Okay, I've been researching allergy/health issues for a few years now, which led me to research on diet, which, it turns out, was triggering my health issues. My atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis, and all the things that went along with those, like insomnia, chronic fatigue, mid-life squidge, etc., were caused by my genetic predisposition to atopy, triggered by what I was forcing my body to process, mostly food. But at this point, I've read and watched so many books and documentaries/programs, that I can't recall all of them and which one said what. So, for my own sanity, and in case it might be helpful to others interested in atopy, food allergies, weight loss, or just good health, here's the library as it stands today (March 2012):
November 2013 update: I had a relapse of my atopic symptoms in the summer of 2013 -- my allergic rhinitis, bloating, inflammation, and skin problems crept back up on me while I was not paying attention. Conclusion = simply avoiding my allergens (wheat, dairy and eggs) was not sufficient. So I had to dig deeper and go back and look at the underlying problem, which is not the food allergies, but a damaged intestinal lining, known as "leaky gut." It took me a couple of months and lots more research, but I am back on track and getting better every day now. It turns out that there were lots of things that I needed to do in order to heal my gut, including, for example, not having alcohol for a while. OUCH!! Yes, I stopped drinking any alcohol for 2.5 mos. And used digestive enzymes, probiotics, glutamine, vitamins, and fermented foods, as well as daily green juice and cooked instead of raw vegetables, to name just a few things. But it seems to be working and I am feeling and looking better again. I have come back here, once again, to update my library with reading recommendations. Enjoy. TAG, 11.19.13
November 2013 update: I had a relapse of my atopic symptoms in the summer of 2013 -- my allergic rhinitis, bloating, inflammation, and skin problems crept back up on me while I was not paying attention. Conclusion = simply avoiding my allergens (wheat, dairy and eggs) was not sufficient. So I had to dig deeper and go back and look at the underlying problem, which is not the food allergies, but a damaged intestinal lining, known as "leaky gut." It took me a couple of months and lots more research, but I am back on track and getting better every day now. It turns out that there were lots of things that I needed to do in order to heal my gut, including, for example, not having alcohol for a while. OUCH!! Yes, I stopped drinking any alcohol for 2.5 mos. And used digestive enzymes, probiotics, glutamine, vitamins, and fermented foods, as well as daily green juice and cooked instead of raw vegetables, to name just a few things. But it seems to be working and I am feeling and looking better again. I have come back here, once again, to update my library with reading recommendations. Enjoy. TAG, 11.19.13
Books -- going Old School:
Hidden Food Allergies -- by James Braly, M.D. My first eye-opener. He explains that there are two types of food allergies. We are all familiar with IgE-mediated allergies that can cause anaphylactic shock and death, most commonly to tree nuts and shell fish. But other foods cause an allergic response mediated by IgG, which is a delayed-onset response that occurs less immediately, more likely 2 hours-two days after consuming the food. (Note that many more conservative physicians/scientists refer to IgG-mediated immune reactions as food "intolerance," rather than allergy, because the first allergies discovered were the IgE-mediated allergies. So there's a reluctance to acknowledge the delayed-onset reaction as "allergy." When I refer to an allergy, I'm talking about both -- either/or.) The most common food allergies are dairy, egg, and wheat -- which happen to be my personal enemies. This book touches on the basics of how our immune system works and focuses on typical food allergens and methods for stopping/reversing the immune response/symptoms by identifying and avoiding the foods/allergens and using supplements and other techniques. He relies a bit heavily on supplements, but his book saved my life a few years ago, so I will never be anything but grateful for his work.
Food Allergies and Food Intolerance -- by Jonathoan Brostoff, M.D. I couldn't finish this one. I'm sure it has a lot of good technical information in there, but it is densely packed and does not flow well, but jumps around and was a real snooze to read. And I also bought way too many books at once, and since this one was a boring read, I just couldn't finish the whole book. My bad. but it's in the library, and maybe I'll get back to it one day.
How to Live Longer and Feel Better -- by Nobel laureate Linus Pauling. Mr. Pauling was a genius who has been much-maligned by the traditional medical establishment, because he believed that vitamin C supplementation is important for disease prevention in humans (we are one of only two animals that do not manufacture vitamin C internally). He makes an excellent case for the use of vitamin C to treat many kinds of illness, including cancer. I came to Mr. Pauling's work because Dr. Braly recommends taking large-dose vitamin C for allergic reactions and documents his clinical success in treating food allergies and addictions with large doses of IV vitamin C in the short term. Since relatively small doses of vitamin C seem to help me when I'm having an allergic response, I thought I'd read more about it, and I enjoyed it. Mr. Pauling also argues that sugar/sweeteners are bad for us -- gee, you think?!
Brain Allergies -- by William H. Philpott, M.D. and Dwight K. Kality, Ph. D. This book has an unfortunate and off-putting name that I think is not a good descriptor. Basically, they outline evidence that food allergies can cause mental illness. And it makes sense if you think about it -- our brains are part of our bodies, and if food can clog our arteries, cause inflammation, create immune-system responses in other parts of our bodies, why wouldn't it also affect our brain? And these gentlemen document clinical evidence of diagnosis and successful treatment of mental illness caused by food allergies. They lost me, however, when they started to talk about the use of magnets to treat illness. I'm at that section of the book now, and I'll have to get back to it later and update this info -- I'm skeptical on the magnet stuff, so we'll see.
