C.S. Blogsmith

My favorite artist is my mom:

Open Original Shared Link

When I was little she cleaned houses and worked as a maid at a B&B. She met a woman who was a painter, and cleaned her house for free for lessons. She's come a long way I'm really proud of her.

In keeping with the grander theme of the thread, I'm a huge fan of all things art nouveau. Its often hard to find out who did certain things, but the Musee D'orsay in particular has an amazing exhibit of the rooms and furniture of that time period. Alexandre Charpentier did some amazing room suites.

Open Original Shared Link

I tend to lean more towards objet's D'art myself.

*edited to fix the link

Wow. I love how you get the sense of a jungle just spilling over with plant-life. Her orchids are incredible. I wish I could get a closer look at the detail...

That is a wonderful story about her as well.

Thanks for sharing

Mygawd, don't get me started on sculpture!

oops, what's this?

Picasso Open Original Shared Link (I like this sculpture because I know three fabulous men who play the guitar. My two brothers and my ex-boyfriend who was a guitar teacher)

I'm really lovin these paintings all of you are sharing! Especially the one's I've not seen before. There are a few I think I am going to put on my blog.

I noticed there are a number of people here who are artists (or who like art). What are your favorite paintings? Who are your favorite artists?

MINE ARE:

(I'm not sure if these are the correct titles--the websites I linked with supplied the titles)

Monet Open Original Shared Link

Van Gogh Open Original Shared Link

Degas Open Original Shared Link

Renoir Open Original Shared Link

I tried the raw vegan diet after learning of my food allergies. I was vegetarian, but found out I was allergic to eggs and dairy. Although I liked the raw vegan diet, I have gastroparesis and after eating a large salad at my parent's house one day, became far too familar with a bucket as the salad kept coming back up, over and over again. I also discovered that if I don't eat meat occasionally, I get anemia. Bleh. So although the bulk of my diet is still raw and vegetables, I do eat some meat. I don't much like fruit and being diabetic, it's not that good for me.

I am sorry to hear that you have diabetes. Just now when I read that, I remembered something else I read recently (while looking on the internet for some hard to find raw foods). I don't know if it is of any importance. I am ignorant when it comes to the topic of diabetes, but I found it to be interesting... Perhaps you already know about it. (keep in mind they are talking about virgin coconut oil and not hydrogenated coconut oil which is dangerous)

There is one fat that diabetics can eat without fear. That fat is coconut oil. Not only does it not contribute to diabetes, but it helps regulate blood sugar, thus lessening the effects of the disease. The Nauru people consumed large amounts of coconut oil for generations without ever encountering diabetes, but when they abandoned it for other foods and oils the results were disastrous.

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, coconut oil puts less of a demand on the enzyme production of the pancreas. This lessens the stress on the pancreas during mealtime when insulin is produced most heavily, thus allowing the organ to function more efficiently. Coconut Oil also helps supply energy to cells because it is easily absorbed without the need of enzymes or insulin. It has been shown to improve insulin secretion and utilisation of blood glucose.15,16 Coconut oil in the diet enhances insulin action and improves binding affinity compared to other oils.17,18 The Journal of the Indian Medical Association has reported that Type II diabetes in India has increased as the people have abandoned traditional oils, like coconut oil, in favour of polyunsaturated vegetable oils which have been promoted as "heart-friendly." The authors comment on the link between polyunsaturated oils and diabetes and recommend increasing coconut oil consumption as a means to prevent diabetes.19

One of the consequences of diabetes is a lack of energy. This is due to the inability of cells to get needed glucose. Without the glucose to power cellular activity, metabolism slows down and the entire body becomes tired.

Exercise has been recommended as a means to help diabetics control blood sugar. One of the reasons exercise is beneficial is that it increases metabolism. A faster metabolic rate stimulates increased production of needed insulin and increases absorption of glucose into cells, thus helping both Type I and Type II diabetics.

Another advantage of increasing metabolism is that more calories are burned. Coconut oil raises metabolic rate causing the body to burn up more calories and thus promote weight loss. Yes, you can actually lose excess weight by adding coconut oil to your diet. The MCFA in coconut oil are sent directly to the liver for conversion into energy and not into body tissues as fat. (See Chapter 10 of "The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil" for more details on the weight-loss effects of coconut oil).

