Monday, 6 Sep 2010
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Case Studies
Neivah, the whole food baby
Maxine, Neivah's mum, came along to a 3-Week Challenge workshop in Mosgiel in 2006. She told me she was pregnant and friends had scared her by saying that she shouldn't eat raw milk, eggs, lots of butter and cream and other animal fats as it may harm her baby. I reassured her that this was actually the diet best suited to pregnancy. How could she possibly harm her baby by eating whole real food produced in the sunshine and fresh air rather than imitation food make in a factory? So Maxine changed her diet from cold cereals, bread, unsoaked porridge and green topped milk to a new diet of soaked porridge, cream, cheese and fullcream farmhouse milk. Maxine got over her fear of eating fat to deliver a happy healthy baby girl.
Neivah was 7lb 9oz at birth and was 13 weeks old when I visited them and she is Maxine's third child. Even though Maxine is 'just over 30' she put on the least weight of all her pregnancies. She said she really struggled with her second pregnancy and was 'enormous' all over. Maxine is feeding Neivah herself and is still eating raw milk, cream, cheese, eggs and meats amongst other whole foods. Neivah's grandmother, Robyn, has a cow that she milks to provide the family with good nourishing food.
Robyn said, 'Yes, and what an amazing baby she fetched up this time!'
Maxine's midwife comments on how amazingly calm and placid Neivah is when she sees her. She puts up with all the handling and changing with a smile. Indeed, it is known from traditional, isolated populations that well-nourished babies don't cry.
Neivah is a delightful, happy baby. She rarely cries, and the day I was there just gazed around at us with wide bright eyes smiling at everyone. Her Grandma said that she doesn't cry, she just waits to catch someone's eye and then beams a wonderful smile at them. She is strong, wide-eyed, bright and alert. Neivah will grow up with a wide beautiful face and jaw that will allow all her adult teeth to fit in straight and true. She will have high intelligence due to her neural pathways forming correctly as a baby. She will be happy, with stong bones and teeth from easily absorbed calcium. She will be full of energy. What a great start.
Maxine said, 'Neivah is an absolute joy, and very different from my other two babies.'
To Hell and Back (under the influence of soy)
This story is told by Jenny Smith of Mosgiel as it happened to her. Jenny is the Weston A Price chapter leader for the Otago region.
'I was diagnosed over 30 years ago with what was described as mild hypothyroidism. (Low thyroid function) I was taking thyroid hormone medication, and had very few problems with mental ability but suffered mostly with weight problems. However, around the beginning of the 1990s I started to suffer from short-term memory problems.
As the years progressed I got worse. Albeit intermittent to start with, my memory problems increased, inability to concentrate started to set in, and gradually the ability to comprehend what I was reading ceased. I would have to read a page two or three times before I could comprehend it.
I was a receptionist and word processor operator and I was making so many mistakes in my work that I was eventually threatened with dismissal. I would type a word backwards without even realising I had done so. I would proof read my work and just read right over my mistakes!
I had no idea what was happening to me. My thyroid levels were always in the upper level of normal and so seemed okay. Towards the end of the 1990s and with no obvious answers I was eventually referred to an endocrinologist to have tests done for possible Alzheimers disease. My tests showed that I was above average for my age in every category except mental acuity. No answer there.
As time wore on I got to the stage at work where I couldn't even remember how to answer the phone when it rang! The phone would ring, I would pick up the receiver and . . . what do I say? I had no idea where I was working!! My speech was also becoming slurred. By this time it was the end of November in 1999.
One day when out shopping, I was walking down the street towards a very busy intersection that was controlled by traffic lights. I was still some distance from the intersection when I suddenly found myself three quarters of the way across that intersection walking against the lights, with cars heading towards me. It was not until I had reached the curb that I realised what I had done. I had totally blanked out and being completely oblivious to where I was I had just kept walking. (Imagine the carnage I would have caused if I had been driving!!)
