I will share the story, but first I would like to say that some of what I write here is my opinion. I don’t know, and I don’t claim to know, the extent to which food, genetics, and/or the environment can cause or heal diseases. I will share some of our speculations and also some of our conclusions. Please realize that I’m not offering rules or hard facts. Instead, I offer our story for your consideration in the hope that it will inspire your own family’s journey toward better health.
The story of our diet changes began with our third child, our son C., on the day he was born — October 19, 2000. He immediately developed itchy rashes all over his body, but especially behind his knees and elbows, and on his face, torso, wrists and the back of his hands. He suffered from eczema for two and a half years.
During those first years of C.’s life, we visited our pediatrician, an allergist, and even a naturopath. The treatments ran the gamut from applying cortisone creams, to a one-time application of the prescription cream Elidel, to using homeopathic remedies. Some of these treatments eased his symptoms, but none of them provided long-term healing of C.’s ailment.
Being unhappy with those options, we focused our attention on trying to identify external sources of irritation to his skin, like chemicals, fragrances and toxins. We changed all our personal care products and cleaning products to be non-toxic and fragrance-free. All these changes helped somewhat, but once again, he wasn’t eczema-free. We still maintain our toxin-free environment to this day because we believe it is better for us and the earth, but it was clear to us that C. needed more than just an environment change to heal his eczema.
The next step we took was to focus internally at what C. could be consuming that would cause his eczema. We read books. We settled on an author who maintained that a plant-based, vegan diet was best for the good health of the general population. We jumped right in, cold turkey and… became vegan.
Five weeks into our new diet, C.’s eczema totally disappeared and his baby soft skin appeared for the first time! He was two and a half years old. Amazingly, B. also stopped wetting the bed at the exact same time. Since then, the children haven’t gotten even one ear infection, or any other infection. We do catch viruses now and then, but not very often and without much severity. Because of these improvements, we felt we were on the right track.
However, we felt that something wasn’t quite right. We loved eating vegan. But some members of the family were fatigued and struggled with low muscle strength. We wondered if maybe we were experiencing a deficiency of Vitamin B12, which is found only in animal foods. We also worried that we were not consuming enough protein.
Now I’ll back up a bit and share something else that pertains in our journey. Prior to becoming vegan, our diet was full of highly processed foods — bleached and stripped grain products; packaged foods with fillers, preservatives, chemicals, colorants, and additives; produce that had been grown with the use of pesticides and herbicides; and the meat from unnaturally raised farm animals which had been injected with hormones and/or antibiotics. Contrast that with our vegan diet, which was plant-based, yes, but also entirely comprised of natural, whole foods.
Perhaps you are realizing what we came to realize. All of a sudden, we weren’t really sure what had been helpful for healing C.’s eczema — was it really the lack of animal foods or was it the absence of processed foods? Or to confuse you more, was it something else entirely?
We changed our diet again, in an attempt to find out two things — 1) what was the real culprit behind C.’s eczema? and 2) what is the best diet for good health? The change we made was to re-introduce meat into our diet. But this time the meats were whole, natural meats — like free-range, organic chicken; 100% grass-fed beef; and wild Atlantic salmon. We continued to eat much fresh, organic produce, organic whole grains, and organic beans. Incorporating the natural meats did not result in any eczema flare-ups for C.. However, eggs did cause him to have a rash, and this we found out through eliminating only eggs after he experienced a breakout.
And then in 2009, we made another change. Since 2007, we had been eating gluten-free, thinking that our daughter A. was allergic to gluten. In 2009, I sprouted gluten-containing grains and found that my daughter A. could eat them without any adverse symptoms! This convinced us that it was important to focus on traditional food preparation methods, which would ensure ease of digestion and maximum nutrition. Many of those methods are laid out in the book Nourishing Traditions.
Hopefully, you can see from my account that we’ve been all over the board. From the standard American diet, to vegan, to all whole foods, to using traditional food preparation methods with whole foods. Have we come to any conclusions? Well, some!
The most important thing we learned is that the healthiest foods are natural, organic, whole, locally grown, and in season – and properly prepared. Read more about GNOWFGLINS — God’s Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, IN Season.
