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Natural Living

Breastfeeding Triplets: One Mother’s Journey

February 6, 2014 by Jackie Ritz 16 Comments

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“Well, the good news is – it’s triplets!”

Not the sentence I was expecting to hear from a doctor I’d never seen before.

The day I learned my husband and I were expecting spontaneous triplets was one of the most memorable days of my life. I had a deep desire to birth any babies we were blessed with – naturally. I had a midwife, we were planning a home birth. I wanted to breastfeed.

But…three babies??

At the time I knew no one else who had triplets – lots of twins, but no triplets. And things just changed with a third baby in there (for instance, I had three babies and….well, not nearly enough boobs!).

And then.

My God-given, powerful maternal instinct kicked in, and I said, “I’m gonna do this!” We spent the next weeks and months working towards a natural, vaginal delivery. I researched and discussed with my chiro my options, went through all the potential challenges and plans with my OB team.

God had other plans, though, and my water broke at 32 weeks and 3 days (past term for triplets!) and less than 18 hours later, my three breech babies were born via c-section. It was a beautiful day – memories piercing my heart for decades to come. I watched each of my 3 lb, 12 or 13 oz babies being lifted from my body via mirror. Surreal. Breathtaking.

The Challenges I Faced with Breastfeeding Triplets

Breastfeeding Triplets: One Mama's Journey  ThePaleoMama.com #breastfeeding #triplets

NICU Days

They spent 28-30 days in the NICU as “feeders and growers.” During that time, I battled to get my supply up. You see, in all the craziness of an unexpected delivery, delivering three babies and trying to get my post-op body to spend time with my brand new babies…I missed the critical window for telling my body, “Yep, you delivered three babies! Now, make milk for them!!!”

Add to that, my sweet babes were born before they learned the “suck, swallow, breathe” coordination in the womb. So they were being fed my milk and formula by a tube that went to their stomach. Then we taught them how to take from a bottle.

Initially, I had hoped to breastfeed two and pump for the third, rotating who was bottle-fed. But, once they were born I realized I should be able to breastfeed all three. So I read books. And websites. And blogs. I found online communities of triplet mamas. I talked with several different lactation consultants. I took herbs and medication. I drank gallons of water. I pumped around the clock.

Turning Bottle-fed Triplets into Breastfeeding Triplets

After the shock of bringing three babies home from the hospital (nearly 33 weeks didn’t prepare me for what that would be like!), I quickly realized teaching three babies to breastfeed was a monumental task. On top of getting my supply up.

Breastfeeding Triplets: One Mama's Journey  ThePaleoMama.com #breastfeeding #triplets

After more and more research and conversations with my LC, and around two and a half months, I began working with my son to breastfeed. A week or so later, one of the girls. One feeding looked like this:

  • Attempt tandem feed. If it didn’t work, feed one at a time.
  • Top off with bottles.
  • Bottle-feed the third.
  • Pump.
  • Start over in about an hour and a half. All day and night.

My third refused the breast for weeks. I cried. A lot. I tried positions and supplementing before, supplementing after. I tried a supplemental nursing system, a nursing shield. I tried pumping while breastfeeding her. I tried nursing her first, last, with a sibling, without. Refusal. Rejection.

My heart was so defeated.

Then I got in the bath tub with her. And there, she nursed. She nursed with the warm water gently surrounding her, feeling my heartbeat matching hers in that thrilling moment as I fed my daughter. My heart soared and I cried with joy and thankfulness.

Breastfeeding Triplets – 1, 2, 3 Babies

It wasn’t long after this moment that I had the second most memorable day in our breastfeeding journey.

One afternoon, one of the girls woke and I brought her into bed with me. I nursed her. Soon after, her sister and brother woke and I fed them. What??!! I fed all three babies and everyone was happy! No bottles were needed!

My body worked.

Breastfeeding Triplets: One Mama's Journey  ThePaleoMama.com #breastfeeding #triplets

The demand was there and my body created the supply. From that moment on, I realized I could do this thing.

A Glorious Journey – My Journey

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The road was the most difficult one I had ever walked. I was now making decisions that affected three tiny people – my children!

  • Do I drop a bottle now? Not yet?
  • Are they gaining enough? Did everyone have enough wet diapers?
  • Was that a “hungry” sign or are they just digging their hands these days?
  • Should I drink more water? Pump more? Eat more?
  • Can I start weaning off the supplements? The medication? What would it look like for my supply to tank?
  • How do I know if they really got enough?

Every day I fought against fear and fought to trust that God was causing my body to work the way He designed it to. I had to choose to walk in what I knew and make adjustments with what I learned.

My breastfeeding journey didn’t look like what I thought it would. At all! In many ways, it’s far more glorious than I ever dreamed it could be. And in other ways I fell short:

In the post-whirlwind of having three babies, I can clearly see the things we missed and what we could have done differently. But you know what? I was doing the best I could and I’m learning to be ok with that.

 

These days, at two and a half, we’re working on different things – like how to slowly wean. Yep, these beautiful babies are still nursing! We just weaned to one feeding when we all wake up in the morning. It’s one of my favorite times of the day – especially as I know those days are coming to a close. I hope to let them wean on their own at this point.

We’ve enjoyed a long, crazy, beautiful, fantastic journey. I couldn’t be happier.

Did your breastfeeding relationship include challenges? How did you overcome those?