If you are a diabetic or borderline diabetic, consumption of most fats should be avoided. Coconut oil, on the other hand, is different. Because it helps stabilise blood glucose levels and aids in shedding excess body weight, it is probably the only oil a diabetic should eat.

Adapted from Bruce Fife's book The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil.

Thanks for the reminder about lemon juice - yes it is good but I haven't had any for a few weeks.

I can't cope with any gluten-free grains either which is why I am following the SCD.

You should be able to find an almond flour pizza crust on one or other of the SCD recipe sites - I know there is one in the Grain-Free Gourmet book although I don't have it myself (I think someone on the SCD thread does though), but I did pick this one up that may be worth trying.

1/2 cup almond flour

1 egg

1 tsp oil

1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325c.

In a bowl mix the above ingredients together add more flour as needed to form a ball.

Oil a pan (we use a small pizza pan) add the dough ball press with hands forming to the shape of a small pizza crust, don't worry if its not as big as the pan.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and top with whatever toppings you like. Bake again just long enough to cook the toppings through.

Enjoy.

Naomi Devlin has some good recipes on her blog - I have tried the Vanilla Pumpkin Pie and it is fantastic - topped with dripped SCD yogurt and coconut cream mixed together - yum. Apparently she is going to post a pizza recipe shortly, too.

Open Original Shared Link

Thanks for the recipe. The thought of Vanilla Pumpkin Pie especially got me drooling... Is pumpkin a legal SCD food? I know that sweet potatoes aren't and I just LOVE sweet potatoes.

If you aren't consuming animal products, you are depleting your body of B12:

of course...

source: Open Original Shared Link

Thanks for your concern,

It's a big concern for me especially because B12 is so vital to brain function and I have numerous neurological problems. Interestingly, there are actually a few plants that do contain B12, the problem is that they are B12 analogs that fool the body and make it difficult for it to absorb active B12--so yeah that's kinda worse... I avoid those... Unfortunately I have been unable to take supplements without getting very ill from them, but rather than worry about what I cannot fix, I focus on things I can work on. Optimal health is not quite an option for me yet. Right now I am just getting by day to day. I'm a step up from when I could only eat bananas and I'm holding out for the day when my body gets back in balance. That will be a day worth celebrating!

Anyway, it's really great to get advise and support. Sometimes it's the strangest suggestions that give me an edge over my illness.

Thanks everybody

As a ridiculously mad obsessed fan-girl (ok not that bad but when I met him at a panel I thought I was going to hyperventilate) I must point out that his last name is Laurie. He's brilliant. House is not his best piece of work, as I am a huge Black Adder and Booster and Jeeves fan, but its his best American work. I love the show. It's well written and witty and points out on a regular basis that doctors are wrong and that medicine isn't perfect. Its drama. Its fun.

I will step away from the keyboard now.

Elonwy

I'm picking up this topic long, long after everyone else, but... I am also a huge Hugh Laurie fan. There are some great videos of him on YouTube. Aside from being a great comedian he is a good musician and composer. I also really like the show House. For those who think House is improbable, it is actually not the result of bad writing. The show is designed to be farcical--a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot (with satire being: a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn). To me it is a lot of fun. It is not merely a drama but a dramedy.

I'm a bit late answering this one. I'm sure you put together the compilation long ago, but even now he might like to listen to Vienna Teng (the older stuff would probably be more to his liking). On this page are 4 free MP3's offered by the artist herself Open Original Shared Link

That sounds so beautiful. Are you a realist? I lean toward more abstract and impressionism and have always been jealous of those who can paint something and have someone say that it looks like a photo.

Are you going from memory or did you take some pics?

That is interesting because I have always wanted to be better at abstraction. I specifically find synthetic cubism to be interesting and, wow, that would be so great done by someone with a real interest in flowers!

Well, anyway, if it makes you feel any better they say that a photograph is not the ultimate form of realism due partly to the fact that the camera lens sees things differently from our eyes.

As for my favorite flower, I am an organic perennial gardener by hobby, my favorite is... whatever is currently in bloom!

June/July I would love to look at people's garden photos (and share my own).

