My Green Moms Story

I am a holistic health coach and was formerly trained as a nurse practitioner and my husband is a pediatrician. Most physician-nurse training is designed around the medical model of “finding and fixing” the health problem. This band-aid approach has never appealed to me. I have always asked why. Why did this person get cancer? What was their lifestyle like? What was the child who had ADHD or Autism exposed to? I was interested in curing sick people but I was even more interested in creating health and preventing sickness before it started.  I have seen and witnessed first hand many families torn apart by death and illness that could have been prevented.

When I first started my nursing career, I worked in a busy N.Y.C. hospital on a neurosurgical floor. I thought it would be easier and less stressful (I was a new graduate) because I thought “How many people have brain tumors?” Well, I was wrong. Every bed on that floor was filled with patients dying from stroke to brain cancer. This was in the late 1990”s. While I took care of these people, I was privledged to get a first hand view of their life. I had artists, musicians, even a surgeon as patients. I got to know them and their families intimately. I couldn’t bear to see the suffering they went through. I started asking them questions about their lifestyle. I started asking the doctors about how they think this person acquired this? The doctors, while brilliant neurosurgeons, had no idea. Their job was to fix and remove the tumor. In fact, they were some of the most sought out physicians with patients coming from all over the world, yet they didn’t know why person X got cancer. My thought was “ But if we don’t figure out how they got sick in the first place, who is to say that it will not return?”

My questions were never answered so I decided to become a Nurse Practitioner, where I would be directly giving physical exams, and taking health histories. I thought that this way I will get to find out what was really going on. While working in a busy outpatient center, one patient frequently came in for a prilosec (antacid) prescription filled. I, of course wanted to figure out what caused his reflux and burning, so I asked him what he ate. He said he ate spicey tamales every morning for breakfast. So, as I tried to educate him, I remember a knock on the door and the nurse was telling me that there were 3 patients waiting to be seen. In a typical doctor’s office you have to see approximately 4 patients per hour. Each one gets approximately 15 minutes and in that 15 minutes you have to do the physical exam, take a history, chart and document, and prescribe any tests or medicine. That averages to about 5 minutes for the history, 5 minutes for the Physical Exam, and 5 minutes to chart and prescribe. There was no time to educate these patients. I knew that if I could just educate the poor man about his diet, I could cure him of all of his ill’s and he would never need prilosec. What these patients needed was education, not medication.

Modern medicine is a business designed to see the maximum number of patients run by insurance companies. Perhaps I was a bit idealistic? Many times I became frustrated with the system. I felt hypocritical prescribing medications, when if I could just spend some time with them and educate them, I could prevent their suffering. Although many times the patient actually needs these medications to survive (i.e. blood pressure medications, diabetes medications ,etc) but they are not changing their lifestyle to prevent further illness, nor are they trying to get off these medications. These medications are designed to be temporary measures to save one’s life. They build up in the bloodstream for years. To give a drug to fix one part of the body will also have side effects for another part. We then seek another drug for the new ailment which will have side effects for another part and the cycle repeats itself. This process goes on and on and modern medicine treats this until one fine day you are taking 15 to 20 medications and you get the diagnosis of cancer, heart disease, arthritis, chronic digestive ailments, ADHD, etc. “We’re sorry ma’am, we don’t know what causes it, but here is your appointment for chemotherapy….good luck.” Now if we had the time to educate our patients without fear of losing our jobs for taking too long, this might not have happened. Our bodies are not meant to take in all of these chemicals and medicines, etc. That is why you see so many detoxifying fasts to decrease toxic particles that develop chronic illness. I saw first hand how food caused so many diseases. If food was so powerful to create disease, then I knew that food could be so powerful to reverse disease.

With the birth of our first child, I knew I wanted to give her the best of every thing including all organic food and a toxic free life. Even though I made all of her food from scratch using all organic produce, there are some things I could have done differently. I have learned so many things along the way during my parenting journey in which I will share with you in upcoming articles. I sometimes say I wish I knew then what I know now.

I address this site to moms all over the world because I believe we are the CEO’s of the household. We cook, clean, educate, create, inspire, direct and nurture. We are wives, mothers, daughters and sisters and we wear multiple hats. If the CEO of the company is sick, what happens in your household? We are the glue in the household. We are on call 24 hours a day and our jobs never stop…..and we never stop because of our endless love for our children. I truly believe that in this state of wars, terrorism, toxic environments, poor food and water supplies that women have the power to turn the world around. We are the nuturers. We have a power that can create change…this is our gift.

This site will empower and educate you with green living alternatives to prevent disease in a holistic, natural and earth loving way. The future of our world is our children and if we give them toxic substances, then what will happen to our future?

I knew I could create a healthy population if I could just get children to eat well. But first I needed to educate the parents. This meant changing the way parents were eating. Most adults have a deep emotional attachment to foods. Their mothers have given them these junk foods in childhood. Food equals love and there are strong emotional ties to it. Just try and change an adult’s food habits. It is much more difficult. When we feed our children now, it is important to know that you will be reversing generations of families illnesses by eating real, whole and organic food, consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds and pasture raised. You are making a huge investment in future generations to come . I believe you can reverse at least 1-4 generations of degeneration. In other words, going back to the source. These diseases that we have now did not exist 100 years ago. Sure, we are living longer but if you call having Alzehiemer’s, dementia, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, allergies, and diabetes, along with pill popping of 10 to 20 medications, normal, than what type of quality of life do you have? Food is medicine. It cures, heals, reverses, and prevents diseases. Most modern diseases today are lifestyle diseases.

The schools are not going to take care of your child, nor the government, nor the teachers. If modern medicine continues to practice the way it currently is, then the doctors are not going to take care of your kids either…at least not in the preventable sense. It is you and it all starts at home.

We want our kids in the best schools, getting top notch jobs, but we skimp on what matters most. Poor quality food creates a poor quality child. They cannot perform at optimum levels and share their gifts and talents when they have childhood diabetes or hypothyroidism. I have seen so many children with a lifeless look in their eyes. I don’t see their energetic life force/breath or “Prana” which is what we call it in Sanskrit. There is no vitality or mental clarity. If we are all bogged down with processed, dead foods and chemicals, we are damaging our children and planet. We have lost our connection to nature and are being brainwashed by pharmaceutical companies and the media when our bodies can heal on their own given the right circumstances. When we are not connected to our truest, highest selves, our purpose in life, then we are not connected to each other. When we are not connected to each other, you will see wars, depression, hatred, anxiety, violence, crime, terrorism, anger, competiveness, fear and jealousy.

We don’t need a medicine cabinet full of prescription drugs and a pantry full of artificial foods. We need to be the change to start healing future generations. Let’s prevent all diseases by going back and nourishing our children’s bodies holistically. I am going to share stories of health and empower you to make changes. This site will educate you about what’s in our food, water and environment and help you to make changes and guide you toward safer choices thus preventing disease.

I see so many families spending their free time in doctor’s offices and emergency rooms. Are these the childhood memories you want to create? Whatever happened to the carefree, happy memories of childhood?

This site is dedicated to our future….the children. The time that I didn’t get in the doctor’s office to educate you, I intend to do this here. The body can heal itself. Give it the right nutrients and lots of love!

Changing the planet, one child at a time…