To this consideration we also add these desires: to eat enough protein so that each member of our family feels strong; to consume many fresh foods; to avoid foods that cause an allergic reaction in a member of our family; to seek out foods that are extremely nutritious and incorporate more of them; to prepare foods in traditional methods so as to ensure maximum nutrition; to eat a diverse, varied diet for overall good health.
We give thanks to the Lord for what He has taught us so far on our journey of good health and we look forward to learning more!
© Copyright 2006-2008 by Wardee Harmon.
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Wardee,
I was just wondering if you have any kind of food storage, and if you do what do you store. We are taught to have a years supply of food storage, but we eat so many fresh foods, it is hard for me to know what to store, besides grains and beans.
thanks
love,
tiffany
Hi, Tiffany! Well, I have many 5-gallon buckets full of grains and beans. I don’t know if I have enough for a year, but certainly for several months. I don’t have canned goods for a year, but for about 2 months at a time. I know it is a challenge when one eats so many fresh foods. I suppose ideally we’d want to make certain our access to animals and seeds would be available for the year. Let me know what other thoughts you have, because this is a very interesting question and one I hadn’t considered before.
Thanks for sharing this. It is so inspiring to hear about people making important choices and then benefiting so clearly from their efforts. I’m so glad that you were able to figure out what your Treasures needed and then provide it for them.
Love,
Selvi
Hi Wardee,
What do you do for a toxin free environment? I’d never even heard of this idea before until a month or so ago, but I still don’t know that much about it.
Thanks!
-Erin
Hi, Erin! My apologies for taking so long to answer you. Today has been very busy! By toxin-free environment, I am at this point only referring to things I can control, such as what cleansers and personal care products we use. They are all natural and/or homemade. Someday, we’d like to have more control over the type of house and building materials we use, but that can’t change at this time. Perhaps I used the wrong term; I’m not sure. What we do really isn’t as complicated as the term makes it sound! Have I answered your question sufficiently? When you heard the term a month ago, what was it referencing?
Does this limit your menu variety very severely? For example; we live in the mid south but there are no vegetables available locally from December through May. Do you have this same problem where you live? What do you do?
We can of course eat what I have canned from the previous year, but that’s not exactly fresh 🙂
love
Sylvia
Hi, Sylvia! Well, yes and no. Thanks to sprouting, we have fresh & local food all the time! But otherwise, the winter would be slim pickings! 😉 But we would make do, as we have done other years, and do the best we can. Its a guideline, not a rule. We try to eat fresh and local and organic as much as possible.
Yes, what I read about was talking about cleaners and personal care products, too. How do you know what’s toxic? Do you think it makes a big difference to you, and is it very expensive to go non-toxic? I’m thinking of learning more about it, but we’re on a pretty tight budget, so I only want to do it if it really makes a difference. Thanks Wardee!
-Erin
Hi, Erin! You generally can learn alot by going to the health food store and reading the labels on the cleaning products. All the things they claim to avoid and why is very informative! I don’t have any lists of bad chemicals, I just tend to stick with things I know are natural or companies with products that I believe are good.
If you run out and buy all the choices at the health food store, that can be expensive. The least expensive way to be non-toxic is to use homemade cleaners.
Baking soda and vinegar are inexpensive and will clean just about anything in your house. If you put a scoop of baking soda in a sink, the pour 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar on it, it will bubble all up and you can scrub that around to clean the sink. You can do the same thing in the toilet. Or to clean out a drain. You can also use just straight baking soda to scrub sinks and built up grime. It really works like Comet, only no fumes and nothing toxic heading down the drain.
Then I make up this all-purpose spray cleaner to clean countertops and tile. It smells wonderful! And tea tree oil has disinfectant properties.
I have bought and still do buy some commercial natural products. For our laundry soap, I buy Country Save laundry powder. I buy like 50 lbs at time and it lasts for a year or more, using only 1 tablespoon per load (1/2 T for front-loader). It doesn’t brighten whites or anything, but it cleans well. It has no fragrances and nothing toxic. Good for the septic, water tables, skin, etc. They also have a non-chlorine bleach for colors and whites.
