Category Archives: diet

H.Pylori and Migraines

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I picked up a mag that one of the residents had left in the lobby the other day and was surprised by a blip on migraines being connected to H. Pylori, a bacteria that is linked to ulcers. Unfortunately, this article recommended antibiotics to rid the stomach of the bacteria.  Arrrrgh!!

I had just read in the GAPS diet book that H. Pylori was connected to low stomach acid, a condition that is, typically, undiagnosed.  We’ve discussed low stomach acid on the mercury support group, as well, but like this article states, I didn’t think I had a problem because of the acid reflux and other stuff.  Dr. Campbell-McBride recommends taking a bit of sauerkraut juice before meals and also recommends Betaine HCL with pepsin to help the stomach make enough acid.  She says that one wouldn’t have to continue with the Betaine HCL, only until the gut is healed enough that the stomach is able to make enough acid on its own.

Just thought I’d pass this along in case anyone is having issues in that area…

More adventures on the GAPS diet, and more…

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Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride recommends making your own homemade yogurt because the commercial stuff is inferior, with less active live cultures.  So, I’ve been experimenting with using organic Kefir with this wonderful locally made milk, from Trader’s Point Dairies here in Indiana.  It’s pasteurized (since raw milk will kill you/snark) but it is not homogenized, which is only a cosmetic, not a health concern.  Dr. Campbell-McBride says that the process to homogenize changes the fat molecules.  I suppose the body cannot recognize it in the changed form?

Anyway, I’ve decided that my homemade yogurt is like a box of chocolates…I never know what I’m going to get. 🙂  It’s either runny or lumpy….although I have to admit the times when it’s been more of a solid, I’ve added more Kefir to it, so maybe that’s the cause.

Homemade sauerkraut is totally under-rated.  The commercial stuff has this bitterness to it, but the homemade stuff doesn’t.  It has a kick to it, for sure.  The only problem is that you have to wait 5-7 days for it to ferment.

I’ve also tried fermenting carrots.  I thought I might get the sweet-and-sour thing….yeah, that didn’t work out so well…but they’re still edible.

There’s also a recipe for homemade ice cream, using real cream that’s also been fermented into sour cream, adding eggs, honey, and whatever ingredient you want…sounds delicious.

Dr. Campbell-McBride encourages certain ripe fruits on the diet–I’ve tried some, but still have strong reactions to them, so I’m back to ripe bananas (brown spots on the skin) and apples.  I mashed a ripe banana and threw it in the pan with the eggs in the morning, and oh.my.god, it was like eating pancakes! Yum…pancakes are something I’ve been missing.

I’ve been pretty good at sticking with the diet, although I have to admit I cheated last week…succumbing to the call of M&M’s.  But I’m still proud of myself for sticking to it.  I’ve now lost 20 pounds.  Amazing.

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Fort Wayne has free firewood, if anyone’s interested…you’ll have to drop by and pick it up yourself. 🙂  Just a little storm humor.  Geez, it still amazes me how powerful that storm was…I was walking home from the grocery this morning (haven’t been able to walk anywhere because of the heat), and there were trees with major damage on each of the six blocks I walked.  One guy passed by and said his friend’s car was demolished by a tree.  I don’t think insurance even covers that–nice out for them, eh?

Oh, and a minor correction–I don’t think the picture I linked to with the tree in the street was the actual one in front of the library.  I’m still not that familiar with the streets, not being that mobile.  I think the tree down was actually about a couple blocks over.  Anyway, wanted to clear that up.  Truth in reporting and all that 🙂

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Supreme Court passes Affordable care

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You know, I’m probably the only moderate progressive who disagrees with this Act.  Not for the same reasons the far right does, but because of the mandate for private insurance, instead of Medicare for All.  Unlike those in this article, I don’t see this as a step in the right direction–as a way to get single payer in the door.

However, I do agree with the right on the issue of gov’t control of healthcare.  They already are violating the Fourth Amendment, so what will hold them back in violating a person’s right to privacy with their health records?  If it were a separate agency, such as Medicare–a well run agency–I would trust it more.

And then we have the growing lack of privacy for employees for everything, including medical.

Here’s a site that answers questions on the rights of employers to ask for medical history:

The HIPPA privacy rule does not prevent your employer from asking you for information about your health if your employer needs the information to administer sick leave, workers’ compensation, wellness programs, or health insurance.

