From Corn Pops to Clarity

From the bottom of my weepy Irish heart, I apologize.

I am the reason you have a sweet tooth.

I am the reason you think a bowl of Corn Pops, a grape jelly sandwich on Wonder Bread with a handful of Oreos, and Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper with "homemade" Duncan Hines brownies for dessert is any kind of way to eat.

In my defense - in defense of everyone born in the 60's - this is pretty close to how I was raised. I'll call out dinner as the exception. My sainted mother served up mashed or boiled honest-to-God real potatoes aside a slice of meat, a scoop of canned peas, and a loaf of bread every single night.

But when Beef Noodle Hamburger Helper was introduced in 1971, she served that, too.

Did everyone eat this way? There was one outlier in my circle, my very small circle. My very best high school friend, Toby. Her family ate - differently. I never asked why there was never anything more tempting than a turnip in her family’s kitchen. For her part, she was gob-smacked by the Twinkies and Yodels in our snack drawer. Come to think of it, our endless supply of verboten foodstuffs may have been the reason she kept coming over!

In any event, we never discussed food philosophy. We just ignored the matter, as though it would be impolite to recognize the bizarre grocery habits of our besties' fam.

It’s not your fault…and it’s really not mine, either. You, I, Grandma - none of us knew any better.

But now, decades later, I have the time to digest (see what I did there?) health research. Due to my touch of the dementia. And now I do know better. And I want you to know better, too.

It is too late for my dearly departed mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s in her final years, and it may be too late for me, but surely it cannot be too late for you.

We all want to continue eating the Standard American Diet, the diet of suagr and carbs, because it is delicious. I cannot deny that. Can’t we just take a pill or six to correct any ill effects?

Well, now there is Ozempic, which triggers dramatic weight loss. Does Ozempic also support overall health, including building strong muscle and bone, regulating hormones, bolstering the immune system, supporting brain health, and stabilizing mood swings? Count me as a doubter.

Yet all of these are accomplished by simply making better food choices.

Changing my diet stalled - and to a great degree, has reversed - the progression of my Alzheimer’s.

I seldom leave the stove burners on anymore. I remember to take keys to the car. I have not driven to the wrong building for an appointment. I am less confused during conversations. I have not had a bout of amnesia while driving in a long time.

That’s my why.

Not-so-fun-fact - Alzheimer’s, aka Type 3 Diabetes, may very well be developing in you as we speak. The symptoms do not appear until old age, but the damage begins much earlier.

Now, that could be (should be?) your why, but how about something more immediate?

Anyone want to lose a few pounds?

I lost thirty pounds, and I thought I only needed to lose ten! After switching to healthy natural food, my body decided. And that’s fine by me.

With all due respect, no body on God’s good Earth is designed to be overweight. How many overweight animals have you ever observed? None in the wild. Only domesticated ones. And only domesticated ones being overfed by well-intentioned but ill-advised humans.

Extra weight is a symptom that something is wrong, that your body is not in balance.

I don’t want to get too dramatic here, but over time, poor diet leads to chronic inflammation and metabolic syndrome, the core of all chronic disease. We are talking Cardiovascular Disease, Type 2 Diabetes, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Chronic Kidney Disease, Cancer, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Gout, High blood pressure, Autoimmune Disorders, Alzheimer’s Disease, Arthritis, and Mood disorders including depression and anxiety.

These disorders don’t just magically appear. They develop over time after a body has been force-fed toxins and deprived of nutrition.

And so, my girls, if your why for choosing clean low-carb eating is to recover your prom weight, that’s fine by me. Because at the same time, you will be healing your body. True, your amazing young body can pretty much tolerate anything you throw at it now due to your youth. But you are likely doing damage that lingers below the surface. The sooner you begin eating real food - that's all I'm doing, more real food and less processed - the healthier you will be.

And the healthier my future grandbabies will be ;)

Curious? I hope so!

There really are only two rules:

Vegetable oil. Sunflower oil. Canola oil.

The names are delightful. So natural. Healthful. Like green grassy fields. Like glistening ripe produce. Like sunshine.

And yet it all began as industrial waste in cotton factories.

Never never never eat seed oils.

This is not well known, and is therefore harder to buy into than living low carb. Yet I assure you it is every bit as important; maybe more so.

Do you know how olive oil is made? Clean the olives, crush them into a paste, mixing and kneading at 80 degrees Fahrenheit, blend with water, strain, and separate the oil off the top. You could do this in your kitchen. Not well, perhaps, but you could.

