Epilepsy’s Big, Fat Miracle

[n2doc]

By FRED VOGELSTEIN
Published: November 17, 2010

Once every three or four months my son, Sam, grabs a cookie or a piece of candy and, wide-eyed, holds it inches from his mouth, ready to devour it. He knows he’s not allowed to eat these things, but like any 9-year-old, he hopes that somehow, this once, my wife, Evelyn, or I will make an exception.

We never make exceptions when it comes to Sam and food, though, which means that when temptation takes hold of Sam and he is denied, things can get pretty hairy. Confronted with a gingerbread house at a friend’s party last December, he went scorched earth, grabbing parts of the structure and smashing it to bits. Reason rarely works. Usually one of us has to pry the food out of his hands. Sometimes he ends up in tears.

It’s not just cookies and candy that we forbid Sam to eat. Cake, ice cream, pizza, tortilla chips and soda aren’t allowed, either. Macaroni and cheese used to be his favorite food, but he told Evelyn the other day that he couldn’t remember what it tastes like anymore. At Halloween we let him collect candy, but he trades it in for a present. At birthday parties and play dates, he brings a lunchbox to eat from.

There is no crusade against unhealthful food in our house. Some might argue that unhealthful food is all we let Sam eat. His breakfast eggs are mixed with heavy cream and served with bacon. A typical lunch is full-fat Greek yogurt mixed with coconut oil. Dinner is hot dogs, bacon, macadamia nuts and cheese. We figure that in an average week, Sam consumes a quart and a third of heavy cream, nearly a stick and a half of butter, 13 teaspoons of coconut oil, 20 slices of bacon and 9 eggs. Sam’s diet is just shy of 90 percent fat. That is twice the fat content of a McDonald’s Happy Meal and about 25 percent more than the most fat-laden phase of the Atkins diet. It puts Sam at risk of developing kidney stones if he doesn’t drink enough. It is constipating, so he has to take daily stool softeners. And it lacks so many essential nutrients that if Sam didn’t take a multivitamin and a calcium-magnesium supplement every day, his growth would be stunted, his hair and teeth would fall out and his bones would become as brittle as an 80-year-old’s.

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/magazine/21Epilepsy-t.html

[gateley]

1. Interesting -- another instance when food is recognized as medicine. I think

the earth provides all we need to be nurtured and healthy, and we tend to forget the healing properties of proper nutrition (I say as I munch on my sausage McMuffin).

[Warpy]

2. It needs to be recognized that this is a last ditch effort

when the drugs don't work. This is not a healthy diet and kids will rightly rebel against it. It will be a constant struggle for kids and adults.

However, the kid in this article had no life because of his frequent seizures and no drug would touch them.

If he gets to live a short life fully on a lousy diet, it's a hell of a lot better than living a longer life with no quality of life.

However, it's last ditch, certainly not the first thing any epileptic or parent of an epileptic should consider. Deficiency diets are very hard on the body long term and the keto diet should only be done under a doctor's supervision.

[arikara]

3. I hope they are feeding him

organic free range farm eggs and organic cream. But looking at all the bacon and hot dogs he's getting, I'm guessing not. He'd probably do better still without all the nitrates, msg and chemicals in those particular food like substances.

Its interesting at any rate.

[HuckleB]

4. Video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf_SvXDIO00