Our "Real Food" Transition in Progress

I have had numerous requests over the past few months to share what Ben and I eat, and what we feed the kids on a regular basis.  Due to the overwhelming number of shirt orders I have had come in recently, I have hardly had time to feed us, much less share what I feed us with individual people, so I figured I would write a post for people who were interested!

A few months ago, Ben shared a little of what his diet/treatment consists of.  Since I do most of the grocery shopping/cooking, much of what he eats is prepared by me and the more research I do to feed him, the more our daily eating habits change!  **BELOW you will find several notes updated by Ben as well as some recipes he felt like sharing :-)!

Some of the typical guidelines we follow:
**No white sugar at all.
**No white flour at all.
**Very few processed foods (I will share what we still eat that is processed)
**Raw milk if it is consumed
**No genetically modified foods.
**Organic whenever we can find it.
**Ben: Little to no meat, which means I have found other alternatives for him when the kids and I do eat meat, which is less and less.
**Ben: Also avoids dairy (except cottage cheese which is a part of his daily protocol), while the kids and I still do milk, cheese, yogurt and some other dairy products.

As far as processed foods go, Ben and I have found several brands of chips/crackers that are mostly gluten/sugar free that we eat occasionally.  The kids eat Honest O’s (organic cheerios sweetened with juice); and store bought bread made without bromine flour. 

Breakfast and lunch is a pretty simple affair around here.  Ben eats his Budwig protocol and usually some form of fruit or overnight oatmeal (a completely raw food made with oatmeal).  But wait! I hear you say, oatmeal is steamed!  Nay, nay, that is why we use steel-cut oats instead of the steamed, rolled oats that is marketed under the banner of oatmeal. The kids eat a banana (a whole one each), a piece of toast and a homemade squeeze packet of unsweetened whole milk yogurt mixed with a little bit of applesauce for sweetness. 

Ben prefers to eat raw, minimally cooked meals, and for my birthday in August, his mom bought me a Hallelujah Cookbook (called Rhonda’s Culinary Creations).  So far we have eaten several recipes out of this book.  There are a number of really good recipes which use dates or honey as the sweetener.  For awhile late this summer, we made quite a bit of watermelon lemonade.  How’s that recipe go?  Watermelon together with peeled lemons into the NutriBullet at top speed.  It makes a lemony watermelon smoothie that is pretty awesome.  Not to mention that it is a power food loaded with nutrients.

And how about that whole raw milk thing?  Yep, turns out that pasteurizing milk has only come about relatively recently in mankind’s history.  Sure, you could worry about tuberculosis from raw cow’s milk, but as long as the cow is pasture fed (ours is), and is vaccinated against tuberculosis (ours is), and milking procedures are followed with iodine dip (ours is, still again), then your risk is dramatically reduced.  Truth be told, pasteurized milk from the store is probably of greater risk than raw milk on a spectrum of other risks.  Ever wonder why degenerative diseases were unheard of in primitive cultures who relied heavily on raw dairy products?  For the answer to this question, I refer the reader to Dr. Price’s classic “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”.

Lunches around here are pretty simple as well.  I typically eat salad with homemade poppy seed dressing (amazingly addicting)!  The kids eat some type of bread/cracker & hummus, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes and grapes.  This will change a little as we enter the winter months and some of these things are harder (and more expensive) to find, but fresh fruits and vegetables will ALWAYS be available at every meal!

Dinner around here is constantly changing as we find new recipes that we enjoy.  I usually make beans and cornbread at least once a week (with beans sprouted or soaked overnight- not canned); several types of soup; salad; spaghetti squash (cooked) or with zucchini (uncooked) are a few.  We have found some great recipes for banana bread and peach muffins and other items that we enjoy as desserts recently as well.  As it has gotten cooler outside the last few weeks I have started making black bean soup, cabbage soup, and some other veggie soups that can be eaten several times without a lot of prep work ahead of time!

As far as eating out goes (when traveling or having date night), we eat at Chipotle or get a veggie plate at Cracker Barrel (foods without added sugar in them when they are prepared). 

Ben also fasts 1-2 days a week because it drops blood glucose levels and kicks your body into a ketogenic state.  This is another part of his treatment protocol that he believes has made a difference in his current health!

Hopefully that answers a lot of the questions that you all have had for us about what we are eating these days…  the added bonus to feeling great about eating these things is that Ben has lost 25lbs this year and before getting pregnant I had lost almost 20!  At 28 weeks pregnant, I have only gained back 9lbs and am still not at the weight I was when I got pregnant with the twins 2 years ago.  I do eat all the time… my body just likes what I am eating 🙂

If there was anything I didn’t answer please feel free to ask!  We love sharing about all the healthy changes in our household!!