Special Guest Teleseminar: Dave Klein on Crohns, Colitis and Bowel Health

I’ve had more than a few emails, phone calls and cries for help this week from people who are suffering from leaky gut and compromised bowel function. We’ve had all kinds of different people on this blog and there’s one in particular that I’ve been meaning to have join us and just hadn’t yet made it happen.

Dr. Dave Klein, !

He’s friendly, he’s playful, and he’s a guy that walks his talk. He’s also the author of Self-Healing Colitis and Crohns. While you can read his story here (and I highly suggest you do so) I wanted to include a bit of a blurb from his bio below.

Dave’s a fruitarian, so all you dehydrating divas out there, get ready to put the volume up on your headset. Dave’s simple approach to health has inspired thousands to turn their lives around and that’s why he’s joining me on Thursday for an inspirational teleseminar where I ask him for the juicy details about the kind of lifestyle that’s worked best for him and why!

• What does he eat, what does he do to maintain his good health?
• What are the things that cause him and others he counsels difficulty?
• Why all the contradiction out there when it comes to the raw food diet and health?
• What about colonics? Is he for or against them, and why?
• What other things, besides changing our foods, will make a bit impact on our health or assist people in overcoming these conditions?

You’re welcome to join us for this call, in fact, you’re welcome to ask him your questions, too! Just send in the questions ahead of time and I’ll do my best to get them answered on the call. You can also send in your questions while you listen to the call LIVE on Thursday.

I HIGHLY recommend you bring a pen and take notes! The rate of health crises related to colon health is higher than ever. Colonic irrigation and enemas are not everyone’s cup of tea. Let’s hear what’s worked for Dave with the hope that it will inspire you on your own path to improved wellness to examine how sometimes the simplest solutions are also the most effective.

CLICK HERE to access the teleseminar and check out more of his bio below and on his website!

Enjoy and I look forward to speaking with you on Thursday.

More about Dr. Dave Klein: A Colon Health Hero:

David Klein, Ph.D. is a Hygienic Doctor and a certified Nutrition Educator. David’s approach is wholistic and is based upon the Natural Hygiene, the world’s most successful health program over the last 200 years. Since 1992, David has counseled over 2,000 clients back to health via the principles of Natural Hygiene and he has occasionally taught nutrition classes and given health and nutrition lectures. David directs Colitis & Crohn’s Health Recovery Center . David’s own unique healing journey, his studies of many disciplines of health science, and his extensive professional experience have given him uncommon insight into the requisites of healing and health, by which he is able to consistently guide people from disease to rejuvenation.

David is also Publisher / Editor of Living Nutrition / Vibrance magazine, the world’s most-read raw food lifestyle magazine. David has directed the Colitis & Crohn’s Health Recovery Center in Sebastopol, California since 1993, guiding thousands of clients to new health. Website: http://www.colitis-crohns.com. His Self Healing Colitis & Crohn’s book has been #1 in its field. David is a certified Nutrition Educator and is on the Board of Directors as a nutritional and healing advisor for St. John’s Colonic Center in Bowie, Maryland (colonics are not recommended for inflammatory bowel disease) and his book Self Healing Colitis & Crohn’s is used as the teaching model for a course taught at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. David is also the Admissions Director and a Professor with the University of Natural Health. David’s book, Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods, is the text for the course “Humans’ Natural Biological Diet.” David has thrived on a 100% vegan raw food diet for most of the last 22 years. Originally from New Jersey, he also holds a B.S. in civil engineering and worked 8 years in corporate environmental engineering before starting his health education businesses. Leading people to health independence is David’s passion.

Those Children in Africa

Like many parents, I think a lot about what I feed to my children. I don’t have all the answers; in fact, I find myself pretty confused by all the nutritional information with which we’re constantly bombarded. Having said that, I’m really looking forward to hearing from Dr T in his The Truth About Your Food series, and to reading Monique and Stephani’s upcoming book about feeding children raw. Hopefully they’ll be able to give us some nutritional direction when it comes to starting off the lives of our little ones in the best way possible.