 

jenniferJennifer Fountain is the founder of Growing Up Triplets and is a contributor to other blogs, including Breastfeeding Place and Modern Alternative Mama. She writes about raising and breastfeeding their 2½ year old triplets, taking the family back to living simply, and endeavoring to honor God in the midst of it all. She will be releasing her first book soon – on breastfeeding multiples. Jennifer has been married to her hubby, David, for four years and is madly in love with him! You can follow Jennifer and the three peas on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and their blog.

Filed Under: breastfeeding, Guest Posts, Natural Living, Paleo Baby

So You Wanna Start a Money Making Blog?

February 4, 2014 by Jackie Ritz 158 Comments

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I’ve had so many people write me and ask me how to even begin blogging. This month I celebrate my 2 year blogiversary! I can’t believe that 2 years ago I wrote my first blog post. I cringe looking back at those early posts. I had no direction and my posts sound like one big run-on sentence.

I feel like I have learned a lot over the years and my love for blogging has turned from hobby to income. The last 2 years of blogging has been a roller coaster. There have been times where I wanted to quit, where I would beg or readers, and times when typing words on a screen was the best thing for letting go of stress and emotion.

So, to save some of you HOURS of research and HOURS of trial and error, let me put my thoughts and advice in one spot. Right here.

How Did The Paleo Mama Begin?

Every blog has a story. A beginning. An inspiration. My story began more than 2 years ago. I was a avid Weston A. Price (WAP) follower and ate very well whole foods, lots of animal fats, whole grains, and even ground my own grain. I had sourdough starter, kefir, kombucha, and water kefir. I knew about eating good. But….I ate good, healthy WAP yet carried around more weight then I liked. I was 70lbs heavier than what I am now. My blog began about 2 months after I began eating Paleo. My younger sister passed away and I was an overweight, depressed mess. My journey into blogging began when someone baked me a Paleo “sympathy” meal and since that day I have been Paleo. I started my blog about 6 months after I started eating Paleo. I had no idea what I was going to blog about. I just wrote random things and didn’t really worry about making any money.

This changed quickly. I wouldn’t call it greed, but you get to a point where you want to make money. I mean, if you are spending a few hours a day on the computer blogging, then you sure as hell better be making money. People were reading my stuff. Using my recipes. The idea of blogging for hobby turned into blogging for income about a year after I started my blog.

I never thought I could make a living off blogging, but now I know that if I needed to support my family, my income would be able to provide 100% of our needs. The money didn’t come easy. I used that first year of blogging to really build up my traffic and my readers. That first year I never advertised or threw marketing ads at anyone. I never promoted products or tried to sell e-books, summits, or anything else. I just wrote and I did it for free.

But as social media grew and became such an avenue for traffic, so did my demand to be on the computer. This is when I made the decision to use my blog as an avenue for income. It combined something that I loved to do with something that would meet the needs of my family. And you know what they say, “when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. ” 

10 Tips to Successful Blogging:

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1) WordPress.org – when I first started my blog I used wordpress.com. I didn’t know there was a difference between .com and .org but there actually is a BIG difference. With wordpress.com you CANNOT put any ads up. NONE. About a year into my blogging I wanted to start putting ads up. When I found out I couldn’t I decided to migrate my blog over to wordpress.org. So, for anyone starting out on blogging just go ahead and avoid the ABSOLUTE frustration of migrating a website over. It is really intricate and frustrating…especially if you do it on your own, like I did. My husband stayed away from me for about 3 days when I was going through the migration. At one point I thought I had lost over 100 blog articles.

TIP#1: Start with WordPress.org 

2) Hosting – you need to pick a host. I started out using Go Daddy and it was *okay*. Not the best but for $80 for the year it worked. I currently use WP Engine on The Paleo Mama. It is expensive but it is THE BEST.  I have around 500,000 page views a month, so I need a host that is reliable and can handle the traffic and possible peaks of traffic that can happen in hours. I, also, have used BlueHost and really do like them too. If you are serious about blogging, get a good host. WP Engine is incredible but, like I said before, they are pricey. I probably wouldn’t recommend going with them until you have around 100,000 page views a month.

TIP #2 Pick a good host. 

3) Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS) – my dad taught me to always follow the KISS method. When I named my blog, I was in the hype of eating Paleo. Now that Paleo has become a lifestyle and it doesn’t define me, I have some regret about naming my blog, “The Paleo Mama”. I feel like it really limits me. I know it is what has drawn a lot of people to my blog, but I, no longer, feel like Paleo is what I am 100% about. I want my blog to have a feeling of more than that. I want my blog to be, maybe, 10% Paleo, 10% homesteading, 10% recipes, 20% essential oils…and so on. So, pick a name that is broad but unique, if you know what I mean?

TIP #3 Pick a broad blog name

4) Affiliates – about 30-40% of my monthly income comes from affiliates. I love supporting my fellow bloggers and when they have an book, a program, or a product that I love, I sign up to be an affiliate with them. Most of my affiliates I find through the blogs or articles that I read that seem to really be on brand for my audience. Many websites offer affiliate programs, and all you have to do is sign up. I link to these affiliates in blog posts or I put them on my right sidebar on my homepage. A few of my favorite affiliates right now are Squeaky Clean Paleo, Toxic Free, Kickin the Weight with Keto, Natural Homestead, and these Paleo Meal Plans. PS. I have over 10 affiliate links in this blog post!.

