The Wellness Bitch

You knew it was only time before my deep breathing and polite acceptance of cultural differences faded away into annoyance and frustration. Here is my first public gripe about the ease with which Israeli parents feed their kids crap. Originally posted on The Jerusalem Post.

I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that Israelis missed out on the pop culture icon that is The Grinch, the anti-Christmas, anti-fun Dr. Seuss character who ruins the holiday season for the people of Whoville. Whether or not there is an Israeli equivalent of the mean, green furry monster is unbeknownst to me, but I often feel as if I could fit the bill.
 
It’s not Christmas that I despise, though. Or any holiday celebrated here in Israel. My life would be a little less grinchy if it was a holiday I was in opposition to.
 
No. The offender in question is not a holiday, but a treasured Israeli institution.
The Makolet.
 
Here on the kibbutz in which I live, at the top of the hill, in a little trailer adjacent to the preschool is the quintessential Israeli convenience store. Open from early morning to late evening, with a short mid-afternoon break, the Makolet is a mini-mart which carries a variety of staples (milk, bread, cheese, sugar, instant coffee), as well as fresh fruit and vegetables, beverages, and newspapers. For those of you who have spent any time in New York City, the Makolet is basically the Jewish bodega.
 
If I was 21, the Makolet would be my second home, I’m sure. However, as a parent who is trying to raise healthy and health-conscious children, I find the Makolet to not only be an inconvenience, but an outright nuisance. My kids don’t see the Makolet as the place to pick up an avocado when we’re fresh out, or a tub of chummus. No, they see the Makolet as an all-day, every-day Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!
 
Candy, “choco” (chocolate milk IN A BAG), gum, cake, cookies, lollipops: Half the products in the store are marketed to children; or worse yet, their parents who feed them this kind of junk every day after school.

 Are my fellow parents here are not really aware of the kind of junk they are putting in their kids’ mouths?  The sugar, and worse, the artificial sweeteners, additives, and preservatives? Chemicals that have been linked to behavioral disturbances, sleep issues, and ADHD. They must understand, at least, the connection between feeding their kids this junk and childhood obesity? Right? How do they justify the daily indulgences? Is this yet another difference between American parenting and Israeli? Or is it ignorance?
 
It took us only a few weeks of living here (and incessant begging from our children) before we created “Makolet Day;” one day during the week when each of my three kids is allowed to choose something to buy from the Makolet.  We encourage cheap little toys over candy, but ultimately the decision is theirs. This  system works well for my four-year-old and two-year-old, who aren’t running around the kibbutz with other children who have their own accounts at the Makolet and the apparent freedom to buy whatever they want whenever they want. But not so for my eight-year-old who, in between Makolet days, mooches off his friends, his de facto dealers.
 
I’m not as bad as you might think. I’m not one of these moms who deprives her children of sweet treats. I, too, have a sweet tooth and a sugar addiction that I need to feed.  But the sweet treats in my house have always typically been home-baked chocolate chip cookies or cakes; not preservative-laden packaged cookies pulled from a shelf.
 
I’m no Martha Stewart. I’m just a mom trying to raise healthy kids.
 
This was not an easy task in the States either. My eight-year-old son went to school with children who packed Coca-Cola and Cheetos for their mid-morning snack. But conscious eating is proving to be much more challenging here in Israel.
 
In the States, as long as I kept my kids away from the counter at CVS or Target, I hardly ever had to deal with the whining and begging that’s inevitable when a child meets the candy counter. Here in Israel, we pass by the open Makolet every day, where my kids see their friends sucking on popsicles or soda.
 
In the States, there was at least a rule that restricted teachers from using any food for which the first listed ingredients were sugar. Here in Israel, on a recent tiyul, one of the items listed to pack was candy.
 
In the States, my kids would eye their friends’ snacks on the playground and I would begrudgingly let them mooch an apple or a pretzel if their friend’s mom offered. Here in Israel, my kids are swapping their organic raisins for their friends’ gummy worms.
 
All those years of educating my kids on healthy eating are getting flushed down the proverbial drain faster than you can say Kinder Egg.
 
