'Tis the season for family and food, and lots of sweet things that some of us can't handle. Not only must I avoid a lot of sugar, I need to avoid flour. This recipe is a great compromise, slightly sweet but so damn good for you! You'll never believe you're eating a vegetable.
***So, a disclaimer about this recipe: I seem to have very shallow pie pans, so the way it's made (including the crust) makes 2 pies for me. If you have a deep dish, it may only make one pie. Be prepared to make two- they're so good you can freeze one, but it won't be in the freezer for long!
First, prepare the pumpkin puree. This is a lot easier than you'd believe.
Oven: 400 deg Fahrenheit
1 sugar pumpkin (do this- waaaaaay better than canned crap!), cut in half and the guts taken out. It's worth separating out the seeds, you can lightly toast them on a cookie sheet for 10 min while the pumpkin's baking.
Bake the pumpkin halves on a cookie sheet for 45 to 60 mins, until you can slide a fork easily into the flesh.
When that's done, take it out and let it cool a little bit. You'll need a food processor for this next part.
Peel the skin off the insides (this part's fun!) and put the insides into your food processor; blend until very smooth, no lumps. There's your pumpkin puree!
Then you need to make your "crust":
Oven: 350 deg F
2.5 cups nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans work well)
2 to 4 tbsp oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, clove; or cheat and use "pumpkin pie spice")
Get your processor ready. Put the nuts into the processor and start it up. When the nuts are pretty well ground, add the 2 tbsp oil gradually, and the syrup. I'll add the extra 2 tbsp of oil if the result isn't looking like "dough". Add in your spices- I just do a little sprinkle of each, to give the crust some flavor.
Spread the dough in your pie plate(s). I like to just make a 1/4 inch layer in the bottom and squish some up the sides a little bit.
Put the plate(s) in the oven. Bake the crusts for about 7 to 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it, it's very easy to burn it. You just want it to get golden brown. I suggest starting to make your pie mix while the crust is in the oven. When it's done, take it out and let it sit until you pour in your pie mix.
Make the pumpkin filling:
Oven: 400 deg F for 15 min, then 350 deg F for 35-45 min.
2 eggs
2 cups puree
1 cup coconut milk (or cream if you do dairy; needs to have some fat content, whatever you use)
1/2 to 1/3 cup sweet (maple syrup, honey, brown rice syrup, barley malt, whatever you like)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground clove
Beat the eggs in a med/lg bowl. Add the puree and blend well. Add the coconut milk and blend well. Add the sweetener; I use less because I'm trying to keep my sugar intake very minimal; you can add more if you want. Then add the spices. I like my pie very spicy; if you don't, use half the required spice, and try it- you can always add more but you can't take away!
Pour the mix into your pie plate(s) and put in the oven. Some folks will put a little pan with water on the rack beneath to keep the pies moist and prevent cracking, especially if you live in a dry climate.
Bake at 400 for 15 min, then reduce the temp. The pie is done when you can stick in a toothpick and it comes out clean.
Let the pie set a bit and cool before serving.
It's the bomb.
11.18.2011
11.17.2011
Paleo and Sugar Free check-in
Wow, too much time has passed! I have moved to a new state, got a new job and in the blink of an eye neglected my favorite blog.
I am fully cemented in eating Paleo and Raw now. I am becoming more and more sensitive to what happens to my body if I get any grains at all, and any sugar. Sometimes I just give in and eat a piece of pizza... after all, it sucks to be that girl who has to be all food sensitive when we all go out to eat! Bah! And sometimes I just want to have a damn piece of toast.
Well, then I pay.
What's interesting is that over the last year (and some) I have tried to balance out my sweet tooth. What can I eat? What won't shake me up and give me cramps? It's been tough! I remember leaning a lot on Stevia for my sweet tooth cravings. I also remember when I discovered I couldn't eat it anymore. I started reacting to it exactly as I did to sugar alcohols (maltitol, xylitol) which is intense bloating, cramps, gas. Fun fun! That was a sad, sad time. I love Stevia, what it was for me.
So I try to be in moderation but a sweet tooth is for life. As I stated in the past, it is an addiction like any other; I look at my familial patterns and see that my entire family is addicted to either sugar or booze. What is a girl to do?
Of course I want to be more "natural" and so I stick to honey and maple syrup. These things are more or less acceptable among the Paleo and even Raw theories. In moderation, of course. However... I am still having problems with carrying bloat, mood issues, and energy issues when I get too much. Or even a little bit. It's frustrating! I just want to be "normal" sometimes.
I did a juice fast for three days last month. I used mostly vegetable broth that I made, pineapple juice smoothies (with kale/ spinach), water and tea. I tried to avoid most other fruit juices in general. Well, after the three days was up I felt amazing- no bloat, no gas, no mood issues. Wow. But one cannot live on broth alone!
If I had the will power to simply eat only vegetables and lean meat, I would probably be fine. The will to do such things is not within me. I love my chocolate and sweets too much for that. Hrumph. Everything in moderation, right? Likely waiting until having a full belly with plenty of protein before taking anything sweet would indeed solve a lot of the problem.
As I said many blog entries ago, kicking sugar is a life-long process. It is not the type of thing that you walk away from and you are "cured".
5.15.2010
Subsidized sugars and "food deserts"
A curious thing happened a couple of months ago- the CD player in my company truck seized up, forcing me to rely on radio. I cannot stand any of the music on any of the stations, so I found myself listening to NPR for 8 to 10 hours every day. I drive around for a living, as an ambulatory veterinarian... long have I avoided the News, because it tends to make me too angry. I discovered so much more though, lots of thoughtful conversations and topics, some of which I find relevant to this blog and the struggle I have long had to eat well.
