Processed Foods are Bad for You
I read and hear all the time about our modern day processed foods, and how they are responsible for people not living as long. I believe it.
When I was pregnant last year, I broke out in these terrible pinkish bruise bumps all over my legs from the knee down. I was having terrible pregnancy nausea and was on the couch literally all day, so I had no idea what they were from. A far fetched diagnosis was that they were flea bites, which I had seen none of, but they didn’t itch. So I went to see a dermatologist. I had previous to the pregnancy had a few bruises like this occasionally, one maybe two at a time. But I just thought they had something to do with going vegetarian, and were bruises that looked different. Who knows.
The doctor immediately diagnosed me with erythema nodosum. It is common for pregnant women to have this because it is somewhat of a hormonal reaction a lot of times, but in 50% of the cases they never find a diagnosis. It is not life threatening, although it can be an indication of life threatening conditions. It wasn’t something I wanted to hear being pregnant! I always did have some feeling that it had to do with becoming a vegetarian, with the main change in my diet being lots of soy milk. I had a feeling that it was the soy, and now a year later I am positive. The doctor said I had to have a few tests done to rule out some things like leukemia and a chest x-ray. Being pregnant this was really difficult, but several doctors told me it would be okay and due to the diagnosis it was pretty important I have it done. It was okay.
What I did, is I stopped drinking soy milk and switched back to cow milk. Pretty soon the bumps went away, and the doctor said although he hadn’t had a case like mine, whatever I was doing to keep doing it. I did. The bumps stayed away. My legs started to look better!
Now a year later my husband and I have veered away from being strict vegetarians and started eating meat again. We spent many months eating processed meat substitutes which really aren’t very good for you. You see, soy has a form of estrogen in it that has been said by some to encourage breast cancer. Not something I need to be consuming considering I have a terrible family history with that. My Mother, her Mother, Cousins, and several female relatives of mine have died from cancer. Sadly, I almost need more fingers to count them all.
Recently we had a huge bumper crop of blackberries in our yard. They are sooooo delicious. I couldn’t pick them fast enough or eat them fast enough. So I ended up bagging tons of them up and have them in the freezer. I finally thought how yummy would it be if I made some muffins. Being a Mom now, my time is limited, so I picked up some of that bisquick type of baking mix and found a quick recipe. I have a mini-muffin pan I found at a thrift store brand new for two bucks, and pull it all together and I had delicious blackberry mini muffins. Super duper good. I have been eating them like crazy. I am lactating right now and have a six month old baby, and it makes me quite hungry.
I haven’t been eating soy, and my legs looked just fine. No bumps. I mean, if my legs break out in these bumps when I eat soy, what is going on inside my body? It scares me to think of the reaction my organs could be having (think tumors), so I really don’t want to eat soy. Every once in a while I’ll run out of cow milk for my coffee and dip into hubby’s soy milk because it is soooo good in coffee, but even that caused me to have a mild breakout and I told myself to stop.
Then a couple days ago I noticed 3 or 4 fresh pink bumps on my legs. Great, maybe it isn’t soy? I thought about it. What have I been eating different? We’ve been doing a lot of tacos, with fresh salsa and corn tortillas. Lots of salad and organic tomatoes. Olive oil salad dressing. Then it occured to me. The muffins. I was lying in bed last night and would have gotten up to check if I wasn’t afraid of the baby waking. Sure enough this morning I looked, and the second ingredient on this baking mix is “hydrolized soy oil.” And I’ve been eating this stuff everyday. Sure enough, it is the soy once again!
As I type this, I am looking at the last couple of muffins across the room. They are calling me. I will probably eat them. However, I am going to look at labels more closely now (even though I usually do) and become more adamant about no soy in my diet. What a drag!
Time to focus on more fresh foods and cooking from scratch. I need a new muffin recipe!
