The most commonly asked question

So, people are always curious about how we eat when there are so many food allergies between the three children. First let me say, the big kids allergies are so severe that merely touching dairy residue left on some surface is enough to kill them. Both big kids have had far too many epipen emergencies, although Grace is the top scorer on epipen useage. They have a few other severe allergies and multiple ordinary allergies as well as some intolerances. Between the three kids the allergies are: dairy (all children), eggs (all children), gluten (all children + mom), nuts (all children), beans (one child), coconut (one child), millet, amaranth, buckwheat (one child), soy (one child), zucchini (one child), squash (two children), sugar (all children + mom) and probably others that I'll remember after I hit "publish now". :) So what does a family with such a conglomeration of allergies eat?

Real food.

Isn't that weird???!! Simple though!

Somewhere along the line in the last 60 years, people have gotten away from what grows in the ground to what comes in a package. I know it was a matter of necessity at times but now a whole generation of people have immune systems which are totally ruined because we have forgotten how to nourish our bodies. Every single thing that goes in your mouth affects your body in some way. There are no inert foods, only foods that heal and foods that hurt. We have made the choice to use food to heal. It's not always easy but their allergies have taught us how to do it!

Soooooo... what does real food look like in our house you wonder? A sample menu for summertime is: fruit smoothies with hemp protein & avocadoes for breakfast, some form of meat and veggies for lunch, fruit and protein of some sort for snack and non-glutenous grains and veggies for dinner. All these foods are REAL foods. The veggies are as local as we can get and the meat is grass fed, also local. Now sometimes we do have vegetable chips for a snack when we're out. After all, there is something to be said for having something I can get at the store when we are out longer than expected and I forgot to bring their food; but convenience now takes a back seat to our children's health needs and chips are a rare treat. And my kids LOVE the way they eat. We teach them about the healing properties of the foods on their plate and they have learned, even at the tender age of 4, to enjoy real foods for the sole purpose of nourishing the body. And lest I sound high and mighty, it was not easy and I know it is a daunting task for anyone, especially someone with super picky eaters!!

A long time ago, when my children still had autism, they ate chicken nuggets, oreo uh-ohs and spiderman poptarts every day. Yep, that's what they lived off of. Horrifying isn't it? lol But their food allergies have taught me that we had to look deeper than filling a belly and instead nourish the body. And only real food does that. As we nourished the body, the brain started healing. When they were eating chicken nuggets, oreos and poptarts, they got sicker and sicker; they aquired more and more food allergies (Tony started out with only 2 allergies that have expanded over the years) and were harder and harder to connect with. Keeping a food journal showed me exactly what foods were going in the mouth and exactly what crazy behavior was happening afterwards. THAT was an eye opener! I never imagined food was so powerful. But it is.

And yes, all the food the kids eat is organic. We give weekly to Whole Paycheck... urm, I mean Whole Foods. It's not fun to pay big bucks to feed our family but the payoff is wonderful. My kids are fabulous. Just ask their grandparents. :D