Conflicting Health Advice

[BRUMI1968]

Combine avocados with other fatty nuts. NEVER combine avocados with other fatty nuts. Eat 20% protein every day, but you need to eat animals. Animals kill you and virtually all foods have at least 20% protein. WHAT? How on earth should we know who to listen to? Even folks we trust make mistakes and change their minds - lots of folks have flipflopped on soy - not good for you they say. Fat not good for you? Yes it is, it turns out. Wine is good for you. Wine causes cancer. Coconut oil is terrible for you - ooops, turns out it's great. Coffee. Chocolate. Green Tea. Margarine. Homogenization. Arg!

New plan - I am going to listen to health advice that was around before food became ultra commodified and commercialized - back when people used common sense and anecdotal evidence to guide their health decisions. My grandma ate a spoonful of horseradish every day. She's still kicking around. She buried her veggie wastes in the raspberry garden and swore by garlic and onions. She used butter (I would not have heard of butter were it not for old granny). She spent the daylight hours in the sun working around the house and gardens. She fed squirrels. Now she's in the old-folks home eating margarine and instant mashed potatoes. That must be hell for her...hell on wheels.

Milk does not do a body good. Beef is not what is for dinner. Pork is not the other white meat. Whatever is good for us today probably isn't tomorrow. Did people in the ancient world eat it and prosper (quinoa, amaranth, goji berries, etc.), then sounds good to me. Was it invented in a laboratory? Not great. Did lots of folks grandmas eat it and live to be hearty old farm gals? I'm in.

Just thought I'd share my new criteria in case it helps other folks decide who to listen to - follow the money first, is my rule of thumb. If they're not making any, maybe they're being honest.

(all of this ranting prompted by trying to find advice about food combining, finding it to be very conflicting, and wondering how on earth anyone is supposed to take responsibility for their own health-actions in a world so flush with information, half of it bad and the other half worse.)

[BRUMI1968]

I reread my own post and it sounds more irritated than I meant for it to. I've actually been feeling great, so I have little to complain about. Sorry, all.

[Ursa Major]

Don't be sorry. We've all had our rants now and then, it helps to get it out.

You are right, it is difficult to figure out what you should/shouldn't eat. I have come to the same conclusion, that eating the natural, old fashioned way is likely best.

Milk used to be fine, before they pasteurized/homogenized it, and made it extremely unhealthy in the process. Unless you own your own cow, who eats nothing but grass and hay, you should avoid milk.

Animal fat is GOOD for you, as is meat. Margarine is poison. It is NOT a natural food, and I've been avoiding it like the plague for the past 30 years. Butter is healthy, and so is lard.

I just read that most of the fat in beef and pork will turn to monounsaturated fat while being cooked! Which is the same kind of fat as olive oil, which is touted as being so healthy (which it is, as long as it is cold pressed and not used for cooking). So, how then do they come up with the mistaken idea that animal fat is unhealthy? Those claims have NEVER been proven! There is also zero evidence that fat makes you fat. In fact, it is carbohydrates that make you fat. Our grandmothers knew that, of course. Lets use good old common sense again. I'm all for it.

[gfp]

I reread my own post and it sounds more irritated than I meant for it to. I've actually been feeling great, so I have little to complain about. Sorry, all.

Hey .. it sounded spot on to me!

Let me rant my own ....

1/ If it doesn't look like food don't eat it...

(Tins, packets don't look like food... A carrot, chicken looks like food to me)

2/ Too much of anything is bad for you

Almonds a great/Almonds are bad... ?? Some almonds are part of a diet are probably good

Water/wine/coconut oil ...and dare I say soya?

I have come to the conclusion that any 'miracle food' is probably just as bad for you as good, especially eaten in excess.... all the advice, eat lots of "XXXX" is rubbish because by virtue of <insert miracle food> having such a strong positive effect n one thing it probably has a strong negative effect on another.

Gorillas are largely vegetarian .. but they are not adverse to a protein boost (ants). They certainly eat more than just bananas!

[ShadowSwallow]

Nina Plank wrote a book, Real Food, that was just about this. And due to this book and the research into medicine that I've been doing, I've come to the same conclusion.

Labs have their place in researching what's in food, not in creating stuff for us to eat.

