way some people look at me that they feel I'm some type of crazy fanatic.  Avoid milk?  Eggs?  What can you eat?!  Where do your children get the calcium they need? What an opressive mother to try to get her children to avoid sugars, no cake (containing eggs and milk)?  A world without fruit snacks?  Few sugary breakfast cereals? Absurd! 

Part of our obsession comes out of necessity to the dietary needs and allergic reactions of our children, who have a long list of sensitivities or allergies with side effects ranging from rash, hives, runny nose, severe airway constricting congestion, vomiting, behavior alteration and more.  The other part of our obsession comes with an increased awareness of and desire for general well being, physically, emotionally and spiritually. 
We want to be healthy, we want to feel good and we want to be sensitive to the direction of the Holy Spirit because our bodies are healthy and in tune with our spirit.  We believe the Lord has revealed many answers regarding what is healthy for our bodies that medical teams world wide are only now begining to understand.  His revealed word can be found in the scriptures anciently through his living Prophet and Apostles as well as modern revelation in our day. 

Some of the modern revelation we speak of regarding healthy living was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith on Febrary 27, 1833, by the Lord as a "Word of Wisdom".  Found in a book of modern revelations called the Doctrine and Covenants, this Word of Wisdom was given to "[show] forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all the saints in the last days.." as a "principle with a promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and weakest of all saints" to avoid "evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days".   This revelation "forwarn(s)" us of specific things to avoid as well as things we should do with the promise that we will "receive health in (our) navel and marrow to (our) bones; And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint...that the destroying angel shall pass by (us) as the children of Israel, and not slay (us)."

We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and strive to live this Word of Wisdom along with other commandments given by the Lord Jesus Christ for our health and salvation. We believe that He provides direction specific to the needs of individuals and families. We believe that through the direction of the Spirit, we are finding what works best to keep our family healthy.  A scripture from 2 Nephi 28:30, found in The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, which reflects a similar scripture found in Isaiah 28:10,13, states:

30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.
 
We haven't even mentioned exercise or proper rest and more (we're still working on that too) but, we have felt the principle above manifested in our lives.  We are learning true health, line upon line as fast as we are able or willing to learn and have felt the blessings of improved health by hearkening to those promptings and revelations.  Our diet and lifestyle have no quick pill or easy fix, but instead a life journey of living what we learn.  We're not perfect.  We have much to learn.  This is a process not a destination.  We are not experts and claim no offical dietary training. This is about our personal journey.


We're not recommending that everything we do is something that others necessarily need to do, but these are some of the reasons that we DO eat and live like we do and have felt the Lord bless our efforts in our family with improved health and general well being. It is something we wish every family could feel, whatever their specific needs.  The sacrifices are SO worth it and get easier with time and practice!
 
This blog was created to help us track our progress...keeping track of what we've tried that works for us.  We've found that the hardest part of this journey is finding the recipes that work--especially important if someone besides us becomes responsible for any portion of care for our children.  Perhaps something here will help someone else too.