Suicide by Sugar -- by Nancy Appleton, PhD. Ms. Appleton has a PhD in nutrition and takes us through the problems and diseases caused by our addiction to sugar and other sweeteners, such as high fructose corn syrup. Fascinating statistics on what sugary-sweet foods have done to our health and how we're exporting that bad health wherever we take our Western Diet. Ms. Appleton also wrote a book called Inflammation, which I read after this one. I read Inflammation because allergies are all about inflammation. She goes through the causes of inflammation in our diet, which include, of course, sweeteners, and ACE (which is an acronym for something like carbon or charcoal that forms when we cook meat at high temps), and some other stuff I cannot remember. Looks like I need to revisit this book.
Dealing with Food Allergies -- by Janet Bickerstaff, PhD. I bought this one at the same time I bought Hidden Food Allergies. I found Hidden Food Allergies to be more readable and practical. Dealing with Food Allergies is a really old-fashioned, conservative view of food allergy and intolerance. This author believes that the only way to truly diagnose a food allergy is by elimination and then reintroduction in a controlled setting. And that may be correct, technically, but are you kidding me with the amount of time and effort? Plus, I had so many small symptoms that I had difficulty diagnosing a reaction -- particularly when the reaction is taking place many hours from consumption of the food. I kept a food diary for months and couldn't make heads or tails of my problem. In hindsight, I can see that I was consuming dairy, but I had no idea what was going on at the time. I found the IgG ELISA test recommended by Dr. Braly, which gave me detailed results for 96 foods and showed severe reactions to dairy and egg and a milder reaction to wheat to be a much faster and easier way of identifying my food allergies. And, upon application of the test results to my diet, my symptoms either improved or disappeared entirely. So personally, I recommend Hidden Food Allergies over this book.
Hay Fever and Allergies: Discovering the Real Culprits and Natural Solutions for Reversing Allergic Rhinitis -- by Casey Adams, PhD. I just finished this book and found it to be extremely helpful and interesting. I was a bit reluctant to get on board with his conclusion that meat and animal products (hello, dairy and eggs) cause allergic rhinitis, because I was just embracing meat as one of the only things other than fruits and veggies, that I can eat. But I must say that it is consistent with my own experience in cutting back on animal proteins (eliminating dairy and eggs has done wonders for me) and with the studies covered in Forks Over Knives, which I watched about the time I was finishing this book. He goes through the entire immune system and how it functions, which is great info -- I was really overlooking my mucosal membranes, which are one of the first barriers to the prevention and/or elimination of toxins/allergens. He explains what is good and bad for allergic rhinitis and asthma (and should apply equally to my atopic dermatitis), and addresses natural treatments (like herbs) used today and for hundreds of years all over the world. The main thing I took away from this book was the need to replenish my probiotics -- I didn't appreciate how important they are to immune system health until I read this book. And before you get all "Oooh, 'natural' treatments!" on me, why not? Why would you rather take a pill (that has often been synthesized from a plant or plants and chemically altered so that a drug company can patent it) than eat something all natural, or change your diet to a more healthy diet? Besides, you know what Western medicine has for you? Two things: steroids (no one thinks these are good for you long term) and antihistamines (which are a short term attack on some of the symptoms and do not treat the problem). I was on 5 different antihistamines at one point with no relief. And steroids just made me eat everything in sight, so that when they wore off and I rebounded a week later, I was just fatter and more miserable. In fact, I was so desperate that I tried acupuncture, Chinese medicine (I was making a stinky tea that included cicada bug shells), and just about anything and everything to get relief. So herbs that have been used for centuries for healing doesn't seem weird to me at all. (I'm having a cup of Yogi Immune Support tea right now and it is delicious AND good for my immune system.)
Natural Solutions for Food Allergies and Food Intolerances: Scientifically Proven Remedies for Food Sensitivities -- also by Casey Adams. Funny, I'm reading this now and am liking it better than his other book! But then I didn't realize that it was even the same author until just now. This book obviously focuses more on food allergies, which seems to be the root of not only my atopic dermatitis, but also my allergic rhinitis, which has almost cleared up since changing my diet. He goes through how our immune system works, as in his other book, but I'm only about half way through this book. So far it is an informative and interesting read and I recommend it, even though I'm not done with it. Essential info for anyone with atopy or food allergies.