[Rachel--24]

I have come to the same conclusion, that eating the natural, old fashioned way is likely best.

I agree that its best to eat the old fashioned way when we're in good health....to prevent possible health problems from occuring. Processed foods that are stripped from nutrients cant possibly be a better alternative. Too much of anything is probably not good.

However, the lesson I've learned (the hard way) is that once you DO become ill alot of these "rules" for healthy eating go out the window. At that point its best to listen to your body....there are soooo many variations of what the "ideal" diet should be...the truth is that its different for everyone. We are not all alike.

For example....if I were to follow any of this advice...(eat plenty of avocados, snack on nuts, eat plenty of vegetables, garlic and onions are beneficial, quinoa is a better alternative than wheat, etc. etc.) I'd be living in a world of hurt.

My body is no longer functioning as it once did....I have my own unique problems (we all do when we become ill) and what might normally be a benefical food can now be something that my body cannot tolerate due to metabolic disturbances.

For me foods high in salicylates cause impaired detoxification....resulting in increased sensitivities/symptoms across the board. Unfortunately this rules out nearly all fruits, most veggies, most spices, most herbs, most nuts.....basically all the healthy stuff!

Also sulfur foods...including alot of healthy veggies like garlic, onions and broccoli and some animal protein like eggs. Normally these foods would be great....but not when a person has impaired sulfur metabolism. In that case these foods can increase toxicity and produce a wide range of symptoms.

So really...in my opinion....and from my own experience I would have to say that listening to our body and monitoring symptoms in relation to certain foods or food compounds is the wisest choice of all.

I cant listen to what other people say that I should be eating....ultimately if I want to feel good...and if I want to be able to function and enjoy each day....I have to listen to my body. Right now my body tells me that I cant have a tomato, or an avocado, or some cilantro, or some almonds, or even a few raisins...it tells me that these foods are going to worsen my situation. I have to listen to that above all else.

[ShayFL]

I wrote this poem about 2 weeks ago and posted in another group. It fits this topic.

In the beginning.....

There was mother's milk.

It was perfect.

I grew.

And became hungry.

I ate all that the earth's bounty offered me.

But I became sick.

First they said that eating animals was bad.

So I became a vegetarian.

Then they said that eating milk and eggs was cruel to the animals.

I became a vegan.

Then they said gluten was unhealthy.

So I cut out grains.

The experts said that nuts, seeds and beans were hard to digest.

So I cut them out also.

News reports say that certain fruits and vegetables are highly contaminated with toxins.

I then went to all organic.

Only eating local food is best.

But my local farmers only grow a few fruits and vegetables.

And nightshades are deadly.

So I dont eat those.

And citrus is evil.

So those are out.

No chemicals, no caffeine, no spices, no salt, no, No, No!!!

What's left?

You tell me.

[AliB]

It never ceases to amaze me what the 'experts' come up with. My Dad always used to say that the definition of an expert was 'a person who learns more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing at all'. Did you know for instance that 90% of people who suffer with chronic fatigue wear a watch? Therefore we have to assume that wearing a watch causes chronic fatigue. Or, apparently, 10 people with migraines were assessed for links. It seems that 8 of them took Vitamin C on a regular basis. Therefore it must be concluded that Vitamin C is a definite trigger for migraines. Oh, pleeeeease................

'There exists a way that is right before a man, but it's end is the way of death' (Prov 14:12). How true that is. These so-called 'experts' have led mankind into an appalling situation. Their 'knowledge' has wreaked death and destruction in their wake with people suffering all around the World from the fall-out - either through the 'wonderful' chemical additives, the meddling with the food structure, the mercury fillings, pollution in the air, the water and the soil........the list goes on and on, I don't need to go on and on.

There are as many opinions as there are people in the World and not one of them has the answers. There is only one solution to all this on its way and it sure ain't from Man.

At best all we can do is muddle along in the meantime. Sometimes we get on the right side of muddle but sadly more often we are stuck on the wrong side. You think about all the advancements that Medical Science has made and wonder why such a huge chunk is missing. I'll tell you why. Money. If they can't make any money they aren't interested. What a very, very sick World we live in - in more ways than one.

There - perhaps you ought to have named this the 'get it off your chest' thread!

