In Papua New Guinea before the advancement of modern society brought processed foods to that area, when people still ate a natural diet, even though almost the entire population were heavy smokers, (and most began smoking as children) modern diseases were relatively rare, even diseases that modern medicine associates with smoking. It wasn’t until after the structure of society changed to include modern convenience foods that this changed. Now, what does that tell you? I am certainly not promoting smoking or saying that it is ok, especially with modern cigarettes and all the additives in the tobacco – which are as far away you can get from a natural substance as you can get after starting out with a plant. Imagine how much more healthy they would have been without the tobacco. (I will talk more about this in step 5)

The main thing I want to address in this article is the proven benefit of eating together around the table for mealtimes, without the distraction of the television or radio. When families eat together, it gives parents a chance to talk to their kids about what is going on in their lives and provides a natural setting for discussions on things happening in the news, drug awareness, stranger danger, or any number of other topics that might have an impact on your family.

When a parent takes the time to prepare wholesome food, I also believe (even though they may not show it) kids see that as an expression of love. Instead of opening a can of Spaghetti O’s, slopping it into a bowl, and then throwing it in the microwave and leaving them to eat alone in front of the TV set while you munch on something in front of your computer, consider taking an active interest in your family by talking with them as you all sit around the dinner table. This is a great way to get to know your kids. You might be surprised (maybe not) at what can come up at the table.

According to research done on the subject, in their article Correlations Between Family Meals and Psychosocial Well-being Among Adolescents, (see section at the end for further reading) “young people whose families routinely eat meals together spend more time on homework and reading for pleasure. Frequent family meals have also been related to better nutritional intake and a decreased risk for unhealthy weight control practices, substance use, sexual intercourse, and suicidal involvement.”

Also, in a report written by Sandy Procter, PhD, RD, LD for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service entitled Everyone to the Table: Family Meals Serve Us Well she found that “Very young children who share family meals show improved literacy skills when compared with children who did not have family meal opportunities.4 Children and adolescents who share meals with their parents have improved food habits – they tend to eat more fruits, vegetables and dairy foods, and less fried food and soft drinks at meals eaten with their families.5 Older adults who share meals with family and friends benefit not only by eating better, but also from the increased socialization. Intergenerational family meals help preserve and pass along family culture, traditions and values.” And also that “how often a family eats dinner together is a powerful indicator of whether a teen is likely to smoke, drink or use drugs and whether the teen is likely to perform well academically. Family meals help protect adolescents from developing disordered eating behaviors, according to a study done in 2004. Another study found that efforts to encourage and include adolescents in family meals and food preparation not only affect the child or teen as an individual, but also their interactions with family, school performance and relationships in the community and beyond. In other words, family meals help improve youths’ diet quality and their school and psychological performance.”

In The Family Dinner: Nutrition and Nurturing, Why it’s so important to eat together – and how to find the time by Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, LD, she gives a list of tips on how you can make time for family meals:

• Establish a minimum number of family meals per week that suits your lifestyle. Start slowly, and build up to a number that works with everyone’s schedule.
• Be prepared. Keep ingredients for healthful meals on hand so that preparation is easy and less time-consuming. Be sure to include lots of fruits and vegetables.
• Keep it simple. Family meals don’t need to be elaborate, just balanced, with plenty of healthful ingredients. Make meals that appeal to everyone in the family.
• Get the family involved in preparing meals and setting the table. If your children don’t learn basic kitchen skills, they’ll regret it by the time they’re off to college.
• Cook a big pot of something delicious during the weekend for easy meal prep on busy weekdays. Or try a crock-pot dish that you put together before leaving for work in the morning, and come home to the delicious smell of a cooked meal.
• Picking up take-out, ordering pizza, or going out to eat still counts as a family meal. Even when you don’t cook at home, take uninterrupted time to eat and enjoy one another’s company. (A note from HealthHeretic: For the benefits of family health and happiness, try to keep takeout to a minimum. Her other meal suggestions are much better, but require planning. We avoid takeout on a regular basis because you get healthier food when you cook meals at home, not to mention that eating out regularly puts a huge strain on the family budget. The #1 cause of divorce is financial tension. I agree that for sometimes, if it means a difference between eating together or not eating together, takeout is better than nothing, but an investment in meal planning time is well worth the effort and may save you a big headache later.)
• Make mealtime enjoyable so children will treasure the ritual. Leave the serious discussions and disciplinary action for some other time. Family meals are for healthy nourishment, comfort, and support.
• Share the family ritual with friends and extended family members. Kids love to eat dinner at their friend’s homes, and often discover new foods that way.
• Be flexible. Toddlers and young children have a tough time sitting still and will only last a short time at the family meal.
• Play soothing music, put flowers on the table, or light a candle to create a relaxing environment. (A note from HealthHeretic: Make the atmosphere relaxing yes, but I think this could easily be overdone. If you try to do too much when you are trying to save time and just bring everyone together, making things too fancy will just cause more stress in your life, especially if you have small children. Maybe it’s better to keep things like fancy decorations and candles for special occasions.)