I purchase dishwasher detergent either from Seventh Generation or BioKleen. I also have used Seventh Generation toilet bowl cleaner. Also BioKleen’s concentrated all-purpose cleanser and window cleaner concentrate. These are all inexpensive and concentrated and last a long time. My sink-washing dish soap is from Trader Joe’s. If you don’t have Trader Joe’s, you can get a good deal by watching the Azure sales or health foods store sales or by ordering a case — Ecover and Country Save I have tried and like. I used to use Ecover until I found TJs.
Our shampoo and conditioner comes from Trader Joe’s — $1.99 a bottle, and a great deal! I make all our bar soaps and liquid soaps. Each bar costs bout 50 cents to 1 dollar, depending on the oils I use. Too bad we didn’t live closer, you could come and make soap with me!
We use aloe vera for moisturizer. I have bought Jason aloe vera in the past, but now I am growing a great aloe vera plant with lots of shoots, so I am hoping we can use our own aloe vera from here on out. We use baking soda to wash our faces, it so far is a great exfoliant and oil controller, which I needed (I’ve been testing this for about 3 months). For astringent, we buy witch hazel, add a little more alcohol to it and some tea tree oil.
For toothpaste, I buy a more expensive toothpaste because it is SOOOOO good. Jason PowerSmile. It goes on sale now and then at Azure. You only need a tiny smidge. For the kids, I buy Tom’s brand at Trader Joe’s which has the best price. Sometimes Jeff uses just baking soda to brush his teeth.
The only product I haven’t been able to do naturally and well is deodorant. The naturals don’t work. Sorry! So mine has aluminum in it. I have tried to replace these, but I hate to smell.
Can’t think of anything else! I do want to assure you that it is better for you and for the environment. It doesn’t have to be more expensive if you try to make as much as possible yourself.
Wardeh,
I know this post is about 6 years old. I hope by now you have discovered the best natural deodorant in Thai brand natural deodorant crystals. I don’t think there’s another brand that supplies these. I used to buy the big stone of it, and then also the spray they make so I could spray other smelly areas besides armpits (in fact it works great sprayed into a pair of stinky shoes and left to dry!). Nowadays, I just buy the big ole stone, bash it with a hammer into small chunks, and throw a chunk into a bottle I use especially for our deodorant. I fill the 8-oz bottle up with hot water after throwing the chunk in (hot water makes the chunk melt faster), and we squirt it onto our body in any place that is smelly or tends to get rashy with heat. It keeps bacteria from multiplying on your skin! It’s just marvelous.
But you probably know that by now, since this post is 6 years old. 😉
-Michelle
Wardee:
Thanks for sharing your family’s journey. You are definitely an inspiration to others and I hope others will follow you.
I understand about diet changes because of little ones. My son is 2 1/2 and since he was about 6 months we knew something was wrong. He developed severe plaque psoriasis and nothing helped. Thankfully we have a wonderful friend who has studied Chinese medicine and was able to test our son for allergies. Found out he was allergic to dairy, soy and beef.
Since I was breastfeeding, out those things came, one at a time, and wouldnt you know it, his skin cleared up! The doctor was shocked and amazed at the difference, she couldn’t believe it was the same child! His hair went back to normal as well, and as long as we stick to the diet, he is a normal, healthy two year old boy.
My 5 year old daughter is a self proclaimed vegetarian and has been since she turned one and tried meat for the first and last time. So we have one dairy free kid and one meat free kid which makes for some interested food choices around here! Thank you for inspiring me to look at some new ideas as well.
My only question for you would be did you find it to be financially difficult to trainsition your lifestyle, or have you done enough yourself so that it is not a strain? This has been my main problem with trying to do more natural and organic food, is that I couldn’t afford it.
Hello, Hillery! I find your story very encouraging! It is wonderful that with your diet changes, your little boy is healthy!