I told my GP and he said, 'At long last, the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle fits.' Something had gone wrong with my thyroid gland as my serotonin levels were very low. He told me that I was suffering from classic A depression!! I told him that I spent a lot of time in cyber space but I was not suffering from depression. He told me I had to take Prozac to increase the levels of serotonin. Knowing the possible side effects of that medication I did not want to take it, but relented. It wasn't for long though, because I found my appetite increased so much I couldn't stop eating. Having put on around 2 stone in weight over the last decade that was the last thing I wanted so I took myself off it.
At the same time I also stopped eating commercial [supermarket] bread. I just had no desire for it.
A few weeks later I realized I was feeling really great again, with my memory returned and no problems with concentration. I did some online research on thyroid disease and came across a website on thyroid disease by a Mary Shomon in the USA who also suffers from Hypothyroidism. It was from Mary that I learnt that soy blocked the effects of thyroid medication. I didnt consume any soy; or so I thought.
January 2000 and back at work after Christmas leave I was feeling great. However, a few months later I was back in cyber space, with short-term memory and concentration problems starting all over again.
A work colleague suggested that maybe it was something I had been eating again that I hadn't had for a few months. I then realized I had gone back to eating bread. I checked the ingredients label on the packet to find that the bread was laced with soybean flour. I checked all the supermarket bread to find that there was not one that didn't contain soybean flour. Remembering the warning from Mary, I then realized that it was the amount of soy contained in the bread I had been eating all those years that had caused my problem. The slow build-up had been blocking my thyroid medication, which resulted in my serotonin levels slowing declining.
I began making my own bread and I quickly became skilled at reading ingredients labels and stopped eating all forms of soy. My road back to good health had begun.'
Jenny Smith, 2007
Rozann's story - A life worth living
Invercargill woman, Rozann, has come a long way since the beginning of 2005 when she thought she was going to die. Seeing the sprightly, 62-year-old busying herself in her extensive garden it's hard to believe that last year she was choosing caskets and selecting music for her own funeral.
'At that time I was feeling really, really ill. I couldn't cut my lawns anymore and I couldn't garden. I couldn't even walk. I was on 5 medications including drugs for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. My doctor told me I'd die if I didn't take them, but I felt so ill - I decided that I'd rather go off everything and die. I just threw the medication out.'
Rozann then sat down with her daughters and started making funeral plans. She says she didn't expect to live. Looking back now she does feel she was being a bit dramatic, 'But I was feeling so bad,' she said
Since then Rozann has gradually returned to health. She now actively gardens, spends time on her treadmill and goes to aqua-jogging three times a week.
'At the same time I started to eat more healthy foods and then I met Sherry Elton through the Slim Shed programme. I learnt much more about what healthy natural foods do and the turnaround since then has been really dramatic actually.'
'Sugar was my downfall. Whenever I tried to get off my sugary coffees I got withdrawal symptoms, shakes and headaches - then the day I went to Sherry's course it all fell into place. I haven't had any since. I've only tried it once and found that I now hate it.'
Rozann has also added butter and full-cream milk back into her diet for the first time in 40 years. Despite medical opinion that you will put on weight if you eat fatty foods Rozann's experience confirms just the opposite.
'I haven't really gone into a lot of detail of my new diet with my doctor, I have just told him I am eating healthy. I have lost 15kg and he has congratulated me on that. What's more the weight has stayed off with little effort.'
Rozann would love other people to learn from her experience. She thinks it is important for people to be accountable for their own health and to follow the principle that you are what you eat. 'I will never go back to my old style of eating. From now on it is healthy, clean, green foods - full of minerals and vitamins. I am still learning about natural foods and attended Sherry and Jeff's traditional foods workshop here in Invercargill this year.'
'There is so much knowledge out there, we just have to be open to making a change. A change for the better - to a life worth living.'
Rozann
Dot's fibromyalgia
I met Dot when she came to my first seminar. It was at Winton, in September 2005. After changing her diet and eating the recommended natural foods, Dot said she had relief from fibromyalgia for the first time in five years.
