I just wanted to provide a quick update on how my health has been in the months since I began my Journey to Natural Health.

I have now lost a total of 13kgs (since March 2011) and have been enjoying delicious meals including slow cooked lamb shanks with garlic mashed potatoes, homemade pizza, bacon and eggs, apple & rhubarb crumble and chocolate brownies!

                                                           (photo by happykanppy)

I am sleeping better, am able to concentrate on my study and the constant feeling of anxiety that I was struggling with seems to have settled.

After an initial breakout (due to the detoxification my body has been going through) my skin now has a healthy glow and is much brighter and far less dry than before.

I used to suffer from a very dry scalp and this has also resolved, leaving my hair healthy and shiny.

I have not once felt “deprived” of my favourite foods as I used to when I was on the diet roller coaster. I have no desire to eat lollies, commercial ice-cream or even chocolate (which is some kind of miracle for me). I have found pleasure in simple foods like apples (who knew they were so sweet?), homemade baked goods (including scones, slices and muffins) and nuts (with almonds & walnuts my new favourites). I have also rediscovered how delicious butter is – it just makes everything taste so much better!

I also realise that the “hunger” I used to feel all the time was not real hunger. It was more a craving my body was having for sugary foods. Now when I feel hungry (which is not often), I can eat a small handful of nuts and feel satisfied.

When I catch up with people I haven’t seen in a while, they are shocked at the amount of weight I have lost – especially when I tell them what I eat and that I haven’t even started to exercise yet! I get comments on my skin and hair all the time and have even been told I look 5 years younger! I really love sharing my journey with people and warn them I can go on for hours with the information I have learned along the way. I have a couple of friends who have asked for my help to lose weight and quit their sugar addiction, which I am so very grateful for. It is my goal in life to help people discover how much better their lives can be by nurturing themselves and their families with good food.

Photo by Sujin Jetkasettakorn

Many diet soft drinks contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose. According to research, aspartame (also known as NutriSweet and Equal) has been linked to chronic illnesses including  brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, alzheimer’s disease and diabetes (to name a few).  Aspartame can also cause symptoms including headaches, dizziness, nausea, insomnia, anxiety attacks, joint pain and depression.

Diet soft drinks including Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Schweppes Agrum, Sprite Zero Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi all contain aspartame. Aspartame is listed as additive number 951 on package labels.

Sucralose (AKA Splenda) is another artificial sweetener used in many products. The marketing tells us that Splenda is made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar and is therefore safe. What they don’t tell us is that sucralose can cause diarrhoea, decrease red blood cell count and enlarged liver and kidneys.  Sucralose is produced by chlorinating sugar (sucrose). This involves chemically changing the structure of the sugar molecules by substituting three chlorine atoms for three hydroxyl groups.

The reason that artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain is that our brains intuitively understand that sweetness and calories go together, so when we eat a sweet, tasty food, our brain thinks we’re getting a substantial amount of calories from it. Therefore, our brain sends us the message that we are full or satisfied. Sweetness = calories = the need to stop eating. When the sweet taste accompanies zero calories, our brains become confused and our whole system becomes unable to determine appropriate amounts of foods to eat in order to maintain a healthy weight. In fact, diet soft drink can actually make you feel hungrier!

There is no substitute for water as a way of re hydrating your body. When I first gave up diet soft drinks, I drank plenty of mineral water or soda water with a bit of lime or lemon in it for flavour. I found that the bubbles in the water was enough to give me the feeling I got when I drank diet soft drink, without the dangerous chemicals.

References

http://www.naturalnews.com/024302_aspartame_Splenda_diet_soda.html

http://besthealth.com.au/aspartame-nutrasweet-dangers-to-your-health/

http://www.stressmatters.com.au/aspartame.htm

http://changinghabits.com.au/CustomContentRetrieve.aspx?ID=793075

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose

http://www.splendaexposed.com/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=artificial-sweetener-linked-weight-gainhttp://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/

We have made the conscious decision not to ban anything from our kids. What I have tried to do instead, is to educate my children on how our body works and what happens to it when we eat unhealthy food. I have been pleasantly surprised with how well all 3 of my kids have adjusted to the changes. At the age of 10, the girls have a pretty good understanding of how their bodies work and I ask them to listen to their bodies and how they feel when they have eaten sugary snacks or “junk” food.

I am often asked “do they binge on junk food when you’re not around?”. My answer is “maybe!” There is so much temptation out there for them and I can’t always be there to help them make the right choices, nor do I expect to be. My children are intelligent and independent souls who thrive on being able to make decisions for themselves. They have been at birthday parties where they have eaten standard party food, occasionally to excess, but I figure that if I can make the food at home as healthy as possible, their bodies will be able to withstand the occasional onslaught of rubbish.

I often talk to my 4 year old about making good choices and he prides himself of choosing to eat his “proper” lunch before a snack (albeit a healthy, home-made one). He will still ask for things occasionally and my response is usually “how about we try to make it at home”. Then we buy the ingredients and make all kinds of creations together (some have not ended well), but the majority of our attempts have been ok!

My advice to anyone at war with their kids about eating healthier foods, is to start by educating them (and yourself) about their bodies and what they need to feel great.

Good luck!

I started by reducing the amount of packaged snacks we were buying. I had always looked for “healthy” options to pack into my kids’ lunch boxes, but soon learnt that what I thought was “healthy” was in fact loaded with sugar (not to mention additives, preservatives and other nasties). It wasn’t just the obvious things, like Nutrigrain and LCM bars, it was tomato sauce, muesli bars and breads! I cleaned out the cupboard of all of these things and got to baking my own snacks. I also started reading the labels of any packaged food we purchased and found either no or low sugar alternatives to pasta sauce, tomato sauce and breakfast cereals.

