The Frustrating Weight Debate

A friend of mine shared an article on her Facebook recently.  It addressed the problems of demonizing women for being thin.  We've all heard the arguments, I'm sure.  Women are tired of hearing how the only people that matter are the size two blondes.  They want to make a statement and change how women are viewed.  Larger women are demanding respect, and in a lot of ways, are demanding that bigger is better.

Have you ever seen the fat rant that's been on YouTube since March of 2007.  The video has 1.6 million views.  I've seen it show up on news feeds on all the big social networking sites, passed around countless times on various messengers, and otherwise has gotten around.  Every woman I know who has a few extra pounds seems to have loved this video.  If you haven't seen it yet, here it is:

If you notice, this video is very much about liberation for women who weigh more than what medical science calls their "ideal weight".  For many women I know, they find this very liberating.  Many of them have tried everything to shave off those extra pounds that society tells them they shouldn't have, but have no luck.  Several people I know have gone over to gastric bypass just so that they can finally get on top of the weight gain issue, and many more talk longingly about it, even if they're really not all that "fat" at all.  It's good for there to be someone out there pushing for acceptance of overweight people, especially since so many of them do try so incredibly hard to lose the weight and simply have no luck.

Maybe it's genetics.  Maybe it's the reality of the American diet and our pathetic options for healthy food.  Now there's evidence proving it may link back to factors effecting us before we were even born.  Whatever it is, this woman has a point.  It's time our society stops looking at the size 2 woman as their ideal and starts realizing that women are beautiful no matter what their shape or size.

There's been all sorts of encouragement for women who are considered "fat", "large", or even just "curvy".  Brands such as Dove have an entire campaign where they've focused on only "average" women, in other words, they're now turning down petite women in favor of women close to a size 12.  Television shows such as Ugly Betty and Drop Dead Diva feature women who aren't the American standard as stars.  Even men now say they prefer their women to "have a few curves".  The standard is changing, and while everything may not be better overnight, it's clear that women are starting to change the face of our world and it's no longer the tiny women that get all the positive attention.

Even clothing retailers are getting in on encouraging women to feel more positive about their bodies.  Yes, the standard still seems to be that of a size 2 figure, but even that has changed, though the number has not.  What do I mean?  I mean that the sizes are physically changing to suit the audience they're designed for.

How do I know this?  Back in 1999 I bought these really hot pants.  I had glittery jeans and two pairs of nylon pants that looked like leather.  They were a size 3.  In 2004, after I lost all of my baby weight from my first child, I could barely squeeze myself into them.  After childbirth your hips typically spread and never quite go back to the way they were before.  At this point I wore a size 5.

Hot Topic was the first one for the new "feel good" sizing.  I was still wearing my trusty old size 5 pants when I decided it would be nice to pick up some new Tripp pants.  I'd wanted to have a whole new look, given I was starting over in a new state.  I was shocked when I found that, depending on the style, I wore either a size 0 or 1.  I knew there was no way that I could be that thin already, so I tried on my old pants and later picked up a couple of pairs of jeans.  Sure enough, size 5 was what I still wore.

Then, after my last child was born, I decided I needed some new clothes.  My old jeans were kind of worn, so it was time to shop for new ones.  When we hit the stores we found that I was back to a size 3 again, which seemed odd because I had been wearing a size 5 with no problems.  When I got home, I matched up the sizes in my pants.  I was surprised when I saw that my brand new size 3 jeans were larger than my size 5s from just a few years ago!

Fast forward by exactly one year.  My old size 5s were getting a little lose on me and most of them were pretty worn out.  It was time for that dreaded clothing shopping again.  I tried on a size 3, figuring that's what I wore before.  They were too big.  Size 1 was still too big.  Finally I settled on a size 0.  I probably could have worn a 00, but I didn't even want to try it.  Sizes that small are hard enough to find in retail establishments!  Here's the shocker.  In comparison to my old size 3's from 1999 (that I still can't fit and finally gave to Goodwill), these new size 0's were actually bigger!  It's not just with Junior's sizing.  It's with everything women wear!

Now whenever I hear some woman bragging that she's a size 12, the same size as Marilyn Monroe, I have to laugh, because really, what we now consider a size 12 is probably closer to a 16 or 18 of Marilyn's time. This isn't me trying to be mean.  This is just proof that the clothing industry is trying harder to follow the trend of making women okay with their bodies.

So, what does this have to do with the great weight debate?  Think of what it feels like to be on my end of the scale.  If they keep bumping clothing sizes up, I'm either going to have to custom order all of my clothing online or shop in the girl's section and hope I can find something with the length I need.  Sure, a woman who wears a size 16 now will feel great when she's in a size 12 in a few years, but how will I feel when it costs me a couple hundred dollars just for a pair of pants because it's the only way I can get jeans that fit, all because the trend is moving away from thin women?

