More RA relief

New blogger Jen contacted me to share a link to Jen's RA journey. It's so gratifying to see somebody else who had such a dramatic response to dietary changes, as I did. :)

Elimination diets are difficult, but I can definitely tell you -- it's worth it!

Digestive Wellness

Just wanted to point you all to the Digestive Wellness Blog.

Enjoy!

Links, links and more links!

So sorry to bombard you. Life has been positively INSANE for us lately.

But yes, we still somehow manage to stay on the SCD. Priorities must stay in line, and they always do around here. :)

The Food Renegade weighs in on the new dietary recommendations.

She also posted about how high fat dairy is good for you. Cheese lovers rejoice!

Dr. Eades reviews a book about the importance of vitamin D.

The Heart Scan Blog talks about how grain free diets may negate the need for supplemental calcium.

And there's a lovely post here from Five Seed about vegetarians, vegans, and the fear of real food.

I've always said real foodists and veggies need to see that we're all on the same side. We're all in the same quest for clean, healthy eating.

Links

I thought I'd throw a few more links your way, but first I have an update!

Clark is doing much better with newly introduced foods. He's tried cantaloupe recently with no problems, and we've also tried guacamole. I'm going to try raw carrots next. Wish us luck!

A lot of people who cut out all grains have a bunch of symptoms that are typical of people going to a low carb diet. Mark's Daily Apple ran two articles about this:

The Low Carb Flu

How to Quit Grains

Also, The Heart Scan Blog had an interview with a low carb fertility doctor:

Low Carb Gynecologist

The interview with the gynecologist blew me away. I had HORRIBLE morning sickness throughout my entire pregnancy, and after I went into labor, I could keep nothing down. Even then, it seems my dysfunctional processing of carbs was to blame. :(

I hope you are all having a great week!

Salt

This New York Times Article, The Hard Sell on Salt, was very interesting to me.

There's been a lot of talk about salt reduction lately. Of course, many doctors still tell people to cut back on salt intake if they have high blood pressure.

However, many physicians now know that this tactic only works on a small percentage of salt-sensitive people.

Here's a quote from Mary Dan Eades, MD, on the issue:

Even if the point is to reduce high blood pressure, only a tiny minority of people who have elevated blood pressure have what’s called “salt sensitive” hypertension. For the rest, cutting sodium has been shown not only not to help but possibly to be downright detrimental.

(source)

Now I happen to think that Mary Dan Eades is a pretty smart cookie. I started to do my own research into studies with salt, and to be honest, there are just too many for me to do a quick rundown.

But I think the New York Times article really says it all, without drawing a more obvious conclusion.

Personally, I happen to think that upwards of 3000 mg of sodium chloride per day is excessive, although not in and of itself unhealthy. So what's the big deal about?

Here's a very interesting passage from that NY Times article:

The power that salt holds over processed foods can be seen in an American snack icon, the Cheez-It.

At the company’s laboratories in Battle Creek, Mich., a Kellogg vice president and food scientist, John Kepplinger, ticked off the ways salt makes its little square cracker work.

Salt sprinkled on top gives the tongue a quick buzz. More salt in the cheese adds crunch. Still more in the dough blocks the tang that develops during fermentation. In all, a generous cup of Cheez-Its delivers one-third of the daily amount of sodium recommended for most Americans.

As a demonstration, Kellogg prepared some of its biggest sellers with most of the salt removed. The Cheez-It fell apart in surprising ways. The golden yellow hue faded. The crackers became sticky when chewed, and the mash packed onto the teeth. The taste was not merely bland but medicinal.

“I really get the bitter on that,” the company’s spokeswoman, J. Adaire Putnam, said with a wince as she watched Mr. Kepplinger struggle to swallow.

They moved on to Corn Flakes. Without salt the cereal tasted metallic. The Eggo waffles evoked stale straw. The butter flavor in the Keebler Light Buttery Crackers, which have no actual butter, simply disappeared.

In that demonstration, Kellogg basically admitted that some of their most popular, heavily processed foods taste like garbage without salt.

And, well, you know how I feel about processed food, right?

The unvarnished truth is that people need to eat less processed foods. Salt hides the truth from them, and really, that's its only crime, if you're going to assign one.

Salt makes unhealthy foods palatable, and that's why it's so widely used.

So if you cut down on unhealthy processed foods, you are automatically consuming a whole lot less sodium, no matter how much you sprinkle on the rest of what you eat.

Eat less processed foods. The rest will take care of itself.

Vitamin D, sunscreen, and cancer

Sorry for the length of time between postings. I don't yet have a new recipe to post for you all.

I came across an article by Food Renegade titled Should you use sunscreen? It's thought provoking, to be sure.

Personally, I have not had much trouble with sunburn, despite rarely using sunscreen, being outside several times a week, and living in southern California. Yet when I was a child, I burned often.

I would still use sunblock if I were to go to the beach, and I would use it on my son as well. But for normal daily exposure or for a few hours at the park or the pier, I'm really not concerned about sunblock anymore.

Inflammation and the gut

Here's a nice article that explains a bit about the anti-inflammatory effects of a grain-free diet.

Diets such as these have been found to not only alleviate colitis, Crohn's, and autoimmune diseases, but have also been found to help people with autism, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia.