One of the things I deeply regret in my young adult years while carrying my babies and as they grew up, was that of not really providing the right nourishment for them. In my early teenage years through young adulthood, I had the nasty habit of smoking cigarettes, drinking colas, and hardly eating anything that was nutritionally good for me. I learned very quickly as I grew older that this lifestyle had wreaked havoc on my body and my health began suffering for it. I was not a person to over eat (most of the time) and I didn't like to eat a lot of sweet foods, neither did I eat a lot of bread, but my main problem was I wasn't eating fresh, organic vegetables and fruits or anything that was filled with enzymes so that my body could be strong. I allowed my cigarettes and soft drinks to be my mainstay in my daily life. Thank the Lord that this began to change as I grew older. Only with the help of God did I quit smoking and this was after having my second child. My husband and I both smoked so you can imagine what it was like for our two small children living in our house. One of them was always getting sick, so I attribute most of this to our lifestyle. Not until later, after becoming ill myself, did I finally start changing the way I ate and the way our family ate. And then there was the problem with getting the husband to go along, who all his life was trained to eat hardily and just about anything he wanted.
According to "Recipes for Life", by Rhonda Malkmus, pregnant and nursing mothers should avoid junk foods, foods high in sugar and fat, and they should never consume alcohol, caffeine, or smoke cigarettes. Women who drink during pregnancy are shown to have babies with decreased birth rates, smaller heads, mental retardation, and can even have abnormal face, heart and appendages. Caffeine and cigarettes can cause birth defects as well as many other complications.
In the future I plan to write more about this topic, but for now I will leave you with some quotes by nutritionist experts:
Did You Know?
"Most of the mentally retarded babies born in America are due to the mother's drug, cigarette or alcohol addiction, or their poor eating habits where they lacked the basic vitamins and minerals needed to produce a healthy baby."
--Dr. Roger Williams, noted scientist and nutritionist
"My file is full of examples of Americans with soft bones (dissolved, I believe, by their phosphoric acid consumption) and my heart-felt concern for fetuses is now a reality--many are being born without face bones, with missing ribs, with fewer than normal carpal bones, and so forth.
--Dr. Mary Ruth Swope, from her article "Why I Don't Drink Soft Drinks and I Wish You Didn't"
"The average 12-ounce cola has about 150 calories and over an ounce (9 teaspoons) of refined sugar: a 12-ounce un-cola has 7 1/2 teaspoons sugar. 24 teaspoons of sugar in one day destroys 92% of the body's ability to destroy bacteria"
--Dr. Agatha Thrash, M.D., Home Remedies
"A government warning was once issued to the manufacturer of a certain world-famous refreshing soft drink for its suspected effect on the bones of children because of the large amount of phosphoric acid in it. Pour coke over an extracted baby tooth or a 10-penny nail and see it totally dissolve in a few days!"
--Dr. Mary Ruth Swope from Why I Don't Drink Soft Drinks and Wish You Didn't
very interesting quotes!
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