What about the treatment I get?  Do you have any idea how hard it is to walk into a clothing store and ask for a size 0?  The sales associate looks you up and down with an assessing glare, then points you vaguely in the right direction followed with, "I'm sorry, we don't usually carry much in your size".  The sad thing is five years ago I wouldn't have gotten that kind of treatment.  Everywhere carries a decent selection of size 5!  How about the, "You need to eat something!" comments and having all of my friends trying to force me to eat?  What about all the times I've gone out to meet up with friends and get dirty looks because I don't order anything to eat while we're out.  Sometimes it's just because I don't have the money.  Sometimes it's because I ate before we got there.  Sometimes it's just because we're at a coffee house and I don't feel like blowing money on a scone or muffin that I don't really want, but I'm obliged to get so someone else doesn't feel bad. Then there's all the times I've had to hear about how, "disgustingly skinny" I am, even when my doctor says I'm perfectly healthy and I may be at the lower end of a healthy weight, but I'm definitely healthy?

It's not easy being thin.  People judge you.  I often here how I'm thin because I'm a belly dancer.  I spend all my time dancing, so I don't gain weight.  Little secret here, people, I don't dance all that much.  I know it's pathetic, but my average schedule was two to four hours...a week.  I didn't even exercise every day.  A lot of people say I must watch what I eat, but unless it's something I don't like, or I'm incredibly nervous, usually I eat the average American over-sized portions.  I've been told I'm anorexic because I've skipped a meal or two because I just didn't have a chance to stop and eat and didn't even think about it until I was starving at the next meal, eating twice what I normally eat.  I've even had men tell me they didn't want to date me because they were "afraid they would break me".  Is that fair?

It's frustrating that things are turning around to demonize thin women for their weight, even though some of them, just like heavier women, can't help it.  Again, maybe it's genetic, maybe it's diet, but some of us just can't gain weight, even when we try.  For many of the really thin women I've known, it's not so much that they have "no body fat" as they're accused of, but they simply don't have much muscle mass.  They're weak, and as a result, they look a lot smaller than they really are.

And what about comments like a friend of mine said he overheard.  A woman was saying her doctor should be fired because he said she was overweight.  He called her obese.  Apparently this person got cheers.  Unfortunately, it's a doctor's job to tell the truth when it comes to your health.  They're not calling you fat because of some bias against fat people.  They're telling you there's a problem because you're at an increased health risk.  They do the same when you're underweight.  The difference is being obese doesn't get you hospitalized, but being underweight can get you hospitalized in a heartbeat.  It's theorized that there may be more risks to being underweight by 5 pounds than over weight by 50.  It's just something to think about.

Maybe instead of putting all this emphasis on who's fault it is and who should be demonized by society, maybe we should look at things a different way.  Maybe we should concentrate on what's healthy for any particular person.  If I'm healthy at a size 0, even though a lot of women consider me "disgustingly thin", so be it.  If another woman is healthy at a size 16, who cares?  She's healthy and taking care of her body!  Isn't that what really matters?  Shouldn't the focus be on taking care of ourselves?

Further, the author of the above listed article makes a good point.  These promotions for bigger women being beautiful aren't coming at the encouragement of men.  Men aren't posting images on their social networking pages condemning thin or fat women, though often images of women that are morbidly obese do get a lot of negative criticism.  Men aren't putting up, "remember when this was beautiful" images.  It's all been women.  It's about women attacking other women.  It's about women "trying to reclaim the natural look", when in reality, they're knocking what is very natural and normal for the human body.  In many cases, the "too thin" women that are demonized, like myself, are often the normal look of women in other places, such as much of Europe.  That's not to say that more curvy women, or heavier women aren't also normal, but the women seem to span the range of healthy.  In this country, we can't focus on that.  It's all about women creating some ideal body type that there's no possible way every woman in the world could ever fit.

Let's face it, women, there is no such thing as "one size fits all" when talking about body type.  All women are not created equally, and by that I mean that we're not created in such a way that we can all possibly have the same shape.  Some women will naturally always be more of a "stick figure".  Other women will always be naturally more curvy.  Some women will have a hard time taking the weight off while others will have a hard time keeping it on.  There's nothing wrong with that, and that doesn't make any woman more or less beautiful than the next.  Generally, men will agree.  Some men prefer their women to be delicate and petite.  Other's prefer a woman with more curves.  Some like their women tall as an Amazon while others feel the shorter, the better.  Why should all men be forced into one mold by being told they can only prefer one body style?  Why should all women be forced into that mold?

It's really time this great weight debate was finished.  Instead, let's focus on being happy in our own skins.  Let's focus on being healthy.  After all, the way to showing the world we find ourselves beautiful isn't by discriminating against something that we're not.  It's about treating our body as a temple.  It's about truly treating ourselves the way we deserve to be treated.  That's by eating right, getting the exercise we need, and by finding reasons to be happy and positive.  If we do all of that, we'll find our body will end up in exactly the shape it needs to be, not what someone else tells us it should be.

New Morning Routine...and Tea

It's morning.  I've been up for a while, which is a shock to most who know me well.  The fact that I'm up before 9am is a minor miracle.  The fact that I'm not cranky and crabby on top of it may make some people who know me who brainwashed me, because this isn't what I'm normally like.  I'm the lazy mom that rolls out of bed last minute and does as little in the possible in the morning, generally because I stay up all night.

