Health

1 Comment Posted on September 29, 2014October 6, 2014 Health, Uncategorized, vegan

Dairy And Egg Free Testimonials: Introduction Featuring Ben Wilder

Project: To publically prove that consuming dairy/eggs is the actual symptom that causes sinus pressure, sinusitis, allergies, acid reflux, acne, asthma, and other health issues. I will do this by collecting testimonials of real life people with faces and names who were willing to cut out dairy/eggs 100% from their diet.

Hi, I’m Nick Shell. (Pictured right for the sole purpose of proving I’m a real person, which I believe is important for this project.)

If you’ve read any of my dozens of posts about what led me to ultimately become a vegan a year and a half ago, you know that from 1992 to April 2014, I suffered from constant sinus pressure, sinusitis at least 3 times per year, and I was allergic to cats and dogs.

After just 48 hours of going dairy and egg free, all those problems went away and haven’t since returned.

Is that a coincidence? If it is, it would take a lot of faith to believe that eliminating dairy and eggs from my diet did not have such a quick, yet ever-lasting effect like that.

Before I gave up dairy and eggs, I was always skeptical when I heard someone say that those things cause more mucus production, because when you research online, it seems most “experts” have already explored and tested this theory.

But here’s where they’re wrong.

I can’t help but notice that it seems every single one of those scientific reports simply measures a reduction in dairy/eggs intake.

What I am saying is different: You have to eliminate dairy and eggs 100%, no exceptions.

Here’s my theory on why “going dairy/egg free” is so effective for those who try it:

Dairy and eggs contain mucus from a different species. Think about this- what are the functions of mucus in the human body?

One is to flush out foreign infection and/or waste. When you’re sick, you produce mucus to help flush out to flush out the sickness and make you healthy again.

So what happens when you daily consume the mucus of another species? Overkill, to say the least.

Your body has to flush the excess mucus out, treating it as the foreign substance that it is.

Forgive my coarse language here, but that’s why for the past year and a half, my body hasn’t produced colored mucus of any kind.

Is it a coincidence that my mucus is very minimal and is clear; never white; or yellow (which I understand indicates infection)?

Therefore, I no longer get sinus infections and/or sinusitis; whereas I previously continually had them for about 22 years. And I’m not the only one.

Check out this testimonial from my friend Ben Wilder, which I originally published back in June. He was my 1^st official recruit so he will serve as the 1^st entry for my new Dairy & Egg Free Testimonials series; other than myself, obviously.

Hi everyone, my name is Ben Wilder (pictured below). If you told me a year ago I wouldn’t be drinking dairy milk and eating cheese, I would’ve said you’re the next big comedian. But it’s true. Going on 3 months now, I’ve eliminated dairy from my diet and my allergies are gone… so far. I was taking a Zyrtec pill every day. Not a few times a week or here and there… it was every single day. I can’t speak to the long term benefits of this change… yet. But you can sure as heck bet that I’m a firm believer already.

Please feel free to share your testimonial as well! Leave a comment sharing your “100% dairy/egg free testimonial.” I may even be interested in featuring you in an upcoming “Dairy & Egg Free Testimonials”. I am looking for people who are as passionate as I am about showing the link between eggs/dairy and mucus/sinus/allergies.

My email is nickshell1983@hotmail.com.

I want to make it public knowledge that “cheese makes you sneeze.” In other words, consuming dairy and eggs is the reason why people have mucus that is any other color than clear.

My goal is to create a legitimate online community where people can share and learn about how going “dairy and egg free” can be very beneficial. Let’s just see what happens…

Were you interested in what you just read? Was this post a strangely pleasant distraction to other things popping up on your Facebook or Twitter feed? Ya know… you could always like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or even subscribe to Family Friendly Daddy Blog by clicking on the appropriate icon on the left side of this page. No pressure though…

Leave a comment Posted on July 22, 2014 Health, parenting, vegan

Ask A Vegan Anything: Here’s Your Chance

May 10, 2014 at 9:09 pm , by Nick Shell

3 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack,

Starting today, I’m inviting the social media universe to “AMA”… ask me anything regarding our plant-based lifestyle.

