Dairy- and Wheat-Free Crispies

When you are trying to avoid dairy and starchy grains, it is very hard to make any sort of granola-style bar. Most recipes require butter to bind all the ingredients together, that could be substituted for margarine but ingesting trans-fats from the margarine would be even worse than the butter. My ingenious 'binding' ingredient is dark chocolate. As dark chocolate has no dairy in it and in small amounts it is actually good for your health due to the anti-oxidants it contains, I would say that these crispies count as a healthy snack - of course limited to 1 or 2 a day and not the entire batch in one go since that would be rather too much sugar!

For my crispies I used organic spelt flakes. Spelt is the original wheat before it was selectively bred and modified into modern day wheat. Spelt has approximately one-third the amount of gluten of regular wheat (according to Judy Coles' The Body Talks) - it is the gluten in bread that makes it so light and fluffy so spelt bread is much denser and heavier. Due to the fact that it contains less gluten, spelt is much easier to digest and according to Coles' research most people who are intolerant to wheat can eat spelt with no problems - a food intolerance is of course not the same as an allergy.

Similar to wheat, oats have also been highly modified over time and for those of us suffering from IBS and trying to follow a low-starch diet they are less easy to digest than spelt or rye. The spelt flakes could be substituted for jumbo oat flakes and in that case I would try to get organic ones. Buckwheat flakes are entirely gluten-free but they are tiny little flakes that I don't imagine would work quite as well as the large spelt or oat flakes - if you can't have gluten then it would be worth giving them a try though.

Putting the crispies together is extremely quick and easy, all you need is:

100g dark chocolate

8 tablespoons spelt flakes

4 tablespoons mixed dried fruit (you can buy packets of ready-mixed raisins, sultanas and cranberries)

11 cupcake holders (you may make a few more or less depending on how chocolate-y you want them)

1. Melt the dark chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water, once it's melted then take off the heat.

2. Add the flakes and fruit and mix together.

3. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake holders and put in the fridge to go hard.

Voila! Yummy little treats ready in moments.

Fat Does Not Make You Fat

The word FAT naturally makes people think of being overweight and all the associated health problems that brings. However, dietary fat is not the same as body fat. As discussed in my carbohydrates article, it is carbohydrates that cause the release of insulin and it is insulin that traps excess sugar in the body and stores it as body fat. Dietary fat is a vital food component that we need to eat daily.

Health benefits of dietary fat

The brain is made up of 60% fat and dietary fat is needed to help with:
metabolism;
protein absorption;
carbohydrate absorption;
breakdown of nutrients;
manufacture of hormones and much much more.

It is fat that triggers the brain to recognise that you are full, once you've eaten a certain amount of fat then it sets off a chain reaction that tells your body to stop eating. Carbs and protein do not have the same effect which is how you can easily overeat them, particularly carbs.

It is fat that stimulates the release of bile from your gall bladder. Bile is a vital part of the digestive process as it helps break down food so it can be absorbed and used by the body. Skimmed milk does not contain enough fat to trigger the release of bile, if no bile is released then the milk can't be broken down properly and the calcium in the milk can't then be absorbed. Low-fat milk has enough fat in it to trigger the gall bladder so it is a much better option than skimmed milk.

What happens if you don't eat enough fat?

A deficiency of fat in the diet can cause carbohydrate cravings (which then leads to putting on more weight), mood disorders, depression, infertility, insomnia and brittle nails / dry skin / thin hair.

Oestrogen is needed for various bodily functions and it also raises HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) levels. A low-fat, high-carb diet depletes oestrogen levels and this can therefore lead to higher levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol. See below for more about cholesterol.

Which fats are healthy?

All natural fats are good for you. Your diet should be 30% fat.

You will get enough fat in your diet if you eat olive oil on your salads, a moderate amount of butter (real butter - not margarine), eggs, red meat, poultry, fish, avocado, low-fat dairy products, nuts and seeds.

Omega 3 is a vital fat - plus it is highly anti-inflammatory as discussed in the Anti-Inflammatory Diet posting. It is found in oily fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines), olive oil, nuts, seeds and avocados. It also boosts metabolism, so you burn up the food you eat more efficiently.
Omega 6 is also important and is found in leafy greens, pulses and grains. As Monica Reinagel discovered, meat and factory farmed salmon have higher levels of Omega 6 than in the past due to the fact they are fed on a grain diet nowadays and too much Omega 6 leads to inflammation.

Oily fish, nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocado are very good fats and should be eaten regularly - they contain Omega 3 and essential fatty acids.

Butter, cheese, mayonnaise and meat/poultry are important fat sources so they should be eaten often but in moderation.

Excess meat fat, lard and heated cold-pressed oils (i.e. cooking with olive oil) should be eaten minimally because they contain bad fats.