PS. There is nothing wrong with the food - only what Man has done to it - and us.

[BRUMI1968]

However, the lesson I've learned (the hard way) is that once you DO become ill alot of these "rules" for healthy eating go out the window. At that point its best to listen to your body....there are soooo many variations of what the "ideal" diet should be...the truth is that its different for everyone. We are not all alike.

YES! And this is another frustrating part of the equasion. My partner is always telling me how great raw cheese is for you. Sure, for you maybe? If I eat, I don't poop for a week and when I do, I get wounded. Or garlic - "garlic is good for you". Really, it makes my mother throw up; it makes me bloat out.

So this is definitely part of it - no ONE thing is going to be good for ALL people. And it would probably be sad in a way if it were - we would probably all be eating capsules of the one true food to get our nutritition.

Listening to the body is not something a lot of people do. Some people think that I'm obsessive - I notice when my fingernails get weak, I acknowledge weird tastes in my mouth or how food isn't tasting right to me. Or the way I don't think it's right to have any pain or discomfort (it seems many folks think it's normal). I'm not obsessive. I'm aware. And I have to be.

Another facet of growing up with active Celiac Disease, is that I felt awful much of the time, but was also powerless to do anything about it. (Powerless in lack of knowledge, but also in lack of sovereignty since I was a child.) So since I couldn't control my digestive issues, I clung to other sources of comfort. Other kids played in cold and dirt and did challenging things - I focused on staying warm and dry and out of danger. Now that I'm getting better, I realize how much this set me up for my future. Now I am trying to step out of my comfort zone. The more well I get in the guts, the more guts I get to do stuff that might hurt or might make me cold for a while, etc. It's just really interesting how this disease can affect the WAY we live our lives outside of food - and that we are challenged as we get better to try to live more fully, if that is what we want to do.

A bit off the subject, but connected still. It is profound what we are going through/have gone through (in my case) all our lives. As we find health, we find new challenges, not to mention how hard finding that elusive health can be.

[Rachel--24]

Listening to the body is not something a lot of people do. Some people think that I'm obsessive - I notice when my fingernails get weak, I acknowledge weird tastes in my mouth or how food isn't tasting right to me. Or the way I don't think it's right to have any pain or discomfort (it seems many folks think it's normal). I'm not obsessive. I'm aware. And I have to be.

Exactly!

I was pretty oblivious about my body back when I was healthy. Everything seemed to work the way it should and I had no reason to pay attention.

Things are different now. I HAD to become aware and I HAD to pay attention to every symptom....even the minor ones. It all means something.

I felt the same as you....that its not normal to have these symptoms. Its not right to feel this way....my body is telling me that things arent right.

When I get a tiny bit of excema on my fingers...theres a reason. When my nails become brittle....there's a reason. When I eat something and a blister appears in my mouth...there's a reason. I could go on and on because I've had a long list of symptoms. These are a few of the minor ones that could easily be ignored....but I cant ignore the fact that my body is telling me something is not right.

It took me more than a couple years to get it figured out....but I'm so much better and I cant imagine how my life would be had I not taken the time to listen to my body. Its the most important thing I've done.

[sneezydiva]

Combine avocados with other fatty nuts. NEVER combine avocados with other fatty nuts. Eat 20% protein every day, but you need to eat animals. Animals kill you and virtually all foods have at least 20% protein. WHAT? How on earth should we know who to listen to? Even folks we trust make mistakes and change their minds - lots of folks have flipflopped on soy - not good for you they say. Fat not good for you? Yes it is, it turns out. Wine is good for you. Wine causes cancer. Coconut oil is terrible for you - ooops, turns out it's great. Coffee. Chocolate. Green Tea. Margarine. Homogenization. Arg!

New plan - I am going to listen to health advice that was around before food became ultra commodified and commercialized - back when people used common sense and anecdotal evidence to guide their health decisions. My grandma ate a spoonful of horseradish every day. She's still kicking around. She buried her veggie wastes in the raspberry garden and swore by garlic and onions. She used butter (I would not have heard of butter were it not for old granny). She spent the daylight hours in the sun working around the house and gardens. She fed squirrels. Now she's in the old-folks home eating margarine and instant mashed potatoes. That must be hell for her...hell on wheels.

