Whole New Mom Answers Your Questions ~ May 11, 2012

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a Q&A post, but finally here’s another one.

This week, we’re tacking questions on Eczema, Sunscreens, Natural Sweeteners, and more.

I’ve so wanted to be able to be a resource to others and just love how the health posts have turned into a help for so many (and how I’ve been helped by so many of your comments as well!

My family has been through so much from:

life threatening food allergies to
autism to
adrenal fatigue, and more.

It’s hard to deal with all of these things, but it makes it easier when you know that your struggles have been used to bless others.

We’ve also been through a lot financially–mainly trying to “make it” on a single income (that is well below six figures :-)), with a special needs child, with medical expenses and well . . . things aren’t getting cheaper now, are they?

Anyway, I’ve always had a passion to share, but it’s a lot more efficient to share on the internet than just be word of mouth.

So Whole New Mom was born.

My desire with this kind of post is to field questions on any topic (within reason :-)) that you might like to ask:

whole foods
special diets
food allergies
substitutions (like for egg [see my egg replacer recipe], sweeteners, etc.)
budgeting (saving money, inflation…)
health topics (autism, adrenal health, heavy metals,….)
anything else (within reason, right?) By the way, my hubby is not a fixit man (but he’s working on it) but he is kind of an expert on some things so feel free to ask away. If it has to do with whole health in some way and I can’t answer it, maybe he can chime in :-).)

I can’t promise that I’ll know the answer, but I’ll try my best ;-).

And then all of you can just chime in the comments section and we can all help each other out.

So–ready? Set? Let’s go!

(Oh–and you can e-mail your questions to me at wholenewmom {at} gmail {dot} com. Just put “Whole New Mom Answers Your Questions” or “WNM Answers” in the Subject area so it catches my eye more quickly!)

Today’s questions from readers like you are….

Natural Sunscreens:

Question from Lynda:

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone is aware of any natural or close to, sunscreens avail for purchase anywhere?
Thank you,

Lynda

Adrienne’s Answer:

Linda, I actually looked into this a lot this past year. Generally I try not to spend too much time in the sun but sometimes we can’t help it (and I spent waaaaay too much time in the sun in my younger years so I really want to be careful not to get any additional exposure.)

Anyway, this list from Environmental Working Group is just fabulous. It takes awhile to poke through, but you can for sure find some really good options.

I ended up purchasing my sunscreen at Iherb. They have really competitive pricing and a wealth of other great products to choose from.

Alternatively, you could check Vitacost. If you’re new to them you get $10 off your first order! (they have sunscreens starting at $1.66 right now!)

Question about Coconut Oil uses, Sugar Substitutes, Bloating and Gas:

From Natasha:

So, I am also tired often but right now my main concern is the bloating and gas that I get. I have (not very well) tried gluten free, dairy free but I get mixed messages and confused and am just plain not good at it. So, do you have any pointers on how to gradually do these things? I guess I just don’t really know where to start! I don’t drink milk (I have almond milk to use when I need milk). Can I still have yogurt? What about cheese?

By the way…when I want to do baking for my family (and myself), what should I use as a sugar substitute? ….and do you recommend using coconut oil in baking and frying??? Thanks!

Thanks for much for taking the time to help me out!

Adrienne’s Answer:

Well, of course, I am not a doctor, but I will tell you my experience and what I have heard from others. If I were that tired (and I have had a lot of fatigue in my life) I would get my thyroid checked and consider that adrenal fatigue might be an issue. It was for me. You can see one of my posts on adrenal fatigue here where you can take an adrenal fatigue test.

Bloating and gas, are typically regarded in alternative care as being digestive issues (well, that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?) and a lot of people in alternative medicine think that candida is the issue. In order to deal w/ candida, the recommended dietary changes would mainly be no sugar or sweeteners that affect blood sugar.

For sweeteners, since we are all extremely sensitive to carbohydrates, we currently only use:

stevia extract
(it’s super sweet – 1/32 tsp = 1 T sugar!)

xylitol

erythritol

vegetable glycerine

hoping to try coconut sugar and palm sugar soon

Also limiting starches, especially simple ones.

That is what I have done for our family.

I take a really great digestive enzyme and probiotic and have found that to be a big help, but the changes in my diet have helped the most.

I personally think that going sugar free has helped me much more than going gluten free. But I am gluten free and dairy free also.

If you are dairy free you cannot have cheese or yogurt. But you could have something like almond milk (that you are already having). Did you see my post on The Easiest Almond Milk Ever?

Also, I hope to post on how to make your own Coconut Yogurt soon.

You also might wish to try my Almond Feta.

My son, who has a life threatening allergy to dairy, loves it. I’m hoping to work on other alternatives as well.

I hope that helps.

Regarding coconut oil, the smoke point for coconut oil is typically indicated as being 350 degrees so you would want to heat it below that temperature.

