My little mover.

We are so excited that our little man is moving. He joins his sister in the 10 month walker club.

According to my brother...

He's still got game after all those years :) It was so nice to have him visit us the other day on his way home from Sacramento. Kate especially liked your pink socks. Can't wait to see you again. Hopefully more than business will bring you back soon.

Rotations of foods, continued.

In response to my last post, another person asked this question:

I read your latest post and was interested in reading your answer and was wondering what the source was for your answer. This is a topic I have found very interesting because the holistic practitioner I see does tests on a machine called an Asyra and often finds foods that we are not allergic to, but just have to rotate. These foods change a lot and she has told me just to be careful to rotate through foods and not eat too much of the same thing in a given week. Outwardly we had no signs that we were not tolerating these foods, they just showed up when tested. It's interesting, because I didn't tell her what I was eating and in thinking back, I realized that I had eaten a lot of the food that showed up.
I have also heard that eating the same foods consistently can sometimes create allergies.
Have you heard any of this before?
Thanks for letting me pick your brain! Crossing over into the holistic world has been interesting and since some of it seems to work, but has no scientific backing, I'm trying to filter through things, but a lot of times, it's just hard to come up with solid evidence.

I guess I need to expound on my initial comments on the idea of intolerance to certain foods due to overuse!

I strongly agree with the principle of rotation. Most people typically buy the same 20 items and eat those very consistently, and this isn't optimal nutrition. Good nutrition principles include rotation, variety and moderation. This is the practical application of eating seasonally as much as possible.

I typically ascribe to a philosophy on nutrition summarized this way:
Moderation not elimination without excess.
This means that you should use a moderate, not extreme approach to nutrition. I believe this is biblical. There is no biblical basis for an "optimal" diet. In fact, Paul specifically warns people against using their dietary restrictions as a basis for superiority. I believe in wise nutrition and avoiding eating things that are harmful to your body. The parameters for using wisdom are very individual-- generally, most people benefit from eating a diet high in nutrient-rich foods and less in volume overall.

I also am a very firm believer that good nutrition means nothing if you are not physically active. Putting supreme gas in a high end sport car does nothing if you don't drive.

Most of all, I must reiterate/agree with you that holistic and traditional medicine are still both PRACTICES, not sciences. Most time people go astray in nutrition because, in my opinion, they are caught up in the "proof", when we have to remember all medicine is practiced based on best known practices, not absolutes.

There are very few things that are absolute in nutrition. Every year we learn additional, new evidence about certain chemical properties in food that are helpful or harmful to our body. It can seem at times like science contradicts itself. All we can choose to do is obey Him, eating with a faith-filled, wise approach.Sifting through all the information out there can be daunting. I believe we can choose to live in the good of what we do know is true and live in wonder, knowing that God knows all the million microscopic reasons for his edible creation.
 

According to...

doctor "x"--
Here is a question I received from a friend about nutrition. I thought people might be interested in the answer:

I have a question for you. This may sound strange, but are there health complications or consequences of eating the same food many days in a row (ie eating an apple each day as a snack during the work week)?

  I just met with a doctor and he said that his problems are probably due to eating some of the same foods many days in a row. So he said if you have chicken on Monday not to have it again until Friday. That just didn't sound right to me so wanted to pick your brain :)

This was my answer:

The only scientific reason for not eating the same group of foods (like the same 20 items) every day is that you are missing the variety of nutrients from the variety of foods we have available. There is no scientific basis, unless for allergy reasons, that the same types of foods are not tolerated repetitively. However, it is good to have a variety; for instance, chicken has a totally different nutrient/mineral profile than beef-- beef being richer in B vitamins and iron--and an orange has a lot more potassium than an apple. These are just examples but you were correct in being suspicious. Repetition has also been clinically proven to be beneficial for defined periods of time in weight reduction/management.