The movement that is changing the paradigm of health

I'll bet you're wondering what the "BS" stands for.

If you know anything about the food industry (ever notice how most processed foods are filled with ingredients that are almost impossible to pronounce?), you might have guessed my intent right away.

But when trying to answer my daughter Sydney when she first asked me this question at the age of nine, I knew I had to come up with some alternatives. Here are choices that are appropriate to share with your kids:

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• Fix the Food Bake Sale

• Fix the Food Bake Shop

• Fix the Food Breakfast Start

• Fix the Food Before School (Sydney's favorite)

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At one point, I said to Sydney, “It actually stands for a bad word that grown-ups sometimes say. Do you want to know what it is?”

She paused, then shook her head. “You better not tell me,” she said, once again reminding me that her maturity level is often higher than mine.

Although there are so many reasons to refer to the Standard American Diet as "BS", this abbreviation means a lot more than that to me.

Like most of you, I always had an idea of what food was good for me—whether I chose to eat it, or not. I thought my husband and I ate well overall, and after my daughter was born, we kicked the healthy eating up a few notches. Or we thought so, anyway.

And then I got sick.

The short story was that I needed to get better, and I turned to our health system for help. Ten months later, after living with constant, intractable abdominal pain, and often operating with “brain fog,” and not getting enough sleep, and being stressed all the time from being sick and from my job, I was desperate. By then, I had been to many doctors and researched abdominal pain and knew that whatever the answer, it couldn’t be drugs.

At some point, I decided to heal myself.

So, I read books. I became a Master Health Coach through the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute and learned for real how food affected my body. I changed how I ate and how my family ate. The best part is, everyone around us was incredibly supportive and I got better and now it’s a breeze to stay healthy.

Wait. I didn’t get that quite right.

It was more like, almost no one supported us. It was more like, “Why don’t you let Sydney eat whatever she wants?” “What do you mean, she’s never been to McDonald’s?” “Why can’t she have pizza, doughnuts, store-bought cookies, and cupcakes with blue frosting at (pick your event): soccer jamboree, brunch at my sister’s house, picnic with our friends, neighborhood fire pit, gymnastics party, friend’s party, cousin’s party, last-day-of-school party, last-day-of-camp party, 4th of July party?”

When two women whom I’d never met called me a “Meanie Mommy” because I didn’t allow Sydney to have two servings of ice cream at a craft session (seriously, who can make that up?), I decided that something needed to change.

Choosing to eat healthy food should NOT be a stigma. It should be celebrated. It should be respected. I’d even like to say: Someday, it should be the norm in our society.

So here we are.

Fix The Food BS is about changing the paradigm of health. It’s about accepting that everyone is at a different place in their health and wellness journey. It’s having respect for one another as we all try to navigate the difficult concept of what it means to be healthy, and it’s about not judging when someone chooses to take that cookie—or not.

It’s giving healthy food a voice.

This website helps you navigate how to eat the right foods and be healthy by providing science-based information broken down into simple terminology so that you can make informed decisions about not only how to be healthy, but why. Because it’s the why that will change you. It’s the reminder of what your values are that will help you make decisions. What food is truly healthy? What does it do to your brain, your gut, your skin? How does food affect how you sleep, and talk to your kids, and solve problems at work? How does it impact anxiety, depression, and dementia?

How can we be healthy while operating within our crazy, over-scheduled lives in our society?

Welcome to the Fix The Food BS revolution. Let’s start fixing this—together.

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Susan is certified as a Master Health Coach from the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute. She is also a Medical Editor in the pharmaceutical industry and has her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University. In addition to her dedication to the improvement of health through whole foods, she loves to spend time with her family, hike, bike, and write fiction. She is the founder of Writer's Infusion, the Internet show that provides free critiques for writers.