feeling much better -- on a diet aimed at lower histamine

Whew -- although i'm awake and it's the middle of the night, i'm feeling MUUUUUCH better.  The DOH reports mold and ragweed readings still in the "high" range but grass pollen has dropped down to "moderate."  For the most part, i've been trying to eat a lower histamine/tyramine diet, but i've made a few additions -- and i even got a little accidental mold contact in the house in the last 12 hours!

Part of the improvement MAY be attributable to a short fasting period i enjoyed yesterday -- on Tuesday evening we ate a whole duck between us (cooked in a "new" and wonderful way as described in Dana Carpender's "Five Hundred Paleo Recipes" "Unsightly but Delicious Duck")....  Well, eat half a duckling, and you're not going to be hungry again for quite some time!  I drank mostly black coffee until Wednesday dinner, at which time i couldn't even finish my (admittedly huge) ribeye steak ... though i polished off my share of the swiss chard with asian spices that J prepared to go with it.  With this i allowed myself about eight or nine ounces of petite syrah ... oh, and twice during the afternoon (when i started to feel hunger again) i had a small square of the egg-cheese-jalapeno preparation that's on my recipe page.  Yum.

I started working on the next house-rehab project -- the downstairs powder room where the wallpaper started to fail.  That's where i found the mold, behind the toilet (which is under the window).  Some of the previous owners' rehabs have been very poorly done, and every time i pull down old wallpaper i find things that make me roll my eyes in disbelief.  Friends, if you have to make repairs to old plaster walls, do yourself a favor and put a layer a primer between it and your new wallpaper....  I'm surprised my sinuses didn't start screaming at me, working in that tiny airless room, up-close-and-personal with mildew ... or whatever it was.

***

Got back to sleep around 5:30 and got a few more hours -- and i still feel very good!  :-)  I guess my next experimental move will be to [gasp] go outdoors for a little while.  We'll see if the summer heat (which finally arrived) makes me feel crummy again.

My husband, though, says he now feels symptoms of a chest-cold and has for a couple of days -- dating to when we got the new vacuum cleaner and air filter.  Although our rugs and therefore the air we breathe are much cleaner now, there's no doubt i stirred up some almost-literal "old shit" (the stuff that Spense scratched off himself, which then got trodden into the carpets).  This may be an indication that he's catching something i just got over.  Bear in mind that J almost NEVER gets sick -- he's got the most robust body i've ever heard of, even compared to my mother's 90 years of generally good health!  Back in the days he was smoking, he was always able to blow the lung-testing machine to the top of its scale, whereas i (nonsmoker) barely got it into the "normal" range.  I'm grateful he's learned tolerance of my wimpiness!

Today's pollen and mold have been reported -- mold and grass pollen have both moderated and only ragweed is still high.  Quality of life continues to improve.  ;-)

Doing a last proofread while sitting down for awhile -- just got finished making more mayo and oopsie rolls, and clarifying the duck fat i saved the other day.  Also reclarified the last tallow i saved, but alas it's developed a little rancid smell -- this will get saved in the "ordinary tallow" bag for use in my new betty lamp, or making candles.  Damn.

it WAS "the other thing" ... i think

HEADBANGONDESK

How could i have been so stupid?  I think i CAN guess what it was that set off my allergy/histamine system so badly!  It could easily have been the same thing that made my dog so sick.

Not that i know EXACTLY what it was, but it was definitely bacterial because it responded to antibiotics.  It was something that he picked up on the farm, and which i suspected might have been associated with the water-well, because that had just been repaired when we arrived in VA.  All the way home, Spenser chewed on himself, and it took me a long time to get his coat back in order (using his brush), because he was too stressed to bathe.  I continue to brush of course, and have to remove hair from it every time.  That brush must be teeming with "buggies."

Also "of course" i wash my hands after brushing him, but not just after casually touching the brush.

There are many kinds of infective agents and they can do all kinds of different things to us -- not all of which are logical and intuitive.  If i may use our dear Sidereal as an example, some of the fatigue she has suffered may have originated in a years-ago infection....

One hint that i was already a little fragile while on vacation lies in the fact that the chigger bites i suffered made huge bumps instead of the tiny ones i usually get.  My fault -- i SHOULD have hunted down a can of repellant before J and i walked the length of our son's property, and me having put on shorts that morning!  I'm lucky i didn't pick up ticks, too.

If i were not on a very-low-sugar diet, might i have gotten as sick as Spense was?  (It's not like he actually eats sugar, and he is on a grain-free diet, but the sweet-potato filler in his kibble is bound to give him blood-sugar spikes larger than my usual.)  He never was able to tell me exactly where it "hurt" but he obviously felt like shit and needed extra rest ... just like i did.  His poor little eyes got all inflamed and goopy, and his white fur is still stained from it to the point he still looks a little like the walking dead with their dark circles....

