It’s not easy switching to a grain-free, dairy-free, sugar-free diet especially when you’re doing it with kids. In the beginning, parents often feel like they’re limiting their children’s food too much or they are depriving them of the fun of enjoying pizza and ice cream with friends.
However, when you eliminate these nutrient-poor foods, there’s a ton of opportunity to replace them with nutrient-dense foods and vegetables. You may even find that your family’s taste buds change, and they eventually start enjoying things you never imagined. For example, my kids LOVE my cauliflower tots and kale chips. (and I mean love, they fight over them even 😉 )
A New Resource
I recently discovered a new book that should be an amazing resource for families following a restricted diet. Parents who are brand new will obviously benefit a great deal from reading, The Grain-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free Family Cookbook, but parents who are veteran special dieters will enjoy it as well.
Not only is it packed with great recipes, but the author, Leah Webb, includes a lot of science to show you how these foods may be hurting your family’s health.
Personally, my favorite part of this book is Leah’s story and the overarching positive message that is prevalent throughout. I connected with her story so much I decided to invite her onto my podcast to talk more.
Listen To Our Conversation To Learn More
In this episode of The Happy Healthy Family Podcast, Leah Webb and I talk all about feeding kids special diets. Leah shares a little bit of her story and, we talk all about the problems with grains, dairy, & sugar
We discuss a number of different topics including:
- seeing opportunity in special diets
- lectins & phytic acid
- why more calcium & milk doesn’t lead to strong bones
- glycation and AGEs
- sugar’s toxic effect on the body
- how a restricted diet is the loving choice for your family
Keep reading to learn more or click below to listen to our conversation
The Happy Healthy Family Podcast Episode 29
Finding The Opportunities In Grain-Free, Dairy-Free, & Sugar-Free w/Leah Webb #29
Why These Foods Are Problematic For Our Kids
I welcome Leah Webb, author of The Grain-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free Family Cookbook. We discuss glycation, lectins, & the myth of more milk = stronger bones. We also talk about how a restrictive diet is the loving choice we make for our kids.
Leah tells her story of raising 2 special kids. One with severe food allergies & one with cystic fibrosis & how this led her to find the gifts that come from the darkness.
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The Benefits Of A Grain-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free Diet
One of the greatest advantages of a GFDFSF diet is that you have to cook more from home and you rely more on whole foods as opposed using packaged, convenience foods. While this may not sound like a benefit if you’re not used to cooking, preparing meals from whole foods offers superior nutrition which, inevitably leads to better health.
However, the majority of the benefits from a special diet come from avoiding all the problems that these foods can cause.
Benefits At A Glance:
- Improved Gut Health & Digestion
- Better For The Microbiome
- Improved Energy and Mood
- Improved Or Eliminated Asthma Symptoms After Diet Changes
- Better Focus & Less Brain Fog
- Weight Loss
- Decreased Inflammation
A Healing Diet
In order to get the very best results, you have to adopt what I call a healing diet and not just one that is grain-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free. More and more clever food companies are creating packaged food products that may technically fit this kind of diet, but they are far from healing.
For example, there’s a whole slew of dairy free yogurts, milks, and even cheeses to choose from, but none of these are nourishing for your family. Most are full of sugar in some form and highly processed ingredients. Not something that I’d consider healing or nutrient-dense.
I talk about what a healing diet is in my guide to a gluten-free casein free diet and we talk about it more on the podcast (listen below). Essentially, a healing diet is one that is whole-foods based and free from artificial ingredients and preservatives.
Love Your Child With Food
There are times when you may feel guilty or when it’s harder not to allow your kids to “cheat”. Birthdays, holidays, & school parties can be more challenging if you forget why you’ve adopted this lifestyle in the first place. Now, for many, it’s necessary due to severe allergies, but for others grain-free, dairy-free, sugar-free is a choice we made to help our kids with autism, ADD, GI problems, or just to improve their overall health.
As Leah Webb writes in her book, “taking a firm stance on food is the loving choice we make for our children.” Remember, this stance is not one of deprivation. It’s a decision we made to achieve the goal of raising a happy, healthy family, and you cannot let the short-lived joy of eating a slice of pizza interfere with that.
We just need to teach our kids about food and what bad food does to their body. At the same time, teach them that special occasions are about being with friends and family and having fun. NOT about eating junk food.
The Problems With Grains, Dairy, & Sugar
All three of these “food groups” have similar impacts on the body. They are all hard on the gut and can lead to leaky gut. But, they also can trigger inflammation and disrupt a healthy microbiome. Not too mention, they are pretty much devoid of any real nutrition.
As Leah sums it up in her book, “Sugar is toxic, Grains are harmful, & dairy is not well tolerated.”
Grains
There are a few problems specific to grains. They contain two compounds that are referred to as anti-nutrients because they prevent the body from absorbing minerals and other nutrients in our food. In some cases, they may even strip nutrients from the body leading to deficiencies.
Lectins
Lectins are “sticky proteins” that can bind to sugars or carbohydrate molecules and alter their function. There are many different types of lectins, and not all of them are bad. However, the lectins in grains can wreak havoc on the immune system, the gut, and even the brain.
This is one of the ways grains contributes to leaky gut. It’s well documented that leaky gut is closely related with chronic inflammation and autoimmunity. If you have leaks in your gut lining not only are you losing nutrients, but you’re allowing partially digested food, foreign particles, and LPS (a bacterial toxin) into the bloodstream. Lectins may even help carry these compounds and deposit them in any cell of the body.