I grew up during a time when it was normal to put my faith in finding the cure for cancer and disease by mailing in yogurt lids, running in races, and wearing ribbons.

Fortunately, in the past couple of years as the number of vegans in America has more than doubled, another option has begun spreading- thanks to Netflix documentaries and social media.

Turns out, your dad is one of those people who is attempting to positively (not narcissistically) set the record straight for anyone with sincere, curious questions; making myself a human Guinea pig for the world to see.

People who are like me believe there already is a cure for these cancers and diseases…but that the cure comes in a very inconvenient format:

Prevention (and reversal) through an exclusively plant-based diet of simply fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds.

It makes me think of the clever quote by Albert Einstein:

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

Obviously, I won’t live forever in this body and I don’t believe that a 100% plant-based diet makes me invincible. Still, I don’t want my future years with you to include me having diabetes or cancer, knowing there might be something I could have done to keep it from happening.

But I suppose until a person watches Forks Over Knives on Netflix, it’s difficult for them to see the simple scientific and historical connection between animal product consumption and disease.

For me, it’s common knowledge that dairy consumption is linked to allergy and sinus issues, overproduction of mucus, osteoporosis and breast cancer.

(This is TMI, but I stopped producing white or any colored mucus the weekend I became a vegan. It has only been clear and minimal since my conversion last April; not to mention, no sinus pressure or infections since then, whereas I previously had those issues for 22 years straight.)

And that meat consumption is linked to diabetes and prostate cancer.

And that as a vegan, by default, I consume less than 1% of my daily allowance of cholestrol for each day, because there’s not enough cholesterol in plants to register more than 0.99%.

I’ve checked a lot of nutritional labels over the past year, and have yet to find anything I eat (even “fatty” avocados, cashews, and almonds) that registers as more than “0%,” even though plant-based food do contain some cholestrol.

Granted, I personally understand the skepticism…

I’ve mentioned that just a few weeks before becoming a vegan, I made the statement, “Vegan are idiots!” Now here I am, having consumed no animal products in over a year.

Still breathing, full of energy, with no more allergy and sinus problems, with a weaker prescription for my glasses, and am overall healthier than I’ve ever been in my life.

To some, I am a walking contradiction. How can a person who eats no meat, dairy, eggs, or animal bi-products (marshmallows, pudding, candy containing artificial food dyes, etc.) get enough protein, fat, and vitamins?

It could be easy to assume, if nothing else, I’m secretly hungry all the time. Yet I’m not. When I’m hungry, I eat- and then I’m not hungry anymore.

Once I nixed animal products from my diet, I was forced to get the “living” nutrition from the unprocessed fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds that I was previously neglecting because I was instead consuming animal products and pseudo “healthy snacks” like yogurt, granola bars, and diet soda.

As a new wave vegan, who chooses a plant-based diet not necessarily because of animals’ rights but instead because of the obvious health benefits, I want to be a positive, inviting example of our family’s lifestyle.

What I want to do is start making myself more available and present, in real life and on social media, for curious people who have honest, sincere questions about how we live.

In the process, you will learn more about why our family lives the way we do. After all, you and Mommy are almost completely plant-based as well.

I wonder what people will ask me, now that they know that a friendly, mostly sane vegan is giving an open platform to ask questions about our plant-based lifestyle… I’m ready.

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on July 17, 2014 Health, parenting, vegan

It’s Okay To Question Where Your Food Comes From

September 11, 2013 at 11:00 pm , by Nick Shell

2 years, 9 months.

Dear Jack,

Especially as you become age-appropriate to read today’s PG-rated letter, I want you to always question where your food comes from. After you find out, and you decide that you still want to eat it, then, cool.

But I will always challenge you to question the ingredients and/or sources of your food.