Good Calories, Bad Calories -- by Gary Taubes. Now THIS is a tome, if ever there was one, but well worth the read. In fact, I think every person living in North America ought to be required to read this. He goes into great detail to explain how the myth of fat = cholesterol = arteriosclerosis developed and has been aggressively defended by the medical community. He explains that health and weight are not just a matter of eating less and exercising more -- that what you eat matters. He argues that refined carbohydrates like white flour and easily digested starches and sugars are the problem, not fat. Hmm, sounds consistent with all the other data re a plant-based diet. Definitely convincing and fascinating evidence that sugars and refined carbs (white bread, bagels, crackers, white rice, etc.), not fat, not salt, are responsible for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and all the related diseases of civilization. A bit hard to reconcile with Forks Over Knives at first glance, but see my later post on this topic. The one thing that everyone agrees on universally, is that whole, organic vegetables and fruits are really good for you and that processed foods are bad for you. I still think that dairy is bad for people when consumed in the amounts in the modern American diet and more and more sources are in agreement. And that may be a function of the processing -- we're not drinking raw whole milk, we're eating massive amounts of processed milk and cheese food products. And I will not be eating anything but organic meat in future for so many reasons I cannot recount them all here, but watch the movie Fresh and Forks Over Knives. And I will only be eating organic meats in small amounts. But thank God I can still eat some (organic) bacon! If you can't deal with the 500-page book, try Gary Taube's video lecture or his shorter book, Why We Get Fat.
Digestive Wellness -- by Liz Lipsky. This is an excellent, comprehensive, easy-to-read book that covers leaky gut and most of the many, many manifestations of inflammation and illness that arise from leaky gut, including eczema, allergies, asthma, psoriasis, acide reflux, GERD, anxiety, schizophrenia, fibromyalgia, IBD, Crohn's, Celiac disease, etc. She covers how leaky gut works and causes illness and then tells you how to heal the gut. THIS IS A MUST FOR ANYONE WITH ANY CHRONIC ILLNESS, including mental, as well as physical, issues! I cannot emphasize enough how important these concepts are for anyone and everyone. Our wellness or disease begins in the gut and this book not only explains how and why, but also tells you how to fix it, which means fixing the cause of your illness, instead of just controlling the symptoms with a lifetime of expensive drugs. Read this. You will not be sorry.
Clean Gut -- by cardiologist Alejandro Junger. He goes beyond his first book (Clean, which I used for a 3-week cleanse in early 2013) and recognizes that many of us need to heal our leaky guts. He has a detailed protocol for doing so with a clean diet and many many supplements. I'd rather not depend on supplements long term, so I used his protocol for 2-3 months and since my gut is healing, I am hoping to stop most of the supplements and am not re-ordering them as I run out. I will keep up the probiotics and the glutamine for a while and as I have issues, but I hope to have healed my gut enough to get my nutrients from my foods. But this is a good reference for healing leaky gut and I would recommend it to those looking for a guide.
Grain Brain -- by neurologist David Perlmutter. I cannot praise the writing or the organization -- it's a shotgun in every chapter without any logical path. But for anyone who still thinks that eating grains, even "whole grains," or sugar, or other refined carbs, is good for you, this should convince you otherwise. He explains how these foods damage our bodies with an emphasis on our brains. I wanted to read this to better understand how I can change my diet and my life to avoid the Alzheimer's disease that afflicted both my mother and my grandmother. I clearly have a genetic predisposition, so I read everything I can about brain health. This is just reinforcement for my decision that I will never eat wheat again, and will probably avoid all grains for the rest of my life, except possibly some rice or quinoa on occasion. Another book I highly recommend if you're willing to wade through it for the good information.
The H Factor -- by James Braly and Patrick Holford -- authors of Hidden Food Allergies. This is all about homocystein, which is a marker for many chronic illnesses (esp heart disease), including my biggest concern, Alzheimer's disease. Homocystein is an indicator of how well your body is performing methylation, which is critical to health, especially brain health. I probably cannot summarize this accurately, but found it very interesting. Interesting and persuasive enough to have my H level checked and to supplement with the recommended supplements, including B vitamins. I plan on checking my levels again in two months, as they recommend, to see if there has been any improvement. Nov. 2013.
Digestive Wellness -- by Liz Lipsky. This is an excellent, comprehensive, easy-to-read book that covers leaky gut and most of the many, many manifestations of inflammation and illness that arise from leaky gut, including eczema, allergies, asthma, psoriasis, acide reflux, GERD, anxiety, schizophrenia, fibromyalgia, IBD, Crohn's, Celiac disease, etc. She covers how leaky gut works and causes illness and then tells you how to heal the gut. THIS IS A MUST FOR ANYONE WITH ANY CHRONIC ILLNESS, including mental, as well as physical, issues! I cannot emphasize enough how important these concepts are for anyone and everyone. Our wellness or disease begins in the gut and this book not only explains how and why, but also tells you how to fix it, which means fixing the cause of your illness, instead of just controlling the symptoms with a lifetime of expensive drugs. Read this. You will not be sorry.
Clean Gut -- by cardiologist Alejandro Junger. He goes beyond his first book (Clean, which I used for a 3-week cleanse in early 2013) and recognizes that many of us need to heal our leaky guts. He has a detailed protocol for doing so with a clean diet and many many supplements. I'd rather not depend on supplements long term, so I used his protocol for 2-3 months and since my gut is healing, I am hoping to stop most of the supplements and am not re-ordering them as I run out. I will keep up the probiotics and the glutamine for a while and as I have issues, but I hope to have healed my gut enough to get my nutrients from my foods. But this is a good reference for healing leaky gut and I would recommend it to those looking for a guide.
