Why My Mother Refused To Eat Hospital Food

My mother was in the hospital this week for surgery. Thankfully, she came home today. However, I wanted to write to you about the diet she was placed on while in the hospital.

Since she had bowel surgery, she was put on clear liquids immediately after the surgery. When the clear liquid tray was brought up to my mother she said, "I would rather starve than eat that mess."

There were five items given to my mother (see the picture on the right). Chicken broth from bouillon, diet sorbet, decaffeinated coffee, diet jello, and something labelled fruit ice. The ingredients from the bouillon cubes included partially hydrogenated soybean oil, sugar, hydrolyzed corn pectin,and silicon dioxide. There were a few other ingredients that I could not pronounce--I would assume they are not good things to ingest. In fact, I have been telling my patients for years to read food labels and only purchase items where you can prounounce all the ingredients.

One other thing; she could have as much diet soda as she desired.

As for the fruit ice, diet jello, and diet sorbet, I did not see any healthy ingredients in them. The diet sorbet and jello contained aspartame. Asparatme is a very toxic substance and should be avoided.

You would think that a post-surgery patient, in the hospital, would be given healthy food to help heal the body. You can see what they gave my mother to eat was far from healthy. In fact, I would say what they tried to feed my mother would inhibit healing. The amount of refined sugar in these substances is bound to inhibit healing as studies have shown refined sugar actually disrupts the normal functioning of the white blood cells for a few hours. There was nothing nutritious in any of the items they served her.

What did we do? I was tempted to call the dietician to her room, but I felt that would not go well. Instead, I brought my mother healthier chicken broth made from an organically-fed chicken. I had her drink a lot of water and avoid the 'food' that was served to her.

My mother commented, "How do they expect you to heal with drinking unhealthy food?" It is truly amazing to me that patients do get better eating food like this.

I am sure patients would heal better if served healthy food in the hospital. It makes sense; provide the body with the proper nutrients and it will take care of itself.

Why You Should Not Use Pesticides and Herbicides

In the Detroit Free Press today (7.10.11) the front page headline reads, “New lawn chemical chief suspect in mysterious deaths of trees.” The article describes how millions of dollars of Norway Spruce and white pines are dying this summer. The culprit is thought to be a new lawn chemical known as Imprelis. This chemical is manufactured by DuPont.

Imprelis was promoted by DuPont to control weeds such as dandelions. The article quotes a landscaper as saying that he thought he was doing the right thing by switching herbicides to Imprelis.

Doing the right thing? Sorry, I am not buying that one. We are polluting our environment by using herbicides and pesticides in order to have a green lawn. Pesticides and herbicides are bound to cause harm to humans and other animals as many of these chemicals are known as persistent organic pollutants. That means they are not easily broken down in the environment and their toxic effects can persist for a long period of time.

Research has found medical problems such as non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, leukemia, cancer of the brain and prostate, birth defects, fetal death and neurodevelopmental disorders associated with pesticide use.

All for a green lawn? No way. Not at my house. I would not want to expose my children or my dog to toxic chemicals. I don’t use pesticides and herbicides and I strongly encourage you to avoid these products. Pesticides and herbicides are much more than weed controllers; they are toxins to humans and other animals alike.

Airport X-Ray Scanners Part 2: You Decide Who Is The Idiot

I dropped my daughter off at the Detroit airport this morning as she was on her way to a wilderness camping adventure. I want to come back as my daughter. However, reincarnation is not the purpose of this blog post.

I wrote a recent post to you about saying “no” to airport X-ray scanners. I told Jessi about these scanners and I advised her to tell the TSA agent that she did not want to be irradiated. Actually, I told her to tell the agent that she did not want to go into the X-ray scanner machine.
This morning, I forgot to remind Jessi about the X-ray scanner. About 30 minutes later I received a text from her. It said, “When I went through security, I told the agent that I did not want to go through the scanner. He asked ‘why?’ I told him my doctor told me not to go through the X-ray machine. He said, ‘Your doctor is an idiot’.”

I assume that the TSA agent was referring to me as the ‘idiot’. Well, as the idiot involved in the story, I have a differing opinion.
There is no known safe dose of ionizing radiation. None. These scanners use ionizing radiation. The amount of radiation used by these machines is unknown since the data is being hidden by the TSA. In fact, these scanners have not been properly tested to ascertain if they are indeed safe. In fact, there are no plans (that I have seen) to properly test these machines.

There is no doubt that pregnant women and children are more vulnerable to ionizing radiation. I think everybody should avoid these X-ray machines, but pregnant women and children should be exempted from being irradiated.
Just because you are thinking about the consequences of exposing your body to unnecessary ionizing radiation does not make you an idiot. An idiot is one who blindly follows orders from TSA agents who have little understanding about what they are exposing the public to.