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Saturday, January 12, 2013

On Sugar and Grain Addiction... [Cure Tooth Decay]



The Cure Tooth Decay protocol certainly isn't just about cutting grains and sugar from your diet. There is a lot more to it. But it is one of the most important aspects and just as important as eating lots of nutrient dense traditional foods.

Just to give you a glimpse of what a big shift this is for us... I've been baking my own bread at least twice a week for the past three years. The past few months we have eaten as much as a whole loaf of bread in one day! Bread has been our cheap and easy filler food, and although better than store bought, it was still mostly nutrition-less (and extremely delicious when fresh). Thankfully we topped it with lots of good quality butter and okay cheese, but it wasn't grass-fed or anything. 

To make matters worse, I've also been making at least two batches of oatmeal raisin cookies every week. We had them for snacks, for dessert, in-between meals. Delicious. But again, cheap filler, mostly flour and sugar (even though they had about 1/8 of the sugar compared to store bought cookies). We ate a lot of them! Quite unfortunately I relied on them as a snack through pregnancy with Baby T. I'm worried how his teeth will come in. So while I am still breastfeeding and have the chance, I want to eliminate most grains and sugar and eat more nutrient dense foods to give him a better chance at strong teeth. Not just that, but healthy teeth are a sign of a healthy body on the inside. 

Tooth problems only signal that there is something wrong on the inside. 

It has been a week and a half mostly grain and sugar free. I've been having intense sugar cravings and have been cheating with a little bit of bitter dark chocolate after the kids are in bed. I know, I know! It's either that or I would make a loaf of bread!....and eat it all by myself!

I have realized just how addicting sugar is. Not just for me personally, for everyone I know. When you have a little bit of sweets, you want more. Then you want a little more. You know how it is, especially around the time of the holidays or when you are under stress. So I've come to the conclusion that sugar is an addictive drug.  I'm not the first to say this. Sugar is toxic beyond it's calories.

So how are we doing? The first few days were hard. It's better now. I haven't had headaches in months until now, while weaning off of sugar.

I am in the kitchen a lot more, without grains in the picture I find myself making a lot of veggie dishes and we're eating so much more veggies now than before. I find myself going from making breakfast, rolling over to lunch and dinner - it takes some time and I've ended up working at night instead. Funny how much time pasta, rice, and bread stand ins saved. It showed on our health though.

Despite the fact I'm getting less sleep (I know, bad), I feel so much better! So does my husband. Our digestive systems are working well. You just feel lighter and have more energy when the bulk of your food intake is protein, veggies, and good fats! Good fats are actually essential for proper function of your brain, especially important in growing children. Hm, so would that mean a low-fat diet would lower your I.Q.? ;)

Grains and sugar were our crutches, I just can't believe how long it took me to realize that. Sure, I was making everything from scratch, but that doesn't change the grain and sugar to something else.

Coming soon are grain free recipes and photos of Baby E's teeth!

Are you addicted to grains and/or sugar? Attempting to eat more plant, protein, and [good] fat based diet? 

Past Posts from This Series:


19 comments:

  1. That is quite an adjustment, my hubby already complaining about not baking (and i didn't even bake that much to begin with) i would bake bread once in couple months and cookies once a week and we would eat that in 3 days and then we just go without it. I always had a lot of fruits and veggies available, but always added grains not so much pasta but other types of grains. I even wanted to go vegetarian, but with the picky eaters in my family, no one likes beans, or calling my grain dishes (horse food). Now im trying to stay away from them, not completely but avoid it for my hubby especially, while he is the one suffering with digestive problems, he refuses to stick to the diet for a long period of time, so that's challenging.
    Of course grain free baking doesn't quite taste the same, but its something you need to adjust to.
    I completely agree staying away from bread gives you more energy and you feel lighter, feel good also about yourself that you ate something more nutritions.
    My question is how do you stay away from sugar, maple syrop cost $20 32fl oz, raw honey is pricy, sucanat and coconut sugars come in tiny bags that would not last long and have a higher price tag. Getting use to stay away from sugar is the only way and challenging way.

    Speaking of chocolate, if i don't have it in a house i don't crave it, but currently i do and i know how you feel when kids are in bed i sneak chocolate with my tea. I also love to make raw chocolate truffles with coco, figs and nuts, those are delicious replacer.

    I know i personally will never go perfect in my diet, we don't live in a perfect world, right? But trying to go that way and have good food in your home is what important to me. People started thinking im crazy, even my husband, saying let's not eat anything then lol, if there is bad ingredients in mostly everything....

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    1. Thankfully hubby and kids are on board with this, but it isn't always smooth sailing. There are some "I don't want to eat that" phrases thrown around. But for the most part they are liking all the new recipes!

      I love not having bread, but I admit I crave it.

      On sugar.. I just don't put so much in when I bake, just a hint of sweetness, it doesn't have to be blasting sweet. I found that 2 tablespoons of turbinado and 2 tablespoons of local honey were enough to sweeten a batch of 24 cookies I made with coconut flour. That is way less than any recipe will call for. We like things less sweet like that.