Grain Brain -- by neurologist David Perlmutter. I cannot praise the writing or the organization -- it's a shotgun in every chapter without any logical path. But for anyone who still thinks that eating grains, even "whole grains," or sugar, or other refined carbs, is good for you, this should convince you otherwise. He explains how these foods damage our bodies with an emphasis on our brains. I wanted to read this to better understand how I can change my diet and my life to avoid the Alzheimer's disease that afflicted both my mother and my grandmother. I clearly have a genetic predisposition, so I read everything I can about brain health. This is just reinforcement for my decision that I will never eat wheat again, and will probably avoid all grains for the rest of my life, except possibly some rice or quinoa on occasion. Another book I highly recommend if you're willing to wade through it for the good information.
The H Factor -- by James Braly and Patrick Holford -- authors of Hidden Food Allergies. This is all about homocystein, which is a marker for many chronic illnesses (esp heart disease), including my biggest concern, Alzheimer's disease. Homocystein is an indicator of how well your body is performing methylation, which is critical to health, especially brain health. I probably cannot summarize this accurately, but found it very interesting. Interesting and persuasive enough to have my H level checked and to supplement with the recommended supplements, including B vitamins. I plan on checking my levels again in two months, as they recommend, to see if there has been any improvement. Nov. 2013.
Forks Over Knives -- the book basically covers the info from the movie (see below) and includes some recipes. I did a whole post on how to reconcile this book with Good Calories Bad Calories. Basically, they do not have any empirical data to support the claim that meat or naturally-occurring fat is bad -- their arguments were based on studies involving dairy protein, not meat. All the evidence in Good Calories, Bad Calories and many other sources indicates that organic meat and good fats (fats in organic meat, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, for example) are good for your body and your brain. I think most Americans eat way too much meat, especially factory-farmed meat, and that's bad, but I absolutely disagree with the unsupported conclusion of this movie that all meat and oils are bad for you. And they also eat wheat and other grains, which have no nutritional value and are actually bad for us. I appreciate the plant-based diet advice -- we need to eat more vegetables, but you should read some of the other materials on this page for better information.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Plant Based Nutrition -- goes through the benefits of a plant-based diet and the nutrition provided by plants (versus what most Americans eat) and how to eat a plant-based diet. Includes some recipes and meal plans. So far I'm just flipping through it.
Cookbooks: too many to mention. Most Vegan books didn't help me much, since I'm not that into tofu fake meat -- I'd rather eat nicely-prepared vegetables, beans, fruit, etc. Plus I hardly ever use the recipes anyway -- I just look up a recipe on the internet. And I avoid wheat, which Vegans use heavily. I like Jamie Oliver for fun cooking videos and books. Get what works for you.
March/April 2013 update:
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living, by Volek and Phinney (doctors of medicine and nutrition) -- more information on decreasing your carbohydrate intake and health benefits. Goes through all the mechanics/physics/chemistry of what happens when you do and do not avoid carbs, and, obviously, explains why carbs are bad for you. I am wholly on board with the conclusion that carbohydrates (primarily sugar and other refined carbs, usually found in breads, cereals, crackers, etc) are bad for you, and carbs are making all of us fat and sick. I just wanted to get a bit more information and I found this helpful. Once you understand how the body processes carbs (Good Calories, Bad Calories was excellent for this), you kind of know all you need to know -- don't eat them. I read it, it had some good information, but it wasn't new to me and wasn't all that memorable, probably because I was already on board the low-carb train.
Eat to Live and Super Immunity, by Joel Furhman, M.D. -- I read his books because he advocates a diet that is close to what I believe is healthy -- basically no processed foods, no sugar, and mostly whole plant foods. He does not vilify all oils/fats like the Forks Over Knives crowd, and I appreciate that. He does, however, make the point that it is better to get your fat from unprocessed whole foods like nuts and avacados. I like either one of these books for someone who just doesn't know what "healthy" really means -- he covers it all in a way that most people can understand and have the patience to read. He includes recipes and menus for those who need a little kick start on eating healthy non-processed foods. I made his ketchup recipe, because I had never ever even heard of anyone making ketchup -- I thought there was no choice other than the processed junk full of sugar. But there IS!! And it is pretty darn good -- just had some home-made baked-potato fries with my ketchup tonight. So I would recommend these books to anyone and everyone.
Pandora's Lunchbox -- Another eye opener. An excellent explanation of processed foods and the additives they contain. I had no idea what all those additives in processed foods were/are, or how/why they got in there. She doesn't go into what they do to you when you eat them, but it's fascinating and frustrating to read all about what's really in our food. Sad.