Milk does not do a body good. Beef is not what is for dinner. Pork is not the other white meat. Whatever is good for us today probably isn't tomorrow. Did people in the ancient world eat it and prosper (quinoa, amaranth, goji berries, etc.), then sounds good to me. Was it invented in a laboratory? Not great. Did lots of folks grandmas eat it and live to be hearty old farm gals? I'm in.

Just thought I'd share my new criteria in case it helps other folks decide who to listen to - follow the money first, is my rule of thumb. If they're not making any, maybe they're being honest.

(all of this ranting prompted by trying to find advice about food combining, finding it to be very conflicting, and wondering how on earth anyone is supposed to take responsibility for their own health-actions in a world so flush with information, half of it bad and the other half worse.)

My personal theory is all this conflicting advice is because everyone deep down, including the scientists and doctors, know that mankind is not living up to it's healthy potential, so they desperately search for the reasons why. And the reason IMHO is gluten, but it is so ubiquitious, and seems so benign, it just can't be that. So they go in the wrong direction, looking at more exotic things like coffee, saturated fat, etc... It's just a common human trait to suspect more exotic things. And yet because those things aren't the real problem, you get conflicting results. Think about when you were a kid. Did you suspect gluten was a problem? Probably not, but like me, I bet you did suspect things like tomato sauce or eggs. It can't be the pasta, it's gotta be the sauce on top. It can't be the toast, it's gotta be those squishy eggs. Even those of us, who wouldn't eat whole wheat bread because it made them feel bad, still ate the white stuff. Ubnfortunately, the scientific method isn't fool proof. Scientists are human, and if they are barking up the wrong tree, it doesn't matter how methodically they study it, it won't yield the correct answers.

With all due respect to people who are having sucess with food combining, I think it is a faulty concept. Early man didn't have the luxury of food combining. They had to eat what they had access to when they had access to it. Food combining is just another misguided attempt to find out what is making us ill. It's one thing if celiac is having success with food combining while his intestines are healing. But an undiagnosed celiac? Food combining isn't going to help them one darn bit.

Those of us who now know gluten is a problem have their answer. And we now know to listen to our bodies. I ignore the latest "this is good for you/this is bad for you stuff." If I can eat it without difficulty, I do, and if I can't, I don't force myself to just because "they" say it is good for you. And I eat foods with whatever foods I want. I don't worry about "bad" combinations.

This post reminds me--Did anyone see the news about a big meta-analysis of a ton of cancer studies? Basically, after reviewing all of them, they came up with 12 recommendations. #1 was to lose weight. But #7 was to eat less grains!!!!!! Now of course, this is going to get misinterpreted as not eating REFINED grains. And more people will get ill as they subsitute whole wheat for refined wheat. (Actually, that is what first clued me in that gluten was a problem. After initally feeling better on South Beach Diet, I felt worse than ever when I tried to eat all those whole wheat products.)

[AliB]

YES! And this is another frustrating part of the equasion. My partner is always telling me how great raw cheese is for you. Sure, for you maybe? If I eat, I don't poop for a week and when I do, I get wounded. Or garlic - "garlic is good for you". Really, it makes my mother throw up; it makes me bloat out.

So this is definitely part of it - no ONE thing is going to be good for ALL people. And it would probably be sad in a way if it were - we would probably all be eating capsules of the one true food to get our nutritition.

Listening to the body is not something a lot of people do.

So true. Everyone gets lumped into one 'body' and the 'experts' act as if their latest 'discovery' should work for everyone, then can't figure out why it doesn't! The reason why certain foods don't work for everyone is because we are all different - and designed to eat differently.

When I realised that I am an extreme metabolic 'protein' type, as I checked through the foods I should and shouldn't eat, I was amazed. The foods on the list that are right for my type are all foods that generally I can and have always been able to cope with well. Virtually all the foods on the Avoid list are foods that I have never been able to cope with, like most fruit (I get allergic reactions to peaches and sometimes apples), garlic, dairy, grains, etc., etc. I thought, how on earth did they know? Finally I have found something that fits me!