To answer your one question, we do continually find it challenging to keep our food budget down while purchasing entirely whole, natural, organic foods. We have been eating this way for a good 5 years, and have changed much along the way the entire time, so I can’t really make an across the board comparison, such as “we used to spend $__ and now we spend $___.” I think we do well keeping our costs down by buying in bulk, and buying very few packaged foods (whether they are healthy or not). And while purchasing quality nuts, fruit and other raw ingredients is more expensive, we can balance that by being frugal with treats and portion sizes; we find we are satisfied on less because the nutrition and satiation quality is so much better. When I consider that we spend very little on “medicine” — co-pays, dr. visits, prescriptions, etc. — I think we’re ahead of where we used to be. Not to mention that we’re healthy almost all the time — who can put a $ value on good health and the increased productivity and enjoyment life offers when one feels good?
I pray all the best for you as you journey toward transitioning your lifestyle to more healthy foods. With the benefits you’ve already seen from eating healthfully, I’m encouraged that you’re on the right track! (And you can always be thankful that your daughter won’t eat meat because that will save you money. 😀 )
Just an idea to pass along, haven’t tried it yet but will as soon as my coconut oil gets here…homemade deodorant! I love Lindsay’s website…actually where I read about this GNOWFGLINS course! She has a recipe for deodorant they’ve been using for 2 years now and love. Even posted a video tutorial today (2/08/10) on making it. Hope it might be helpful to you and others! Looking forward to your course and applying it to our lives! Thanks.
http://www.passionatehomemaking.com
Val – I’ve often wanted to try this recipe. Lindsay has a wonderful website – and it was so kind of her to spread the word about my eCourse. 🙂
Wardee,
Have you tried the Crystal Stick deodorant?
http://www.thecrystal.com/
This is what I use and love it because it’s completely clear and leaves no residue on your skin, so you don’t have to worry about getting it on your clothes (which I can imagine would be a problem with any homemade recipe that uses oils and powders and such). When you switch to a natural deodorant, you need to give yourself a 2-week detox period, because regular deodorants clog you up, so when you switch to a natural deodorant, all those toxins come out of your pores. That’s why you smell.
Give the Crystal Stick 2 weeks and I think you’ll be amazed. It’s also really affordable, I’ve had the same one for 7 years and it’s still not gone!
It does contain an ingredient called “alum”, which some people think is the same thing as aluminum, but it’s not. Alum is a very plentiful element found in nature (we ingest a lot of it everyday in water and food) and it is 30 times larger molucule than water so, even though it would be perfectly safe if it did absorb into your skin, the molecules are actually too large to be absorbed, so no need to worry.
Okay, I’m going to jump in and add to the deodorant discussion a tad –
I made the bold move to NO deodorant about 3 years ago. About the same time that I went to NO soap. I know, crazy, huh? Here’s my observations and what I do use:
Just as Suzanne says, there is about a 2-week detox period in which you should expect to stink. I’d recommend you plan to start when you don’t intend to have any social engagements. 😀
I started this right at the beginning of summer, so I really did put it to the test even right off. Instead of deodorant, I filled a small coffee cup with baking soda and used an old blusher brush to dust my armpits with baking soda. Initially, and now also in the depths of a heat wave, I would do this just out of a shower while my skin was still damp and then again before I got dressed. I was so impressed at how I could wear a shirt for at least 2 days with no stink! Every time I removed my shirt, I’d check for stink. I was sniffing my armpits daily for about 6 months with astonishment. I kept asking my husband to sniff, but he wasn’t interested. Took him about a year before he decided to give it a shot. My man is a hard worker, and does a lot of manual labor in his job as well as at home. But he discovered (after his detox period), NO STINK! Now, for him, when he’s working hard, he can’t go more than a day without showering and refreshing the baking soda. HOWEVER, he also still uses soap. There have been a few times when I could FEEL myself sweat – you know, the drip in the armpit feeling. BUT NO STINK!
About 6 months after I started using baking soda for my armpits, I stopped using soap. Somebody on a forum I was a part of suggested that part of the reason our skin stinks is because of the soap buildup or residue mixing with our skin’s oils and perspiration. Yes, I still wash in the shower. But if I feel I need more than just a scrub down with water, I’ll spray my skin with diluted apple cider vinegar that I have in a spray bottle in the shower.