Clean -- by Alejandro Junger, M.D. a cardiologist who had his own health crisis and wanted to treat the cause, not just the symptoms (amazing how doctors will actually look for a cause instead of treating symptoms with drugs when it comes to their own health). He wound up using and advocating a whole foods/non-processed diet high in vegetables and fruits, with a periodic cleanse to allow the body to rid itself of the toxins that build up from our daily exposure. I like this book (and am currently attempting his 3-week cleanse), because his "cleanse" is nothing more than an elimination diet -- he recommends that you cut out all of the most common allergens plus alcohol for 1-3 weeks and then re-introduce them one at a time to see if you react. While billed as a cleanse, it is really a method for healing from, and diagnosing, IgG-mediated allergies. It's great, because it will halt inflammation that the majority of Americans are experiencing from the standard American diet of processed food products full of GMOs, nutritionless-carbs, and allergens. And it will tell you if you have an allergy or sensitivity to these foods. Great for those who don't want to spend hundreds on an IgG ELISA blood test.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle -- by Barbara Kingsolver. Great book about eating locally. If this book isn't the Bible for locavores, it should be. She explains how bizarre, costly, and unsustainable it is to eat bananas in January all over the U.S. Yes, we can, because oil has been cheap. But we shouldn't. Not only because it is costly, harms the planet, and is not sustainable, but because the produce has been deprived of lots of nutrients and flavor in order to make the journey from South America or France, or wherever, to your Safeway. Another fascinating and informative book.
March/April 2013 update:
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living, by Volek and Phinney (doctors of medicine and nutrition) -- more information on decreasing your carbohydrate intake and health benefits. Goes through all the mechanics/physics/chemistry of what happens when you do and do not avoid carbs, and, obviously, explains why carbs are bad for you. I am wholly on board with the conclusion that carbohydrates (primarily sugar and other refined carbs, usually found in breads, cereals, crackers, etc) are bad for you, and carbs are making all of us fat and sick. I just wanted to get a bit more information and I found this helpful. Once you understand how the body processes carbs (Good Calories, Bad Calories was excellent for this), you kind of know all you need to know -- don't eat them. I read it, it had some good information, but it wasn't new to me and wasn't all that memorable, probably because I was already on board the low-carb train.
Eat to Live and Super Immunity, by Joel Furhman, M.D. -- I read his books because he advocates a diet that is close to what I believe is healthy -- basically no processed foods, no sugar, and mostly whole plant foods. He does not vilify all oils/fats like the Forks Over Knives crowd, and I appreciate that. He does, however, make the point that it is better to get your fat from unprocessed whole foods like nuts and avacados. I like either one of these books for someone who just doesn't know what "healthy" really means -- he covers it all in a way that most people can understand and have the patience to read. He includes recipes and menus for those who need a little kick start on eating healthy non-processed foods. I made his ketchup recipe, because I had never ever even heard of anyone making ketchup -- I thought there was no choice other than the processed junk full of sugar. But there IS!! And it is pretty darn good -- just had some home-made baked-potato fries with my ketchup tonight. So I would recommend these books to anyone and everyone.
Pandora's Lunchbox -- Another eye opener. An excellent explanation of processed foods and the additives they contain. I had no idea what all those additives in processed foods were/are, or how/why they got in there. She doesn't go into what they do to you when you eat them, but it's fascinating and frustrating to read all about what's really in our food. Sad.
Clean -- by Alejandro Junger, M.D. a cardiologist who had his own health crisis and wanted to treat the cause, not just the symptoms (amazing how doctors will actually look for a cause instead of treating symptoms with drugs when it comes to their own health). He wound up using and advocating a whole foods/non-processed diet high in vegetables and fruits, with a periodic cleanse to allow the body to rid itself of the toxins that build up from our daily exposure. I like this book (and am currently attempting his 3-week cleanse), because his "cleanse" is nothing more than an elimination diet -- he recommends that you cut out all of the most common allergens plus alcohol for 1-3 weeks and then re-introduce them one at a time to see if you react. While billed as a cleanse, it is really a method for healing from, and diagnosing, IgG-mediated allergies. It's great, because it will halt inflammation that the majority of Americans are experiencing from the standard American diet of processed food products full of GMOs, nutritionless-carbs, and allergens. And it will tell you if you have an allergy or sensitivity to these foods. Great for those who don't want to spend hundreds on an IgG ELISA blood test.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle -- by Barbara Kingsolver. Great book about eating locally. If this book isn't the Bible for locavores, it should be. She explains how bizarre, costly, and unsustainable it is to eat bananas in January all over the U.S. Yes, we can, because oil has been cheap. But we shouldn't. Not only because it is costly, harms the planet, and is not sustainable, but because the produce has been deprived of lots of nutrients and flavor in order to make the journey from South America or France, or wherever, to your Safeway. Another fascinating and informative book.