Phytic Acid
Phytic acid or phytates is another anti nutrient in grains. This compound blocks important nutrients such as zinc, magnesium, calcium and other minerals. Phytates also interfere with normal digestion by blocking certain digestive enzymes (like the ones needed to digest the grains you’re eating). Again, this leads to an irritation of the gut lining, and can interfere with brain function.
The Podcast
We talk about all of this (and more) in greater detail on the podcast, so I encourage to listen below to learn even more!
Dairy
Dairy is one of those foods where you do not find a clear consensus. (note: when I say consensus, I mean amongst forward thinking researches and functional medicine practitioners) Some say a little grass fed dairy is okay, some choose to eat dairy everyday, but some do recommend avoiding it completely.
If you’re addressing a chronic health condition or symptom, then I’d suggest avoiding dairy altogether. If you have a asthma or other respiratory issues, then definitely avoid dairy.
However, if you’re simply looking to maintain your good health, then a little dairy a couple times a week probably won’t hurt you too badly. The only caveat is to make sure you’re eating dairy from a healthy, pasture-raised, grass fed cow. (local farm-raised is even better)
The Podcast
Leah discusses the myth of we need more calcium and more milk for stronger bones and what we actually need instead.
Sugar
We all know that sugar is bad for us. No one denies that. Kids today have far more health issues. Next time you drop your kids off at school, look around at the other kids. You’ll quickly see how hard the obesity epidemic is hitting our children. Sugar is one of the biggest drivers behind that.
Sugar affects learning, memory, focus and it feeds bad microbes in the gut. As those microbes create chaos in the gut, our brains, immune system, & neurotransmitters are affected as well.
Sugar can lead to:
- weight gain
- depression & anxiety
- chronic inflammation
- insulin resistance & diabetes
- impaired cognitive ability
- oxidative stress
- mineral deficiencies
- gut dysbiosis
- and so much more!
One of the things we talk about on the podcast is how sugar creates something called Advanced Glycation End Products (Ages). AGEs can create free radicals that lead to oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.
AGEs are created when sugar molecules bind to protein, fats, or other substrates. This can change the structure of the molecule and cause it to lose its function. When AGEs build up, they can damage any tissue in the body. Many researchers now believe that high levels of AGEs are associated with almost all chronic disease.
Summing It Up
Eating grains, dairy, & sugar can lead to a loss in cellular function, nutrient deficiencies, poor gut health, impaired digestion, leaky gut, chronic inflammation, and a higher risk of developing chronic illness and disease. If you or your child already has a chronic condition then your ability to heal with be impaired as well.
To put it more simply, these foods are bad news.
The Happy Healthy Family Podcast Episode 29
Finding The Opportunities In Grain-Free, Dairy-Free, & Sugar-Free w/Leah Webb #29
Click Below To Listen For Free On Your Favorite Podcast Player: |
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Episode Outline
- Why there is plenty of opportunity in grain free dairy free sugar free diet
- Leah’s story of raising a child with severe food allergies and another with cystic fibrosis and how that led her to the grain free dairy free sugar free lifestyle
- The impact of gut health on the immune system
- Intro into the GAPS diet
- We discuss how our spouse’s asthma went away after giving up problematic foods
- Who should go grain free dairy free sugar free
- Americans eat too many grains and that prevents us from eating more nutrient dense foods
- What do we say to people who ask why don’t you eat…..
- How most people eating a grain free dairy free sugar free diet eat wheat-like GF junk food
- The impact of phytic acid on the body
- How lectins can trigger leaky gut & inflammation
- How crops like wheat and legumes are sprayed with glyphosate before harvest
- Why more milk = more bone disease
- Sugar’s impact on our bone health
- Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and why they are terrible for your health
- How sugar causes oxidative stress
- Love your kids with food
- What Leah hopes people get from her Grain Free Dairy Free Sugar Free Family Cookbook
- Leah’s practical tips for raising a happy, healthy family
Four Sigmatic Adaptogens & Medicinal Mushrooms
(don’t forget to use promo code “imsimplyadad” at check out for 10% off)
Links and Other Info From The Show:
Register For The Free 5G Crisis Summit (click here)
Books Mentioned On The Show
The Grain Free, Dairy Free, Sugar Free Family Cookbook (Leah’s Book)
Whole Foods Guide To Strong Bones
HHF Episodes Mentioned On The Show
Episode 4: Gut Health, Healing Diets, & Overcoming Autism w/ Cara Comini
Episode 7: Traditional Cooking & Fermented Foods w/ Wardee Harmon
More With Leah Webb:
- Deep Rooted Wellness (Leah’s website)
- Facebook, Instagram
Who Is Leah WebbLeah M. Webb, MPH, obtained her health coach certification from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Biology from Appalachian State University and a Master of Public Health degree in Environmental Health Sciences from Georgia Southern University. She has worked in nutrition and gardening education since 2009 with a focus on engaging children in healthy eating habits through experiential learning and discovery. Leah started and runs the Deep Rooted Wellness blog, on which she posts stories and tips regarding nutrition, gardening, and healthy families. Leah lives in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband, T. C., and her two children, Owen and June. Owen has a life-threatening anaphylactic allergy to wheat, and June has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease severely impacting the lungs and pancreas. Leah’s commitment to a restrictive, nutrient-dense diet has played an important role in her children’s integrative care. When not at work, you’ll find Leah in her garden, tending to her chickens, volunteering in her children’s schools, or engaging in a variety of forms of exercise that feel nourishing. |
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