At family mealtime what you want to do is focus on nurturing. Nurture the body with healthy whole foods, and nurture the mind with positive family interaction. Boost self esteem and confidence through the meal preparation process. For example, allow a small child to help set the table or other small things, and allow an older child to prepare simple dishes, teaching them along the way until they are able to prepare more and more complex recipes until they can create an entire meal by themselves. Finally, nurture by showing interest in every person in the family through conversation and by asking questions about how each family member’s day went, what they have to accomplish as far as homework or planned activities, notes that were sent home about upcoming activities for school, etc. Even a teenager can be a pleasant dinner companion. I see it happen every day and so can you!

Then when you are finished eating, involve the whole family in the clean up process (this is easiest, just like anything else, if you start out when they are small and still think washing dishes is fun!) Not only will this take some of the burden off of the parents, but being able to do this will give the kids a sense of pride in having done a good job and having been able to provide a needed service to other members of the family – everyone needs to feel needed and important!

For Further Reading:

Correlations Between Family Meals and Psychosocial Well-being Among Adolescents by Marla E. Eisenberg, ScD, MPH; Rachel E. Olson, MS; Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, PhD, MPH, RD; Mary Story, PhD, RD and Linda H. Bearinger, PhD, MS

Everyone to the Table: Family Meals Serve Us Well Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service

Family Meals Matter

Family Mealtime Is More than Just Sitting at the Table: New Study In Journal of the American Dietetic Association Reveals Nutritional Benefits by the American Dietetic Association

Cooking for Your Family: Meal Planning 101

Meal-Planning Strategy for Quick, Easy Dinners Every Night

My mother had a strong sense of wanting to be healthy, but of course since it was mostly out of necessity that she baked bread, toiled in a garden, canned fruit and froze vegetables, raised beef, chicken and rabbits, and milked a cow, once her finances improved we moved away from our small family homestead and bought a home. At the same time, our diet changed too. Nothing extremely unhealthy according to popular health, but our attempts to be healthy were not backed by sound principles.

For example, the home baked white bread was replaced by cheap store bought brown bread that was not actually whole wheat, home made butter was replaced with margarine which could be cheaply bought at .30 per pound, fresh milk replaced with pasteurized homogenized milk, and home grown vegetables were replaced with the bagged frozen kind. We still kept a garden, but it was smaller and not as heavily relied upon. My mother had started working, so time as well as cost was now factored in, resulting in a lot of pasta dinners.

I remember being very health conscious as a teenager, but as I moved out of the house and went to college, (I didn’t know it at the time) I was really very uneducated when it came to my own health. I believe that it was because of my early nutritional history that I never had to worry about my weight, and I was active in sports, so I was very fit in college I lived on what could be easily stored in a small shared refrigerator and practically no freezer. This meant mostly canned food and things that could last on a shelf. I tried to be healthy, but I was on a tight budget and all I had to go on was the food pyramid and popular medical beliefs. This got me by for a few years before I really noticed anything.

By then I was married and pregnant with MonkeyGirl my first child (she is now 13). My health took a dive. I gained nearly 50 pounds in a very short time, so I decided that the first time in my life I should diet. So I cut out fat, ate lots of crackers and salad. I gained even more weight. I had my second child (BrainBoy 10), and then even with regular exercise I was soon over 200 pounds. I threw myself into finishing school and then my work as a high school teacher, but I was tired all the time and I wasn’t getting any better. I now weighed too much to run and had to give it up. I finally went and had the doctor test me for a thyroid disorder.

