Sunflowers

I never liked sunflowers. Now I love them.

Back in Huntington, my father in law planted sunflowers every year next to the patio. And every year it was the same story. The chipmunk who lived in the drain pipe would eat the seeds, or wait until the seedlings were a few inches tall, then chomp off the seedling.

We had one big, fat chipmunk by the end of the summer – and no sunflowers.

At our home in Virginia, Jack plants sunflowers along the southern wall of the house. They grow Jack-in-the-Beanstalk tall. We have one that’s at least 12 feet tall, and others nearly as tall. Behind the driveway on the edge of the woods, he planted dwarf sunflowers.

I love their huge, sunny flower heads…the bees that dance on the petals…the seeds I use to feed the birds during the winter.

I never liked sunflowers very much. When John and I drove out to Montana in 2000, we saw mile after mile of sunflowers blooming in the South Dakota fields, and I started to warm up to them. How could I not? That was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I’ve grown fond of our patch of sunflowers. I’ve even started collecting little sunflower-themed things for the house: a paperweight painted with sunflowers, a serving tray, a key rack for the pantry.

* * *

Yesterday after church I ran to the grocery store for a few things. Between the heat and singing in the choir, I was thirsty, so I stopped at Dollar Tree and bought a bottle of water. I didn’t notice until my first sip that it was flavored water. A quick (and slightly panicked) check of the label reassured me that it was aspartame-free, but I was not happy about the chemicals on the label.

If you haven’t given up aspartame-laden products, I urge you to do so. When I was 26 years old, I had so many stomach problems my doctor thought I had irritable bowel syndrome. I was told I might have Crohn’s disease, IBD, or a bunch of other problems. She referred me to a gastroenterologist but before my appointment, I decided to visit a holistic health practitioner.

That appointment changed my life. Lynn’ was a nutritionist as well as herbalist. When I entered the waiting room, she gave me a dietary questionnaire to fill out.

I remember sitting across from her desk as she scanned the questions. “I think you may have made a mistake,” she said gently, showing me a question on the form. “You wrote here that you drink a gallon of diet cola a day. Did you mean another amount?”

“No,” I told her. “I keep one of those big soda bottles of diet cola on my desk at work all day and I drink it. And I drink bottles and cans of it during the day.” I actually started my day with Crystal Light drink mix. I’d been drinking this much since high school when aspartame became the norm.

Lynn said. “You are poisoning yourself. I think that’s what’s causing your problems.”

I went cold turkey and cut out the aspartame. Within a month, my stomach problems completely disappeared.

I did not have Crohn’s disease, IBS or any other terrible disease. I didn’t need the medications the doctors recommended I take. It wasn’t in my head.

It was aspartame poisoning.

Since then, if I take even a tiny sip of aspartame, with 20 minutes I’ve got stomach cramps. My throat, tongue and entire system feels as if it’s been burned.

So yesterday, when I downed the ice cold flavored water, you know now why I checked the label.

Fortunately – or maybe unfortunately – since changing my diet over the past 8 months, I cannot tolerate ANY artificial sweeteners and many chemicals in my food.

The flavored water was a mistake.

I felt like I was poisoned yesterday! Within two hours of drinking that nasty thing, I felt tired…spacey…like I had the flu. I had to lay down.

I switched to pure water from our lovely well, ate only fresh fruit and downed about a gallon of water. I felt fine after a few hours. I checked the label and the drink had Splenda – and lots of chemicals. Seem like my body doesn’t want that either.

So be warned; even something as innocuous as a bottle of water can be laden with chemicals!