Read that again.  They have it couched as “necessary” for the employer to obtain your private information to buy health insurance or administer wellness programs…

And people won’t refuse this especially in this economy—they don’t want to make waves and will agree to it even if they disagree strongly in handing over private information.  This opens the door for an employer in dismissing someone because of a health reason. Actually, as the lawyer points out, they can fire you for any reason if you live in an “At Will” state.  There’s just no rights of the employees in this and that bothers me a great deal.

Again, if there was a Medicare for All, the employers would not have such monumental power over their employees’ lives.

For me, however, I’m less and less likely to seek out the medical profession for issues, and find the natural plants and organic food that will help me regain my health.  Thank God for doctors like Natasha Campbell-McBride who think outside the box and use that wonderful intuition to come up with solutions that aren’t a) making the pharmaceutical companies rich; and b) aren’t ignoring diet  and the environment as a major factors in health.

The medical profession is set up to try to rein in the horse after it’s left the barn, instead of fixing the gate (diet and healthy environment).  That makes no sense to me at all.

 

China Syndrome

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… they lied…as DN reported before.

I wonder how much of that radiation made its way to the U.S. via the ocean and the air currents?

Here’s a link on the subject…if they detected it as far as Massachusetts and North Carolina, you can bet there was much more radiation over the western half of the States than is being admitted.  I wonder how many folks have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer since the accident?  And if they are diagnosed, how many doctors are doing detective work to find the cause?  My bet is that they will blame the patient or will not even recognize thyroid issues and instead diagnose the patient with psychosomatic illness?  Nah, that can’t happen…/snark.

 

GAPS and the sustainable environment

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While I was out jogging this morning, I was thinking about the GAPS diet and how Dr. Campbell-McBride advocates nuts in the diet…and it flashed in my head about how much land is used to grow wheat and corn and soybeans…and I wondered about how much more food, as in nuts, could be grown and if that was more ecologically sound?

I found this page advocating that very idea–it says that nut trees require very little chemical intervention, if any at all…not to mention the benefits of increased oxygenation by the trees and providing a home for the birds and squirrels.

I also found this resource for the re-foresting agriculture.

I also found this dedicated to permaculture.  I really like the Vajra farm–I could picture myself taking a stroll through there…I could just feel the cool breeze and the serenity of the forest.  It doesn’t look like any farm that I’ve been acquainted with…

I’m looking at that and thinking about the dry, windblown fields in Indiana, and how much better having this type of agriculture would be for the Earth.  And it would be better for us, as well, with eating nuts and berries again instead of stuffing our faces with bread, cakes, and the like…

Here’s yet another take on growing trees  in “alley ways” along with the usual.  I don’t get a good feel for this–I’d have to see it in operation.  My thinking is that the trees will eventually grow enough to block most of the light for the other crops…unless that is the purpose–to grow crops between them until they are large enough to use for lumber?  The site doesn’t really explain the process very well.

Anyway, there you have it.  I think this would really take off if it were promoted as a healthier alternative for diet, for the Earth, for the animals…

…but that’s just crazy talk 🙂

 

 

 

GAPS

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More from the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride….

p.321

Top Ten Influences which boost immunity:

1.  Fresh animal fats (from meats and dairy) and cholesterol-rich foods (particularly raw egg yolks).  [Dr. Campbell-McBride emphasizes that cholesterol is very beneficial, despite the false promotion of junk science saying otherwise.]

2.  Cold-pressed oils:   olive oil, fish oils, nut and seed oils.

3.  Onions and garlic.

4.  Freshly pressed veggie & fruit juices. [the fresh foods have enzymes that help your body to digest them properly. ]

5.  Regular consumption of greens:  parsley, dill, coriander, spring onion and garlic, etc. [word of caution: coriander has an effect on mercury mobilization, and it’s not been researched so there is no reliable info. on whether it carries it out of the body, too.]

6.  Probiotic supplementation and fermented foods. [She explains that gut flora is seriously compromised in most of the population, and these will help restore normal flora.]

7.  Contact with animals:  horses, dogs, etc.  Having a pet in the family can do a lot for children’s immune status.

8.  Swimming in unpolluted natural waters:  lakes, rivers, sea.**

9.  Physical activity in the fresh air.

10.  Exposure to sunlight and sensible sunbathing.

**These are non-chlorinated swimming pools.  Pretty cool, eh?

…and if you prefer to do it yourself, Mother Earth News has this for you.  They lose me with advocating man-made materials, however, but you’ll get the basics from the article.

