Breakfast of Supplements

It's been about almost a month since my last post about the dreaded hives, and trying to overcome them with beans.  The beans have been helpful, and I cook batches of navy beans with some adzuki mixed in and it turns out this combination helps thicken my soup base.  It tastes good, and presumably is good for me.  What I found also helps is the addition of 50 to 100 grams of pea protein every day.  I usually mix the protein in reverse osmosis water and add fruit, especially blueberries.   I think wild blueberries are a little smaller and mix better.  A banana or part of a banana helps.  Sometimes I add some coconut milk or almond milk. I think the protein change how I digest my food, so that the environment for my gut bacteria is different. Although I still have the hives, I don't have them as badly, they are much lighter and the splotches on my skin are much smaller in the morning. It's as though everything is getting back to normal. ...

I've been successfully battling the hives by cutting back on sugars and starches, or rather cutting back as much as I can.  I was considering stopping the crackers when I saw a video by  Dr. Bulsiewicz:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un90A52gX-Y&t=2895s I didn't watch all of it but the part I did watch was very interesting, where he talks about certain beans feeding gut bacteria (the good ones) and providing substances that help rid your colon of dysfunctional ones. I  bought some dried navy beans and purchased a pressure cooker and cooked up a batch and put it in a jar.  I intend to eat more beans. Black beans were mentioned in the video, and I think I shall get some of those and combine them with the navy beans and add them to my soups. I shall, over the coming weeks, find out if this helps with my but bacteria problem.

It is so difficult to remove starch and sugar from my diet.  I did manage to remove enough so the hives don't itch so much, but I still see the blossoming red markers. Today I decided to make my special green goo:  I used reverse osmosis water (I'm taking an MSM pill and MSM combines with chlorine); I add about 35 grams of protein and a couple of grams of spirulina; some spices which change based on my mood, tomato paste, garlic paste and just a bit of coconut oil. I have to be careful of coconut oil, since if I take too much over several weeks, my blood pressure will go up. So I had a minor flair up today, but I only noticed it this afternoon because I took a shower and looked in the mirror.   Besides, I don't know how much was leftover from yesterday. Twice, I had the green goo, and then when I made dinner, I put some vegetables (spinach, onion and green onion, mushrooms and green & red peppers) in water and boiled it before adding protein, spirulina, s...

In an effort to rid myself of hives , I've changed my diet from a starch heavy, protein light diet to a protein heavy starch light diet.  At first it wasn't easy, since I wasn't used to it.  Starting the day with a protein smoothie, I would later have some oatmeal. I had been eating oatmeal (with dates or maple syrup), crackers throughout the day, later in the day some crackers with blackberry preserves and more recently bread. Initially, I stopped putting sweet stuff on my oatmeal, and just added salt.  Then I started adding protein powder to my soups. I was surprised at how good the protein made me feel.  I thought, from watching medical people discuss protein on You Tube that I was getting enough, and I was wrong because I could feel it. I had to order more protein and it took a while to arrive, so I purchased some at Whole Foods. It took a week to go through my first pound, I ordered more from Nuts.com because they have relatively inexpensive organic pe...

I've had great success with clearing my arteries with my version of the Esselstyn diet.  But I developed a terrible condition of hives.  Bright red welts would show up and sometimes they would be painful. I noticed a relationship with eating starches and the welts, the welts followed my meals, although sometimes the welts wouldn't be gone by the next morning. I hypothesized that some little microorganism in my gut was producing something that I was allergic to a few hours after I ate.  This seemed especially problematic when Mary and I were on trips and we would eat in restaurants. On our trip to Wrightsville Beach it became painful. What to do? Initially, I tried intermittent fasting, and that helped a little, but my diet was basically whole grain starches, potatoes and a variety of vegetables mixed in.  I would start the day with oatmeal and then had one or more bowls of soup prepared fresh with it's mixture of potatoes, grains and beans mixed with spina...

It goes without saying that I'm old.  I will turn 71 this summer and I've been through the medical mill.  Somewhat altered because of Cancer Therapy and Heart Disease. While I was suffering from chronic headache because the post cancer, Cancer Prophylaxis Treatment, A Thalidomide look alike drug called Lenalidomide AKA Revlimid,  left me a permanent headache, I was told my Headache Doctors  that 400 mg of B2 with 400mg CoQ10 would help me grow the brain cells that I was losing because of the chronic pain.   Also works great for Chemo-Brain. I've been taking that expensive stuff ever since because age isn't good for the brain either. B2 is Riboflavin, by the way.  But that isn't the only thing that supports the brain, let me recommend Cod Liver Oil and DHEA.  After I had my chest ripped open and my coronary arteries bypassed, and started reducing the fat content of my diet, my brain was in rather poor condition, and exercise was difficult...

I became bored with my soup and so I made changes: Added green onions to my batch of frozen onions.  When I put onions in my soup it includes green onions. Simplify to just a few things: usually a starch such as potatoes, some onions (yellow and green), and some peas and mushrooms.   If the starch is pasta, I might add some strained tomato or tomato paste. Use a small pan if I'm just cooking for me.   Different mix of grains:  I usually have a base of pearled barley, but I like to add millet and sometimes: short grain brown rice, long grain brown rice, farro (Emmer Wheat) or Durham wheat. Directions for cooking grain: I use a medium sized cooking pot. Add about (and change the amount for taste) three fourths of a cup of barley, a quarter cup of millet and then one of the remaining grains: rice, farro, or Durham wheat. Add water, but not the amount that you would add if you were cooking for direct consumption;  maybe only fill the pan half w...