In last Wednesday's New York Times, August 3, 2011, Jeff Gordinier wrote about Seamus Mullen in "A Chef Finds Healing In Food." Chef Mullen, head of Boqueria in the Flatiron district in 2007, was struck down with rheumatoid arthritis at 37. The painful and deforming autoimmune disease which inflames the joints is not well understood, but it is known to attack healthy cells. Can it be managed? Of course, most pain can be managed with the right medications. However, with the Humira, Orencia and NSAIDS there are side effects and eventual kidney damage, though no one likes to discuss this. What else is new?
Showing posts with label Gluten-free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gluten-free. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Gastric Band Blow-up!
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| This picture is taken from the FDA site. |
How overweight would you have to be before you decided to have Lap Band surgery, say if you were 5'6"? Would your weight have to exceed 350 pounds? 300 pounds? 250 pounds? Maybe it's more imaginable to ask if you were 100 pounds overweight, would you decide to get the surgery. Doctors currently have lowered the threshold to 100 pounds overweight, with the candidate most likely suffering from some chronic health issues which are being exacerbated by the extra weight; and most likely the candidate is older, in their 40s and needs a boost because in the next years, their quality of life will be drastically curtailed.
But what if you are in your 20s and extremely overweight, or say morbidly obese? 28 Stone to be exact! Stone is a British weight measurement: 1 stone is equivalent to 14 pounds. What if you were 392 pounds? Can you imagine the ostracism your ungainly fat rolls would receive in America with our stick insect beauties being the heavenly icons of desirability and sexiness? And what if you have "A PRETTY FACE?" My dear friend! Can we talk? No one in America is looking at a beautiful fat face; especially MEN! especially STRAIGHT men. especially STRAIGHT MEN IN THEIR 20s and 30s who are NOT chubby chasers. England isn't much better, even if Victoria Beckham is taking a stand. Do I need to go ballistic here about cultural standards and folkways STIGMATIZING obesity? Egregious!!! This is a PG blog or I would curse in every language and still not even begin to vent my full disgust at the lack of humanity, grace and decency shown toward overweight women. Sorry, back to Lap Band.
Lap Band is an option to end end the terrors and depressions of diet failure and the enforced rape and seizure of fat cells as the dieter attempts to shrink them. Lap Band softens the excruciating pains of starvation feelings as the cells attenuate and lose their fat. LAP BAND (Please read between the lines if you click on this site to see how the AD is presented; note the pictures are of young people; analyze the emphasis.) promises the glory and beauty of a thin body and the remarkable joy of what that means in this unforgiving, unrelenting culture. GOOD GOD!!! WHAT MORE COULD A MORBIDLY OBESE WOMAN ASK FOR? (except gastric by-pass...which is more dangerous)
Women are going for Lap Band. As more individuals resort to Lap Band, ruptures and slippages may occur like the one that happened to 25 year old Samantha Haworth from Wasgrave, Coventry, UK (click link). In her own words: "When they opened me up there was no stomach left. It had exploded." (Mail Online) As Genie has discussed, Lap Band is "not a magic bullet," nor is it fool proof safe. There are tremendous downsides. The dangers of doing it should probably exceed the risk of not. Vanity is not an option in this one ladies. Tell the gentleman, either love you for your fat or look the other way.
Or, if you can, devise your own, yes, your very own means of coming up with a lifestyle, yes LIFESTYLE plan you can do for the rest of your life that doesn't involve eating chemicals, processed "foods," etc., but involves you choosing food items that are fresh, local and vibrantly colored, and proteins which are milder, finer and more easily digestible (chicken, fish, etc.) You may also have a gluten allergy that is not helping you to feel full and that is causing you to eat more and gain weight. Check it out.
Anyway, you don't want your Band to slip and your stomach to explode. In fact, if you can help it, you don't want a band unless it is vitally necessary to your health!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Novak Djokovic Wins Wimbledon: What Helped Him!