TIP #4 Find On-Brand Affiliates

5) Amazon Associates – Amazon Associates has been a great avenue for income. Anyone can sign up and all you do is link to the product in the Amazon store. This is great for people who are writing recipes and articles with products in it. I try to not post an article or recipe without a few Amazon links in there. It’s a really simple affiliate program and one you don’t want to be without!

TIP #5 Sign up for Amazon Associates

6) Google Adsense & Media.net – Google Adsense is an advertising program that is a great source of passive income. It’s nice to make money without ever having to promote anything. Google Adsense gives you advertisements to place on your blog. There’s lots of ways to strategize about how to maximize your income from Adsense. I can’t really talk much about media.net because I was just approved for it and running a trial on it right now. But, there are several ways to make money with advertising and it’s a great income for doing practically nothing.

TIP #6 Sign up for Google Adsense 

7) Take Good Pictures – I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. My early pictures are SCARY. I used my phone to take them. When I got serious with blogging, I bought a used Cannon Rebel with a good lens and it has made a drastic difference. The big chunk of money to buy a camera is sometimes just NOT there. Don’t fret…I, absolutely, love Deposit Photos and recommend signing up for their monthly subscription. You get 5 downloads a day and there is thousands of photos to choose from (click here to check out depositphotos.com).

TIP #7 Take Good Pictures

8) Edit Those Pictures – I use picmonkey.com and Keynotes app on my Mac to edit my pictures. I like to make a horizontal picture (good Facebook sized picture is 800×419) and a vertical picture (good Pinterest size pic is 419×800) for each posts. The vertical pictures are mostly to stand out on Pinterest and the horizontal picture is for Facebook shares. I have stopped taking step-by -step pictures during recipes because it is just too much. I do it sometimes, but mostly I just use ONE good picture.

TIP #8 Make pictures stand out

9) Have a newsletter signup on your blog – I never understood the importance of this till about a year into blogging. You want to be able to give people this option if they LOVE your blog. Click here to check out my newsletter sign-up form. My newsletter sign-ups are my most devoted readers. They have signed up for my RSS feed and get my new posts delivered in their email inbox. I send out personal emails to all my readers once a week and, also, share specials and giveaways with them. I love MailChimp for this! It’s free until you start getting thousands of sign-ups. You can have a signup on your right sidebar or use a pop-up like Pippidy to grab emails.

TIP#9 Set up an RSS feed and/or Newsletter Signup

10) Get on the Social Media Train – you have to get good at social media. You just have to. Pinterest is my leading traffic source with Facebook following close behind. Make a Facebook page that runs along with your blog and share articles and posts. Encourage your readers to engage more and more on Facebook. Don’t forget Google+! Google+ is a huge asset to bring in traffic and it’s also great for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Make a Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+ plus account. The thought of managing all these might stress you out. I got tips for you on that: Hootsuite sends out all my posts to all 3 of my social media outlets in ONE post. Saves me tons of time! Viral Tag pins images to my Pinterest page throughout the day. I just have to schedule my pins in the morning and that’s it.

TIP#10 Utilize Social Media

Other Tools I Love:

Google Analytics – Google analytics is something to use to really take a look at where your traffic is coming from, what articles they are looking at, and key words they used to find your blog.  It’s nice to watch to see how your traffic is growing and it’s, also, fun to look at the “real time” analytics! If you have a blog, you want to sign up for this free google service.

My favorite plugins – Plugins are programs you can download to your WordPress Dashboard. They are tools you can use to make your blog flow better or to customize your blog. A few of my favorite plugins are: Quick Adsense, Before and After Content, Pin it Pro, Shareholic, WordPress SEO by Yoast, Print Friendly, Pretty Link, Pippidy and Custom Content.

Design and Themes – for 2 years I used a free WordPress Theme on my website. It worked great until I really wanted to have my website stand out and give it a little personality. I wanted my personality to shine through it. Michelle Guzman Design made a custom web design for my blog! She is awesome to work with and made my website really stand out. Check out my new design (click here).

doTERRA Essential Oils – I am an Independent Product Consultant for doTERRA Essential Oils. I have a wonderful team that I have built and am growing with. I make a little extra income with doTERRA. My goal in signing up to sell doTERRA wasn’t to market. My goal was to be able to make great recipes for blog posts and link to a reputable essential oil. My love for oils grew so much that I decided to start building a team.

Networking with other bloggers – I have so many wonderful blogging friends that I have met over the years. I love supporting them, selling their e-books, meal plans, Amazon or Kindle books, etc. When the time comes around, they do the same for me. It’s a “scratch your back” mentality but, also, I have made some amazing friends.

Alright, where’s the cheese?

In all these things listed above you can make some money. How much can you make? Well, that depends on you. I started out getting excited about $50 checks from affiliates and it being a good little job on the side for spending money. Now, I can support my family if my husband was to ever lose his job. Blogging is NOT easy and it’s not a fast road to success. It took me 2 years to get to this point. However, I am so glad that I am doing something that I absolutely love, I’m making an income from it, I’m sharing my love for Paleo foods and natural living, and I work from home.

