Madison Area Lyme Support Group

This great Tedx Talk reminds us we have far more control over the destiny of our health than we realize.  If you need encouragement to change your health habits – this is it.  

 Approx. 10 Min

What’s with Wheat? | Cyndi O’Meara | TEDxWilmington

In this talk Cyndi O’Meara discusses challenges with wheat.

Cyndi O’Meara is a nutritionist, film maker – ‘What’s With Wheat?’, best-selling author, international speaker and founder of Changing Habits. Cyndi graduated with a BSc majoring in Nutrition in 1984, her special interest was ancestral foods. After graduating, she became disillusioned by the global ‘standard’ nutritional guidelines that she paved her own path. Cyndi started Changing Habits in 1990, from her regular newspaper column on nutrition. Her ground breaking book Changing Habits Changing Lives (1998) became an instant best seller and from there she has grown a successful organic food company, certified online education program, a ground breaking documentary and is currently building a 60-acre organic food bowl which will be used as an education centre for sustainable farming practices. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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**Comment**

Being a native Iowan myself, I found O’Meara’s brief family history interesting. Spraying arsenic, lead & DDT on corn & wheat due to a locust plague was not too shocking considering I lived on the Mississippi River where Dupont and Clinton Corn were huge manufacturing plants employing many of the town folk. Today, all my old girlfriends have thyroid and endocrine disease and there is a lot of cancer.

The micro biome of the soil is just as important as the micro biome of the human body.  When farmers use things that disrupt the soil – beware.  It’s just a matter of time before the human body micro biome gets trashed.

Being a Lyme/MSIDS patient myself and understanding the challenges, this talk will give you simple and practical steps you can actively take to help regain your health.  If it’s overwhelming, do 1 thing until you are able to take on more. Remember – no guilt.  Just start somewhere and feel happy about it, knowing you are making life-long changes that will make a difference.

1. When able, get to know the farmers at the local market and develop a relationship with them.  Raising crops in a healthy way is what these folks have devoted their lives to.  They are springs of information and are quite willing to share it.
2. If you suspect wheat, go off it for 6 weeks and see if symptoms improve.  Many have found this one step to be a turning point.  My PT, after listening to my symptoms one day, asked, “Have you considered gluten?  I have nearly every symptom you just mentioned and when my wife, who’s a nutritionist, put me on a gluten-free diet, every symptom disappeared.”  Interestingly, he was so reactive that he had to use his own eating utensils and keep them separate from the family’s as he reacted even to microscopic amounts of gluten remaining on washed utensils others used to eat gluten with.  This shows that for many Lyme/MSIDS looks an awful lot like Lyme/MSIDS.  It can cause joint pain, brain fog, and many other similar symptoms.
3. Be a label reader.  Find out what’s inside and what is being sprayed on your food.
4. When you shop, stay on the perimeter of the store where the real food is.
5. Get back in the kitchen and make your own food.

For another straight-forward talk on how to change your body and health with food:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/20/minding-your-mitochondria/  Diagnosed with MS, Dr. Terry Wahls received the best standard medicine had to offer. After declining to the point of being in a wheel chair, she took matters into her own hands and learned how to properly fuel her body. Using the lessons she learned at the subcellular level, she used diet to cure her MS and get out of her wheelchair.