Step Three: Exchanging Our Vegetable Oil for BUTTER!

What's so bad about vegetable oil? It has the word vegetable in it, so it should be healthy, right?

The more I read, the more I am noticing a common theme.  Nature (God) got it right in the first place. Many of the problems with our food today have come from people, who no matter their intentions, couldn't improve on what nature had to offer. This concept is especially true with fat. Fats found in nature are healthy, and fats made in factories are not.

Good fats are some of the best foods we can eat, and bad fats are some of the most toxic. Thankfully, knowing which fats to avoid and which ones to eat is relatively simple: natural fats=good and processed fats=bad.  If I can get technical for a minute, I can try to explain why certain fats can be toxic while others are healthy.

Vegetable oils are made up primarily of polyunsaturated fats, which unlike saturated fat are extremely heat sensitive. Due to their molecular structure, polyunsaturated fats are very susceptible to oxidation when heated. When the oxidized (distorted) molecules in polyunsaturated fat enter the body, they are able to reproduce at the rate of billions per second creating free radicals. Free radicals are electrons that have been mutated, and in the body they have been linked to almost every known disease. Free radicals act like molecular radiation, burning everything they come into contact with. This will create inflammation within the body that can disrupt normal metabolic function. Good fats on the other hand, do not have the same damaging effects and can actually be anti-inflammatory.  This is because the saturated fat found in good fats can take the heat used in cooking. Their molecular structure stands strong, does not mutate, and therefore doesn't create free radicals.

Why then were we always told to avoid butter and animal fats? Why were we told that margarine and canola oil were healthier alternatives? A lot of the misleading research came from a man named Ancel Keys, who I can discuss further in a later post :) I would argue the food industry has supported these false claims around fats because vegetable oils are much less costly sources of fat. In order to protect their bottom line (rather than our health) the food industry has financially supported organizations such as the American Heart Association and others that have led the public to believe that cheap vegetable oil is a healthier alternative to the saturated fat found in nature.

Fats to Avoid
Canola oil
Soy oil
Sunflower oil
Cottonseed oil
Corn oil
Grapeseed oil
Safflower oil
Non-butter spreads like margarine and any other so called "heart-healthy butter substitute"(even if it's labeled trans fat free)

Fats to Enjoy
Butter
Coconut oil
Palm oil
Animal fats
Peanut oil
Olive oil

Watch out!! This step has been particularly difficult. Once we became aware of it, we realized the fats we trying to avoid were in everything! Anything cooked in a restaurant and almost everything pre-packaged in the store contains vegetable oils.  So, like with everything else....we are giving ourselves grace with this one too.

Step Two: Not Eating Products Labeled "Gluten Free"

After giving up wheat products, came another shocking blow...we shouldn't really be eating any packaged foods labeled "gluten free." (We still ate the gluten free pizza crust I had in the house. I just didn't buy it again...one step at a time right?!)

As I researched further, I discovered that it's not really about the gluten in food, it's about foods that create blood sugar spikes. High blood sugar is not only a contributing factor to weight gain, it is also has a very negative influence on the brain. The big myth about wheat products is that they are somehow healthier than other carbohydrates, when in fact even whole grain/whole wheat products raise blood sugar just as much as a candy bar.  Most packaged gluten free foods also have a similar effect on blood sugar by replacing wheat with products that also raise blood sugar such as cornstarch, rice flour, potato starch, or tapioca starch.

So what are we left with? Once again we were led back to real foods...fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, eggs, meat, cheese, etc.
Surprise, surprise.

Step One: Becoming Socially Awkward...... aka Gluten Free

For the last several years I've known more and more people who for various reasons are "gluten free." I've always found these people a little bit irritating.  People have been eating wheat forever. So why is everyone today all of a sudden allergic to wheat? To be honest, I believed it was something people just did out of ignorance. Most "gluten free" people I knew had been eating gluten all their lives, and one day decided they were allergic to it. In my mind, this supposed wheat allergy was nothing more than an annoyance to everyone else in the real world.  Sure, I knew about celiac disease, but because it effects such a small percentage of the population I felt that most gluten-freer's were just making life more difficult than necessary.

