This could be really long, so I'll bow to the Reader's Digest philosophy and shorten it up.
For my part in this, I have had surgeries galore (not elective), and my last one (which was 10 years ago - hooray!) nearly did me in. That is no exaggeration at all. My body finally crashed and I could not digest food. I spent four months fighting for my life, surviving (sort of) on TPN, which is a liquid nutrition shot directly into your bloodstream. It was nasty and severely lacking in what a body needs. Nutritionally speaking, I was in serious debt. It was a long, hard climb to better health.
I found my way back with the help of Dr. Gabriel Cousens, a doctor and raw foods guru with a retreat center in Patagonia, AZ. Of all the doctors I had seen, he was the first one who said, "You don't have any digestive fire. We need to get it back." Nobody else could understand what was wrong with me, and in their ignorance and frustration, they simply would say, "You're depressed." Yep, after being sick for so long and not being able to eat, I certainly was depressed. He said, though, that I was depressed because I wasn't getting proper nutrients and that alone would lead the body to slow everything down, which is simply a depressed state. I also traveled to see another doctor, Dianne Farley-Jones, who was helpful as well. In fact, after almost two years of traveling to Arizona and Utah (from my home state of Oregon) to see these doctors, we finally moved to Utah in 2003. I spent the first year here going into the doctor's office nearly every week to be treated for food allergies and to get the supplements that would help me regain my health.
I still struggle with low adrenal function and because of that, I have a very rough time getting my body to cooperate in the mornings. I spent my first 40 years of life being a morning person, but my adrenal system crashed following that last surgery, and it still hasn't fully recovered, so mornings and I don't get along real well. I sure do love the evenings, though, when I'm charged up and can get a lot done. And I can think straight, too. That's always a bit of a bonus! I have a ways to go before I'm satisfied that I'm healthy, but I'm learning a lot nearly every day and am grateful for the education. More about that elsewhere.
In regards to my husband's part in this, he has suffered with episodes of gout, starting with that last surgery that I had ten years ago. Gout is often triggered by stress, and it truly was a stressful time for us. That was the beginning of 10 years of gout attacks, the worst of which occurred in April of this year (2011). His years of work stress, financial stress, and church service stress, combined with a less than ideal diet, were the things that contributed to what we refer to as the big crash. He truly was down for the count. He missed 3 weeks of work and lost 30 pounds of body weight. He has since lost a little more weight and has had a short relapse occur. Most recently he had a gallbladder attack even though his diet is incredibly healthy. But, as they remind me at SNH (School of Natural Healing), it took years to get into this condition, so it's not going to be healed overnight. He has lots of cleansing, nourishing, and healing to do. But he's well on the path.
Because of his condition, part of which was a huge overgrowth of Candida Albicans, he has a very restricted diet. Candida feeds on sugar, so he has not been eating anything sweet at all, including fruit and grains. He occasionally has some berries (lower glycemic than most fruits) and a tart apple every once in awhile. One of the problems going on in the body that causes gout is an inability to digest protein properly, so he does not eat any meat or fish, and he has to be careful about his intake of nuts. He also cannot digest legumes well, so those are out of the picture (including peanuts, so no peanut butter!) Dairy is troublesome all the way around, a highly mucous-causing food and definitely not a very assimilable form of calcium, so we've eliminated it as well.
You may be thinking, "What on earth do you even eat?" That has been a challenge, but we're learning all kinds of new ways to prepare vegetables, nuts, and seeds. And the truth is, we're liking it! When forced to find flavorful alternatives to things you're accustomed to, it's amazing what's out there. I'm amazed at what I didn't even know that I didn't know! You can do wonderful things with veggies, nuts, and seeds. And we're doing it!
And now we're sharing it because we're constantly asked about what we eat. We have an occasional flop, but for the most part we enjoy some delicious dishes that delight our palates. We hope you find something of interest that will delight yours, too!
