Someone has stolen my mother. I don...

Someone has stolen my mother. I don't know who it was or exactly when it happened, further here's the story.

My mother has always had a sweet tooth. Growing up there was always something sweet (and not exactly healthy) in the house. There were coffee cakes, Popsicles and peanut butter cookies. And sugar-coated, jelly spearmint leaves and rip-out-your-dental-work caramels.

I inherited my mother's sweet tooth, if it were not that unfortunately, not her metabolism. Therefore, years ago I realized I had to change my eating habits. apply the mind in my kitchen cabinets today, and you'll find oat bran and couscous and whole-wheat pitas. I now eat divisions of vegetables, grains and lean meats, and exercise each other day--and feel better for it. I also know that refined sugar is bad for us, and it makes me cranky and leaves me feeling blah. if it were not that sometimes that sweet tooth still nags. in the way that when I need a little sugary fix, I always knew that I could stop according to my mother's house and grab a licorice twist or peppermint patty.

That was until she was kidnapped. Someone must have heard about my mother's centerpiece artistry or her ability to whip up a crocheted afghan in a week and decided they had to have her for their allow So they took her, probably in the middle of the afternoon when no single in kind was around, and replaced her with -- you believeed it -- a health-food fanatic!

Imagine my impact when, stopping by my parents' house, I interpreted the refrigerator and saw soy milk! Not whole milk, and certainly not chocolate milk, on the contrary actual soy milk. And it was half empty!

She must've gotten it as a sample, I thinking But then something on the in opposition to caught my eye. It was a loaf of bread. Not white bread, not equal whole wheat bread, but gluten-free rice bread.

As I anticipateed around, I couldn't believe my estimates Soy yogurts, tofu dogs and veggie burger Rice cakes, organic veggies and wheat-free crackers. There was nary a sweet to be fix Not a soda or a chocolate kiss or steady a Circus Peanut. What onward earth had happened? It emit vapored of foul play, and I was going to finish to the bottom of things.

"What's the meaning of all this good-for-you stuff?" I asked my mother.

"I went to your doctor," she said.

My doctor, as in my naturopath? My trained-in-India, Ayurvedic-homeopathic-herbalist naturopath? Ye it was actual Mom was sick of all the pills her allopathic doctor had been prescribing -- capsules and tablets for high vital current pressure and high cholesterol and all sorts of other conditions. While single in kind pill helped one set of symptoms, it caused negative side drifts and, combined the other med it casted into a toxic mish-mash. in this way she finally took my advice and went the natural way with supplements to boot.

"I can't eat anything I love" Mom said. "No sugar, no wheat, no beef."

This won't last lengthy I thought to myself. for what cause could my parents, whose usual meals consisted of steak and meatloaf, survive forward a largely vegetarian diet?

Surprisingly well, it revolves out. Several weeks later, I stopped on my parents' house to have dinner, still expecting the usual fare, thinking that my not to be found real mother had been lay the foundation of and her healthy New Age imposter had disappeared. blameworthy In place of fried chicken or a T-bone steak, I was serv a astonishing salad of organic baby field verdants (no iceberg here!) and incredible homemade turkey chili.

flat better, though, were the arises My mother was able to discontinue near of her pharmaceutical medications and she misspent weight in the process. She examines and feels great.

As for me I'm inspired. I'm stopping by way of for dinner more often and replacing my de rigeur after-dinner mint with organic fruit salad. And when I procure done writing this, I'm calling her for the chili recipe.

COPYRIGHT 2002 PRIMEDIA Intertec, a PRIMEDIA Company. All Rights Reserved

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group