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Case:
Kimberly
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Cauliflower
although touted as healthy is not good for everyone.
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Kimberly
came to me complaining that she felt weak most of the time and often had mood
swings. Recently, in fact, she has been having violent outbursts of anger, which
were not characteristic of her personality. She had also been experiencing
arthritic type symptoms in her hands and some joints and had some light bouts
with eczema.
Since
Kimberly's complaints were new, I asked her if she had had any major life
changes lately. She thought for a while and answered that she had not changed
anything in her life at all. In, fact, she said, life was the same as it was
every day for the past three years. She would take her 3rd and 5th grader to
school, come home and clean and run errands, visit with some friends, perhaps do
a craft or read and then meet her husband when he came home in the evening from
work. She had family in the area so she often spent time visiting her sisters or
mother.
I
was not satisfied with Kimberly's answer. As her problem was so new and
uncharacteristic of her past health record, I felt there had to be some catalyst
that prompted this change. However, we explored other avenues of change in her
life and came up with nothing as well. She had not changed her sleeping habits,
she had not changed he exercise habits and she had not had any unusual incidents
happen to her. When I asked Kimberly about her diet, however, she admitted she
had made some changes.
"They
are not very significant, though. " she said, "We have just been
eating in a healthier way. I should feel better not worse!" I asked
Kimberly what she meant by “healthy”. Kimberly told me about a diet that her
and her family had been following. The diet was quite famous and advocated using
no cooking oils, no salt, no meat and no milk products. The diet, however, was
heavy in starches and vegetables. The doctor who had developed the diet related
many stories in his book about heart disease patients and obese people he had
cured with his diet. By all modern definitions of health his diet also seemed
sound. It did not contain any animal fats, it was low in salt and it contained
many vegetables. Kimberly's husband, Omar, felt wonderful on the diet and
encouraged her to follow it with him. Omar's sister and mother were also
following the diet and they had all managed to lower their cholesterol, gain
more energy and even eliminate a case of cystitis.
I
suspected, however, that Kimberly's body was not as receptive to the diet as the
rest of the family. It is impossible to create a diet to fit all people in all
areas of the world, and following the same way of eating usually does not work
for people unless they were born and raised in the same area of the world for
generations. However, even then, each person has unique dietary needs based on
their inherited genetic traits, blood type, constitution, allergies and other
factors.
Eczema
and arthritic like symptoms in a normally healthy person can often come from not
enough fat in the diet. Lack of energy can often come from too little protein in
a person who needs protein in their diet, and mood swings can be a result of
hypoglycemia induced by an inadequate diet or as a result of consuming food one
is allergic to.
We
explored all these possibilities with Kimberly. Kimberly's blood type was type
B. In the book Eat Right 4 Your Type it recommends that people with type
B blood eat meat and avoid wheat. It also lists olive oil as beneficial oil to
their body type. Kimberly confirmed this by performing an allergy test for wheat
and found out she was allergic to wheat. This allergy had most likely
contributed to her skin breakouts and mood swings. Since she had started the
diet her intake of wheat had gone up. Without any protein to fill her up she
found herself eating more bread to fill herself up.
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Red hibiscus is good for the blood and circulation.
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I
recommended that Kimberly continue on the diet but add a little salt and olive
oil to each of her dishes along with a little chicken breast, beef, or fish.
Yogurt was also a good source of protein for her. I also recommended she add
some flax seed oil to her diet to provide more beneficial oils to her body and
to eat more brown rice and millet or other grains instead of wheat. Within a
week Kimberly had more energy and her mood swings had disappeared. Within three
weeks her arthritis and eczema disappeared. Although she was not following the
blood type diet exactly, we had used it as a guide to indicate what general food
categories she was most likely to benefit from.
I
further suggested that she have her husband and mother and sister-in-law all get
tested for food allergies and personal nutritional needs so they could modify
the diet to be more beneficial in the long-term. Her husband had already started
to see the initial results taper off and was not feeling as well on the diet as
he had initially. He found out later that he was not eating enough protein and
chose to add more beans and lentils to his diet. Kimberly could not serve beans,
however, to her older son as he had a blood condition, thalassemia, that
was worsened when he consumed beans. His mother discovered that the hot-sauce
she used to flavor the bland vegetable dishes was making her irritable. As she
already had a hot constitution the heat of the herb was irritating her system.
Her daughter discovered she was allergic to carrots and felt much better when
she did not eat them. Kimberly's children needed more oil in their diet, as
natural oils found in eggs, olive oil and fish are beneficial for brain
development.
Note:
I recommend that anyone wishing to change their diet or embark on a healthier
eating plan to consult with a nutritionist first about their unique dietary
needs, their allergies, unique body structure and constitution, and genetic
tendencies.
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