Trans-fats, deep fried foods, margarine, buttermilk, non-dairy creamers and processed foods using hydrogenated / partially hydrogenated oils should be avoided. Why?
- Vegetable oils are extracted using heat and this changes their molecular structure to create poisonous trans-fatty acids. Trans-fats clog the arteries and can contribute to serious conditions including heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.
- Margarine is man-made and cannot be properly digested, plus most contain trans-fatty acids. Liquid oils are hydrogenated to make them solid but many are only partially hydrogenated (so they melt with heat) and it is these partially hydrogenated oils that contain high levels of trans fats.
- Olive oil is cold-pressed so it is safe to eat but even olive oil changes its molecular structure if you cook with it and this could contribute to health problems.

Cooking with a little butter is a much better option since this is a natural fat that the body can break down and digest properly.

According to wikipedia, the most health-damaging oils are those that contain high levels of poly-unsaturated fats (soybean oil, sunflower oil, corn oil) as they can lead to the formation of cancers. Oils high in mono-unsaturated oils (olive oil, canola / rapeseed oil, peanut oil) are much safer to eat. Palm oil and coconut oil have been found to be the most dangerous oils for your health. If you read this entry (click link above) then it will really put you off vegetable oils!

What about cholesterol?

Cholesterol is needed by the body to build hormones, membranes and other internal structures. The liver uses cholesterol to manufacture bile acids which are required to digest and absorb nutrients from food. Cholesterol also insulates the nerves and if this is lacking then nerve disorders can result. Cholesterol also protects against ageing of the brain and heart. A lack of cholesterol can lead to weaker cell membranes and a weak immune system which can increase the vulnerability of the cells to diseases such as cancer.

Judy Cole found in her patients that often when they had a virus, their cholesterol levels would rise as a protection mechanism. Once the virus had passed, the cholesterol went back down. In the case of long-term or chronic illness, she found that cholesterol levels stayed high as a protection for the body and that taking medication to reduce the cholesterol could then leave the body open to more damage from the virus.

There is bad cholesterol (LDL) and good cholesterol (HDL). LDL can accumulate along and clog your arteries, HDL takes LDL back to the liver to be excreted and so the HDL helps keep your arteries clear.

If you do not eat enough cholesterol then your body will release an enzyme which then begins to over-produce cholesterol - this is because your body cannot function without some cholesterol. It is believed that it is this self-made cholesterol that leads to artery plaque which results in heart attacks and strokes. As long as you eat enough cholesterol then this enzyme won't be activated / will switch off.

The best sources of cholesterol are: eggs, meat, avocado, shellfish and dairy products. Cole recommends that if you have high cholesterol then you need to shut off the dangerous enzyme that is over-producing cholesterol. The way to do this is to eat 2 eggs a day, 5-7 days per week (i.e. a total of 10-14 eggs a week). Cholesterol levels will rise initially but then the body will recognise that it's receiving enough cholesterol (after about 3 months) and it will shut off the enzyme. I have personally heard of one man who tried this and his doctor could not believe how much his cholesterol had fallen by.

In the last century people ate a diet much higher in saturated fat (high in cholesterol) such as butter but there was a much lower incidence of heart disease then than there is now. Saturated fats contain both LDL and HDL but trans fats (cooking oils, margarine) contain LDL and cause the lowering of HDL (good cholesterol) levels. It is widely accepted in the medical community that trans-fats contribute to heart disease. There are suggestions, not fully researched, that they also contribute to Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, obesity, infertility and liver disfunction. See wikipedia for more info.

Research by the Harvard School of Public Health found that in the 1960s 13% of Americans were obese, today 34% of Americans are obese and Type II diabetes has risen from less than 1% of the population to 8%. This is despite people eating less saturated fat and choosing to eat vegetable fats instead. Their findings show that it is not the presence of cholesterol in your food that causes high cholesterol, it is the type of fats being eaten - trans fats in particular since they raise LDL and lower HDL. They also found that eating fat-free products often means eating more carbohydrates / sugar because manufacturers have to replace the fat content with something and so this leads to weight gain. Following a low fat diet means that good fats as well as bad fats are not eaten and this has negative consequences for your health, as seen above.

So the bottom line is - good fats are not just good for you they are vital to your health. As with everything though, moderation is the key!

Carbohydrate: Friend or Foe?

When we hear of carbohydrates we think of bread, pasta, potatoes and other 'solid' foods. These are carbohydrates but vegetables and fruit are also carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are basically SUGAR and they can be measured in terms of how many equivalent teaspoons of sugar they provide your body with once digested. As an example, a small apple once digested gives you the equivalent of 3 teaspoons of sugar and an average serving of pasta gives you the equivalent of 18 teaspoons (yes, eighteen - not a typo) of sugar!

What are carbohydrates?

There are 3 groups of carbohydrates:
1. Monosaccharides are simple sugars (i.e. glucose and fructose).
2. Disaccharides are 2 simple sugars linked together (i.e. sucrose and lactose).
3. Complex carbohydrates are thousands of simple sugars linked together (i.e. starch and fibre).

As mentioned above, carbohydrates include fruit, non-starchy vegetables (lettuce, mushrooms, spinach), starchy vegetables (carrots, turnip, leeks) and grains / starch (wheat, oats, rice).