Working from home is the highlight for me. I’m so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and make my own hours. It’s hard to find time to do everything…between milking the goat, making healthy Paleo meals, blogging, and maintaining a home, my life is a little chaotic. However, I’ve built discipline to make hours when the kids are in bed or napping.

Alright, there it is…so do you still wanna start a blog after reading this?! I say go for it!

Leave me a comment with your blog below so I can follow you! 

 

Filed Under: About Me, essential oils, Natural Living Tagged With: blogging, gluten-free, how to make money blog, how to start a blog, money making blog, paleo, primal

Magnesium, NOT Calcium, Is The Key To Healthy Bones

February 3, 2014 by Jackie Ritz 5 Comments

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The belief that calcium is the holy grail of what builds strong bones is absolutely ingrained in our society, but has no basis in reality–calcium is but ONE of the many minerals your body needs for building strong bones. Dietary intake of magnesium, not necessarily calcium, may be the key to developing healthy bones during childhood, according to new research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in the USA.

Take a Second Peek At Calcium Claims

The mainstream engine has been promoting the use of calcium to prevent weak bones for decades. Age-old myths that calcium supplementation builds strong bones and teeth are reinforced in almost institution. But how effective is calcium supplementation?

A 2004 study showed that people with excess calcium in their coronary artery and who take statins have a 17-fold higher risk of heart attacks than do those with lower arterial calcium levels; researchers concluded that the two most definitive indicators of heart attack were LDL levels and calcium build-up.

A 2007 study showed that calcium from dietary sources has more favorable effects on bone health than calcium from supplements in postmenopausal women (Am J Clin Nutr 2007).

A 2008 study found calcium supplements are associated with a greater number of heart attacks in postmenopausal women (BMJ 2008)

A 2010 meta-analysis showed calcium supplements (without coadministered vitamin D) are associated with increased risk for heart attack (BMJ 2010)

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), food will always be the best source of calcium: “People who get the recommended amount of calcium from foods do not need to take a calcium supplement. These individuals still may need to take a vitamin D supplement. Getting too much calcium from supplements may increase the risk of kidney stones and other health problems.”

“Calcium supplements have been widely embraced by doctors and the public, on the grounds that they are a natural and therefore safe way of preventing osteoporotic fractures,” said the researchers, led by Professor Sabine Rohrmann, from Zurich University’s institute of social and preventative medicine.

“It is now becoming clear that taking this micronutrient in one or two daily [doses] is not natural, in that it does not reproduce the same metabolic effects as calcium in food,” they added.

Most supplements on the supplement market today contain calcium carbonate which is an inferior form of calcium and manufacturers attach a simple chelating agent like citric acid to make it more absorbable, however the end product is inferior to other calcium supplements such as calcium orotate, which is the only known form of calcium which can effectively penetrate the membranes of cells.

Another fact most people are unaware of is the myth promoted by the dairy industry that consuming pasteurized dairy products such as milk or cheese increases calcium levels. This is totally false. The pasteurization process only creates calcium carbonate, which has absolutely no way of entering the cells without a chelating agent. So what the body does is pull the calcium from the bones and other tissues in order to buffer the calcium carbonate in the blood. This process ACTUALLY CAUSES OSTEOPOROSIS. Milk definitively does not do a body good if it’s pasteurized.

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Magnesium and Increasing Awareness 

The new data from Professor Steven Abrams and his colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston finds that intake and absorption of magnesium during childhood are key predictors of total bone mineral content and bone density – while dietary calcium intake was not significantly associated with such measures.

“Dietary magnesium intake may be an important, relatively unrecognised, factor in bone mineral accretion in children,” the researchers revealed.

“Lots of nutrients are key for children to have healthy bones. One of these appears to be magnesium,” said Abrams. “Calcium is important, but, except for those children and adolescents with very low intakes, may not be more important than magnesium.”

The researchers noted that parents have been long advised to ensure their child has a good intake of calcium in order to help build strong and healthy bones. However, the importance of other minerals essential for bone health, such as magnesium, have not been so well promoted.

Abrams and his team suggested that it may soon be the case that parents are urged to ensure their children also consume enough magnesium.

Greater magnesium intake is significantly related to higher bone mineral density (BMD) in men and women. There is an approximate 2 percent increase in whole-body BMD for every 100 milligram per day increase in magnesium.

Osteoporotic fractures are a significant health problem in aging adults, Dr. Kathryn M. Ryder, of the University of Tennessee, Memphis, and colleagues note in their report. Given the high prevalence of low BMD and fracture, small improvements in BMD may have a large public health effect.

Magnesium is a “lesser-studied” component of bone that may play a role in calcium metabolism and bone strength, they add.

Supplementing With Magnesium

For the majority of human history, the ratio of calcium to magnesium in the diet was 1:1, a ratio that’s considered optimal. A ratio that’s between 1:1 and 2:1 is adequate (for example, 800 mg of calcium to 400 mg of magnesium). Unfortunately, today’s diets contain an average of 10 times more calcium than magnesium.

Magnesium comes in many forms. Magnesium oxide or chloride is fine, as is chelated magnesium. Capsules usually contain 250-500 mg of magnesium. You can also use a calcium/magnesium supplement. Experiment with levels. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for magnesium is 350-400 mg per day, although for optimal levels, you may need as much as twice that amount.