Over the past few days I've been experimenting with a new sleep routine.  I don't sleep in anymore.  I'm trying desperately not to let myself get out of bed after 7am.  It's been working out great.  I'm up when my kids get up, and I'm surprisingly not crabby.  Next week I think I may try and bump it earlier by a half hour and then again the week after that so I'll be getting up at 6am.  Then I'll have enough time to do yoga in the morning before the kids wake up.

Yoga is one of those things I used to do in the mornings way back when I still worked at the eyeglass company.  I would have to get up at 5am in order to have time in the morning, and there was barely room.  We were staying with a friend in his living room.  We had an air mattress out and slept on that, but that took up so much room that it was hard to find space to do yoga.  I would have to keep it really quiet because my daughter and her father were asleep.  I would do an hour of yoga, eat a light breakfast, then walk to the station to catch the 7am train.  Every morning I would show up almost two hours early for work or more, but waiting for a later train would leave me a half hour late, so there wasn't much in the way of option there.  I'd spend my time waiting with a good book, eating a horrible breakfast from the fast-food joint in the food court or hanging out at the coffee shop with some tea or hot chocolate.  It wasn't much of a fancy ritual or anything, but it was my ritual each morning, and I loved it.

There's just something about yoga in the morning.  It's invigorating and wakes up the body, sure, but there's something more to it.  It's not just gentle stretching and strengthening.  It's also meditative.  There's something about moving through the poses, focusing on the inner thoughts and the actual feelings and sensations in the body (and in all honesty here, I'm thinking, "My body is SO not flexible enough for that!")  I feel more connected to myself when I do yoga, more present in my own physical form, more aware of everything going on in my own person.  It's wonderful.

All of that ended the first time when I broke my elbow.  After three months of not being able to do much of anything followed by almost a year of being unable to do yoga because I didn't have the strength, I got out of the habit.  It's so easy to get lazy about things, even when it's something enjoyable.  I tried on a couple of occasions to get back into it, but I never really did.  I've heard that it takes 21 days to make a new habit, good or bad, and I've never been able to last out that three week period before.  After a couple of days I'm making excuses about not having enough time for yoga, which is largely true when I get up to a house full of bustling activities, everyone already doing their own things for the day.  There's no peaceful, quiet time for me to focus on yoga.  Even if I shut myself in my room, the kids come in demanding this or that.  They don't exactly make it easy.  Besides, once the day is rolling, it's often easy to drop things off the schedule when things get hectic, and it's all too easy to make excuses of being too busy or tired.

Of course, getting up before the kids is a ritual in the making.  It's going to involve cleaning my living room so I can have a space to do yoga.  It will mean getting my yoga  mat out of the closet.  I'll have to start waking up consistently about an hour earlier each day.  It's going to take some time to get there, but I have a goal.  From there it's keeping up with it for 21 days so it becomes habit, and hopefully after that it will be so much easier to get up to in the morning.  That's going to be my first goal, last out 21 days of daily yoga.

On another note, nothing says morning like tea.  Tea and yoga kind of go hand-in-hand.  Most of the people I know who do yoga are also big tea drinkers.  It's probably got to do with yoga and tea both being healthy for you, so one would imagine that would be a good combination.  It's a great way to wake up in the morning, and truth be told, I like it better than coffee.  I've never been much of a coffee drinker anyway.  That's what I'm doing this morning.  Sitting at my computer, drinking some tea.  My cabinet is full of tea.  I've got so much tea it's almost shocking, considering most of it's never even been touched.  It's time I made tea a part of my morning ritual too.  It's probably a lot healthier for me than most of my other morning routines!  At least I can say it's good for me!

All in all, I think I'm taking a positive step forward in my life.  Most mornings I've woken up crabby, just wanting to be left alone only to be ambushed by children that want my attention, and haven't been getting it since I've been sleeping.  Even having someone else get up with the kids in the morning doesn't seem to stop the madness when I finally get up.  Now I'm less cranky in the morning, more focused, and much happier.  I don't know if it's the quality of sleep I've been getting or if it's got to do with the much quieter pace in the morning, but I'm feeling so much more approachable.  It leaves me with a couple of hours to get myself collected in the morning too.  I can spend some time on the computer, reading a book, or even just sitting to meditate by myself for a while before my day needs to get rolling.  It leaves me to feel less rushed when I finally do have to get up and go do something.  I guess, in a way, I feel so much more balanced, and I'm continuing to follow that path.

What Can I Eat?

This whole thing was frustrating before, but now I feel like I'm being starved!  Going off of commercially-made foods, processed foods, is a lot harder than I'd ever imagined.  I had no idea it was going to be this hard!

I'll be honest, the biggest problem I have with going off of everything is not knowing what to eat.  It's not like I have a nutritionist at my disposal to advise me on what I can and can't have, though that would be lovely.  Instead I have to figure it out as I go along.  I have to play with what I need and what I'm missing out on in my diet.  Right about now it feels like I'm missing out on a good deal, but that's also because I've been programmed by society to eat so many of these processed foods.