What do carbohydrates do?

1. Provide energy.
The body needs energy in order to function so carbohydrates are vital but starch and concentrated sugar (fruit is concentrated sugar) should be eaten in moderation.
Refined carbohydrates (white rice, most breakfast cereals, white bread etc) have almost no nutritional value and provide energy and nothing else. Ideally they should be avoided completely.
Fruit, vegetables and wholegrains provide vitamins, minerals and other nutrition that we need in addition to the energy from the carbohydrates they contain.

2. Aid in digestion.
Carbohydrates break down fat in the liver and they assist in the digestion of other foods.

3. Provide fibre.
Fibre cannot be broken down by the body so it passes through the digestive system intact. Fibre helps to slow down the rate at which the stomach empties (so slows down the release of glucose) and it encourages efficient bowel movements.

What happens to the carbohydrate when it's eaten?

The body can only use simple sugars for the energy it needs so all carbohydrates that are eaten need to be broken down into simple sugars. Once the sugars in the carbohydrate are broken down, they are absorbed into the blood through the small intestine and carried to the liver. In the liver the sugars are changed to glucose and this then re-enters the bloodstream as energy for all the body's cells to use.

A small amount of the glucose created in the liver is stored as glycogen as an emergency energy source. All extra sugar that the body can't immediately use is stored as BODY FAT. So if you eat too many carbohydrates then your body stores this excess as fat and you begin to put on weight.

Carbohydrates are also addictive (and pastries, breads, doughnuts etc are all so tasty!) so the more carbs you eat, the more you crave - so you can easily overeat carbohydrates. Explains the massive weight issues in a lot of the world.

Carbohydrates should always be eaten with protein and fat in a balanced meal / snack. This means that all the various digestive enzymes triggered by each of the different food groups will be released at the same time and this will slow down the release of the carbohydrate's sugar. If the sugar is released slowly then more of it will be used by the body and less will be stored as body fat. As my Protein post explains, if you're eating enough protein then your metabolism will increase and this will therefore burn up the sugar at a quicker rate so that there is less excess floating around to be made into body fat.

Carbohydrates and blood sugar.

As explained above, carbohydrates are broken down to make glucose. This is needed by the body but an excess of glucose (sugar) in the blood is dangerous for the brain. To protect the brain, the pancreas releases insulin if there is too much glucose in the blood and the insulin removes the excess glucose from the blood. How does it do this? It attaches to the glucose and basically locks it up inside your cells (puts it in jail, as it were) - this is then seen on your body as body fat.

So excess carbohydrates, due to the insulin, make you fat. It is not dietary fat that makes you fat, as I will explain in my next posting.

Many people as they get older develop blood sugar problems, insulin resistance and potentially Type II Diabetes. Following a high-carb diet means that excess sugar is stored in the body (as body fat) and in time the body's cells become saturated and can't hold any more sugar. This means the pancreas secretes even more insulin to try and overcome the problem and some sugar remains in the blood because there is nowhere to store it. Type II Diabetes is purely diet related because the affected person is eating too many carbohydrates and has too much sugar in their system.

If a person with blood sugar issues reduces the amount of carbohydrates they eat then there will be less sugar entering their system which means less insulin will be required. The body needs energy to function so if little new sugar is entering the system then the body is forced to remove sugar from its stores (your body fat). What does this mean?

1. Excess sugar is not being eaten so it is not entering the bloodstream.
2. Excess stored sugar is removed from the body tissues to give the body the energy it needs to function.
3. The resistance to insulin reduces because there is 'storage space' in the body again because the stored sugar has reduced.
4. The body's use of insulin becomes effective again so the pancreas can return to producing normal levels of insulin.
5. The blood clears of sugar because there is little excess entering the body and where there is excess sugar, the body's cells are empty enough to be able to hold the sugar.

Sugar problems don't happen overnight - they happen after years (decades) of poor eating habits. Sugar problems cannot therefore be solved overnight and Judy Cole advises that following the above low-carb diet would take at least 3 months to show a result in your blood.

How much carbohydrate should I eat?

Non-starchy vegetables can be eaten in unlimited amounts by everyone as they do not create too much sugar in your system and they are full of nutrients and fibre.

Fruit is not a health food as it digests very quickly and releases a high amount of sugar into the system - fruit diets are extremely bad for you as they flood the body with sugar and therefore insulin. Fruit should only ever be eaten with protein because protein helps to slow down the release of the sugar in the fruit. So eat fruit after a meal as a dessert (a good idea since fruit contains digestive enzymes which help with digestion) or eat it with a piece of cheese or meat as a snack.

Fruit juice has even more sugar than a piece of fruit - a glass of apple juice contains about 4 or 5 apples so that is 12-15 teaspoons of sugar! It is always best to water fruit juice down so there is 1/3 juice and 2/3 water. Limit yourself to a maximum of 2 portions of fruit / watered down fruit juice per day. If you are overweight then DO NOT EAT FRUIT because it is very fattening with all that sugar.