Video -- it's quicker and doesn't hurt your brain as much:
Forks Over Knives -- documentary (with stupid name that tells you nothing about the content) focusing primarily on the work of two physicians, who each came to the conclusion (separately) that animal proteins (that means dairy, eggs, and meat, not just meat, and not just red meat) cause most preventable disease, including cancer, obesity, type II diabetes, and heart disease. Fascinating look at their work and conclusions and the positive, disease-reversing results obtained by people who switch to a plant-based diet. I'm seeing the conclusion that a plant-based diet prevents disease and is basically the only really healthy way to go in more and more sources. And, of course, a plant based diet is not only better for our health and nicer to animals, but it could dramatically impact global warming, since animal production creates more green house gases than even transportation. Animal production is second only to energy production in causing global warming. So I don't have a problem with telling people not to eat factory-farmed meat, or even all meat. But I do not think their conclusion that all meat is bad for us, or that all oil is bad for us, is supported. The cited evidence deals with dairy, not meat and not good natural oils. So good movie, with some not-so-good conclusions.
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead -- I almost forgot this one! And it was a favorite. This 40-something Australian man (Joe Cross?) suddenly developed chronic hives. He was also overweight. He decided to go on a "juice fast" for 60 days while traveling across the U.S. and talking to people about health and diet. He doesn't explain how he came to this decision, but he must have done some research and concluded that this was the way to get well. So he did. He ate nothing but juiced fruits and veggies for 60 days. He lost a bunch of weight (don't recall how much) and met and motivated other people who tried it for 10 days or longer, and also improved their health. (I don't know why he didn't make smoothies instead of juicing, because then you get all the fiber and the nutrients in the fiber, but I guess this was more of a cleanse/fast-type of short-term diet followed by better eating habits and physical activity in the long term.) Joe met a trucker in AZ who was obese and also suffering from chronic hives (urticaria). This trucker called Joe and Joe helped him get started and the trucker guy lost tons of weight and got well and motivated half his town to juice, etc. I think the lesson here is, again, that fruits and veggies are good for you. The standard American diet, not so much.
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead -- I almost forgot this one! And it was a favorite. This 40-something Australian man (Joe Cross?) suddenly developed chronic hives. He was also overweight. He decided to go on a "juice fast" for 60 days while traveling across the U.S. and talking to people about health and diet. He doesn't explain how he came to this decision, but he must have done some research and concluded that this was the way to get well. So he did. He ate nothing but juiced fruits and veggies for 60 days. He lost a bunch of weight (don't recall how much) and met and motivated other people who tried it for 10 days or longer, and also improved their health. (I don't know why he didn't make smoothies instead of juicing, because then you get all the fiber and the nutrients in the fiber, but I guess this was more of a cleanse/fast-type of short-term diet followed by better eating habits and physical activity in the long term.) Joe met a trucker in AZ who was obese and also suffering from chronic hives (urticaria). This trucker called Joe and Joe helped him get started and the trucker guy lost tons of weight and got well and motivated half his town to juice, etc. I think the lesson here is, again, that fruits and veggies are good for you. The standard American diet, not so much.
Food Inc. -- documentary about agribusiness and where we get our food, especially fast food. It is eye opening and every person in the U.S. needs to understand, at least a little bit, that our food system is run by businesses (BIG businesses, not family farmers), and it's all about $$$$, NOT what is good for our health.
King Corn -- similar to Food Inc., but I thought less informative, but then the focus is more narrow. They follow two young men who decide to look at the ubiquity of corn and the effect of government subsidies on corn, by planting an acre of corn. This is also good information and we all ought to be aware of the impact of governmental interference in the food supply chain, based, primarily, on the interests of agribusiness, which have very strong lobbies and LOTS of representation in D.C. in the FDA, the USDA and other departments.
Fresh -- my NEW FAVORITE!!! This is such an excellent look at our food industry and more importantly the organic farming movement. It talks about what is wrong with our system but it also spends a lot of time with modern day organic farmers who talk about their operations and you get to see and compare the differences and understand why organic is so much better for farmers, the environment, animals, plants, and you. For those who don't like to be told what NOT to eat, this is an excellent positive affirmation of what you SHOULD eat. Awesome movie. A must see for everyone.
Food Matters -- my new new (I watched this on April 29, 2012) favorite? An easy-to-watch documentary that confirms everything that I've been reading/seeing repeatedly: the modern American diet is making us sick, and we can get healthy if we choose to eat an organic plant-based diet, mostly vegetables, and including plenty of raw, unprocessed, uncooked, organic produce. They also address the failure of the modern medical establishment to address nutrition as a cause of, and cure for, disease. I had reached this conclusion on my own, after modern medicine was able to do exactly nothing for my allergies and their miserable symptoms. Another nail in the coffin of Western medicine and the modern American diet. Some people aren't ready to hear this information, which isn't new.
March/April 2013 update:
Genetic Roulette -- eye opening documentary about genetically engineered foods/GMOs. This is a must see for everyone, and particularly for anyone with atopy. Many scientists are suggesting that leaky gut may be caused by the bt toxin in GMO corn, soy, etc. And since leaky gut plays a large part of my food allergies, I found this concept fascinating. The movie also goes into the devastating effects of big ag's GMO crops and the toxic pesticides that are now in those crops, or used on those crops (and on our soil, our water, and everything else they contact), in the US and worldwide. EVERYONE should watch this and understand what these chemical companies are doing to us and to our planet. It was just a real wake up call and I will never eat another GMO as long as I live if I can avoid it. FYI, any corn, any soy, canola oil, and/or rapeseed oil, is loaded with GMOs and all the toxic effects that go with them, so unless you want to kill yourselves and our planet, avoid any non-organic foods with those ingredients. Buy organic and certified GMO-free food. READ LABELS.