Going out to eat has become a bit of an impossibility.  I've looked at many menus and as much as they offer gluten-free solutions, many of them are known for still using eggs and dairy in the baking process for breads and the like.  For example, a friend of mine suggested Jason's Deli does a gluten-free menu.  Unfortunately, having checked their menu, all I can have is the salad bar...and then the only dressing I can have is oil and vinegar, which I'm not terribly fond of to begin with.  Everything else on their gluten-free menu has eggs, milk, or soy.  It's not exactly easy to find a food that's free of all of those things, again, unless I hit up the salad bar. It's not exactly fun to be eating rabbit food when everyone else is eating something so delicious looking.

I've also learned that making things from scratch means really making everything from scratch.  Just going to the grocery store to pick up some beef broth I realized it's got dairy in it as well as tons of soy.  Beef stock is even worse with honey.  I'm kind of glad I've never used beef stock before!  The more I go along the more I realize that I do have to make 100% of my meals from scratch.  I can't even use prepackaged ingredients because everything's got additives I just can't have.  I think it might just be fun to start making my own stuff from beginning to end, but at the same time, this whole allergy thing is sapping my energy.  I just don't have the energy for that whole process.  At the same time, if I cheat and eat things I shouldn't, or starve myself, then where am I going to be?  Without the energy to do it!  It's a catch 22 no matter what I do.

Thankfully, this new diet does mean eating more regularly.  I can no longer snack throughout the day unless it's fruits and veggies.  That means I'm more likely to eat fruits and veggies, and since they don't fill me up the same way, I'm still hungry come meal time, though I haven't really been eating meals all that often.  Even so, I'm starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere with all of this, even if it is just a small change towards healthier living.  Every small step is one step closer, right?

Grocery Shopping for a New Diet

Grocery shopping for a larger family is already hard enough without adding more complications.  We've got three children and three adults in this house.  It's not easy to find foods that all of us will eat, and that's not even looking into the reality that we're also in a house with food allergies.  I know some people have told me I may as well just let everyone eat what they like, but that's not as easy as it sounds.  That could result in making five dinners every day because not everyone can eat the same things.  I'm not about to do that.  Instead, I've decided to take the whole house with me on my journey through allergy land!

At this point, we're avoiding a whole huge list of things, and let me tell you, they're in everything!  The hardest one to escape seems to be soy.  While making things from scratch with a gluten substitute isn't that bad, and there's plenty of ways to avoid dairy, even the substitutes for dairy contain soy (and sometimes soy and dairy combined!) which makes trying to avoid soy an interesting challenge.  To simplify things, I'm cutting soy out of my diet last because, well, I still want to be able to add butter to things a little bit longer.  It's not easy trying to escape these ingredients!

When we go to the store we've got a lot to take into consideration.  I have all of my allergies, and Marrok (the former owner of the perfect grunge shirt) has his nut allergies.  That means we've got to be very selective about what we get.  To further complicate things, we're a pork-free household, which means we've got one more option off the list.  At present we're avoiding poultry, too, as it's often injected with casein to keep it fresh.  This means fish, beef, lamb, and a lot of vegetables.  We even have to be careful about our dairy substitutes as many of them contain nuts.  Obviously soy milk is out, and Marrok can't have almond milk.  Surprisingly, coconut milk comes with a warning that it may contain almonds.  We may have to change over to rice milk depending on how he reacts.  That may not be a bad thing considering I actually like rice milk for cooking.  As he's said, we just need to make sure we have a phone handy in case of emergency.  I don't want my need for healthy living to kill him!

Shopping at Walmart, unfortunately, proves problematic.  They don't have very much selection on anything.  It seems like they're part of the culture that feeds into unhealthy America, and if I could afford to, I'd boycott the store.  Unfortunately, Walmart seems to be one of those companies no one but the rich can afford to boycott.  When it comes to home goods, clothing, and everything else, their prices can't be beat.  However, this isn't exactly the time for my rant on how Walmart is part of the downfall of this country and it's economy.  I'm trying to focus on something much happier, my own health.

Having little other option, and wanting to make gravy to go with my new version of shepherd's pie, I had to pick up some kind of flour.  Sadly, there aren't a lot of options for flours that don't contain gluten in your Walmart baking aisle.  There's tons of wheat flour of any variety imaginable.  There's organic and non-organic, self-rising flour with yeast, baking flour, and pretty much everything else.  There were more kinds of wheat flour than I had ever imagined, but only one small shelf with soy flower in small packages.  There were only two rows of it and the shelf was hardly full.  It seems like society expects that people don't have wheat allergies and things like that.  Apparently the local Asian market offers rice flour, which will probably be where I shop in the future, but until then my only option was soy flour.  They sold it in tiny packages, so small it made me glad I didn't have to do any serious baking with it.  As something to make gravy with, it wouldn't be so bad, but it certainly isn't an economical purchase for frequent use!  I can't wait to check out my options.  I'm looking forward to being soy-free and I'm hoping that rice four is a better option for us.  I've heard there are all kinds of gluten-free wheat substitutes out there, but I don't know much about them.  I'm going to have to do some research on this one because the more options I have, the better.