Inside I am seething, but I remain silent. After all, I want to fit in, and nobody wants to be friends with The Grinch. Furthermore, I know the Makolet isn’t going anywhere any time soon. So, just as I’ve had to make my peace with the unleashed dogs, the mud-tracked floors, and the smell of cow poop in the afternoon, I will have to figure out a way to live in harmony with the Makolet.
 
Until I start a wellness revolution in Israel. Which, may end up being sooner rather than later.

I’m excited to welcome back to the blog today my friend Sue Ingebretson, who like me, thinks people are crazy for feeding their pets better than they feed the humans in their families. Though, unlike me, Sue happens to be a dog lover. Just look at her photo!

By Sue Ingebretson

I have a friend whose email signature line says, “In my next life, I want to come back as my dog!”

That desire is not all that far from reality.

Sue Ingrebretson with her pup

Take a look at TV reports and magazine spreads. Who wouldn’t want to be treated like the pampered pooch of a movie star? I’d love to wear bling and be carried around in a designer purse. Funny thing, it’s not only celebrities who pamper their pooches. Some people, with little cash to spare, spend a relative fortune on designer puppy food, yet eat junk food themselves.

Worse yet, what do they feed their kids? I’ve known moms to freak out about the ingredients list for their dog’s food, yet ignore what’s in the foods they feed their own children. Egads! What’s really in a chicken nugget anyway? (You don’t want to know). And, would you/should you feed it to your dog?

There’s something terribly illogical going on, here. If McDonald’s had a Happy Meal for dogs, (let’s say a McDoggy Bag complete with a McMuffin-flavored chew toy), would you hurry to your local drive thru?

Instead of dogs, Dr. Mark Hyman uses million dollar horses as an example. He says that thoroughbred horses are very well cared for. Their owners spend fortunes on just the right foods, the right environment, and the right medical care for their investments, er, I mean horses. But what do we invest (nutritionally-speaking) in ourselves, and even more so, in our children?

I guess the first question we must ask is, are we worth the investment? Dr. Oz says we’re mortgaging the health of our future generations with the poor nutritional habits we develop today. Ouch.

Put your money where your mouth is!

It starts here. Label reading isn’t optional anymore. It’s a must. To begin, remove from your family’s diet any foods that list these ingredients (no exceptions): transfats (anything hydrogenated), high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, and MSG.

I’d also prefer that we remove refined/enriched grains, artificial dyes, flavorings, and the whole gamut of sugars (corn solids, maltodextrin, dextrose, sucrose, fructose, glucose, xylose, syrups, etc.) from our diets. Sugar literally tears down the health and vitality of the body cell by cell. The most common and concentrated source of sugar is from our beverages. If you’re serving your children sodas and juice, think again. Replace sodas with water and replace juice with the whole fruit. It’s as simple as that. Kids eat and drink what moms provide.

When you begin reading labels, you’ll eventually morph into a mom who chooses foods with no labels at all (in case you’re wondering, that means produce). The great thing is that the problems we’ve caused through our unhealthy eating habits are completely reversible. It just takes time and persistence.

Have patience. Be kind to yourself. And, remember … small steps provide BIG results.

Fuel your family with the foods they deserve and everyone wins – including Pup.

Sue Ingebretson is a writer and speaker dedicated to encourage healing in others. Find out more about her book, FibroWHYalgia, and her blog at www.RebuildingWellness.com.

Some people mistake my interest in food for an interest in food.

By that, I mean just because I am constantly thinking and writing about food, people who don’t know me well automatically assume that I like to cook, enjoy food preparation, and think it’s groovy to come up with surprising new ways to prepare root vegetables.

This is not true. In fact, until I was practically forced to cook for my family when I realized that most of Trader Joes’ frozen meals were cross-contaminated with peanuts, I preferred to reach into the freezer for dinner, not the vegetable crisper.

I am not a foodie.

I do not enjoy watching anything on The Food Network, save for Ace of Cakes (I’m amused by the ingenuity and wit of Duff’s crew) and the occasional Jamie Oliver (because he’s so darn cute and a Wellness Bitch in his own right.)

I arrange food on plates with as much creativity and intention as a lunch lady. And I really, really hate the aftermath of preparing lovely meals — dishpan hands.