Starchy vegetables should be eaten in small portions (if you want to lose weight then try to have no more than 1 portion of starchy veg a day). They contain important nutrients so should not be cut out completely, just eat them in moderation. The following contain 15g of carbohydrate and are the equivalent of 3 teaspoons of sugar:

1 cup beetroot
2/3 cup butternut squash
1 cup carrots
2/3 cup corn
1/2 cup peas
1 cup leeks
1 cup okra
2/3 cup parsnips
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup turnip

Starch (grains) should not be eaten at all for the first 2 months of a weight-loss programme since they are complex carbohydrates and so they release the most sugar. They should then be added to the diet in very limited portions (i.e. 1 portion per day) until you have gained your ideal weight. If you are trying to follow a low-starch diet as I am (since it has been found that starch can trigger the immune system to attack the joints in Ankylosing Spondylitis) then this helps to identify what needs to be limited / avoided. The following contain 15g of carbohydrate and are the equivalent of 3 teaspoons of sugar:

1/3 cup cooked brown rice (1/3 cup uncooked rice will give you almost 1 full cup of cooked rice)
1/3 cup buckwheat
2/3 cup oats
1/3 cup quinoa (pronouned keen-wa)
1/4 cup rye
1.5 tbsp whole wheat
1 tbsp white rice
1/4 cup wild rice (wild rice is actually a seed not a grain)
1 large slice of spelt or rye bread
2 ryvitas
2 oat cakes
3 brown rice cakes

Although they are technically starchy vegetables, potatoes and sweet potatoes should be considered as starch and so avoided in the first 2 months of a weight-loss programme. Remember that all the nutrients in a potato are under the skin so if you remove the skin then you remove ALL the nutrients - even if you're having mashed potato, make it with the skin in there.

If you are on a weight-loss programme Cole recommends that you can still have up to 6 ryvita (or 4 ryvita and 1 slice of wholegrain spelt bread) with all other starches avoided completely.

On your plate you should therefore have about 1/3 covered by protein, 1/2 (or more) vegetables and a little starch (rice / potato / pasta).

For those of us in Dubai, the Organic Foods & Cafe sells wholegrain spelt bread (great for toast but not so great for a sandwich), brown rice pasta (tastes the same as wheat pasta) and on a Tuesday they sell a range of yeast-free, wheat-free products; I'm going to check it out next week.

What is the best source of fibre?

Non-starchy vegetables are the best source of fibre as not only do they provide the fibre your body needs, they also release minimal sugar into your system and are full of nutrients.

Wholegrain wheat products are often cited as an excellent source of fibre. However, modern day wheat has been so selectively bred and modified that it has become extremely difficult to digest and is one of the most common food intolerances. Spelt flour is closer to the original wheat grain that was eaten up until the 19th century and is much easier to digest. Wholegrain rye is also far less modified than modern day wheat and so is easier to digest. Judy Cole advises to eat no foods containing wheat and to only have 100% wholegrain rye (Ryvita) and 100% wholegrain spelt products.

The next food group is fat. As I said above, it is carbohydrates not dietary fat that make you gain body fat. So more about fat and why it is GOOD FOR YOU next time.

Protein: What is it? Why do you need it?

The Body Talks by Judy Cole gives a great explanation of the various food groups and why you need them. I thought it would be useful to share this with everyone since I'm sure most people won't be buying her book but understanding food groups is the key to understanding healthy eating.

What does protein do?

1. Builds new tissue.
Your body is made of protein (your brain, heart, liver, skin, muscles, hair, nails etc) and your cells are constantly dying and being renewed. You need to eat enough protein to enable your body to build new bodily tissue / grow new cells - if you don't then your body will take the protein it needs out of your muscles so you basically cannibalise yourself.

2. Forms hormones.
Hormones need to be constantly created and they control countless functions within the body. A lack of protein can result in mood disorders / depression / infertility and other hormone inbalances.

3. Controls your metabolism.
Metabolism is controlled by hormones, which are built by protein so by not eating enough protein, your metabolism slows down which means that you burn your food off more slowly resulting in possible weight gain.

4. Helps eliminate toxins.
Toxins are created in your body all the time through the food you eat, breathing in pollution, chemicals that you put on your skin and more. These toxins are filtered by the body and excreted but protein is needed by the body to enable it to do this effectively.

5. Helps in digestion.
When you eat protein this triggers the release of hydrochloric acid, when you eat carbohydrates this triggers the release glycogen. Hydrochloric acid works against the glycogen so that your food is digested more slowly. By digesting food slowly, your body receives a slow and steady release of energy instead of a peak of energy followed by a huge dip once the energy is all used up.

Where does protein come from?

Protein is made up of amino acids: 9 essential ones and 13 non-essential ones. The essential ones must be provided by your food. The non-essential ones are produced by the liver itself.