Do you know how canola oil is made? Crush and flake the seeds, heat at high temperatures (140-260 degrees Fahrenheit), press to extract oil, then use solvent like hexane to extract more oil. Bleach and deodorize using more chemicals to remove gums, free fatty acids, color, and odor.

You could not - and would not want to - make canola oil in your kitchen. Highly processed - refined (again, such a lovely, pinkies-up word!!) - seed oil is not a natural human food.

Seed oil consumption contributes to various health issues, including:

We don’t want those.

Seed oils go by many names: canola (rapeseed) oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, refined palm oil, any hydrogenated oil, vegetable oil.

It may be easier to learn the healthy oils: pure olive oil (not blends), avocado oil, coconut and MCT oil, peanut oil, unrefined palm oil, sesame oil.

Seed oil is cheap and pervasive. You will find it in most every processed food, so when you drop cookies and rolls, you are dropping seed oils: a two-fer! They are also hiding in salad dressings, deep-fried foods, and "healthy" sounding snacks such as granola bars and roasted almonds.

Anti-fat propaganda continues to rule the day. Unnatural vegetable oils continue to be promoted as healthy fats, while natural saturated fats are labeled unhealthy. The exact reverse is true.

I don't want you to trust me on this. I want you to look at the work of the experts: Dr. Cate Shanahan, Dr. Eric Berg, Dr. Ken Berry, for starters.

Ditch the sugar and starches.

You know this already.

This means no candy, cake, cookies, ice cream.

No starches means both no starchy vegetables like potatoes, and also no starchy foods made with grains.

That is all grains, by the way. Not just wheat. Also corn, rice, rye, barley.

Note also that gluten-free is not grain-free.

This means no bread, sure, but also no rice, no pasta, no crackers, no pretzels, no chips.

This is not easy to do, but it is easy to understand. Carbs already have the well-deserved reputation of being "empty calories."

Sure does! Especially when you have been eating the nutritional equivalent of Froot Loops all day every day.

Will you never taste anything good again as long as you live? Will life even be worth living?!!!

Get ahold of yourself.

One: If you are living for food, you need to rethink your life choices.

Two: Low-carb meals are delicious.

Three: You can still eat sweets.

Now, your goal is to silence that sweet tooth. But in the meantime, there are many sweeteners other than sugar, and there are alternatives to common wheat flour.

You cannot buy these ready-made, true, but if you can follow directions for Kraft Dinner, you can follow a recipe to create a low-carb treat.

Eat eggs and bacon for breakfast, salad with grilled chicken for lunch, and any meat with any non-starchy vegetables for dinner. It's pretty simple, actually. Looking for recipes? Search keto recipes, and adjust if you spot seed oil. You seldom will.

Girls, you know you can call me any time, day or night - providing it is before my 8:30 bedtime - with questions.

And please subscribe. Change is hard, especially when change involves sacrificing food you love! I will be writing about the not-so-wise "common wisdom" about food, unlearning outright lies we continue to be fed (see what I did...never mind), and my favorite baby steps to healthier eating. You don't need to do it all at once.

Progress, not perfection. But - to make make progress, we need to get started. Hope you do. Love you so.

Stay strong, wise, kind, and good!

NOTE: This story was first published August 5, 2024 on my Medium page: https://medium.com/@strongwisegood

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor. I am not a nutritionist. I am not a scientist. I am merely an old woman who has experienced significant improvement in cognitive health after extensive research. My sainted mother suffered from Alzheimer’s, and I recognized my own descent into cognitive decline a few years ago. I fought back. Also — lost weight. I offer no medical advice. Only motherly advice. A word to the wise…

Berg, E. (n.d.). Is seed oil worse than sugar? Seed oil vs. sugar. Retrieved from https://www.drberg.com/blog/is-seed-oil-worse-than-sugar-seed-oil-vs-sugar?queryID=2c1b25ae42c499e16bf20c986aff58af&objectID=blog_5357

Berry, K. (2018, February 6). Most dangerous cooking oils (avoid these completely) 2024 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/wPlHuXYI8v0

Cleveland Clinic. (2023, July 24). Why seed oils might be bad for you. Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials. Retrieved from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-seed-oils-might-be-bad-for-you/

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (n.d.). Types of fat. The Nutrition Source. Retrieved from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/types-of-fat/

Shanahan, C. (n.d.). The hateful eight: Enemy fats that destroy your health. Retrieved from https://drcate.com/the-hateful-eight-enemy-fats-that-destroy-your-health/