However, I have to admit since I started buying organic produce from a local farm, and my husband is closely watching whether or not this budget line item is worth it, I’ve become a lot more playful in the kitchen.

The first week I received the basket I discovered the many uses of cabbage. Shredded cabbage salad. Sauteed cabbage with onions, tomato, and garlic. And this dish I used to love to get from my local Ethiopian restaurant in South Orange, NJ.  I suddenly transformed into a little Jewish Julia Child, which I guess would make me a mini Joan Nathan, since she is already the Jewish Julia Child.

This week, I’m exploring fennel and peppers for a very simple reason: I need to make room in my refrigerator. There are so many peppers and fennel bulbs that I can’t reach the hummus.

When I lived in New Jersey, very close to a Whole Foods Market, I bought plenty of organic fruits and vegetables. But, despite the advice and urging from many of my foodie friends, I stuck with the stuff I knew, loved, and could be sure my children would eat. In the vegetable category, this left me with broccoli, spinach, kale, and potatoes.  None of which has made an appearance in my weekly organic delivery basket. Are my kids enjoying the cabbage and fennel, too?

No. And this is the very reason I didn’t join a co-op or CSA in the States. However, as my access to organic food here is significantly limited, and gas is extremely expensive, this is the most practical and affordable option for right now.

I seek comfort, though, in the knowledge that my children eat Israeli salad for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and that I brought the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook with me instead of selling it at my yard sale.

I wonder if she has a trick for hiding fennel?

This week, there has been a lot of conversation among people I really respect and admire in the world of food politics and food safety about the Obama administration “giving the green light” to genetically modified alfalfa. To be honest, I’m still learning about GMOs and still forming my opinion, but for certain, reading Robyn O’Brien’s book The Unhealthy Truth made me think a lot more about the connection between GMOs in our food supply and my kids’ food allergies. Robyn instigated a healthy discussion on GMOs on Facebook this week and today she guest blogs on GMOs and why you should care more than you probably do.

Robyn’s post below is a great down-to-earth explanation for why any mom, but moreso moms of food allergic kids, should care enough to educate themselves on GMOs. As moms of food allergic children, we are at the forefront of conscious food choice. We have to be. It’s life or death for our families. As easy as it is for us to use our food allergies as excuses to eat food that might not otherwise be good for us (after all our kids have such restricted diets), we have to extend our careful choices to ensure our kids aren’t eating “poison.”

It’s my belief (as much as I struggle with it some days), that we moms of food allergic children are going to be the stewards of change in this nation when it comes to food safety. We have the most at stake. Like Robyn, I ask that all moms of food allergic children take on the task for reading more about GMOs and being a healthy voice in the dialogue about what our government should and can be doing to protect our children and children that have not yet been born.

By Robyn O’Brien
Founder, www.allergykidsfoundation.org

I’m not sure about you, but the last thing I want anyone telling me is what to eat. Heaven knows that we’ve been bombarded with enough. But I have to admit, despite all of the food-obsessing that we Americans are known for (you know: trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, etc.), there is something that most of us missed: and that’s these new little proteins that scientists began inserting into our food in the 1990s.

As you may already know, food is made up of proteins. Lots of them. And it’s those proteins that can wreak havoc on someone with food allergies. Because a person with food allergies has an immune system that sees these proteins as “foreign” and launches an inflammatory response to drive them out. That response can be a runny nose, watery eyes, or a cough or it can be something as life threatening as anaphylactic shock where a person stops breathing.

But let’s not focus on that right now. Let’s get back to those new little proteins that scientists started inserting into our food in 1994. Why would they do this? Is there really a need to inject foreign proteins into our food? And why now? Wasn’t it fine the way it was when we were kids?

Well, in order to enhance profitability for the food industry, scientists began using new technologies, including some sci-fi sounding things like “gene guns” to blast new ingredients into the genetic material of our food supply so that food production would be more profitable. And in most cases, they did it at the seed level. So corn, they blasted it. Soybeans? Yep, they blasted those, too. All because corn and soy are used to feed livestock. But as if that wasn’t enough, on top of that, they started blasting the cows themselves. Well, they didn’t exactly blast the cows, but rather started injecting them with some new proteins and hormones that helped the cows make more milk.

All sounds good, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want more food?

