A NOTE TO PARENTS AND PARENTS-TO-BE
We live in a culture inundated with sweets and junk food everywhere we turn. We can’t get away from it. Food is not the problem; the Standard American Diet is.
Let me tell you about a time I learned an important lesson about this very toxic diet. I fed my children fast food kids’ meals, processed cereals, crackers, chips, ice cream novelties, chicken nuggets, deli meats, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, TV dinners, frozen pot pies, and pizza pockets. Such convenience food was standard fare for young mothers of the ’80s and ’90s.
I did provide their bodies with carrots, celery, lettuce, green beans, broccoli, and apples; but the mainstay food was “home cooked meals” of the Standard American Diet: spaghetti and garlic bread, meatloaf and scalloped potatoes, homemade pepperoni pizza, grilled chicken and baked potatoes with butter, pot roast and biscuits, cornbread and milk, beef and noodles.
If I could unwind the clock for a do-over, I certainly would. My son Daniel, who was diagnosed with Type I diabetes at age eleven, died, in part, due to a toxic food overdose.
Starting at age fifteen, if his blood sugars would go high, the avalanche of brain-damaging glucose spikes would create a medical delirium (metabolic encephalopathy) with symptoms of psychosis. The hallucinations and delusions, combined with the adverse side effects of some of the mind-altering medications he was put on, would then negatively affect everyone in his path, including himself. As long as he kept his blood sugars stable, his mind would remain stable and he could manage the challenges of life. Unfortunately, he lived in a culture inundated with fast food everywhere he went—and it took every ounce of his energy to remain free from the temptations and peer pressure to succumb to them.
Before his funeral, I found his trash can filled with empty boxes of processed cereals, empty jars of honey-roasted peanut butter, empty packages of cookies, and empty bottles of sodas. In his car were crumpled-up sacks and food wrappers from three different fast food restaurants. When I reviewed his blood glucose meter history, I discovered his blood sugars were continually more than 350 the week leading up to his death.
Food addiction, causing the glucose spikes and delirium, contributed to his death by suicide.
Junk food and fast food are rampant across America; those addicted to this toxic diet are eating themselves to death. True, drug addiction kills, but Dr. Fuhrman says that food addiction kills so many more. Obesity alone kills more than 300,000 people a year.
Sure, we may have a hereditary propensity to develop obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer—that is the loaded gun we may have been given due to our family genes—but it’s our dietary choices that determine if we pull the trigger or not.
Unfortunately, rearing children on the Standard American Diet sets the stage for a potential lifetime of food addiction, mental struggles, and nutritional diseases—and it begins even before conception. “According to studies, our diet, not just during pregnancy but even before conception, has profound effects in determining the health, intelligence, and immune systems of our children.”58
In Dr. Fuhrman’s book Disease-Proof Your Child, he states: “We parents have a huge responsibility and can help guide and shape our offspring into healthy and happy adults, or, through abuse, neglect, ignorance, and even convenience, we can damage their future. We know with certainty that the foods we feed our kids during childhood play a large role in dictating their future health.”59
For example, according to Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., the foundation of coronary artery disease is firmly established by the end of high school here in the United States. Based on autopsies performed in 1999 on young adults between the ages of seventeen and thirty-four who died from accidents, suicides, and homicides, coronary artery disease was already widespread in this age group.60
Set the example by demonstrating living in optimal health yourself. Stock your kitchen with a variety of delicious food and make mealtimes a pleasurable and peaceful experience for all. If you need motivation and ideas for making kid-friendly, high-nutrient meals, Dr. Fuhrman and his wife, Lisa, who have reared four children together, have shared those recipes in Disease-Proof Your Child.
If you are a “foodie”—one who is particularly interested in food experiences and recipes as a pleasurable hobby—be mindful of children’s health needs in the process. Consider directing your hobby’s focus toward perfecting great-tasting recipes that promote health and well-being. The internet is loaded with nutritarian recipes now.
Parents also have a substantial role in preventing disordered eating in their children’s lives by providing healthy and great-tasting food choices at home. Excessive control, such as putting children on restrictive diets, sets the stage for developing negative perceptions toward food. “When a parent attempts to control his or her child’s eating, a child may then try to regain self control of eating by not eating other food or starting to binge eat.”61 In other words, have the great-tasting, high-nutrient food available to select from, but allow the child to honor his or her own fullness and satiety cues. This will prevent negative perceptions toward food.
