Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Twenty-Five (Let Food Be Thy Medicine)

http://www.themotherhoodblog.com/2011/06/let-food-be-thy-medicine-guest-post-by.html

MONDAY, JUNE 6, 2011

Let Food Be Thy Medicine: Guest-post by Beth George of Spelt Right Baking Company

In today’s guest-post, Beth George, co-founder and owner of Spelt Right Baking, tells the story of how one mother's desire to help her son grew into a new business that helps many. 

*This is a story Beth has told many times, and much of this article appears word-for-word on the Spelt Right Baking's "About" page. We are happy to re-publish the origin of Spelt Right here, at The MotherHood, because we believe in Beth and Tim's mission to raise awareness along with the bread they bake.

Photo courtesy of Bates College and Beth George.

Transformative is the best way to describe the diet change in our family. 

We certainly are not perfect. It's tough to find all-organic foods, especially in Maine where we live, but the changes we've made are significant: we don't buy foods made with industrial wheat and other industrial grains, or artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. We've also eliminatedhydrogenated oils, MSG (monosodium glutamate), HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup), and anything that reeks of highly refined or altered foods. 

It has improved our lives beyond expectation.

As stated by the great philosopher Hippocrates in 460 BC, “Let Food Be Thy Medicine; Let Medicine Be Thy Food.”

Our son, who is now 13, use to experience significant health and behavioral problems, and was diagnosed between the ages of four and seven, with ADHD, Asperger’s, Pervasive Developmental Disorder and a host of other disorders. He also had frequent ear infections and a compromised immune system. Sometimes he would flap his hands, moan, and get red-hot ears; he might rock, become extremely agitated or hyperactive. At times, though, he was quite calm, introspective and manageable.

At the time he was diagnosed, I was practicing law as a child advocate attorney representing hundreds of children in the system—in juvenile courts, in state custody, and in special education. I witnessed a misdirected, overburdened, over-budgeted, and ineffective system. The kids had tons of resources thrown at them but things were not improving. I was shocked by the number of kids being diagnosed with various disorders and systematically placed on drugs, with no quantifiable improvement. Most were recidivists in the juvenile system and many, within a few years, made their way into the adult criminal system.

I witnessed a system that was/is broken and I wanted to change it—the problem being that systems are hard to change. The issue hit home when my son, our middle child, was being diagnosed similarly to the kids for whom I advocated. I knew that I had to stop the train with him or my child could become embroiled in the same, ineffective system.

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

I was not convinced of the accuracy of the diagnoses, and was skeptical about the recommendation to test psychotropic drugs on our son. We wanted to find out what was triggering the physical and emotional reactions in him and resisted the proposed drug therapy. I started out by reading the current research and talking to other parents, which led me to consider my son's problems as possibly a reaction to specific foods.

One doctor we had consulted recommended that we try non-wheat breads. I had seen a loaf of spelt bread at my nanny's apartment and asked why she was eating it.  She told me that it was wheat-free bread, and that she felt better eating it compared to 'regular' bread. (This was pre-2006 when the FDA had not yet required that all spelt products contain the phrase "Contains: wheat".Spelt is not a wheat-free food.*)

I thought I would buy some for my son. It was good and he had no adverse reactions to it, but it fell apart easily—which made him cry at school. So, I decided to try and make my own spelt bread that tasted good and would not fall apart.

By the time my son was nine, we moved beyond bread and had completely changed his diet, eliminating all artificial additives, preservatives and colors.

The results were profound. 

After implementing a regulated, but very satisfying diet, my son's life was completely turned around. He is now free of any diagnoses and is in the gifted program in middle school. He is one of the nicest, most creative and grounded thirteen-year old boys I know. Additionally, he is a budding chef and baker, and can make just about anything from scratch.

This is nothing short of remarkable given that he could barely sit at a desk just a few years before.

A BUSINESS IS BORN

In the process of helping my son, I have helped myself, and have learned how to help others. 

In 2007, as a result of the need to find better food for our son, I and my husband, Tim Kane (vice president of a local college) created an all-natural baking company,Spelt Right Baking.  pizza dough—ever! (Currently all our products are available online.)

Also since 2007, I have been writing, talking, and baking my way to get attention for this very important issue: to educate others on the critical importance of healthy, nutritious foods for our mental and emotional well-being.

In the course of growing our business, we have heard from so many of our customers about their own health challenges, including diabetes, insulin resistance, Lyme Disease, arthritis, migraines, heart and artery disease, skin issues, obesity, behavior problems, and how they have been able to improve their health through diet change, including a switch from industrial grains to heirloom grains like spelt.