My periods became erratic and I had started having hot flashes and I suffered from Insomnia and fatigue. The Doctor condescendingly told me I was fine and I should just lose weight. Easy for him to say. He obviously never had a weight problem in his whole life. I gave up on any hope of improved health. After teaching another two years, I resigned my post because I couldn’t handle the stress of teaching and trying to be a mom at the same time, along with the added pressure of my poor health. I woke up every morning wishing I could just die because the thought of living for the rest of my life feeling the way I did was too overwhelming.

Things changed when I was at the library looking at a discarded book sale. I ran across a book called Calories Don’t Count by a nutritional doctor who worked with weight loss patients and research (I no longer remember his name, and searches for this book online were fruitless). The title was somewhat misleading as it was mostly about fats and how they impact weight loss (I imagine that was the creative work of his publicist) but the idea that fats were essential in health and weight loss was a new idea for me. I was desperate, so I began choking down tablespoonfuls of cold pressed safflower oil (as per the books suggestion for its high content of fatty acids) and the first night I was overcome with a great surge of energy and was up half the night cleaning. (LOL)

My husband and family thought I had gone cuckoo (drinking vegetable oil) but I lost weight for the first time in several years, my nails and hair regained their shine and a severe skin irritation on my scalp that I had been dealing with for several years which made my head itch constantly and caused me to shed and caused scabs to form on my head went away completely within a month. This experiment is what first woke me up to the possibility that popular nutrition as we had been taught was based on untrue principles.

I went on from that point to read more in other sources about the health benefits of flax seed oil and added this to my daily regime along with organic whole wheat berries soaked on low heat in the oven each night. At this time I had stopped having periods completely and was having regular hot flashes and night sweats. BrainBoy was nearly five by this time, and I had given up on having any more children. after about two months on 2 Tbsp of flax seed oil a day I started having periods again and ended up quite suddenly pregnant! (I read more later and discovered that flax seed oil is a tonic for the female reproductive system!)

As I read more about healthy fats and nutrition, and combined that with knowledge I was gaining about herbs through my sister, HerbalMom who had begun studying herbs when she decided that she wanted more control of her own health and birth experiences, I began to realize that all of my life I had allowed myself to become dependent on ideas about health that were false even though I belong to a faith that encourages personal study and independence. I had made the mistake of assuming that the medical world had my best interests at heart. I knew better, but I hadn’t taken the initiative to study things out for myself and to educate myself in a very crucial area — my own health!

I didn’t get skinny, but for the first time in years I was feeling better — more energetic and less depressed. My strength was returning to my muscles and I could do more without getting tired. Soon we added JackJack to our family, and with this child, I really needed that added energy! With every small improvement have come added benefits, and my husband began to take notice. Now he doesn’t laugh at me quite so much and even asks me to find herbal remedies for this or the other when he isn’t feeling well. I really wanted a home birth with JackJack, but my husband (IronMan) wasn’t quite ready to take this step. It wasn’t until two years later when LittleBee, our fourth child, came along during a time when we had no health insurance. I was able to convince my husband that it would save us a considerable amount of money and that I would get a midwife. I also paid airfare for my sister to come out and help with the event.

It was an awesome experience, and all of my children were there for the birth which I think was an eye opening and beautiful experience for all of them. (They treat her with a special reverence that I have not seen among my children before) Even my four year old remembers it with a sense of awe. His only questions were about how she got in there to begin with! LOL If I had known birth experiences could be that wonderful, I would have never stepped inside of a hospital for the birth of any of my children! Even with an epidural, I was much more uncomfortable at the hospital than I was even during the hardest part of labor in the birthing tub!

Even our mother who was skeptical at first about fats, herbal remedies, and home childbirth is now educating herself about her own health, and friends and neighbors come to us for help with their illnesses. Because I enjoy seeing others benefit from being knowledgeable about these issues, along with my love for writing, has inspired me to start this website. I wanted to share the knowledge I have gained over the years, and hopefully save my readers some time on their own journey to knowledge and independence. Just because a doctor says you have to suffer because they can’t help you doesn’t mean it’s true . . . so read, study, and learn to take personal responsibility for your own health without simply taking someone else’s word for it!