Animal proteins (meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products) contain all 9 essential amino acids.
Pulses and legumes (i.e. lentils, beans) and nuts, grains and seeds contain protein but each item alone does not contain all 9 essential amino acids. Pulses/beans have to be combined with nuts/grains/seeds to get all 9 essential amino acids.

If any single essential amino acid is missing or low then the body can't process the protein properly. This means that the body will start to break down your muscles in order to get the protein it needs to function.

The body needs a regular supply of protein because amino acids can only be stored for a few hours but the body is building new tissue, hormones etc 24 hours a day. The average man will use about 14g of protein every 2-3 hours and the average woman will use about 14g of protein every 3-4 hours. If your body is not getting enough protein to carry out all its functions then it will start to break down your muscles.

If the body is breaking down muscles to get its protein then you will have less muscle mass and therefore a slower metabolic rate which in turn will mean less energy, vitality and health - plus probably weight gain. If you have a high muscle mass then your metabolic rate will increase, you will then naturally burn more calories which means you can eat more because your body is using up the calories you take in and doesn't store them as fat.

Can you have too much protein?

Yes. If you consume too much protein then this can cause calcium loss from your bones as well as an imbalance in potassium levels which is dangerous for the heart.

A high protein diet is not balanced or safe for the body - it is a moderate amount of protein consumed at regular intervals during the day that is vital for your health.

How much protein should I have?

The average woman should have about 80-90 grams of protein per day.
The average man should have about 100-110 grams per day.

Protein should be eaten at every meal so that the body gets the amino acids it needs regularly. It is vital to eat protein for breakfast since your body will have gone 10 hours or so without any food or any protein. If you eat toast and jam for breakfast then you are not giving your body any protein - have egg on toast or add a yoghurt or glass of milk to your breakfast.

Protein should form about 30-40% of every meal. You can judge this on your plate - about 1/3 of your plate should be protein and the rest should be vegetables and starch.

Some examples of the amount of protein in different foods:
28g of meat/poultry/fish has just 7g of usable protein.
1 egg has 7g protein.
1 cup of low-fat milk has 8g protein.
1 cup of plain yoghurt has 12g protein.
28g of cheese has 8-10g protein (depends on the cheese).
1/3 cup of cooked lentils has 6g protein.
1/2 cup of broad beans has 6g protein.
3/4 oz of cashew nuts has 5.7g protein.
2 tbsps of peanut butter has 8g protein.

A day's protein for a woman could include 2 eggs for breakfast, 140g of meat/fish for lunch (or 50g meat + 50g cheese), 140g of meat/fish for dinner plus snacks of a handful of almonds and a babybel cheese.

A day's protein for a man could include 2 eggs and 3 rashers of bacon for breakfast, 170g of meat/fish for lunch (or 75g meat + 50g cheese), 170g of meat/fish for dinner plus snacks of a handful of almonds and a babybel cheese.

All pulses/beans/nuts/seeds contain about 1/3 protein and 2/3 carbohydrate so they should be eaten in moderation (unless you're vegan and they are your only protein source). More about carbohydrates and starch in my next posting though...

Food Elimination = Detox Downer

I have now been on my intolerance-free diet for 2 weeks. The main difference to what I was eating before is that I'm not having my daily eggs, dairy and yeast. What I hadn't realised is the effect that removing those intolerances can have on your system and the ups and downs you will feel as your body clears out the built up intolerances. Last week was not a great week!!

When you have been regularly eating something you're intolerant to, not only does this trigger a reaction by your immune system to fight the 'bad' food but your digestive system is also not able to digest the 'bad' food properly and this leaves a toxic residue which is stored in your body's cells. Once your cells reach saturation point and can't hold any more residue, the toxic residue stays in your bloodstream and causes health issues such as IBS, arthritis, headaches and allergies. When you stop eating the foods you're intolerant to then your immune system is not constantly being activated to deal with 'bad' foods and within 5 days of not having those foods, your brain will register that it is safe to start clearing out the toxic residue. When the cells start releasing their stores of residue, this flood of toxins into the blood can make you feel really ill for about 4 days until the residue has been cleared from the blood. Once the blood is clear again, this triggers the brain again and more residue is released and so on until it's all out of your system. This can apparently take up to 2 months, although you don't feel as ill with each successive 'toxic dump'.

I hadn't realised that this could happen so last Sunday when I started to feel totally spaced-out, achy and feverish with indigestion and an upset stomach I just presumed I'd picked up a virus from somewhere. When no cold developed by the next day I started to wonder if it was related to the food elimination and then remembered a book I have called The Body Talks by Judy Cole. How could I have forgotten this book? Judy Cole's research found that many health problems and weight issues stem from food intolerances and not eating nutritionally balanced meals, plus she advocates a low starch diet which is exactly what I have been following for the past 3 years since I read that immunology researchers at Middlesex Hospital in England had found a low-statch diet could help Ankylosing Spondylitis. Cole's book clearly explains the impact of food intolerances (which is where my brief summary above comes from) and the symptoms of Cellular Detox (detox of your cells). It was reassuring to read not only that what I was feeling was part of process but it also clearly demonstrated that the foods I've cut out must have been damaging my system otherwise I wouldn't have had any toxins to expel!