Butter was another challenging problem for me.  There really aren't many options when it comes to butter as most of them contain soy.  I wouldn't be surprised if all of them contain casein in their "natural flavor", but I decided it was worth a try.  I can't kick everything and butter is such a common additive for cooking.  Apparently there are only two options that do not contain dairy as a main component available at Walmart.  I hear HEB has a better selection, but I wasn't brave enough to try them.  I've found their prices to be even more steep than Walmart locally.  Smart Balance has a butter made from extra virgin olive oil.  There is also a company called Best Life that makes a stick butter.  Both products have soy, but at this point I'm running out of options.  I don't know if they make a butter that's dairy and soy free.

I couldn't help myself when it came to the milk section.  Passing my favorite chocolate milk was far too sad for me.  I didn't check the ingredients (though I suppose I should have and probably still should), but I got some chocolate almond milk.  I couldn't resist.  I had to do something for me, and we were already there buying coconut milk.  I know it's not going to be anywhere near as good as the chocolate milk I used to drink, but I can at least try it.  You never know, I may love it!  I think that's going to be the hardest part of going dairy-free.  I don't like the milk substitutes near as much as I like milk.  With how expensive this stuff is, I may have to look at making my own.  I got a recipe for rice milk that I'm going to have to try out and review later.  It would definitely put me one step closer to the root of the process, something I think is very important when you're making your own foods, especially when it comes to allergies.

To balance things out a bit, and to give me something fast and loaded with sugar for sugar crashes we loaded up in the produce section.  I picked up some butternut squash.  I'm going to try acorn squash, though I have no idea how to prepare it.  We bought a bunch of potatoes, since those are always safe.  They may not be near as good without butter, but I'm sure I can find a way to make them taste yummy without it.  Carrots and broccoli are always favorites around here, but again, I cook my carrots with butter, so that might get interesting once I kick the soy.  I've been told I should check out the Asian food market here for vegetables too.  Apparently they have an excellent variety of squash and other things.  It would be nice to have something to resort to that doesn't come in a can.  I love canned corn for it's sake of ease, but I miss having fresh corn from the little farm back home.  If anyone who reads this lives in the Arlington, Mass area, check out Wilson's Farm.  They're fantastic!

Then we loaded up with fruits, even though we only got clementines and black plums.  I've noticed in Texas there's only one short window where you can get black plums.  The rest of the time it's red plums, which I can't stand and I never knew why.  I think it's because I grew up on black plums.  My dad and I used to eat them every summer.  Clementines were new to me in high school.  My mom got a bunch from someone she was in school with and brought them home.  My sister and I adored them  They were the best thing we'd had in quite some time and we couldn't get enough.  I've always liked oranges, but the sweet, easy taste to these was delightful.  I've bought them ever since and my kids and I enjoy them.  They're harder to find when it gets cool, but in the summer, they're everywhere.  I just wish you could get the big crates of them like we always used to be able to find back home.  They would last for what seemed like forever.

We picked up some teas too.  I love drinking tea.  I haven't been drinking it so much because it's just been too hot, but if I'm not going to be drinking soda, I need to have something other than water.  I love juice, but I don't want to be filling myself up with that much sugar.  Tea is an incredible alternative.  Besides, I can get a mint tea that will help settle my stomach with everything that's going on.  We picked up some Yogi mint tea for me.  We also grabbed some Yogi detox tea for Marrok, since he's put a lot of unhealthy things in his system over the years, and if it helps his body purge, all the better.  I picked up some Celestial Seasons Vanilla Sleepytime Tea for the kids, and some Chai for Chesh.  I figure tea will be something that can benefit the whole family.

Because it's been forever since I've had honey, we stopped and looked at the Agave.  Marrok immediately jumped on it and said I should get it.  It was cute.  He said, "You use honey in your tea, right?"  I almost laughed.  Of all the things I'm allergic to, honey is perhaps the most evil.  Just one spoonful is enough to make me double over with abdominal pain and be sick for a week.  Because of this, I'd never gotten used to honey in tea.  My allergy picked up before I'd even started drinking tea, back when I was about twelve, maybe younger.  I decided it might be fun to try something new to sweeten my tea, so we'll see how it works.  I may just decide I would rather not sweeten it at all.  He's so kind for thinking of me though!

To top it all off, we got a lot of red meat and some fish.  We're going to be making steak, roast, and stew.  Of course, red meat is the most painful and expensive part of the whole thing.  One would think in Texas it would be cheaper and more affordable, but I guess not.  I also find myself missing living back home.  There's something about getting fresh fish that's so much better than the frozen stuff offered here.  It felt like there were so many more options, at least where fish was concerned.

Living back home things were different.  The local co-op held many options for those with diet restrictions.  I was able to live on a healthy diet for me for a year without a problem there before I decided to start cheating on everything again.  It felt good to know that I was able to live off of foods I liked without having to worry so much.  Here we don't have a co-op, unless you drive to Austin.  We don't even have a Whole Foods.  The options for something healthy are far more limited.  Our little Asian market seems to be the best option for someone like myself, but sometimes it would be nice to have a wide variety of options.  It would be nice to go into a place that looks and feels like a health food store, as silly and pointless as that may sound.

I can't wait to get to somewhere more health conscious than this hole in the wall city.  It will be so nice to go grocery shopping without having to worry about how much variety I can actually get.  Yes, I may still have to check labels, but a number of these health food companies are good at labeling.  They love to slap gluten-free, soy-free, and dairy-free on anything they can because they know it will get them attention from all the right people.  It helps people recognize how to shop.  It helps them recognize what they need to get without sitting there, reading labels.  It gets their company attention.