My neurologist gave me a fancy looking box that contained the information on a drug they recommended. I remember the look on his face as I walked out of his office. It was a sad kind of look. I took the box home and looked through the information. What I understood from what I read was that I would have to give it to my self by injection in the same way that diabetics do and there was the possibility it would make me very sick, sort of like with the flu.

I could always choose another form that was injectable under the skin. It wouldn’t make me quite as sick, but it would cause a severe, very painful rash in most of the people who took it. Either form wouldn’t improve my condition, but would only reduce the chance of further attacks (otherwise known as exacerbations). Then there was the statement that those who might be or could become pregnant should not take this medication. Devastation began to flood into me, because one thing that I had always wanted more than anything else in the world was to be a mother.

I really didn’t like what I was reading, but I thought, “well maybe I am just going to have to make some sacrifices in order to stay well,” but when I went to the doctor to get a prescription, I was told that it would cost between two hundred and five hundred dollars per shot, and that I would need at least four injections per month. That would roughly come to around two thousand dollars a month. They also told me that my insurance wouldn’t cover it at that time because it was still considered to be an experimental treatment. The doctor told me that there where programs that will help people pay for these medications and he gave me a number to call so I could sign up for the program. I went home again without a prescription. I decided maybe I should re-think the situation.

I finally decided that if I was going to let somebody experiment on me, that somebody was going to be me. even if I didn’t have all the “medical knowledge”. I could get that knowledge. I know I wasn’t in it just to bring home a paycheck. I care about myself more than they possibly could and besides that, where would I find anyone motivated enough to actually help me get better? Sure there are doctors out there that really care, but why should I take that chance? I would rather take that chance on myself.

I had made my choice. I was not going the traditional route. I wanted to be well more than anything. I now had more hope for myself than I ever did. I began reading everything I could find on MS. One day I realized (after not reading everything I had printed after a week) that I was reading a two inch stack of paper every week. Wow, that was like reading a novel a week! I was printing it out on my sister’s printer. Sorry! I didn’t realize how much I would find. After this I stopped printing and just reading and taking down notes.

I tried several things that worked in varying degrees before I settled on my current self treatment. In my next article, I will discuss these in more detail, and outline what worked and what didn’t, and I will tell you what the pros and cons are of the more successful treatments that I tried. I will also discuss some of the more popular medical treatments and their current cost and rates of success.

Later in my life I was living on my own without a car. I walked everywhere. I was highly athletic and I loved playing sports and running. I was also an enthusiastic dancer. Despite my energetic lifestyle I could feel myself loosing energy and becoming more and more clumsy. It just didn’t make sense to me.

When I was 22 I made the decision to serve a volunteer mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I moved to Utah and began working as a hair stylist in a full-service salon to save money. I started noticing that it took longer for me to finish most of the services that I performed. I didn’t want anything to change my plans, so I pushed my health concerns to the back of my mind. I completed my physical hoping that the doctors wouldn’t find anything wrong and I sighed a breath of relief when they didn’t.
I finally received my mission assignment and accepted it gratefully. I was very excited and enthusiastically began to spend my hard earned money towards the clothing, supplies and vaccinations that were required. Not long after receiving my vaccinations, something strange began to happen. Fall was here and as the weather cooled, my feet began feeling strange. Not necessarily sore, but more numb. I figured this was because I had been standing too long on my feet. I started massaging my feet each day and I bought shoes that would give my feet better support, thinking this would resolve the problem.

I was usually very easy going and laid back, but for some reason I began losing my patience to the point that I felt so angry that I was ready to breathe fire the moment someone even slightly bothered me. My mother could barely tolerate me. She told me that she often felt was walking on eggshells because she never knew when I was going to explode. What was happening to me? I felt like a really angry person and I didn’t even know why.

The day arrived that I walked into the Missionary Training Center. It was an easy day. I remember that my family saw me off and soon I was in my room unpacking until dinnertime. I was feeling very lonely and missing my family already. The next day I started into the regular training routine: I was up and getting ready for the day at 6:30am and by the end of the day we were satisfactorily tired and glad to go to sleep.

One morning as I was walking through the brisk morning air, I noticed that my legs felt icy-hot. My head was pounding with pain. “Maybe I just need breakfast,” I told myself. I was having more days of feeling achy than not, but I chalked it up to the rigorous training schedule. I didn’t know how else to explain it all. Not even breakfast seemed to help much.