I did the Alkalising diet last year. Ate lots of fresh fruit and veg, lost some weight, sorted out some Candida issues, but ended up having to drop the diet after 5 weeks because my stomach got so sore I couldn't carry on. I couldn't figure out why. Now I know. As a Protein type fast metaboliser my body works the other way round to a lot of people - whilst red meat makes some people acidic me it alkalises. The fruit was having the opposite effect and making me way too acid. Weird, but it seems to be spot on. Since adopting the 'protein' diet which cuts out virtually all carbs except a little fruit and veg, my body does seem to be rebalancing itself and the digestion and other health issues are certainly improving.

Generally many are mixed metabolisers and can cope with most foods, but it is those of us who sit at the extreme ends of the Metabolic scale - either protein or carbohydrate - who have the most difficulty. Often we recognise that we can't cope with certain foods but don't know why. I am so glad to have found out why and now know what to do about it.

[BRUMI1968]

Interesting comments about the food combining. However, I would say about paleolithic person and their food combining, that they had no heavy starches to combine with anything, so starch/protein would never have been an issue. I don't know how often they would eat dried fruit/nuts...that is one that seems to get me in a tissy.

I read today an article about orthorexia - an obsession with eating healthily. It was interesting. In ways, I could see that I have what some folks might call obsessions. And I accept that it can get out of hand if people become rigid and holier-than-thou. It talked about how people with orthorexia spend an inordinate time thinking about eating. Now this I found silly. What else would a bunch of primates be thinking about? Well, there's running away from tigers I suppose, or not falling out of the trees of the jungle or falling off the cliffs on the savanna. There's passing on our genes. If my thinking about eating instead of Britney Spears or shopping at Target means I've got orthorexia, well I wish more people had it!

Lastly, I think all of us who have identified gluten as inedible to us have a responsibility to our bodies to try to maximize our health. We've been given this opportunity that lots of folks don't get. (My partner can eat whatever he wants, so really pays very little attention to what he puts into his body.) As for me, 39 years old and having grown up in the heyday of margarine and skim milk, cheese slices that had virtually no cheese, sundays made from wood pulp, and cheap meat two meals out of three every day, I have some make-up time. We owe it to ourselves to make sure we're not eating frankenfoods, at the very least (homogenized milk, gmo products, fat-free things, coolwhip). If we want to go even further, and many of us feel its necessary since we've got damaged bodies from years of Celiac, we can look for really good for you foods that seem to make us feel better. Case in point: amaranth. Amaranth has changed my days, I'm here to tell you. I have more energy than ever before (and lest you go thinking it is because the sun has finally come out, let me assure you that I live in the Pacific Northwest where the sun appears to be on permanent strike.) I have quit all grains, which could explain a lot, but adding amaranth seems to have given me the protein boost I needed, and fiber.

Anyway, I've doubtlessly rambled. To the poster who says GLUTEN is the culprit, I suggest that when 10,000 years ago we stopped chasing our food (for about 3 hours a day by the way) and settled down to start growing it (about 10 hours a day), our troubles began. Not just gluten - but grains and dairy and beans.

Okay. I'm off to go chase down a gazelle and get some vittles. Where'd I set my spear? Goodnight all!

[ShayFL]

I guess I have suffered that obsession for over 15 years....LOL

Good news about the Amaranth for you. It has such an earthy flavor almost like dirt to me....but that is just me....So I dont really like it much. Any good recipes?

I am working really hard right now to be eating about 60 - 75% RAW. So far so good. I am making green drinks twice a day too. Eating loads of veggies of all kinds except nighshades. Some fruits and nuts and seeds mostly. Chia seeds are my latest discovery and they are awesome. I add them to salad dressings and smoothies. So I dont have to eat flax all of the time (which I dont like too much either).

