The Lettuce Inn

Where Lucy discovers the truth about food...and other stuff too!

23 November 2011


How to Increase Your Energy Levels
Part 1 – Get rid of the chemicals


These days we are bombarded with chemicals from everywhere, including what we put in our bodies, on our bodies, our cleaning products, our water and soil, consumer products, the air we breathe...the list goes on.

Approximately 80,000 industrial chemicals, additives and preservatives are in use today and most of these were invented in the last 75 years. Of these chemicals, only a small percentage of them have ever been screened for potential health effects such as cancer, reproductive toxicity, developmental toxicity, or impacts on the immune system.  Among those that have been tested (approximately 15,000), each chemical has been tested individually rather than in the combinations that we are exposed to in the real world. In reality, no one is ever exposed to a single chemical, but to a chemical soup, the ingredients of which may interact to cause chaos.

This chemical soup has a significant effect on our health and energy levels.  For example cancer rates have risen from 20 to 50 percent since 1970 and the number of asthma suffers has grown by 75 percent since 1980.  So many people are unwell, some with serious illness, but many others just feel sick and tired without any specific health condition.

Don’t despair, there is good news!  Our bodies are really quite amazing and despite all the toxic stuff that goes into them, it does a pretty good job of trying to get the bad stuff out.  It does this through our elimination organs: the liver, kidneys, skin and intestines.  However, it is easy for our body to become overloaded, and the harder it works on detoxifying us, the less energy we have to live our lives.  Our metabolism slows down and we are left feeling exhausted, sometimes even before we have got out of bed! 

There are many ways to lighten the load on our body, making it easier to eliminate the toxic chemicals, and in return giving us more energy to enjoy life.  Here are some suggestions:

1.  Make the majority of your food fresh fruits, vegetables and whole, unprocessed foods
     and purchase as much as you can organically.

2.   Try to drink 2 litres of water a day, to replenish and hydrate your body and help it to 
      flush out the nasties. Buy a reusable stainless steel or other BPA free bottle. Plastic
      bottles can leach toxic chemicals into your drinking water.

3.  Get back to basics with cleaning.  Throw away every toxic chemical based cleaning
     product you use and discover the power of ingredients such as bicarb soda, vinegar,
     lemon juice and many other natural and non toxic alternatives to clean your home.

4.  Wash your clothes with soap nuts or bicarb soda with a vinegar rinse.

5.  Go through your skin care, personal care, cosmetics – everything you put on your
     body, and check it for safety.  A useful website to help you look for any nasties is
     You can also look up toxic ingredient directories on the internet for more info.

The way we live our lives these days it is impossible to avoid toxic, harmful chemicals getting into our bodies.  Getting angry with the industries who put all of these chemicals into the products we buy, whilst justified, does not change anything.  We need to take responsibility for our health and the health of our families.  We need to educate ourselves and help others.  We need to change the environment we live in to make it as pure and natural as we possibly can.

It is often easy to think that one person cannot make a difference, but if everyone makes a few simple changes to the products they buy, this will add up enough to give a loud and clear message to the industries using these chemicals, that we will not tolerate their irresponsible actions any more.    

Check out this video

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.
Are you awake to what is in our air, clothes, personal care products and how to wake up those around us

08 November 2011


Is our health is determined by diet and lifestyle or genetics?


 
This is a topic I have discussed with others from time to time and most have argued in favour of genetics.  But is this just a way of blaming our health on our ancestors without taking responsible for ourselves?  Just because my family may have a history of heart disease, cancer, diabetes etc, does that mean I am automatically predisposed to these conditions, or can my diet and lifestyle reduce or eliminate these risks altogether?

Personally I have found it more empowering to believe that our own diet and lifestyle is what affects our health.  Just because our ancestors may have eaten poorly and didn’t look after themselves, doesn’t mean that we can’t live a life full of health and vitality.

One of the ways our parents have influenced our health is with the food they fed us during our childhood.  Having discussed with people what they ate as a child and looking at what they now eat as an adult, there seems to be a strong connection between the two.  I know for myself, as a child I was fed a healthy diet with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and home cooked meals.  Whilst I did move to an unhealthier diet for a while once I gained control over my food choices, that only lasted a few years.  After becoming a bit of a hypochondriac and ending up with a drawer full of drugs, I changed my ways, ate much better, and my health benefited as a result.

Scientific studies show:

1.   Whist we all inherit genes from our ancestors, factors such as environment, diet and lifestyle choices can influence how our genes behave - meaning we have control over our health! 

2.   We can no longer assume that age related diseases such as arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart disease etc are inevitable consequences of ageing that we must just accept and deal with.

3.    Whilst we are all still susceptible to disease, whether we end up with a disease is determined by how we live our life, how we eat, the toxins we are exposed to, the supplements we take, our beliefs and how we handle stress.

Another reason to look after ourselves is for our children’s health.  Whilst our children inherit our genes, and over the course of their life influence their own health, as children they look to us for guidance.  It is up to us to make healthy diet and lifestyle choices so we can pass these onto our children, who will then pass them onto their children etc. 

We have a big responsibility as we can significantly impact the health of our future generations.  We cannot eat fast food in front of our children and expect them to eat fruit and vegetables.  It’s never too late to make healthier choices for ourselves, and in turn teach our children how to make healthier choices.  Your behaviour now may change the course of your life and generations to follow.

How will your future generations eat?


01 November 2011

Welcome to my blog! 

My name is Lucy and I am a stay at home mum with two young boys. I am passionate about health and nutrition and have explored this area for about 15 years now. I am looking forward to sharing with you what I have learnt over these years as well as my ongoing reading and research into this area.

I plan to share with you the truths about food and the chemical industry and the role that big business plays in our health. Some of what I write about will be a bit controversial, but I hope it will interest you and encourage you to want to learn more about taking control of your health. 

I will also share some recipes with you that I have made or found that are vegan/vegetarian/gluten free/dairy free. 

Please ask me any questions and share your thoughts on the topics I raise and any others you would like to hear about.  I look forward to hearing from you. 

Enjoy!