It’s best to take your magnesium in divided doses throughout the day. You can take it either on an empty stomach or with meals. You can also add Epsom salts to your baths–Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. It’s absorbed through the skin and will help replenish magnesium stores. This “treatment” can easily include a relaxing bath with a good book.

Only one percent of the body’s magnesium is in the blood, and the body will take it from bones and tissues if that level drops. That means that a blood test could easily show a normal reading, even when the rest of the body is very deficient.

The best sources of magnesium will always be food. Dietary sources of magnesium include green leafy vegetables. Cacao, seeds, and nuts of any kind are among the highest food sources in magnesium.

 

This article by Marco Torres is licensed under CC by 2.0.

Marco Torres is a research specialist, writer and consumer advocate for healthy lifestyles. He holds degrees in Public Health and Environmental Science and is a professional speaker on topics such as disease prevention, environmental toxins and health policy.

Filed Under: Living Sustainably, Natural Living, Nutrition Tagged With: calcium, gluten-free, healthy bones, magnesium, paleo, primal, supplements

Is Your Child Feeling Sick? Remove These 4 Foods!

January 30, 2014 by Jackie Ritz 2 Comments

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I have a secret? I love Kula Mama! She has amazing recipes and remedies and her articles are always so right on point. I love her so much that I asked her to guest blog and write an article for my readers! Thank you Kula Mama for sharing your knowledge with us. This post is so informative and necessary and something that we don’t often think of. Please welcome Heather from Kula Mama! 

During cold and flu season children are often fighting off a variety of viruses at varying times throughout the winter months. Our immune systems do a wonderful job of protecting us from illness and most of the time we don’t even realize they are working so hard for us. But sometimes the immune system needs a little extra help. This is when we feel that tickle in the throat warning us of an impending cold virus, or we start to feel tired, achy and sluggish. If your child starts feeling a little under the weather this cold and flu season, there are foods you can remove to help the immune system get back on track.

4 Foods to Remove During Illness:

1. DAIRY
Dairy is mucus forming in the body, so when your child starts showing signs of a runny nose or congestion it is best to remove this food group to slow mucus production. Why throw gasoline on a fire? Dairy is also acidic in the body and the body heals more quickly when in an alkaline state.

2. SUGAR
Sugar, the anti-nutrient, is always a good thing to remove when your child is feeling sick. In order for the body to process sugar it actually has to use up nutrient stores…nutrients the immune system could use to fight off a virus! Sugar also contributes to an acidic pH in the body and for healing to occur it is best to bring your child into an alkaline state. Find out more about how to do that here.

3. DAMAGED FATS/FRIED FOODS
Damaged fats are highly inflammatory in the body. During a cold or flu virus children need to bring inflammation down so their immune systems can do the work of healing. Eating fried food or packaged food made with Trans fats or vegetable oils only increases inflammation in the body which is harder on the immune system.

4. GLUTEN
Gluten, the sticky protein found in wheat, is a very large protein that is hard to digest. When your child is feeling ill, his digestion is vulnerable and it’s better to focus on nutrient-dense foods that are easy to metabolize like clear bone broth and soup. Gluten also causes inflammation in the body and is a problem food for many children whether they know it or not. When your child is sick, try going gluten-free while healing.

What foods to you find best to remove when your child is sick? Tell me in the comments below!

 

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Heather Haynes, MA, is a nutrition and wellness educator working in the field of whole foods nutrition and holistic health. She is passionate about the health of all children and believes raising happy, healthy kids starts with getting back to basics and cooking with REAL food. You can find her blogging most days on her website www.kulamama.com sharing holistic health information and recipes for kids. Find her on Twitter, Facebook and G+!

 

CLICK HERE to Pin this Article!

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Filed Under: Guest Posts, Natural Living, Nutrition, Paleo Baby, Paleo Toddler Tagged With: dairy, foods to remove, gluten, natural remedies, paleo

How to Combine Foods for Optimal Health

January 28, 2014 by Jackie Ritz 3 Comments

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Dr. Wayne Pickering is a naturopathic physician on the East Coast of Florida. At the age of 67, he swims several miles a week in addition to extensive biking and a wide variety of calisthenics, pushups and pull ups.

He has quite an impressive exercise regimen and is a personal inspiration to me as I hope to be in as good a shape as he as that age. He also has one of the most positive attitudes of anyone I know.

He eats plenty of fruit and caused me to seriously reevaluate my position on consuming fruits and I have gradually been increasing my intake of them, especially mangoes, which is his pseudonym (Mango Man). He even has a variety of mangoes named after him. I actually have two of the Pickering mangoes growing in my yard.

But one of the things he’s known for in the nutrition world is food combining—and he is truly like a walking billboard for his program. The man looks about 20-30 years younger than his calendar age.

“Age is not a matter of years; it’s a matter of condition. You can keep your health up until you die because you have 75 to 90 trillion cells in your body that work symbiotically on your behalf striving towards health. You cut yourself? It’s going to heal without a thought. It just does,” he says.

Improper food combining is one of the primary factors that cause gas, flatulence, heartburn, and upset stomach. What’s worse, poor digestion can also contribute to malnutrition, even if you think you’re eating a decent diet.

In his youth, Dr. Pickering was no different from most Americans today—severely overweight, out of shape, and eating the wrong foods. He recalls the key moment that turned his life around:

“I was in Illinois when I came back from Vietnam. I stayed up there for a year in Rockford. A little lady found me one day in a distraught situation. She owned a health food store. I went in there, and I bought a bottle of vitamins and a little book, How to Be Healthy with Natural Foods, by Edward E. Marsh.”