[A-Swiss]

Well, I don't want to be "that guy" on these boards, but I do want to say that there is a line that I am willing to cross when it comes to eating. Yes, I am sure it is better to eat from the farm directly and never have chemicals and yada yado. However, I do realize that I do not live on a farm, nor do I have the time or money to pretend like I do. I eat as much as I can in its basic form (carrots as carrots, not canned or mixed and so on), but I cannot live my life without the "bad stuff (processed)" coming into play here and there. One of my pet peeves with this disease is that I am lumped into this "hippie" catagory because I need to modify my diet. It doesn't help it any when I constantly have to have huge labels on my food that say "made in Blueberry Farms by the indigenous Awapoo tribe with only soy ingredients powered by cow poo furnaces". I just want a damn box of mac and cheese that won't give me chronic stomach pains. Do I believe we should eat better foods - yes. Is there a guy running around at 95 years old that has eaten nothing but Big Macs for 30 years - yes (I actually just read about him). The conflicting advice comes from those who believe they know better and those who do know better. Sometimes the truth that "it really doesn't matter" doesn't match up with the "perfect world" lifestyle.

Sorry, that was my rant for the day. Little edgy I guess.

[ShayFL]

I understand your rant. I sooooo wish I could be that 95 year old being interviewed and when asked what my secret is: big hunks of greasy fried meats and lots of desserts. But the fact is that junk makes me feel like crap. My blood sugar skyrockets and I cannot function. So I eat healthy. It isnt because I "want" to. I "have" to. And if I dont live as long as those Big Mac munching maniacs at least I will not feel like poop everyday of my life.

[AliB]

Oh yes - why is it that we are considered to be following a 'lifestyle' diet? I got really mad just now. I went into my local store for some more rice cakes. Within just a few weeks they have whopped up from 68p (around $1.40) to 98p ($2.00) per pack. That is an increase of nearly 50%! I rang the store head office.

"I don't eat these polystyrene cakes out of choice", says I. "I have no choice. Unlike most of the population I can't go into the store and buy just anything to eat. What is on offer to me is already extremely limited. I do not believe this price hike is justified". All I got was a fob-off and he'll 'pass it on'. Yeah, right. To the bin, probably.

Over here in the UK a family sized loaf of bread weighs 800 grams. A pack of rice cakes weighs 130 grams. That means that if the same charge applied to a loaf of bread, it would cost

[gfp]

With all due respect to people who are having sucess with food combining, I think it is a faulty concept. Early man didn't have the luxury of food combining. They had to eat what they had access to when they had access to it. Food combining is just another misguided attempt to find out what is making us ill. It's one thing if celiac is having success with food combining while his intestines are healing. But an undiagnosed celiac? Food combining isn't going to help them one darn bit.

I feel quite the opposite about this, Paleolithic man had little option but food combine (or more accurately de-combine).

Prior to the invention of wheat and portable starchy foods man had to follow the herds ... in the good times you kill a deer or large bovine and eat nothing else, in the lean times you grub about for roots and tubers ... the odd magot or ant.. without fire and the means to preserve it meat or fish would quickly spoil so it as eaten immediately, paleolithic man didn't go hunting down the tubers to make a 'fire free casserole'... without fire rice is or wheat ancestors were inedible and yet this is what man ate for hundreds of thousands of years.

We can see the same today in omnivores... bears (lets forget panda's for now since they are not even close to omniverous) will eat meat and fish when they can to the exclusion of everything else. They might eat tubers or almost anything they can get their paws on in desperate times (absense of meat) but give a grizzly the salmon migrating up the river and it will not be looking for some starchy tubers to go with it or look for a nice head of a brasica like brocolli or lettuce.

Popping back to Panda's, they are so far from omniverous they are at the brink of extinction.... sure man doesn't help but they deserve to be extinct (from natures POV) because they specialised to far. Practically all omnivores I can think of will eat meat as a first resort to the total exclusion of everything else until they are forced to forage for roots and tubers.

Practically every starchy counter-meal in the human diet over the last 12,000 years or so is due to fire and agriculture. Raw potatoes, raw rice and raw wheat are all indigestible by humans ...

[gfp]

Well, I don't want to be "that guy" on these boards, but I do want to say that there is a line that I am willing to cross when it comes to eating. Yes, I am sure it is better to eat from the farm directly and never have chemicals and yada yado. However, I do realize that I do not live on a farm, nor do I have the time or money to pretend like I do. I eat as much as I can in its basic form (carrots as carrots, not canned or mixed and so on), but I cannot live my life without the "bad stuff (processed)" coming into play here and there. One of my pet peeves with this disease is that I am lumped into this "hippie" catagory because I need to modify my diet. It doesn't help it any when I constantly have to have huge labels on my food that say "made in Blueberry Farms by the indigenous Awapoo tribe with only soy ingredients powered by cow poo furnaces". I just want a damn box of mac and cheese that won't give me chronic stomach pains. Do I believe we should eat better foods - yes. Is there a guy running around at 95 years old that has eaten nothing but Big Macs for 30 years - yes (I actually just read about him). The conflicting advice comes from those who believe they know better and those who do know better. Sometimes the truth that "it really doesn't matter" doesn't match up with the "perfect world" lifestyle.

