cranberry fields forever

I eat sugar-free now, but I’ve recently been able to start introducing small amounts of low-sugar, healthy fruits whose health benefits outweigh their sugar content. Particularly, I’ve started to allow some berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries). Green apples and pears are also good choices for low-sugar fruits. (Bananas and watermelon, on the other hand, are not. However, watermelon is second only to lemon juice as the #1 Alkalizing Food that you could consume – in other words, assuming you don’t have a problem like mine where you have to restrict sugar, the consumption of watermelon helps the body detox fast and restore itself to a balanced pH level. When you think Alkaline, think meditation, prayer, peace, kindness, and love; when you think Acidic, think overwork, anger, fear, jealousy, and stress. Personally, I think we could all use a little push in the alkaline direction 🙂

Cranberry juice is the newest addition to my diet. *Keep in mind that pure cranberry juice is very different from cranberry juice cocktail, the sweet/sugary version that we all buy and drink with breakfast. Pure cranberry juice is extremely tart, so I like to dilute it with water, and occasionally add a few drops of stevia extract (I buy the pure kind from Trader Joe’s) to sweeten the flavor.* Cranberries are an excellent choice for battling H. Pylori, as the flavonoids they contain inhibit the growth of the bacteria in the stomach. But the health benefits don’t stop there. Other wonderful things cranberry juice can do for you include:

– Preventing UTIs (though not curing existing ones)
– Inhibiting tumor and cancer cell growth
– Doing awesome antioxidant things
– Doing awesome anti-bacterial things (such as preventing tooth decay, colds, and ulcers)
– Inhibiting cancer cell growth

You can read more details here. Basically, I just get pumped up knowing how much I’m helping my body with the foods I’m consuming, so I want to share the excitement. Feel free to glean profusely!

*More information about stevia can be found here. There are many benefits, but keep in mind that this is a relatively new, breakthrough product, and it is still being researched. Everything in moderation, my friends. And of course, please remember that using natural produce like berries and other fruits to sweeten foods is almost always preferable to extracted sweeteners. They have powerful nutritional properties that we know unequivocally to support your body in its quest for health 🙂

great expectations for my wee blog

Blogging is about sharing something with others, for the sake of others. I want my blog to help friends, family, and the rest of the world to discover things about themselves, learn new things, grow and change and become better people. There is still a time for stories – but when that time comes, I want them to be useful and meaningful. No more self-indulgence. From now on, this is for you.

The past 4 months have been a complete upheaval of everything I ever knew about food and health. (Okay, so maybe I didn’t have any knowledge that could be upheaved in the first place…) Examples of how this is so:

1. I had never really cooked… anything… at all… prior to March 27, 2013. #embarrassing
2. Aside from a few rare occasions, I have not consumed alcohol since March 27, 2013. (Less than 10 drinks in the past 115 days)
3. I can now tell you more about bowel movements than I can about the Princess Bride. (Some of you might not grasp the full significance of that statement, but trust me – for me, that’s unheard of.)
4. I have been battling something called a Candida (yeast) overgrowth in my body, and on top of that was diagnosed with a parasite called Helicobacter Pylori. You can read about them here and here (oh, and here too). They are the reason for the aforementioned upheaval of life. I have been treating them naturally and determinedly for 4 months.
Ok… I’m out of examples. But those are pretty solid examples of the examples I might have.

What I’m trying to say is, my life has been crazy with the discovery and treatment of these diseases (for lack of a better word). Thankfully, and after many false hopes, I believe I’m finally close to recovery.

I guess the reason I reopened this blog and want to make it more public is because, as a result of all these changes I’ve been going through, I am learning a gazillion new things every day that I want to share with the world. There’s so much that I didn’t know before about health and nutrition, and if I had, I might not have been suffering as I have been for the past 3-4 years. If the world had, maybe we wouldn’t have the cancer epidemic we have today. Maybe my blog can be one little step toward preventing cancer in my friends and family; I certainly hope so.

But it even goes beyond physical health. I am learning about the mind, body, and spirit, how to nourish them and become a happy person. The kind of person who has only positive relationships in their life. This is what I want for myself, and it’s what I want for you, too.

My art is about that. It will continue to be. But my art has always been tied to my writing… so perhaps writing is where I need to start. ❤