Sean Croxton over at the Underground Wellness is hosting a Paleo Summit on February 26th- March 4th. My husband and I first came across Sean when he just started off several years ago. It is amazing to see what he has managed to accomplish since then.

This Paleo Summit is a great opportunity to learn more about the grain free Paleo/Primal Diet from great experts. There is a lot of talk online whether or not to eat grains, some people are getting as far as to ridiculing others of their way of eating. I see no reason why we should judge each others way of living healthy, after all we are all doing what we think is right for us. We have been grain free for quite a while now and I'm convinced this is the best way for our family. We have never felt better and we scan better than ever on our biofeedback machine.

I highly recommend that you tune into this summit and learn more about a grain free diet from these experts below. Check out the Paleo Summit Page to register and to learn about the other experts attending this summit.

Loren Cordain states in his latest book, The Paleo Answer, that The Paleo Diet can greatly reduce your risk of getting cancer  due to the many nutritional elements that it contains. With the focus in the media about breast cancer it is interesting to note that lung cancer is responsible for almost twice as many deaths as breast cancer and prostate cancer. 

Check out Paleo People on  Facebook and twitter to learn more about their products.


I didn't not receive compensation for writing this post. I was provided with the products from Paleo People. The opinions shared in this post are my own.

 
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Johanna is an aromatherapist and she is passionate about educating people about health, essential oils, real food, natural remedies, and nutrition so they make healthier choices in their lives. 
Follow Johanna on twitter and facebook for more health tips and information.


Real Food Wednesday, Gluten Free Wednesdays, Simple Lives Thursdays , Fight Back Friday

Via

Eating fish was always important when I grew up. The schools in my country served fish for lunch twice a week and it was mandatory to eat the school lunches. I didn't exactly enjoy eating fish every Tuesday and Friday, but now when I look back I realize it was pretty healthy for me. I spent the summers at my grandparents' house and my grandfather went fishing in the Baltic Sea at least a few times a months. The fish was guaranteed fresh and we often ate fish for dinner. I don't think anyone thought of the possibility that the fish could be contaminated and should not be eaten so often back then. 




Omega is good for us but the fish is contaminated


It can be tricky to figure things out. We are told that omega 3 oils are essential and needed in order to be healthy, but at the same time it is hard to find fish that is not contaminated. Fish has been known to be contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury,  the pesticides DDT and dieldrin, and  PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls). A lot of harmful chemicals are being dumped in lakes, streams, oceans, and rivers and are eventually absorbed by the fish. Eating a lot of fish containing mercury can lead to mercury poisoning.




And then it is the farm- raised fish


It is not as simple as to just buy a piece a fish at the market.  A lot of fish such as carp, eels, tilapia, catfish, shrimp, and crayfish are farm raised today. They are fed inferior feed such as soy (most likely genetically modified) and cereal-based food and their meat is deficient or very low in omega- fatty acids. Farm raised fish is cheaper so it is understandable that people buy it, but unfortunately many don't realize that farm raised fish is not a good source of essential fatty acids. It is not always easy to find out if the fish is farm raised or not, so you may have to ask the staff in the store. Salmon gets its pink color  from eating shrimp, so farm raised salmon needs to be enhanced with a color to make it look more appealing since it is not fed shrimp.




Cordain wrote down tips on how to minimize your risk of eating contaminated fish:

• You're better off choosing fish that comes from Alaska and Pacific Ocean. The waters are cleaner with less pollution.
• Eat fish that are not predators such as catfish, pollock, halibut, flounder and clams.
• Enjoy the big fish more sparingly since they tend to accumulate more mercury. Minimize the consumption of shark, tuna, and swordfish.
• Improper handling of the fish is also a problem. Fish are often not stored at the right temperatures and could easily be contaminated with bacteria. The shelf life of most fish is 7-12 day after being caught but the fish are often kept on the boat for about 6 days after the catch. Once on land the fish are transported to various locations and may end up on the display counters for a few days. 
• Fresh fish doesn't have an odor. Once spoiled, a warning compound called trimethylamine is released. So fresh fish is pretty much odorless, so don't buy the fish if it has an odor and smells "fish".

Cordain also provides tips on how to shop for fish:

• Once the whole fish passes the odor test - check the gills to make sure that they are moist and bright red. If the gills that are brown or clumped together then the fish has been on the shelf too long.
• You don't want the fish to sit in the cart and get spoiled while you do most of your shopping so make sure that buy the fish last. Go straight home and refrigerate the fish in it's original package. Keep it in the coldest part of the refrigerator.
• Wash the fish in cold water and cook it very well to minimize your exposure to parasites and bacteria.  It is done when it is opaque and flakes easily when poked with a fork.
• Make sure you freeze the fish if you don't plan on eating it right away.
• Watch out when you buy fish that says it has previously been frozen. This can indicate that the fish was frozen because it once didn't sell as fresh, or that the expiration date expired, was frozen by the store and was thawed again.
• Check for freezer burns - they are light colored, cottony spots on the fish. It is not unusual that frozen fish is allowed to thaw and then refrozen again for several times. You also want to make sure that the fish doesn't have ice crystal coatings. The best quality  frozen fish are the ones caught at sea and individually frozen on the ship. Many have labels stating they were frozen at sea.