Excitement began to build in the dormitory due to upcoming transfers, as many of us were getting very close to going out into the “mission field”. The night before my transfer date, I was awake all night packing and imagining the great journey I was going to experience. I was up into the wee hours of the morning. I knew I was going to be tired the next day especially since I had done this type of thing before, and I knew I didn’t handle late nights very well. I tried to get some sleep once I was on the plane but sleep wouldn’t come.

Once off the plane we went straight to the mission office for an orientation. I found myself totally unable to concentrate and couldn’t even stay awake while they explained mission rules — I was really wishing I hadn’t stayed up so late by then. I managed to pick-up enough information to know what was expected of me, and then we headed off to the mission presidents home for a social gathering were we had a nice lunch and talked more about mission life. I ate quickly; just being glad I didn’t fall asleep on my plate. I smiled and nodded a lot since I barely knew what was happening around me. Finally we met our companions and were off to our apartments to unpack and then out to our appointments. All I wanted more than anything was to crash on my bed and catch-up on some sleep.

The next morning was no easier. I felt like none of the sleep I had that night made any difference. To top it off, my senior companion was such a work-a-holic! Of course with my new and unwelcome temperament, I basically gave her a piece of my mind. I tried hard to be nice. She let me go home and sleep, and I slept all day. When I woke up I felt better but not refreshed. I figured that sleeping all day wasn’t really that helpful. I prayed that night that I would wake up in the morning refreshed.

In the morning I felt refreshed and managed to slightly adjust to this new rigorous schedule, however I found it hard to wake up at 6:30 in the morning even though I had been waking up early for a couple of months by now. Every morning came the same way from that day on. My body just felt extremely compromised. I felt confused. The following days never seemed to get any better no matter how much rest I got. “Shouldn’t this get easier?” I asked myself.

P-day is a short way of saying preparation day. When we get finished with cleaning and other preparations for the week we often would go do something fun. One P-day my companion and I decided to jog to a P-day volleyball activity. I loved to run but I found myself walking most of the way; I was too tired to run. Other things also happened that were unusual for me. I had occasions that I would be running and my ankle would give way for unexplained reasons. I knew it could happen at anytime. At another P-day activity we were playing soccer. I loved playing soccer. I wasn’t ever on a team or anything but I knew how to kick a ball! This time, as I ran forward to kick the ball I missed completely and fell on my back. I really felt stupid. At the time it seemed like everyone thought I was just one of those girls who was not very athletic, and that I was making up excuses for my mistakes.

I talked with my mission mom about seeing a doctor. It took a while before she finally agreed, because at first she just thought that I was stressing out about little things. I sort of wonder if she thought I was a hypochondriac or something of that nature. I went to the doctor a few times, but the doctor didn’t find anything wrong with me. I didn’t want to worry my Mother and so I didn’t tell her about my symptoms until things began to get more serious. When I finally did, I just asked her if she would research what these symptoms could mean. I didn’t mention that I was experiencing them, but of course she saw right through it, and she called and talked to my mission mom with concerns that I could have Multiple Sclerosis and if that were the case I should get a diagnosis as soon as possible. My mission mom was skeptical, but nevertheless I went to the doctor once more, and this time I walked out of the office with a referral to see a neurologist.

When I went in for my first appointment the neurologist seemed cool and impersonal and he had a definite dislike for me as soon as he saw that I was an LDS missionary. He scheduled some testing for the next week. I remember the day of my testing very well. When I came in they had me change into one of those horrible gowns. A technician came in. The doctor informed me that the tech. was going to perform the test.

When the test was completed I waited for what seemed like forever. The doctor came in and stated that he couldn’t find anything wrong, so now he was going to perform a different test. This time he said that he was going to perform the test himself, and something about the way he said it made me feel nervous.

A cart with small machine was rolled in. The doctor asked me to lie down on the table. In his hand he held two small prods that reminded me very much of corn skewers, only much sharper. These were attached to long wires that went into the machine. Did I mention that I hate needles? But I was determined to go through with whatever testing was required so I could find out what was wrong and get back to my mission. The doctor jabbed the skewers into the top of the muscle of my arm then pushed a button on the machine which sent a small jolt of electricity that made my arm jump slightly. He repeated this procedure with the bottom of the muscle. He repeated this “test” about three more times and then repeated the entire process on my other arm and also my legs.

