My Dearest Family & Friends,
My birthday wish is that by this time next year all of you will have taken steps toward eliminating gluten, refined sugar, and processed foods from your diet and focusing on eating whole foods.
I will give you the most important part first in case you don’t have time to read the whole thing right now.
There is a FREE online Gluten Summit starting today, November 11, which is coincidentally also my birthday! The Gluten Summit, organized by Dr. Tom O’Bryan, is a series of online interviews that will take place from Nov 11-17. Each video will be available for only 24 hours so be sure to register and tune in daily. This is your opportunity to learn everything you need to know about gluten and why you should consider eliminating if from your life. You can register at www.theglutensummit.com.
So that’s the punchline, keep reading for the backstory….
As many of you know, I have been dealing with an autoimmune disease of my colon (ulcerative colitis) for the past 10+ years. This is a disease for which there is no cure. My doctors have had me on one medication after another and telling me the whole time that diet has nothing to do with my illness. Well, this time last year I hit a wall. All the medications stopped working and I was faced with the decision of taking experimental drugs with potentially serious side effects or having my colon removed. I’d like to keep my organs in my body thank you very much!
At that point, I had to take matters into my own hands and figure out how to heal my body, not just treat the symptoms. After MANY hours on the internet, reading books, and endless podcasts I embarked on a major lifestyle and diet change which included eliminated all grains and refined sugars from my diet. I am happy to say that today I am not taking any prescription medications and while I still have some healing to do I feel 110% better than I did a year ago when I was medicated. My doctors are not happy with me and have all but refused to see me until I start taking my meds again (never mind the fact that I’m actually feeling better). I did a number of things to heal myself but without a doubt, the biggest contributing factor was my diet change of eliminating grains.
So you wonder, “What does this have to do with me? I don’t have Ulcerative Colitis”. Well, during my journey I learned so much about gluten and how it is linked to pretty much any disease, allergy, or skin condition that anyone might have, frankly it began to scare me. I learned that gluten (primarily due to the fact that all wheat on the planet is now GMO-genetically modified) is just as addictive as refined sugar and causes your blood sugar to spike just like sugar! Frankly, I’m pissed off that the government and most doctors keep encouraging us to “eat less fat and more whole grains” because it’s good for our heart, our gut, and our waistline when in fact this is precisely the thing that is likely making us sick in the first place. I have come to the conclusion that gluten is not safe for anyone to consume on a daily basis.
And did you know that food companies already know how gluten and sugar affect our bodies and use it to get us to buy their products? They know full well that gluten and sugar are addictive and make food taste better so they add it to pretty much any processed food so that we become addicted, crave more, buy more, eat more. Does this not piss you off too!
The evidence against gluten was so compelling to me that I have been working to remove it from our household altogether. It certainly is not an easy thing to do but I feel so strongly about this that I really hope you will take this email seriously and at least consider it. Do it for 30 days and see what happens, what will it hurt? Eric (who is the picture of health!) reports that since removing grains he has dropped some weight that he struggled to lose even when diligently exercising and counting calories before. I have another close friend who has suffered from migraines for years and has found relief after eliminating gluten. I could go on and on with stories but I think you get the idea.
If you are suffering from a serious illness and especially if you are taking prescription medicine for a chronic condition I recommend you remove ALL grains (not just gluten which is found in wheat, rye, barley, and most oats due to cross-contamination).
As I said, I feel very strongly about this and am launching a personal campaign against grains. I am here to help you on your journey as well. I have been researching this for the past 6 months and while I am still learning, I can answer questions and share my tips and tricks for success or just offer support. You may have already seen me posting articles on Facebook and I will continue to do so. I will also be Facebooking and emailing monthly recipe ideas to anyone who wants them. Someday soon I hope to start my blog so I’m not spamming people!
I will stop here (for now!). Please call/email/text if you have questions or want to hear more. I will talk your ear off when and if comes to nutrition and this countries food supply… you have been warned 😉
I love you all. Please watch the summit!