So my malaise may have been the direct descendant of his, and i didn't need antibiotics because my natural biota were able to deal with the problem.  I just had to be extra-careful of my diet and environmental contacts, as he was when he refused to eat and spent most of his time in a quiet corner.  He feels much better now, you can tell because he now enjoys a healthy appetite and a propensity to growl at J about toy-possession.

observations continue and diet purity begins again

Despite the lack of rain here, the mold reading in St. Louis is back up to high, as are the pollen levels of grass and ragweed.  Since "Dysonizing*" the entire second floor of the house and "Idylisizing" the bedroom, my allergies/histamine issues have been much better.  When i stepped out into the backyard, though, the fatigue recommenced -- the steamy, motionless air and relentless sunshine just flattened me.  I've been forgoing wine (one short Campari-and-soda yesterday) most days but had some mushrooms during the course of the week.  Heigh-ho, life is a balancing act....

My husband announced last night, over our dinner of leftovers, that he was going to start induction again today, so we're both back on the wagon.  Just as well -- with our busy year and many recent trips, my weight has inched up two or three pounds with each excursion till my "skinny" size 6 jeans are on the snug side.  (I completely wore out my "fat 8s" so there's no going back.)  So my breakfast was bulletproof coffee (and J had his favorite scramble), then we went to Schnuck's and Costco and stocked up on dietary staples:  ground beef, strip steaks, rib roast, chicken breasts and deli meat (to make breadless turkey clubs), pork rinds, eggs, cream cheese, and so on.  J is banging around the kitchen as i type this, concocting meatloaf.  There's both a duckling and a rack of lamb thawing in the sink.

Compare this to how i USED to feel going on a diet before LCHF!  Dread and a grim tightening of the belt, as i anticipated hunger and dissatisfaction, and miserable hours on the treadmill or stationary bicycle.  Thank all the gods that i got curious about that Atkins guy!
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* OMG i can't believe how much dust and hair that machine can pick up!  i've been using a vintage Kirby, and it's been completely put to shame.  The two bedside rugs from the rarely-used best guest room yielded as much debris to the Dyson as our bedroom historically surrendered to the old vacuum....

is it this, that or the other thing?

Frustratingly, my allergy issues are continuing, despite my attempts to minimize histamine triggers.  I'm glad that our area has a very good resource to help track environmental irritants -- most cities probably have some such resource, but i seem to recall that the one i accessed in Salt Lake City wasn't nearly as good as St. Louis'....

Last night after i turned out my reading-lamp, i got up again and visited the "medicine cabinet" one last time, taking an additional dose of my anti-inflammatory systemic enzymes and even a squirt of nasal decongestant to prophylactically combat the irritation of my sinus passages.  This morning i woke with gummy eyes, and the tender throat that confirms the drainage issues that were irritating my stomach yesterday.  During allergy season, "it's always something."  :-P  The DOH website says the mold levels are still "moderate" but that ragweed- and grass-pollens have moved into "high."

I'm going to have to be even more of a purist with my diet today, and probably use the neti-pot more, too.  Nothing gets rid of internal pollutants (of nasal passages) better!  More tea-tree-oil-laden steam as the gentlest form of "sterilizing" the sinuses.  Perhaps the addition of zinc lozenges for the throat.  NO WINE (i had a little syrah with my steak last night) -- but i reserve the option of some Campari for the sake of my stomach.  The mushrooms waiting in the fridge will have to wait a little longer, and "real" cheese is out of the question.  GOK what i'll make for supper -- white meat poultry with a cream sauce of some sort would probably be the least burdensome, and carrots Vichy...?

At least the weather forecast is for dry, very warm weather.  That won't inhibit the pollen, but the mold situation should get better!

perfect timing for histamine study

Oi gevals (did i spell that right?) -- if i NEEDED a "perfect storm" situation for observing histamine-related malaise, nature certainly decided to cooperate with me....  Sunday was a normal summer day when it came to environmental pollen and mold but the count doubled overnight, and on Monday i felt like death-warmed-over!  I woke up feeling a LITTLE better yesterday, but in midafternoon my stomach joined my sinuses in their land of unhappiness, and i chose to fast for the rest of the day.

This morning i'm feeling better -- hope it lasts!  At least the mold-count is coming down.  I also got two nights of sound sleep, as i've been cheating and adding earplugs to my eye-mask (if the dog or husband wake me at all, i tend to have a difficult time getting back to sleep).  I took a 24-hour fexofenadine instead of 4-to-6-hour-effective diphenhydramine last night before bed too (yesterday i woke up unable to breathe through my nose).  And as we know, allergy/histamine effects are cumulative.

We also know that EVERYTHING we eat (or think about eating) gives us a certain amount of histamine response!  I wrote before how i agree with J Stanton that fasting can actually feel good -- add to that ghrelin effect the histamine-reduction from fasting, and you significantly reduce some burdens if you're inclined to suffer allergic symptoms!  Once one is ketoadapted, eating nothing CAN make one feel better than anything else ... for awhile, anyway.

I did my best to feel better naturally, across-the-board -- staying out of the basement, using my neti-pot, inhaling tea-tree-oil-laden steam, taking serrapeptase as a systemic anti-inflammatory and encouraging stomachic happiness with the help of old-fashioned bitters.  Tiny steps, but they help.  At least i woke up breathing this morning.  ;-)

histamine reading continues....

While eating a lot of the wrong things myself, i continue to read about theoretically controlling histamine....  :-)  Today's brunch was a really yummy platter of preserved meats (sausage, confit, headcheese, bresaola, ...), goat brie, pickled vegetables and a couple glasses of champagne, and i paid the price -- feeling miserably bloated sitting on the sunny side of the car, and having to soap my ring off when i got home.

