Category Archives: Health

Why I’m A Vegetarian

I recently realized that the story of how I became a vegetarian and why I am still a vegetarian after 17 years would make a good article. I’ll start with how I became a vegetarian and follow it up with why I’ve remained vegetarian. Hopefully you find this at least entertaining, if not thought-provoking.

The Beginning

In my first year of college, my roomate was a vegan. This was in the early 90’s and the dorm cafeteria was terribly un-vegan friendly. For every meal, his only option was the salad bar and he usually had to pick out the bits of shredded cheese that had gotten mixed in with the lettuce. Often I sat across from him eating a hamburger and poking fun of him grazing on a salad. He talked to me about the benefits, how he felt healthier, and how it was better for the earth to not eat animal products. None of it had much impact on me at the time.

The following year we took a week long road trip. At the beginning of the trip I agreed to eat what he ate for a week and thus began my vegan/vegetarian experience. Eating vegan on the road is incredibly hard. Eating vegan on the road with a college student’s budget is even harder. I have a distinct memory of crouching in the bread isle of a convenience store somewhere in Ohio reading the ingredients of all the loaves of bread. Just about every loaf eventually had a dairy product somewhere near the bottom of the list. Surprisingly, Wonderbread Wheat was vegan so we picked that up and some peanut butter and jelly and had sandwiches for several days. We did eat better than just PB&J, and by the end of the week I was hooked. I felt better, I felt lighter, and the ethics of not eating animals was starting to get into my head.

No Turning Back

That was January of 1992, and I haven’t (willfully) eaten animal flesh since then, with the exception of fish occasionally which I’ll get into later. I’ve had my ups and downs, I’ve been overweight and lost weight, but I am happy to say that I am still a steadfast vegetarian. Using this handy calculator on the PETA website, I can proudly say that by not eating meat I have saved the lives of 4,760 animals. Adding in my whole family shows we have saved almost 15,000 animal lives! That is pretty cool.

Do you have a story about how you got turned on to being vegetarian or vegan? Are you currently a meat eater, but considering changing? Be sure to let me know.

Food Sensitivity Testing

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This post is about our excellent success with getting food sensitivity testing for myself and my son. We had it done through Immuno Laboratories and we were happy with the results and impressed with the process and the informational packet we received.

For several years, my son had suffered from sinus infections, congestion, and getting sick frequently. I as well have had sinus issues and even though I have found great relief from using a Neti pot daily (More about that in my articles here and here). We had tried a great deal of things for my son, including ear tubes, adenoid removal, and sinus surgery. Our ENT said his frontal sinuses were almost completely blocked with polyps when he did the sinus surgery to remove them and clear out the sinuses. This helped for a while, but eventually he started getting sick again. We took him to Allergists, and even pursued immune system tests and other systemic causes. I had heard about food sensitivity testing from my Chiropractor and from other sources. We finally decided to get my son and I tested.

What Is Food Sensitivity
Food sensitivity is similar to an allergy, but different in significant ways. Allergies are immediate and direct reactions to food or other things like pollen, pet dander, etc. In doctor-speak, these are called IgE reactions. Food sensitivity testing checks for more latent reactions, called IgG. These are not immediate reactions, but rather slow-burning reactions. It is almost as if the body is overreacting to the item in question. This can manifest as excess mucus production, swelling, inflammation, etc. It can reduce your immune system and make you susceptible to getting sick.

The Process Of Testing
Immuno Laboratories Info Packet I will focus on Immuno Labs, since that is the company we used and they are well known in the field. The testing must be processed through a Dr. who has some affiliation with Immuno Labs. They have good information on their website for finding a local doctor affiliate. We had discussed testing with our ENT and he was looking into it, but we went ahead and got tested through my Chiropractor who had an established account with Immuno Labs. From your affiliated doctor, you get a small cardboard box with instructions and blood vials. This must be taken to a clinical lab that can draw blood. Our local lab charged $24 each to draw the blood and properly centrifuge it according to the instructions. Once we had the completed boxes, we used the enclosed Fed-Ex labels and sent them to Immuno Labs. Within a week, we received very complete plastic binders with our test results along with several DVDs and a great informational packet.

Testing Tips

Check with your insurance, ours covered the testing 100%.
Keep your deductible in mind. We did ours at the end of the year, after all our deductible had been met. Waiting until January would have been expensive.
Follow the directions carefully. The process is simple, but since it must be sent in it is good to try to get it right the first time

Test Results
Your results will include a list of “reactive test results” as well as a list of “non-reactive test results”. Here is what mine looked like.

My Results From Immuno Labs

This tells you which foods you had an IgG reaction to and which other foods were tested that had no IgG reaction. Note that having an IgG reaction does not necessarily mean that food is problematic. Once you have your results, the best thing to do is an elimination diet (more on that in a future post) and get rid of everything on your list. My son and I did that for 4 months and we both had great success. Neither one of us got a sinus infection and we both felt much better. Once you reach a good place like that, then you can add individual foods back into your diet and try to figure out which ones are problematic.

