Eat real food.

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting that in 2007, almost 25% of people 60 and over had diabetes. That’s one in four, and it’s climbing. And you know what? If you’re not 60 yet, you will be one day.

Diabetes isn’t the only problem. If you’re on the *path* toward diabetes, your body is suffering right now. You’re at increased risk for autoimmune problems and many of the diseases of modern life. Here’s an article about how Insulin affects your body. It’s long, but worth reading. If you want to get to the juicy parts, use “Find on this page” and look for “Insulin.”

So if you’re walking down the path with the rest of the people, the path that leads to diabetes and other illnesses produced by the collective choices we’re making, how can you veer off that path and on to a better one? Simple. Start making changes.

If you want to know why I refuse to eat white flour, white rice and sugar, check out that article on insulin. Diabetes runs in my family, and I know I’m at real risk for all the health effects. But what to eat instead?

I’m convinced that the best diet is competely natural, without refined sugar at all. And that maybe if I ate that way, the occasional honey wouldn’t hurt me. But for now…

I gave up aspertame (Nutra Sweet, and others) a few days ago. I’m convinced by what I’ve seen that it’s truly poison. I haven’t given up Splenda (sucralose) yet, though. I’m not completely convinced that it’s poison–I think the jury’s still out–but besides that, it’s a crutch. It’s *vital* that I not eat sugar, so I allow for the possibility of Splenda as a lesser evil. But transition is all about gradual improvements. I’m sure I’ll drop Splenda too, eventually.

What are your crutches? Your lesser evils?

The other day I was talking to a lady I know who grows a lot of her own food and promotes gardening and natural healing. She eats a generally raw-food diet. She’s a inspiration, really. But I discovered that day that she also sometimes eats giant cookies made of white flour, sugar, and who knows what else. We all have our weaknesses, don’t we?

We can only change so much of our diets and our lives at one time. So what changes are urgent, and what can you put off for a while? How do you decide which “vices” you can hang on to? It’s a very individual choice, isn’t it? And the big question for me has been whether if I hang on to some “vices,” I will get gradually better, and be able to give them up, or whether I’m just fooling myself. My body used to tell me that the best possible food was either cookie dough, (butter and sugar, with a touch of refined flour for balance) or cinnamon rolls (butter and sugar, with a touch of refined flour for balance). I know that in the past, I’ve switched to artificial sweeteners (the epitome of industrial food) and later discovered my sweet-tooth was as strong as ever. Soon, I was back to the cookies and cakes I’d thought I was free of.

Now, I’ve given up almost all sweets, but hung on to a few crutches. Mainly choco-perfection chocolate which is sweetened with a natural fiber-based sweetner that doesn’t affect blood sugar or insulin. I’ve been diluting them, by melting a small chunk of the chocolate in some coconut oil, and then cooling it in the freezer. The other day, I was at the grocery store, and bought myself a bar, and ate a piece straight. And you know what? The sweetness of it was really unpleasant. I discovered that I’ve actually freed myself of the desire for super-sweet tastes. What good news!

The moral of this story is that if *I* can get to the point where the idea of eating cookie dough is *gross* — anybody can.

Over the next few weeks (now that I’m back) I want to talk more about the process of transitioning away from industrial food toward real food. How do you decide which sweeteners to give up first? What about convenience foods? Is organic more important, or local?

If you have tricks you use to wean yourself off industrial food, or vices you still cling to, leave a comment!

I found this terrific cartoon on The Parenting Pit, an awesome blog about life with kids. (more…)