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Things That Make Me Go “Huh?”
EXHIBIT A: DAIRY RELIEF
While working with an elderly woman for therapy at the skilled nursing facility, I noticed this empty packet on her breakfast tray. It would appear that my patient is lactose intolerant, which means she produces insufficient levels of lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose (milk sugar) into glucose and galactose.
This chewable tablet is taken for the purpose of being able to consume lactose– i.e. dairy products– without incurring the symptoms of lactose intolerance: abdominal bloating, cramps, gas, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.
What is milk? Food for babies.
Once solid food is introduced, it’s the natural progression for mammals to wean off momma’s milk. People do it. Cows do it. Goats and sheep do it.
It’s natural to stop drinking milk after infancy (including the early toddler years). It’s normal to stop producing lactase, because you shouldn’t need lactase if you won’t be consuming lactose.
If you produce the lactace enzyme beyond the typical age of weaning, it’s called lactase persistence. Worldwide, lactace persistence is the exception, not the rule.
I grew up thinking it was normal to drink milk from cows. This is because I was indoctrinated by my dairy-consuming culture to think this way. I never questioned it because it was all that I knew. It never occurred to me that humans drinking cow’s milk is actually quite bizarre.
Alas, the dairy industry is a propaganda machine. So is Big Pharma.
Who concocted the idea that lactose intolerance– a normal biological process– should be considered a medical condition? Dairy producers? Drug companies? Both?
Brilliant, huh? Dairy producers are happy because they can keeping pushing dairy products on people. And pharmaceutical companies are more than happy to supply people with just the right pill to “pop.”
Dear Lactose Intolerant People,
THINK about it. You don’t need dairy products. Milk from a cow (or a goat or a sheep or any other animal) is not a dietary necessity for humans. If your body is telling you that you cannot properly digest lactose, then LISTEN and STOP. It really is that simple. And, not only are dairy products not necessary, but they are actually implicated in a variety of preventable human diseases.
There are also significant ethical problems with dairy, whether produced by small or large scale operations, and whether produced by conventional or organic dairies.
I haven’t consumed animal milk for nearly 4 years. Weaning off animal milk is much easier than you might think. Once you take dairy out of your diet, you might just say “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”
I am happy to help anyone who needs help weaning off dairy. Contact me.
In closing, taking a pill– Dairy Relief– to digest a substance that is completely unnecessary in the human diet just makes me want to go “Huh?”
Every day that I go to work, I nearly go crazy…and here’s why…
Chicken Lasagna with Creamy White Sauce
The food. Nursing home food. It’s the same everywhere, so I‘m not picking on my employer. In my 15-year career as an Occupational Therapist, I’ve worked in at least a couple dozen Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF). Hospital food is no different- I’ve worked in plenty of them, too.
The food at all of these places for sick and functionally impaired folks is abysmal. Can we really call it food? Make no mistake- this is a system-wide “healthcare” (i.e.- “keep you sick”) problem. Shall we thank our government and the USDA?
Here is an average diagnosis list for the typical patient I see in rehabilitation every day: HTN (high blood pressure), Hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), CAD (coronary artery disease), DM (diabetes), OA (osteoarthritis), and dementia.
Many have a history of CVA (stroke) and/or cancer. Also, recurrent “antibiotic resistant” urinary tract infections are all too common ( MRSA – Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus).
This week I met a relatively rare specimen. She’s a “younger” woman (i.e. 70 years old) who fractured her leg while pruning a garden tree. She said to me, “I eat organic. I juice my vegetables. I eat kale.” She was “horrified” (her words) to have been served a hot dog and french fries for dinner on her first evening (with cake for dessert!) I truly felt her pain.
Now, let’s say you were admitted to the SNF with a CABG x 4 (a four-vessel Coronary Artery Bypass Graft) at mid-morning that same day. What did your nurse’s aide bring you for lunch?
“Beef Pot Roast, Baked Potato with Sour Cream, Green Beans and Strawberry Bavarian Cream with Whipped Topping.”
Translation?
Lunch: beef, white potato, dairy, vegetable, white flour, sugar/HFCS, and oil/trans fats.
Dinner: high-sodium/high-fat/high-Nitrite animal trimmings, fried white potato, refined flour, and refined sugar.
The menu comes from “Dietician Consulting Service.” I guess these would be the Dieticians who promote chronic illness and death? Gee whiz, I must be naive to assume that a Dietician’s JOB is to develop menu plans with good nutrition.
I still have a menu from last summer, when the residents/patients were served grilled cheeseburger, french fries, and a root beer float for lunch, and then 3-cheese macaroni and cheese, peas, dinner roll with margarine, and an ice cream bar for dinner. I kid you not!
Can you believe that the daily meal plans consist primarily of meat, dairy, refined flour, white potatoes, refined sugar, unhealthy fats, and a very little vegetative matter? This is a healthy, balanced diet?
Not according to my lady patient with the lower leg cast. She must go out of her way to secure her own nourishing food. Your new coronary artery graft doesn’t have a prayer. There’s a very good chance you’ll become “vegetative” if you eat these non-nutritive substances.
Got fiber? Nope. Add your pain medications into the mix, and you’ve got some serious constipation. (No problem- you can rely on Milk of Magnesia, enemas, and/or manual fecal extraction.)
Veggies- WHERE ARE YOU?!?
The “Dietician Consulting Service” menu is devoid of nutrient density. It’s critically low in whole fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, beans, whole grains, and nuts/seeds. It’s critically low in fiber, phytochemicals (“phyto” means plant), anti-oxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds. It’s disease-promoting and death-promoting.
I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the animals eaten every morning, noon and evening of every day, of every week, for every meal on this menu come from the worst of the very worst of the Hell holes called factory farms.
Now…are you surprised that going to work makes me nearly go crazy?
Freeheel Vegan 