I’ve been asked many times to write down a bit more about our story and how we got to be who and what we are… so here goes…
Our Story…
In case you don’t know who I am, I’m Jessica. I’m a used-to-be-stay-at-home mom of two beautiful boys who are now 9 and 6. In late 2013 my eldest son, then 3.5had literally been almost constantly sick for the best part of a year. He struggled with an incessant asthmatic cough, eczema on his face that never cleared despite our best efforts and a long list of food allergies leading to almost constant infections. I have always been a bit of a crunchy mom, so my children were breastfed, treated with homeopathy and herbs and I always cooked at home from scratch buying organic where I could. I felt so disheartened that all my efforts seemed to be coming to nought. I’m a scientist by profession, my training is in plant Ecology and I quit my para-statal job in Biodiversity Conservation when my eldest was a baby. So, I dusted off my research skills and started reading…
Our most immediate challenge was tooth decay. My son had a molar that was painful and several other pieces of decay on his teeth and the dentist wanted to put him under anaesthetic and fill them. My gut said no. I played for some time, it was just before we went away in December and I said we’d do it next year. I read “Cure Tooth Decay” by Ramiel Nagel whilst on holiday and was blown away. When we got back in January I put us all on the diet. It was a matter of a couple of weeks and my son’s front teeth turned back to white from the grey they had been and then a week or two later his pain in the molar was completely gone. That molar went hard and although the hole never filled in, the decay was halted. It fell out a year or so ago to be replaced by a beautiful healthy adult tooth. We never had any dental treatment. As an added bonus, I went from needing almost annual dental work on my teeth to not having needed any in the last six years except to put back a filling that fell out.
Despite our great gains in the dental arena my son was still sick. We struggled almost constantly with the asthmatic cough keeping him up at night. Avoiding all his allergens was a full-time job that made cooking for my family challenging at best. I was reading fervently about healing food allergies and boosting immunity and had come across the GAPS (Gut& Psychology Syndrome) diet but was daunted by it. Then, in June of 2014 my son was diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed Epilim. The first listed side effect of the drug was impaired mental development and when I asked the pediatric neurologist what the risk was of not giving him the drug she said in her clinical experience children who were not treated with drugs suffered brain damage. I asked how many patients she had who did not receive drug treatment and she answered none. That blew the credibility of her clinical experience out the water…
To cut a very long story short a dear friend brought me her copy of the GAPS book, “Gut & Psychology Syndrome” by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, to read and I read the chapter on epilepsy and was sold. We started the diet the next week. I cleared my grocery cupboards. We ate / gave away everything we would not be allowed to eat on GAPS and we started the intro diet the next Sunday. In the first two weeks my son’s seizures reduced from 10 to 15 a day to 2 per week, a reduction of over 95%. His eczema cleared up completely for the first time in nearly four years and HE STOPPED COUGHING!!! Within the first month he could tolerate peanuts and bananas, two of his allergens, with no reaction. Another month or so and he tolerated cows milk. Just under six months after we started my son had his last seizure, and he has now been seizure-free for nearly 4.5years. A year-and-a-half after we started we transitioned off the GAPS diet and he tolerated wheat fine, which he had reacted to since babyhood. He is now a thriving nine-year-old who excels academically at school and reads 300-page story books in a day when he is not chopping out alien invasive vegetation for fun on our small farm.
This winter is five years since we started GAPS and I have only taken my son to the homeopath once in these five years, for a sick note when he missed three days of school in a row. He was basically better, we just needed the note. My younger son has not been at all. Don’t misunderstand me, my children get sick, the get sniffles and tummy upsets, but they heal all by themselves in a few days. We may give them some extra broth-based soups or stews or liver or vitamin C rich foods, but we find no need for medical treatment, not even homeopathic. We’ve had swine flu, chicken pox, mumps and the like pass through our house, as my children’s friends have had those, but we either get really mild versions or nothing at all.
I have been absolutely blown away by the power of a good, clean diet and a fully functional immune system. Our medical expenses have dwindled to basically nothing. We take no regular supplements except Epsom salt baths and some vitamin C. Except for some routine chiropractic adjustments we have no medical expenses at all. Real food is expensive, granted, but overall we are saving a phenomenal amount in our budget.
So I suppose you’re wondering where Foodieness came in… When we were doing GAPS I was sourcing lots of our food direct from farmers and my husband and I were going to considerable effort to source and gather all the good, clean food we needed. My friends slowly started asking me to pick things up for them. Then I started doing group buys to get us all better prices. Then it grew into a list I posted on Facebook and everyone commented with their orders. We would meet people at pre-arranged places and times on a Saturday to hand over their orders. In June 2015 I registered Foodieness Pty Ltd., and the rest as they say, is history. Four years later we have a fully functional online shop, a delivery vehicle offering deliveries throughout the city and three staff members, not including me.
Help us spread hope and health and we’ll reward you…
Ours is a story of hope, of healing and of prospering with lots of things that are amazing in it. To me, one of the most amazing things is that this business of mine, which found me more than I found it, has grown for over three years with almost no advertising. Word-of-mouth has carried us from a small home business in my dining room, to outgrowing my house completely and needing to register for VAT in 2018 as our turnover exceeded the legal threshold. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to our customers, whose support and belief in well-sourced real food has carried us this far.
With the launch of our new website in April 2018 we took a big step up in our capacity to supply individuals and families with the quality of food that can revolutionize their health. We suddenly have capacity to serve many more customers than we did before, and many more than we currently have. For the first time in our existence we are looking at marketing. As I have looked at options for advertising in my heart I really love word-of-mouth. So, I have found a way to reward you for spreading the word about Foodieness… here’s how:
How to claim your reward
If you go onto our website and click “Login”, then type in your email address and password, you will be on your “My Account” page. Towards the bottom of the page you will find “Your Referral URL”. If you share that URL with your friends / family / colleagues and they place an order with us through it, you will get an R50 voucher for every new customer we gain through your referral. I am so excited that we can finally reward you for the wonderful way you have helped us grow! If you love what we do as much as we do, help us grow into our new bigger shoes and feed more people healthy, nourishing food that is produced in a way that is gentle on our planet! You will find the coupons you earn on this same My Account screen, so remember to pop back and check for them.
Has changing your diet changed your health? Please share more with us if you’d like to…