She said that at times, all her muscles would get sore and tired. Chronic fatigue was setting in and she said it was really wearing her down. She had no energy.
She'd look out at her garden and want to go out and work in it, but knew that if she did she wouldn't be able to move by teatime. She was unable to walk down to her orchard, because it was such a struggle getting home again. She had so much pain.
She says, "My doctor had told me to keep moving, keep exercising, but it felt like every single cell in my body was saying, I couldn't be bothered...'
She used to eat a lot of weight-watcher's bars for energy, thinking they were good for her. But she just got more tired and felt sicker. She told me she was scared it was getting on top of her and that she'd never be able to get out.
After Dot came along to the Slim Shed seminar in September and changed to a natural wholefood diet the pain started to ease. She started to feel better straight away. Now she is back and forward to the orchard without thought.
When I talked to Dot on the phone in July 2006, ten months after her recovery, she said, "If I stray off the diet too much I have a pain that comes back in one leg to remind me that I've been a bit lax."
The good news is that now Dot knows what it is and is able get back on track quickly.
Written by Sherry Elton
Evelyn and diabetes
Evelyn phoned me with her concerns. She said she hadn't been well for a long time and was struggling to deal with her high blood sugar without resorting to insulin.
She had to make an effort to come to my workshop as she didn't drive, but I convinced her that she needed to get there.
She came with a friend the first time, but after that her daughter brought her.
Evelyn had been struggling with glucose levels of 10 for months. At the end of the 3-week challenge, it was already down to seven. Four weeks later it was down to six.
"It has been about 12 years since I can ever remember it being at six", she said recently.
She also says she doesn't suffer from tiredness any more, nor does she have the sugar or bread cravings that used to worry her. She has got rid of 4 kilograms as a result of the change in her diet. But best of all she says, "It's my confidence that I notice most. I feel so much better about myself and I can say that I really feel happy now. My life has changed completely."
Karen, Evelyn's daughter, is also six kilograms lighter in just six weeks and says she is sleeping better, doesn't suffer from hunger pangs or food cravings. In addition she says her mood swings are gone and that her complexion has improved markedly. It is obvious to all that she really looks healthy now.
Sherry, June 2006
Annette's story
After initially being sceptical, Annette from Winton says she is astounded at how much better she feels on The Slim Shed programme.
Sherry says Annette is definitely one of the star pupils. "Her attitude is fantastic, she has got rid of 12 kg in just three months and has gone from size 22 to size 16. Most importantly her blood pressure has come right down."
Annette says her doctor is stunned at the change. "He is amazed at how well I am doing, in fact he doesn't really believe it.
"One day I'll tell him how I did it but for now I'm keeping it to myself."
Suzanne and Crohn's disease
"This lifestyle is so easy now that I don't even have to give it a thought. It did take a few weeks to get used to as I had to think often about what I could eat, but now it is a habit and really easy. In the last four and a half months I have got rid of 18 kgs of bodyfat. I can't imagine where it was carried on my body! That's like carrying around two 10 litre paint buckets almost full of water all day, every day.
"I went to the first session on the 21st of September and went home almost in tears. I said to my husband, 'Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is that we can eat bacon and eggs for breakfast. The bad news is that there is no toast.'
"I was a 'six slices of bread a day' person - I LOVED my bread - how could I survive without it? However, my husband said, 'Yes you can, you can do that!! I'll do it with you.' So I decided to try.
"Since that evening I have not eaten one crumb of bread. My sugar and bread cravings are totally non-existent. Life is wonderful. I'm 18 kgs lighter, full of energy and never hungry.
"This really is living life to the full."
10th February 2006
Update 1st August 2006. Suzanne is now 25 kilograms lighter and has been stable at that weight easily for months now. Best of all the Crohn's disease that plagued her life and had her on steriods and Salazopyrin for is completely cured. Gone without a trace of for over 6 months now. Her specialist couldn't believe it. She's convinced it was the grains. She looks fantastic and is still buzzing with health and energy.
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