The Cellular Detox should last up to 2 months by which time your immune system should be starting to heal because it's not being overloaded on a daily basis by foods it needs to fight. The complete healing of the immune system can take up to 3 months but if at any time in your life you start to regularly eat your intolerant foods again then the whole residue build-up and ill health will start again. It doesn't mean I can never eat eggs or dairy again, but once I've finished the 2 months I can try them and see how my body feels. If I have no adverse reaction, I should still never have them more than once in 5 days because that is how long it can take foods to be digested, pass all round the body and then be excreted. By leaving a minimum of 5 days between having eggs (for example), I can be sure that my system is clear of any tiny amount of toxic residue before having them again - by having them more often, there won't be time for the previous residue to clear before more is added, then more, then more....back to square 1.

The past 2 weeks have gone very quickly so the next 6 will fly by. I really miss butter for cooking since it is more natural and safe (in moderation) than cooking oils which contain artery-clogging trans-fats and I miss eggs with my bacon on a Friday morning but apart from that the new diet is not a major issue. One thing that could really interest a lot of people is that by losing all the toxins you also lose weight and cellulite. After I stopped eating wheat / cereal products 3 years ago all my cellulite disappeared. That alone is a good reason to try it out!

Tissue Salts

When I saw Belinda Rennie yesterday she did a tissue salts test on me. Tissue salts are a homeopathic nutritional supplement developed by Dr. Wilhelm Schuesser in 1880 (so they've been around for a long time). There are 12 different salts based on the 12 most common mineral tissue salts found in the body and the rationale is that if you are deficient in any of these minerals then the result will be some form of illness or condition.

The test was very simple and how it works can't be explained. She used a 'wand' which had a wooden handle and a metal wand with a wooden circle attached at the end. I had to hold the bottle of tissue salts (so we did it 12 times since there are 12 bottles) and she then pointed the wand at my hand. The wand would either start to jump up and down (indicating I don't need that salt) or would wave from side to side (indicating I do need the salt). Similar to crystal therapy where the body's energy field supposedly tells the crystal yes or no to the question you're posing. I was rather dubious but the movement of the wand was not coming from Belinda and the results were not exactly what Belinda had expected - so she wasn't controlling it.

The test showed I need just 3 of the salts and when she looked each one up afterwards, all 3 of the ones my body had 'selected' related to inflammation, connective tissue problems, joint inflammation or stomach issues. So very much relevant to IBS and Ankylosing Spondylitis - weird! The salts can even be given to children so they are very safe and I thought it couldn't do any harm to try them. So I have to take 2 tablets of each 3 times a day (so that is 18 tablets a day!) for the next month. You don't swallow them though, you put them on your tongue and they dissolve. Whilst they don't really taste bad, they are kind of chalky and not all that pleasant. Oh well, no pain no gain...

Bio-Magnetic Feedback

I had my bio-magnetic feedback session last week and have to admit that I'm undecided about it. The ankle and wrist straps are light rubber with electric wires connected to them and once they were on I couldn't even feel them. The head strap is also of light rubber but because it's velcro'd round your head, the pressure of the back of your head pressing into the strap became a bit uncomfortable after a while. Apart from the strap, I didn't feel anything - no tingling and no electric shocks! I lay there for nearly an hour and since the bed is not set up like in a spa (support pillow under your knees, low pillow under your head) I began to ache a bit since lying on my back is the most uncomfortable position for me unfortunately.

I didn't expect an epiphany but I though the results might be interesting. Sadly, the results didn't seem to show anything. She said she'd found no 'blockages' which means that my energy meridiens were all open and free-flowing and that the machine itself hadn't identified any food issues - not quite sure how it would do that anyway. The only two real things were that I use my head too much and worry about things and that I don't chew my food properly so it's hard for my system to digest it. So the advice was to chew properly before swallowing and to try and do a daily meditation to relax and release any anxiety.

Now that I'm more aware of my chewing, I realise that I do tend to have a few munches and then swallow it down half whole. Explains how it is I can eat so fast! So I'm trying hard to consciously make myself chew chew chew. The worrying is also true and I do try to rationalise everything and organise things to keep it all well-ordered (this whole search for answers to my IBS / AS is a prime example I suppose). Anyway, my Mum bought me a fantastic book on yoga about 10 years ago which has breathing and meditation exercises so I've dug that out. In my final year at university I was doing these exercises every day and I slept fantastically (no vivid dreams at all) and was really calm and never got bothered about things. I don't know why I stopped but hopefully it will get me back to that zen-state again!

Food Intolerance Results!