As you might have guessed by my name, I have never heard of such a thing as a blog

I would love to give you tips, help, advise, assistance--whatever. I have two blogs that I have designed with almost zero html knowlege (links on my "about me" page). Blogger (blogspot) is arguably the best free blog service there is. If you are willing to pay, there are better ones, but after a certain amount of internet research, I have learned some tricks for customizing and making a blog look good without the cost. I have also learned a few tricks about making it more readable (reader friendly) if that is of interest to you.

C.S.

Maybe your body needs to detoxify. Try drinking fresh squeezed lemon juice sometime after supper one day (but not immediately before bedtime) and taking a ginger bath (read about how to do this because, though it is harmless, ginger baths make a person sweat for a few hours afterwards-- Open Original Shared Link. If you wake up feeling fluish the next day it means your body has excess toxins that need to be flushed out. (lemons and ginger start the toxin flushing process).

According to the science behind something called the Open Original Shared Link it is not necessary to cut out all carbs and sugars in order to defeat yeast. It is simply necessary to eliminate a certain type of sugar called disaccharides and polysaccharides. Over time you will be able to add sugars back into the diet. You might want to look into it. Though it is also a restrictive diet, it allows certain types of sugars and therefore it doesn't leave a person feeling hungry like Candida diets do. Aside from that, fruits supply the body with much needed vitamins and enzymes. Cutting them out (as the candida diet recommends for it's first stage) is not a brilliant idea.

If your hands or feet tend to turn a blueish tinge or if you feet get puffy, it can be a symptom of Lupus. However, it could be a neurological complication related to Celiac. With Sensory Processing Disorder the body's temperature regulation can get thrown off.

Have you tried "Oil Pulling?" It is suppose to help all of our conditions. Check it out on Google.

I have been doing it for 6 weeks and seeing some results.

Oil pulling has worked really well for my skin problems. A large portion of my body (including my scalp) was covered with a blistery rash (that appears to autoimmune related). It started healing immediately after I started oil pulling.

On this website, I read someone recommend "oil pulling" for dermatitis/skin problems. I took the advice for myself and have been doing it ever since. It has been working really well for me. Just google "oil pull" for complete instructions. Essentially, it is just using oil as a mouthwash (only for 15-20 minutes instead of 5). There are a lot of theories behind it, but basically what it does is clean out the bacteria and toxins that accumulate in the mouth (toxins exit the body through glands in the mouth). For some reason eliminating this extra toxic burden from the body clears up skin rashes. I have been using extra virgin olive oil, but I have heard cold-pressed sesame and sunflower oil are the best.

Once my Vitamin D and B-12 levels were normal (both are vitamins that effect the brain), Magnesium helped with my anxiety. Also, it became necessary to make sure my body was detoxing from hormones (hormones from food, personal care products and the body's own natural hormones--which might not be flushing out properly). Flax seeds (as long as you are not sensitive to Phenols/Salicylates) help you do this (just be sure to grind them up first). So do epsom salt footbaths (epsom salts are magnesium sulfate). When they are absorbed throught the skin they help take care of the magnesium problem as well as supplying the body with sulfates (which cannot be absorbed through the gut. A healthy body manufactures sulfates, but if you have ever had a vitamin B 6 deficiency, it often can no longer do so. This problem is called a Phenol Sulfur-Transferase Enzyme Deficiency).

I also cannot eat any grains, but there were also numerous other starchy foods that bothered me--potatoes, beans etc. Open Original Shared Link guidelines were helpful for me. I now eat Fruitarian, but when I first learned about the SPD, it was helpful to understand why a person's body is sometimes sensitive to these things. Unless it is just an allergy, which I guess happens too.

Hi. I find that I am much better the more raw I eat. I have come to the conclusion that it is down to a lack of digestive enzymes and that the raw food works because it contains enzymes.

All the nutrients in the world won't be of any use at all unless we have the workers, the enzymes, to work with them and put those nutrients to work.

I am currently doing some research and investigation into the different brands of digestive enzymes. I have Edward Howells' book 'Food Enzymes for health and longevity' and Ellen Cutler's book 'Enzymes for health and healing' and they are very useful tools.

I have realised that not all brands are equal. I took some Solgar Enzymes and they have set me back (I have been following the Specific Carb Diet with relatively good results over the last year), and have since read that not everyone can tolerate animal-based enzymes which these were, so am now looking at plant-based (vegetarian) ones, which apparently work better anyway.