I have no doubt that some of my allergy problems are in fact histamine-intolerance issues.  When i first read about the subject a couple of years ago, it rang a bell (set off an alarm clock actually), but something distracted me and i'm only just getting back to it.  This time i'll make every effort to stick with it a little better.

On the way home from the restaurant, though, we stopped by the neighborhood health-food store and i picked up a bottle of holy-basil tincture and at home i took a dropperful -- felt better pretty quickly.  Gonna use it for a little while in place of benedryl and see how it works in the long term.

Well, back to the reading ... but just have to gripe a bit about the people who write on the subject!  OBVIOUSLY know diddly-squat about the subject of nutrition because they seem scared to death they're going to give themselves a case of malnutrition by omitting "whole food groups" -- where have we heard THAT before?  ;-)  ...Unless of course they're talking about giving up MEAT* -- that IS a mistake!
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* and the proclamation against "red meat" is based on the factoid that "Red Meats are hardest on us as they are usually from animals who had antibiotics injected or were force fed etc."  also that they're supposedly very high in omega-6s -- i guess these people don't know about grassfed....

new clues to encourage a happier body

A couple of days ago a new realization filtered into my brain....  The way Dr. Donaldson ("Strong Medicine") designed his dietary recommendations, his approved food list ("allergy bandwagon" he called it) turned out to be LOW HISTAMINE.

I read a little bit about the question a couple of years ago, but while doing the program it didn't occur to me -- i have no idea why it popped into consciousness now.  But yeah -- freshly grinding a beef chuck into burger and cooking it the same day decidedly gives you a smaller histamine dose than buying that family pack of ground beef.  A lot of the foods Donaldson frowned on are high in histamine irritation:  wheat, tomatoes (all nightshades in fact), citrus, strawberries, chocolate....  It seems also that some foods which give me hypothyroid symptoms -- sauerkraut leaps out -- are also high in the nasty bioamine, too.

Oh, and also those "neolithic agents of disease" grains, legumes and polyunsaturated (ie. rancid) seed oils.

I think it's highly likely that i'll feel much better by trying to minimize histamine-containing foods in my diet.  According to "thelowhistaminechef.com" one of the huge number of histamine-intolerance symptoms is trouble with the thyroid.  Gotta read up more....

The worst part of this is that red wine falls into the "avoid" category.  :-(

my understanding of "yeast"

Mark has yet another interesting article today, on the question of candida overgrowth.  He makes one point that i'm incredulous about, but it's only in the comment section that things get out-of-focus.

First thing that i did:  get out the updated Atkins book (i may have to find myself a copy of the original, as that is said to have interesting differences), and read what he had to say.  I was hoping for references to studies, but was disappointed; he reports, "I think that the complete explanation of what Candida overgrowth does to the human body is still well in the future.  But I do know from my medical practice that this is a problem that can cripple weight loss efforts."

To begin with, although Atkins specifically mentions candida albicans, he quickly starts talking about other yeasts and molds, because if you have a candida problem, you are likely to have trouble with a lot of its "relatives" too.  Well, i learned long ago that allergies are "cumulative" -- you can be in contact with things to which you're sensitive, but until these irritants reach some kind of threshold, they won't make you suffer.  If i'm in contact with corn chips and salsa, i MAY not feel it unless i go into my basement on a rainy day, OR the oak-trees are pollinating, OR the Bradford pears are in bloom, OR i'm in Wyoming on a windy day, OR ... so on.

So if you eat a lot of "low-carb paleo-friendly" foods such as cheese, vinegar, mushrooms, sauerkraut, sour cream, nuts, bacon and wine, you're adding yeast/mold-bearing foods to whatever environmental sensitivities you have.  Is the stuffy head you get after a meal, a symptom of candida overgrowth?  Not specifically, but it's definitely a sign that you've got more "yeast" on board than your body can cope with.  Atkins states, "It is important to remember that yeast overgrowth stresses the immune system, undermining your total health."

And we CAN measure an abnormal growth of candida in the feces and the blood, so i find the arguments in Mark's comment section completely absurd, that "I’m not impressed with this article, probably because 'candidiasis' is so overblown. Your article acknowledges that intestinal candida infection is not a recognized medical disease, the symptoms are vague and there are no reliable tests to diagnose it, and yet you think you know how to cure it?"  ... Shall we start counting the number of things that are/were "not a recognized medical disease" and which ARE things that can be overcome by means of diet and lifestyle?

"Strong Medicine" has several chapters illuminating the vast number of illnesses which can be of allergenic origin.  Even if candida albicans isn't PRIMARILY responsible for some of these allergic responses, there's every reason to believe that it contributes to the overall burden, so controlling it becomes one of the logical aims of allergy treatment.  Donaldson recommends doing this by means of his "allergy bandwagon" -- eliminating wheat, dairy (except butter), chocolate and eggs for all patients, and a longer list for the more sensitive.

