Corn Syrup and beyond

After about a month of no HFCS and totally purging our cupboards, we looked into just corn syrup. There was not a lot of information on the net about it being horrible like HFCS but since my health problems were gone and my husband's arthritis was better, we decided to drop that too. We were still dropping weight and feeling a lot better.

Things stayed the same with our diet. Then we went off on the dog's diet. We researched a raw food diet and their health improved. They both have thyroid problems and it helped them a lot. I will write a whole section on that adventure soon.

Then December 2006 came and my father in law was dying. It was Christmas eve and trying to get someone out to even give us an assessment was not happening. Our doctor was out of town and the on call said she would do nothing unless I called and ordered him onto hospice. His kidneys were shutting down and he was in pain and we had already promised him no hospital. He is 89 and I was going to respect his wishes. I wanted some pain medication but it was not to be had. I called hospice and while I was setting it up the nurse said something that triggered the next year of research. Poor old man, his kidneys can no longer process the chemicals in the food. huh?

So I said I would call back, got on the computer and for breakfast, he was in pain, but wanted breakfast, I gave him a 100% organic diet. For lunch I got rid of his favorite little cups of food for children, ravioli, mac and cheese, etc that had a prominent label of "modified food starch" His kidneys started working again. Once, several months later we took him out to lunch and he ate two breakfast sausage things and was sick for two days with his kidneys messing up again. We checked and it was full of modified food starch.

So we got rid of modified food starch. I was still losing weight and people were commenting and wanting to know what diet I was on. Just quitting HFCS. One person accused me of dieting and lying about it. I am still not on a diet!

Then I started noticing my sinus headaches were not as severe, not happening as often. I am not sure now what triggered it, but I started suspecting I had a problem with corn anything. Now a year had passed and I had dropped 3 sizes and still was not dieting. I was altering clothes, giving clothes away. That was hard. I had pretty much been the same weight for 15 years and I had some fabulous plus size clothes.

So we did research and got rid of anything we knew was corn. The headaches went to just a couple a week. I had a very low grade headache for years and thought it was pollution and took aspirin every day. And Excedrin when it got bad. It was weird to not have that pressure in my head that had been there for years. My irritability I fought and kept inside went away. And my mood swings where I cried and thought it was hormones went away too.

So the summer was spent finding out what all corn was in. Rudy's organic bread made me so sick. No corn on the label. Call the 800 number. I love those 800 numbers. Cultured wheat flour. It is soaked in vinegar and dried to inhibit mold. Vinegar is made from corn.

The most amazing phone call and led to a phone call a day for 3 months to various companies started innocently enough when I called the Kashi Cereal company just wanting to know what "natural flavors" meant.

I was told it was "proprietary" information and they wouldn't tell me. It took 6 phone calls to 6 different department and threatening to call consumer activists to find out that their natural flavor and secret ingredient is maltodextrin!

I did learn after about 10 calls to various companies that most will not tell you and some don't even know what is in their products. They buy their natural flavors from the flavor lab! But if you tell them you are allergic to corn they will get back to you and let you know if it has corn in it. Very very few didn't have corn.

My favorite was Honest Tea. I called and the guy who answered said he would get back to me. He called and told me the flavor lab told him some long chemical name. I said what is it? He said I don't know. And I said you are selling tea, calling it Honest tea and you don't know what is in it? He said, you got me there.

Organic chicken stock. "Natural chicken flavor". I called them and was told it is a blend of soy and corn. I asked is there any chicken in the flavor and was told no.

Most organic food is not 100% organic. They are allowed a certain amount of chemicals and can still call it organic. Anything that says it is natural probably isn't.

Call those 800 numbers and ask what is in the food. It is amazing what they say they can't tell you. I always thought there was truth in labeling. When did it become ok to tell someone we won't tell you what you are eating?

Corn was in my aspirin, Excedrin, my vitamin C, EmergenC, We found powdered aspirin and I don't need it too much, except when I accidentally eat something with corn in it. Which is a lot as we are still finding stuff. We found out today that citric acid is corn. Hand sanitizer is made with corn. That vegetable spray wash is made with corn.

As of right now I have dropped 4 sizes. I have been stable for a month as I ate a half a birthday cake, found good ladoos, tried jaggery and made a pecan pie for Thanksgiving and my husband keeps making au gratin potatoes. I feel like I have overeaten by a lot and my weight has stayed the same. Now that it is December, I want to go back to the same foods I was eating for a year and half and my weight kept dropping. I told John he has to fix different foods than au gratin potatoes and no more ladoos and pecan pie. He made cole slaw today. He made it with rice wine vinegar and it was awesome.