And whatever you do, please don’t make a big deal out of a number on a scale. Both praise and shame have the potential to negatively impact a child who may have a genetic predisposition for an eating disorder. Self-worth cannot be measured by a number on a scale or a clothing size. Praise your child in other areas of his or her life that are totally unrelated to physical appearances. And do not call yourself or others “fat.” It may be an accurate description of being overweight, but it is similar to calling a person who struggles with mental illness “psycho,” or a person with cognitive challenges “retarded.” Derogatory names wound young, impressionable minds and hearts, potentially causing them to develop to a negative self-image, which can foster eating disorders.
In addition, if you think your child may have a susceptibility for eating disorders, be aware of his or her exposure to high-risk activities that encourage a child to maintain a certain body size: ballet, gymnastics, fashion modeling, figure skating, cheerleading, wrestling, to name a few. (This may also include activities that emphasize heavy exercise, such as long-distance running.) “Dieting and a high-risk activity combined with a genetic vulnerability could send an individual into a full-fledged eating disorder.”62
Be aware of your children’s behaviors. Many times, children cannot clearly articulate pain as a result of abuse, and/or emotional and psychological trauma—but there are signs. If you are unsure, please seek the help of a professional counselor.
Nothing is foolproof, of course, but being aware enough to take the necessary steps to prevent eating disorders from developing in the first place is a precious gift you can give to your children.
A NOTE TO COMMUNITIES OF FAITH
Throughout those years that I worked for Dr. Fuhrman, I met and interviewed multitudes of people from all over the country who had eradicated their food addictions and restored their health simply by changing the food they put into their mouths. I discovered that what a person ingests is important to every aspect of life. However, there is no place in the Bible that says, “Thou shalt not eat doughnuts.”
Nevertheless, gluttony is mentioned several times in Scriptures, and it is a serious matter.
According to Merriam-Webster, gluttony is excessive indulgence. This self-destructive eating fuels obesity and disease. According to Roland Sturm, Ph.D., senior economist and professor of policy analysis at RAND Graduate School, obesity outranks smoking and drinking alcohol in disease, adverse consequences, and health care costs. Nevertheless, smoking and drinking have received more consistent attention in recent decades in both clinical practice and public health policy.63 Furthermore, in The End of Dieting, Dr. Fuhrman states, “In a matter of years, excess body weight is projected to overtake smoking as the primary cause of death in the United States.”64
I was raised in a church culture that taught abstinence from drinking alcohol, using illegal drugs, and smoking cigarettes—and my parents reinforced it at home. Today, many communities of faith adhere to this same incongruent position regarding smoking and drinking, while fully condoning gluttony.
In 2009, six months after starting my journey to earn back my health, I did an experiment. I wanted to see what it would feel like to purchase a pack of cigarettes at a local gas station...at nearly fifty years old! (I had a lifetime of indoctrination built into my psyche concerning the harmful effects of alcohol, illegal drugs, and nicotine—of which I am eternally grateful for—because I was spared potentially developing addictions to those substances.)
So, I walked into the gas station and nervously looked around to make sure I didn’t know anyone. When I stepped up to the counter to ask for a pack, I didn’t even know what brand to ask for. I mumbled the name of a brand, not even knowing if it was a common one a female my age would buy or not. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one recognized me. My heart was pounding.
When the clerk retrieved the pack and rang it up at the register, I couldn’t believe what it cost! Suddenly, I found myself handing over money for something that I knew was totally selfdestructive. I felt very ashamed, and I would have felt even more embarrassed if someone I knew had witnessed the transaction. After throwing the spare change and cigarettes into my purse as quickly as possible, I dashed out of there.
Every fiber of my being knew that spending money on a self-destructive substance was wrong; yet, throughout my entire life, I didn’t blink an eye at spending even one penny on self-destructive food, such as candy bars, chips, curly fries, shakes, doughnuts, and the like. My experiment enlightened me. The values we are taught at a young age, which are then reinforced in adulthood, greatly influence our behaviors.
For whatever reason, teaching on the harmful effects of the Standard American Diet has been overlooked by many churches. Doughnuts and pastries are still a valuable addition to Sunday morning gatherings. But hopefully, that will be changing soon.