My basic philosophy is to fill ’em up with as many varied raw fruits and raw/cooked vegies as I can, and to give them a broad intake of other healthy foods. They rarely eat processed sugars or white flour (treats are occasional), and I try not to get into calling foods “good” or “bad”. I just matter-of-factly explain what eating healthy foods can do for them, and what the effects are of eating less-than-healthy food (while acknowledging that they may taste good!).

But, like many in our culture, I find it difficult not to be swept up in the concept of food as celebration. Perhaps even setting up the notion of “treat” or “special” food is problematic? I believe that the food-related rituals and attitudes we acquire as youngsters are carried with us throughout life – I bet we all have a few fond, comforting food memories from our childhood. But is that so wrong? Food IS pleasurable, so why quash it into a purely functional role? It’s one of life’s many pleasures, and it shouldn’t, I believe, be demonised or made.

However, I do sometimes wonder whether I’m sending my girls the healthiest messages about food, even if I am feeding them what I feel is a healthy diet.

Interestingly, my lovely sister-in-law, Angela, recently sent me a link to a thought-provoking article on this very subject. You can check it out here. It describes how, last year, a nutrition researcher called Professor Lynne Daniels from QUT (Queensland University of Technology) undertook a survey asking 361 mothers how they feed their one- to three-year-old children. She wanted to find out more about the feeding practices of mothers.

She believes that the first five years of a child’s life are crucial for laying down food preferences (just to give new mums something else to worry about!), but she found that many mothers surveyed are setting up less-than-ideal habits. For example, many feed their children after the kids have indicated they’re full – I find this interesting, because I bet quite a few mums are carrying on this habit from when they were children. I still find it difficult not to eat everything on my plate, as that’s what was expected of me when I was a child – but, knowing how much discomfort this has caused me as an adult, I don’t put this expectation on my own children. I’m sure my mum doesn’t approve – think of those starving children in Africa! Though, in defense of my dear mum, she did set us up with some pretty good eating preferences, for their time – wholemeal bread, no plastic cheese, soft drinks only occasionally…

Also, only one-third of mums surveyed offer new foods at least 10 times (this repetition helps young children become more familiar with different foods, and therefore makes them more likely to eventually accept them). It is a struggle to keep offering the oft-rejected foods, but sometimes, just sometimes, it does work! I guess there’s a fine line, though, between offering – which could be interpreted by children as “forcing” – foods many times and respecting the preferences of our children…

About half of the mums surveyed sometimes offer food as a reward for good behavior, and many feed children to keep them occupied or to soothe them. Professor Daniels is concerned that mums are tying emotions to food, meaning that children grow up eating when they’re not actually hungry (and vice versa). Yep, I think that’s a biggie – I’d see it as acknowledging the pleasure of food but not using that pleasure for comfort. Not easy.

Professor Daniels also believes that we shouldn’t regularly feed under-fives sweet, salty or fatty non-nutritious foods, because they’ll eventually prefer these foods. I can see the reasoning behind that, and I think the key word here is “regularly”. The odd cookie or cake certainly isn’t going to kill your child (unless they happen to have an allergy or other food-related problem – a whole other ballgame). While upholding my ideals most of the time, I think it’s far healthier that I make allowances for occasional “little treats”, and set a good example by having a positive, relaxed attitude towards food. Easier said than done, though, right? I’m also coming at this from the perspective of being a parent of children who are now five (nearly six) years of age – I think was a tad more food-vigilant when the girls were babes and tots. Hopefully I’ve set them up with good habits!

Professor Daniels is undertaking further research this year, to observe the effects of nutritional education and “peer support” on the feeding habits of new mothers. I think the results will be very interesting.

I wrote this blog this afternoon, and we’ve since had dinner. We usually each discuss at least one thing that we’re grateful for just before we eat our meal, and tonight Evie said, “I’m grateful that we have yummy food to eat that also makes our bodies healthy”. I’ll take that as a sign that I’m heading in the right direction!

PS An update on my swimming progress – I’m now up to taking FIVE breaths before stopping, and I’m about 5m away from making a full length of the pool. I’ve even signed up for the intermediate (not beginners’) class for next term! More to come…