Dear John and Arlene,
 
Thankyou for taking the time to confirm my suspicions about the aspartame and other sweeteners, when doctors don't listen it really helps to have someone who tells you that you are not imagining it.   John, the info about the Ketogenic diet is interesting, I thought about that once before because I had read that it actually has a healing effect on the brain with good fats and lots of protein, we do have lots of  organic eggs.  I agree with the Barley green you mentioned to the lady, it is a wonderful food.  You are probably right about the neurologist, in that he won't accept what I've said, I just want it to go on the record.  The new brain injury team that she is seeing is not very helpful, and really have offered little support and basically because she is so well outwardly they don't notice the little inconsistencies that I see, being a mother of 4 and aunty of 24 children.  They have a very narrow mindset and basically ignored anything I said about diet and other alternatives.
 
A bit of background, the accident was caused by a passenger bus impacting the rear of our car, he didn't see us stop.
Praise the Lord! her symptoms form the brain injury at 14 months old are minimal.  She is now 10 years old , left-handed and that was not likely to be genetic but she has learned great writing skills.  She is a lot more clumsy than the average child and takes crazy risks, very impulsive. She lost her hearing in the accident in her left ear as the auditory nerve was broken along with the bone behind her ear with the impact of her head against the child safety seat.  This is annoying for her, but we are thankful to the Lord for His great mercy.  Her initial prognosis didn't look good, we were told that she probably would never walk properly again, or talk etc.    She was booked in for facial reconstruction to pull out her cheek bone that was impacted by the front passenger seat, the cheekbone was pushed back into her face 2cm.  With so many wonderful prayers precisely 1 hour before surgery the Lord performed a healing and pur the cheekbone back in place, she needed no surgery and the plastic surgeon was so amazed he ordered new CAT scans, and kept measuring her face.  Her face is beautiful and no one would ever know to look at her.  Amazingly there was not a cut on her. She was supposed to be in intensive care for a month....we were home 1 week after the accident!   She had to learn how to walk and talk again...she was a very early talker (50 words in her vocab' at 12 months), but the doctors didn't believe us about that either.  I don't know why the Lord chose not to completely heal her at that time I know he was fully able , we trust in His infinite wisdom and mercy.  She doesn't have any meds, though for her impulsivity they recommend she goes on Ritalin, we refused for good reason.  She fell off a swing awkwardly and broke her C3, it was a stable fracture, a chip out of the bone.  Yeshua is good! So many near things have tried to claim her, but the Lord is Almighty and must have good reason to keep her!
 
We've always eaten organic health foods including milk (but I can't get raw unfortunately) and organic meats and eggs, though for the sake of the budget meats are more of a treat around here ;o)  This is one reason why I think it is more obvious for us to tell if something is wrong.  When the children are very healthy, you notice the little things, and it is easier to identify something as a reaction when it is out of the normal diet.  She had her first seizure when she came home from the hospital, and didn't have another noticeable one until the day she had the  iced mocha from Gloria Jeans.  But what she did have was twitching in her face from time to time after consuming sugar-free additives...so being a mild seizure, do you still think it would be appropriate to do a ketogenic diet?  I have no problem with doing it if it is what she needs.  I just want to be sure that she doesn't have more protein than she can safely handle on her kidneys.  Should I use ketostix to monitor her if I do the ketogenic diet?  This probably will be a family thing too, as I couldn't prepare two lots of meals, I could add healthy carbs though for the rest of the family.
 