I am a huge tennis fan, having dropped a chunk of money at the US Open for the last 9 years for seats, memorabilia, the whole shebang. I've had the mini plans and exhausted myself going day and evening, especially to see the early matches, mostly the exciting ones held on the grounds. The swarms of internationals, the dense crowds, the heat, the sun, the mammoth lines to Louis Armstrong Stadium, the wait times (and you might not get in)...so what? It is the most amazing global venue for tennis, and it's five minutes away. I refuse to move from Kew Gardens because I'm centrally located near the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center where I also play indoors in the winter months, and the airports (5 minutes to LaGuardia, 15 to Kennedy).
I have seen Nadal, Federer and Djokovic when they were coming up. I was court side when I saw the Magician (Fabrice Santoro) with great good humor and elfin grace rankle Federer until the Fed won in three entertaining sets. I remember watching courtside this guy Nadal in pirate pants beat Carlos Moya (adorable) wishing and hoping Moya could overthrow him in the last, not even knowing whom I was looking at. And I've seen Djokovic collapse in the heat and call time outs because of asthma and later being teased about it by his tennis colleagues for all the medicals he pulled.
I, too, have had asthma and have been tired and exhausted. If you don't have it, you just don't register what it's like to be out of breath during an asthma attack, or weak chested even without allergens present...and tired, though somehow you manage to push yourself, though you feel like resting. Fatigue? Asthmatics have more than their share of it, and others, not knowing the full effects of the disease, think they are lazy, weak or prankster lying to "get out of work!" NOOOOOTTTTT!!
I discovered that my fatigue, my aches, my asthma, my eczema and especially my overeating was caused by a gluten allergy, not typical of what doctors have assumed to be symptoms of a gluten allergy which is diarrhea. I have been off gluten now for over two years; the progress in my weight loss and the current health I enjoy I never would have known was possible. So when a friend told me she heard a commentator discussing with Dick Enberg (who said it was probably just an emotional thing) how Novak trounced his love of pizza, pasta and other gluten items to strengthen his immune system and create a healthy body, I felt vindicated! Would you believe I have had friends think I am nuts about this gluten thing; I was asymptomatic regarding the typical, medical industrial complex diagnoses for gluten allergy. But I just knew how I felt! (click link)
Likewise, Novak knew how he felt before and after overcoming his gluten allergy. (Athletes usually bulk up on carbs for strength they need; little did he realize what he was bulking up on was making him sick and destroying his health.) He looks marvelous and he has been playing incredibly well. I do not find any of this coincidental or "mental/emotional" as Enberg suggested. (Would someone please tell that man to become knowledgeable and if he chooses not to, just hold his tongue!) And now, Novak has won Wimbledon. I wish I could say I'm surprised. I'm not. His excellent fitness (mental and physical) stress free of the toxins that were debilitating him for his whole life (yes, gluten is a toxin for those who are allergic to it) will guarantee more Grand Slam wins for him. Congratulations, Novak! We raise a cup of gluten-freedom to your continued success!
FYI (Wall Street Journal)
click here
Friday, June 3, 2011
Glutenista No More
I am a Glutenista in her recreation stage. A first-generation Italian, with both parents born in Bagnoli del Trigno in the Apennines Mountains, I chowed down on pasta three days a week, along with breads, home baked goodies and in the summer, fresh fruits and vegetables. My mom belonged to a social network of women who visited each other's homes on Saturdays and competed with each other for the Mrs. Joy of Cooking award home made cakes, cookies, pies and even an Irish Soda Bread (Madeline won the award that week for her delicious novelty). Naturally, I accompanied my mother, not for the sewing and gossip, but for the gluten goodies.
I wore a Chubbette , and Gabe, my brother, wore "Huskies," euphemisms for fat and not so fat kids. We exercised, playing outdoors every day in the summer and appeared very robust and healthy. We trailed the usual childhood disease path overcoming each one. But we were chronics. I had horrific bouts of eczema. As a three and four-year-old, I scratched my skin to a weeping ooze that nothing seemed to alleviate, certainly no home remedies like butter or lemon (a neighbor's caustic suggestion) or the little cotton gloves my father lovingly made for me along with the wise words to keep my hands in a prayerful position when I slept at night so I wouldn't make them bloody. His love soothed and the gloves felt good, and I did scratch less, but I still had the eczema.
