a new way of eating

After several divine encounters last week (truly amazing), I came to the conclusion that Elliott's body's pH is off and he is probably deficient in some essential minerals needed to naturally buffer acids and maintain normal pH. My Nancy Drew investigation led me further to conclude that this finding could account for his chronic reflux, his muscle tension and odd hand and eye movements and his regular tantrums. So as of Sunday we have radically changed his (and for the most part all of our) diet.

Two of my encounters last week were with people who live a raw food lifestyle. I had long and fascinating conversations with each of them and discovered later that this is the ultimate pH balancing diet. We are not going quite that far, but (for Elliott) we have cut all dairy, all gluten, all processed foods, as much sugar as possible, and all meat other than white meat chicken (locally raised without hormones). We are also giving him Omega 3 and a probiotic supplement and visiting an absolutely wonderful chiropractor twice a week (covered by insurance - another God send!). In less than a week, we have already witnessed giant leaps. No tantrums, less sleepiness, better attention. The afternoon of his first adjustment at the chiropractor he sat in the living room and put all of his matchbox cars in a perfect row (never done anything like that before) then leaned over them when Liam approached and said "Mine!" (another first) Maybe a coincidence, but it made me well up with tears of hope none the less.

Whether the marked improvements will continue remains to be seen, but I am 100 percent sure that moving away from easy dinners of pizza, quesadillas and chicken nuggets is better for all of us. And our lunchtime ritual of nutrient-rich smoothies - full of calcium and magnesium-rich spinach - has become one of my favorite parts of the day. Elliott sucks them down. And Liam (as long as they are not green - thank you blueberries) loves them, too. I highly, highly recommend this approach to adding good foods to a child's diet. There are so many smoothie recipes out there but I just make stuff up based on what we have.

Here is one of our recent favorites. All measurements are approximate since I don't measure anything.

Mmmm Good Green Smoothie
1/2 cup coconut milk (or almond milk)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 sliced peach
handful of fresh or frozen strawberries (no sugar)
1/2 banana
2 big handfuls fresh spinach
2 T flax seed meal

Smoothies are also a great place to hide supplements. I stir in the powder from vitamin D capsules and, for Elliott, a probiotic. All that good stuff and they have no idea. I love it!