We have come to the conclusion that America does not face a health crisis, but rather a nutrition crisis.

I think about the money that the government could save (just in the educational system alone) if people simply fed their kids better foods. I am convinced that the special education and juvenile justice systems would become less burdened, not to mention the health care costs of the general public.

SHARE YOUR STORY WITH US

We would love to hear the stories of other families that have found health and sanity through diet change.

You can post on our blog: http://speltrightbaking.blogspot.com/ or email me directly beth@speltrightbaking.com.

Thank you and be well!

Beth George, co-founder and owner, Spelt Right Baking

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ABOUT ME

THE MOTHERHOOD is a COMMUNITY-BASED MAGAZINE written for — and by — parents. Born March of '06, in Maplewood, NJ, we write about local and national issues that impact families of every type. Once a print magazine, we can now be found here, as a blog, and also here, at www.themotherhoodmagazine.com. YOU are invited to join the discussion! Post a comment, or send in your original idea for an article! BACK ISSUES OF OUR PRINT MAGAZINE ARE AVAILABLE in limited quantities. Contact us at liduggan65@yahoo.com for more information.

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Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred and Nineteen: ADHD and Hyperactivity in Kids. Help us Spread the Word!

Great news!  The FDA has just announced that it is considering banning certain food dyes (specifically Red 40 and Yellow 5), because of a possible connection between the consumption of these additives and hyperactivity in children.

Of course, this isn't news to us.

We've been talking/writing/blogging about this issue for years ever since our son began experiencing health and behavioral problems when he was 3 or 4 years old.

Those of you who have followed our son's story know that he is now a healthy, thriving 13-year old. But that wasn't always the case. When he was younger, his health and behavioral issues were so severe that doctors suggested he had everything from ADHD to Asperger's Syndrome.

And every diagnosis came with a drug solution.  HOGWASH!

We weren't buying it. Instead, we started paying close attention to the relationship between what he ate, and how he behaved. It took us several years to figure it all out, but by eliminating artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners, along with removing industrial wheat from his diet (and adding in spelt), we were able to completely turn his health and behavior around.

No drugs. Just good - and real - food.

So we couldn't be happier to hear that the FDA is finally catching up with Spelt Right on the issue of synthetic food additives and their negative effects on our kids.

This is such an important issue - Please help us spread the word!

Also, check out some of our past articles on the relationship between synthetic food additives and hyperactivity in kids.

Down East Article on Spelt Right and Its Mission

http://www.feastnh.com/articles/900538-236/womans-use-of-spelt-in-sons-diet.html?CSAuthResp=1234%3A%3A5000%3A1%3A24%3Aapproved%3A0F4585785573305EC4153626DBD917C5

So, here is picture of the kid, now 13, additive free for 6 years, always

 drug free, all natural diet, and one of the sweetest brightest folks I know.  

He is an incredible chef.  Last night's dinner was made completely 

by Spencer.  Marinated beef tips with a reduction sauce, sauteed tofu, 

tons of garlic, fresh veggies, special homemade sauces, all in a stir fry. 

 Diet change has been worth every moment.

Trust Your Intuition and Thank Goodness for Jumpy Frogs

My Advice – Trust Your Intuition…….We have been beaten into a blur by the major food companies, the drug companies, and institutional forces to believe that they know better than what we do on how to care for ourselves. It is time to fight back, one parent at a time.


I am a lawyer with three children who represented children in crisis for many years. In addition to being a lawyer, I am also an entrepreneur, the founder of Spelt Right Baking Company in Yarmouth, Maine www.speltrightbaking.com and a food and nutrition activist.

Many of the children I represented were abused or neglected, in state custody or in the criminal justice system. Most were diagnosed with a range of disorders - ADHD, OCD, ADD, Asperger's, etc. and were on psychotropic drugs. None with whom I worked seem to improve on the drugs.

I was bothered by what I was observing with a system that diagnosed without investigating causes and I brought this to the attention of the judges, probation officers, prosecutors, and others in the system, but it seemed as if no one was paying attention. They viewed me as a wing nut. At one point, my personal life intersected with my professional life and I knew it was time to make a change and a difference in a completely different venue.

My own son, who was 6 years old at the time, starting experiencing problems similar to those of my clients. At times he was disruptive, out of control, simply miserable. The provisional diagnoses started pouring in: PDD (pervasive developmental disorder), ADHD, Asperger's, and others and then along came the recommendations for psychotropic drugs.