I grew up always wondering what was really in hot dogs. (We didn’t have the Internet or YouTube back in the Eighties.)

Now that I know, I’ve learned it’s actually not as disgusting as what the FDA allows food companies to label as “natural flavoring.”

Back on February 12, 2012 (a year and 7 months ago) I wrote, “Is “Natural” Vanilla Flavoring Really From Beavers’ Anal Glands?”

Granted, it’s not the most sophisticated thing I’ve ever written. I figured many people assumed I was just being a weirdo and/or a conspiracy theorist. But that post has received more Facebook likes than other particular post I have ever written: over 1,100.

Apparently, enough people out there in the world are like me, brave enough to question and investigate where our food actually comes from.

My hero in that field is Vani, A.K.A., the Food Babe. I follow her on Facebook and learned that she covered the “natural” beaver flavoring story this week!

She’s the one who earlier this year helped start that petition to Kraft, asking them to remove the toxic petroleum-based food dyes from their macaroni and cheese, as it is for their products overseas.

Since then, she has caused me to question other things, like what’s really in beer.

The Food Babe has become one of my major regular news sources for information about food and nutrition. (That’s supposed to be the FDA’s job… I think.)

Some may say that talking about this is innappropriate.

But I say it would be more innappopriate to ignore what’s really going on just for the sake of not wanting to be perceived as innappropriate. It seems grosser to learn this unfortunate information and complain that it’s innopropriate, only to keep eating it.

I’m not afraid to ask questions about food. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Granted, I’m not necessarily safe to talk about these things on Facebook. I learned that the hard way earlier this summer when, in an effort to figure out the science behind why my constant sinus pressure and heavy mucus production (of 21 straight years) cleared up immediately after I stopped eating dairy 6 months ago, I genuinely asked if there is already mucus in cows’ milk when people consume it.

That’s when I learned that politics, religion, and food are in the same category. They’re equally sensitive (and often, devisive) topics.

Still, I’m asking plenty of questions about our food everyday; and for better or worse, I’m learning a lot.

Yes, we’ve now become very serious about buying non-GMO and organic foods as much as possible. We don’t trust our health to corporations and their mysterious science-project types of ingredients.

We have control of the situation… by being brave enough to ask where our food really comes from and what effect it has on our bodies. Then we simply vote our beliefs with what shows up on our grocery bill each week.

Let the free market decide what is too disgusting to eat. Let us be the weird ones, if need be.

Love,

Daddy

Photo: Food Babe.

Leave a comment Posted on July 13, 2014 Health, parenting

The Health-Conscious Road Trip: An Oxymoron?

July 7, 2013 at 8:47 pm , by Nick Shell

2 years, 7 months.

Dear Jack,

I can barely remember it, but for the first five months of our marriage, Mommy and I didn’t have any dietary restrictions.

Whenever we took a road trip, we didn’t have to consider where or what we could eat; just where and what we didn’t want to eat.

Then we went kosher in November 2008, and vegetarian in December 2011, then I went vegan in March 2013; as you and Mommy are pretty much there with me too by now.

With that being said, gone are the days of not having to carefully plan out in advance every single meal and snack over the course of a road trip.

As you know, this past weekend for our 5 year wedding anniversary, Mommy and I decided to take you along for a mini-road trip; a 2 and a half hour drive to Louisville, Kentucky.

Using hotel points we had earned last year, we made it an overnight trip and visited the magnificent Louisville Zoo.

Just as we had to plan out in advance which hotel we’d be staying in, making sure we could not only redeem our points there but also that it was closest to the zoo, we additionally had to find out its proximity to the nearest Whole Foods Market.

Basically, we packed half the food we would need, including plenty of water and snacks; then bought the other half of the food at Whole Foods the next morning.

We dined on veggie wraps, fruit snacks, and bottled water in the parking lot. It was like a picnic in our car; fortunately, it was the perfect weather for it… not too hot or wet.