Dr. Michael Klaper, a physician in nutrition-based medicine, describes what happens within minutes of eating sugar:
Within minutes, your bloodstream is flooded with sugar. Soon the structural proteins in all your tissues—the elastic fibers of your skin, the hemoglobin in your blood, the filter membranes in your kidneys, the inner lining of your blood vessels, the lenses of your eyes—all get ‘sticky’ with sugar (the chemists say they become ‘glycosylated.’) In the 98.6 F metabolic ‘oven’ of our body, the sugars and proteins melt together and oxidize, like the browning of bread crust (called the ‘Maillard reaction.’)
These oxidized, damaged, and congealed proteins, officially called ‘Advanced Glycation End Products’ do not function normally—the gummed-up, oxidized protein fibers break, skin cracks in the sunlight, eyes become less permeable to light, muscled proteins do not contract as vigorously, brain function dwindles—sound familiar?65
Years ago, I heard a local law enforcement officer speak at a meeting for young people. He told them that most car accidents at night were related to alcohol, and many car accidents in the morning were caused by blood sugar issues. Eating that sweet pastry early in the morning can influence the brain’s ability to concentrate and function properly.
The detrimental effects that self-destructive eating can have on a person’s life are profound. Today, in the U.S. alone, more than a hundred million people are living with diabetes or prediabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control.66 In addition, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S.67 “Dietary ignorance, coupled with the addictive nature of refined foods, is now the leading cause of premature death in the modern world.”68
Diseases of the Standard American Diet are literally killing us!
The late Rev. Leonard Ravenhill stated years ago that gluttony was the acceptable sin of the American Church. However, it has been my experience that gluttony is now the promoted sin of the American Church.
According to Dr. Fuhrman, the ten most dangerous foods are:
1. Smoked, barbecued, or conventionally raised red meat
2. Commercial baked goods
3. Butter
4. Pancakes and doughnuts
5. Soda (including sugar-free sodas)
6. Fried food
7. Highly salted food
8. Hot dogs and luncheon meats
9. White sugar (and maple syrup, honey, agave)
10. Sweetened dairy products69
Dr. Fuhrman also says that children, especially, are more susceptible to the destructive influences of such food, because growing and dividing cells are at greater risk when exposed to toxic compounds. In other words, this unhealthy diet can do more damage to a young body than to an adult one. Children’s vulnerable cells become dysplastic (a precancerous condition) and, over the years, turn cancerous. In adulthood, the cancer becomes detectable.70
Additionally, Dr. Robert Lustig, pediatric endocrinologist and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California-San Francisco, states that sugar drives metabolic disease and is the alcohol of the child. Children are getting diseases of alcohol—without alcohol.71
Perhaps it’s time for all of us to get the doughnuts out of our Sunday school classrooms and fellowship halls...and sugary snacks and diet sodas out of our Bible study gatherings.
May it not be said of houses of worship that they are modern-day crack houses, making provision for self-destructive entanglements. Instead, may they be sanctuaries of refuge from the onslaught of unhealthy temptations that promote addiction and disease.
It is time for all of us to rise up and live in freedom from food addiction—so that we can live in optimal health and fulfill our callings and destinies. It is also time to bless our children’s futures, not create stumbling blocks and addictions that may take them a lifetime to overcome.
The Lord’s best plans for all of us are for good; not obesity, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, fatigue, dementia, depression, food addiction, and a myriad of other afflictions. We can no longer flirt with self-destructive indulgences, because the devil is having a heyday watching us become sick, lethargic, and barely functioning.
Communities of faith have the awesome potential to be safe places where individuals can be set free from addictions. The very nature of their function allows them to help those trapped in entanglements.
Perhaps in the past we didn’t know any better, but now that we know the truth, let’s consider being sanctuaries that promote health and healing instead of disease and destruction.
It truly is time for change.
A NOTE FOR TEACHERS AND FUNDRAISERS
The following note was written by an older gentleman on Dr. Fuhrman’s member center. He gave me permission to share it:
When I was 12 years old, I had to sell chocolate candy bars for our Catholic school. The candy bars were big. They measured two inches wide x one inch thick x eight inches long. I thought, I could sell a lot of them. So, I took about six boxes with twelve candy bars in each box. However, I could only sell two boxes. I had four boxes left, so I eventually ate all forty-eight candy bars! Then I would think, What am I going to do? Where will I get the money to pay for all of the candy bars that I have eaten? I ended up stealing money from my mother to pay for them. To this day I am ashamed of this horrible episode in my life. I still remember it as if it happened yesterday–and it happened more than fifty-five years ago! What were those nuns thinking by giving us all that candy to take home to sell?