As you are in the States you may be able to contact Ellen Cutler for assistance but I am in the UK which makes it difficult as there are none of her practitioners over here.

Elderly people have a lot less enzymes than young people but I think that at any age our enzyme 'bank' can be decimated through different things such as stress, trauma, illness or injury - I was only thinking about it this morning and wondering what happened when I was 15 to trigger off my fatigue, weight gain and digestive issues that have plagued me all my life, then I realised - my beautiful Nan died. It obviously must have had a far greater effect on me than I realised at the time.

Certainly I am sure that we would all benefit from eating a lot more raw food as I am sure a lack of enzymes is contributing to a lot of our disease. Most traditional diets incorporated a lot of raw or fermented food and we have lost that through our highly processed 'deadened' Western diet. Without enough enzymes the body can't repair itself properly.

We always talk about and address vitamin or mineral deficiencies when we may well be getting enough already but what we really need and is more important is the enzymes to utilise them with!

Thanks,

I had forgotten about enzyme supplements. That's a great point. A while back I found a really good website for quick information on enzymes. They make some claims regarding Celiac that I don't agree with, but in general the information is useful. Open Original Shared Link.

I have a unique situation. My body will not tolerate vitamins or enzymes that I do not get directly from my food (I can't take them in packaged, pill, over-the-counter or prescription form), but luckily I find my diet to be very appetizing and satisfying. When I have cravings, it's pizza I crave anyhow . Unfortunately, I am unable to eat even the gluten-free grains. I'm looking into a raw pizza crust made with almond flour (I am very lucky not to have a nut allergy!)

While on the topic of enzymes, I read something interesting... Fresh squeezed lemon juice has the natural "components" within them to be converted by our bodies into over 1,000 different enzymes... I thought that was interesting. Myself, I drink fresh lemon and lime juice every single day. I love it!

I've been eating Raw Vegan since April and Fruitarian since sometime this past fall. It was not by choice so much as by necessity. Raw fruits, nuts, olive oil and a limited number of veggies are the only thing my body will tolerate much less digest. If there is anyone else who eats similarly or who has similar food intolerances I would like to exchange notes...

C.S.

So, 1 in 133 sounds good? Let

I know I was unpleasant, but I tried so hard to be pleasant. I guess I had always had the theory that the great destroyer of my friendships was my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Most people can't even get near me without me becoming too sick to function (due to chemicals including fragrance from personal care products they use). I practically go into a coma. My boyfriend took it personally, and I have not yet been able to get anyone to understand that my impairments are not behavioral--that they are not to be taken personally because they are not my chosen behavior, but the result of a limitation--the intention of a bad disease that I did not invent and cannot control. For example, if I stop speaking when people are around (which happens) it is because I'm so impaired I can't think, much less communicate. It is not because I suddenly lost interest in them (as my boyfriend always assumed).

I know these complications are not their fault, but nevertheless they did not stick by me like I stuck by them. I guess I want support so that I would not be the only one who carries the weight of it. I used to help my friends carry the weight of their struggles. I guess I thought it's what friends do.

(MY CURRENT STATUS: I've been off of gluten for a year and a half and I have been de-toxing off and on for 2 years--for the MCS).

Hi,

I thought my friends were nice people until I became too sick to work or pay for a dinner out or in general be fun. It was an eye-opening experience. I haven't yet figured out whether my friends were especially superficial or disloyal or if this is what people are like and I just never noticed. I lost my boyfriend to the complications as well...

I'm sort of in limbo. I'm extremely philosophical and artistically-minded. My friends are the few people I did get along with because I'm a total nerd. I like discussing literature, poetry and philosophy. It's a core part of my personality. Even when I was working overtime I devoured novels like War and Peace in only a few days. Now that I have lost all of my friends, I have no one to talk to but my younger brother who likes to talk about video games and such.

I am a social person. I want to meet people who share my interests, but unfortunately, I am currently housebound and haven't left my home since July. I am so bored that all I do all day long is design and write blogs. They are partly intended as a way for me to meet people, but I also find creative expression to be very therapeutic. (I have links to my blogs in my profile if you are interested in seeing them. I don't think I have any readers yet, but I've actually put a lot of work in to them--for no one but myself so far).

Anyway, I would love to meet some people like me.

Thanks, and I hope for some replies...

C.S.