It is also important to chose wisely when you buy omega- 3 oils. Some fish oil supplements were found to contain PCB's so it is important to pick a reliable company that tests their products thoroughly. Remember, canned tuna is not a good option.

Via

I came across this fabulous testimonial from a woman earlier today. We can call her Lisa, she wants to share her story so that others can realize that there's hope for someone diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. She emphasizes how important it is to investigate the dietary effects on cognitive behavior before medicating.  She managed to get off her medication by changing the diet. The cognitive improvement she is experiencing on her new diet  is amazing. She begs the parents to investigate to see if dietary changes will make a difference with their children before they start medicating with harmful drugs. 


This is a must read story.

Lisa:


I was diagnosed with ADD in college and have been on meds ever since (15 years, give or take). I've been on ritalin, concerta, and then for the past eight or so years, strattera. I don't talk about it. I'm ashamed of it. I see it as a flaw in myself.

The thing is... I'm starting to think that an ADD diagnosis isn't so much of a disorder, but just an inaccurate description of who I am. I don't have an attention deficit. I'm simply different - I have a different learning style, but that doesn't mean I'm flawed or something that needs to be corrected or "treated" with medication.

Medication makes me just like everyone else, as in, it makes it easier for everyone around me, and certainly made it easier for teachers to get good grades out of me. But while it may make it easier for me to get through a day, or to study for a test, it turns me into someone that I'm not. It makes me someone who isn't as spontaneous or funny, someone who is ridiculously over-analytical and doubts every last thing she sees and feels, and someone who is frightened to be an individual and stand out from the crowd in any way (despite tons of bravado and loud statements proclaiming otherwise).

All through elementary school and high school (long before the first ADD diagnosis, back when cell phones weighed 10 lbs or more and only high powered business executives had them) I was told that I was smart, but lazy. No matter how hard I tried, my grades never improved, even though my aptitude tests were always through the roof. It makes sense that teachers and parents were frustrated with me. The tests showed that I was one of the smartest people in my year, but my grades constantly hovered around C's and D's.

It may seem obvious, but years of being yelled at and punished about grades, never knowing the answer to any question asked in class, and being snickered at by classmates, takes a toll on one's self-esteem. Additionally, ADD makes it quite hard to connect with others. Focusing on a conversation is actually really hard work.

When I've tried omitting the meds before, which I've done a few times over the years, it's been a disaster. I've become that child again, the one who knows the answer but can't quite find it in the recesses of her brain. It's rather like feeling horrifically stoned; I can see and hear everything that's going on around me, but I can't make any sense of it.

About two months ago, I became interested in Paleo Nutrition

I posted a lot about all the changes I was experiencing over those first few weeks, as I omitted gluten, grains, sugar, even legumes from my diet, but there was one that I hesitated to talk about, and that's cognitive function. (For the sake of accuracy, I feel the need to mention that I'd already omitted dairy about a year earlier.)

Within a week and a half, I suddenly felt able to think and feel. It seems like a small thing, but it's not something I had experienced frequently in the past, even with medication.

See, medication made me able to regurgitate data and get through college with good grades. It allowed me to get by... but not to thrive. Not to truly use my cognitive abilities in all the ways they're meant to be used, and definitely not to be me. It rather feels as though I've been zombified on drugs for 15 years, and I'm suddenly realizing who I am and what I think, and how I think, and how I feel, for the first time. I feel awake and alive in a way I never have before.

It's been described by many people as feeling as though a veil has been lifted. I hate that analogy. It's so trite and cliché (about as trite and cliché as saying “I feel awake and alive in a way I never have before,” actually). Problem is, it's also apt, so I'm kind of stuck needing to use it here… although I'm definitely hoping I'll think of a better way to describe it over time.

It took a couple weeks for me to understand what was happening, and I've been doing a lot of research to try to understand further. Apparently, ADD and ADHD are closely linked to food sensitivities. Nobody had ever told me this, so I never thought to explore it. I’ll be honest, I’m a little angry about that. Not one doctor or layperson ever discussed with me the option of changing my diet as a way of managing ADD. If something about a medication bothered me, they suggested a different dose, a different medication, or more medications to counteract the complaint.

This information - the fact that food sensitivities have been found to cause a vast majority of ADD and ADHD diagnoses - is something that, like managing my chronic sinusitis through diet changes, I had to seek out on my own. Part of the problem may be that I have never wanted to talk about my ADD with people casually. There's still a large part of me that feels like the ADD diagnosis is a huge red "X" across my forehead, and until now, it's something I'd only talked about with a handful of people. Perhaps if I had talked about it more, I would have wound up connecting with people who could have led me towards a nutritional solution. I didn't do that, though. I relied on doctors to know what was wrong and how to fix it, as I think many people do.