Hungry for Change -- Another look at what we are eating and what we should be eating. At a minimum, they get across the point that we should not be eating sugar and processed food. They are advocating a primarily, if not completely, plant-based diet. And I'm okay with that -- there is really no conflict between low-carb and plant-based diets. Many Vegans eat a very unhealthy diet by eating loads of breads, cereals, crackers, cookies, sweets, etc. Vegans need to understand that carbs are bad and that low-carb doesn't have to mean an all meat diet, and non-Vegans need to understand that while meat may not be causing heart disease and other illnesses, whole plant foods are much healthier for our bodies -- you just get more nutrition from a well-made salad than from a steak. Extremists on both sides of this debate need to be open to these possibilities. I eat mostly Vegan, but will eat meat if I KNOW that it is fed a natural (usually grass) diet with no hormones or antibiotics. I prefer certified organic, happy, and local, but will settle for non-GMO in a pinch.
Fresh -- my NEW FAVORITE!!! This is such an excellent look at our food industry and more importantly the organic farming movement. It talks about what is wrong with our system but it also spends a lot of time with modern day organic farmers who talk about their operations and you get to see and compare the differences and understand why organic is so much better for farmers, the environment, animals, plants, and you. For those who don't like to be told what NOT to eat, this is an excellent positive affirmation of what you SHOULD eat. Awesome movie. A must see for everyone.
Food Matters -- my new new (I watched this on April 29, 2012) favorite? An easy-to-watch documentary that confirms everything that I've been reading/seeing repeatedly: the modern American diet is making us sick, and we can get healthy if we choose to eat an organic plant-based diet, mostly vegetables, and including plenty of raw, unprocessed, uncooked, organic produce. They also address the failure of the modern medical establishment to address nutrition as a cause of, and cure for, disease. I had reached this conclusion on my own, after modern medicine was able to do exactly nothing for my allergies and their miserable symptoms. Another nail in the coffin of Western medicine and the modern American diet. Some people aren't ready to hear this information, which isn't new.
March/April 2013 update:
Genetic Roulette -- eye opening documentary about genetically engineered foods/GMOs. This is a must see for everyone, and particularly for anyone with atopy. Many scientists are suggesting that leaky gut may be caused by the bt toxin in GMO corn, soy, etc. And since leaky gut plays a large part of my food allergies, I found this concept fascinating. The movie also goes into the devastating effects of big ag's GMO crops and the toxic pesticides that are now in those crops, or used on those crops (and on our soil, our water, and everything else they contact), in the US and worldwide. EVERYONE should watch this and understand what these chemical companies are doing to us and to our planet. It was just a real wake up call and I will never eat another GMO as long as I live if I can avoid it. FYI, any corn, any soy, canola oil, and/or rapeseed oil, is loaded with GMOs and all the toxic effects that go with them, so unless you want to kill yourselves and our planet, avoid any non-organic foods with those ingredients. Buy organic and certified GMO-free food. READ LABELS.
Hungry for Change -- Another look at what we are eating and what we should be eating. At a minimum, they get across the point that we should not be eating sugar and processed food. They are advocating a primarily, if not completely, plant-based diet. And I'm okay with that -- there is really no conflict between low-carb and plant-based diets. Many Vegans eat a very unhealthy diet by eating loads of breads, cereals, crackers, cookies, sweets, etc. Vegans need to understand that carbs are bad and that low-carb doesn't have to mean an all meat diet, and non-Vegans need to understand that while meat may not be causing heart disease and other illnesses, whole plant foods are much healthier for our bodies -- you just get more nutrition from a well-made salad than from a steak. Extremists on both sides of this debate need to be open to these possibilities. I eat mostly Vegan, but will eat meat if I KNOW that it is fed a natural (usually grass) diet with no hormones or antibiotics. I prefer certified organic, happy, and local, but will settle for non-GMO in a pinch.
The internet -- it's as ubiquitous as corn and can be just a silly:
I spent many sleepless nights on the internet in search of help. It took me four years to find the information that helped me. Most of the information out there is in Reader's Digest form and dumbed-down to the lowest common denominator -- not much use. Here's what I would recommend, once you get tired of Googling "itchy rash" and have determined that you're atopic. Or if you just want to be healthy. But in the end books are best -- no one is giving away information that they have spent their life developing for free. They need to make a living. Buy the book.
TheDr.com. I had never really heard of this guy, Dr. Tom O'Bryan, until I got an email about his "Gluten Summit" in November 2013. He interviewed of the world's leading experts in both Celiac and non-Celiac gluten sensitivity. This included an enormous amount of terrific information that I never expected to get from this "summit." These experts were amazing resources and covered a surprising range of physical and mental health issues, such as autism and anxiety, and MS and other issues I never expected to hear about related to gluten/dairy sensitivity and intestinal permeability. This summit was so excellent that I recommend looking at his website for information about gut health and chronic illness. I was amazed at how far-reaching the effects of gluten sensitivity really are. I think you will be too.
Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is usually reliable and has pretty good summaries of atopy, atopic dermatitis, and food allergies. They also cite their sources. This is a good place to start if you are new and need to understand the basics of atopy and is a good source of information to explain things for your friends and family who may not understand why you won't eat pizza any more.
TheDr.com. I had never really heard of this guy, Dr. Tom O'Bryan, until I got an email about his "Gluten Summit" in November 2013. He interviewed of the world's leading experts in both Celiac and non-Celiac gluten sensitivity. This included an enormous amount of terrific information that I never expected to get from this "summit." These experts were amazing resources and covered a surprising range of physical and mental health issues, such as autism and anxiety, and MS and other issues I never expected to hear about related to gluten/dairy sensitivity and intestinal permeability. This summit was so excellent that I recommend looking at his website for information about gut health and chronic illness. I was amazed at how far-reaching the effects of gluten sensitivity really are. I think you will be too.
Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is usually reliable and has pretty good summaries of atopy, atopic dermatitis, and food allergies. They also cite their sources. This is a good place to start if you are new and need to understand the basics of atopy and is a good source of information to explain things for your friends and family who may not understand why you won't eat pizza any more.
DermnetNZ.org. I should send these Kiwis some flowers. This is where I first got good scientific information about the mechanism of atopic dermatitis, which explained to me for the first time why my skin was so dry and scaly, and how the lack of a normal skin barrier made my issue not simply inhaled, or even ingested, allergens, but also contact allergens. This information, which most doctors apparently don't think YOU need, was critical for me in changing my habits and finding a moisturizer that replenishes my missing lipids and creates a faux skin barrier (CeraVe is magical and I had tried every other "anti-itch" and hydrocortisone cream known to man and Walgreen's with no relief). So thank you NZ docs for publishing medical data on the web and making it readily/freely available to the public. Try getting any published US study off the internet without being an MD and a paying member of the website/organization.
Youtube.com. There are many fantastic lectures freely available on youtube. The lecture by Gary Taubes explaining the material in Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat (the short version of GCBC) is here. Another excellent lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig along the same lines is here. If you do nothing else, watch these two videos and cut sugar from your diet. Note that I have transitioned from strictly atopic issues to general health issues. As I have healed my immune system and learned more and more about health and nutrition, I have had to focus less on my atopy and have been able to focus more and more on improving my general health.
Youtube.com. There are many fantastic lectures freely available on youtube. The lecture by Gary Taubes explaining the material in Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat (the short version of GCBC) is here. Another excellent lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig along the same lines is here. If you do nothing else, watch these two videos and cut sugar from your diet. Note that I have transitioned from strictly atopic issues to general health issues. As I have healed my immune system and learned more and more about health and nutrition, I have had to focus less on my atopy and have been able to focus more and more on improving my general health.
TED.com. They have great, short talks by knowledgeable people. It's not as in-depth as a book or a published medical article, but they're trying to grab your attention in only 10 or 20 minutes. Just search for talks on health or diet -- there's some interesting stuff on there.
Amazon.com. Say what? Yes, Amazon. Because that's where you can find all the books and movies above. And you really will need to get some books if you want valuable details regarding diagnosis and treatment -- they aren't dispensing it for free on the internet. Plus Amazon's got reviews. Hard to beat.
The end of the road? I think just phase II (or III?) of my life.
Where all this had led me to date: As hard as it is to accept and to change, I concluded a year ago that I must eliminate dairy and eggs from my diet. I initially thought I could eat wheat sparingly, but now I tend to think I must avoid wheat and all other grains permanently. And my health has improved dramatically when I have followed the advice of these experts regarding intestinal permeability/leaky gut. I've been anti-sugar for a year or two, and I've recently concluded that everyone, not just atopic me, should eat almost no sugar, dairy, egg, or wheat. That means all the crap we've been calling food since about the 50s is off the menu. I don't even go to Safeway any more, since most of the stuff they sell there isn't really food -- it's processed food product created and sold by agribusiness at a huge profit. Yes, it's convenient, even delicious, but it was making me sick, and apparently it's making most other Americans sick as well. I think you cannot go wrong with organic vegetables, fruits, and limited amounts of organic meat. And fat and salt are not your enemies. In fact, your body, especially your brain, needs both salt and fat. Just eat the good kinds, not processed oils derived from corn, safflower, canola, etc.
Anyway, even if you don't read anything else, read your food labels -- I mean it, every single one of them -- you'll be surprised at what's in there. And read the ingredients, not the "nutrition" information. If you are eating foods that are good for you, you don't need to worry about calories or the % RDA of some vitamin. Even sugar can be identified by reading the ingredients. Manufacturers play games with the mandatory nutrition information and you are better off relying on the ingredients (just be careful about vague ingredients like "natural flavoring," as that could mean anything). Better yet, skip the reading and buy foods that don't have labels, like organic broccoli! No label required.
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