oh... my... gosh... it's waaaay too much info! and i thought *i* was doing so well on our allergy-free natural diet-- lots of whole fruits and veggies, home-cooked foods, no artificial anything... but wowza, those mamas over there are soooooo beyond me!

like, in one thread, they were discussing selenium's benefits and taurine and another mineral that slips my mind...

and kefir, and kombucha, but wait, kombucha's bad, and then cod liver oil, but wait, there's a warning about fish oils, you should use flax oil, but wait, there's an article about flax oil not being absorbed...

and on and on and on!

it was truly dizzying. at one point i wish i'd taken notes, but my notes would've been a mess of cross-outs and scribble-overs!

i honestly don't know how one would keep it all straight.

we're TTC, and there's a whole thread on getting your body ready for TTC, and i'm way behind in the game according to the info there!

and another thread discussed how "not" to have an allergic child-- meaning, what you can do while baby's in utero to maximize your chances for baby not to have so many allergies... wow... phew.

i feel overwhelmed! just thought i'd share. :)
alycia

Good Lord..trying to eat right, live right, clean right, use the best products for all of our needs is overwhelming. YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE sister.
My head spins. Aobut the time I think I got it in my hip pocket, some new research says the former resrach was incorrect.

Do teh best you can with what you know Alycia....I ahve a feeling we all are going to have a few surprised on this journey.

With all of that stuff I know that I had to start small. FIrst more organic fruits and veggies then added stuff slowly. If's so easy to get overwhelmed and then give up. Yoiu just need to do what is good for you and your family. HTH Sarah

I took 4 years worth of Nutrition classes and I have a hard time keeping some of it strait, and as for allergic chidren, you really just never know. When pg with my son I was starving, living in my car part of the time and on peoples couches the rest of the time... being 18 and not knowing any better, the first time he 'asked' for food I gave it to him, at almost 3 mos old. :drop:

With my dd, I had my degree (major; Developmental Psych, minor; Nutrition) and I did everything "right"...

Who has allergies? Dd... who doesn't and isn't the least bit picky? My wonderful first born, amasingly resilient son. It really all depends on the parents, the kid, and the taste buds that form in the child... and much less to do with who gets what mineral and which time is best to absorb calcium. lol...

Although sometimes when you are having health troubles it is best to know about bioavailability. And that seems like a lot of what they were talking about. Like Calcium is best absorbed on an acidic stomach, so drinking milk to get Calcium is silly, and Heme and nonHeme Iron sources etc... those things are important if you are having trouble in those areas.

Anyway... just randomly speculating, but there is tons of information out there... if you start to get overwhelmed, pull back for a bit. I have had to do this many times in my path to wanting my family to be as safe and healthy as possible and I STILL fight my urges to do things like paint while pregnant etc... lol... The best way to work with these life changes is slowly. If you try to do anything fast, you may have the knowledge, but the habits will never change.

Enjoy the road... each step is worth it. I keep waiting for what the next one holds for me. ;)

how about yogurt Val? That is more acidic...??

It is more acidic in the form of active yeast, but not much for Calcium absorbtion. The best way to get Calcium is to eat a dark green leafy veggies with something like an orange (like blood orange salad, or something like that). When I am pregnant I crave collard greens and fresh orange juice together.

Some people crave pickles and ice cream... lol...

One of the boys won't eat collard greens. I have no idea why because they both love things like kale and spinach. Isn't that weird?

to be honest, I think some people are WAY over thinking everything. I think if we over think diet to much we can create just as many problems as if we don't think about it at all. I've seen a lot of kids who were inadvertantly malnurished because their parents restricted to much. There are just as many kids who are malnurished because all they get is junk.

The secret is simple, variety. Keep introducing new things, make sure the quality of what your offering is as high as you can afford & don't stress so much that food becomes an all consuming "issue".

Chole

One of the boys won't eat collard greens. I have no idea why because they both love things like kale and spinach. Isn't that weird?

Kale and spinich are packed with Calcium... So good on them! ;) Any very dark green veggie has a bunch of Calcium in it. So does mixing foods like cheese and apple slices, yogurt with peaches in it... anything to make the stomach slightly more acidic is fine. You don't necessarily need to eat the thing that is going to give you the MOST Calcium to get Calcium. KWIM? Just the fact that you boys will eat greens is awesome. So far all Cyan will eat in that dept is broccoli and swiss chard from the garden. ;) Picky kids are hard, and you constantly worry if they are getting enough of everything.

to be honest, I think some people are WAY over thinking everything.


