Food for Thought

I've been thinking about food quite a bit lately. And even though pregnancy does have a part in that, it's not the main reason food has been on my mind so much lately. My little brother is the main cause. Most of you know about the disease that he's been diagnosed with and with that disease comes a pretty strict diet. There's a long list of things he can no longer have and won't ever get to have again. I won't bore you with all of the details of his new diet, but I will tell you that it has made me look at food differently. Every time I eat something that Jamey can't have, I feel a little guilty. I wish that he could enjoy the same things that everyone else does and not have to read the labels on every single thing he buys at the store. I've always tried to make it a point to not take food for granted because I know there are so many people in the world that don't have access to good, healthy food. But I've never thought about the people that do have access to food and still can't have it because their bodies can't handle it. Food is one of those things that we usually don't think about... we just decide what we want and then we eat it.

And then I started thinking some more... and I think it's safe to say that not just UC/Crohn's patients have digestive problems. Yes, their problems are much much much MUCH more severe, but in every grocery store you go to, there is an entire section with OTC medicines dedicated to digestive health. Even in the dairy section you see yogurt that promises to get your digestion under control if you eat it every day. Those of us that don't have UC, Crohn's, or any other IBD disease may experience a little discomfort, choose an OTC med, take it, and move on. But is that really supposed to be normal? Or are we just so accustomed to it that we've made it normal? I recently came across this website written by a woman who is living with UC and since her diagnosis, has left the corporate world of work and became a nutritionist. She talks about the incredible difference diet and nutrition have made in her life with UC. The site is mostly healthy recipes, but I came across this post from her site:

getting back on track with your digestion:

It doesn’t take Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys to see that the majority of people have issues with digestion. Just take a stroll through your local supermarket or pharmacy and you’ll find product after product to relieve constipation, others to aid those suffering from diarrhea, more for heartburn and still more options for gas relief. Digestion is something a lot of us don’t feel comfortable talking about, but it’s clearly something that causes a lot of discomfort, or there wouldn’t be so many options so easily accessible.
All animals, in fact every organism, has to digest the food they eat, so why is it so difficult for us? Is it possible to live in a world where you don’t need a box of pills (or that morning cup of Joe) to pass a bowel movement? That’s right, I just said bowel movement. No big deal.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is to blame for our inefficient and malfunctioning digestion epidemic. Sorry, but there is no sugar coating or tiptoeing around this. Packed with processed foods and few fruits and vegetables, the SAD consists of foods high in lots of things the body really doesn’t need. The SAD is loaded with high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, monosodium glutamate (MSG) and lacking in the basic essentials like vitamins and minerals. Packaged foods have little, if any, nutritional value. It’s no wonder our bodies don’t know how to handle them.

It is possible to have a happy and healthy digestive system. Although our digestive system is tied to many different factors including physical activity and mental health, what and how we eat plays a huge role in how we feel on the inside. Cleaning up your diet is the first step.

This is some of the stuff I work on with my clients. So many people that I work with think that it is acceptable and perfectly normal to constantly be uncomfortable and carry around at least one over-the-counter product that brings them relief everywhere they go. Trust me, this isn’t normal. Why live with unnecessary pain and discomfort?

Frankly, I'm starting to agree with her. I think that maybe foods affect us more that we realize. I think that we were perfectly designed for the natural resources that The Creator gave us, not for manufactured stuff made in bulk in a large factory and then shipped 100's of miles away. Now I know that eating foods full of junk is not nearly the same and as unhealthy as smoking, but bear with me during this analogy. Smoking is bad for you, right? We all know that it causes lung cancer, emphysema, and other health problems. But not every person that smokes develops any of those problems. Some smokers live perfectly long and relatively healthy lives. So does that mean that smoking is perfectly healthy for some people and not so for others? Or that smoking wasn't the cause of emphysema in a person who does smoke? Of course not! Had that person not been a smoker, they would not have developed emphysema. And just because some people are lucky enough to avoid such problems, doesn't mean that smoking is a perfectly healthy thing to do for those people. I think the same thing can be applied to the foods we consume. Just because some people don't experience any major problems from eating junk all the time, doesn't make it a healthy thing to do.

As far as the UC thing goes, I'm not necessarily saying that a bad diet is the main factor for the cause of it. There's no medical link suggesting that and I know that plenty of people who lived very healthy lifestyles still developed the disease. But it's hard to imagine that food and diet don't play a role at all in the cause of a digestive related issue, especially when diet plays such an important role in the effects of the disease post diagnosis.

I'm also not trying to be "preachy" and tell anyone that they need to stop shopping at regular grocery stores and only shop at Whole Foods from now on and only eat organic foods. I am probably one of the worst examples of "healthy" there is! In fact, I may be the queen of unhealthy! I was just at the State Fair yesterday and ate a ton of the worlds unhealthiest foods ever made! ***bows head in shame*** And the fact of the matter is, we live in a society where it's nearly impossible to avoid highly processed foods that's full of manufactured stuff and not so full of nutrients. And frankly, it's none of my business what you eat. The subtitle of this blog is "the stories of [our family]" and this just happens to be what's going on in the thought process and life of Cassi Chaney right now. I have a sick brother who has to look at food differently and that has caused me to also look at food differently. That is all.