The doctor told me that he would send me the results of this test as he handed me a piece of gauze to dab the small drips of blood oozing from the jabs on my limbs. He then asked me if I ever felt sad. I thought that was an odd question but I answered anyway and said, “Sometimes, yeah.” I was thinking, “Who doesn’t?” Then he asked me if I ever considered an anti-depressant. I told him I wasn’t interested. I walked out thinking, “how rude!” Looking back I suppose my reaction could have been caused by my M.S. but I still feel like he could have been more sensitive.

When I got the results from the “test” the doctor was saying that I had some rare muscular disease. I shared this information with my mission mom. Neither of us thought it sounded right so she sent me back in for another examination with the neurologist.
When I went back in to the neurologist I told him what my mission mom had said to me and mentioned that there was some concern that I could have Multiple Sclerosis. He did a few more basic neurological tests and then told me that I would have to get an MRI in order to rule out M.S. When I told my mission mom the information the neurologist gave me they arranged a flight for me to go back to Utah for the MRI since it would be less expensive to do it that way. I made an effort to dress extra nice so my Mom would be impressed with me on my arrival, however, when I came off the plane, I was disappointed that all my Mom saw was that my eyes were blood-shot and that I looked extremely worn out. I was really sad about not being able to finish out my time out in the mission field, but I was just too tired to do the work and they didn’t know what was wrong with me.

Once I was home I didn’t know where to start. I needed to find a neurologist but I wanted to find one that knew what he was doing this time. I also thought I would need to have a referral from a doctor and I had many questions and doubts as to weather or not the doctor would know a good neurologist. I made it matter of prayer. I looked through the phone book and an impression came to me to go to a chiropractor. All kinds of ideas poured through my mind, but acting on faith I made an appointment with a chiropractor that I knew.

A few days later, I found myself in his office. He had a plaque on his wall showing he had and education in neurology, so I thought, ”this is good.” He examined me and adjusted my back and then gave me a referral to the neurological association in Salt Lake City. He said it was “the best neurological center in the nation” as far as he was concerned. I went home and made an appointment and I was in their office a week later. I was prepared again for some very unpleasant poking and prodding similar to what I experienced previously, but instead it was very pleasant in comparison. The doctor used a rubber hammer to test my reflexes. He did do some light pricks In order to test my limbs for numbness, lightly pricking my skin with a small pin. They had me walk around, close my eyes while standing, and touch my nose and things like that. When all tests were done the doctor felt he had come to the conclusion that he had found the most accurate areas for the MRI scans. Approximately a week later I was had my MRI. I don’t remember if they asked me to wear a gown or just to wear comfortable clothing, but I do remember having to lie on a table where they covered my eyes and locked my head in a brace, securing me to the table. Then I was asked not to move (not even to scratch my nose) during the process. I lay very still for nearly to two hours. They had to redo a couple of areas but otherwise, everything worked out fine.

I came back for a follow up the next week and they had found lesions on both my spine and my brain. One of the lesions on my brain was roughly the size of a nickel, and they informed me that I definitely had M.S. I asked if it they were certain, and the neurologist said they were but if I wanted to leave no doubt then I should have a spinal tap. I decided that it would be best to leave no doubt, so they assigned me to their M.S. specialist who performed the spinal tap a few days later. They also took blood to compare results.
A week later I went in for a follow up and received my diagnosis. Unlike many others I was actually relieved to know that I have M.S. because I felt like I might have been imagining all of my symptoms. Now I knew why I felt the way I did and I could learn to manage my illness. Since then, I have learned much more about managing M.S. and I feel comfortable enough that I would like to share what I have learned about managing Multiple Sclerosis with nutrition and supplements. In this series, I will be discussing the recommended treatments for M.S. that insurance companies will not pay for due to their experimental nature and which cost upwards of $8,000 dollars or more per month, and I will also be discussing the more natural rout that I took with my M.S.

I am a person with Cerebral and Spinal relapsing/remitting Multiple Sclerosis. But that is just the beginning of my story.