I loved your point of “we are trying to keep people OUT of the hospital”. Amazing. I am so proud of what you are doing, the open helpfulness of your profession. I am also surprised that your little anonymous hate-mailer had so much to say. As Freud might argue, there are definitely other subconscious issues going on there!!

xxoo

Megan, I am so thankful that I have come to know you in my life. You were inspirational from the first day I saw you at IHN and you continue to be an inspiration and mentor today. You just keep growing and perfecting your each and every talent. God bless…

Sending vibrations of happiness, love and tranquility to you today…

I’ll agree with him/her that there are a lot of kooks in the holistic and naturopathic profession, but there are also a lot of lousy doctors and RDs, too. Conversely, there are also amazing doctors, and amazing nutritionists, and while they might not agree on every treatment or approach to a disease, it would help if they tried to meet in the middle every now and then. Sometimes you have no choice but to take prescription drugs, but this doesn’t mean you should forget about what you’re eating — everything that you ingest, whether it’s Tylenol or quinoa, has a direct effect on your health. If I get sick, I plan on following my doctor’s orders and eating what Meghan tells me to.

Much like yourself, I made some significant changes to my diet to help treat my anxiety and panic issues in my early 20’s. One of the major changes I chose was to eliminate caffeine. I loved my ‘daily coffee’ but unfortunately that was one thing that had to go among any forms of pop and chocolate, tea, you name it. It seemed pretty logical to me. If one were wound up, eliminate all forms of stimulants…such as caffeine, smoking, alcohol, which I did all of. The first two months were absolute hell from withdrawal, however I have been anxiety free for five years, and I owe more than half of the success to changing my intake of stimulants. The truth is that it worked for me. When people approach me and ask what worked for me, I share my story. I also understand that it doesn’t work for everyone!!

It boggles my mind when you do some quick searches on caffeine withdrawal, you get all kinds of people with the same problems- extreme headaches, depression, concentration issues, nausea, vomiting, etc. And I’ve experienced it all. It makes me then realize that “Health Canada” makes “recommendations” on safe intake of substances. Just because they say xx amounts of coffee is “okay” does not warrant that you ’should’ be drinking it.

So moral of the story, I’m on your side. Your goal is to help people adjust their personal diets to promote healthy lifestyles, mentally and physically. Everyone is different. I have a slight lactose allergy as well….So, even though i do enjoy a decaf latte now and again, I know that I am in for a rough ride. I enjoy this little pleasure, but NEVER do I think of it as a healthy alternative. In fact I think of it as the opposite, a treat that offers me NOTHING nutritionally. Hence, NEVER a good idea! I love these people tootling off from starbucks thinking they’ve saved themselves by getting a light this, low fat that, blah blah blah! Sadly, I sometimes can be one of them too…..yikes! I’m out.

You said: “Never a healthy option” not “Never a good idea”.

To me there’s a pretty big difference there.

I do my best to eat healthy and I generally do a pretty good job, not just in a “low fat latte” way, but in a real way (e.g. no red meat for the past 15 yrs, try to eat ‘live’ veggies, try to limit things with preservatives, etc… the list goes on).

I’m also lucky enough to not be dealing with any major health issues and I’m human… so I also (in moderation) like to indulge my love for things like chocolate ice cream and, my favorite: a nice strong cup of coffee. I think it’s good in life to have a balanced approach to things: “everything in moderation”.

My point here is this: just because I adore coffee and I “want” it and have decided to allow myself that treat within moderation *does not* mean that I’m going to start arguing that it’s a “healthy option”.

Your mystery commenter said: “Health Canada’s recommendation for caffeine is 300mg per day which is equivalent of about three 250mL cups of coffee.”

By the way they’ve quoted it your mystery commenter makes it sound like it’s a ‘recommendation’ in the same way as the health guide recommends an adult female have 7-8 vegetable serving a day. (*sigh*, I only wish.)

Merely focusing on the issue at hand (i.e. ignoring the blatant lashing out against holistic health) none of this, in my opinion has anything to do with different notions of what foods are healthy for us. The Canada Food Guide does not “recommend” coffee or caffeine as a “healthy option”, so how is Meghan’s comment so objectionable to you? (a simple guess would say it’s your own issues with the entire field of holistic health, probably due to some kind of personal experience).

The difference here is that one perspective (mainstream pop culture view) operates on the idea that you can never possibly get away from your craving for a big faty sugary latte so the only healthy option is to get the “light” version. Like diet Coke. Heh heh. I’d love to see this same person (or the person who wrote the article) suggest Diet Coke as a healthy option.

Holistic health tries to deal with true health and truly healthy options, not just compromises based on weakness.

A person’s diet and eating habits are formed by their daily activities… Kids, work, stress, computer use etc. as well as their culture. In order to effectively lose weight and keep the weight off, the only method of dieting is going to be to change your life style, or change what you do when you have free time. Instead of sitting down on the couch to watch TV and enjoy a beer or other snack, go for a relaxing walk.

Saying that any food isn’t healthy and you shouldn’t eat it because science has shown that it blah blah blah… doesn’t mean that eliminating it is going to be the panacea.

White rice, bread etc. is consumed in massive quantities by Japanese people. I am in Japan right now, and every meal includes rice, and every snack is loaded with sugary, white breads… how many people do I see are fat? Maybe one out of every 100 japanese people, if that. Most overweight people I see come from other countries.

Change your lifestyle.