The sad thing is a lot more Americans have problems with these foods than anyone could ever have imagined.  Doctors don't exactly suggest eliminating foods as a first course of action when people come in complaining about health problems.  They would rather prescribe medications for pain, migraines, and mental disorders than focus on changing the diet to see if that helps, because adding more chemicals to the body solves anything...  We're only facing an increased chemical dependency in our country as the days go by.  Who knows what our country would look like if we learned how to eat right, eat healthy, and take care of our bodies?  Perhaps this is a sign that we should start putting a focus on eating right for a healthier, happier, America.  Who knows?  Maybe the suicide rate will drop.  I have no doubts that American obesity would be less of a problem.  Problems like arthritis and asthma might be reduced as they can relate to food allergies (though most people don't know that....I didn't know that)!

A Shocking Discovery, What's Really in my French Fries

This whole quest for information started when I began to research foods I can't eat to eliminate my allergies.  It's positively shocking how many things aren't vegan friendly!  There's dairy in everything, even things that label themselves as "dairy-free"!  From chewing gum to margarine to "natural flavoring" to chicken, dairy products are found everywhere.  This is especially an issue if you're not just dealing with lactose intolerance.  Instead I have to focus on eliminating all dairy products, which means looking for weird things like whey, casein, lactalbumin, galactose, recaldent, "natural flavor", caramel color, and "protein" as many protein enriched or high protein foods include added protein in the form of milk proteins.  Most vegans I know don't realize that they need to look for all those additional ingredients in their foods, and not all of the foods that contain those things plaster on their label "contains milk products".  Even soy cheeses have been found to contain milk proteins.  I guess that means going vegan just became a whole lot harder!

In the process of doing my research I came across a warning on the top of one page.  The warning informed readers that McDonald's french fries contain dairy products, as well as gluten.  I was shocked at this!  How could french fries ever contain dairy?  Or gluten for that matter?  Of course, some fries have breading, so that made a lot more sense, but what in the world is dairy doing in a french fry?  And why do my vegan friends not seem to know this?

Being a good little intelligent girl, I decided to do my research.  I wasn't going to take this at face value.  Why should I?  I'd heard a lot about the various ingredients in fast foods from all over the place.  Everyone's heard the rumor that XYZ fast food chain uses rat meat, or they use a grade of meat that's not even regulated for human consumption.  I'm sure most people have heard rumors about the toxic chemicals in fast foods from this or that.  Just about everyone has heard of the silicon in Pizza Hut's cheese.  I wasn't about to take these rumors as fact until I checked it out for myself.

My first bit of research came up with article after article, but most of them were older and outdated, from 2006 and prior.  I'd come across one article from 2011 that mentioned a beef flavoring in McDonald's french fries that made them unfriendly to vegetarians, as well as many religious practices.  Still, I couldn't find any compelling hard evidence in any major media's website.

The first page I'd found that detailed possible allergy information was by Food Facts, which listed not only their "natural beef flavoring" but gave a breakdown of how natural flavors were made, how they were governed for reporting their ingredients by the FDA, and that natural flavors such as these are considered controversial because they are not required to report things like GMOs.  Reading the information from their site in the link above will give you all sorts of information on that natural beef flavoring, including the fact that it does in deed contain wheat and dairy products.  For those who may be concerned, they also contain soy, another product in everything that is developing into a common allergen.

Realizing I had to get more creative on my search, I finally decided to go onto the McDonald's website.  According to this MSNBC article McDonald's claimed their fries were gluten-free and dairy-free back in 2006, but then added "contains wheat and dairy products" to their french fry ingredient list not long after without making too much of a public display about it.  I was certain I would find more definite information on their website, and something more concrete and recent than 2006.

According to McDonald's own ingredient list, their french fries are in deed not vegetarian friendly at all!  Shocking!  They also are not friendly to those with wheat and/or dairy problems.  While their website does detail these common, known allergens, their restaurants are surprisingly void of these details.  Further, questions outlined in Yahoo Help and other websites by vegetarians asking whether McDonald's fries are vegetarian or vegan friendly are met with many people who clearly don't know what they're talking about.  Many of the answers state that McDonald's fries contain nothing but potatoes and are cooked in vegetable oil, which means they're safe to vegetarians and vegans alike.  This myth of vegan friendly and vegetarian friendly french fries is propagated all over the web, and it seems like McDonald's is not about to make a fuss to correct this misinformation. The company is allowing people to consume foods they either should not or choose not to eat because they don't think to ask about the ingredients.  Bad form, Micky-D's!  Bad form!

In contrast, Burger King's ingredient list is far more appealing for their french fries!  No, their veggie burgers aren't vegan friendly, but they openly state that the veggie patty is not cooked on equipment that meat or poultry products are cooked on.  They do, however, contain milk, wheat, soy, and egg, followed by a clear statement that this is NOT a vegan product.  Go BK for your honesty!