There was a week when NPR covered obesity as our national epidemic. Finally I heard someone talking about the inverse relationship of obesity and poverty. In history, it was typically the rich man with the big belly- the "fat cat". These days it is the most impoverished that end up obese and unhealthy. Why is that? I think it's pretty simple; it's cheaper to eat fast food (the $1 menu, for example) than it is to eat the way I eat with my astronomical grocery bill from buying organic or whole foods. What is in the $1 menu? Lots of corn, some fatty meat, salt and sugar. Sugar. That's it. Nothing that is at all nutritionally sound.
Then they introduced the concept of the "food desert". This is areas of the country- often inner cities- where there simply is no fresh produce or meat available. For those folks who don't or can't drive, and can't take the time for a long bus ride to a grocery (or can't afford it!), they rely on the cheap sources of energy from fast food or the corner store. It is literally a desert. No fresh markets, no nothing. I have seen this myself! How are you supposed to eat healthily if you can't find the food to do it?
This all plays back into our health care system, too; and the millions of overweight and unhealthy Americans who aren't that way because they choose to be but sometimes are that way because it's what is available to them. Yes, sedentary life plays a big part- choosing to sit inside with your TV rather than walk or run or play- but so does diet. When you make nothing but cheap calories available to people, that's what they'll eat; then we all complain about the burden on our health care system. Well! Serves us right.
What about subsidized sugars? Not cane sugar, that's a whole other story. Corn sugars. High fructose corn sugars and syrups, one of the most evil things ever created. It's in everything. Why? We grow too much corn every single year, and it's paid for by the government... so where do we put it? We invent new ways each year to use up the surplus- fillers, additives, sugars, animal feeds and even plastics. Your plastic grocery sack is likely made of corn! And the government paid for it. I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing such a useless and dangerous starch! So many people have become hypersensitive and allergic to everything, and I've heard some pretty compelling cases made against the over use of corn and corn by products. We already know that overdoing sugars tanks your immune system. Go to the grocery store and look at how many things contain HFCS. Corn comes in other guises too!
Go watch "Food, Inc." for a closer look at how pervasive corn is, and how the industry works. It's sad. It even talks about the epidemic of poor folks unable to buy anything but fast food. And the powerlessness of folks to fight, often, because of the enormous lobbying power of some conglomerates, and their big lawyer budgets. It made me so angry!
So between NPR and this movie, lately, I have done a lot of thinking on how tough it is to eat well and be healthy. I'm lucky I make enough money to afford to eat well, and have a car to get me to the best place to buy produce. I support my local butcher and local farms, with both produce and meat, when these things are in season. If you can you should too. Heal yourself, heal the planet.
There was a week when NPR covered obesity as our national epidemic. Finally I heard someone talking about the inverse relationship of obesity and poverty. In history, it was typically the rich man with the big belly- the "fat cat". These days it is the most impoverished that end up obese and unhealthy. Why is that? I think it's pretty simple; it's cheaper to eat fast food (the $1 menu, for example) than it is to eat the way I eat with my astronomical grocery bill from buying organic or whole foods. What is in the $1 menu? Lots of corn, some fatty meat, salt and sugar. Sugar. That's it. Nothing that is at all nutritionally sound.
Then they introduced the concept of the "food desert". This is areas of the country- often inner cities- where there simply is no fresh produce or meat available. For those folks who don't or can't drive, and can't take the time for a long bus ride to a grocery (or can't afford it!), they rely on the cheap sources of energy from fast food or the corner store. It is literally a desert. No fresh markets, no nothing. I have seen this myself! How are you supposed to eat healthily if you can't find the food to do it?
This all plays back into our health care system, too; and the millions of overweight and unhealthy Americans who aren't that way because they choose to be but sometimes are that way because it's what is available to them. Yes, sedentary life plays a big part- choosing to sit inside with your TV rather than walk or run or play- but so does diet. When you make nothing but cheap calories available to people, that's what they'll eat; then we all complain about the burden on our health care system. Well! Serves us right.
What about subsidized sugars? Not cane sugar, that's a whole other story. Corn sugars. High fructose corn sugars and syrups, one of the most evil things ever created. It's in everything. Why? We grow too much corn every single year, and it's paid for by the government... so where do we put it? We invent new ways each year to use up the surplus- fillers, additives, sugars, animal feeds and even plastics. Your plastic grocery sack is likely made of corn! And the government paid for it. I don't want my tax dollars subsidizing such a useless and dangerous starch! So many people have become hypersensitive and allergic to everything, and I've heard some pretty compelling cases made against the over use of corn and corn by products. We already know that overdoing sugars tanks your immune system. Go to the grocery store and look at how many things contain HFCS. Corn comes in other guises too!
Go watch "Food, Inc." for a closer look at how pervasive corn is, and how the industry works. It's sad. It even talks about the epidemic of poor folks unable to buy anything but fast food. And the powerlessness of folks to fight, often, because of the enormous lobbying power of some conglomerates, and their big lawyer budgets. It made me so angry!
So between NPR and this movie, lately, I have done a lot of thinking on how tough it is to eat well and be healthy. I'm lucky I make enough money to afford to eat well, and have a car to get me to the best place to buy produce. I support my local butcher and local farms, with both produce and meat, when these things are in season. If you can you should too. Heal yourself, heal the planet.
2.01.2010
Paleo Diet
Here I am, several months after the diagnosis of IBS and several years after my self-diagnosis of hypoglycemia and certain sugar allery (aka addiction). I've tried so many things to heal my body and mind; veganism, vegetarianism, alternative sugars, fruit-free, gluten-free. What I inevitably come back to each and every time is kicking sugar. Breaking the sugar habit. Realizing that I cannot have even a small amount, because it is the catalyst to bigger problems and habits that are harder and harder to break as my life accumulates more stress and responsibility.
