I’ve been spending a lot of time with my nose in a book lately.  I’m in between contracts with my LeapFrog work and that means I have time on my hands, in between working a full time job, running my kids around, and keeping up with housework and cooking.  (My first year contract with LeapFrog has expired and now they are writing my new contract with the legal department.  I know from last year’s experience that this may take several weeks.  I’m enjoying my time off, but also missing the work!)  I’ve been using my spare time to catch up on some reading, and I’ve been reading just for the health of it.

I’ve always been pretty sickly.  My mom claims they named an entire wing of the walk-in clinic after me, as a kid, because we spent so much money there.  Over the years, I’ve been told I have Graves disease, sinus disease, kidney disease, reactive airway disease, Diverticulitis, and I get chronic cases of Strep Throat.  To top it off, I get EVERY SINGLE illness that walks in my kindergarten classroom.  I just seem to have a weak immune system.  Combine all of those things with Migraines, and I’m usually a mess.  I’ve been working with a Naturopath for the the past few years and I’m doing much better, in the health department. I attribute part of my increased health to Botox injected in my scalp and the back of my neck every three month, for headaches, and the discovery of gene mutation that caused my immune system to be weaker than normal.

That brings me to my reading material for the past few weeks.  While I’m not saying that I’m going gluten free and dairy free, I have been trying to incorporate these recipes into our daily lives. All of the books that my Naturopath suggested talked about the evils of dairy and gluten, and how they cause inflammation.  Inflammation has been my enemy, in all of my illnesses.  Every time I get something like a chronic migraines, an airway flair up, or Strep, they give me Steroids.  Steroids really help, but essentially all they do is reduce inflammation.  Well, if I could reduce the inflammation in my body without drugs, wouldn’t that be nice?  Diet is the key to reducing inflammation, and gluten and dairy are the biggest contributors to inflammation

 It was kind of a funny experiment.  Over the weekend, we went on a mini ski trip and I ate a burger for dinner one night, pancakes for breakfast, and pizza for lunch (and there may have been a few chocolate chip cookies in there too).  My face, especially my eyes, were completely swollen the day after I got home.  I think the combination of dairy and gluten was a shock to my system, since I hadn’t eaten them for a while.  I can’t really be sure if that’s what caused it, but it was an interesting experiment. 

I think I’ll go eat some leftover butternut squash soup (without cheese) and curl up with book about the Paleo diet.

Happy reading and healthy eating!