Have you considered getting tested, or have you already gone through the testing? What has your experience been and did it help you at all. If you are considering testing as a possible remedy for unexplained sickness, I highly recommend it.

Go Veg – Save The World

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Here is a big Logan Challenge – try going vegetarian. If you have even been thinking about eating less meat, Earth Day is a great reason to hopefully push you over the edge and try it.

Why Earth Day?

So how is being a vegetarian related to Earth Day?

Pollution: animals raised for food in the USA produce 130 times more excrement than the human population
Pollution: raising animals for food causes more global warming than cars, planes, ships, trains, and SUVs in the world combined
Resources: More than 1/2 of the water used in the USA is used for raising animals for food
Resources: More than 1/3 of all USA raw materials and fossil fuel usage is for raising animals for food
Land: For each 1 acre of American forest cleared for parking lots, roads, houses, and shopping malls, 7 acres of forest are converted into land for grazing livestock and/or growing livestock feed
Land: 20 times more land is required to feed a meat-eater than to feed a vegetarian
Waste: it takes 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of meat

So you can’t really call yourself an environmentalist if you eat meat. Raising meat for food is the number one cause of greenhouse gases and switching to a vegetarian diet is more eco-friendly than driving a hybrid car.

How To Get Started

For more information and to get active about it, check out peta2.com/meatsnotgreen on PETA’s website.

Start in any way you can. Cold turkey (pun intended) is the best – just stop eating meat. If you can’t do that then make a change that you can handle. Try eating vegetarian for 3 days a week. Then expand from there.

For help getting started order (or download) the free vegetarian starter kit from the PETA website.

Make sure to let me know your results if you decide to start living vegetarian.

Weight Loss And Weight Control – Part II

Weight Loss And Weight Control – Part I

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Even being a vegetarian for 17 years hasn’t prevented me from falling victim to one of America’s biggest problems – overeating and being overweight. I’m 6’1″ and my idea weight is around 175. At my heaviest I was over 210. No, that isn’t a huge deal, but it really slowed me down and made me feel bad about myself.

I got in the habit of eating for comfort and eating because I felt like it. Over the course of about 6 months, I lost over 35 pounds and got back down to 175. Since then, I have successfully kept the weight off and now manage to stay between 175 and 180. Adjust the numbers for your own height and body type, but I can share with you how I managed to lose my weight and keep it off. I found a nice, simple ideal weight calculator at this site.

Over the next few posts, I will share several of the best tips of things that have worked for me, including the one thing that I did that helped me shed 10 pounds in a matter of a few weeks. Also, I have some great observations on what has happened to my body and how it can traslate to helping you lose weight and keep it off.

Keeping Your Nose Clean – Part 2

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The other day I posted about using a neti pot and the benefits I have gotten from that. There is an alternative which is similar, but a little easier to use called the NeilMed system. The concept is the same as the neti pot- it is a salt water rinse of the nose. It uses pressurized salt water instead of relying on gravity like the neti pot does.

Why

I like the neti pot and ususally stick to using that system. I do like to occasionally use the NeilMed either for a change of pace, or when the pressurized flow is helpful, like when I am a little bit congested.

The other reason I use the NeilMed is for my children. For anyone younger or anyone who has struggled trying the neti pot this is a great alternative. I can help use the NeilMed squeeze bottle on them when it would be much harder to try to help get all the angles right and tip the pot just right.

Adult NeilMed squeeze bottle

The System

NeilMed squeeze bottles are available at many drug stores. I have found them locally at WalGreens, CVS, and places like Target. They sell them in adult and pediatric sizes. When you initially purchase a bottle it usually comes with a supply of little packets of pre-measued salt to make a proper salt solution. There are different packets available for adult, adult extra-salty, and pediatric to match your needs and type of bottle. Once you have used up your supply of included salt packets they sell refil kits so you can just buy the salt without the bottle. I have found that the pediatric refills are harder to find and had to go to a specialty local pharmacy to find them.

The Salt

Here again, it is much cheaper to buy salt in bulk and measure it out yourself. I do find that my kids don’t like the “sea” quality of the sea salt I buy, and the packets are very convenient for them, so I do buy the pediatric refills. The packets are premeasured and easy to use and the salt is a special blend and seems to be very mild.

Process

The process is very similar to the neti pot. Start by running the hot water until it is warm, but not hot. You can either put the salt in first or water in first, but get them both into the bottle. Screw the cap on tight, put your finger over the hole and turn the bottle upside down to mix the salt, and then you are ready to go. Tilt your head slightly to the left and insert the bottle tip into the right nostril. Now squeeze firmly – I’ve found that slow and steady squeezing works the best. You can either use the entire bottle up and repeat for the other side, or switch sides when the bottle is about half full.

Be very careful of using too much squeeze pressure. You can easily force water out towards your ears – especially if you are a little congested – and this is very unpleasant.

NeilMed plastic neti pot

Other Thoughts

NeilMed includes a nice detailed pamphlet along with their products. It is a good read to get more information on the benefits of salt water rinsing of the nose. Also of note is that they sell a pretty decent plastic net pot like the one pictured here which is a good way to try that route out.

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