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Next, Dr. Campbell-McBride has a list of the Top Ten Influences that damage immunity:

1.  Sugar and everything containing it:  sweets, soft drinks, confectionery, ice cream, etc.  [she does, however, allow natural honey…whew]

2.  Processed carbohydrates:  cakes, biscuits, crisps, snacks, breakfast cereals, white bread, and pasta.

3.  Chemically altered and artificial fats:  margarine, cooking and vegetable oils, processed foods with these. [basically, the more they change the structure of the food, the worse it is for you–raw and fermented being the best foods.]

4.  Lack of high quality protein in the diet, from meats, fish eggs, dairy products, nuts and seeds.  [Dr. Campbell-McBride writes quite a bit against the vegetarian diet.  She says that the proteins in the plants are not easily absorbed/digested by our digestive systems.  I was a vegetarian from 1998-ish to 2006, when I was advised to start eating meat because of severe anemia, so I understand what she’s saying, but I had hopes that once I was well again that I could go back to vegetarian, but it doesn’t look promising.]

5.  Exposure to man-made chemicals:  cleaning and washing chemicals, personal care products, paints, fire retardants, petrochemicals, pesticides, etc.

6.  Exposure to man-made radiation:  electronic screens: TV, computer, play stations; mobile phones, high-powered electricity lines, nuclear stations, nuclear waste, anti-cancer medication, anti-viral drugs.

7.  Drugs:  antibiotics, steroids, antidepressants, painkillers, anti-cancer medication, anti-viral drugs.

8.  Lack of fresh air and physical activity.

9.  Lack of exposure to sunlight.

10.  Lack of exposure to common microbes in the environment. […]  Living in too sterilized environment is strongly associated with compromised immunity.

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More from the book:

p.71  […]  In an old Textbook of Psychiatry by Henderson and Gillespie, published in 1937, it is clearly stated:  “A thorough physical examination is absolutely essential in every case–schizophrenics are commonly poorly nourished”.  […]  Deficiencies in vitamins (such as niacin, or B3, B6, B12, B1, folic acid, Vitamin C)and many minerals (such as magnesium, zinc, manganese, etc.) are routinely recorded in schizophrenic patients.[…]  U.S. professor Curtis Dohan, M.D., devoted many years to researching what connection digestive abnormalities in schizophrenic patients may have with their psychological state.

…Dr. Dohan found that symptoms of schizophrenia could be dramatically relieved by cutting all grains…

He also found that some cultures in the South Pacific which never consumed grains, had no schizophrenia.  Only when they adopted a Western diet full of grains did they stat getting cases of schizophrenia.  Another good example is Ireland, where people did not consume wheat until the potato famine in 1845.  Before then there were no cases of schizophrenia or coeliac disease recorded in Ireland.

(I can’t find it now, but I had seen a link a while back where Germans also suffer from gluten intolerance.  They observed that schizophrenia went down dramatically during WWII, when grains were scarce.  So, yeah, I have both German/Irish genes, so I’m pretty much SOL in the gluten department.)

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I know this diet is spot on–but it’s not easy.  Dr. Campbell-McBride has a list of allowed foods and non-allowed foods.  She eliminates ALL grains, so I was correct in my thinking that I couldn’t eat rice nor potatoes (carbs).

On the non-allowed foods, I got to…chocolate.  Read it again to make sure that I hadn’t misread it….

Chocolate?  She wants me to give up chocolate?  Was she freaking crazy?  I didn’t think I could do it….*anything* but chocolate…

…so I ate a bunch of chocolate…

…and felt so awful that I thought I’d have to at least give it a shot.

I’m at day five…and holding my own.  I have a fear that closer to *that* time of the month, however, I’ll be craving it like crazy and will lose the battle…

On the more positive side, I have lost fifteen pounds since March.  And my gut is less swollen.  It’s freaking amazing. 🙂

Protests against chemicals

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The stroller brigade went to DC to protest the non-transparency of chemicals on our health and the environment. Link to info here.

Glad to see it.  I am dumbfounded on a daily basis at the apathy by those around me to the onslaught of toxins and how much damage they are doing not only to us but the environment.

People will tell me they’re taking x amount of prescription drugs, while drinking cokes, eating junk food, etc., while their bodies are already being assaulted.    One resident of the building  came outside, saying he wanted to “get some fresh air”….while dragging on a cigarette…

…I had to stifle myself to keep from cracking up laughing…

It’s just mindboggling how they don’t see any connection between how poorly they feel and the chemical soup we’re in.

