We’ve all heard the saying “You are what you eat”. This was in fact one of my mother's favourite sayings growing up. Not that I believed her of course. As a teenager that was the last thought I wanted to entertain. I mean really, a chocolate bar causing my pimples. No way!  I knew that if ate too much chocolate I would put on weight but directly affect the health of my body, no, it wasn’t possible.  But was my mother right after all? It didn’t take me long to realise that Mum was right of course! But to what extent does the role of nutrition play in our health and that of our children? And can we offer our children any protection from the rising rate of degenerative and life threatening diseases such as cancer? I’d like to think we can.

Over the years we have experimented with many different ways of eating including; vegan, vegetarian; grain free, gluten free, dairy free, high protein, low allergy and most recently 100% raw diets all with varying levels of success at helping to relieve my children’s asthma, eczema, migraine headaches and allergies. I wanted to share with you some of the things that have worked for us and hopefully will protect my children in the future.

Low Allergy Diet

The low allergy diet includes all food groups. Its aim is to reduce as much artificial and naturally occurring chemicals from the food we eat as possible as well as known allergens such as dairy, nuts, wheat, eggs and gluten if necessary.

We did well on this diet but for my liking too much processed food remains; white flour and white rice are suggested as these foods have a better tolerance factor then the wholegrain variety. Also restricted are many fresh fruits and vegetables because of the naturally occurring salycilates, amines and msg they contain. I much prefer to remove from our diet all packaged and canned foods and instead concentrate on whole foods and fresh fruit and vegetables. Some people need to stick to this type of eating due to severe allergy and sensitivity but I have found that after detoxing both your home and body many whole foods, fruit and vegetables that once caused reactions are no longer a problem.

If you know or suspect allergies or intolerances you can find out more information about the diet and where to get help from my article Living allergy and chemical free.

100% Raw Vegan

Without a doubt the most dramatic and successful changes occurred for us recently when the whole family spent 10 days on a 100% raw vegan diet.

What did we eat?

• Fruits and vegetables (eaten fresh, juiced in our twin gear juicer, smoothies, salads, spiralised as 'pasta', dried fruit)
• Nuts and seeds; nut milks and raw deserts, pesto’s, nut butters and tahini.
• Superfoods; spirulina, raw chocolate, goji berries, maca
• Seaweeds; raw nori and dulse
• Sprouted lentils and grains.
• Cold pressed oils; Flaxseed, coconut and olive oil.
• Dehydrated foods using our Excalibur dehydrator.

Some of the health benefits we experienced while eating raw

• By day 2 my children no longer needed ventolin although I did not attempt to take them off their preventer.
• My youngest son's nose stopped running for the first time since he was a baby
• Noses became unblocked, for my 15 year old daughter this was the first time she could breathe through her nose in 8 years.
• Improvements in teenage acne
• Improved sleep; slept longer and sounder.
• Improved energy levels
• Less anger from everyone and more balance
• Better concentration; this was a big one for me.
• Weight loss; I lost 8kg eating as much raw food as I wanted. My 2 older children lost 5 and 6 kg each.
• Reduction in my arthritis.
• Restless leg syndrome disappeared.

One of the really big benefits to me was the freedom from cooking every night; after all who said we must sit down to eat a big meal. Some nights we just had green smoothies others a smorgasbord of salad veggies cut up and marinated, gourmet raw pasta sauce with zucchini noodles followed by strawberry shortcake.

Of course it wasn’t all wonderful. There were some complaints in the early days. My youngest son found it most difficult because he dislikes greens and to balance his diet and do it properly he had to eat them. We soon came up with a solution green smoothies; a concoction of fresh juice, bananas, superfoods and salad greens. My poor teenage son said for about 24hrs he thought of nothing but curry he even dreamed about it. Probably the biggest and loudest complaints were about wanting to eat something more solid and substantial but this settled as the children became used to eating the raw way.

Another issue was how much to eat. 1 or 2 bananas just didn’t cut it; we found we needed to eat 6-10 bananas to fill up.

Although I would like to keep the whole family as close as possible to this diet and eventually 100% raw everyday; it is an extreme measure and can be socially unacceptable especially for teenagers. I feel a long transition time into this diet would be most beneficial which is what we are doing now.

Example of what we ate in 1 day of eating raw

Breakfast
250ml of green smoothie

Morning tea
Raw chocolate nut balls plus 2 pieces of fruit

Lunch
Raw tomato pasta sauce with spiralised zucchini pasta and a large salad with avocado

Afternoon tea
Raw hommus with carrot and celery sticks
Glass of fresh carrot and salad green juice

Dinner
Marinated mushrooms with dehydrated raw falafel and salad
Strawberry shortcake

At the moment we are eating a mostly raw vegetarian diet based on the modified Gerson therapy. Gerson therapy is ultimately a way of eating designed to cure cancer and other chronic diseases but is also used as a preventative diet. Once I thought it was normal for the children to have asthma and allergies now I feel it is unacceptable and treatable naturally. To find out more about Gerson therapy for those with life threatening diseases read my article Healing your Body with The Gerson Therapy. Interestingly The Gerson diet is high raw and low allergy so fitted in well to our current life style.

Six months in and we are feeling good. The children look vibrant and healthy and full of energy. We have managed to get through winter with no more than a runny nose and slight cough. I feel I have more chance of the children sticking to this way of eating than being 100% raw. We do eat organic where possible and find it no more expensive each week now that all processed food is removed. Check out "Organic Food: Is it better for you?" and "Pesticide Residue in our top 43 Fruits and Vegetables".

Example of what my children eat each day

Breakfast
Rolled oats with 1 teaspoon raw honey and nut milk
1 glass of fresh orange juice
Sour dough rye bread with avocado and tomato

Morning tea
2 pieces of fruit and organic unhomogenised yogurt

Lunch
Boiled egg and salad with dressing. If home I will include a jacket potato and a glass of carrot and green veggie juice

Afternoon tea
Green smoothie with watermelon, banana, baby spinach and lettuce

Before dinner
Apple and carrot juice

Dinner
Potato and leek soup
Jacket potato with salad and herbed cottage cheese dressing
Fruit salad

If we eat dinner early my youngest son will have a chocolate nut milk smoothie with agave nectar and raw cacao powder later as I find he gets hungry.

If you’ve reached the end of this article you are probably thinking 'Peta’s poor kids'. But believe me I do think life is meant to be enjoyed and food is a big part of life. Although I’ve outlined our average daily diet I am not so pedantic that we don’t enjoy treats and meals out on occasions; in fact most weekends see us out and about at the beach having an ice cream and on our recent trip to Coffs Harbour “junk” food featured heavily (Oh did we pay the price but wasn’t it fun?) But there is another saying I do like to agree with……..”It’s what you do everyday that counts.”

Nutrition is definitely more important than I first realised. In fact I now believe it is one of the most important parenting issues of our time. It’s an issue we need to pay more attention to in order to give our kids the best start in life.

If you’d like further information on allergy diets, raw foods or Gerson Therapy our online store stocks books about them all. Or check out my articles "Healing with the Gerson Therapy" and "Living allergy free".
For our recipes included in this article check out "Living food recipes for the whole family"

In health and happiness

Peta