Wendy's french fries are a good bet too.  While there is no simple way to link the ingredient list so you can see for yourself, here's the french fry ingredient information I've pulled off of Wendy's website:

Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following oils: canola, soybean, cottonseed, sunflower, corn), Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (to maintain natural color). Cooked in Vegetable Oil (soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural flavor [vegetable], citric acid [preservative], dimethylpolysiloxane [anti-foaming agent]). Cooked in the same oil as menu items that contain Wheat, Egg, Milk, and Fish (where available). Seasoned with Sea Salt.


That's pretty encouraging.  They even specify that their natural flavor is vegetable, and that their products are cooked in the same oil as non-vegan friendly products.  Someone allergic to wheat or dairy may think twice about Wendy's fries based on the oil they're cooked in.

Of course, these are just the three biggest chains.  It would be worth it to ask for nutritional information at all fast-food chains you visit if you've got any specific allergy related concerns, or any other special dietary requirements.  While their websites detail the information, it can be challenging to find and may not be beneficial while on the go.  Perhaps if enough people ask for the information, they may just start keeping it on hand and readily available, because it's clear from much of what I've heard, you can't rely on the employees for accurate information.  They might not know themselves and just give you the easy answer.

As for me?  I'm boycotting McDonald's, in part because I have a problem with their ethics, but also because it's becoming clear that they've got pretty much nothing I can eat!  It seems like most fast food chains are going to present similar problems, but I'd be far more willing to bend my diet just a bit for a special treat for the kids with a company that's open, honest, and realistic about their products.

For an interesting (and only somewhat related) read, I'm suggesting The McDonaldization of Society: The Reader, The McDonladization of Society 5, and The McDonaldization of Society 6 by George Ritzer.  It's absolutely scary how much McDonald's has influenced our entire culture and society, especially with everything they get away with.  It really makes you think!

Kicking the Allergies

So, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my allergies this week.  It's come as part of a long process of feeling worse and worse as the days go by.  My mood has declined.  I'm feeling weak.  I can never breathe anymore.  Everything hurts all the time.  I'm constantly exhausted.  My stomach's upset a good deal so I never want to eat. I'm having constant headaches that quickly devolve into migraines.  It's not a fun time.  I know a lot of these symptoms directly relate to allergies that I have.  I've been ignoring my allergies, almost like I'm hoping they'll go away, when, in reality, allergies only seem to get worse when you ignore them.

My list of allergies is pretty rough.  When I look at all the things I can't eat, it leaves a lot of people wondering what I can actually eat!  When you actually break down and look at where all these products are found, it's hard to find things that don't contain them, especially since a lot of them can be hidden under "natural flavor" and other vague terms.  Many of these things aren't labeled in the products you buy in the store, so it means a lot of research, not just ingredient checking.  You really have to know what you're doing when you shop!

The list of allergies (which has been a common request lately) is as follows:

• Dairy/lactose/casein
• Eggs
• Honey
• Gluten/wheat
• MSG
• Tomatoes

The list of possible allergies includes:

• Soy
• Bananas
• Caffeine
• Processed Sugars

Of course, this isn't including the other list of allergies that isn't food related, such as wool, chemical cleaners, scented soaps and detergents, dust, spider bites, and cats.  Yes, I've got a lot of allergies.  From everything I've heard, this isn't an uncommon problem in today's society.

What scares me the most about these allergies is how they present themselves.  Most food allergies present themselves with asthma-like symptoms, especially asthma induced by exercise, which I have.  They can manifest as skin conditions, such as eczema (which for those of you who remember me shaving my head the first time, you know is a concern of mine).  Many food related allergies can cause headaches and migraines.  A sore, swollen throat, from mild "lump in the throat" symptoms to the other extreme of inhibiting breathing.  Several of these allergies can also cause an arthritic feeling in the joints, something I wasn't aware of.  Abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness, fainting/unconsciousness, and disorientation are also common.  In some of the more extreme cases, they can cause anaphylactic shock and in the case of a wheat allergy, lymphoma...as in the cancer.  In the case of a dairy allergy specifically (though it's possible other allergies have similar effects), eating dairy can prevent your body from processing many of the nutrients and calories provided for your body to function, resulting in an inability to gain weight and a lowered immune system.

In general, these allergies sap you of energy, make you feel miserable all the time, and lower your overall mood.  As a result, it's not surprising that I'm finding myself unmotivated to do, well, pretty much anything.  I don't want to clean my house.  I'm too tired all the time.  I've had to cancel a series of dance classes.  For many of the shows I want to dance in, I find myself wishing I could cancel last minute.  I find myself too exhausted to do much of anything these days, wishing I could just sleep all day and lounge around in bed.  My stomach is always at odds with me and half the time I'm hungry, but I can't eat.

Given how sick I've been in this last week alone, it's time I eliminate the primary offenders in my diet, if not everything.  This is going to be a great adventure.  I'm going to have to start making a lot of things from scratch because MSG is in just about everything prepackaged as a preservative.  You find dairy in weird things like injected into chicken at the supermarket to help it stay fresh.  A good deal of non-dairy things, like soy cheese and "vinegar" in salt and vinegar chips, actually have things like casein in them.  Strangely, even human milk has some level of casein in it, but in human milk the quantities are far lower.  Goat milk is apparently the closest dairy animal to human, which means it's the least likely to induce an allergic reaction of any kind.