My brother was severely asthmatic and I mean scary. A real heavy breather. And of course, the treatments were not what they were today. The doctors made home visits; nothing seemed to alleviate it. They went down South as a part of a new drug trial. But the special allergy shot that doctors gave him at Johns Hopkins nearly killed him and he came home to Patchogue much worse than before. A turning point came when someone tipped my mom off about this herb you smoked that alleviated the constrictions and asthmatic rat snarly breathing. Under mom's supervision, he tried it and the herb, indeed worked. He inhaled that smoke burning herb every time he had an asthmatic attack. We may have been the first Italian family back in the 50s to use medical marajuana. (I am joking; this was an herbal remedy for asthma that a practitioner of herbal medicine possibly uses. I never knew the name; nor does my brother remember it.) But when your first born is suffering miserably, you'll try anything. It worked.
My ingrained (no pun intended) love of flour products blossomed as my girth ballooned over the years. My love of pasta, bread, bakery items, pies, cookies, mostly homemade, with occasional processed, hydrogenated laden packaged sweets and snack foods to tie me over when I couldn't get to a good Italian bakery was legend. Obesity was the gene that ran in our family; members on both paternal and maternal sides were obese. When I periodically tired of my mirror reflection, I dieted and yo-yoed twelve times. It never occurred to me that a gluten allergy contributed to my weight gain because I was gluten intolerant. (None of the feeling full signals spark when that gluten protein is lurking on the scene in pasta dishes, bakery goods and bread baskets.)
This last time of weight loss was a lifestyle change a whole being change. During a Master Cleanse fast, I discovered I was allergic to gluten, all gluten products. The pasta, the breads (even the delicious home made Italian peasant breads) the cakes, pies, ALL OF IT! The asthma (Oh, I didn't tell you I became asthmatic in my early 20s?) the eczema, the sluggishness, the fatigue, the achy joints, the headaches, all of these I experienced the last forty years were gluten exacerbated. Though I was under a doctor's care for the allergies, the eczema and the asthma (I had shots and inhalers and prednisone and would end up in the emergency room occasionally, but I learned to stay away from cats, dogs, smoke, dust, mold and trees and an X husband who was obese, smoked and had a dog...too much over stimulation for me.) none of the doctors even thought about gluten as the noxious flea sucking away at my lifeblood and inflaming my immune system.
I found out purely by accident; the process of elimination. I didn't eat pasta and bread for a few weeks, substituting them with green, organic, local. I had been influenced by discussions with friends who were organic and vegan and by the gentle nudging of two cousins, Robert and Ben, who are incredibly well, vital, handsome and energetic (they are older than I am) where others their age have long passed or are in nursing homes. Oh, I forgot to mention, they are into alternative medicine, are avid readers about health issues and they always apprise themselves of the latest advances in alternative health treatments, Holistic medicine and homeopathy. Back to gluten-free. My symptoms, except for the eczema (which I find I also get when I have any oils, even extra virgin olive oil) abated. I have been asthma free ever since. And I have not been ill in the past three years. I also attribute this to getting sun in the summer, allowing my body to produce natural vitamin D; the sun also heals my eczema. Recently, without having oils or gluten I have been eczema-free.
I will discuss more about this next week. However, I recommend the following websites if you have my old symptoms and others like arthritis, joint pain, osteoarthritis or any digestive diseases like colitis. irritable bowel syndrome, etc. Additionally, there is this site and this site. Next week I will review a book on gluten-free recipes that are not high on the unhealthy list. One must be careful. If you find you are gluten intolerant like I was, you must not overcompensate by still eating unhealthily. There is the right way and the wrong way. If you are deciding to become gluten-free, then why not do it the right way. It is working for me. But everyone is individual. Find out for yourself what works best for you.