I collected my food intolerance blood test results the other day and it was very interesting. For the past 3 years I haven't eaten wheat or cereal products because my research had told me that these starchy foods could cause my IBS and then Ankylosing Spondylitis to flare up. My blood test results showed no intolerance to wheat / gluten / other cereals at all but rather a strong intolerance to yeast. So does this mean the IBS issues I would get from bread were from the yeast then? But what about breakfast cereals (which do NOT agree with me), do they have yeast in them? Lots of questions for my nutritionist when I see her tomorrow.

My highest intolerance came up as milk products (including butter and yoghurt). I'm not a big milk fan, but if I can't have yoghurt then how will I get my calcium? I am a big chocolate fan though - does this mean I can't have my beloved Twirl, Crunchie, Guylian Seashells....? Boo hoo!
Other lesser intolerances were okra (ladies' fingers), almonds, lobster, sunflower seeds, eggs and chilis (can't say avoiding chilis will be hard to do). So not too long of a list but yeast and dairy are two pretty huge areas since so many foods include one or both of these ingredients. Let's see what steer Belinda can give me in the morning.

Anti-Inflammatory Diet

My nutritionist recommended that I buy a book called The Inflammation-Free Diet Plan by Monica Reinagel. Extremely interesting reading! Apparently it is becoming more understood and recognised that inflammation inside the body plays a big role in heart disease, auto-immune conditions, Alzheimer's, diabetes, allergies and many other chronic conditions. People can suffer systemic inflammation (meaning it affects the whole body) without even realising it since this sort of inflammation affects your cells and so isn't seen or even felt in most cases. Reinagel's primary research focus was how to assess the inflammatory effect specific foods have on the body and her book explains this in a very clear and easy to follow manner.

Our bodies produce pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory chemicals (prostaglandins) in response to our immune system's signals, it does this by using the fatty acids in our food to make the prostaglandins. Omega-6 fatty acids convert into inflammatory prostaglandins and Omega-3 fatty acids convert into anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. It is vital to maintain a balance so that you don't produce too many inflammatory prostaglandins as this will result in systemic inflammation and an overload on the immune system. It is thought that in the Stone Age man ate roughly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 foods, in modern times the average person eats about 20 times more omega-6 foods than omega-3 foods! Why? We eat a lot more bread-products and highly processed foods - as I've complained before most snack foods are wheat-based. Plus livestock (cows, hens, sheep) and farmed fish are also fed a diet of mainly grain rather than traditional grass / plants (or algae and tiny fish for fish) which means their meat is also higher in omega-6 than it was historically.

Reinagel has developed an Inflammation Rating (IF Rating) using the research of the US Department of Agriculture and the research of the Glycemic Index Research Institure, Australia. By combining over twenty different factors for each food type, she has been able to create this rating system that is as simple as possible for a lay person to both understand and follow. Foods with a positive rating are anti-inflammatory and foods with a negative rating are pro-inflammatory. The inflammation-free diet is not a strict diet with a whole list of 'banned foods' - it is a question of balancing what food items you eat across the day to make sure you remain on the positive (anti-inflammatory) side of the scale. That's not to say that eating unhealthily and 'negatively' all day can be offset by eating one very highly positive food - it is a complete system to ensure healthy, balanced eating habits are developed and maintained. The average person should aim for a daily 'score' of +50 but for anyone who already has an inflammatory condition (such as my ankylosing spodylitis) then the aim should be at least +200.

Some of the key findings she made that she was surprised at since they didn't follow the standard thinking of nutritionists were:
1. Beans and legumes are slightly inflammatory - this doesn't mean they should be avoided, they just need eaten with anti-inflammatory foods to offset them.
2. Lean cuts of beef and pork are anti-inflammatory whereas chicken and turkey are actually inflammatory.
3. Meat from younger animals (lamb, veal) is more inflammatory than meat from mature livestock since as animals age their tissue composition changes and they build up a better balance of omega-3 and 6 fats.
4. Low-fat dairy products are less inflammatory than full-fat but even the full-fat products are not severly inflammatory and so can be balanced out with other foods.
5. Cold water fish (sardines, salmon, tuna, herring etc) are the best anti-inflammatory food source. However, farmed salmon is one of the most inflammatory foods so it's recommended to by only wild salmon (tinned is just as good as fresh).
6. Garlic, ginger, turmeric, chili peppers and curry powder are very anti-inflammatory; just a teaspoon of turmeric provides a huge anti-inflammatory benefit.
7. All grains (including wholegrain bread and brown rice) are inflammatory but again the key is not avoidance, it is balance.
8. Most oils and butter are inflammatory but olive oil and canola oil are anti-inflammatory.
9. Sugary, fatty and junk foods are inflammatory - no surprises there!
10. Most fruits are inflammatory - but again, moderation and balance are the buzz words.

The book itself is only 60 pages of actual explanation and the rest is then made up of lists of all the various foods with their IF rating (plus fat and carbohydrate content for those needing to lose weight). The foods are listed alphabetically and then by food group (all meats together, all fish, all vegetables etc). I would say that I am an extremely healthy eater but when I wrote down everything I ate on Friday and added up my 'score' I got a final total of -600!! Super-inflammatory. Using excel, I plugged in my intended foods for Saturday, Sunday and Monday and was then able to use the food group section to find alternatives to any highly inflammatory items. As an example, a baked potato is -258 whereas a baked sweet potato is +210 so that is an easy switch that immediately helps to raise the daily total.

