Another great video? Yup. I fell on the ice this week. I'm taking it easy.

This is a great 2004 talk by Malcolm Gladwell (18 minutes). Statistics meets the food industry...that is right up my alley :)

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

This 19 minute video by a brain scientist moved me to tears. And you?


------

Thanks to Holly for posting this on her blog :)

My Wheelchair Prevention Program

I call my ms-diet my 'wheelchair prevention program'. Only others diagnosed with a disease that could end up with a wheelchair outcome could understand that.

This is the reality that was thrust upon me with the words 'multiple sclerosis' by my doctor in February 2007. I have never been in a wheelchair and I do not care to experience it although I have more empathy than most when it comes to understanding the reality of life in a wheelchair.

Many with MS inject meds regularly in order to MAYBE avoid a wheelchair. And these injections cost $1000-$3000 PER MONTH (or more). And it's not guaranteed that you will not progress. And many insurance programs do not cover these costs.

My diet changes have cost very little (whole foods are cheaper in the long run)...not to mention the overall improvement in health that results from cutting out crap food.

But the time and physical effort involved to prepare these whole foods has been the hardest thing to cope with.

We live in a fast food society and grabbing meals on the run is the norm. This change has been the hardest to accept. I was raised in a fast food society (the emotional excitement I felt about the first McDeath's in my suburb in the 70s is something I will perplex on 'til my grave).

Creating my own system of nourishment according to my diet requirements has been the ultimate challenge in my near 41 years of life thus far. In a metropolis of 2.5 million humans I have yet to find one local MS person that is choosing to live as I do to prevent their own wheelchair. And eating out? I have one eatery that I have found so far although I haven't expended much effort after bleak early attempts to get 'fast food'.

But it is my wheelchair I am defying. No mistake about that. It's mine and perhaps you can't see it but I've dreamed it enough to make it permanently etched in my psyche.

Do you dream (nightmare) about wheelchairs? Losing sight?

Would you change your diet to *possibly* prevent a wheelchair? And remember that other MS 'treatments' might not work.....because there is no failsafe 'treatment' for MS. And also consider this interesting bit of trivia....all MS nutrition research pretty well stopped when big pharm stepped in in the late 80s early 90s.

In my life, I personally(i.e. not web related) know of three women diagnosed with MS who have not succumbed to the wheelchair through diet modifications only. This definitely helped solidify my own wheelchair prevention program. Do you have one?

I give special thanks to Lisa for inspiring this post and generating a community of hope.

There has come a time when there is a lot of food to eat but nothing good.

It is difficult to eat wisely in the middle of a 3 million person urban blotch on this planet.

And local? Don't even get me started.

My definition of local, in the city of Toronto, Canada, includes farmers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and New York (although it is hard to determine NY with our current packaging and produce identification laws).

I am currently a board member with Karma Food Coop and I also served on the Ebytown Food Coop board back in the mid 1990s.

This is how I have attempted to control the food I eat. Membership and involvement with local food cooperatives ensure that I know where and what I am putting as fuel into this body.

This blog intends to be part rant, part recipe digest, part nutrition info. I've had some history posting recipes on the web (see this link for a 1993 discussion group posting by moi :)

And the recipes? Gluten free/Legume free/Dairy free/Tomato free. That's how I live and I've found marvelous benefits. Getting an MS diagnosis kicked start me into this diet. No regrets - although it has been challenging after a life time of pizza....etc.