I simply couldn't go that route. I wanted to find the source of his problems. This is where intuition kicked in. I knew that he was perfectly fine, even brilliant, at times and at other times, he was off the wall or in his own space, unable to communicate. I wanted to know what was triggering him. Few of the professionals could give me an answer. They looked at me as if I were strange, some sort of renegade because I questioned their assumptions and answers. Intuitively, I knew they were offering the wrong choice (why are we drugging so many children in this country?) and that what my gut was telling me was true. So, I went searching for answers on my own.

After years of research, heart ache, and trial and error, my husband and I found the simplest of answers. It was what was on our plates! We determined that our son had certain nutritional deficiencies combined with significant sensitivities to certain foods and food additives that impacted his health and behavior significantly. We learned that he is intolerant to common wheat (triticum aestivum), which some people find incredibly difficult to digest, and that it gives him headaches, digestive issues, and symptoms that make him appear to be on the autism spectrum. We have since learned that such reactions are not uncommon, but the cause is often overlooked. He may become withdrawn or incommunicative when he eats modern wheats. We also learned that he reacts to certain additives in foods: high fructose corn syrup makes him hyperactive; red and yellow dyes cause reactions including red hot ears and meltdowns and preservative BHT makes him shut down. We should all react to such chemicals. They are not foods; they are toxins.

Here again is an example in which intuition and trusting our own bodies come into play. This child, our son, has a brilliant intuitive body. His “smart body” rejects the chemicals that are put in commercial foods (for commercial gains) because his “smart body” knows they are not food and that they are dangerous. His “smart body” rejects the monoculture of modern wheat because much of it was designed for convenience not for human nourishment.

By participating in the standard American diet, most of the rest of us sit, like those frogs, in slowly heated water until it boils and kills us with cancers, diabetes, heart conditions, arthritis, and other symptoms of a broken diet. We are taken by surprise that the toxic food and chemicals we have consumed for so many years lead us down a sickly path. Unlike the frogs that meet their demise in that slowly heating water, my son reacts like the frog that is dropped into boiling water and immediately jumps out. His body knows immediately when something is bad and he reacts. Thank goodness for those jumpy frogs.

When our son has a clean diet (which we try so hard to maintain), he is completely without reactions. His brilliance shines. When, on the other hand, he has exposure to one of the offending foods or additives, he has the reactions described. We have learned through our research that these types of reactions have been studied and are well known in Europe, but that the US turns a blind eye. See www.feingold.org. His life has changed dramatically since we changed his diet. He no longer carries any diagnoses, is not on any drugs, has many friends, and is now in the GIFTED program in school (though still is not great at getting his homework in on time). We want to share our story to help other families.

In the process of realizing that our son could no longer eat common wheat, we searched for alternative grains and found the ancient grain spelt to be a wonderful choice. Spelt is an ancient cousin of wheat that has kept many of the nutrients and attributes that have been lost with the modern wheats. Unable to find “kid friendly” spelt products in the market place, I made some at home. One day, he sadly told me he was missing bagels and pizza dough. I started modifying recipes to use spelt.

One day after trying my homemade spelt bagels, he gave me two thumbs up and I knew we were up to something good.

In 2007, we decided to home license our kitchen and test market the bagels in a few local stores and cafes. Again, they were a big hit. The orders became so large that within a year, we decided to create our own bake house. We consider the Spelt Right Bake House a little slice of heaven here on earth. It is perched above the Royal River on the coast of Maine in a historic mill which is powered by the beautiful river that surrounds it. Sunshine streams in to greet us every day and the flora and fauna migrate with the seasons.

We now sell Spelt Right products and tell our story throughout New England and New York in Whole Foods, Hannafords, independent health food stores and cafes, colleges, schools and hospitals. Stop by a Whole Foods market some day and you might just be treated to a sample of a Spelt Right bagel and receive an earful from a mother with a story to tell. For more information on Spelt Right or its owner, Beth George, please write to info@speltrightbaking.com or see www.speltrightbaking.com

Think Twice About What You Eat

Sometimes it simply blows me away that people are still in denial that what they eat will impact their health (either positively or adversely) and will do the same for their children. With children like my son, however, the reactions are more than just about physical health, they are also about behavioral health. This is a reality for many children and it is often overlooked by the schools, health care providers, psychologists, coaches, etc. as a trigger behind the symptoms we often label as ADHD, Asperger's, PDD, OCD, etc. It is up to you as a parent to question the alphabet soup of diagnoses and look to the real causes why our kids are feeling lousy, both physically and behaviorally. Ditch the highly processed and artificial ingredients for the more natural whole foods and you'll be surprised by the difference you will see. It may take a little time, but it is worth the effort. Here is link to a great article about the deleterious effects of fructose, especially high fructose corn syrup. It's worth the read. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/13/richard-johnson-interview.aspx