Then my husband and I read the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis.  In his book, Dr. Davis makes an argument for eliminating all wheat productions from one's diet.  He does so by explaining that today's wheat has been so genetically modified that it looks nothing like the wheat of the Bible or even the wheat of 100 years ago.  Due to this genetic modification, even a slice of all natural organic whole grain bread (such as Ezekiel bread) will raise blood sugar as much as a candy bar. What?! I thought my organic whole wheat bread was good for me.

Dr. Davis also provides many examples of individuals with varying health issues who removed wheat from their diets and found their health concerns had vanished.  Since his trademark tagline is "lose the wheat, lose the weight" and we were in the market for a little weight loss, we decided to give it a try.

For the last couple months we have not eaten any of the wheat products we used to love.  It was difficult at first, but through the removal of wheat our eyes were slowly opened to a wide array of other real foods....like fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats, eggs, etc.  Of course we always knew we should be eating more of these types of foods, but convenience usually won. Opening a box of crackers for a snack or pouring a bowl of cereal for breakfast was (and unfortunately still is) just a lot easier. But little did we know, we were paying a price for convenience.

Since removing all wheat products from our diet, my husband has lost over 20 pounds and my chronic acid reflux has vanished. For the record, we've given wheat a second chance on a couple occasions. For both of us, the reintroduction of wheat caused heart burn and stomach irritation that made the taste of the wheat containing foods just not worth it.

Two months later we are still "gluten free" and yes, somewhat socially awkward.

One Step at a Time....the Key Our Success

Looking at all the information out there today regarding health and nutrition is incredibly overwhelming.  There are so many different personalities, books, websites, etc. claiming to have unlocked the magical nutritional or weight loss secret.  Who is right? The French women who don't get fat due to strict portion control? Chris Powell from the TV show Extreme Weight Loss who practices carb cycling? Jillian Michaels from the Biggest Loser who teaches contestants to eat a balanced diet of fat, protein, and carbs? How about my vegan friends? My juicing friends? Or maybe my friend who drinks raw goat's milk?!

After deciding to "get healthy" (still not knowing what exactly that meant) I decided to start researching.  I knew my husband and I did not eat well and had the health issues to prove our diets of today's delicious and convenient processed foods were not working for us.  Something had to change. 

Several times throughout our relationship we had tried different diets, even going so far as to live on nothing but juice for several days at a time.  But nothing ever stuck, continuing the yoyo we've been on for the majority of our adult lives. Every diet we tried eventually ended in ordering a large pizza and topping it off with a carton of Ben & Jerry's... and then just giving up, leaving us in the same place we've always been.  So this time, we decided to start small.  Take things one step at a time.  A good friend gave me this advice that worked in her own life to totally transform the way her and her family eat: Take things one step at a time. Start with one small change and don't move onto the next until you are ready.  

Deciding to do things in steps rather than all at once has turned out to be the best advice for our success. It is also the advice I find myself coming back to when I begin to feel overwhelmed.  Like with so many things in life, I've had to give up the all-or-nothing approach and remember that I will fail and that and failing is ok.  Giving ourselves lots of grace has been the best thing to keep us moving forward.  

The Beginning

I decided to start this blog in order to chronicle the journey of health and nutrition our family has recently set out on.

Four months ago, my husband and I had our first baby, and during the course of my pregnancy I gained almost 50 pounds.  Maybe my it was my steady diet of fast food, Cherry Coke, and nightly bowl of ice cream? Or maybe it was just the baby who decided he needed 50 extra pounds of cushion to stay comfortable in there?  Either way, while we were pregnant, my husband also gained an "undisclosed" amount of weight that he is not too proud of either.  (and just for the record, even though we went around saying "we're pregnant" ...it was only me who was actually pregnant, but somehow my trashy diet and lack of energy took its toll on my husband's waistline as well)

When our baby was about 8 weeks old I decided not to return to my cushy cubicle job that included an hour long commute and instead stay at home with our new baby.  As things with the baby slowed down, I began to feel that by not immediately returning to work I had been given an opportunity to explore the area of nutrition, something neither my husband nor I had ever seriously considered.  In this blog, I am hoping to share what we've been learning and doing...and how it is (or isn't) working!