Sorry, that was my rant for the day. Little edgy I guess.

Hey rant away and i don't think your "That Guy" (and you made me laugh)

However you might feel better about it if you realise that you don't choose Mac n Cheese but are given it.

Much as you i do feel a bit of resentment that I have to buy "hippy food" grown by people who eschew all artificial fertilisers except when growing cannabis?

Spot the irony? Super transmutated hydroponic sensemila grown in artificial light is ... well perfectly ok but a bit of pesticide on the veggies to stop them being full of grubs is not? There is no need for the gluten-free products to be

But, seriously stop for a minute and think...convenience food isn't new... if you were popping down to the forum 2000 years ago you could grab a whole load of easy snacks or grab some to take back after. Sure we had no fridges so we had to do it daily but then there were 1001 places you could go.

Now we have a predominance of supermarkets we must travel to with a necessity of long shelf lives so they give us the products they can stick in a box and leave on the shelves.

Or another way to look at it, so perhaps Subway isn't great for us (understatement time) but its convenient as easy and tasty?

I seriously do find it disturbing having to shop with people who think a little crystal is going to change their health, these people are obviously mentally ill and yet the same shop caters for freaks who think putting a metal pyramid on your head and holding a bit of quartz is going to have health benefits??

On the other hand I share the supermarkets and fast food places with people that think belief in some supernatural force is going to somehow help?

Just because one is more mainstream than the other doesn't make it any less disturbing for me.

On the other hand.... it totally pisses me that I can't get fresh gluten-free bread not some plastic sealed cardboard that tastes marginally unlike cardboard (I guess that's the taste of the plastic and additives?) Why ? Because Fresh bread tastes a damn site better than the sliced loaf crap... I can't eat either but if I could once again eat bread I'll say this... NO MORE SLICED LASTS 21 DAYS on the counter bread ever...

/rant mode off

[Guest AutumnE]

I know not what you want to hear maybe but I can only tell you what worked for me that low carb, paleo, or food combining never did for me.

Read the china study, its a very comprehensive study that lasted for years. The proof was in the pudding for me when I went off blood pressure meds, needed less sleep, didnt drag throughout the day, and my cholesterol shot down along with my weight. To me do what makes you feel good. I have a hard time believing one thing is good for everyone you need to find what is right for you. Its not a diet but a book to show you what certain foods will do to your body. I eat a non processed vegan diet with low salt and no oils. I havent ever felt better in my life.

[AliB]

I know not what you want to hear maybe but I can only tell you what worked for me that low carb, paleo, or food combining never did for me.

Read the china study, its a very comprehensive study that lasted for years. The proof was in the pudding for me when I went off blood pressure meds, needed less sleep, didnt drag throughout the day, and my cholesterol shot down along with my weight. To me do what makes you feel good. I have a hard time believing one thing is good for everyone you need to find what is right for you. Its not a diet but a book to show you what certain foods will do to your body. I eat a non processed vegan diet with low salt and no oils. I havent ever felt better in my life.

The thing is - that works for you and if it is making you feel better then you have hit on what your body needs. You are right when you say that we have to do what is right for us. We are all totally individual and unique. What works for one will NOT work for another.

Even if I stood on my head and did cartwheels I could NEVER be a vegan or a vegetarian. My body absolutely cries out for purine-based protein, the predominance of which has to come from meat or fish and I cope with few carbs well at all and never have done. After around 3 weeks on higher protein and lower carb although my energy level hasn't galloped back so far, I have already come off the BP meds and I need less insulin which should help my weight to start moving. Whilst I have an extreme 'Protein' type metabolism, you appear to be veering more towards the extreme 'Carbohydrate' end (not processed, but veg and fruit based) which includes low salt and low fat consumption. Any one of us can sit at any point in between those two levels.