Atkins recommended an elimination test for those of his patients who seemed to have allergy-related problems, with the suspicious items of diet being those high-yeast/mold foods like cheese, which i listed above.  But the thing that he believed would feed candida and its co-irritants most...?  "The worst offender is sugar.  It is the major growth factor for yeast, and Candida patients are invariably warned to stay away from ice cream, candy, pastry, corn syrup, maple syrup, molasses, etc.  If you're doing Atkins, there's certainly no possibility you're eating any of that.  You'll also be avoiding the natural sugar in fruit juice and lactose in milk."

THIS is where i disagree with Mark's point of view on candida, etc. -- he goes with Jaminet's pronouncement on the subject, and i think it's absurd.  "Paul Jaminet, who suffered from candida overgrowth, argues that since candida (being eukaryotes) have mitochondria that can feed on both ketones and carbs (as opposed to prokaryote bacteria without mitochondria), going very low carb or ketogenic will only provide more fuel for the overgrowth. Furthermore, since ketones are water-soluble and pass easily through cellular membranes, ketones will actually be a more accessible food source for candida. Don’t go high-carb, since any extra glucose will just be food for the yeast, but don’t go ketogenic, either."

It just doesn't make any sense!  Granted that these buggies can eat EITHER glucose or ketones, what the hell difference does it make WHICH you feed them?  But MY CELLS definitely prefer ketones and FFAs, so i'm damned if i'll eat for the bugs i don't want!

as Roseanne Rosannadanna's daddy used to say...

Doggone it, i was hoping to have more to say after almost a week of using carnitine*, but Mother Nature has been picking on me for the last few days.  The good news is, it's no longer 105 degrees in the shade, but the bad news is that the increased precipitation has driven the air quality into the orange zone.  Mold.  I've been struggling with a headache and sinus issues since Monday.  :-(

The first time i read Dr. Atkins' book, almost a decade ago, i was surprised and interested to learn how much my allergies affected my metabolic health.  I don't remember suffering from "hay fever" as a child, but it got pretty bad when i was in my 20s.  Maybe i was infected by a new strain of yeast when i moved to a more humid place that didn't get weather as cold in the winters?  Whatever the case may be, i've got it now.

I picked up a sensitivity to oak pollen and yarrow in Texas, to goldenrod, ragweed and Bradford-pear pollen in Oklahoma, and to sage pollen in Utah.  The worst offender here is the mold, which makes me miserable when i need to do laundry in humid weather -- my washer is in the basement, where 116 years' worth of molds/mildew have found refuge.

The respiratory symptoms got a lot better when i went low-carb, but i still keep benedryl on hand for when the wrong irritants are in the air, or when i have chores to do downstairs.  At least i KNOW now that antihistamine-time indicates poor weight-loss results -- it makes things less frustrating when i eat "perfectly" and see no progress on the scales.  (Actually, this week hasn't been bad in THAT regard.)

But as Rosanne Rosannadanna's daddy used to say, "It's always somethin'."  :-P
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* For what it's worth, the carnitine experiment SEEMS to be going well -- at least i see no indication that the theoretical lowering of thyroid function is true!

what is it about plant foods?

This is Day Two of dealing with one of those annoying little upticks of the scale....

On Wednesday, i had to go out into the world, and i thought it was about time for the mini-binge which customarily does good things for me.  I lunched at a certain restaurant which offers a very good taco salad, and included some guacamole and sour cream instead of a commercial dressing.  I didn't get anything so wicked as a sweet-sour-laden margarita -- oh, no!  I had ONE glass of a pleasant, civilized red wine.  Next morning, i wasn't surprised that the scale had stagnated, and just hit the half-caf hard, thinking that would run the water out of my body.  I finished the take-home box of salad-and-guac; no 'rita, no chips.  Supper was a tin of sardines and a glass of wine.

The scale should have been down this morning.  It was up.  Two days in a row, i had a significant quantity of lettuce, a small amount of other salad vegetables, moderate animal protein and maybe an ounce of cheese (just on Wednesday).  I didn't exceed 1350 calories (estimated, since i didn't compile the recipes) the second day, or 1600 the first.

I swear, if i had lettuce in the fridge, i'd do a day of nothing else, and i bet the scale would be up again tomorrow.  What is it about plant foods that makes my body misbehave so?

In "Strong Medicine," Donaldson says, "Green vegetables can contain unknown irritants, aside from additive sprays, that bother some of us a great deal. Annoying intestinal gases or joint pains or sudden elevations of blood pressure may all stop when such patients are deprived of green vegetables. I have one family who love asparagus and have a big patch of it to feast on during the season. The whole family run elevated blood pressures at that time."  Now, the intestinal gases we can explain very easily, but the other symptoms he mentions are a little more mysterious in their etiology.*

He goes on to say, "No one knows why the yellow vegetables seem better tolerated by children who have a background of eczema. Onions and beets and celery can sometimes be used with no apparent ill effect, but yellow vegetables always seem to be safer, perhaps because they aren't sprayed."  Unfortunately, he doesn't list the items he characterizes as "yellow" but by inference he seems to include carrots, corn, winter squash and turnips.  He praises real sweet potatoes and the better varieties of white ones.  You'll notice that most of these foodstuffs either grow underground, or have some kind of protective "casing".