My whole household is going to have to be over-turned, and quick!  Our primary staples around here have large quantities of dairy, eggs, soy, and gluten.  Believe it or not, many of the foods available on the market are full of dairy products, soy products, gluten, and eggs.  Many of them also contain MSG, especially any prepackaged meals like TV dinners.  The only way to be sure the foods you eat don't contain any of those things are to read labels, be a smart shopper (research!), and make everything from scratch.  Buy all your foods from reputable places, like butcher shops for meats and local organic farmers for fruits and vegetables.  At least then you're more likely to get exactly what you're paying for, not foods that are injected with all kinds of things for presentation, color, freshness, and preservation.

It's going to be an adventure for my family and me.  We've already got to worry about most nuts and bananas for one of us.  We don't use pork.  Now we have to add a good deal more to that list.  I'm hoping the result will be a happier, healthier family that eats far less processed food chock full of chemicals...

Natural Deodorant?

I was kicking around on Diaspora today and someone posted a really great link.  With all the talk about hand-made soaps and other returns to natural living, she found a recipe for natural, home-made deodorant.  I haven't tried the recipe yet, obviously.  I just found it today!  However, I did think it was worth sharing, along with the disturbing information that came along with it.

This article not only discusses the benefits of natural health care, but dissects the ingredients of a common brand of deodorant.  I find the information it puts out there more than a little disturbing.  Not only is there a whole list of things the active ingredient in this deodorant do that are frightening, but the author pointed out another very realistic idea, a link between commercial deodorant and the rise in breast cancer.  Seeing how many women's lives this effects, of course that has me concerned for my family's health.

This isn't the first time I've heard this viewpoint either.  It seems widely known that average consumer deodorants are designed to plug the sweat pores under the arms.  The idea is to prevent sweating, which stops unsightly sweat stains and prevents body odor.  Sweat, however, is essential to human health.  Sweat helps to regulate body temperature and purge toxins from the body.  As a result, these toxins are carried a different direction so they might be purged from the body.  Effectively the body is rerouting the flow of everything contained in under arm sweat.  These toxins could possibly infect the portions of the body they must travel through in order to be released.

Everyone knows of three major sites of lymph nodes in the body, especially anyone who has studied the bubonic plague.  Right by the pulse point in the neck (where most women spray their perfume or body spray), under the arms, and at the groin are the homes of our lymph nodes.  It is thought that the lymph nodes not only handle the immune system, but also process toxins in the body.  By sealing up the sweat glands where the lymph nodes release their toxins, you are effectively preventing them from doing their job.  Any time you prevent your body from processing the way it should, you run the risk of additional complications.

Instead of using something made of a lot of processed chemicals, maybe we should turn to natural recipes.  As I've had pointed out with the dread soak and bath I use, these don't work the same for everyone.  Our body chemistry is all different.  Recipes may need to be tweaked or changed all together to work for certain people, but in the end, it's all a matter of what works best for you.

The recipe proposed here uses coconut oil, bicarbonate (which we also know as baking soda from the dread wash), arrowroot powder or cornstarch, and essential oils of your choosing for scent.  The recipe is pretty simple.  I'm hoping to try it out so I can share my experiences.  However, this is just one more step towards being natural.  Every chemical gotten out of my house is one step closer to my goal!

Sea Salt and Other Spices

I've noticed America has an obsession with salt.  I have to admit, I used to be the same way.  There was a time when french fries had to have so much salt that I couldn't taste the fries.  I guess that should say something about the fries.  I always wanted the saltiest chips, the saltiest everything.  I'm starting to notice that the American culture is filled with salt addiction.

When I look at Americans in restaurants I notice salt being poured on meals everywhere.  It's the same, mostly bland table salt.  Every food seems to get the salt treatment.  Nothing from burgers to pasta is too good for salt.  I'm sure many a fine chef would be heartbroken to see their dishes ruined by a patron dousing it with salt.

Salt has become an unhealthy answer to our inability to know how to spice a dish properly.  Very few people actually know how to use spices.  I don't really blame Americans for being bad cooks.  In many cases it's not their fault.  No one ever taught them how to cook, so how can they be expected to know how to properly spice.  Sometimes recipes seem too bland and tasteless if you work from the book.  If you aren't familiar with cooking, it's hard to figure out how to spice something right.

One of the things that helped me learn how to get away from salt was a guessing game with spices.  I used trial and error a little at a time.  Pepper is a miracle replacement for salt.  I quickly found that I didn't need salt in my cooking at all.  It was just used to taste by the people eating it and even then I didn't often find anyone using it.  The salt wasn't kept out and easy where people were dining.  I've found far fewer people grab for the salt when it's not out and easy to access.  When you have to ask for something, you're less likely to use it.

Another thing that drastically reduced my salt consumption was the use of sea salt.  Sea salt is so much more flavorful than regular table salt.  As a result, so much less is needed on any dish, which is far healthier.  I have to say, it's certainly helped reduce my salt consumption.

Perhaps that's a direction we need to start going in this country.  We need to push away from salt on everything and instead focus on good food and learning how to really cook.  Foods would taste better and we'd be happier and healthier!