      I know, it will never be perfect, true. But I'm fine with that. Actually we just came back from in-law's house and now I have a stomach ache because I let go of my perfection and ate whatever they had! :)

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  2. My hubby and I have been talking about trying to eat better but we haven't determined WHAT exactly that is going to mean for us yet. We want to be a good example for our little one (I am due in 2 weeks!) and want him to grow up eating better than we have been. Good luck in your changes & thanks for this informative post. I know we need to cut out some sugar for sure!

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    1. That's the first step, talking about it. Exactly how it happened for us when I got pregnant with our first. We slowly started weaning off of store-bought processed foods. We used to buy frozen lunches for work when we both worked full time outside the home! Since our daughter was born we were eating a lot healthier, but I have to admit our diet was mostly wheat and sugar based. We had our meats and veggies, but the sides took the bulk of the meal, including my homemade bread. Baby steps, it's not going to change overnight. You can just focus on eliminating one bad thing every week, replacing it with something better and healthier :)

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  3. Can't wait to see your typical day cooking recipes.

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    1. Can't wait to share them! I'll get on it soon, but baby T had an ear infection and I basically had no sleep all weekend. I'll get back to more blogging soon :)

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    2. He's already better, thanks! Thank God for Tea Tree oil and Colloidal Silver! I'll have to blog about that ordeal too :)

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  4. Gosh - cutting grains is hard! I've already cut meat (pork, beef, lamb, veal, poultry) from our diet so far in the past 2 months, and we've gone very plant-based. I've also rid the closet of sugar and replaced our morning coffee addition with liquid Stevia. But grains....tough one. I guess our little steps so far are a great start...

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    1. Oh, that would be tough! That's not what we are doing though, the Cure Tooth Decay diet is largely based on proteins, vitamins, and minerals only found in animal products. With that said, he emphasizes to not buy ANY meat from a grocery store, it is essential for the meat to be humanely raised and grass fed. So we'll be buying most from a local farmer where we can actually see the animals grazing. Only grass fed butter and cheese is recommended, and only real milk from grass fed cows. We'll be paying a pretty penny for that I'm sure, but I think it is worth it. I don't want to eat conventional meat from animals who have never seen daylight or grass, not to mention they are sick from the inside out and pumped full of drugs. I can certainly see why one wouldn't want to eat that type of meat :) Whatever you do, you just need to find what works for YOUR family, we're all different!

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  5. My husband is already complaining about the lack of baking--asking for chocolate chip cookies last night. I told him I'd make him some, but now he says it can't have any "nut flours" in it, and I need to show him the recipe beforehand. Ha! I'll make it like I want and see if he likes it. If not, at least I know the kids will (anything chocolate passes with them!)

    I have found it's amazing how much we used bread as a filler--and never realized it! My kids are going through SO MUCH food now!!

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    1. Does he meal like no almond flour when he says no 'nut flours'? Because coconut flour, while it has the word 'nut' in it, it's not technically a nut at all. We like it :)

      Yes, it's amazing how much more veggies we are eating without bread as a filler, and just generally a greater variety of food!

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  6. I totally agree with you and appreciate your will to change your dietary lifestyle. I have read the book CURE TOOH DECAY by Ramiel Nagel and it was an inspiration and eye opener for me as well. To know how much our daily eating habits effect our dental conditions was quite a revelation to me. Since then I have been an advocate of treating the tooth decay naturally. For those who are unaware of the fact that tooth decays are indeed caused by the grains, seeds, sugars, etc ,I have been writing and promoting this thing on various platforms. Your story is quite inspirational as you are trying this curetoothdecay protocol successfully and writing about it to educate others about it. Good job!
    For those who would like to know more about cure tooth decay protocol, here is the website http://www.curetoothdecay.com/

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment! I'm just a mom trying to see what works best for our family, I've been inspired by others as well and I'm very thankful for Ramiel's work!

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  7. Thanks Anastasia for talking about this. I am a Grandma who is eliminating sugar and grains from her diet, also. My 2 granddaughters need to eat gluten free and I have been learning to cook a whole new way now! Also I am diabetic and have further incentive to change eating habits! I'll spend time on reading this website http://www.curetoothdecay.com!

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    1. That's great! I see more and more people catching on to how what they eat affects their body. It's encouraging to see.

      By the way, have you heard of "Cure Diabetes in 30 days"? It's something I came across a couple of years ago and thought it was fascinating. Basically it's a short term plant based diet, you can watch this video for details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFXMRbV6UPM

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  8. We are going through the same thing in our house. We havent completly stoppped grains, however we have cut back a LOT. It is hard..I too keep chocolate hidden in the freezer for when the kiddos are asleep or at least arent looking :)

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  9. How are her teeth coming along now? Have you seen any improvement? I found this blog because the daughter has an OBVIOUS cavity that I am trying to heal. Thanks!

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    1. I'm planning to write a post on the progress soon. It looks like there is slight improvement, but nothing drastic. I don't think I was giving her a large enough dose of cod liver oil (capsules, she hates liquid) and I also think she needs more minerals, which would obviously make sense for remineralizing teeth! lol I just didn't catch on to that until now.

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