I would by lying if I said that it's easy to start on this plan - it took me nearly 2 hours to work out those 3 days of meals. However, I know it will get easier because I don't eat thousands of different foods so I'll be able to simply copy and paste each food with its IF Rating and that shouldn't then take too much time. In terms of planning meals, I'll continue as before and will then plug all the foods into the excel spreadsheet and if it shows a negative balance then I'll look at the highly negative foods to see what positive alternatives there are. Simple! It's going to take at least a couple of weeks to have a noticeable effect but fingers-crossed...

Food Allergies - The Key to IBS and Ankylosing Spondylitis?

I had a very interesting session with a nutritionist yesterday (Belinda Rennie at Cooper Health Clinic). I went to see her to discuss my diet as I have a couple of conditions that I believe food allergies can make worse. After managing my diet myself for three years and excluding foods that my web research told me could be 'trigger foods', I decided it was time to get some expert advice since how foods interact with each other and within the body is pretty complicated stuff once you look into it in detail!

I suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Ankylosing Spondylitis. What are these? IBS is a malfunction of, strangely enough, the bowel and gives you stomach pain, bloating and other unmentionables! Ankylosing Spondylitis is an auto-immune condition (similar to rheumatoid arthiritis) which means that the immune system goes into over-drive and attacks your joints and the ligaments between them causing inflammation and pain. Without treatment, the body's natural healing method is for the ligaments to slowly calcify into bone resulting in fusion of the joints together into one solid piece of bone.

The interesting thing my research had told me was that a lot of people with Ankylosing Spondylitis also have IBS. Coincidence? I don't think so. The thinking is that if you eat foods that don't agree with your system then this triggers the immune system, resulting in an IBS attack which can lead to the immune system getting a bit too excited and then attacking your joints. I had learned that a low starch diet could really help and as a result I stopped eating all cereal products (breakfast cereal, bread, corn, biscuits, cakes etc) and had a HUGE improvement. However, bread is a great food for making you feel full and almost all snacks you can buy are wheat based. So not an easy 'diet' to follow and hence my decision to see Belinda to understand whether it really is all cereal products I should avoid or whether there might be other options for me.

Two very interesting things came out almost immediately: 1. I suddenly became intolerant to garlic a few years ago - it makes me nauseous - and she said this could be a sign of a liver blockage (nothing serious, but could just need a detox or acupuncture therapy) and 2. buckwheat is not actually wheat, it is a seed and it can be cooked and eaten like couscous or in the form of Japanese soba noodles! She then went on to explain that it is widely believed in the nutritional community that food intolerances lead to inflammation within your body which in turn can lead to a huge number of chronic conditions (such as my two or others like psoriaris, type II diabetes, chronic headaches and more). This is because if you are constantly feeding your body a food that it can't tolerate then your immune system is constantly fighting that food and an overactive immune system leads to these problems. What can be done to identify these intolerances?

Firstly you can have a blood test done which then assesses your blood's response to almost 300 different foods; if your blood produces antibodies (immune system kicking in) to the food then it means you're intolerant. They grade the antibody response 0-4 with 0 = eat it without problem, 1 and 2 = eliminate for 2 months then reintroduce and see reaction, 3 = eliminate for 6 months then reintroduce and see reaction and 4 = eliminate for 12 months then reintroduce and see reaction. It's quite expensive to do it but I think will be well worth it if it means I'll know for sure how to arrange what I do and don't eat. They can also test for allergies but you would know if you have an allergy (although you might not know exactly what to) because you would swell up - luckily I don't have that problem.

Secondly, she offers Quantum Biofeedback therapy which involves a device being attached to you (head harness, wrist and ankle straps - sounds rather like an electric chair!) and a low electric pulse being sent through you to carry out an 'energy scan'. A good explanation she gave me was that all molecules are constantly moving so if a baby screams at the same resonance as a glass' molecules are vibrating then the glass will shatter. Other examples are an ECG that looks at your heart's electrical pulses and an EEG that looks at the brain's electrical wiring. So it is scientifically proven that the body has electric 'pathways' (in Chinese medicine these are energy meridiens). Quantum Biofeedback allows her to see if there are any areas of the body where the current slows down and this shows a blockage in the 'path'. The device itself can help to unblock your system, or acupuncture can do the same.

The blood test only identifies the foods that your body doesn't like, the biofeedback helps to identify areas of your body that aren't functioning properly (i.e. your liver) which could mean that you are perhaps not able to digest / metabolise the food you are eating properly. By combining both methods, you should get a much more accurate picture of what's going on. I'm starting with the biofeedback next week and will also have the blood test soon (the results take a week to come back). I'll keep you updated and if it works for me, you could try it too. I'll be the guinea-pig!