My mother became a vegetarian shortly after I was born in 1963 and a few years later turned to the Macrobiotic Diet as promoted by Mishio Kushi from Japan. This also meant that I was bought up eating with chopsticks, way, WAY before it became 'fashionable' to eat that way!
Interestingly enough the reason my mother 'forced' us to eat with chopsticks was because she thought we all ate too fast. But it was discovered that we could eat faster with chopsticks than with a knife and fork. The peculiar effect of this was that when going out to dine, going to our grandparents homes or being invited to friends houses to have lunch or dinner, we had no clue as to the positioning of the 'normal' utensils (i.e. knives on the left forks on the right) and which ones were to be used for what! A desert spoon was the same to us as a soup spoon!! Luckily, we never met people who judged us on our lack of eating decorum! People just thought us a bit odd for not knowing the 'proper' placing of utensils or which knife, spoon or fork went where. Personally, I find it hilarious and kind of strange that there are people who judge other peoples social standing by their knowledge (or lack thereof) of where all the different utensils go.
Anyway, I digress... because of my mother's influence we, my two sisters and I, grew up with a very different understanding of diet and its effect on our health. We were rarely sick and I only remember ever having one family (Homeopathic) Doctor, a Dr. Raeside, who tragically died in the 1969 Berlin Aircrash. When he died so did our trips to see a doctor if any of us got ill, which very rarely happened.
Our diet was highly unusual at that time in the UK, for example with breakfast it consisted of Miso soup, sometimes with onions, mushrooms or seaweed (or a combination of all or a few of these ingredients), or porridge. I vaguely remember having wheatabix with unpastuerized milk way back when I was 3 or 4, but from the late 60's/early 70's to when I left home we ate macrobioticly.
Dinner was 1/3 of vegetables (3-4 different colors - carrots or beetroots, onions, and some form of greens or cauliflower/cabbage), 1/3 some type of beans (usually Adzuki or kidney beans and occassionally lentils - brown, yellow or orange, or split peas) and then 1/3 grain (usually rice or wheat, but sometimes barley, millet or buckwheat). It was this way for most of my life.
It did make for interesting results - I used to do judo and one day the instructor decided that the whole club that evening would have a knockout competition (this was about 6pm after school). Out of about 30 boys ranging in age from 7 to about 15-16 I beat everyone (at the age of 13, I think). The teacher, the former Olympic coach for the England team - a Japanese man named Percy Sekini, asked me afterwards with a quiet questioning look what I had had for breakfast. I told him, "A bowl of Miso soup with some seaweed." he just looked at me a bit oddly and knodded knowingly. Don't forget I was a white kid living in England (of Polish parents) reciting a Japanese breakfast dish to him!
Due to this different way of eating and the philosophy attached to it our outlook on health and food was way different to just about everyone around us. When others had the 'flu' or cold, one of us would tell that person what to take to deal with it. Needless to say nobody listened to us.
My mother took a lot of flack for the way she bought us up and it became even more difficult for her when she and my dad divorced when I was 7 years old.
My dad's parents were very traditionally Polish and when we went to see them they would ignore what my mother asked them to feed us with the result that it caused both us, the kids, and my mother to feel very let down by our grandparents. It was most upsetting for my mother who had to deal with any 'problems' after these trips (which there weren't many, just dealing with the occassional sugar 'high').
For us, the children, we felt very betrayed by our grandparents and the way they underhandedly fed us food which they knew my mother would not approve of. I even remember eating something which I thought was fish but when I asked what it was I was told that it was venison, afterwhich I promtply stopped eating it and I remembered my grandmother's look of shock and consternation when I did that.
So it was not easy eating the way we did. And I take my hat off to my mum for bringing us up the way she did. Her job was very horrible in light of the prevailing way of life in England at the time. But because of her all three of us have a much greater understanding about food and health than your average individual and we seem to be a lot healthier too.
That also means that my research included delving into the alternative health aspect of life - which allowed me to take on board an awful lot of information which most would find difficult. Because of my upbringing I had already gathered, at a very young age, that there were a lot of lies and vested interests in keeping people eating incorrectly to keep them sick. After all there is an industry that relies on the ignorance of people - it is the health (death) industry. Through people's ignorance they make trillions of $$$$$.
To give an example of what I am talking about.... I do not take or participate in:
I HAVE taken supplements and vitamins over the years, though not on a consistent basis, and I have taken MMS and other protocols to 'see what it was about', to 'test' the information that I was reading or to take these alternative protocols for specific reasons. I have never had any adverse reactions from doing so.
If I have been to see a doctor it's because it was required of me (motorcycle racing license, immigration procedures to move to Canada, etc). The last time that I went to see a doctor for a checkup was in the late 60s just before Dr. Raeside died. And I have been perfectly fine since then.
Nowadays, if one gets tangled up in the 'healthcare' system, one is more than likely to start having 'complications' than not. So I do not get invovled with it. Period. Reading this section will allow you to take control of your own healthcare as there are many resources that I have that I will make available over time (as and when I get the different pages built).