 The problem is that when they started doing this just over 15 years ago, no one knew what the long term effects of blasting our food with new technology and creating foreign proteins never-before-used-in-the-human-food-supply might be. So if those added growth hormones getting injected into our cows found their way into our milk and those added hormones just might cause early puberty, fertility issues or anything else, we simply didn’t have any long term studies to tell us that they weren’t dangerous.

And those proteins getting blasted into our soy and corn?  Are we allergic to the new foreign proteins created in the blasting process? Well, we simply didn’t’ know that either when they were introduced in the late 1990s because no allergenicity tests had been developed to assess the impact of these novel proteins and allergens. All we know is that they didn’t deliberately introduce any new proteins when they started blasting. But if any proteins were created in the blast (you know, kind of like genetic rubble), well, there hasn’t been any way to test for that.

In essence, just over fifteen years ago, we started running a live experiment….on us.

And it’s for those reasons that most developed countries (you know, like France, Spain, Australia, Japan and everyone that we compete with in the global marketplace) decided to take a wait and see approach to see what the long-term effects of these new proteins and “genetic rubble” might be. So beginning in 1994, these countries either refused to allow these proteins into their food supply, because they hadn’t yet been proven safe, or they insisted on labeling them so that consumers could make an informed choice when it came to exposing their families to this new technology and foreign proteins.

Except for here in the U.S. We took a different approach. We said, you know, this new technology is great for the agricultural business and hasn’t yet (note: yet) been proven to cause harm, so let’s allow these proteins into the food supply and wait and see what happens.

Well, if truth is any indicator, our kids don’t seem to be digesting these foreign proteins all too well. And while correlation is not causation, the stunning increases that we are seeing in the number of kids with food allergies (not to mention the big kids raising them) since the introduction of these foreign proteins into the food supply in 1994 should serve as a canary in the coalmine that maybe this new technology just might not be as safe as the scientists blasting these proteins into our food supply (and then patenting them for their novelty) had hoped it would be.

Feeling a bit duped? Don’t worry. You’re not alone. Most of us had no idea that these foreign proteins started creeping into our food supply back in the 1990s. How could we? They were never labeled. But now that you’re up to speed, tell a friend, tell your mom and let’s get down to the business of protecting our little ones the way kids around the world have been protected for the last fifteen years and get some labels on this “genetic rubble” and these “GMO”s while we still can.

FIVE TIPS about GMOs and why you should care:
  • Introduced in the 1990s, this new technology was developed to enhance profitability for the food industry.
  • The technology allows food scientists to inject chemicals and food proteins into the genetic material of our food.
  • Eaters in other countries were given a warning sign when these foods were introduced in 1994 and labels were put on their food that essentially said: “Not yet proven safe”.
  • In the US, this new technology and the proteins it creates were introduced in 1994 without labels under the premise: “Not yet proven dangerous” while being patented by the agricultural industry for their unique characteristics.
  • Unlabeled food proteins that contain chemicals and other foreign ingredients can trigger severe allergic reactions that include difficulty breathing, asthma, eczema, inflammmatory gut conditions and in some cases life-threatening anaphylactic shock.
Bottom line: Americans have the right to know what’s going into their food just like eaters in other countries.

Ready to do something about it? Learn more with the Non GMO Project http://www.nongmoproject.org about where these hidden proteins can be found in your kitchen and how you can avoid them.

When I read this article, I knew I had to repost it on The WB. Thanks Dr. Lesniak for your permission to reprint.

By Dennis Lesniak
Lesniak Chiropractic Whole Health Specialists

I previously had a client who was in her early 20s that stated “my doctor told me I caught diabetes.”  For some of you, this statement may seem totally normal.  Others of you may be completely outraged.

Labeling certain conditions as diseases is not only misleading, but it is wrong.  These conditions should be deemed lifestyle pathologies.  Lifestyle pathologies are serious medical conditions brought about by environmental, nutritional, and physical stressors.  This is unlike a traditional disease where there is exposure to the pathogen and exposure directly correlates to contraction of the disease.  Now, I understand the definition is not perfect; it is a work in progress and will evolve over time.

However, the point is to get you to shift your paradigm of thinking.

Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney stones, Chron’s disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, headaches, heart disease, some neurodegenerative diseases, and even many cancers can be avoided, prevented, and treated with simple, effective nutritional changes.  Nutrition is medicine from nature; it may not be as easy to swallow as a pill, but it does a better job and has very little side effects except feeling better. 

People do not seem to understand that the above lifestyle pathologies are caused by the choices that we make every day.  Decide to skip breakfast, or grab that bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a bagel; you contributed to over half of the above listed conditions. 

You do not simply “catch” these diseases and then be stricken with them for the rest of your life.  Most doctors tell their patients that they need to change their eating habits, exercise more, and then we will look at a medication.  However, most people are too lazy and stubborn to fix what is wrong.  Instead they opt for the pill thinking it cures the condition when, in fact, it just hides what is going on while this lifestyle pathology is left to wreak havoc on the body unnoticed for sometimes years.

Changing your eating habits is not going on a diet.  Going on a diet implies that it is going to end. This change does not end unless you want to go back to what got you to this spot in the first place.  Your habits are learned from family and are passed on to your children.  This not only creates the “genetic” component, but it increases the likelihood of your children suffering a similar fate.

Speaking of the genetic component, I am sure there are some doubters thinking “my condition is genetic and there is nothing I can do about it”.  Yes, there is some genetic predisposition to a lifestyle pathology, but you control the expression of your genes.  This can lead to a dramatic reduction in the likelihood of your development of the condition.  Your health is like a game of poker where you are the dealer who can see all the cards being dealt out.  You would always deal yourself the best hand, right?  Then why not do so in real life.

Are you interested in submitting a guest blog post to The Wellness Bitch? From time to time, we publish guest posts that are well-written, carefully edited, and related to the topics we blog about here on the WB (wellness, green living, holistic health, fitness, food politics, Big Pharma, etc.) Submissions should be no more than 500 words. Please consider our style when composing your post and please include any relevant hyperlinks when possible.

Email us your submissions to jen@mindfullivingnj.com

In response to my recent post about organic food, a few readers emailed or commented on Facebook that one of the reasons they don’t buy more organic is because of inaccessibility. 

For the first time since I started shopping for healthier food about five years ago, I can relate. 

I recently moved to Israel, and not the center of Israel which is urban and bustling like any major city. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem both have options for not only organic food shopping, but also boast a few, new trendy restaurants with menus featuring local, organic produce and meat. 

Here in the North where I live, you’re lucky to find rice milk in a regular grocery store, let alone grass-fed beef or organic soy yogurt. And, while there are one or two small health food stores nearby, they’ve got slim pickings. Vitamins, a handful of green cleaning products, a few boxes of Dr. Praeger’s frozen foods and a kosher line of gluten free cookies and breads. 

Plus, you think organic, gluten free, or vegan options cost a lot in the States? In Israel, they typically cost three times as much. 

I reached out to a few folks here to find out if there is an equivalent to Whole Foods in Israel. The closest thing, most agree, is the Eden Teva Market chain, and the nearest location to where I live is about a 45-minute drive away. 

One recent weekday morning, we packed the kids up in the car to take a field trip to Haifa, where the local branch of Eden Teva (which translates to “Eden Nature”) is to scope it out. 

It was beautiful, and I’m almost embarrassed to say that I felt at home when I walked through the doors.

But while Eden Teva carried some familiar brands and offered foods that I would be happy to feed my family, the store does not have as much of a selection as I am used to at Whole Foods and also carries some items I wouldn’t expect to find in a store with the word “nature” in its title. The Cocoa Pebbles and Waffle Crisp in the cereal aisle and the Bazooka gum at the checkout aisle were big surprises.

And most unfortunate, but not a surprise, were the price tags.  Tinkyada rice pasta, which we can find for $2.99 a bag in the States, cost 21 shekels here (about $6). Yikes!

It seems we’re going to have to make a few menu changes. And our next field trip will likely be to Harduf, an organic kibbutz about fifteen minutes away from ours. Shopping local will hopefully prove cheaper.

The front of the Eden Teva Market in Haifa, Israel

Jen and her daughter stand in the entrance to the store

The cereal aisle proved that Eden Teva does not have super stric standards necessarily