I do use coconut oil but don’t do a whole lot of frying. Palm oil’s smoke point is indicated as being 450 degrees so that would be a much better choice for high temp cooking.

You can find both oils at Tropical Traditions (you get a nice informational cookbook when you purchase your first order with them.) I use their coconut oil but am looking at other options for palm.

Eczema

Questions from Lydia:

First can I say thank you so much for sharing all of your learnings! There’s just so much to learn, it really helps to have someone who’s been there

My current focus is my partner’s eczema. He’s had it since an infant, and of course the only thing conventional (and thus funded!) medicine says is to slather it in steroids. I’ve heard a lot that the source of eczema is the gut, and I’m trying to think of ways to fix it. This is made harder by the fact he’s pretty sceptical of my ‘hippy stuff’, but he’s come around to a few things and one by one I can introduce new stuff. I’m particularly interested in anything that is guaranteed to work, and quickly! – though I’ve long since learned that’s a fantasy Also: we’re students, so as much as I’d love to have him take fermented cod liver oil every day the budget just doesn’t allow for that.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about starting water kefir, milk kefir or kombucha, to get his bacterial balance right. I was wondering what your thoughts are about which one to start with. (I only have the mental energy to start one at a time!). Milk kefir has the advantage of being able to be described as ‘a new type of yoghurt’, so that’ll be easily accepted, but I’m also thinking that since lots of people say their eczema gets worse when they eat dairy it might be better to stick with water kefir for now. But I hear raw milk is said to improve eczema – so maybe I should use that? So far I’ve had indications both ways about dairy being a problem.. as yet unsure.

THEN I was thinking about kombucha. The sight of it might not go down well, so getting him to drink it could be difficult (or even allow it in the house!), and I hear it has fewer strains of bacteria, but then candida is meant to be a problem with eczema isn’t it, and kombucha is the only one that kills that? He does eat what I consider to be too much sugar, though for a 23yo guy I guess it’s probably below average, but phasing out soft drinks is another one of those slow missions I work on! (energy drinks are all but gone now at least!). At 23yo I doubt he’d have mercury fillings, and I don’t think he has many fillings anyway. He probably did get all his vaccines though..

Anyway, sorry for the rant, please let me know if you have any thoughts/ideas

PS interestingly the only time in his life he didn’t have eczema was when he was in Japan for a year on student exchange. Unfortunately the complete change in diet and environment he had there means that narrowing down the factors that contribute to his eczema is impossible! E.g.
– not living in NZ, where we have huge allergy problems, presumably due to something in our environment
– eating wild salmon every day
– drinking green tea all day
– eating seaweed every day
– very little dairy, wheat or processed sugar all year
– very little processed food at all! (he lived out in a tiny village)

As much as I would love to change all of those things for him it would be very expensive (salmon on special here is $25/kg!), and he’s also kinda resistant to eating differently to the NZ norm (and loves his takeaways, though at least Subway is the main one).

Thanks again

Adrienne’s Answer:

Lots to think about, but mainly, I think the most interesting info is in your “P.S”. Clearly there are a lot of differences going on b/t his life without eczema and with it.

My own experience in our family is that eczema was from food allergies and candida. My son had HORRIBLE eczema due to what I was eating when he was nursing and later had outbreaks when he was struggling w/ candida, whether it was from eating sugar, too much dried fruit, or too many starches even.

The literature that I have read talks about eczema being an allergic issue, but my experience says it might be different.

There are a lot of alternative practitioners who say that eczema is an external manifestation of an internal issue and that if you just use creams, the internal issue will still be there and will cause problems.

So the point that they are making is–deal with the cause and not just the effect.

I am not sure what you are referring to with kombucha having fewer strains of bacteria as it relates to eczema. However, there are lots of candida regiments and things that are supposed to kill / treat candida on the internet.

Standard things that I have had recommended to me as natural candida treatments are:

good probiotics
good diet (no sugar / low starch)
supplements or herbs
reduction of heavy metals (I am doing this now too).

During my time struggling with candida, some of what I have used are:

Phellostatin by Health Concerns (I have found this to be very powerful).
This what I am currently taking.

Grapefruit Seed Extract

Olive Leaf Extract

For metals, I am doing adrenal work including Nutritional Balancing and using liquid zeolite ( you can see it on my Store Page).

I hope that helps. It’s not easy to deal with eczema, or candida, but you are asking good questions.

Oh -one more thing. My current practitioner said that when you have sugar sensitivities (which candida is), taking kombucha would not necessarily be the right choice. You do need to make sure that the sugar is all gone. A friend just recommended a hydrometer for testing kombucha to see how much sugar is in it. Might be a good idea!! Here’s one I found on Amazon that seems to have good reviews:

Hydrometer for testing sugar content