He also found a postcard-sized food combining chart. He’d had frequent stomach pains for years, and was absolutely shocked when 24-hours after putting the information into practice, he didn’t suffer with indigestion anymore.

Since then, Dr. Pickering has become an avid teacher of natural health, in which health and longevity is the naturaloutgrowth of proper nutrition—which also encompasses proper food combining, to optimize digestion.

Three Principles of Health

Many are under the mistaken belief that the human body is a frail instrument, prone to disease and pre-programmed to decay. Dr. Pickering wholeheartedly disagrees, and I second that motion. The truth is, your body is infinitely wise, with a natural inborn “instinct” toward health, and by following certain natural principles, you allow your body to do what it does best, which is to maintain an equilibrium of health. Dr. Pickering’s three basic principles of health are:

  1. You are automatically healthy, by design, and sick only by default
  2. You don’t catch disease; you “earn” it, as it stems from “crud in the blood from being drunk with junk,” as he says
  3. You get well by what comes out of you, not by what goes into you

In essence, health is as much based on getting rid of toxins and other harmful substances as it is based on optimizing your nutrition. Part and parcel of this philosophy is that food is your number one ally. And while certain nutritional supplements can be beneficial, they will not allow you to circumvent a poor diet. They can only complement your diet; they cannot take the place of a meal.

“Nutrition doesn’t heal. It doesn’t cure. It doesn’t do anything,” Dr. Pickering says. “It’s a science though and it never changes... Here’s what nutrition is: it’s a series of four processes that your body employs to make food materials for the body to use.”

Those four processes are the following:

  1. Digestion
  2. Absorption
  3. Assimilation
  4. Elimination

Four Principles of Wholesome Nutrition

According to Dr. Pickering, one of the most important factors when it comes to healthful eating is to make sure you’re eating foods that are in season. Your constitution changes with the seasons of your local climate, and eating local foods when they’re in season is a natural way to harness that intrinsic relationship your body has with the Earth.

Seasonal foods will typically be at their cheapest when they’re in season, and will be readily available in most stores and farmers markets. Dr. Pickering’s food combining guide1 can also help you determine which foods are in season, in addition to how to combine them for optimal health.

Next, Dr. Pickering advises eating foods that are indigenous to your area. Eskimos, for example, are not going to reap the same nutritional rewards from watermelon as someone living in the American South where watermelons grow naturally. The climate itself makes nutritional demands on your body.

Third, you also want to select foods according to the type and amount of physical activity you’re involved in (an office worker, for example, will not benefit from the diet of a triathlete), and lastly, you want to choose foods according to your body’s digestive chemistry. As a side note, albeit an important one, Dr. Pickering also points out the importance of your thoughts.

“Your thoughts, you see, help to govern chemistry,” he explains. “When you sit down to eat, it’s crucial to not talk about problems at the dinner table; talk about joyous things just because it gives you a chance to get together [with each other].”

Recent research has even confirmed that if you want to make your food taste better, and more thoroughly enjoy the experience of a meal, perform a ritual first. One of the most rewarding rituals you can do before a meal is to stop andgive thanks for your food.

Not only might this make your food taste better, but also people who are thankful for what they have are better able to cope with stress, have more positive emotions, and are better able to reach their goals. People who give thanks before they eat also tend to eat more slowly and savor the meal more so than those who do not, lending a natural transition to mindful eating, which has a direct and beneficial impact on digestion.

Why Food Combining Matters

Wayne is probably best known for promoting the importance of food combining. If the food you eat is not digesting properly, not only can painful gas, heart burn, acid reflux and other stomach problems arise, but your body will also be deprived of critical nutrients.

The short definition of digestion is: you put food or liquid into your mouth, swallow it, and then your body breaks these molecules down into a size it can absorb. What your body doesn’t use is excreted as waste. These are the four processes listed above—digestion, absorption, assimilation and elimination. But food is actually broken down in a number of different areas, including in your mouth, stomach, and the first and middle sections of your small intestine, called the duodenum and jejunum respectively. Furthermore, you have two kinds of digestion:

  1. Mechanical (chewing and churning) digestion
  2. Chemical digestion

Food combination takes into account the area and complexity of digestion of each food, to ensure it goes through your entire digestive system with ease. Dr. Pickering explains:

“There’s only one food that chemically breaks down in the stomach and that’s protein. Proteins require pepsin, a very highly acidic [enzyme] in conjunction with hydrochloric acid. But the hydrochloric acid doesn’t have the ability to break the food down. It just sets the medium for the concentration of the amount of pepsin that’s poured into the stomach to digest whatever food that’s in there. The intelligence of this human body is phenomenal.”

There are three primary categories of food: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Proteins, again, begin their digestion chemically in your stomach. Carbohydrates are divided into two categories: fruits and starches. While fruits pass through your digestive system with relative ease, starches require three levels of breakdown; the very first stage is in your mouth. That’s why it’s crucial to carefully chew starchy foods.