Plus, I knew from previous visits to Loiusville that the city is laced with 14 different Heine Brothers’ Coffeeshops. Not only is their coffee perfect, which Mommy and I could definitely appreciate as a fun way to start the day, but they also have plenty of vegan options for snacks.

So was it difficult to make our road trip a health-conscious one? No, because we carefully planned for it.

But was the actual driving part of the road trip difficult because it threw off your sleep schedule? Absolutely!

(That’s a whole different story and I plan to tell it in the near future.)

Our mini-road trip served as necessary practice for the big one up ahead in a few weeks, when we will be taking our annual family vacation in Sacramento to see Mommy’s family.

It’s one thing to avoid eating at restaurants for 23 hours, but another thing when we’re staying at someone else’s house for over a week and trying not to become a burden because of our alternative lifestyle.

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on July 9, 2014 Health, parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

A High Fructose Corn Syrup, Artificial Food Dye Tour Of WalMart

What’s the easiest way to being able to spot junk food?

Fat? Cholesterol? Weird, unpronounceable chemicals?

Those are all good, but there’s an easier way than that…

Just look for high fructose corn syrup and/or artificial food dyes.

This is coming from a guy who over the course of several years, learned the cure to eczema (dyshidrosis) by experimenting with what I did and did not eat. The first step for me, 6 years ago, was discovering I had to eliminate high fructose corn syrup and/or artificial food dyes from my diet.

Why?

High fructose corn syrup is the most processed version of GMO sugar you can find. It’s the sweetest of the sweet, which teaches your body to “look for the rest of the food” it came from. In other words, high fructose corn syrup keeps you hungry; as explained in this article by scientificamerican.com.

Meanwhile, artificial food dyes have been linked to anxiety, migraines, and cancer; according to this respectable article on Forbes.com.

Today, I want to introduce you to the concept that WalMart’s vendors are very good at making sure WalMart’s customers are strategically surrounded by high fructose corn syrup and artificial food dyes.

It’s common knowledge to our generation that WalMart has this way of attracting a certain crowd worthy of their own website: peopleofwalmart.com. (I don’t endorse that site, by the way; it’s not “family friendly”.)

However, there’s a reason it’s so easy to relate to WalMart memes:

For example, over the weekend I overhead this phone conversation while I was there at WalMart: “I ain’t no snitch… I didn’t give the cops a first name. I wasn’t brought up that way…”.

In case you need a visual, he looked like a young version of Weird Al in his video for “All About The Pentiums.”

This past weekend while I was there to pick up my car after getting an oil change, I took a walk around the place.

I only had to walk past a few aisles to pick up on a marketing strategy: WalMart’s vendors strategically place “pillars of cheap junk food” around the outer perimeter of the store’s interior.

Vendors pay for that high-traffic real estate within the store, as explained by one of my coworkers, whose wife is a manager at WalMart.

If I sound a little harsh regarding these strategically placed junk food pillars, let me give you some more quick background on me, because I feel it’s relevant to my passion behind this story.

I was one nervous little kid, from age 10 to age 12. I had anxiety issues, as well as constant digestion problems.

Fortunately, my own parents were open-minded enough to listen to good advice, and cut out red food dye (Red 40 and Carmine) from my diet.

What a lot of people here in America don’t realize about those petroleum and insect derived food dyes is that are banned in Europe.

So hopefully now it makes better sense why I am “outing” WalMart’s vendors for barricading the floor with junk food pillars.

See for yourself the next time you shop there.

I realize that other stores do this to, but I feel it’s taken to a whole new level at Walmart.

This is me inviting you to be in the know; just like I did back in 2009 when I pointed out the marketing scheme of fast food companies using the color combination of red and yellow in their logos to subconsciously control you like a traffic control light:

Yellow: “Slow down.”

Red: “Stop!”

What do you think? Do I know what I’m talking about here?

Is it safe to say that the vendors of many stores, WalMart serving as the epitome of them, surround the floor space with pillars of junk food, filled with high fructose corn syrup and artificially food dyes?

Tell me I’m not crazy. Most people say I am.

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