Do Not Put That Processed Food into Your Mouth!

Processed food is full of chemicals

I was on a mission to deal a knock out blow to my  fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms.  I was committed to getting as many chemicals out of my life as possible.  I had already eliminated scented products, started using more natural ingredients in my cleaning routine, and changed my personal grooming supplies in an effort to get toxic substances out of my life.  Check out my previous blog entries if you would like more information.

Now I started thinking about the things I was putting into my body every time I ate.  I examined the labels on all of the processed and packaged foods in my pantry and refrigerator.  These products were loaded with artificial dyes, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and chemical additives with names I could barely pronounce.  I grabbed a garbage bag and started the great food clean out.  I tossed everything that was processed and/or had added chemicals.

 I made a list of foods to remove from my daily diet.  Here are a few examples:

lunch meat and bacon - full of nitrates 

hot dogs - chemicals, dyes, nitrates

sodas - little more than chemicals in a can

packaged cookies and candies - dyes, preservatives, additives

artificial sweeteners - not a natural product

Some of these items I liked - a lot.  Sometimes I was tempted to consume them.  Then I reminded myself that I wouldn't eat arsenic or drink strychnine.  For me, chemically laden foods were potentially just as toxic.  I confess that over the past two years I have eaten an occasional hot dog and washed it down with a soda at a picnic. I have taken a small bite of something else on my forbidden foods list at a party.  But this happens only once every few months, not once a day.

By this point in my quest to get better, my fibromyalgia pain was improving.  Some days I had only slight discomfort. This encouraged me that I was heading in the right direction.  But I was still having acute flareups in which the pain became quite severe.  There had been no improvement in my chronic fatigue symptoms.  Most days I was still having difficulty putting one foot in front of the other. I had taken a lot of things out of my life. I discovered I was going to have to put some other things into my life before I got better.



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