NT diet to NFLD diet : very sick.

[lucreziasmama]

Since I became pregnant and began learning about nutrition and natural living I have been very passionate about wanting to eat the very best food, the way it has always been grown, raised and prepared. This led me to WEston Price and to the book nourishing traditions. Where I lived in Labrador City there was virtually no opportunity to eat well, and trying to eat well and organically there was a huge struggle. I wished that I didn't have the knowledge I had, because even though I had such a limited food supply that I went without many things and craved them, I could not bring myself to eat the food once I looked at the ingredients. THEN I moved to Quebec City, and there was a store there called the carrot joyeux. It had everything I was looking for (well, except raw milk, but it had very high quality milk products and raw cheese.) Anyway for the first time in my scrawny little life, of never being able to gain weight and always having my bones stick out, I gained weight, LOTS of weight, I looked great! For the first time. We all looked great, (my husband and daughter and I) and felt better then we had ever felt. I had so much energy, since I was 13 I had suffered with chronic fatigue and I was finally free from that, the tired feeling in my limbs went away. I realized that the organic food in Labrador city, mixed with the regular meat and dairy, had done me no good at all. I felt the same then as I did when I was eating all sorts of junk. What happened is that after 2 months of living there and attempting to settle there, it didn't work. Something happened with our landlord and long story short the whole horrible situation ended in us having to leave that day (they lied to the poice saying we didnt sign a lease which we DID). All of our money ran out very quickly staying in hotels so we were forced to drive back to the only family we have, in Newfoundland. Now we are staying with family and attempting to pick up the peices here in St.johns. But there is no food. Immediatly after having to eat the regular milk and beef again my baby and husband got the same gum infection. I broke out in a big red rash, we have all had the flu several times since we got herea month ago, and we had not been sick in almost 2 years before this. I think it is the shock on your body of going from very good food to very bad, because I had never had these reactions on this food before. Now I am scrounging in the organic aisle, but it isnt really organic, and does not feel organic. I feel tired all the time again. There is raw milk but it is 2 hours away, there is no meat, there is no vegetables until summer. Has anyone experienced anything similar? Is there anyone who eats well using just the organic section at the grocery store? Do you think it is better for me to just eat un-organic vegetables since there s such a limited variety of organic? I really need some input, If I could move somewhere immediatly I would, but we have been moving around often, and the way people are here, there are murmurs that if I were to move again just because of the food here the would call social services and try to have my baby taken away. My whole family hates and resents me because I will not let them feed my daughter the things they cook and eat. They call me terrible things, a bad mother, because I wont give her jello, things like that. I need like mindd support I guess, I feel alone, thats why I came here. Any input helps. Thanks

[BedHead]

I feel your pain. My first husbands family was from Newfoundland, and their eating habits were atrocious.

This link looks helpful

This farm is organic - maybe it's near you?

You might find something in this database

Are you near St. Johns? There's a farmers market there

or this one

I don't know if that farm is organic, but at least you could go and talk to them.

[punkrockmomma]

Do you live somewhere, or have the resources to get a chest freezer? This way you could go the 2 hours a couple times a month to get raw milk. I would drink frozen, raw milk over pasteurized organic milk any day. Just make sure you freeze it in the right containers. We drive an hour away to get our raw milk, and it's worth it. Do, you have the money to buy in quantity? That's where the freezer comes in again. You could buy larger quantities of food, from far away places, and not have to travel every week, and a lot of times it's significantly cheaper to buy a 1/2 a beef or a 1/4 beef directly from the farmer. If you're still stuck where you're at come next summer, and early fall think about having a garden and canning the extra's. I canned tomatoes, corn, cherries, pickled green tomatoes, and pickled cucumbers and green beans.

Look into making fermented foods like sour kraut and kimchi, and making your own kombucha, and milk and water kefir. There are really easy ways to make all of these yourself. Also, check out Green Pastures fermented codliver oil, or their CLO/butter oil blend. These are amazing supplements that most TF people take.

Where there's a will there's a way.

As a PP said check out farmer's markets, and talk to farmers see if they'll give you a deal if you buy in bulk, or if there's someone there that you know might not be in the future for some reason or because the market is going to end for the season, find out if there is a way to get a farmer's product some other way. I have found you have to do a lot of research to eat well in our society.

[lucreziasmama]

Thanks for thr replies! Those links are great. And freezing the milk is definitly what im going to do. I didnt even think of that, i didnt think raw milk was good after beign frozen and thawed for some reason. Im definitly going to look into making these things on my own. whats water kefir? that sounds interesting. I make saurkraut usually and fermented veggies but I just havent had time staying at my stepfathers house and all. When I get my own place I think i can probably figure out everything except the veggies, which will be hard to find until next harvest. Thanks a lot ladies for the great ideas.

[ZoeyZoo]

Have you checked your frozen aisle? I notice there are usually a lot of organiz veggies there that are not in the fresh area.

[allgirls]

Interesting. I would have thought that it was a great place to eat traditional foods. Our refrigerator was always full of fresh game, fish, and our pantries stocked with jars of all manner of preservatives including meats, vegetables and berries. Our wines were home made and my father in law grows his own vegetables and while they aren't certified organic he doesn't use pesticides and fertilizes with seaweed.

We were on the NE coast on a little isolated island though and these things were in place out of necessity. There is a lot of crap food too of course but if you can set yourself up the opportunity is there for fantastic fresh and preserved foods.

it's probably harder in St. John's.

It's a challenge for me when I go there but with careful planning I eat quite well.

Good luck...

I will admit my bias though..I'd starve to live in St. John's.