It started with a book, now its a lifestyle.

WARNING- This blog post is very much a public service announcement!

Two weeks ago I picked up a book a friend recommended called Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels. Since then the book has really changed everything about my food intake. I kicked my terrible Diet Coke habit after learning about how harmful aspartame and any other artificial sweeteners are to the hormones in our bodies. I never thought Diet Coke and me would part ways. I was addicted to it for 8 years! And after one day of giving it up I could feel a huge difference in my body. I no longer craved sweet food late at night. I was more consistent in my weight due to less bloating. I haven't gotten one of my notoriously awful afternoon headaches. Simply put, I feel great.

Not only did I throw away a bad habit of soda drinking, but I also did away with diet food completely. It is shocking that I did this. I am the girl who had a nervous breakdown at an airport for not having non-fat yogurt at their Starbucks (the hormones were a tad bit out of balance that day). I am still eating non-fat yogurt, but it is the Nancy's organic kind rather than the kind filled with terrible chemicals like high-fructose corn syrup and other things that spite our leptin hormone levels. I feel like I am eating real food, which tastes way better, instead of all the processed food that use to make up 90% of my diet.

Switching to real food may seem expensive at first, but what I found is it was cheaper in the end because I am no longer buying as much processed junk food and I am saving a heck of a lot on all that soda I use to buy!

It is also extremely fun to go to the local farmer's market to pick up fruits, veggies, eggs, bread, etc. In fact, Chris and I just met a garlic expert that gave us a hot varietal of garlic that we are going to cook with this weekend!

Here is an insert from the book. I find this stuff so interesting and I really suggest reading the whole book yourself:

The term "organic" applies to a farming method that raises food without pesticides or other chemicals. The idea is that by allowing natural processes and biodiversity to enrich the soil, as opposed to relying upon synthetic chemicals or genetically modified seeds to protect the crops from pests, we'll get healthier food and- imagine that- a healthier environment.

Organics help you stay slim and prevent diabetes. More than 90 percent of endocrine-disrupting pesticides that hang around in our body tissues come from foods we consume- especially animal products.

Organics help you avoid scary hormones. The FDA currently permits six kinds of steroid hormones to be used in producing cattle and sheep. Eighty percent of U.S. feedlot cattle are fed or injected with steroid hormones. Each of these cows gains up to 3 pounds per day.

Organics help you avoid pesticides and other chemicals. A study at the University of Washington found that the urine of kids who ate mostly conventional diets had nine times the organophosphorus pesticide concentration of kids who ate mostly organic.

Organics help you prevent antibiotic resistance. Massive use of antibiotics in the meat and dairy industries leads to widespread antibiotic resistance, exposing us to potentially fatal bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

Organics make your food taste better. Organic food is an will always be fresher than nonorganic food- without pesticides and chemical preservatives, organic produce had to be eaten faster or it will rot!

Organics make your food more nutritious. Organic fruits and vegetables can't rely on pesticides- they have to fight off bugs with their own "immune systems," naturally raising antioxidant levels.

Organics help you save the earth. Produce grown in the U.S. travels an average of fifteen hundred miles before it gets sold. But organic farming uses 30 percent less fossil fuels while it conserves water, reduces soil erosion, maintains soil quality, and removes carbon dioxide from the air.

One quick example: Take tomatoes. Tomatoes have all the cancer-fighting health benefits- the best form of medicine with no harmful side effects. Now let's take our little tomato and see what happens to it in the name of capitalism. The tomato is grown conventionally, and sprayed with up to seven kinds of pesticides. Then it is picked too early because it must make the long journey across the country- or across the world- from its original location to your supermarket. Yes, you are now polluting the environment with all the gas used to transport the tomato. But, there's more. The tomato is still green because it was picked too early, so now it is sprayed with argon gas (also used to euthanize dogs) to make it turn red prematurely. Wow! We have just taken a natural medicine and turned it into poison. That is why we must make efforts to go organic.

The more each of us votes with our dollars for products not produced with toxins, the quicker we'll help right the wrongs and get this earth back where it belongs. As more people eat organic, organic food will become cheaper.

TALL GLASS OF HORMONES

Cows that produce organic milk are fed organic grains and are given access to pasture, but, most important, they cannot be treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone, also known as rBGH or rBST (recombinant bovine somatotropin). And thank god for that! Traditional dairy farmers feed this horrific synthetic hormone to their cows to boost their milk production, and so far, the USDA still approves them as safe. Unlike the regulatory agencies in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and twenty-seven countries of the European Union, where rBGH is banned.

Studies have shown that rBGH increases the levels of insulin-like growth factor 1, or IGF-1, in the milk of these cows. Drinking just 1 glass of milk a day for 12 weeks can increase a human's blood levels of IGF-1 by 10 percent. At normal levels, IGF-1 does good things in the body; it's responsible for cell growth, division, differentiation. But, IGF-1 has been linked, in hundreds of studies, to increased breast, prostate, uterine, colon, lung, and other cancers in humans. Emerging research even links high levels of IGF-1 to autism. Rather than destroy IGF-1, pasteurization increases its levels, and because bovine and human IGF-1 are identical, this raging abundance of hormones is eagerly absorbed into the digestive tract and the bloodstream, where it can act on various parts of the body. Awesome.

Studies have shown that high levels of IGF-1 increases ovulation. In fact, one study found that rBGH is one of the reasons early puberty is on the rise.

The kicker? The USDA has consistently refused to mandate that milk producers warn consumers that their milk products include rBGH, and many state dairy boards are attempting to ban any mention of rBGH on labels at all.

Still promising- Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Safeway, Kroger, and many others are starting to use rBGH-free milk.