I've wondered for a long time what it would be like if the temptation simply were not there. If the colorful packages beckoning from every aisle were missing; if I were raised on the simple fare of my ancestors and did not know this strange addiction and all that it entails. I thought a lot on my heritage- I am mainly Northern European, with some Native American thrown in (Inuit, or Eskimo)- what did they eat? What was my body best adapted for? Our ancestors did not have access to so much sugar, and not even so much fruit except in certain times of the year. These thoughts shaped what I typically cooked for dinner- fish and greens, some poultry when I finally dropped vegetarianism for good- but had no effect on the endless battle against chocolate and sugar.
I went back on the wagon this year. When you are facing isolation and boredom, that is the hardest time to look your own personal demons in the eye and try to win. Like Cartman says... "the chocolate loves you, the chocolate doesn't judge you..." Ah, such battles! Each and every holiday is filled with treats and more clever ways each year to peddle them. One of the grocery stores in my area has tables set up right in front of the doors so that when you walk in you are assaulted by the nearest holiday's brightly colored packages of chocolate and sugar, blasting your senses as soon as you enter. How hard it is to fight it! How very difficult! I fully sympathize with cigarette and heroin addicts, as I understand the undertow. A little... just a little... it opens the door, and you cannot fight that. There is no such thing as a little. It is all or nothing. I thought, when I began this fight (and this blog) that once I kicked it, it was forever. I did not know that it is a continuous fight.
One thing I have discovered, which has helped me immensely, is the Paleo Diet. As I was saying previously, I wondered a lot how my ancestors ate. Did they have digestive troubles as I do? Did they have colds all the time? Certainly some things must have been better, without so much sugar around. I have since read Dr.Cordain's "Paleo Diet" and have found so much relief. There are others out there thinking the way I do, and others who are committed to finding relief to dietary and GI issues. I don't enjoy constant low grade pain, gaseousness, and irregularity. In fact I didn't know I had constant low grade pain until it went away.
As I wrote in a previous entry, I went through testing this fall and was given the official diagnosis of IBS. Fabulous. What triggers it? Stress, and too much sugar, or foods that are "too rich". What is "too rich"? Well... fatty meats, cheese/ dairy, patries and candy, I assume. What else? The Paleo diet (which is a lifestyle, not some "lose wieght quick" diet that you use and lose) is basically committed to getting people back on what we evolved to eat. The basic tenet is this: eat as much fresh vegetables and fruits as you can, and eat some LEAN meat with your meals. Good quality protein, and not too much. Lean is the key; our modern meats are raised on foods they shouldn't be eating; you are what you eat, and thus the chain is created. So you do what you can. Animals fed what they were designed to eat make a proper ratio of fats in their own bodies, and you benefit from that directly. Cattle fed fermented grains (which they LOVE but boy does it cause a lot of medical problems, speaking as a veterinarian) create a lot of fat, and most of that fat is Omega-6 fatty acids- the kind that solidifies easily when you're done cooking that juicy hamberger. Well, Omega-3 (the "good" one) is one that is supple. So if you think about it- your body benefits from good "supple" fats because you need fat to keep you warm and give you energy; "hard" or "bad" fats tend to compete with the supple ones and that is not optimal. That's a very simplistic explaination... sorry.
We buy locally grown, grass fed beef. Free range chickens. We know where the animals are raised, we can see them. I eat a lot of fresh vegetables, and raw when I can. I eat fruit to satisfy the sugar urges. It doesn't work 100% of the time but I am making my best effort, because I want to feel better.
Eating so well actually illuminates the times I don't. I can feel the change as soon as I eat something stupid; my belly doesn't like it, then my mood crashes, and I feel terrible even up to the next day. That is just no fun. I know what I am doing and why; the responsibility for my own moods and my own health sit squarely in my lap. Sometimes this makes it easier to avoid eating things that are not good for me; sometimes it just makes the lesson when I don't all the more poignent.
Still, 90% of the time I am following the Paleo Diet. I don't eat any of the recipes I once posted here. I don't eat stevia (I react to it! Sad.); I don't eat ice cream, and chocolate only rarely. I just can't do it; one little bit and the door is shoved open, the demons of sugar addiction dancing all over me. I'm healthy, though, and fit; my body looks better and feels better. There are no grains in my diet at all. I don't need them, and I find that my blood sugar stays more stable, and I'm not hungry as fast. That took some adjusting; I was ravenous when I started on the Paleo diet. If this is what it takes to win this battle with sugar, so be it. I'm through with fighting.
I saw this picture on another blog, someone else who is fighting this fight... sugar is the gateway drug...
I've wondered for a long time what it would be like if the temptation simply were not there. If the colorful packages beckoning from every aisle were missing; if I were raised on the simple fare of my ancestors and did not know this strange addiction and all that it entails. I thought a lot on my heritage- I am mainly Northern European, with some Native American thrown in (Inuit, or Eskimo)- what did they eat? What was my body best adapted for? Our ancestors did not have access to so much sugar, and not even so much fruit except in certain times of the year. These thoughts shaped what I typically cooked for dinner- fish and greens, some poultry when I finally dropped vegetarianism for good- but had no effect on the endless battle against chocolate and sugar.
I went back on the wagon this year. When you are facing isolation and boredom, that is the hardest time to look your own personal demons in the eye and try to win. Like Cartman says... "the chocolate loves you, the chocolate doesn't judge you..." Ah, such battles! Each and every holiday is filled with treats and more clever ways each year to peddle them. One of the grocery stores in my area has tables set up right in front of the doors so that when you walk in you are assaulted by the nearest holiday's brightly colored packages of chocolate and sugar, blasting your senses as soon as you enter. How hard it is to fight it! How very difficult! I fully sympathize with cigarette and heroin addicts, as I understand the undertow. A little... just a little... it opens the door, and you cannot fight that. There is no such thing as a little. It is all or nothing. I thought, when I began this fight (and this blog) that once I kicked it, it was forever. I did not know that it is a continuous fight.
