Over the top? You be the judge…

It seems like every day on this candida trip I’m on I’m changing how I do things, adding things, eradicating something, or becoming newly paranoid about yet another potential hazard in daily life.

I often wonder: What is more damaging? The stress of worrying about this stuff so much and letting it consume me (and it does) or, being ignorant, burying my head in the sand and “hoping for the best” in terms of what I put in mine and my family’s bodies (is that the right grammar there? Who even knows…).

I suspect neither are great but I simply can’t and will not conform to sheeple mentality and believe everything the good doctor tells me, or the government for that matter, accept what they tell me in the ads on TV that foods are good and wholesome (when clearly they’re not) and that organic food is just an unnecessary rip off.

It really bugs the crap out of me when I have to defend my decision not to give my kids fruit juice, ice cream or convenience foods. Or taking it up a notch; wheat, sugar and dairy. Or taking into “she’s completely lost the plot” zone; sunscreen, commercial toothpaste or shampoos with chemicals. I swear sometimes they’d be less horrified if I told them I like to butt out my cigarettes on their legs. I feel like screaming in their faces: DO SOME RESEARCH AND LEARN WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO YOUR CHILD, with their delicate hormonal and endocrine systems, developing brains and vulnerable digestive tracts. KNOW what is in that food you’re giving them, LEARN where it comes from, how it’s produced and how the manufacturer has little to no concern for your health or the health of your family, it’s all about money, money, money. I wish I didn’t let this bother me so much, but it does.

I love to read natural health newsletters and blogs and it seems every time I do I find something else that is dangerous and will probably give me a brain tumour. Two of my favourite sites are Dr Mercola and NaturalNews.com. When you read the information they post, it does seem like just about everything we eat, breath, sit on, sleep on, bathe in, douse ourselves with, is toxic. But, hell, that’s because it probably IS.

These are some of the things that, according to some members of my family and some people I work with, make me a neurotic nutter, but to me, are necessary in order to avoid toxins and, hopefully, get my candida issue in check:

*I don’t drink tap water. I believe fluoride is possibly one of the biggest health dupes in recent history. Geez….we have some toxic waste and we don’t know what to do with it? Here’s an idea! Let’s put it in the tap water and call it “good for your teeth”.

*I will only buy organic or at the very least grass fed red meat and free range chicken. Here in Australia, it is extortionately expensive (as I’m sure it is every place in the world) but I cannot feed my children meat that is full of antibiotics and hormones, from animals that are fed soy-based, artificial feed with God-knows-what in it.

*I don’t use a microwave. I’ve always thought it was kind of weird that a metal box with no actual radiant heat could heat up your food, apparently “from the inside”. It’s not until you do some research on this that you find that there is TONS of evidence out there that not only does microwaving deplete nutrients and deaden food, but it irradiates it as well. Not ideal.

*Dry skin brushing. This was something I learnt about on the Candida Support Group (Bee Wilder’s one) and I really like it. It works on the theory that the skin is the biggest organ of the body, and has to work to shed the gazillions of dead skin cells that it loses each day, and if you brush them away daily, the immune system can be busy doing something more important, like detoxing, rather than pushing skin-crud to the surface. It’s just basically using a small, hand held brush which you brush your skin with (upwards, towards the heart) which not only leaves really smooth skin, but stimulates your immune and lymphatic system, which again, allows toxins to be removed from your body.

*Coffee enemas. Yes, I know how completely weird this sounds if you haven’t heard about it before, but Google it. Coffee enemas are a very old (possibly ayurverdic practice??) which apparently causes the body to dump toxins quickly. And beating candida is all about detoxing. I haven’t done this yet but I have the “kit” in a box in my wardrobe. Something to look forward to, for sure.

*Oil pulling. Tried this for a few days…wasn’t overly impressed….will probably give it another go soon. People swear by it. I’m not so sure.

*I wont have the clock radio anywhere near my head at night. I went out and spent $150 on a new alarm clock on the weekend. Why? Because it has a remote control which means I can have it on the other side of the room AND still operate the snooze button. Nifty? I think so! Neurotic? Not at all, since it has been proving over and over that small electrical devices emit dangerous electro-magnetic fields that can alter the function of human cells. Do I want that anywhere near my brain for eight hours a night? No, of course I don’t.

I love this stuff. I love being the curator of my health destiny, I love that I am intelligent and inquisitive and discerning and that this empowers me to do the best I possibly can to protect my family’s health and not be hoodwinked by food manufacturers and medical people and the money hungry world in general.

Knowledge may be a burden at times, but ignorance is much, much worse.

I think I just answered my own question.