Baking soda doesn’t work for everybody. My best friend suffers from eczema and the baking soda gave her a rash. 🙁 My mom hasn’t tried baking soda, but she just wipes her armpits with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol. (Not exactly non-toxic, but healthier than aluminum in pit sticks.) I’m excited to share the above coconut oil recipe with my friend to see if it will benefit her. 🙂
Julie – That’s amazing! I think I’ll try the no-deodorant. I’ll pick a time when it is okay to be stinky, if there is such a time. 😉
We use baking soda quite often instead of or with soap.
I am very interested in the no-soap, no-deodorant discussion going on. (I have always wondered how people in other centuries breathed, but maybe they actually had it better than we do!) Anyway, @Julie, do you use shampoo? My hair looks awful after a day or two between shampoos, but the more I think about it, I wonder if that’s the soap and conditioner residues rather than my hair? I would love more info, if anyone has anything to add.
Blessings,
Pat
I tried using just corn starch and water on my hair for about a week (corn starch is supposed to absorb oil and is the main ingredient in a lot of dry shampoos), but my hair eventually got very greasy, dull, flat and stiff. I would really like to know as well if anyone has found a simple all natural product that works well for the hair, or if they’ve managed to go without using anything at all. It doesn’t seem possible, though, to have soft shiny hair without using shampoo. I think you have to either braid your hair or get dreadlocks in order to go the no shampoo route, like Avatar…
I’m surprised that your naturopathic doctor didn’t address the subject of toxins in your home environment and diet. That seems like a shocking omission. Actually, all doctors should discuss this. Also, if straight baking soda irritates you, you can try cutting it with something milder and absorbant, such as clay, corn starch, powdered coconut…you get the idea.
Hello Wardee,
I have just discovered your blog and am so excited to find somebody interested in healthy, natural foods. I am just now learning about sprouting (where have I been all these years) and a whole new world has opened up for me. I wanted to comment that washing hair with your own homemade soap or some from the farmers market or online works really well if you have a container with about a teaspoon of lemon juice or cider vinegar to 8 oz water as a final rinse. Leaves the hair squeeky clean and shiny. Soaps made with jojoba oil and pure essential oils are especially nourishing to hair and scalp. Just make sure you use pure natural soap and not the stuff in the supermarket.
Thank you and I really believe I am going to enjoy learning from you. Thank you for being humble and you sharing “been there, done that”… it makes me want to listen.
I use baking soda too, and for a while I used coconut oil which also works well.
As far as the eggs are concerned, what I have found is that eggs are very healing. They are little powerhouses of nutrition, and can help in the detox process. As the skin is the biggest ‘detox’ organ, any rashes or reactions coming out through the skin are good rather than bad – even the eczema was a detox reaction, despite it being very uncomfortable. Your little man’s body was obviously trying to get rid of some thing/s it considered toxic
I, and many others I know have managed to add eggs to our diet by adding them very slowly, starting with maybe just a teaspoonful of egg yolk and gradually increasing a little at a time over the course of several weeks. I now eat at least 4 eggs a day!
I tried more than a dozen natural deodorants over the years, including the crystal ones, but nothing ever worked. Eventually I decided I was going to make it work no matter what, since I am terribly allergic to chemicals. I found Aubrey Organics, and gave theirs a try. It didn’t work, but this time I kept going. For the next few weeks, I would stink within a couple of hours of bathing. I kept trying different things to help, but couldn’t even remove the odor when bathing. I finally applied a drop or two of tea tree essential oil under each arm after bathing (while still wet) then air drying. After a couple of months I ran out of tea tree oil, and had to skip that step. To my surprise, there was no smell. Almost never. Now rarely do I notice an odor, but the tea tree oil removes it immediately and everything is ok again. Btw, Aubrey Organics is the *only* “natural” product line that I have found that is actually “all natural,” and I use their products now for anything that I dont make at home.
I have actually found as time has gone on that I no longer need deodorant at all. I am on a healing diet and the more my body detoxes, the less it smells. It has made me realize that smelly bodies = toxic bodies…….