Food as Fuel to Better Health - My Contest Entry Exploring the Healing Power of Food

I found out the power of healthy food at the age of 50, at a time when I was very sick and morbidly obese.

Prior to that I ate “diet food” from under the ago of 10. My mom was a thin and healthy woman, horrified by this fat daughter she got. So she started me on the path of every fad diet of the 1960’s, 1970’s 1980’s and beyond.

I never got thin, and I never got healthy. Instead I was to the point at 50 where I did not have the breath to speak on a 20 minute walk. I had several chronic diseases and took handfuls of pills each day along with self-administered shots.

Green and brown poison

An example that can stand for the whole mess is diet soda. It’s pretty much all I drank for my entire life.

In the early 1970’s I was drinking a neon green version that my mom bought by the case. When it was taken off the market for having bad health effects, my mom ran all over town buying it up. We had it in the garage and I could only have 4 a day for the next year. Each bottle had 4 servings, so I was able to do it.

When the green drink ran out I switched to a brown version of diet soda that itself was taken off the market in the early 1980’s.

My final diet soda was one you all know. I use to shop for groceries once a week with two carts. One cart was for processed diet food and one was for cases of diet soda. I left 4 cases of soda in the car and took them in to work each week for under my desk.

My lucky break came none too soon

I finally lost weight and got healthy in 2011 and have never gone back to that chemically “enhanced” food.

In that year, I hired a fitness trainer who was supposed to help me with exercise. Within a week of seeing the food in my house he asked if I wanted help with that too, and I agreed. He was raised by a vegan yoga-teaching mom and could not believe what he was seeing in my food.

That first “food” day, he picked up a random couple of boxes in my pantry and showed me the ingredient panels. Neither had any nutrients. Both had long lists of chemicals. He made the comment that I should eat foods with less than 5 ingredients, and more than 25% of any nutrient and then left.

I went crazy and looked at every food I had in the house that night. Every box and can had long lists of chemicals; none had 25% of any nutrient. A freezer full of “Smart Meals” was anything but. I threw it all in the trash and ended up with only a bag of rice and some dried beans.

Thus began my transformation.

What was I going to eat now?

Over the next year I focused on getting the 31 Essential Nutrients into my diet.

I learned to shop at the edges of the store where the real food was, and to go to the farmer’s market. I learned to cook healthy food for myself.

Within weeks, I was blooming in health. Still obese, but feeling hope and vigor for the first time in my life. My food tasted better, was cheaper, and the trash I took to the curb shrunk too.

Since 2011, I have gone through some cycles of what I eat. I have settled on high protein, high fat, and low-carb organic as the best path for me. I’m very heavy on the greens.

My chronic diseases are still with me, but the symptoms are so mild that I no longer take pills or shots. I can walk and talk at the same time, and do many other activities that were off limits for the earlier time in my life.

Now what am I drinking?

Diet soda was the last thing to go. I did not throw it out when I want on my rampage. I had no idea what else I would drink. My fitness trainer did not like this and encouraged me to try other healthier drinks.

About 6 months into my transformation, I realized I could not drink another diet soda. All I could taste in it was chemicals and salt. The last case went to the trash and I have never had another one since.

Today I drink the cleanest water I can get and add lime juice or drink it plain.

My post today is my entry for the Exploring the Healing Power of Food Contest by @naturalmedicine, and @riverflows. You can enter too! Tell us your story of how food helps you so we can learn from you.