Dare i take a leap of intuition and suggest that above-ground plants (green ones) produce more self-protective toxins than edible portions which, being underground, don't need to conduct chemical warfare as much?

Amongst zero-carb enthusiasts, it's postulated that there are enough plant toxins in vegetables to make them poor choices for those of us who are sensitive.  In fact, the antioxidant chemicals, ironically labeled "protective," seem to be the ones that irritate us most.  Proponents of hormesis say these substances do us good BECAUSE they irritate us; although some people may benefit from it, i'm not sure we all do.

When doing my research on what foods are goitrogenic, a staggering array of "healthy" foods become distinctly deleterious.  As a hypothyroid, i should avoid most of the "green leafy" things that every health-fiend from vegan to paleo can agree to ... agree to.  ;-)  Broccoli, kale, apples -- kiss 'em goodbye!  Oh, they're okay if i boil the hell out of them, though....

I believe that plant toxins are a big reason why Atkins and Paleo/Primal only give outstanding results when people come to them from the SAD.  Getting the virulent poisons out of your diet only gets you part of the way.  The chronic trace poisoning that people love so much is what stands between some of us and real health.

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*  i have my suspicions....  more on that later.

when will i ever learn?

This week of indulgent vacationing is almost over -- thank heavens!  ;-)  It's been something of an inversion -- a PERversion of what food-elimination diets are all about.  I've eaten things over the last week that i KNOW i should not eat, and am observing the consequences -- and don't try to tell me it's a reverse-placebo effect!

I have body-aches that i haven't felt since last year.  Anyone who has read some of my oldest postings might remember my awe when, after three weeks of the Personal Paleo Code program, i took a roadtrip and found that i was able to get out of the car (after driving for 6 hours straight) and experience no stiffness upon moving around.  At the time, i was SO impressed with the effects of the frequently-problematic-food avoidance, i couldn't see ever eating them again.

I ate them this past few days.  OUCH.  Wheat.  Corn.  Sauces containing mystery ingredients.  Industrial seed oils.  Sugar.

I HAVE had individual-meal "excursions" before, from my ideal diet, with limited repercussions.  One day of being "bad" can affect my knees, my water-balance, my allergies, and/or my digestion.  It takes several days to give me this gawd-do-i-feel-old sensation.  I'm sitting here right now with my feet up, leaning back comfortably against cushions; my lower-back hurts, my upper-neck hurts and my temples ache -- inflammation causes my glasses to fit poorly, and i get a pain behind my ears, as well.  I woke this morning with my hands and feet aching from the water retention.  Climbing out of bed was more trouble than it has been for seven months; i limped to the next room.

Today i'm fasting until dinnertime, and i anticipate feeling MUCH better.  I'm also going to do a little upper-body bodyweight exercise right before dinner -- some planks, maybe some pushups.  (Weightbearing exercise, especially in the upper body, is reputed to burn a LOT of glucose/glycogen.)  I'll be drinking as much coffee as is comfortable, with cream if i start feeling hungry.  I CAN LICK THIS!  ;-)

When i fly home tomorrow, i trust i'll be feeling at least a little better than i do right now.  When i get there i'll start being "perfect" again.  Perfection is MUCH easier than moderation.

radical health improvement from diet X

Every time i hear about a spectacular health turn-around after a person changes his/her dietary style, the first thing i want to know is, exactly what was changed?

Yep, a Real Home Cooking diet, in which whole foods replace CIAB will make the whole family feel, look and perform better, even if it contains the worst grains and beans in the world.  Most plant toxins aren't nearly as nasty as some of the man-made ones which flood the food supplies of modern countries!

I heard the success story of Terry Wahls, and i couldn't be more happy for her!  Especially considering her profession, this is a coup for advocates of nutritionally-based medical treatment; she's harder to shrug off than most of us grunts.  AND she's very vocal about her situation; :-D  ...i do so admire the people who get out there and fight for what i believe in, but into which i am not willing to pour my whole life's-energy.  But do i think that her diet is optimal for universal health?  No, at least not for me.

The "wow factor" of dietary change frequently depends upon your starting point.  Mine has been changing step-wise, and to see how my health has improved i have to search my memory for details that are confounded by (comparative) youth, fitness, etc.

I started out from i categorized above as a Real Home Cooking diet.  I grew up eating white bread and corn oil, but at least we always COOKED.  Frequent eating-out didn't happen till about twenty years ago, and i had been fighting the battle of the bulge before that.  As food-and-supplement fads came and went, i never noticed a significant improvement with ANYTHING until i added systemic enzymes to my daily routine.  I suspect i was developing fibromyalgia; i would sit with my feet up and vaguely ache all over.  My chronic fatigue i attributed to the hypothyroidism.

So, first enzymes actually promoted some improvement, then my doctor recommended iodine supplementation, and that helped much more.  I went on Atkins next, and my general improvement was immensely noticeable.  No more morning brain fog, significantly improved allergies, better energy, and weight-loss without constant hunger.  I was a FAN.

The biggest reason that low-carbing didn't result in all the weight-loss i could ever have wanted was the temptation to add foods in too soon.  One sees all those opportunities to again eat the things the low-fat-me had been denying myself so long....  And, as an enthusiastic cook, i was also hot to adapt old recipes to the new philosophy, and got caught in the carb-creep that is so hard to resist.  I screwed up.