—Peter Taurino
A DAUGHTER’S NOTE
Another member, Angela, shared the following:
I have never really thought of the cause of my father’s death to be food addiction, but I now realize that my father died from food addiction. He was a physician and was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes when he was 37 years old. After years of using medications to treat his symptoms (eleven of them), while buying candy and pastries in bulk from Costco, he died at the ripe age of 64. I now understand this was addictive behavior, because he knew that changing his diet would make his symptoms go away. He knew what the consequences of his behavior would be, yet he kept gorging on unhealthy food for 25 years…25 years of hospital stays and all sorts of nasty diabetic side effects. He was not a dummy, yet he engaged in this irrational behavior.
—Angela Biggar
MY OLDEST DAUGHTER’S PERSPECTIVE
One day, I asked my oldest daughter if she could write down what the addiction was like for her when I was trapped in it. (Oftentimes, it is easy to surround ourselves in a cloak of denial that our food choices don’t affect others, but they do.) This was her response:
My mom’s food addiction was a source of tension at times, especially if she was on a new diet. I could see the ups and downs with her struggle to lose weight and the fight not to give into food cravings. She would go through a phase of excitement from trying a new diet, but it was always short-lived. After seeing little to no results, she’d get discouraged and depressed and go to food for comfort and escape again.”
—Ruth Yaroslaski
WISE WORDS FROM MY MOTHER
At age eighty-six, my mother suffered a stroke. After she was discharged from a six-week stay in rehab, Dr. Fuhrman’s 3 Steps to Incredible Health presentation was on the local PBS station. She watched it with great interest and decided to change her eating habits that day.
Even though she was moderately incapacitated from the stroke—over the next year, she lost eighty pounds, got off insulin that she had been taking for more than twenty years, lowered her dangerously high blood pressure, and gained enough strength to be relatively mobile again. I was very proud of her accomplishments, even in the midst of the hurdles and challenges she faced each day.
Prior to that show, she incorrectly assumed that she was too old to change or see improvements in her health and well-being. To her complete surprise, she learned that it is never too late to change.
She got to live four more years and meet her first great-grandchild. I wrote the following words down before her eventual passing:
Health first…everything else second. One’s health should come first above all other priorities; otherwise, other things will crowd it out. My main occupation now is making time for my food preparation, daily exercises, and adequate rest. If you are young, don’t wait until you are old to change your priorities and eating habits. If you are old, it’s never too late to change and get healthier. Don’t cheat yourself out of the best health that’s possible. Where there is a will—there is always a way.
—Helen Taylor
A NOTE FROM MY HUSBAND
Emily and I were young and clueless before we got married. When she told me she had a “problem” with food, I thought, Everyone eats an extra piece of cake now and then; it’s no big deal. But I didn’t realize how big of an issue it was until after we got married. It was difficult to watch Emily suffer with such a severe food addiction and ongoing eating disorder that drained the life out of her. I felt helpless, hopeless, and angry at times. It took years of trial and error finally to realize that I couldn’t change her. I could only change myself.
If you have someone you love who is struggling with yo-yo dieting, a controlling food addiction, or any eating entanglement, there is hope for both of you. There is a way through it to the other side, but it will take time, patience, and unconditional love to get there.
I share the following tips, not as an expert on the topic, but as someone who has learned the hard way what works:
Be honest with yourself and acknowledge your feelings. Stuffing your frustrations and anger will only make it worse–and then eventually you may explode in unhealthy ways.
Be committed to the relationship.
Realize you can’t change others. The only person that you can change is yourself.
There may be times when you’ll need to pull back so your “boat” doesn’t sink. A person drowning in addiction can pull others down with him or her, so maintain your own mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical health; just don’t abandon your loved one.
Seek professional counseling for your loved one as well as yourself. Not all counselors are equal. If a counselor isn’t helpful, then keep looking until you find a good fit. The key is being willing to be totally honest about the underlying root problems that psychologically and emotionally fuel addiction.
Don’t quit. Never give up. Never give in. Never, never, never. In the words of Emily’s great-aunt Mabel, “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!”
—Kurt Boller