I tried the high veg diet with the green drink etc., but only coped with it for 5 weeks as my stomach got so sore so have no doubt that it won't work for me.

This thread is all about conflicting advice. At the end of the day the best advice of all is to listen to your body. It may take a process of elimination, but by being alert and aware of changes and reactions, we can over time figure out what it is our body is saying to us. Forget the 'experts' - they don't know us. They only see things they want to see and from their own perspective. Their conflicting 'advice' just gives me a good source of humour (do they really get paid for some of the barmy stuff they come up with - I reckon I'm in the wrong job - I wish I could get paid for some of my advice!!!!) Maybe we won't get it dead right, but we will do a darn sight better than any of them can, after all they can't even figure out a definitive test for Celiac - how many of us on this forum figured out our own gluten intolerance issue????

[BRUMI1968]

Good laughs for this morning - thanks all!

As to the Amaranth: I bring to a boil 3 parts water 1 part amaranth, with some salt and cinnamon. When it comes to a boil, I turn it down and put the lid on, walking away for 30 minutes -- kindof like rice really. When it's done I stir it again (weird stuff, kind of hydrophobic) and add lots of almond milk (Pacific Vanilla). This is kindof the key, since the amaranth itself tastes odd, like dirt or old corn husks or some old veggie skins or something. Makes sense - it is also eaten as a veggie (the leaves). If I am spoiling myself, I add some maple syrup (can't do every day, as sugar is not my best friend). If you eat dried fruit, that would help it taste better. I actually like it, though admit that it is odd. Some days I put walnuts or almonds in it as well.

As to not being able to find things in the grocery store as not being fair...and here I am going to be "that guy"...it is not really a human right to be able to go the grocery store and find cheap food carted in from thousands of miles away, is it? Isn't this exactly the problem contributing to the downfall of the environment, the loss of connection with our food etc.

In order to fuel the industrial revolution, masses of people (workers) were brought together in cities, that by their sheer definition, exceeded their carrying capacity. People in cities MUST be fed by people in the country (or today, companies in the country). Food itself had to change - it had to become more efficient to travel, had to last longer, had to eek the most out of the least. People's "work" became removed from their own survival. And we can see how this has been a problem for our health and for our environment.

I realize that many folks can't move into the country (what's left of it unclaimed by huge agribusiness), but let me ask, how many of us have lawns. We water them, often fertilize them, mow them. If those lawns were food, we'd be less reliant on grocery stores, agribusiness, etc. Our shrubberies could be blueberries and Oregon grape. Our lawns could be lettuce or whatever grows where you live. We could look at what the natives our culture displaced have been eating in a location, and try to grow those things. We can complain about agribusiness profits if we like (I like to), but unless we are willing to question the tenants of Capitalism, that becomes a slippery slope (I am willing, but many are not). Now of course some folks live in cities, and unless they rooftop gardens or access to a pea patch, they are stuck. And many many people are stuck - I am in no way denying that. The system has created a huge dependency by the population for the SYSTEM to feed them. That's just not right, to my mind.

For me, it is a matter of food security. I don't like the idea of being beholden to world markets and to politics to know I'm going to be able to eat. I don't like wondering how animals are treated before they're slaughtered or the cleanliness of production lines. We certainly can't count of the FDA to protect us, lord knows.

I'm lucky. I've got an opportunity here and am going to take it. My partner and I are moving out of our town (about 60,000) and finding some land where we can grow food and collect rainwater and live off the grid. Sure, to many of you now I'm a nutball. But this oil crisis is not really an oil crisis - it's a food crisis, and that is going to become more and more clear. The sooner we accept responsibility for feeding ourselves and then also our families and communities, the more likely we'll survive the storm. I don't tend toward sensationalism, but I refuse to be beholden to a system that can't possible sustain itself on a planet of finite resources.

Nice morning rant. Now I'm off to drive my Jeep (about 20mpg probably) about 1.5 miles to a meeting (have to carry stuff, but heck, I should admit that I do drive there more often than not) and then crank up all the electricity the dead salmon can possibly offer me, and get to work on my computer under fluorescent lights and flushing the toilets with perfectly good drinking water.