I wore a Chubbette , and Gabe, my brother, wore "Huskies," euphemisms for fat and not so fat kids. We exercised, playing outdoors every day in the summer and appeared very robust and healthy. We trailed the usual childhood disease path overcoming each one. But we were chronics. I had horrific bouts of eczema. As a three and four-year-old, I scratched my skin to a weeping ooze that nothing seemed to alleviate, certainly no home remedies like butter or lemon (a neighbor's caustic suggestion) or the little cotton gloves my father lovingly made for me along with the wise words to keep my hands in a prayerful position when I slept at night so I wouldn't make them bloody. His love soothed and the gloves felt good, and I did scratch less, but I still had the eczema.
My brother was severely asthmatic and I mean scary. A real heavy breather. And of course, the treatments were not what they were today. The doctors made home visits; nothing seemed to alleviate it. They went down South as a part of a new drug trial. But the special allergy shot that doctors gave him at Johns Hopkins nearly killed him and he came home to Patchogue much worse than before. A turning point came when someone tipped my mom off about this herb you smoked that alleviated the constrictions and asthmatic rat snarly breathing. Under mom's supervision, he tried it and the herb, indeed worked. He inhaled that smoke burning herb every time he had an asthmatic attack. We may have been the first Italian family back in the 50s to use medical marajuana. (I am joking; this was an herbal remedy for asthma that a practitioner of herbal medicine possibly uses. I never knew the name; nor does my brother remember it.) But when your first born is suffering miserably, you'll try anything. It worked.
My ingrained (no pun intended) love of flour products blossomed as my girth ballooned over the years. My love of pasta, bread, bakery items, pies, cookies, mostly homemade, with occasional processed, hydrogenated laden packaged sweets and snack foods to tie me over when I couldn't get to a good Italian bakery was legend. Obesity was the gene that ran in our family; members on both paternal and maternal sides were obese. When I periodically tired of my mirror reflection, I dieted and yo-yoed twelve times. It never occurred to me that a gluten allergy contributed to my weight gain because I was gluten intolerant. (None of the feeling full signals spark when that gluten protein is lurking on the scene in pasta dishes, bakery goods and bread baskets.)
This last time of weight loss was a lifestyle change a whole being change. During a Master Cleanse fast, I discovered I was allergic to gluten, all gluten products. The pasta, the breads (even the delicious home made Italian peasant breads) the cakes, pies, ALL OF IT! The asthma (Oh, I didn't tell you I became asthmatic in my early 20s?) the eczema, the sluggishness, the fatigue, the achy joints, the headaches, all of these I experienced the last forty years were gluten exacerbated. Though I was under a doctor's care for the allergies, the eczema and the asthma (I had shots and inhalers and prednisone and would end up in the emergency room occasionally, but I learned to stay away from cats, dogs, smoke, dust, mold and trees and an X husband who was obese, smoked and had a dog...too much over stimulation for me.) none of the doctors even thought about gluten as the noxious flea sucking away at my lifeblood and inflaming my immune system.
I found out purely by accident; the process of elimination. I didn't eat pasta and bread for a few weeks, substituting them with green, organic, local. I had been influenced by discussions with friends who were organic and vegan and by the gentle nudging of two cousins, Robert and Ben, who are incredibly well, vital, handsome and energetic (they are older than I am) where others their age have long passed or are in nursing homes. Oh, I forgot to mention, they are into alternative medicine, are avid readers about health issues and they always apprise themselves of the latest advances in alternative health treatments, Holistic medicine and homeopathy. Back to gluten-free. My symptoms, except for the eczema (which I find I also get when I have any oils, even extra virgin olive oil) abated. I have been asthma free ever since. And I have not been ill in the past three years. I also attribute this to getting sun in the summer, allowing my body to produce natural vitamin D; the sun also heals my eczema. Recently, without having oils or gluten I have been eczema-free.
I will discuss more about this next week. However, I recommend the following websites if you have my old symptoms and others like arthritis, joint pain, osteoarthritis or any digestive diseases like colitis. irritable bowel syndrome, etc. Additionally, there is this site and this site. Next week I will review a book on gluten-free recipes that are not high on the unhealthy list. One must be careful. If you find you are gluten intolerant like I was, you must not overcompensate by still eating unhealthily. There is the right way and the wrong way. If you are deciding to become gluten-free, then why not do it the right way. It is working for me. But everyone is individual. Find out for yourself what works best for you.
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