Source Your Food: Only You Are Responsible for Your Health

Long ago, I finally moved to organic as much as possible, but after a while and more learning, I realized I also had to find out about where those organic products came from. I contacted Vital Farms, Horizon, Rumiano Cheese, and O Organics for information about how their rules and testing of the products that comes from their family farms. Only the O-Organics company was lacking in information regarding their Grass Fed Beef.

Then I realized I could do the same for products that didn’t have the FDA Organics sticker, and found Germany’s #1 Pickle, the Hengstenberg Crunchy Gherkins. Their rules and product inspection are the same as organic. And Kerrygold Irish Spreadable Butter is also girls-on-grass derived. And because I dislike the taste of olive oil, I use EVAO — A for Avocado — from Mexico that is affordable if you know where to buy it. It is also high in monounsaturated fats and has a much higher smoke point than EVOO. I have read that even if glyphosate is sprayed on Avocados, it doesn’t penetrate the tough skin.

Now for the meats. Here again sourcing is paramount. I have yet to see a study showing the differences between eating meats grow the “traditional” way and meats grown the “industrial” way. Traditional means the cows, chickens, hogs, sheep, ducks, geese, turkeys, etc. all roam free on pastures, and no grains are ever fed to them. Now there is one issue here in that during inclement weather the grasses they are fed, like that come from alfalfa fields, haven’t been treated with chemicals. For example, by buying organic for grass fed beef, you know you are skipping past the chemicals, whereas All Natural Grass Fed beef leaves you possibly open to polluting your body. And then, is the organic beef, grass finished, or grain finished? And yes, glyphosate has been found in human bodies. I found reasonably priced Sunrise Organic 100% Grass Fed Beef at Smart & Final.

I found out about Dr. Gundry and his take on lectins. I didn’t follow his diets, but I did learn a lot and did some adjusting of my food lists. As a prediabetic, I have my A1C checked every 6 months. In the summer of 2017 and two months before my next lab draw, I stopped eating fruits and vegetables with seeds. I changed nothing else in my diet or exercise, which was mainly walking. The result was my A1C dropped from 6.3 to 5.7 in less than two months. 5.6 is the top of the normal range. It stayed there until I went through a rough patch and blew the diet with some lectin foods not on my list. My A1C went up to 5.9, and then came right back down when I got back on track.

The point here is instead of blindly following whatever dietary ideology (or political ideology for that matter), do the research to source your food, work out the diet that works for your body and lifestyle, including exercise, that you will actually follow.

For me, I have three rules: 1. What can I afford. 2. What are my food prep abilities. 3. What WILL I actually do.

The last one is the most important. For example, if I had to go plant based only, I would shoot myself.

The almost all organic but properly sourced food list that works for me is non-western hemisphere vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, spinach, red cabbage, radicchio, carrots, green lettuces (not romaine), red onions, red radishes, scallops, mushrooms, Bolthouse Organic Avocado Ranch for salads and in place of mayo, organic mustard, Rumiano Organic Gouda Block and Sliced Cheddar Cheese, Hengstenberg Crunchy Gherkins, Wilshire Farms ham, bacon & sausage, the organic 100% grass fed ground beef, chicken, turkey, blueberries and strawberries with Horizon Half and Half, Horizon stick butter, Kerrygold spreadable butter, almond butter, almonds, walnuts, Vial Farms Organic Pastured eggs, only sourdough bread, Café Fair organic coffee, Luzzianne decalf ice tea, filtered water that I add minerals to, and occasionally, but not often, I go out to eat Alaskan Wild Caught Salmon or a steak.

A quick look at what is not on my list: potatoes (sweet potatoes are from a different family), bread products other than sourdough bread, all high carb foods, processed foods (duh!), all grains, tomatoes, bell peppers, peas, green beans, legumes, and anything with sugars, except for one limited cheat — black raspberry jelly.

From this list, I can prepare a variety of combinations to keep it interesting, but maintain a low carb, moderate protein, and high fat eating routine. And yes, saturated fats are good for you. My UCLA primary doc got on me about the dead cow and sat fats, so she referred me to the UCLA MED Nutrition Department where I got an appointment with the Department head, but ended up with her Fellowship doctor under her supervision. Prior to my appointment 3 months out, frustrated, I went on a very high Sat Fat Binge for all of those 3 months with lipid panels before and immediately after. My energy improved, my mental faculties improved, my slight in-the-dumps type depression went away, I became highly interested in getting things done, and my lipid panel levels improved! Oh, wait! Sat fat is bad!

I wrote all this up along with the before and after labs and other documentation that I presented to the nutrition doctor I met with. Surprisingly, he listened intently and read all of the documentation and asked many detailed questions, but most importantly, he didn’t have any knee jerk responses, especially about sat-fat and dead-cow. He then left to confer with the department head, and came back with only one concern. He said I was not getting enough mono & polyunsaturated fats in the mix of fats. I told him I had stopped the avocado oil and switched to the stick butter for cooking as part of the high sat fat binge, but now I would switch back to the avocado oil and add walnuts to increase the poly-unsaturated oil. That was it! I was vindicated. And what did my primary say two days later? She told me she had learned a lot and looked forward to learning more! When was the last time your doc said something like that?

Summary: only you are responsible for your health; don’t just buy what your doc says, because the information is constantly changing; stop polluting and poisoning your body; stop buying foods that contribute to trashing the environment; do the research to source your food; find out what works for you and your body; and keep moving — sedentary kills.

Enjoy!