I’ve noticed a change in people’s behavior when they saturate the skies with chemtrails…is anybody investigating that?

Here is a link exploring that.  There aren’t a lot of credible sources out there on this issue–but just from my personal observation, I think they are affecting people’s health.  Mercury poisoning makes one much, much more sensitive to toxins–car exhaust, perfumes, chemical cleaners, electro-magnetic fields (at one point, I couldn’t talk on a cell phone without getting a migraine the next day)etc.–and when they spray this junk in the air, I have a reaction to it.

One link I read said that the chemtrails contain aluminum and barium–those two metals are hazardous to one’s health–so I went looking for more info on it and found this.

I’m afraid that it will be like the onslaught of diseases after  introduction of chemicals–mainly cancer that takes many years to manifest.  I can say, as a canary in the coal mine, my reaction is a warning of how it is affecting folks who are not mercury toxic…

 

Farm bill 2012

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Environmental Working Group’s take on Farm Bill 2012. (hat tip to organic consumers)

Instead, legislators created an expensive new entitlement program (called “shallow loss”) that guarantees nearly 90 percent of the income of farm businesses already enjoying record profits. It also leaves untouched a bloated $9-billion-a-year crop insurance program that pays about 60 percent of farmers’ crop insurance premiums, no matter how large the farm, and sends billions to crop insurance companies and their agents.

Most of the benefits of these proposed programs would flow to the big five commodity crops (corn, soy, cotton, rice and wheat) that provide feed for livestock, raw material for processed food and corn ethanol fuel for our cars. Not only would these proposals be highly inequitable and wasteful, but the new revenue guarantees, combined with unlimited insurance subsidies and high crop prices, will create powerful new incentives for growers to plow up fragile wetlands and grasslands and erase many of farming’s recent environmental gains.

 

I like that it at least adds monies for food stamp recipients to purchase locally grown food at farmer’s markets.  Great idea.  I actually made the suggestion to our housing authority folks to help us get some land to plant our own vegetables to raise organically.  *crickets*

 

Link to Craig Cox, of Environmental Working Group’s statement on it here.

More adventures in gluten free cooking

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I happened upon this book at the library–Donna Klein has been trained in Paris, and it shows in the recipes she has created.    Not a recipe for sorghum in the bunch. 🙂

My greatest grief over going gluten free is letting go of the favorite foods.  Klein has a recipe for zucchini-crust pizza.  I know, I know, it doesn’t sound like it would be tasty, but I can assure my dear readers that it is.

I made it according to the original recipe, which includes eggs in the zucchini “crust”.  I’m not a fan of quiche, which is what this recipe reminded me of, so I wondered if I could substitute Vegenaise (gluten-free, soy free version, which has a lime-green top) for the eggs.  Wow, I loved the result.  Vegenaise has this tang to it like Miracle Whip, and it comes through rather well in this recipe.  It is a little on the oily side, because it is, basically, oil, so perhaps cutting back just a little on the vegenaise will produce a less oily result.  Oil or not, it came out well, at least to me. 🙂

Other recipes in this book have also came out with good results.  Klein has quite a variety and she includes some delicates like crepes.  Her Arrowroot cake has piqued my interest and I’ll be making that tonight.

I’ve had to completely cut out potatoes, rice, and corn from the diet, as I’ve become very sensitive to *everything*…others on the support group state that this was their experience, too.   It’s something to do with the gut starting to heal–becomes more sensitive at first, but then as it heals, allows one to put potatoes and such back in the diet.  God, I hope so—I’m down to about two things I can eat…

More on seizures and mercury

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Here’s another informative page on the connection between mercury and seizures.  Anybody want to place bets that NO  doctors will raise the question of mercury with  amalgams in a patient’s mouth?  They’d much rather drug someone up with a drug that will probably cause  undesirable side effects, cost $$$ to fill, while ignoring the underlying cause….diet, environment, underlying genetic predispositions…

It’s soooo much easier to find quick answers to complex health issues…can’t spend a lot of time with detective work–insurance companies are standing outside the door with a stopwatch…

…besides,  the pharmaceutical representative wants to have lunch while promoting the latest drug that supercedes all the rest (and common sense, as well).  Why explore natural methods when everything is conveniently laid out in front of you…?