About 2 years ago I spent several months as a "pescetarian". Now before you think I have flipped out and dropped my Christian roots and joined a cult to hand out “meat is murder” pamphlets and pose nude for Pita let me explain. (Sorry for the posing nude visual)
According to Wikipedia a Pescetarianism is the practice of a diet that includes seafood, and excludes other animals. In addition to fish and or shellfish, a pescetarian diet typically includes some or all vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, eggs and dairy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary dates the origin of the term "pescetarian" to 1993 and defines it to mean: "one whose diet includes fish but no meat".
As you may remember if you read my blog then I was on a one year journey to better health. I wouldn't say I failed but I wouldn't say I did what I set out to do either. Phase one I dropped all red meat, pork, energy drinks and soda. Phase two I dropped poultry, phase three dropped all meat and went vegetarian, and phase four I stuck to my vegetarian phase and whenever possible make it all organic. During all of that time I was adding certain vitamins and supplements to my daily regime.
At the start of the final phase I was offered my job at Lucille's and as you can imagine I was once again inundated with meat of all kinds.
So as I found a desire to start blogging again and I wanted to revisit some of the most significant results and start my blog again there. This probably will be my longest post but please read the whole thing…I did a lot of studying for it.
1. I felt much better without all the energy drinks and soda! That is the biggest difference. This was also the hardest to drop. I notice my joints feel so much better. The truth is that my joints are a mess from years of abuse, but they are better than they were. I am looking forward to seeing them continue to feel better as I lose some weight. I am convinced the weight loss will be more apparent on phase two. If you pay attention to the news at all the soda and energy drink companies have been taking a beating the last few weeks…as they should! A new study suggested that people drinking diet soda regularly may raise the risk of stroke by 61 percent. Researchers at the University Of Miami Miller School Of Medicine studied soda habits of 2,564 people for more than 9 years to see if there was an association with stroke.The subjects, who were 69 years of age on average, completed food questionnaires about the type of soda they drank and how often. Results showed that those who drank diet soda daily compared to those who drank no soda were 61 percent more likely to have a vascular event.
The study goes on to say that the numbers are nearly the same for heart attacks as they are for strokes. This is shocking and alarming to me! I was up to nearly a 6 pack a day! I think that almost everyone I know drinks more soda than they realize. Here’s the kicker…it’s not the soda that is killing us. It is the ASPERTAME. I know we have heard this for years, but I am now a believer from the affects I have noticed on my own body through this experiment. Here is the science behind it…it’s worth reading I promise.
When you drink a diet soda, your body breaks down the aspartame into aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol, one molecule of each.aspartic acid is harmless; it’s broken down into alanine, an amino acid, and oxaloacetate, an organic compound. Phenylalanine is an allergen to some people. It is broken down into mostly tyrosine, an amino acid, and to a lesser extent into phenylethylamine, an alkaloid, and phenylpyruvate.
METHANOL IS THE REAL CULPRIT!
Methanol (wood alcohol) is broken down into formic acid (the toxin in ant bites) and formaldehyde which is a carcinogen. Each diet soda with aspartame produces about 20 mg of methanol. The methanol breaks down further into 6 mg of formaldehyde which is three times the daily EPA limit. I believe we are killing our self with artificial sweeteners when God built sugar by his design and made it just for us to use. Besides, who has ever been bitten by an ant and said…Hmmm, I bet that ant venom tastes great!Some would argue that sugar is also bad for us and I would agree to a certain extent.
I would agree that ANYTHING is bad for us when we do not use moderation and self control. My wife is reading a book titled “Reshaping It All” by Candace Cameron Bure. Yes…DJ from full house and sister to Kirk Cameron. I laughed at first and thought this was a book by another over privileged actress and wife of a super star athlete. She is married to NHL star Valeri Bure. I assumed it was ghost written and would just be another lame self help book. I was wrong. Ill even go as far to say I was very wrong. Moms go get it and read it! I see the change it is having on our home. It isn’t just about weight, it speaks of self control we all need in the home as well.
In it she speaks of her weight struggles and points out that food had become a sin issue for her. She didn’t have self control. When my wife described how Candace worded it in the book a light went off in both of our heads. If the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, then maybe it is the self control part I have an issue with. Please do not take this as a direct quote from her book, I am paraphrasing. However…It makes total sense. I am not going to poison my body with a diet soda and drink something God didn’t design for it when I could have a regular drink sweetened with the product he made for me! Then I will show self control in the amount I consume.