According to the rules of food combination, you do not want to mix proteins and starches in the same meal. This means, no bun with your hamburger, no meatballs if you have pasta, no potatoes with your meat… Why is that? Dr. Pickering explains:

“Starches require an alkaline digestive medium to digest. If you put your fist in your stomach while it’s digesting steaks and all that, chances are, you wouldn’t have a hand anymore. The acid is intense… When you mix them both together – an acid-type of food and an alkaline – basic chemistry shows that they don’t digest. They neutralize. Then what happens? If the food is not digesting… it’s going through your body [undigested], throwing it into all kinds of turmoil.”

The Three Commandments of Food Combination

Dr. Pickering lays out three basic commandments of eating that he recommends you not deviate from:

    1. No proteins and starches at the same meal, as they neutralize each other and prevent proper digestion of either food. To ensure proper digestion of each food, wait two hours after eating a starch before eating protein. And wait three hours after eating protein before eating a starch.
    2. No fruits and vegetables at the same meal. Fruits are either a single or double sugar, whereas the starches are a triple sugar. Fruits mechanically break down in your stomach, but chemically, they don’t break down until they reach the third and fourth stage of your digestive system, which are in your small intestine. Starches, again, are broken down in three different stages, starting in your mouth.According to Dr. Pickering, this is also why it’s crucial to not eat dessert after a meal. When you do, it gets trapped in your stomach with all that other food, where it starts to rot as it’s not being chemically digested there. Therefore, eat fruit 30-60 minutes before dinner. The same applies if you want to eat another piece of fruit. Acidic fruits, such as lemons for example, also do not combine well with starches. Lemon and banana is but one example of a combination that is sure to lead to gastrointestinal upset…Many people consider tomatoes a fruit, yet it’s commonly added to salad. Dr. Pickering classifies tomatoes as a “fruit-vegetable,” because even though they don’t have the sugar like most fruits, they’re still an acidic fruit-vegetable. As such they’re okay to combine with other vegetables. He suggests the following recipe for an excellent salad:“Any kind of vegetable that has seed in it; for example summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, bell peppers, and okra—those are all fruit-vegetables. Your tomatoes go well with those. And since lettuce and celery have a neutral effect, as far as the breakdown of food, the celery and the lettuce combine very well with all of that. You can also add avocados.”
    3. “Eat melon alone, or leave it alone, or your stomach will moan.” In short, melons do not digest well with other foods and will frequently cause problems unless consumed by itself.

The When and What of Eating

According to Dr. Pickering, the amount and sequencing of the foods you eat can also make a difference. He recommends the following eating schedule:

  • Morning meal: The least concentrated foods, in the greatest amount. Ideal food choice: fruits
  • Middle of the day: More complex foods, but in a smaller amount than your first meal. Ideal food choice: starchy carbs
  • Evening: The most concentrated foods, but in the least abundant amount. Ideal food choice: protein

More Information

Your body is, by design, programmed for health, and disease is just as much a matter of eliminating toxins as it is about eating proper foods. Elimination, however, is dependent on a healthy digestive system, and by combining foods in a certain way, you can help your body digest all the foods you eat with ease.

You can further promote healthy digestion by paying attention to the amount and distribution of protein and carbohydrates in each meal. Again, the greatest amounts of the least dense foods, i.e. fruits, are best eaten early in the day. Then, for lunch, eat a smaller amount of denser, more complex carbs, followed by a small amount of protein—the densest meal—in the evening. For more information about the digestive process and food combination, check out the following two web sites:

  • CombineWhenYouDine.com has a 20″ x 24″ custom-laminated full-color guide for Healthy Eating that classifies fruits, vegetables and proteins to show the most compatible combinations for proper digestion.
  • MangoManDiet.com offers a 27-day long course on food combining, as well as 400 recipes, nearly 140 articles, and several hours-worth of audio programs on nutrition.

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Filed Under: Living Sustainably, Natural Living, Paleo Education Tagged With: food chart, food combinations, food combining, paleo, primal, what to eat

The Many Benefits of Ginger

January 24, 2014 by Jackie Ritz 6 Comments

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Ginger has been used medicinally for centuries and in the U.S. is perhaps most known for its ability to soothe nausea and stomach upset.

It is without a doubt the best remedy I know of for nausea. You don’t need much just a piece the size of your fingernail minced very finely and swallowed.  It is phenomenally effective.

But now new research suggests this natural root may provide help for much more, including for arthritis pain, heart health, and people with asthma, in whom ginger may enhance the effects of the bronchodilating medications conventionally used to treat their condition. It may even be useful for weight control!

Ginger is Anti-Inflammatory and May Provide Pain Relief

Ginger’s anti-inflammatory properties have made it a valuable tool in pain relief for centuries. In 2001, research showed that ginger extract helped reduce knee pain in people with osteoarthritis. (1)

And earlier this year a study found that women athletes taking three grams of ginger or cinnamon daily (that’s less than one teaspoon) had a significant decrease in muscle soreness.(2) Ginger has even been found to be as effective as ibuprofen in relieving pain from menstrual cramps in women. (3)

Furthermore, the pain-relieving potential of ginger appears to be far-reaching. Along with help for muscle and joint pain, for instance, ginger has been found to reduce the severity of migraine headaches as well as the migraine medication Sumatriptan – with fewer side effects. (4)

Ginger Helps Treat Asthma Symptoms

Another recent study, which was presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference, found that adding ginger compounds to isoproterenol, a type of asthma medication called a beta-agonist, enhanced its bronchodilating effects.