I don't remember what led me to Mark's Daily Apple, but it was my portal to the paleo/primal world.  I no longer link his site from mine, but it's still one of the first to which i send my paleo-curious friends.  Like so many other eating plans, if you go straight to it from the SAD your results will be absolutely stunning:  i didn't, so mine were much less noticeable.  Not perfect, and nor is the Perfect Health Diet ... for me.

What DID produce jaw-dropping IMPROVEMENT for me was the Personal Paleo Code program, and the Strong Medicine protocol i tried after it.  In my case, i found out that health challenges have been all about dietary intolerances and "personal toxins."

So yeah:  a veg*n diet will be beneficial ... if you ate absolutely horrible things before.  So will Atkins, despite the highly-questionable ingredients in their trademarked products.  So will a low-fat diet, if you go from lots of omega-6 oils to almost none (and can stand the hunger).

To eat OPTIMALLY is going to take a lot of n=1 experimentation.  Eat only things that are "never" toxic or allergenic for a month, then add things back one at a time, slowly.  It's  ILLUMINATING.

sometimes, fasting just FEELS good!

With one thing and another, my dietary habits have been VERY discombobulated this week!  I did well at my event, but not at my daughter's house.  It's a social thing -- we talk a lot and drink more wine absent-mindedly, then our inhibitions are down and we eat things we shouldn't.  Yesterday i fasted till mid-afternoon, and i felt significantly better ... till i overloaded at dinnertime.  My digestion felt very "off."   This morning, even coffee doesn't sound very good.

Here in the Houston area, it never gets COLD, ever.  Nor does the humidity ever go away.  Mold is a problem, and i'm sensitive to it.

When an animal doesn't feel well, it goes off its feed, and even children instinctively lose their appetites when under the weather (till their ignorant parents succumb to marketing, and ply them with drugs and drinks).  Nature knows what she's doing.

I've learned from Nature, too -- our afflicted digestive systems "reset" themselves best when not burdened with input.  I'll be taking it MUCH easier today, and staying away from "yeast" foods like cheese, wine, mushrooms, etc.

Dr. Donaldson, in "Strong Medicine," spoke extensively about allergy, and Dr. Atkins devoted a couple of chapters to food sensitivity as well.  The variety of unpleasant symptoms possible when one eats "incompatible" things is truly impressive.  Who would think that a little sugar would result in sinus issues ... but it can.  Ditto for pollen in the air and weight loss, and for a surprising range of foodstuffs and athlete's-foot.  One of most beneficial effects of an all-fresh-meat diet MAY just be its low-histidine aspects.

Thank heavens i have some potato-based gin to fall back on if needed -- less reactive than things like wine and grain alcohols!  Alcohol HAS therapeutic uses, after all....  ;-)

alternatives to alternatives

When circumstances occur that make us reconsider what we have "decided" before, it's probably a good thing.  I mentioned the other day that my esteemed DIL has deadly allergies, the most virulent of which are to nuts.  Tree nuts, from coconuts on down to filberts (is there anything larger and/or smaller?) ... she can't have 'em.

Low-carbing is something she's willing to do, and has done with success in the past, but for her the choices are more limited.  Therefore, i've been considering what might be some nice alternatives.

Most of us make do with nut flours when we want to "eat our cake and have it too."  Coconut pancakes and tortillas, hazelnut-meal bread, almond cakes and cookies are out the window this week.  What to make instead?  Well, i think we ARE going to have to go a little higher in carbs.  It's time to experiment with legumes, and to cave in to flours made of tubers. 

I'm thinking that a sourdough starter can be begun with a little rye, augmented with chickpea meal, and finished with potato or rice flour (i need to look at the exact protein/carb ratios of these).  It will require some baking soda to lighten the texture....  By souring the legume flour during the week the starter ripens, the antinutrients should be weakened considerably.

Sunflower and pumpkin seeds should be legitimate to use as well, ground up to a meal in the food processor.  And mixing those with finely chopped peanuts should be pretty tasty -- i'm seeing a cake made with these ingredients and iced with chocolate cream cheese.  Do i have anyone's mouth watering yet (besides mine)?

Resuscitating ground-up pork-rinds is a good idea as well -- i've liked using them in the past (during the Atkins Era), but of course when i started avoiding omega-6 oils, they had to be relegated to "neolithic purgatory."  I don't think ANYBODY in my neck of the woods is frying the things in acceptable fats, so if i want to start using them again, i'll have to fry them myself.  Coincidentally, i have a package of pork skins in my freezer at home, some tallow in the deep-fryer, and lard in the pantry -- let the experimentation begin!

At a higher carb count, there are quinoa, buckwheat and that sort of thing.  Compared to wheat, they're angels of light.  Tapioca ... sweet potato ... maybe even konjac flour....

Oh, and i almost forgot the original Revolution (or "oopsie") Rolls!  All is not lost -- there are LOTS of options we can explore!

on carbohydrates

There are a few things that ALL camps can agree on:

• carbohydrate foods, even the most "complex," cause a rise in blood glucose;
• a rise in blood glucose triggers secretion of insulin in people with a functioning pancreas;
• until blood levels of insulin lower again, your body will not release stored fat to be burned as fuel.