A while back I took Kayce to lunch at Firenze Osteria in L.A.. It is owned and operated by Chef Fabio Viviani of the TV show Top Chef. He was providing lunch while discussing food issues and showing the crowd how to make fresh pasta and gnocchi. His point of view was refreshing to me. To see another chef adopting the idea that we do not need these chemicals in our food is comforting. Friends, processed food while delicious at times and easy is killing us. When you see red heart shaped chicken nuggets in the grocery store and we feed them to our kids on Valentine ’s Day for a fun little treat…do you know what you’re REALLY feeding them? This was his analogy:
“Lemonade in our stores is made with lemon flavored chemicals & our furniture cleaner boasts of how it is made with real lemons. It might be healthier to just go home & lick my dresser!”
- Chef Fabio Viviani
Fabio I couldn’t have said it better. The point he was making about pasta being unhealthy to some people. He stated pasta is simple, its Flour, Eggs, Olive Oil, Salt, and Pepper. Can those things be bad for you? Yep. Eat them applying the self control I mentioned above though and they are fine. More often than not we have an issue in our health because we abused it at one point. You cant have salt due to a blood pressure problem? Well what did you (me) do in order to get ones self to the point of a problem? See what I am saying? We only have one life and one body. You need to fuel it correctly. Food allergies are on the rise (gluten especially) because of what we have done to our surroundings, environment and diet. If not why didn’t our grandparents and great grandparents have the gluten issues of today? So soda, I quit you, and Aspartame, I got my eye on you. Now for part 2, it will be shorter I promise.
2. I didn’t lose weight on phase one. I surely thought I would lose weight cutting out burgers and bacon. Not a single steak or pork chop during the first 90 days! How is it that I cut out red meat, soda, sugar filled energy drinks, and pork and didn’t lose weight? Even more frustrating? How did I GAIN 4 pounds?! Simple…
My name is Cameron and I am an addict.
I don’t say this lightly, I know addiction is not a joking matter. I have seen in it many people’s lives that when they are smoker, an alcoholic, or a drug addict that they replace the thing they got rid of with another. It is a self prescribed replacement therapy and it is just as bad for you as what you were trying to quit. Even some people who have gastric bypass surgey replace their food addiction with drugs, alchohol, or sex addictions. Read the studies! The numbers are staggering. Alchohol, food and sex are a natural and wonderful part of life but with out the self control I continue to mention they can all ruin your life.
I as a sinner was not showing the restraint I needed in order to have good self control. I have come to the realization that my passion for food can be a tool for my career for sure, but misdirected and handled incorrectly it is a wedge between God and I. It is a drug that makes me a weak, fat, slow glutton unable to show that fruit of the spirit named self control. The scale and your belt don’t lie.
When you drop soda and don’t replace it with water and tea you have a problem. I drank a lot of iced tea! However, I did notice I had more beer. It was that craving for the crisp bubbly feeling soda gives and that is worse for you in a caloric sense. I also ate a lot more chicken. People no matter how hard to try to make your case, Chick Fil A and Fried chicken are not a good replacement for the things I dropped. “But a Chick Fil A sandwich is under 10 points on weight watchers!” Who cares, I know you had fries and sweet tea with it! I found myself cooking better but I also found myself cooking RICHER. I am also a restaurant chef. I am used to cooking for large amounts of people at a time. So I would always have left over’s.
3. My third and final observation is this. The better we look the better we feel. The better we feel usually the better our moods. The better our moods the better our relationships, and the better our relationships the better our lives in general are. I once heard that as a man that is in a marriage grows closer to God he grows as a leader to his wife and children. As a woman that is in a marriage grows closer to God she grows as a supporter and nurturer to her husband and children. The closer they both grow to God the closer they grow to each other. Picture a triangle and you are at the bottom of one end and your spouse at the other. You’re still connected but the closer you get to God whom is at the top of the pyramid the closer you grow to one another.
Healthier life, healthier marriage, healthier family and longer life expectancy when you drop all the chemicals. I do believe I am on to something here.
I by NO means expect anyone to take this and implement it into their lives. I also pass no judgment on those whom don’t! Call me up! Let’s go hit a Five Guys Burgers & Fries, or a Fuddruckers! (I eat at my restaurant far too often) I’ll be happy to find whatever is on the menu I can eat in moderation and realize the real gift is time spent with a friend. Love you all. Have a great day. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say in response.
Posted with Blogsy
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8
