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Organic or not organic?

When I started reading about nutrition, I came across the dilemma of buying organic or not organic….

I knew a bit about it. I knew about the pesticides and all the chemicals that went into our vegetables and fruits but I didn’t know what it did to us when all of these chemicals went inside our bodies.

I read so many things…and what resonated with me was Dr. Zach Bush who started his career working with cancer patients, moved on to helping pharmaceuticals to find new drugs for cancer and ended up back to studying the food and lastly what was happening where our food comes from, the soil. Dr. Zach Bush is brilliant!

From my understanding, his message talks about the accumulation of pesticides and chemicals which is where the problem is, our bodies can’t cope with it. To make it even more complex, the research we can get access to only research (if they do, when they do) the impact of one chemical on our bodies not the avalanche we are putting our bodies through daily.

I have also come across some more in detailed examples…eating kale (presumably healthy) with the exception that when kale is NOT grown organically, all the chemicals they spray the kale with can open up your gut lining and cause a leaky gut injury. All the fiber becomes a noxious injury to the immune system and you develop an inflammatory reaction. You feel bloated and your digestion slows down. Kale is one of the top most contaminated crops out there and this is just one example (quoted by a Dr. Zach Bush by the way, so yes he is a Doctor)

I can go on and on about it….but reality is eating organic or not organic comes down to changing your priorities, changing where you spend your money on.

Do you want to spend your money on your health or on a new handbag? Do you think it is smart to buy the cheapest food to put inside your body or do you think it is wise to look for good quality produce, full of nutrients with no chemicals?

Our values are inverted. We are led to believe we need to spend our money buying the latest gadgets, following the latest fashion trends and yet we are always trying to find the cheapest deals on our food, the only thing that it keeps us running, the fuel that keeps us alive.

We really need to start asking ourselves more relevant questions as supposed to follow what the masses are doing?

The masses are not eating organic, the masses are eating processed foods, foods that are full of chemicals, preservatives, additives, fast food, foods that don’t add any nutrition to our bodies. The masses are also getting sicker and being diagnosed with more chronic diseases…

So what do you want for your life?

A life full of energy, vitality, a healthy life?

Or a life full of health problems, medications, uncomfortable living and being?

For me the choice is easy….I have been there…unhealthy, filling my body full of heavy medication, trying to climb my way back to health with whatever strength was left in me….and that I don’t wish on anyone and I certainly don’t wish it upon myself again.

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Here is what happens when you quit sugar

During my bowel cancer journey, I came across the paradigm of sugar.

What it stuck to my mind wasn’t that cancer cells feed of sugar, it was that sugar weakens the immune system.

Sugar causes inflammation and cancer starts as inflammation in our bodies.

If you have read anything about cancer, you might know that we all have cancer cells in our bodies and if our immune system is strong and healthy, the immune system is capable of killing these cancer cells.

In my case, my immune system wasn’t strong enough but I decided to work on getting my most important asset as strong as it could be: my immune system.

Processed sugar meaning white sugar, raw sugar, ice cream, chocolate, biscuits, cakes, all the delicious things we get bombarded with on a daily basis. Hidden sugars like ready made pasta sauces, or sauces (like Jamie Oliver’s pesto sauce has sugar??), bread, cereal (OMG they are definitely the worst) and the list goes on…Oh and I forgot alcohol…yes I know alcohol…one glass of wine has about 8-9 teaspoons of sugar and let’s face it, we live in a society that it is totally fine to drink 2-3 glasses of wine daily without thinking it is damaging our health.

The World Health Organization suggests that kids have 3 teaspoons of sugar daily, woman has 6 teaspoons and men has 9 teaspoons of sugar daily. I think it is fair to say we are consuming beyond the recommended amount even when we think we are eating healthily, think apple juices with 6 teaspoons of sugar, plus tomato sauce with 1 teaspoon of sugar in one squirt etc…

I then read a lot about the sugar content in fruit. So many people talk about the consumption of fructose (sugar coming from fruit) when you have cancer. But I decided that if I cut out all of the processed food and sugars, all of my sugar intake would come from fruit (which is natural in this case). Also cutting out fruit could mean loosing out on many good vitamins that came straight from nature so I decided against it. I eat plenty of fruit and I believe fruit contributes to my overall body’s health and balance.

So why are we not stopping sugar?Ok, you don’t know me and this is just someone’s opinion but if you look into it, there will be millions of books, internet articles, information out there talking about it but we chose not to look because sugar is sooooo delicious right but most importantly so addictive and the food companies know that. There has been studies with rats, sugar and cocaine and it turns out rats go back to sugar more often than to the cocaine. Crazy right!

So quite simply, you need to ask yourself some honest questions about how you feel in yourself? Do you feel tired all the time? Do you crave sugar all the time? Are you and your family getting every cough and cold there is around? Are you getting the stomach flu all the time? Chances are, there are many of us in this situation but instead of looking into why our immune system is not working properly, we look to blame an outside factor because this is just the easiest thing to do. Oh! The cold is around…everyone is sick at school….at work…

Our immune system lies on our digestive track and we are flooding our digestive track with processed sugars, hidden sugars all the time. The sugar then becomes bad bacteria inside us. To achieve optimum health, we need a balance between bad bacteria and good bacteria in our digestive track. By eating too much sugar, our digestive system gets off balance and then we have a problem. Our immune system stop working properly and we get sick.

But then you ask me? But we all need sugar don’t we? Our kids need sugar?Yes we do and they do it too. But we can get enough sugar from nature, like fruits, raw honey (in moderation), brown rice (carbohydrates), sweet potatoes, starchy vegetables, (will become sugar in our body too) etc…so rest assure you won’t die when you cut processed sugar out of your life or your kids life.

My kids have got more energy than ever, they haven’t been sick since we have been on this “new way of eating” and I am confident sugar or not eating sugar I must say is an important factor that contributes to their health.

So are you willing to try it out slowly but surely to cut out of sugar to see if your overall health improves?