At the point in my life when I started taking medication, it was very necessary, and to this day I'm grateful that ritalin was beginning to be prescribed at around that time and that I found my way to it. Otherwise, lord knows where or how I would have ended up. I was quite close to being expelled from college. Nobody knew what was causing my scholastic problems, but once I wen on medication I started getting straight A's. I, the “laziest” person at my High School, who barely made it through high school, in fact, graduated college Cum Laude.

Getting good grades was fabulously rewarding, but I didn't care all that much about what it was that I was studying, and the knowledge was gone as soon as the test was over. I had no passion for anything, and that remained a constant for a long time. I latched on to various things - "hyperfocused" on different hobbies through the years - but there was no connection between brain and heart.

It didn't occur to me to care about what I might want, or to make an effort to find something I was passionate about, or that it was weird that I didn't feel any ability to care about much of anything, actually. What my parents and everyone else seemed to expect of me was that I graduate college and start working somewhere... anywhere. So that's what I did. And that's what I've been doing for 15 years.

Fast forward to today.

Being off medication is scary.

I have to be extremely careful about my sugar consumption (ADD + sugar = Bad Things). Common sense, right? Why the hell did it take me so long to realize it?). In general that's pretty easy; since I hate how sweets make me feel so much, it's pretty easy to resist them when they're around. I do love going out for drinks with friends, though, and these days, even one drink will throw me into a cognitive function tizzy for a day or two. It sucks. It happens even if the drink isn't a sugary girly-tini type beverage; these days I stick with vodka and soda water. But just the sugars in the alcohol will cause problems for me the rest of that evening and the whole next day, if not longer. It's not just things like reading comprehension, either. There's a huge emotional component; I'll feel sad, angry, fatigued, and sometimes even aggressive once the sugar high crashes. It's not me, and I don't like it.

Sleep is also very important. If it's disrupted, I have the same problems.

But in general... what I'm experiencing now is kind of incredible. It's probably strange to all of you who have had years to get to know yourself, but my personality has been suppressed since high school, and I'm only now learning who I am minus the social pressures and brain fog of those years.

I'm realizing how amazing I am and how little I have to be afraid of. I have depths of emotional empathy that I was never aware of or able to touch on before. I have creative impulses, which is a first. I'm able to focus on and manage conversations/interactions much more enjoyably. I'm even able to relax and enjoy myself without alcohol (I know, right? Crazy!). In short: I'm able to connect with others, which was something that was always a challenge before now. I can't help but smile as I type that. It seems small, but the medication and the ADD kept me so locked in my own head all the time that I wasn't really able to see what was going on outside of it.

Writing this out isn't easy. I felt it was important to do, though (caution: here come the moral of the story).

So many parents are being told that their children are “difficult,” “hard to teach,” “act out in class,” “cause trouble with other students,” and so on... and are essentially being told that if they do not medicate their child, their child will be put in “special” classes... or worse, will be expelled.

I truly believe that in some cases, medication is very necessary. However, I beg of you, if this sounds familiar, please do not blindly follow the advice of the teachers, the school psychiatrist, your child's primary care physician, your child's psychiatrist... anyone who is telling you that drugs are the only answer. It's possible that they are, but please also look into the possibility that the issues are being caused by food sensitivities. There’s no risk in exploring it as a possibility, right?

The medications prescribed for ADD have known side effects. Do take those warnings seriously. They are particularly a problem if a child is medicated over a long period of time, which is what the school system is likely asking to see happen.

Additionally, these children who are diagnosed with issues are likely the most passionate, empathetic, and creative of them all. What we are doing by medicating them is creating a generation of kids who only know how to march in time with the masses, and don't understand that the things that make them unique also make them wonderful. We are teaching them that anything that makes them “different” makes them a problem. We aren't cultivating their unique talents and strengths and we are suppressing their creative abilities. We are breeding a generation of robots, and suppressing creativity, passion, and individuality.

We aren’t cultivating strengths; instead, we are forcing round pegs into square holes. I know. I was masquerading as a square peg for 35 years.

We are, like we did with me, suppressing everything about them that makes them the fabulous little individuals that they are, and making them frightened of anything that makes them stand out from a crowd.

Talk to your doctor. If your doctor says that food sensitivities are a myth, find another doctor. Do your own research.

A few of my favorite articles, just to get you started:

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/12/134456594/study-diet-may-help-adhd-kids-more-than-drugs

http://www.suite101.com/content/adhdadd-symptoms-food-allergy-and-food-sensitivity-relationship-a286251

http://members.cox.net/harold.kraus/gluten/anno_symptoms_files/ADHD.htm

There are also many books available about ADHD and diet.




I appreciate that I was provided the opportunity to share this story with you. Thank you "Lisa" for sharing her story.


Thanks for visiting!  Please stop by my new blog, The Paleo Lifestyle, where I am adding new information about grain,dairy, legume, and sugar free diet.


Johanna is an aromatherapist and an she is passionate about educating people about health, essential oils, real food, natural remedies, and nutrition so they make healthier choices in their lives. 
Follow Johanna on twitter and facebook for more health tips and information.

This post is linked to:
Fight Back Friday hosted by the Food Renegade
Fresh Bites Friday 
Monday Mania