 There are a few things that will be argued, no matter how clear the science is:

• the properly-functioning human body has no need of exogenous carbohydrate, unlike fats and amino acids -- it can make all the glucose it needs, from dietary proteins and fats, and from stored proteins and fats;
• frequent small carbohydrate-based meals cause insulin to be constantly elevated, thereby inhibiting the burning of stored fat;
• hyperglycemia and/or hyperinsulinemia, which cannot happen in an otherwise healthy individual without high carbohydrate intake, are responsible for a wide variety of deleterious effects in all kinds of tissues;
• although insulin's actions in the brain include a satiating signal, in the rest of the body it promotes fat storage;
• all of the "good" qualities of insulin can be invoked through protein ingestion, which causes a small rise of the hormone compared to carbohydrate consumption;
• carbohydrate consumption promotes appetite through numerous pathways, including opioid receptors, gut signalling, and insulin-induced hypoglycemia;
• the body does not require fiber for intestinal health;
• certain types of carbohydrate promote intestinal woes such as bloating, gas, gut permeability, candida overgrowth, and more.

Conclusions i draw from the above, driving me to prefer a very-low-carb diet:

• as my body doesn't require them, and i get more pleasure out of eating meat*, i'll stick with the latter;
• those that make my joints stiff and achy, and my gut "unhappy," i'll actively avoid;
• fatty meat is the most efficient food for promoting satiation and satiety;
• fatty meat is the most efficient food for weight loss;
• fatty meat requires minimal fuss to procure and prepare;
• as i feel my best on a very-low-carb diet -- no brain-fog, better energy and agility, reduced pain and allergies, good sleep -- i see NO reason to override my instincts and kowtow to "conventional wisdom."

______
*  much carbohydrate-eating seems to be pleasure-based.  not being anti-hedonistic, i have no problem with that -- i just prefer home-made, high-fat, sugar-free ice cream over conventional sweets, sashimi over tempura, nuts over chips, wine over cola, ad infinitum.

slippery slopes

Since the time i began eliminating "neolithic" foods from my diet, any try at reintroducing them illustrates to me how bad i feel under their influence, and how addictive my body finds them.  Small servings of certain carbohydrates fuel a strong desire for more (this might be why: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/search/label/Fiaf%20%282%29%20starving%20amidst%20plenty).

Yesterday morning, i felt stressed -- bad starting point.  I suspect that the circumstances (workman coming to fix my security system for heaven-knows-how-long, as well as wondering how extensive the damage was going to be) were exacerbated by the damp weather.  Humidity can help to set off allergic issues even worse for people who are inclined to mold sensitivity and candida overgrowth.  Even though my diet is low in the things that encourage candida, i'm VERY sensitive to mold.  Therefore, deciding to have a little hot sake with my lunch was an error in judgement.

One of the things your gut bacteria can do is turn carbohydrates to alcohol and send them racing into your bloodstream.  Four ounces of sake added to the self-produced alcohol created a minor buzz completely out of proportion with the actual amount i drank.  I decided to have a handful of macadamias, too.

Later, i felt a sugar craving -- highly unusual with me.  I retrieved an almost-forgotten stash of SUGAR-FREE jelly beans, and had a couple of tablespoonsful.  It was hard to stop there, but i did.

I ended up at many more carb-grams (and a few more total calories) than are common for me, at the end of the day.  The polyol-induced gas i endured as a fitting "reward" for my indulgence.  This story could be part of a modern Aesop collection, because the moral is so blatant:

Physical and mental stressors incline one to do things that are counter-productive to wellbeing.  THIS is one of the times to dig in your heels, and resist a single step down this road, because there are too many forces working together to sweep your feet completely out from under you, and carry you to entirely undesirable destinations.

time for another progress report

Although weight loss isn't as fast as it was before, i'm still getting positive results with the Strong Medicine protocol.  This last week, i dropped below 27.0 BMI -- about fifteen pound lost since the first of the year.  The mostly-meat diet has been wonderful for my digestive tract, once i broke Donaldson's rule and put sea-salt on it.

That CA trip a couple of weeks ago has a lot to answer for.  The indulgences in cheese, fruit, chocolate and wine, and schlepping around my heavy bags, had quite an impact on my joints -- especially Ralph.  The shoulder and left knee are all better now.  The right hip is twinge-ing a little today with the rainy weather (and my sinuses went insane after doing laundry in the damp basement yesterday).  Elevation and heat improved Ralph somewhat -- i need to do more of it.

The tyrosine i added to my supplement intake hasn't made much of an impact, though i'm careful to take it with copper and without other amino acids.  I guess i need to try increasing the dose....

Most of my life i've awakened in the morning with NO interest in eating right away -- i'll bet it has to do with what i've found since i started experimenting with a glucose meter:  my liver is very adept at gluconeogenesis on a low-carb diet!  I wake up with plenty of fuel on board, and my body sees no reason to augment it.  As it's crucial to have a good-sized high-fat/protein breakfast on the SMD, i have to make myself do it, and i've found that ground meat goes down best.  I've also found that i like to grind my own; when i find chuck roasts on sale i snag 'em quick.

