One of Us is Bound to Have a Heart Attack at this Rate

One of my son's is having a serious medical issue. There have been visits to A&E (the Emergency Room for my American readers), the family doctor from an appointment we arranged through an Urgent Care number, and a brief stint to the hospital. The quality of care has been ineffective to say the least and at points, seems to make things much worse. His pain levels have been through the roof and while I'm hugging him, trying to comfort him through one of these episodes, I can feel his little heart pounding and racing through it's staccatto beat at a speed I imagine could match a humming bird's wings. My head feels like it's about to split open at points and I know its from my blood pressure. Each time I explain my sons situation and they dismiss it, insisting that we stay their prescribed course, my head pounds harder and the nausea washes over me making me think that I might vomit all over someone at any minute. But I can't show any of that. My son needs me to be calm, soothing and comforting. 

I couldn't be prouder of my son as he faces this so bravely and masters breathing techniques to manage the pain. I'm going to take a cue from him. I'm going work on my own mastery of those breathing techniques, be brave for him and battle through whatever medical professionals I need to in order to get him the help he needs. 

Heart Beats

A lot of things have hearts on my brain lately. Everything from health, food, life, love and relationships.

Have you seen the latest news about "The 'heart attack proof diet'"? In short, it requires: no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no added oils. Would you be willing to take the plunge and go for that if you were guaranteed to be heart attack free?

There is enough heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes in my family history to make this a really tempting approach to life. With that said, I just can't bring myself to dive into that. 

I'm not a nutritionist or specialist of any kind but health and weight is something I've struggled with for a long time. Personally, I know my entire family struggles with an essential fatty deficiency. Whether it's a genetic thing, where we just don't break down or absorb them well or something else, I'm not sure. I just know that essential fatty acids are important for us. So when I read no meat all I could think was, 'not even salmon?'. Throw in no eggs and no oils and our ship is pretty much sunk. I mean, we have a deficiency and that's while eating all of those things. Working around picky kids who don't eat that wide of a selection of food makes it even tougher. 

I think so many of us struggle with food, health, and body image these days. It can often be refreshing to  get an inside glimpse from those who we might never suspect struggle with the same things we do. Just the other day, one of the people I find really inspirational, Garance Dore, wrote an amazingly open post about her life changes since relocating to New York and how it's affected her relationship with food. 

While this diet might offer a heart attack free existence, I'm going to have to pass. I can't imagine the stress, worry, and anxiety trying to follow it would cause and I'm pretty sure that would completely undo any heart saving qualities that might have for me. I think I'm just going to continue trying to eat "clean" and balanced foods and embrace whatever life might have in store for me.

What do you think? Do you have kids and would you ask them to jump on board with these new food restrictions? Are the heart saving promises worth it to you?

Ciao,

xoxo