-Thomas Edison, Inventor
The paradox of this country: if you give the kid Ritalin, it’s covered. If you want to avoid pharmaceuticals to treat behavioral issues and underlying chronic health problems, then you are considered “holistic” and fall out of the realm of insurance coverage.
Nutritional counseling isn’t covered by our PPO.
Isn’t health and wellness based on what we eat?
It doesn’t make a lick of sense to me.
I smell a rat.
So, today, the hubs and I dealt with the thousands of dollars of unpaid medical bills that have been passed back and forth from doctor to lab to fax machine to insurance and back.
It’s an ugly, knock-down, dragged-out fight each and every day. Denied. Call back. Denied again. Please hold for the next available representative.
Today, at Target I listened to two men behind me joke about picking up his viagra prescription. How sad, that erectile dysfucntion is covered, but a $1500 blood test for my kid with 2 year’s worth of diarrhea isn’t.
These two rather portly men loaded their food-like stuffs from their cart. Freezer waffles. Chips. Imitation butter. Frozen dinners. Vegetable oil in a pressured can. Candy bars.
I grew up thinking that those items were food.
But, I know better now, so I do better.
It’s still a struggle. The standard American diet is so cheap, easy, and convenient. I spy the mothers at music classes with the all-natural organic cheddar bunnies sticking out of their purse, and remember the ancient times when that was my life.
The American Health Care Crisis is predicated on the very issues that my lovely PPO skirts.
Nutrition. Diet. Food.
Doctors are not trained in nutrition during med school. Insurance companies don’t cover “nutritional counseling”. So what’s a decent, health-conscious person to do?
Follow the food plate? Nope, I don’t.
Listen to magazines with svelte models on the cover? Not a fat chance.
Real food blogs? We are getting closer…
It’s a problem in most American homes. It’s an obnoxious problem in many schools. It’s a problem in drive-thrus. It’s even a problem at the mecca of organic and wellness, Whole Foods.
85% of the time, if it comes in a box, bag, wrapper, or drive-thru window, it’s not food. It’s a product.
But don’t worry about your health.
There’s a pill for every ill.
I walked thru the cookie and cracker aisle at Target that day, and realized it was all wheat.
The whole aisle.
That scared me.
If I went to the doctor, and said, “I am depressed, Dr. C.” He could write a script for a SSRI, and be done with it.
Mainstream doctors don’t look at the cause of the depression. Could it be a damaged gut from gluten intolerance or undiagnosed celiac? Inflammation from a processed crappy diet? Could it be severe vitamin d deficency?
I rectified both of those issues, and my “depression” vanished. Interesting, right?
When you start talking vitamins, minerals, and food; most doctors know less than I do. Which is sad.
Truly sad.
In the end, it’s your job to learn about food. Vitamins. Amino Acids. Minerals.
No doctor can help you.
Only you can help you.
Here’s a few resources I swear by:
I adore “Real Food”, it was a great book. Thankfully I live in Northern California where it isn’t odd that my kids eat real food, pasture raised beef and chicken, limited gluten, grass-fed dairy… And we don’t even have any “problems”, I just don’t want any to start!
I like the way that life sounds, Jessica. The health-conscious mama is more prevalent here too in Chicago, but not as much as I’d wish…
I live in a rural area and the people here feed their kids kool-aid and ‘fruit’ snacks. Yep, I’m pretty sure they think I’m torturing my children when they see the food I feed them, which by the way, they are more than happy to eat.
Food makes a HUGE difference for my family. My mom didn’t believe in the diet changes we were making for our son until she was visiting the last time he accidentally ingested gluten. Two hours later his voice was much higher, his speech was more difficult to understand, he was avoiding eye contact and having problems focusing. Now she’s a believer.
Thank You for the book suggestions, Nicolette! I think so often about the info I get from your blog and realize that indeed, I just need to research and know more to do better. I also liked your paint post- how I would love to thrash the blasted wallpaper we have now and paint instead!
Hope you have a great week 
Love this post! Thanks for the book info. Being an RN its soo frustrating treating patients with multiple illnesses = a million meds to help counteract each other, while they scarf down a snickers and big red.
I can’t even imagine the frustration with medical bills, especially when frivolous claims are paid for whilst serious ones are ignored. I’m so sorry you have to deal with this.
It is however great that you are taking control and deciding there is something you can do to help you little one.
you are the best! I constantly learn so much from you! Checking out those books asap! xo
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Couldn’t agree more with you. I keep hoping our grassroots efforts will make a difference some day, but if not, at least we are wise to what is best for our health.
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We’re getting back to the basics more and more these days – for a lot of reasons – including financial ones. We are blessed to not have any obvious health issues form the lifestyle we’ve been living, other than weight gain. Well, at least that we know of.
We’re eating a lot more veggies. I’m a big believer in natural fats. But, we still have a lot of chemicals in the food we eat under the guise of convenience.
I do know that when I was on Atkins year ago I noticed that along with the eight loss there was a pronounced balance to my mood. I was clear headed, patient – it was like a fog had lifted. I never isolated it to any one food, but I’ve just put in a library request for the two books you recommended. We’ll see if I come closed to finding to narrowing that down.
Oh, and eating the wrong foods makes me typo and leave off w’s here and there.
This may seem a little absurd though you should see that farm foods can also give you effects like that of viagra. You can also buy viagra if you really want to get the firm effect.
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Food makes a HUGE difference for my family. My mom didn’t believe in the diet changes we were making for our son until she was visiting the last time he accidentally ingested gluten. Erectile Disfuntion Two hours later his voice was much higher, his speech was more difficult to understand, he was avoiding eye contact and having problems focusing.
I also liked your paint post- how I would love to thrash the blasted wallpaper we have now and paint instead!