Week 5 of our Wholly Healing challenge is to read the labels on all our food before buying it. You can find the starting post on it on My Wings are Made of Faith, here.
She also has a lot of really good posts on her blog about food labels, some of the specific ingredients and what their effects are, and items you may not suspect having lots of toxic chemicals in them. I recommend taking a look!
I will honestly say that this week didn't look like it would be much of a challenge for me. I generally read all food labels anyway as I've been trained to do so since my dad could not eat MSG, and I discovered for myself that I also had a low tolerance of that additive. So, we scanned all labels for MSG when shopping since I can remember. I remember reading a book that had a list of names tha MSG would fall under... I don't know the list myself, but at that point I really started to look at food labels closer and just avoided putting things into my cart that had ingredients I didn't recognize, or couldn't pronounce. I even started viewing skin creams and lotions as my eczema was reacting to so many things as well. I can proudly say that I no longer use hand lotion... at all. Instead, we use baby oil (the one that contains nothing more than mineral oil), an eczema specific body butter (with only three ingredients, all of which are natural and non-toxic), and on occasion, avocados, or the skin of a banana peel (no joke... look it up, it can heal all sorts of interesting skin issues).
I'm really looking at 'banning' sun lotion in our house as well, as it contains all sorts of known carcinogens (parabens, anyone?) and the kids will not be getting it on them either. I'll have to find some other forms of protection, I'm sure, but for now drinking lots of water and wearing hats, and sticking to shady areas has helped immensly. Kids vitamins contain garbage as well! It's scary! And all that baby food... I will be making baby food with this baby again. I did it as much as I could bear with the other two. Well, for my son I was at the point of just mashing our foods with a fork instead of doing the whole 'blender' thing. Way easier, and he didn't have any texture issues.
However, this whole 'reading labels' thing means I'm finding even more foods that I am not comfortable getting anymore... and that means making more things in my kitchen. Including the idea of making my own lotions/creams/cleansers/toothpaste/laundry soap... yeah. I'm sort of ok with it if it means only making it once in a long time, and lasts a long time... and costs less. Which it looks like it will for a lot of things. But the time... I am finding less and less time to do things for myself anymore.
I also recently watched a documentary called "Hungry for Change". It's actually really good! I enjoyed watching it, and learning from it. I recommend it! It brings food into perspective. I think the biggest thing I liked about it was it saying that these companies don't actually care about the people they are feeding. All they care about is making money. So they add things to make you an addict to their product, so they can keep you as a customer. There were many other interesting things talked about (like the whole FDA approval and whatnot... I seriously recommend watching this).
Anyway, this leads me back to week one of our challenge... yeah, I'll be updating on that regularly.
I've noticed a number of other changes in my body over the last week or so... things that may have already been happening that I just didn't take any note of at all until now. I don't actually need to use lotion. Usually in winter my skin is so dry, and with how cold things have been, I would suspect that this year would be really bad, but it isn't. I have also noticed my feet look better! Yeah, sounds strange, but it's true. My nails have been growing longer (to the point that I forgot to clip them, and they were so long that one finally broke and I HAD to clip them all). My hair doesn't seem to be benefitting much yet... and I know I should probably change my shampoo/etc. And get a haircut.
Another thing I have noticed... and this one will sound... strange. I don't have gas anymore. Yeah... gross, I know, but I don't! I have heartburn still, but no intestinal distress! It's incredible! I don't think I want to eat sugar again if this is what it means! And I want to change things so we are even healthier in our home... like less flour. But it is not going to be easy.
So, that's the lowdown. The whole food thing is really interesting to me, and I think that eating it in the form God created it in, or at least as close to that form as we can, is best for our bodies! Too bad the rest of the world is so focussed on money to see that they are destroying human bodies by creating 'food like products' that are slowly killing us not only physically, but mentally and emotionally... and spiritually too.
So... I CAN eat these foods, if I wish. But... I don't want to anymore. What a revelation!
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