For the first time in 20 years, i actually have a realistic hope of reaching my goal weight!  The "sacrifice" in food variety i'm making now is child's-play.  I'm never hungry, compared with my old low-fat days; i'm not spending hours making lists and shopping and cooking for some regimen that doesn't produce results; i feel fit and strong, while exerting very little effort in making it happen.  If it weren't for Ralph, i'd feel great in my body!

allergy season

Here i am, concerned about something left in my diet which is causing allergic annoyances. and i completely dropped the ball.  Yes, i went to the local department-of-health pollen-and-mold site, and saw nothing particularly noteworthy -- what i failed to do was take a drive outside my usual dog-walking route.

Yesterday i finally caved in, and went to do some shopping for the new tyrosine supplement, various meat supplies, and kitchen notions.  The warm spring weather here has caused Nature to rejoice in her usual way, encouraging blossoms of all sorts, flora and fauna, to multiply themselves.  Yes, the city is abloom with things that DON'T get listed with the DOH:  Bradford pear, for one.

The way-too-short time i lived in Tulsa, our property abounded with the trees; looking out the bedroom window, you would have thought a snowstorm was raging, the view was so white.  That first spring resulted in no misery, but every succeeding spring that i've been around the things, they've driven me crazy. 

Not only do new allergies pop up when we're overexposed to stimuli, the tricky bit is that they're also CUMULATIVE.  Pollen X or mold Y or food Z may not pull the trigger, but get all of them going at once, and suffering takes on a whole new form.  I learned this when we lived on the gulf coast of Texas, where it seems that NOTHING EVER DIES ... in the microscopic world, anyway.  You never get a break from the mold, mildew, algae, etc etc.  The ubiquitous oak trees pollinate THREE TIMES A YEAR.  Then there's the ragweed, goldenrod, yarrow....  Fighting fleas and roaches is an endless battle.

So the unpleasant surprise concerning an unknown allergen in my VERY limited diet is most likely a minor sensitivity when the landscape is covered with snow or heatwaves, instead of flowers.  I'll stay away from things i know (or suspect) to be irritating in small doses:  nightshades, citrus, eggs, nuts, chocolate, perfumes, whatever.  I'll have to be cozier, though, with one of the few pharmaceuticals i depend on anymore -- Benedryl!

still one unresolved allergy....

A zit appeared on my chin yesterday morning.  Damn.  That means there's STILL something in my diet that shouldn't be there.

When i went from the Personal Paleo Code to Strong Medicine, the slight flushing on my nose and cheeks i used to get in the evenings got better.  Before i started all this, i blamed it on wine.  When it didn't go away on the PPC, i suspected it was either the nuts (i used a lot of coconut milk during that month) or the eggs (a dozen and a half per week).  On SM, i expected that pimples would be a thing of the past, too.

Now, bearing in mind that i haven't been PERFECT this past week, it doesn't have to be the meat i've been eating, the coffee i've been drinking, or the slices of lime i've put in my six glasses of water a day.  BUT, since i've been back at home, the only other things i've had are a small acorn squash, some butter, and 4 oz. of sake (unless i'm forgetting something).  The things i ate before leaving California are not out of the question, however; some reactions take awhile to manifest.

*Sigh* ...  I'm going to have to try another experiment; that's the only way to erase ALL the question marks.  From last night on, it's black tea, not coffee, with my otherwise-compliant diet.  (Wish i liked green tea, but something about it puts me off.)  I could have removed the lime/lemon from my water first, but plain water-drinking is something i have so little enthusiasm for, i might not drink enough ... and i suspect that my mostly-meat diet requires more flushing away.  I've  read that people who have food sensitivities can react to coffee as well, so that is -- unfortunately -- a possibility.  :-(

we interrupt your regularly-scheduled program for this announcement

Sunday was a busy and discombobulated day.  Flying may take less actual travel-time than pursuing the same course on the ground, but it's far more upsetting to the routine.  Had i driven for the eight or nine hours which that  evening's trip monopolized, it would have been a piece of cake (piece of steak?) for me to comply with the Strong Medicine requirements.  Three half-pound chunks of meat and three coffees, a quart and a half of water.  Done.

Instead, i ended up eating a lot of cheese (for the first time this year), a little shrimp and smoked salmon, melon and nuts, and one glass of red wine for dinner.  Since then, not only is Ralph giving me more pain than usual, but my hips and legs in general are aching.  And one shoulder.  Even my eyes have been dry and itchy (not from the flying -- that's different), which i learned is a common symptom of this sort of food sensitivity.  It doesn't look good for casein!

I remember my surprise and delight after a stiffness-free drive of some 12 or more hours, two different days last month.  Opposite situation here, and one gets to move around a LOT more in a plane than behind the wheel of a car.  My mood, energy and sense of well-being have been disrupted too, though i concede that i had way too little sleep on Sunday night, to blame it ALL on diet.

New dietary conclusion and rule:  being freshly self-diagnosed as dairy-sensitive, cheese must be eaten IN EXTREME MODERATION.  Butter seems to be fine.  Cream definitely requires a careful test period.  Ditto for yogurt/kefir.

[sniff, sniff, pout]  Dammit, i love cheese....