One thing I have discovered, which has helped me immensely, is the Paleo Diet. As I was saying previously, I wondered a lot how my ancestors ate. Did they have digestive troubles as I do? Did they have colds all the time? Certainly some things must have been better, without so much sugar around. I have since read Dr.Cordain's "Paleo Diet" and have found so much relief. There are others out there thinking the way I do, and others who are committed to finding relief to dietary and GI issues. I don't enjoy constant low grade pain, gaseousness, and irregularity. In fact I didn't know I had constant low grade pain until it went away.
As I wrote in a previous entry, I went through testing this fall and was given the official diagnosis of IBS. Fabulous. What triggers it? Stress, and too much sugar, or foods that are "too rich". What is "too rich"? Well... fatty meats, cheese/ dairy, patries and candy, I assume. What else? The Paleo diet (which is a lifestyle, not some "lose wieght quick" diet that you use and lose) is basically committed to getting people back on what we evolved to eat. The basic tenet is this: eat as much fresh vegetables and fruits as you can, and eat some LEAN meat with your meals. Good quality protein, and not too much. Lean is the key; our modern meats are raised on foods they shouldn't be eating; you are what you eat, and thus the chain is created. So you do what you can. Animals fed what they were designed to eat make a proper ratio of fats in their own bodies, and you benefit from that directly. Cattle fed fermented grains (which they LOVE but boy does it cause a lot of medical problems, speaking as a veterinarian) create a lot of fat, and most of that fat is Omega-6 fatty acids- the kind that solidifies easily when you're done cooking that juicy hamberger. Well, Omega-3 (the "good" one) is one that is supple. So if you think about it- your body benefits from good "supple" fats because you need fat to keep you warm and give you energy; "hard" or "bad" fats tend to compete with the supple ones and that is not optimal. That's a very simplistic explaination... sorry.
We buy locally grown, grass fed beef. Free range chickens. We know where the animals are raised, we can see them. I eat a lot of fresh vegetables, and raw when I can. I eat fruit to satisfy the sugar urges. It doesn't work 100% of the time but I am making my best effort, because I want to feel better.
Eating so well actually illuminates the times I don't. I can feel the change as soon as I eat something stupid; my belly doesn't like it, then my mood crashes, and I feel terrible even up to the next day. That is just no fun. I know what I am doing and why; the responsibility for my own moods and my own health sit squarely in my lap. Sometimes this makes it easier to avoid eating things that are not good for me; sometimes it just makes the lesson when I don't all the more poignent.
Still, 90% of the time I am following the Paleo Diet. I don't eat any of the recipes I once posted here. I don't eat stevia (I react to it! Sad.); I don't eat ice cream, and chocolate only rarely. I just can't do it; one little bit and the door is shoved open, the demons of sugar addiction dancing all over me. I'm healthy, though, and fit; my body looks better and feels better. There are no grains in my diet at all. I don't need them, and I find that my blood sugar stays more stable, and I'm not hungry as fast. That took some adjusting; I was ravenous when I started on the Paleo diet. If this is what it takes to win this battle with sugar, so be it. I'm through with fighting.
I saw this picture on another blog, someone else who is fighting this fight... sugar is the gateway drug...10.10.2009
Final Diagnosis
Well, after months of struggling with diet restriction, experimentation to figure out what exactly I was suffering, I went to a GI specialist. He took a good history, ran several blood tests- negative for H. pylori, wheat allergen, and an iron storage disease... the final diagnosis is IBS. I had suspected this back in college when I had a few years of horrible bouts of stomach pain, relieved only by going to the bathroom. Nothing I did seemed to help, until the circumstances in my life let up and the stress decreased. It faded away like a bad dream. Hmmm! How funny I forgot that. I have experienced some pretty strong stress in the past few months- mostly at summer's start- and that must have triggered another terrible episode, lasting these months past.
I guess it makes sense. I am relieved it is not celiac disease, Crohne's, or otherwise. This I can (and have) lived with. There are things which trigger episodes, such as STRESS, caffiene, SUGAR (and especially sugar replacements), cacao, milk products, and high fat diets. High fiber is what is recommended in order to control the symptoms... along with moderation of trigger foods.
Which brings me to a final realization and lifestyle change, one that I will hopefully manage to maintain for life... the Paleo Diet.
So, several months ago when I embarked on this journey to discover the source of my discomfort and pain, I had lamented that we could not easily just eat a simple food diet the way our ancestors had. I thought a lot about what my ancestors ate, Northern European folk (and Native American), what I had perhaps evolved to eat. That should be what's safe to consume, with no pain or distress! Still, fighting the sugar addiction was/is hard. So very very hard.
I started to look online through various things about issues such as mine and came across the Paleo Diet, or Neanderthin. I have bought and read the Paleo Diet book, by Dr. Loren Cordain. I was very much impressed by the throughness of his research, and how well thought out the plan is. It is not some fad diet embraced by anorexic Hollywood actresses whose lives balance on the head of a... carrot... but something he presents as a better way to LIVE. Not something you stick to until you are slim, but something you live by. We weren't meant to eat pounds of sugar, processed meals and tons of grains. Still, I wasn't sure and decided to go on a trial.
I feel amazing. It has taken me a little while to adjust to using a different source of energy, since my body is trained to use high carbohydrate sources in order to function. In just two weeks I feel much better- no bloating, no gas, no pain, no distress, no crashes or bad moods. It means I'm eating fruit again (yay!!!) without suffering any ill effects. Already though I have done a challenge test. In the book he helps you outline what you will eat day to day, to assist in adjusting. He gives three "open meals" which allow you to eat what you used to eat (just don't overdo it!) so you don't feel deprived or torn as you transition. Well... I went out to dinner and had cornbread, beer, and a lovely spinach salad (with waaaaaay too much dressing) with chicken and mozerella on it. It all tasted wonderful. But before I even got home I was gassing up, farting up the dickens, and woke up with some lovely IBS cramps. Guess I will have to be more careful when I go out. Ooops. Maybe no open meals for me?