I completely agree... and forcing kids to eat or not letting them eat ANYTHING that is bad for them will just disrupt their natural eating habits and then you will never have a good picture of how they will eat as adults and have room to introduce new things into that diet. Kids know what their bodies need, and sometimes they don't need what you think they do. I feel like it is my job to put really good variety of foods in front of my children as much as possible. And it is there job to pick and choose what to eat out of that. They need to taste everything, but I never make them eat anything. And do we ever eat a burger at the local burger place? Sure we do. Complete with blackberry shake. ;)

I am over there a lot and love it! BUT it has taken me 2.5 years to get to where I am. That long ago I found a nutritional philosophy that just made so much sense to me. Many people disagree, but that's OK. S.l.o.w.l.y, over time I've become more informed and can defend myself, if need be. Overall, I can read all the scientific stuff to affirm my decisions, but it never sticks in my head and rarely can I spout off any memorized facts and figures. It's a definite journey. (One I've enjoyed.) There are great resources there to help on the journey. But it CAN get overwhelming. If so, take a step back and just figure out where YOU are. Don't read what doesn't apply to where you are now!

My doctor recommended Dr Pepper and Cheetos for nausea. But I had already conceived.:hahaha:

Is this your first? Good Luck!

Umm, please remember that nutrition science is about 100 years old. The things they know are based on the available analysis. So, for a long time, they could find fats, proteins, and carbs. So the recommended diet was boiled beef, boiled potatoes, and so on. Italian food was considered unhealthy, and fruit pointless. Then, they started being able to find micronutrients, phytochemicals, and so on. And then, different scientists get hinky about different things.

Are you mostly in the ballpark? Are you close to where you want to be?

ari

thanks for your responses, mamas! i like chole's and ari's best. :) just kidding!!! hee hee hee.

ari, actually, this will be my third, if it happens.

and i have been and continue to do a LOT of reading on nutrition and health. dh tells me that my nutrition books and I "should get a room together" because i spend so much time with them!

i guess i do know a lot now, especially compared to where i was five years ago-- a vegan, but eating mostly soy substitutes, tofu, etc, and not a ton of veggies.

i guess what's overwhelming to me at MDC is first of all, the back and forth-- one mama will say this, and have a lot of links to back it up, and then the next post will be someone contradicting her with their own links!

also, my god, they LOVE sally fallon and weston price over there! they should set up a shrine. :) i read nourishing traditions, but it left me sort of lukewarm. i could definitely "go" with it regarding some things, but not with others-- like all the animal foods, even if they're raw.

my newest god is joel fuhrman, thanks to kbsmama jodi for that one. i'm making my way through eat to live, and i devoured disease-proof your kids, or whatever that one was called. i'm also reading the china study. both books advocate almost no meat or animal products whatsoever.

but another confusing issue is to supplement or not to supplement. i've read, *obviously*, about the depletion of our soil, etc. and how our veggies have little nutrients, especially compared to years ago... but both eat to live and the china study say not to worry so much about that, that we *can* get everything we need from food!

still, i do supplement, and always have, so then, the question is, what to supplement? i do cod liver oil (i'm a "fallen" vegan!), b/c both our holistic ped and our homeopath told me flax seed oil isn't as readily absorbed as CLO, but fuhrman criticizes CLO and recommends a combo of flax seed oil and plant-derived DHA...

and then there's all the minerals-- how confusing is that? selenium, etc.

and i just read a thread last night at MDC about mamas chelating after having mercury amalgam fillings removed. i went through all that just recently, b/c we knew we were going to TTC and i obviously didn't want to do it while pregnant, but now i realize i have more to "do" as far as ridding my body of mercury!

and more... i've wanted to do a cleanse for sooo long, but i've been nursing or pregnant for the last six and a half years... and i'm exploring NAET for my kids, i actually found a practitioner in ann arbor thanks to Linda here at amity's, but it's expensive, and i am suuuuuuurrrre dh will have issues with it b/c it's so "hokus pokus" sounding, y'know?

