A book and the kind of progress Ponce DeLeon was looking for

Yesterday I grabbed a copy of Eat To Live and Eat For Health volumes 1 and 2 by Joel Fohrman MD. I had seen the first mentioned on Kath Eats Real Food , and from what she described he seems to touch on a lot of different points that I have been feeling lately in this journey, which can best be summed up as the belief that we require nutrient dense foods or our bodies will suffer. Nothing new nessisarily, except some of the things he says about wheat are in line with some of the more cutting edge findings in the nutritional field, but he presents them in terms that a layman can understand. We need fruits , vegetables, beans, seeds and nuts because of macro nutrients, and these foods are dense in them. Wheat dairy and animal flesh however is not , but caloric dense. It got me to thinking about other things I have learned.

My son is Autistic and I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome- both very different things, but both can successfully be addressed through diet. It strikes me that anything that can be addressed through diet has a root cause with a malfunctioning of the digestive system. Different substances will be mal-absorbed or processed in such a way that they become taxing in some fashion to the endocrine system , kidneys or so forth. In the case of autistic children gluten and casein become problematic to the body and it causes a conversion of certain substances into an opiate like compound that bombards the central nervous system, and in the process also prevents other nutrients from being properly absorbed. ( Think in terms of a drunk, starving person and you have a beginning idea of what it is like for an autistic child) . In the case of PCOS , carbohydrates are improperly absorbed, the insulin receptors in the body are impacted and the body moves into a kind of starvation mode. ( The ovaries just encourage the set up by going through the beginning stages of producing eggs, several times over). The endocrine system basically says "Attention all units- we are preparing to conceive a small village, so STOCK THE LARDER !!!" . And in the process, several critical nutrients are not allowed access. The body becomes a well stocked World Hunger relif mission, imprisoned the other side of the border. In both cases, altering food intake to remove the problematic substances while increasing the ones in a severe lack -i.e. nutrient dense foods, great improvements happen.

While I agree with a lot of Dr Fohrums stands about food, I do not agree with all of them. He does not believe people should become vegetarian, but he is rather against things like olive oil, because it is a processed fat. I question this . Yes it is better to eat things like olives, nuts, seeds and avocados ( in moderation). However in different cooking applications ( not simply sauces and dressings) fat is needed for its chemical properties . It is awfully difficult to grill vegetables without coating the surface with an oil for instance. And in the case of dishes like hummus, a lack of oil will not make a stable, smooth finished product.

I plan on trying to apply several of his guidelines in our household this week to see if this is indeed the proper fit for our bodies. His first book was written with a weight loss focus, an it claims that you can lose 20 lbs in 6 weeks using his principles. I will take that. Better than gaining the 5 lbs I did this week with a 1500 calorie a day intake and 40 minutes of exercise 6 days ( 30 minutes of rowing and 10 minutes Pilates) . Stimulating,isn't it ? Rather than the path to a slim me I seem to have stumbled on the Fountain of Youth. It seems that my body has been kicked back into a cycle of fertility, which is making my remaining ovary ( one was surgically removed) fall back into the multiple cyst production( and the hormonally based rollercoater ride that accompanies. Pray for my husband...please ???). What I am doing diet wise is not doing much for weight loss lately, but rather is turning back my body clock almost 20 years. If I keep going at this pace I will be dealing with acne again and weigh over 300 lbs by the end of the year. Time to head back to the drawing board !