I enjoy what I eat, but I'm having trouble staying full. I'm not sure why. He advocates that this way of eating makes you feel satisfied for longer, since protein breaks down more slowly in the gut. But when I'm hungry I'm starving! It's so curious. It's getting better, though; perhaps that is more of the transition. I eat a lot, eat all day long, and don't skimp... it isn't about cutting back on calories but eating quality. I feel a LOT better and look forward to having months at a time pain free.
As for sugar, I can do nothing but cut it out cold turkey. The Paleo Diet leaves no space for it anyhow. If I open that door the monster of the craving comes charging out, leaving me helpless. The first week of abstinence left me angrily craving... "what do I care! I am going to eat chocolate anyway!" but I gently worked through it. What a beast! What a tough, tough, beast! I feel better for it. Much, much better. I wish I were the sort that could be satisfied with a tiny piece of chocolate every few weeks or so, but I know that is not the case.
He goes on and on about how this reverses and controls various diet induced ailments, like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, incorrect fat balances (LDL vs HDL), obesity, arthritis, and so on. He also goes on at length about weight loss, which to me is a bonus but not my main goal. Already the bloated appearance of my belly is reduced, and I look better, slimmer. I have no wish to be "skinny" but to be healthy. I eat loads, and I am grateful to be eating fruit again! Yay!
I wish to say here also that I am deeply grateful I live in a place where I can afford to eat this way. I know this is not accessible to all. It is cheaper to live on highly process, crappy food. Food laden with sugar, salt, processed grains, and fat. Obesity once was a malady of the rich, and now it is a malady of the poor. It seems the poor can hardly be otherwise, as it is very expensive to eat a diet of good organic vegetables- the fresher, the better... and the more costly- fruit, and lean meat. That's the difference, too; not fatty crap meat and bacon and sausages (this is no Atkins) but good meat. Grass fed meat, raised how it is supposed to live naturally. That is expensive and hard to come by! I do recognize this, and know that not everyone can do this. I am so grateful that I work a good job, and live in a good area that allows me to invest in my health as fully as I wish.
If you wish to know more I urge you to find his website and read. It is one of the best things I've ever done. There are stories aplenty of folks with debilitating conditions that have worked hard to heal themselves through diet (something I advocate for animals, as a veterinarian!), even folks with IBS who have been symptom free for years now! It's heartening. And a good way to stay away from sugar... hopefully, forever.
I guess it makes sense. I am relieved it is not celiac disease, Crohne's, or otherwise. This I can (and have) lived with. There are things which trigger episodes, such as STRESS, caffiene, SUGAR (and especially sugar replacements), cacao, milk products, and high fat diets. High fiber is what is recommended in order to control the symptoms... along with moderation of trigger foods.
Which brings me to a final realization and lifestyle change, one that I will hopefully manage to maintain for life... the Paleo Diet.
So, several months ago when I embarked on this journey to discover the source of my discomfort and pain, I had lamented that we could not easily just eat a simple food diet the way our ancestors had. I thought a lot about what my ancestors ate, Northern European folk (and Native American), what I had perhaps evolved to eat. That should be what's safe to consume, with no pain or distress! Still, fighting the sugar addiction was/is hard. So very very hard.
I started to look online through various things about issues such as mine and came across the Paleo Diet, or Neanderthin. I have bought and read the Paleo Diet book, by Dr. Loren Cordain. I was very much impressed by the throughness of his research, and how well thought out the plan is. It is not some fad diet embraced by anorexic Hollywood actresses whose lives balance on the head of a... carrot... but something he presents as a better way to LIVE. Not something you stick to until you are slim, but something you live by. We weren't meant to eat pounds of sugar, processed meals and tons of grains. Still, I wasn't sure and decided to go on a trial.
I feel amazing. It has taken me a little while to adjust to using a different source of energy, since my body is trained to use high carbohydrate sources in order to function. In just two weeks I feel much better- no bloating, no gas, no pain, no distress, no crashes or bad moods. It means I'm eating fruit again (yay!!!) without suffering any ill effects. Already though I have done a challenge test. In the book he helps you outline what you will eat day to day, to assist in adjusting. He gives three "open meals" which allow you to eat what you used to eat (just don't overdo it!) so you don't feel deprived or torn as you transition. Well... I went out to dinner and had cornbread, beer, and a lovely spinach salad (with waaaaaay too much dressing) with chicken and mozerella on it. It all tasted wonderful. But before I even got home I was gassing up, farting up the dickens, and woke up with some lovely IBS cramps. Guess I will have to be more careful when I go out. Ooops. Maybe no open meals for me?
I enjoy what I eat, but I'm having trouble staying full. I'm not sure why. He advocates that this way of eating makes you feel satisfied for longer, since protein breaks down more slowly in the gut. But when I'm hungry I'm starving! It's so curious. It's getting better, though; perhaps that is more of the transition. I eat a lot, eat all day long, and don't skimp... it isn't about cutting back on calories but eating quality. I feel a LOT better and look forward to having months at a time pain free.
As for sugar, I can do nothing but cut it out cold turkey. The Paleo Diet leaves no space for it anyhow. If I open that door the monster of the craving comes charging out, leaving me helpless. The first week of abstinence left me angrily craving... "what do I care! I am going to eat chocolate anyway!" but I gently worked through it. What a beast! What a tough, tough, beast! I feel better for it. Much, much better. I wish I were the sort that could be satisfied with a tiny piece of chocolate every few weeks or so, but I know that is not the case.
