A post of a different sort.

This post came about as an offshoot of a rant to some of my friends about experiences I've had in dealing with some of Clark's doctors in regards to his feeding tube & what goes in it.  Very rarely do I get on my soapbox here at superboyclark.com, but this is a subject I feel very strongly about & this will likely turn into a long post.  I also figure it might come in handy to some of you tube feeders out there who come across the blog.

Those of you who know me probably know that in college I majored in nutrition & dietetics.  I have always been a huge believer in the quote by Hippocrates: " Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”.  For this reason, clinical dietetics wasn't exactly up my alley, as the majority of dieticians hold a very mainstream view when it comes to nutrition.

You might also know from reading this blog that Clark hasn't had any luck with a myriad of conventional formulas.  That being said, we did give the conventional route a dedicated try so I feel confident in weighing the outcomes of both formula & whole food feedings.

I have been both questioned about and discouraged from feeding Clark a whole foods diet via tube by several of his doctors.  I'd like to point out that I am not surprised in the least by their reactions, first and foremost because they stand to gain monetarily from prescribing formulas and secondly because they are greatly influenced by the sales reps from the various formula companies about the nutritional soundness of the products.  If a patient of theirs is not using formula, that's money out of their pockets, either directly or indirectly and also an insult to their beliefs about the nutrition provided by the formula. 

Third, the majority of medical doctors receive very limited, if any, training specifically relating to nutrition and the significant benefits of a whole foods diet vs a conventional diet of mainly processed foods.  (What do I mean by whole foods, you may be asking?  Whole foods are foods that come from natural sources and are largely unrefined and not processed.  Think: raw vegetables, whole grains, raw fruit, raw seeds, etc.)

The doctors have cautioned me that Clark will not receive the same nutritional benefits from a blended diet as he would from formula.  This is by far the argument that I disagree with the most.  All of the ingredients I use in Clark's blends are measurable & the calorie count is easily calculated; they are also from nutritionally dense sources which means that I don't have to enrich the blends with vitamins and minerals, they are already present.

So that you can better understand this, I will to list the main ingredients and calorie counts for both a standard conventional formula & my blended meal.

Conventional Formula  240 calories per 8oz
-water & refined sugar
-maltodextrin (a cheap, refined filler starch)
-conventional cow's milk concentrate (the human body is not designed to process the milks of other species and cow's milk, which is highly allergenic, can cause inflammation and dysfunction in the digestive tract, in addition to being loaded with harmful antibiotics and hormones.)
-canola oil (cheap fat source which is genetically modified & contains erucic acid which has been associated with heart lesions)
-whey protein (cow's milk derivative)
-added vitamins & minerals (these have to be added due to the lack of nutritional soundness of the main ingredients in the formula)



One of my Blenderized Meals 270 calories per 8 oz
-Hemp Milk (easily digestible and rich in ultra-healthy omega 3 fatty acids, protein & minerals)
-Raw Meal (a nutritionally complete meal replacement with no fillers or artificial ingredients with fat, protein and carbohydrates from exclusively easily-digestible sprout, seed, green vegetable & fruit sources, it provides 100% of 16 nutrients that are naturally contained in the whole food ingredients used to make it.)  
-Flaxseed (another calorie dense source of omega 3's, fat, fiber & protein.  Flaxseed is rich in lignans, a type of fiber associated with a reduced risk of some cancers.  It's also a great source of vitamins & minerals such as iron, zinc, calcium, to name a few)
-Virgin Coconut Oil or Avocado  (calorie dense fat sources with secondary benefits including lauric acid [the only other naturally-occurring source of which is human milk] in coconut oil which has antimicrobial, antibacterial & antifungal properties.  In addition to avocado being a great source of fat, it also contains omegas.)
-Blackstrap Molasses (carbohydrate source rich in iron, magnesium & calcium)

I write all of this to get out my frustration at the overwhelming majority of medical professionals pushing formula (for ALL ages, from birth up to the elderly).  Conventional formulas are produced with sub-standard ingredients and provide less nutrition than their natural counterparts.

We can combine low quality fats, protein, carbohydrates & vitamins all day long & call the resulting product "nutritionally complete" but, at best, it's just a shoddy substitute for what our bodies really need to thrive.  At worst?  Potentially toxic.

Think about it, would you ever suggest to a person who eats by mouth that what their bodies really need is an exclusive diet of a canned milk-based beverage instead of a balanced diet of real foods?  The obvious answer is NO.  Why then should tube feeders be led to believe that formula is the most healthy choice -or- in some cases, the ONLY choice?

Feeding via natural means isn't always easy but it's worth the extra work for the benefits it provides.

Tube feeders: I hope this post gives you something to think about & some encouragement to try a blenderized diet.  Everyone else:  thanks for hanging in there & letting me get all of this off of my chest, I hope that maybe you learned a little from it, too.