 
Arlene, I would also like to recommend a book we bought a long time ago and that is "What the Bible Says About Healthy Living", My Rex Russell M.D. ( I think he's a vascular surgeon? He has given some really good reason why those Biblical Laws prevented all those diseases, and still do today. Personally we follow those recommendations because the food does not have the parasites that pork and other "unclean" animals still have and heavy metals and diseases that shell fish clean up. Did you know that to clean up cholera infested waters they put in shellfish!  You do not want to eat those shellfish for obvious reason. Rex Russell does include alot more grains in the diet than I think are healthy for me, and I think is vegetarian from memory and suggested that meat is more as celebration food.  I loaned my book and haven't got it back ;o(  Anyway it is a book worth reading, and is an excellent study on the food God said His people were to eat and why it is better to eat that way as a choice.  I am not under the law about it, but actually it is freeing to know that we are in the Lords will when we choose the things He says are better for us.  I agree with you that it is not sinful eat those foods, but not everything that is permissible is beneficial.  We eat what ever is served to us at another's home as long as no allergy symptoms, we are careful about crustaceans because some family members are highly allergic (anaphylactic) and to stone fruits for the same reason are eaten in moderation because of family sensitivities.  No one in my family has had a significant reaction, just something we keep in mind, I think it would be offensive to refuse it.  My mum usually roasts a little lamb for us when she roasts up a pork for themselves and the rest of the family, that is kind of her, I think, but I wouldn't expect others to go out of their way to prepare something different for us, we usually take something along with us.
  We keep peanut butter to a minimum too, and prefer almond/cashew or hazelnut butters.
 
 I agree with the soy problem.  I also know lots of younger women who have trouble conceiving while on soy I suspect it contributes to some miscarriages in vegetarians I know, and my sister who is younger than I had problems with soy giving her terrible pain in her ovaries and irritable bowel, had to have cysts removed  from her ovaries..her progesterone levels dropped too low when she was on soy.  Those symptoms have disappeared since she stopped eating tofu and drinking soy milk.  She tried some tofu recently and had shocking pain again and is absolutely convinced soy is bad for her.  Fermented soy is o.k., is it?
 
 
 Dr Mercola is right I think, but we have never eliminated grains all together.  I personally am a protein type and too many carbs (even healthy ones) make me fat!  I struggled for years with terrible blood sugar.  In between meals if I didn't keep eating I would be physically ill.  Since I have reduced particularly grains of cereal and homemade wholewheat  bread and pasta and have potatoes as a real treat, and brown rice a couple of times a week> my blood sugar is stable and I feel normal, instead of nausea between meals and fluctuating energy levels. I am big on huge baby spinach salads, pulses and raw veges and juices, seeds and nuts.   We have Dr Mercolas e-cookbook and I recommend that too.  We are big on Barleygreen and Spirulina and coconut oil and other healthy fats.  My children have only ever had anti-biotics once in their lives for an injury-post surgery 2 daughters, and my eldest daughter for an ear infection when she was two that refused to clear up with the treatments I had known at the time.   They have rarely seen a doctor in their lives other than my eldest for the neuro' and stitches etc, so I probably should go just for a health check...should I? They are incredibly healthy, and have never been seriously sick with the normal childhood sicknesses...and people always ask "why?".  We have tried not to compromise their immune systems, but that is another hot subject that is probably best left alone here ;o)
 
Anyway I have enjoyed the discussion and the insight you both have into foods.  I did want to say though that I have known some very healthy vegetarians who take care to eat well and are careful to get the nutrients the need, but eat eggs and cows milk and have fish occasionally.  I have seen unhealthy vegetarians that basically don't eat properly, and just eat junk food without meat...even eating white bread (and some smoke cigarettes and drugs).  I have noticed though that vegans seem alot more skinny, though they have nicer skin, even skin tone and less blotchiness, more clarity and finer pores.  I shop alot at the local co-op, there are alot of alternative lifestylers around here and we talk.  Could that be the "glow" that Daniel and those young men had, when they went off the Kings Delicacies and eating a high pulse diet?  I saw the Hallelujah Acres guy on video once and agree that if you have cancer a high raw vegetarian diet would be very good to heal and rest your body, but I am unsure if it is true  that it would be the ideal diet....after all we probably don't have everything that was in the garden of Eden to completely nourish our bodies, I wonder.
 
I apologise that this was long, but Thankyou again!
Bless You.
 
Elisa