He goes on and on about how this reverses and controls various diet induced ailments, like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, incorrect fat balances (LDL vs HDL), obesity, arthritis, and so on. He also goes on at length about weight loss, which to me is a bonus but not my main goal. Already the bloated appearance of my belly is reduced, and I look better, slimmer. I have no wish to be "skinny" but to be healthy. I eat loads, and I am grateful to be eating fruit again! Yay!
I wish to say here also that I am deeply grateful I live in a place where I can afford to eat this way. I know this is not accessible to all. It is cheaper to live on highly process, crappy food. Food laden with sugar, salt, processed grains, and fat. Obesity once was a malady of the rich, and now it is a malady of the poor. It seems the poor can hardly be otherwise, as it is very expensive to eat a diet of good organic vegetables- the fresher, the better... and the more costly- fruit, and lean meat. That's the difference, too; not fatty crap meat and bacon and sausages (this is no Atkins) but good meat. Grass fed meat, raised how it is supposed to live naturally. That is expensive and hard to come by! I do recognize this, and know that not everyone can do this. I am so grateful that I work a good job, and live in a good area that allows me to invest in my health as fully as I wish.
If you wish to know more I urge you to find his website and read. It is one of the best things I've ever done. There are stories aplenty of folks with debilitating conditions that have worked hard to heal themselves through diet (something I advocate for animals, as a veterinarian!), even folks with IBS who have been symptom free for years now! It's heartening. And a good way to stay away from sugar... hopefully, forever.
8.17.2009
sugar allergy and the continued fight
Well, back when I started this blog I thought, there! I've kicked sugar, now I can relax into this good feeling of health and vigor. Ha! So innocent, I say now. The halcyon days.
Just as an alcoholic, it is one day at a time. It is about choice, it is about will, it is about being gentle with yourself when you aren't living up to your ultimate standards. It is about choosing to be the higher standard you hold and forgiving the slips, while reaching for the best health you can.
What a rough road!
It's funny, when I started this, I went through all the ways I could find in order to avoid sugar but enjoy life. I have a powerful sweet tooth, handed down to me by family (and likely genes, too; sugar is energy, energy is survival...) It is entangled with life's pleasures, the taste on the tongue. Within my journey, I have experimented with many different ways to keep that pleasure without the pain- the pain of crashing, mood swings, weight gain and all the myriad ways sugar destroys my balance. In those experiments I have discovered what I cannot tolerate, and have caused new intolerances along the way.
I am fully several weeks into avoiding fructose to the best of my ability. I cannot help but feel I brought this upon myself, this odd allergy. Has it truly been lifelong, or have I done this by overdoing things causing my flora so much upset? I used to tolerate Stevia, and now it causes me agony; I used to live on fruit every summer and now it causes me so much pain. Somewhere in my secret heart I used to wish I was allergic to sugar so that it would be easy to stop eating it. What if overdoing Stevia and other fake sweeteners has caused me to upset the balance like this? They say that overdoing high fructose corn syrup can trigger fructose malabsorption, and this syndrome takes all the other sweeteners with it! Oh, you wish to be allergic, wish granted. What a hypochondriac. Please.
Well, I have no wish to be some sensitive ridiculous girl who cannot eat as she pleases. That is just unacceptable. Right now I am eating a pared down diet, with the thought that if I give my GI system a break, I can heal and go back to being a normal human being who eats a normal diet. This is what we prescribe for dogs with GI upset; a bland diet with slow reintroduction into regular food once again. Why not people? Why not me?
Admittedly, I sometimes wish that I had access only to a more basic/ ancestral diet. Fish, ancient grains, fruits from whatever region my ancestors are from, maybe meat but rarely, good vegetables locally grown. I can do that if I'm committed. That's what I'm doing right now, anyway, in order to heal. Still, we are surrounded by a glut of easy prepared foods, stuff that is so oversweetened and oversalted you can't even detect the original ingredients. Don't even get me started on all that, please. I am eating basic, feel better for it and have no regrets. No regrets except one: that the deprivation of anything resembling sugar is making the siren song of it so strong I almost cannot bear it. It's terrible, ridiculous, I am an alcoholic sniffing out my next gin, a nicotine addict looking for a lost ciggy in the couch.
Now that I think of it the 5-HTP was helping. This is a building block the body uses to create dopamine in the brain, a serotonin precursor. Those chemicals are ones your brain uses for feelings of well being and calm, and help with things like cravings and addictions, loss of sleep and so forth. I was taking it regularly and then forgot the habit when I moved. I can see now that it was helping, a great deal! It sometimes isn't enough to be committed to an idea, the idea of kicking sugar, if your body will not climb aboard the train with you. Everyone's got to be along for the ride.
It can sure be a helpless feeling when you are years into an ideal, and yet cannot simply just get into it and stay there. I sympathize with all my heart for those who give up cigarettes and have to walk through a cloud of smokers on their way into a pub. Or those who have been sober for years and get invited by co-workers to the pub after work, knowing just how difficult it will be to sit in that environment. I am lucky enough to have never been addicted to those things, or other drugs. I plea the case that sugar is as addictive and as evil. That it can most certainly lead to other addictions. If you've read "Potatoes not Prozac" or other texts on sugar addiction, you can see others feel this way as well.
If you have been on this journey with me, I'd love to know how you're faring. It's a tough road, right? I'm on and off again. I'd love to sit on a high horse and say that all those years ago I threw down the candy and never touched the stuff again, but I'd be lying. No, I fully jumped off the wagon and bounced right back into the swings and bloat and moods and all that. Only with full knowing of the consequences, and guilt. Lovely. Bring the headcase gear along, folks, it's going to be a wild ride. Eeek!