Conventional asthma treatment typically consists of a non-steroidal bronchodilator, an anti-inflammatory agent that you inhale, which causes the smooth muscle cells in your lungs to relax.

This helps to open up your airways. If that doesn’t t work, the next step is typically an inhaled steroid, which is a very potent anti-inflammatory agent.

Part of the explanation for ginger’s benefits for asthma are its potent antioxidant activity, which is attributed to constituents such as gingerols, shogaols and zingerones. It is believed that these compounds have particular anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties similar to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Because ginger enhances bronchodilation, it may provide a much safer alternative, or at least adjunct, to current medications on the market, which is badly needed. While asthma is a serious condition that can be fatal if left untreated, asthma medications themselves carry serious, even lethal side effects.

For example, the common asthma drug Advair contains the long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) salmeterol, which can actually increase the severity of an asthma attack as well as the risk of death from asthma problems.

The drug used in the above-mentioned study, isoproterenol, was also linked to an epidemic of asthma deaths that occurred in the 1960s, whereas conventional asthma treatments have also been found to increase your risk of heart disease, cataracts and osteoporosis, just to name a few of the additional risks.

If you have asthma, I suggest looking into The Buteyko Method, which teaches you how to bring your breathing volume back toward normal or, in other words, to reverse what’s called chronic hyperventilation or chronic overbreathing. When your breathing is normal, you have better oxygenation of tissues and organs.

Ginger for Nausea and Motion Sickness

Ginger is wonderful for your gastrointestinal tract, as it is both carminative (preventing flatulence) and an intestinal spasmolytic (meaning it prevents spasms by soothing your intestinal tract).  If you struggle with motion sickness or nausea (from pregnancy or chemotherapy, for example), ginger should be a staple in your diet. Research shows:

  • Taking one gram of ginger daily may help reduce nausea and vomiting in pregnant women, and ginger has been shown to work better than a placebo in relieving morning sickness (5)
  • Daily ginger supplementation reduces the severity of chemotherapy-induced nausea (6)
  • Ginger may help reduce vomiting and other symptoms of motion sickness (7)

Ginger May be Useful for Diabetics

If you have diabetes or pre-diabetes, listen up. Ginger appears to be useful both preventively and therapeutically for this condition, via effects on insulin release and action, and improved carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. According to one comprehensive review, one study found that after consuming three grams of dry ginger powder for 30 days, diabetic participants had a significant reduction in blood glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.(8 )It’s thought that ginger has a positive effect on diabetes because it:

  • Inhibits enzymes in carbohydrate metabolism
  • Increases insulin release and sensitivity
  • Improves lipid profiles

Ginger also has a protective effect on diabetes complications, including offering protection to the diabetic’s liver, kidneys, central nervous system and eyes.

Ginger Promotes Feelings of Satiety and Helps Control Hunger

Adding yet another benefit to this wonderfully warming spice, ginger has been shown to enhance thermogenesis and reduce feelings of hunger, offering a potential role in weight management.(9 ) Like cayenne pepper and turmeric, ginger may temporarily increase thermogenesis in your body, where your body burns fuel such as fat to create heat, with obviously beneficial impacts on metabolism and fat storage. Research suggests that consuming thermogenic ingredients may boost your overall metabolism by up to 5 percent, and increase fat burning by up to 16 percent.(10) It may even help counteract the decrease in metabolic rate that often occurs during weight loss.

Even More Reasons to Eat Ginger …

Ginger has broad-spectrum antibacterial, anti-viral, antioxidant and anti-parasitic properties, to name just several of its more than 40 pharmacological actions. (11) According to research compiled by GreenMedInfo,(12) ginger may alsobe useful for:

  • Improving cognitive function in middle-aged women (13)
  • Protecting against respiratory viruses (14)
  • Reducing vertigo (15)
  • Enhancing fat digestion and absorption (16)
  • Protecting against toxic effects of environmental chemicals, such as parabens17

Over the past decade, researchers have also discovered that ginger may offer potent cardiovascular benefits by:

  • Preventing atherosclerosis
  • Lowering cholesterol levels
  • Preventing oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL)

Finally, research published in the British Journal of Nutrition(18) has demonstrated the in vitro and in vivo anticancer activity of ginger, suggesting it may be effective in the management of prostate cancer.

How to Use Ginger

If you’ve never used fresh ginger before you may find the gnarly brown root somewhat intimidating – but it’s incredibly easy to use. One of the simplest ways is to chop off a couple of inches of ginger root and let it steep in hot water for fresh ginger tea. You can also peel the root using a paring knife and then slice it thinly (or mince it) to add to tea or cooked dishes.

When left unpeeled, fresh ginger can be stored in your refrigerator for at least three weeks or in your freezer for six months or longer, making it incredibly easy to keep on hand. Try experimenting by adding fresh ginger and other warming spices, like cinnamon, to a cup of tea in the morning, evening or after a meal … and see if you notice any of the health benefits I’ve just described.

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Filed Under: Living Sustainably, Natural Living, Nutrition Tagged With: asthma, benefits of ginger, ginger, holistic, natural, remedies

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Hi, I'm Jackie Ritz and welcome to The Paleo Mama! I'm a published author, certified herbalist, and voracious researcher of natural medicine and nutrition. I'm glad you're here and I hope you stick around for awhile!

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