Vince has taken our new healthy living challenge quite seriously and I’m very thankful for that. Since we don’t have cable, we’re often scanning Netflix and Amazon Prime for documentaries and lately it’s been about food and healthy eating.
These days, I seem skeptical of everything I hear and read because one show/book will swear something is absolute and the next day, we watch something that’s just the opposite. I’m not taking anything I hear or read as the gospel . . from anyone — politicians, food experts — we’re researching the heck out of everything,
Last night we watched the comedy-documentary, Fat Head. As Vince was thumbing through previews, what caught my attention was that the guy was wearing a McNeese State shirt! We started watching it and it was a bit comical but I found it also to be powerful. We began researching some of what we heard, and talking about it. I got this book from Amazon – The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss. I started reading it while walking this morning and I can’t put it down. As you know, I have no medical background so I’m not giving medical advice but I have said for years that my grandparents and every one of their friends that I knew .. they all ate eggs and bacon for breakfast every morning. Of probably a dozen friends that visited them regularly, I remember one lady being overweight. Everyone else was almost too thin. They ate beef and pork they raised and vegetables from their gardens. They ate big meals at lunch and dinner. They never ate fast food (or any restaurant food because there just weren’t any around them.) My grandma would bake a cake or pie but they ate very small pieces and usually only in the afternoon when friends would stop by. They worked hard on a farm in Louisiana. They had no air conditioning (and no indoor bathroom for the longest time). In the afternoons when it was hot, they would rest from their chores, often sitting on the porch and their friends would pass by and often stop to have a bit of whatever yummy cake or pie my grandma had baked. It wasn’t like when I bake a cake and I have three slices in one day!
They ate all the things we’ve been told we shouldn’t eat – bacon, cooking with bacon grease, pork, red meat, lots of eggs, and until they moved off the farm and closer to my mom and my uncle, and began eating out and eating fast food, they never had any health problems at all. By that time, they were in their 80’s. I’ll be real happy if I can follow that same path.
We’re all different. What’s good for one may not be good for all but in my opinion, we’ve lost our way in so many areas and one is definitely the way we eat – what and how much we consume and how little most of us really “work”. I’m not casting stones . . I’m one of the worst and yet I pride myself in the fact that we rarely go out to eat and very rarely eat fast food.
I can’t even tell you how many years it’s been that doctors have suggested I take statin drugs for cholesterol. I have always refused. I read the side effects. I’ve read that what’s considered normal today is way lower than what’s been considered normal in previous years. I don’t have enough confidence that this isn’t something being pushed by the drug makers. My cholesterol is barely above today’s “normal” range and I’m betting with a little weight loss and the red yeast rice I’m taking, my levels will be within “normal” range when I get my levels checked again. I’m going to lose 10 more pounds and then get it checked.
Again, I’m no expert but after watching the documentary last night, we’re off regular wheat. I got KAMUT® out and will grind some tonight for tortillas for our breakfast in the morning. I’ve mentioned KAMUT® on here before but we’re going back to that for all our wheat products.
KAMUT® Brand khorasan is an organic, non-genetically modified, ancient wheat variety similar to durum. In 1990, “KAMUT” was registered as a trademark by the Quinn family in order to support organic farming and preserve the ancient khorsasan wheat variety. Under the KAMUT® Brand name, khorasan wheat must always be grown organically, never be hybridized or modified, and contain high levels of purity and nutrition. Today, Kamut International owns and has registered the KAMUT® trademark in over 40 countries, and is responsible for protection and marketing of all KAMUT® Brand khorasan wheat throughout the world.
Please visit the Kamut International website at www.kamut.com to learn more.
I’m hoping that this is all true and am proceeding as if it is true.
I would encourage you, if you’re a bit concerned about what you’re eating and what you’re being told about food, cholesterol levels, etc. to watch the movie. It’s a comedy, but it also holds a lot of truth and got me to thinking more about what we eat. I’m more determined than ever to grow as much of our food as I can.
If you watch the movie, please let me know what you think.
pattilynn9 says
I’ll look for the movie “Fat Head”.
I’ve had good results lowering my cholesterol numbers with Omega 3’s. As with most things, lots of info online. Hope the change in wheat helps.
Vicky Ross says
From reading your blog, I can tell we both grew up in similar situations. My grandparents on both sides ate very much the same as your grandparents. For breakfast, my grand dad ate 6 eggs every day fried in whatever grease was in the skillet at the time, along with bacon/sausage/ham, and pancakes/biscuits on the side. Sometimes my grandmas fried squirrel for breakfast with biscuits and squirrel gravy. When there were no biscuits or rolls, a saucer piled high with white bread was placed on the table. They always had a cake in kitchen. They drank real milk, real buttermilk, made their own butter. The ate nothing that would be considered “lite”. They lived until their 80s and 90s. I don’t believe they ever would have had their cholesterol checked. I can’t even remember them going to the doctor.
I haven’t watched any of the documentaries that you’ve spoken of. I believe we have altered our food so much that it is now altering us and is causing all these health problems. My husband and I are now being mindful of what we eat. Trying to get back to basics and forgetting about the government produced “food pyramid”.
JudyL says
I agree about the food pyramid. I just can’t believe so much has happened that seems so wrong and nothing is done to stop it.
Linda says
Judy, this is a subject I am so interested in. I believe that many of our food stuffs have been altered for commercial reasons, ie shelf life, appearance, added weight, etc. For instance, the salt added to an animal’s diet just prior to butchering that causes them to load on more water which results in juicier weight and higher price than unsalted/normal weight meat. It also adds unneeded salt to our diet. Produce often is over irrigated at the last moment for the same reasons. We grow a lot of our veg/fruit, but are not set up to raise our meat/eggs/dairy or grains. I am quite interested in the Kamut wheat and will check that out.
Thank you so much for sharing what you learn on these issues.
On another subject, be thankful for your grocery stores where you live. I pay $6 – $7 per pound for 80/20 ground beef.
Tee says
This was the statin calculator I was thinking of, not the other one I sent. https://statindecisionaid.mayoclinic.org/index.php/statin/
Tee says
Looks like my original comment did not get posted. I mentioned that my Mayo Clinic doctor puts my numbers into this calculator to determine if I need statins or not. Even with high total cholesterol, over 200, my risk is only 7% and he feels it is not necessary to go on statins at this time. https://statindecisionaid.mayoclinic.org/index.php/statin/
Debi McIntosh says
hi Judy, is it an easy to read and understand book? If so it’s on the list.
Theresa says
Unlike you, about ten years ago, my doctor prescribed statins and I unfortunately took them. A few weeks later, my joints and muscles all ached horribly, and I had no energy. I googled my symptoms and found that taken together, they were the side effects of the statin. So I stopped taking them and felt much better two days later. I never take prescriptions now without a lot of research. I don’t ever want to be that sick again. Bring on the fish oil!
Deb says
I also read Dr. Fung’s book and watched his You Tube videos. After reading it, I threw out the advice from my dietician, advised my primary care physician that I was doing so, and I started following Dr. Fung’s plan. I will spare you the details of the conversations that I had with my dietician over this book and the medical community’s disregard for Dr. Atkins plan, which helped me lose nearly 100# over 20 yr ago and kept it off. Using Dr. Fung’s plan, I’ve lost 30# in a very short amount of time. My physician has been very supportive of the change to Dr. Fung’s plan. I’m looking forward to my next follow-up appointment and dumping some of my medications.