Well, it's off again, since my body has said in so many ways "enough!". I hear you, loud and clear! No sugar, no stevia, no tropical fruits, no dried fruits, no concentrated juice, no sugar alcohols, hell, not even any wheat for now. Don't you just hate it? Being "sensitive"? Or "special"? B.S. Total crap. I hate it. Makes me want to live in the middle of nowhere that knows nothing of Cadbury or the cane, the magical extract of beets, trees or bees...
Just as an alcoholic, it is one day at a time. It is about choice, it is about will, it is about being gentle with yourself when you aren't living up to your ultimate standards. It is about choosing to be the higher standard you hold and forgiving the slips, while reaching for the best health you can.
What a rough road!
It's funny, when I started this, I went through all the ways I could find in order to avoid sugar but enjoy life. I have a powerful sweet tooth, handed down to me by family (and likely genes, too; sugar is energy, energy is survival...) It is entangled with life's pleasures, the taste on the tongue. Within my journey, I have experimented with many different ways to keep that pleasure without the pain- the pain of crashing, mood swings, weight gain and all the myriad ways sugar destroys my balance. In those experiments I have discovered what I cannot tolerate, and have caused new intolerances along the way.
I am fully several weeks into avoiding fructose to the best of my ability. I cannot help but feel I brought this upon myself, this odd allergy. Has it truly been lifelong, or have I done this by overdoing things causing my flora so much upset? I used to tolerate Stevia, and now it causes me agony; I used to live on fruit every summer and now it causes me so much pain. Somewhere in my secret heart I used to wish I was allergic to sugar so that it would be easy to stop eating it. What if overdoing Stevia and other fake sweeteners has caused me to upset the balance like this? They say that overdoing high fructose corn syrup can trigger fructose malabsorption, and this syndrome takes all the other sweeteners with it! Oh, you wish to be allergic, wish granted. What a hypochondriac. Please.
Well, I have no wish to be some sensitive ridiculous girl who cannot eat as she pleases. That is just unacceptable. Right now I am eating a pared down diet, with the thought that if I give my GI system a break, I can heal and go back to being a normal human being who eats a normal diet. This is what we prescribe for dogs with GI upset; a bland diet with slow reintroduction into regular food once again. Why not people? Why not me?
Admittedly, I sometimes wish that I had access only to a more basic/ ancestral diet. Fish, ancient grains, fruits from whatever region my ancestors are from, maybe meat but rarely, good vegetables locally grown. I can do that if I'm committed. That's what I'm doing right now, anyway, in order to heal. Still, we are surrounded by a glut of easy prepared foods, stuff that is so oversweetened and oversalted you can't even detect the original ingredients. Don't even get me started on all that, please. I am eating basic, feel better for it and have no regrets. No regrets except one: that the deprivation of anything resembling sugar is making the siren song of it so strong I almost cannot bear it. It's terrible, ridiculous, I am an alcoholic sniffing out my next gin, a nicotine addict looking for a lost ciggy in the couch.
Now that I think of it the 5-HTP was helping. This is a building block the body uses to create dopamine in the brain, a serotonin precursor. Those chemicals are ones your brain uses for feelings of well being and calm, and help with things like cravings and addictions, loss of sleep and so forth. I was taking it regularly and then forgot the habit when I moved. I can see now that it was helping, a great deal! It sometimes isn't enough to be committed to an idea, the idea of kicking sugar, if your body will not climb aboard the train with you. Everyone's got to be along for the ride.
It can sure be a helpless feeling when you are years into an ideal, and yet cannot simply just get into it and stay there. I sympathize with all my heart for those who give up cigarettes and have to walk through a cloud of smokers on their way into a pub. Or those who have been sober for years and get invited by co-workers to the pub after work, knowing just how difficult it will be to sit in that environment. I am lucky enough to have never been addicted to those things, or other drugs. I plea the case that sugar is as addictive and as evil. That it can most certainly lead to other addictions. If you've read "Potatoes not Prozac" or other texts on sugar addiction, you can see others feel this way as well.
If you have been on this journey with me, I'd love to know how you're faring. It's a tough road, right? I'm on and off again. I'd love to sit on a high horse and say that all those years ago I threw down the candy and never touched the stuff again, but I'd be lying. No, I fully jumped off the wagon and bounced right back into the swings and bloat and moods and all that. Only with full knowing of the consequences, and guilt. Lovely. Bring the headcase gear along, folks, it's going to be a wild ride. Eeek!
Well, it's off again, since my body has said in so many ways "enough!". I hear you, loud and clear! No sugar, no stevia, no tropical fruits, no dried fruits, no concentrated juice, no sugar alcohols, hell, not even any wheat for now. Don't you just hate it? Being "sensitive"? Or "special"? B.S. Total crap. I hate it. Makes me want to live in the middle of nowhere that knows nothing of Cadbury or the cane, the magical extract of beets, trees or bees...
6.12.2009
Fructose Malabsorption
A new development I have stumbled across... well, new for me, since there's lots of good research out there about the topic. A bummer to be sure, but at least I have a name now and something I can try.
So two weeks ago, I started realizing that this whole bloating and icky (farty!) thing was getting out of control. It was non stop. Just ridiculous. I was eating NO STEVIA, nothing strange, no added nothing... and just disgusting, painful, horrible. Well, the difference is that it's spring/summer and the fruits are out! Yay! Favorite time of year for a sugar junkie like me, natural sweetened goodness... I was eating cherries by the handful and suffering horribly as a result. WTF? My favorite things are smoothies (mango, pineapple, carrot and spinach); fruits (cherries and apples); with dehydrated "raw" oat cookies with dates and raisins. I pretty much lived off this stuff all last summer, and just farted away, thinking the culprit maybe flax seeds, or sunflower, or whatever, with my raw experiment.
Well this time it was absolutely clear that the culprit was the cherries. It was so hot last week that I barely wanted to eat in the truck as I drove around; when I did, I often went for the cherries first as they were simple and small. Within an hour I was bloated up, farting away and embarassed. Not to mention pissed. I love fruit! I love living off fruit in the summer! Unfair! First sugar alcohols, then my beloved Stevia, now this? What the hell is wrong with me?
