This is food. It might look kind of obvious but I've been surprised at how my perception of food has changed dramatically in the recent past. It all starts with my wife Sarah Kay.
We were married in early May of 2014. It was a phenomenal event thanks to the vision and work of quite a few people, in particular our families. We had an unorthodox honeymoon. We backpacked into the Grand Canyon and camped in Havasupai for 3 nights.
Sarah Kay wasn't feeling super strong but that wasn't super concerning. She was able to hike the rugged 12 miles in and 12 miles out pretty well. And thanks to some ingenious (but admittedly frightening) packing, we almost ran out of food which means we didn't have to carry excess food as we hiked up and out of the Grand Canyon. We probably should have packed more food...but instead of admitting to a lack of preparation we like to think of ourselves as being pretty fit and (mostly) smart.
After an awesome honeymoon, we headed out to New York City where an internship awaited Sarah Kay and unemployment awaited me. Sarah Kay loved her Graphic Design internship at Studio Case but I wasn't too fond of unemployment so I ditched it and successfully started a math tutoring business. We had so much fun and ate some really delicious food. Sarah Kay began showing signs of discomfort. Back and neck pain, difficulty swallowing and general fatigue were constant companions. Of course we thought she was probably just a little stressed from working so much and pushing her body pretty hard. Massages and running were our answers to deal with the stress. We noticed she had lost a lot of weight. Toward the end of our summer stay, we found a lump in her shoulder and two on her neck. That was odd. And then she nearly collapsed of fatigue on one of our morning runs. That was atypical. We knew something was wrong.
We moved back to Provo to continue school and immediately went to the doctor to see what was up. After surgery on a fateful September 11, the surgeon came out and told me that it looked like lymphoma. This was confirmed just a few days later.
BOOM! Cancer. In my face. Well, actually more like in her lymph nodes. Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage II, non-bulky, unfavorable was the official diagnosis. Fortunately, unfavorable does not refer to living statistics (which are very high thankfully) but instead indicates that the lymphoma is in more than one spot.
By this point, Sarah Kay had already lost a bunch of weight but she was still over 100 pounds. Since weight loss is common among cancer folk, we asked our doctor what to do about it. His answer was to increase the calories per bite. His examples? Eat ice cream topped with chocolate. Eat cake with whip cream. Eat toast with lots of butter. Hamburgers and fries—and make sure you eat them with sauce. Now this was a little strange. I don't find those examples particularly convincing if we are trying to aid a body in its fight against a life-threatening illness, although they are indeed calorie packed.
Sarah Kay was experiencing some digestive issues that needed to be taken care of before we started chemotherapy. What started out as a simple hemorrhoidectomy turned into 5 different hospital visits in one month where we experienced excruciating bowel movements and no healing (I say we because I have had to help her through a majority of bowel movements up to this point). Finally, the doctor ordered a colonoscopy. As some folks know, a colonoscopy is not the most pleasant experience—particularly for one who has open wounds that won't heal. We got the results of that procedure just a few days ago on December 3, which just happens to be Sarah Kay's birthday: Crohn's disease.
Let's take a break from this story to talk a little bit more about food. Food is stuff we eat. More specifically, it's stuff that we create for our bodies from things that the earth produces in hopes that it will give us the proper energy and strength to do the things we love and get things done. Somewhere along this line, we lost track of the whole focus on our bodies and instead, food production was outsourced to companies. A brief note on companies from Econ 101: their main focus is to maximize profit, not to give us energy and strength. When we outsourced our food production to companies, this produced a miracle—it bought us time. It saved us some money too. It also decreased the quality of our food. Of course, not all companies want people to be unhealthy. So they give us lots of choices and try to point out the different advantages of various goods. Gluten-free, antioxidants, calcium, omega-3, whole grain, fiber and the list goes on. These nutrient-words are printed with good intentions on things we can buy and eat from the store. Where don't you find these words? On fruits and vegetables. On meat and eggs. They don't need it. It is so incredibly obvious that they are foods. They don't need to say anything for you to know that they are probably good for you. Look at the picture at the top. That food doesn't need to convince you it's food. However, some of the things we have engineered have sure saved us a bunch of time but it is still a poor approximation of what really provides us with proper energy and strength. At the end of the day, companies end up selling us bundled nutrients instead of food.
Back to the story. At the time Sarah Kay was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, she weighed 87 pounds. Talking about 87 pounds is like talking about one million dollars. It's really hard to comprehend what that number even means or looks like. Unlike one million dollars though, it's not a lot. It's the combined effect Crohn's disease and Cancer on the body. We estimate that Sarah Kay has lost approximately 40 pounds since January. We probably look like idols as we visit our doctor every two weeks for a check-up at his office which is also a weight loss clinic. As a brief introduction to Crohn's disease, your body attacks the healthy bacteria in your digestive system which causes severe ulcers along the digestive tract. Sarah Kay's are mostly in her colon. They don't know why it happens and there is no cure for this life-long disease. They can only treat the symptoms using immuno-suppressors. If there is one thing Sarah Kay does not need right now, it is a compromised immune system.
There is a distinct link between food and Crohn's disease. Gluten and casein (a protein found in milk) have been found to be common culprits of inflammation and discomfort. Many people find that they can successfully control Crohn's disease by eating healthy food. We are still unsure what triggers Sarah Kay's symptoms but we have started by cutting out dairy (except homemade yogurt), grains, legumes and sugar. Already, the moment we began eating this way (shortly after the colonoscopy just before Thanksgiving) we started seeing some immediate results. Sarah Kay is no longer confined to a bed. She can walk around now which is saying a lot! She gained a pound. 88 pounds! One more pound and we could say it's symbolic (see D&C 89). She can have a bowel movement by herself. Our doctor said he finally saw the open wounds closing up at our last visit this past Tuesday. I suspect the yogurt to be instrumental. She didn't have any yogurt today and her bowels didn't feel quite as good. I think we might be on to something.
I think we often substitute the hard question of "Is it healthy?" with "Does it have any nutrients I recognize?" Worse, we sometimes replace "Is it good for me?" with "Does it taste good?" It's very expensive and time consuming for companies to produce meals that are healthy. It was very time consuming for us—that's why we outsourced it. It is even harder for companies to stay relevant and make a profit. That's why when faced between producing healthy foods and making a profit, the company will choose to live and make a profit. Not all companies sell us things that are unhealthy, but there are very few who actually produce real food.
We believe in Western medicine and we will gratefully take advantage of the knowledge and products available to us. We also believe in common sense and in giving the body what it needs and thrives on. We believe this is an unbeatable combination. Modern medicine with a diet of ice cream and cake sure sounds a lot like leaning on the arm of the flesh to me. Our bodies are machines with surprising capabilities. When we fuel them right, we can run and not be weary; walk and not faint.
Most people, after learning what we don't eat, ask us "So... what do you eat?"
Our answer is one word: Food.
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