sooo, that's my ramble, that's where i'm "at" right now. :) oh, yeah-- fuhrman cautions against vitamin a and beta-carotene in supplements, and cautions against taking iron, as all of those can do damage and actually take vitamins *away* from your body as well as prevent the absorption of other nutrients... and my rainbow lights that i've been taking forever (because they're food-based and supposedly better absorbed by the body) have the vitamin a and the iron... i haven't checked for beta carotene... what's a girl to do?! :)

alycia

Alycia, it is *so* *completely* overwhelming. You should try checking out the biomedical autism treatment community. It makes mothering's forums look simplistic. Some do WAP, some do Body Ecology Diet, others are strictly GFCF, others are eliminating dozens of allergy-producing foods. And that's just the FOOD! Then there's those who chelate, those who don't, those who use homeopathy, those who use secretin, those who love Pfeiffer for treatment, those who hate Pfeiffer, those who chelate with TD-DMPS and those who chelate with DMSA - anyway it is enough to literally make me break down in tears sometimes, when I have tried to go through it. And I excelled at biochemistry and cell biology and I *still* get completely bowled over by the autism biomedical stuff.

I think I agree with choleblack. :D Overthinking stuff can make you nutso, and moderation in all things. It's interesting to learn about all these different approaches to nutrition and supplements, but realize that no one has all the answers.

I heard this snippet of Lewis Black on Sirius radio and cracked up. You have to imagine his pissed-off, ranting voice, of course, and his *timing* (this quote courtesy of wikiquote):

The thing about sun block is, you're gonna go to your doctor's in about 10 years, and your doctor's gonna go, 'your co - your chart here's - your cholesterol's out of control. What have you been doing?' 'Well, I've been eatin' really well, and running and doing everything right.' 'Yeah, but have you been using sun block?' 'Well, yeah.' 'Well, you shouldn't trust that ****! What are you doing? You coulda had all the sausage you wanted! HA HA!' The people who told us about sun block were the same people who told us, when I was a kid, that eggs were good. So I ate a lot of eggs. 10 years later they said they were bad. I went, 'Well, I just ate the eggs!' So I stopped eating eggs, and 10 years later they said they were good again! Well, then I ate twice as many, and then they said they were bad. Well, now I'm really ****ed! Then they said they're good, they're bad, they're good, the whites are good, t-the yellows - MAKE UP YOUR MIND! It's breakfast! I gotta eat!

also, my god, they LOVE sally fallon and weston price over there! they should set up a shrine. :)

And there is a new thread criticising S. Fallon. Yes, these mommas know their stuff!

I love being able to read from all sides and then make my own conclusions and test them against my own bodily experience... (I found out that I don't do well with coconut oil, yet I crave macaroons pretty consistantly...). Now I'm seeing that my body doesn't want me to have raw milk in moderate amounts on a daily basis... and my body doesn't want very much kombucha, either! Kefir, on the other hand...yum!

Anyway, hello! I've been meaning to check out Amity Mama and took the occassion since MDC is down...

Anyway, hello! I've been meaning to check out Amity Mama and took the occassion since MDC is down...

Welcome, Emma! :waving:

Hmmm, MDC talk over here, too? I am on a forced vacation from MDC but that is another story.

what's a girl to do?! :)

alycia

I find it is really hard to know what to do on my own and that is why I see a naturopath for my doctor. She takes blood tests at least once a year and more often if I am not feeling good and gives me advice just for me. I just had the last of my fillings removed but she told me not to worry about chelation. We've talked about sunblock and moderation is key, she advises. "Natural" sunblocks are better than mainstream; there are certain ingredients to avoid and others to use in moderation. I've done the elimination diet and healing the gut but stopped when she thought I was healed and I felt better. I take certains supplements because I am low in those and she recommends brands that are healthier and she gives me dietary advice based on my body's needs.

So, I guess what I am saying is to get some professional advice that you trust. With the best and more professional medicine practitioners, it will be a conversation based on science and their knowledge of your body.

MDC is a great place to get advice and ideas but the answers only come from you. The problem with that place is that there are a whole lot of internet savvy mamas over there furiously linking all sorts of articles to their advice. That is great, but you can find an article on the internet to support every idea out there, good or bad. You have to have a lot of time and patience and good eyes to wade through it all.

As a "former" MDC mama, I have to agree. You can absolutely find a link to back up ANY POSSIBLE THEORY you could imagine! I'm serious!
I say, STAY AWAY FROM THERE! :lol: If you are curious about something or think it would be good to add, ADD IT! but don't over do it.
ITA with the over thinking stuff. It's nuts.