I stopped eating fruits for a few days to see what would happen. I felt better, looked better, and sounded better (heh). This made me pretty curious so I started hunting online to see what the hell my problem was. In a long and roundabout way I found dietary fructose intolerance (DFI) which is now called fructose malabsorption. I read all about it and it made so much sense to me, I can't deny either that it exists or that this may be the root of my problem.
I will save explaination of it here, since others have done such a fabulous job. You can check out what they say in these websites:
http://fructmal.googlepages.com/
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/digestive-health/nutrition/BarrettArticle.pdf
And of course there are more, but if you think you are having issues I urge you to do some research yourself. The first website gives a lot of good and interesting links.
Well it certainly explains a lot. My steadily increasing intolerance for things over the years. Problems I had as a kid. It's even linked to depression, PMS and mental fogginess... problems I abhor and deal with constantly. I'll do anything to feel better, anything. If it means eating a boring bland diet for 6 weeks, so be it. This sucks. This is the worst thing you can do to a sugar addict, to a major sweetaholic... the WORST. Then again, it may just be the very thing that saves my life and sanity, who knows?
How interesting that I have a strong addiction to the very thing that makes me feel the most horrible. It has psychological implications I am just going to have to avoid like the plague, I have enough on my plate these days. It certainly does bear thought though, as to why people become addicted to the very poisons most likely to kill them. Or at the very least harm them. In love with the toxins that take you down.
I'm going to plan this boring horrible "ancestral diet" very carefully, and I'll check in and report how it's going now and then. I know a lot of this has to do with bacterial overgrowth in the large intestines... I wonder is there a way to reset the buggers? Some people have given their experience that the symptoms started after a bout of sickness that was treated with antibiotics. Yet some people report that probiotics make it worse... more bacteria to feed on the fructose you're not absorbing. How frustrating! It's likely there's damage to the intestinal lining or crypts that make absorption of fructose/ fructans no longer possible. Is there a way to heal that, restart things (the lining regrows every 7 days or so), reboot the bacterial flora in the gut, and start over? Lots of that wierd hippie colonic cleansing shit I guess. Ugh. Doesn't sound that pleasant, but hey... if it helped me I'd do it. First I will experiment and see if I'm barking up the right tree; I already feel better, so I guess so.
Cheers.
So two weeks ago, I started realizing that this whole bloating and icky (farty!) thing was getting out of control. It was non stop. Just ridiculous. I was eating NO STEVIA, nothing strange, no added nothing... and just disgusting, painful, horrible. Well, the difference is that it's spring/summer and the fruits are out! Yay! Favorite time of year for a sugar junkie like me, natural sweetened goodness... I was eating cherries by the handful and suffering horribly as a result. WTF? My favorite things are smoothies (mango, pineapple, carrot and spinach); fruits (cherries and apples); with dehydrated "raw" oat cookies with dates and raisins. I pretty much lived off this stuff all last summer, and just farted away, thinking the culprit maybe flax seeds, or sunflower, or whatever, with my raw experiment.
Well this time it was absolutely clear that the culprit was the cherries. It was so hot last week that I barely wanted to eat in the truck as I drove around; when I did, I often went for the cherries first as they were simple and small. Within an hour I was bloated up, farting away and embarassed. Not to mention pissed. I love fruit! I love living off fruit in the summer! Unfair! First sugar alcohols, then my beloved Stevia, now this? What the hell is wrong with me?
I stopped eating fruits for a few days to see what would happen. I felt better, looked better, and sounded better (heh). This made me pretty curious so I started hunting online to see what the hell my problem was. In a long and roundabout way I found dietary fructose intolerance (DFI) which is now called fructose malabsorption. I read all about it and it made so much sense to me, I can't deny either that it exists or that this may be the root of my problem.
I will save explaination of it here, since others have done such a fabulous job. You can check out what they say in these websites:
http://fructmal.googlepages.com/
http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/digestive-health/nutrition/BarrettArticle.pdf
And of course there are more, but if you think you are having issues I urge you to do some research yourself. The first website gives a lot of good and interesting links.
Well it certainly explains a lot. My steadily increasing intolerance for things over the years. Problems I had as a kid. It's even linked to depression, PMS and mental fogginess... problems I abhor and deal with constantly. I'll do anything to feel better, anything. If it means eating a boring bland diet for 6 weeks, so be it. This sucks. This is the worst thing you can do to a sugar addict, to a major sweetaholic... the WORST. Then again, it may just be the very thing that saves my life and sanity, who knows?
How interesting that I have a strong addiction to the very thing that makes me feel the most horrible. It has psychological implications I am just going to have to avoid like the plague, I have enough on my plate these days. It certainly does bear thought though, as to why people become addicted to the very poisons most likely to kill them. Or at the very least harm them. In love with the toxins that take you down.
I'm going to plan this boring horrible "ancestral diet" very carefully, and I'll check in and report how it's going now and then. I know a lot of this has to do with bacterial overgrowth in the large intestines... I wonder is there a way to reset the buggers? Some people have given their experience that the symptoms started after a bout of sickness that was treated with antibiotics. Yet some people report that probiotics make it worse... more bacteria to feed on the fructose you're not absorbing. How frustrating! It's likely there's damage to the intestinal lining or crypts that make absorption of fructose/ fructans no longer possible. Is there a way to heal that, restart things (the lining regrows every 7 days or so), reboot the bacterial flora in the gut, and start over? Lots of that wierd hippie colonic cleansing shit I guess. Ugh. Doesn't sound that pleasant, but hey... if it helped me I'd do it. First I will experiment and see if I'm barking up the right tree; I already feel better, so I guess so.
Cheers.
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