In February this year, we relocated back to Perth from Brisbane and were staying with my sister for 3 weeks while waiting for our new house to be ready. She had just bought a copy of “Sweet Poison” by David Gillespie and both my husband and I read it and were horrified at what he wrote. My family all have sweet tooths, in fact, our family get togethers usually revolved around dessert and there was always a choice of 2 or 3 at each event. Growing up, my mum owned a coffee shop and out house was always full of sweet treats that we devoured after school. As I got older, my sugar cravings got stronger and when I was pregnant with my third child, I could’ve eaten sugar straight from the container (I didn’t – but consumed more than enough Milo, chocolate and ice-cream to sink a ship!). I now know that this was a cause of persistant headaches, thrush outbreaks, anxiety and weight gain throughout my teenage and subsequent adult years. No matter what “diet” I went on, I couldn’t loose all the weight I gained after my pregnancies and constantly felt tired and anxious.

(Photo by Suat Eman)

After reading Gillespie’s book, we spent a week away in Busselton and decided that we would go cold turkey off the sugar. We explained to the kids that we wanted to start the year being as healthy as possible and to do this, we needed to kick our sugar addiction and get back to basics with our food. I was amazed and very proud of the response our children gave – “we want to feel good too!”. Over our week away, we shopped, cooked and ate as a family. When we went out for the day, we packed a picnic lunch and didn’t buy any sweet treats (like ice creams or biscuits). After a week without sugar, we all started to notice a difference in how we felt. my headaches had disappeared, we all slept better and both my husband and I started to lose weight.

Once we got back into our “normal” lives, we continued with our no sugar habit. Not only did we all start feeling better, but we found that we weren’t hungry all the time and that my sugar cravings were virtually non-existant. I am still amazed by this as I was a complete sugar addict and would have chocolate every day, and haven’t felt like it since I gave it up. As an experiment, I decided to eat one small Easter egg to see if I could be tempted back to sugar, but I had to spit it out as it tasted like chemicals!

Now, 8 weeks later I have lost 7kgs and am sleeping better and the kids are feeling better and are loving all our cooking at home. My sense of taste and smell are so much more sensitive and real food is tasting fantastic – as it should! I can’t imagine ever going back to eating the way we were, and I certainly don’t intend to.

The danger of eating too much sugar is well documented (Sweet Poison, Dr Mercola, Macrobiotic Guide , yet the vast majority of food on the supermarket shelves is full of it. Tomato sauce can be between 40-50% sugar, Special K has 14.5g of sugar per 100g and a lunch box favourite Kelloggs LCM bar is 1/3 sugar! I will be posting more about sugar in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, if you are trying to reduce your or your kids’ sugar intake, try to find products with less than 5g of sugar per 100g and you’re onto a good start.

Just bring in your own containers and fill them with whatever you need from coffee beans to mustard seeds. They also stock organic milk and rye breads, organic fruit and veg as well as a huge range of skincare and cleaning products.

Loose Produce also run cooking classes (see “Classes & Seminars page”).

 Christine’s book not only includes easy and very tasty recipes, but facts about food and  nutrition  that  will shock you. Reading her book is fascinating and she provides a wealth  of information  on  how to  look and feel fantastic.

My favourite recipes (and it’s hard to narrow them down) is the Orange Cake, Sushi and Meatballs.    All 3 are favourites in my family and we are continuing to find more healthy and nutritious recipes    we love.

I would highly recommend Christine’s book to anyone interested in reducing the amount of sugar    and white flour they are consuming and wants to re-educate themselves about good food. These  recipes are not time consuming with hard to find ingredients, they are family friendly, healthy and    tasty meals, snacks and desserts your family will love.

Don’t just take it from me, here are some other testimonials;

“Christine’s easy tasty recipes and comprehensive information is a must for anyone wanting to be healthy, lose weight, look great, and live with vitality”
—DOMINIQUE RIZZO, CELEBRITY CHEF, EDUCATOR “PURE FOOD COOKING”

“As a Naturopath, I have recommended many healthy eating books to clients over the years but this is one book you can trust to provide healthy and delicious recipes that everyone in the family will love and benefit from as well.”
–KIM BALSON. N.D. (HONS), NATUROPATH, HORMONE CONSULTANT, AUTHOR

“Any book about food that is inviting, educational and fun to use has my approval — Christine has done fantastic work in her careful preparation. Australia leads the way in the western word for obesity epidemic. Eating for pleasure rather than sustenance has become a primary tool in producing morbid obesity.  A recent study in a prestigious medical journal explained a clear connection between visceral fat (the dense fat found surrounding intra-abdominal organs) not only is unsightly but also is dangerous to our health. The study revealed this type of fat is linked to the development of metabolic syndrome, to cardiovascular disease and to premature death.*  I congratulate Christine on her work in promoting a better and tasty way to eat while improving healthy outcomes at the same time.”
–DR GRAHAM LYTTLE, DO. DC. MSc., FIMCA. MANPA.

“I have been raving about this cook book to everyone, every chance I get! Finally a cookbook with easy, full flavoured recipes that are sugar-free, authentically nutritious and nourishing for the soul; that my kids love!!!! This cookbook not only provided me with much wanted recipes, it also fed my need to learn. Christine’s depth of knowledge and wisdom about food is extensive. A very user friendly, wise, and delicious addition to everyone’s kitchen.”
–CAROLYN SUMMERS, MOTHER OF 2

Great Health is a Piece of Cake is available to purchase online here.