February 1st
Yes, as Dr. Adrian Copcea, Diabetes, Nutrition, Metabolic Diseases says in its post, “the medical evidence for avoiding gluten in situations other than celiac disease is not strong, or not yet,” but we people with other autoimmune diseases know that after eliminating gluten, the pain disappeared, the inflammatory markers decreased and the disease went into remission, or at least the symptoms were significantly reduced.
I don’t want to get into why there isn’t that medical evidence yet, even though entire books have been written on the benefits of eliminating gluten, nor why doctors don’t recommend avoiding gluten. I’d just like to give written testimony here: for us, people with autoimmune diseases other than celiac disease, eliminating gluten means health!
I’ll start: I’ve had ankylosing spondylitis for 33 years. I had the excruciating pain that anyone with spondylitis knows, until 12 years ago when I gave up gluten. Within days of eliminating gluten the pain disappeared and the inflammatory markers decreased. In the first year I had bad reactions to any trace of gluten (the pains came back strongly), now I tolerate traces, but in the last 12 years I haven’t eaten “concentrated gluten”, i.e. bread, pasta, cake, etc.
In the last 12 years, I had only one strong flare, when I entered menopause, which I managed with the anti-inflammatories recommended by the rheumatologist and the Autoimmune Protocol, a scientifically unproven diet. Now I only have small “niggles”, which do not prevent me from leading a “normal” life. Of course, apart from a gluten-free diet, I live a healthy lifestyle, which I talk about daily on this page and on my blog.
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For you people with autoimmune diseases other than celiac disease, how does the gluten-free diet help? What diseases do you have, did you eliminate gluten and did it help? Or maybe you eliminated gluten for a while, felt good, but couldn’t sustain the gluten-free diet for various reasons. Have symptoms returned after reintroducing gluten to your diet?
There is no medical evidence for eliminating gluten outside of celiac disease, but there are those of us who have eliminated gluten and it has helped. What do you think, did it help?
February 2nd
Healthy lifestyle
In yesterday’s post on the benefits of going gluten-free, many of you told me that the gluten-free diet was the first step on the road to other changes that brought you closer to a healthy, “normal” life. If you have an autoimmune disease, you know what I mean when I say “a normal life”: a life without much pain and full of energy, as you had before you got sick, and as most healthy people have.
Those changes are part of a healthy lifestyle. It’s about a set of habits and choices that bring us closer to the life we want to live. Changing just one component of our lifestyle doesn’t help us become healthy and radiant with happiness, but it can guide us to the other necessary changes.
After giving up gluten 12 years ago and starting to feel better and pain free, I realized there was something else I needed to change. I had freed my body and mind from pain and could perceive the world around me differently. Healthy people do not imagine what it means for life to be primarily pain. It takes over you and leaves no room for anything else. Slowly, gradually, I added other changes to my lifestyle that brought me closer to the person I want to become.
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A healthy lifestyle varies from person to person depending on several aspects: preferences, education, occupation, age, etc. I want to write a larger article sometime, but I will outline in this post the general components of a healthy lifestyle.
- Balanced diet: giving up gluten, including foods rich in essential nutrients, as well as limiting the consumption of processed foods and sugar. A moderate amount of food. I will also include water in the diet: drink water as much as necessary. Water, not other liquors!
- Regular physical activity: physical activities such as walking, running, cycling, swimming, yoga or playing a sport. Everyone who can and how they can, daily movement is important.
- Adequate rest and sleep: 7-9 hours of sleep per night, going to sleep between 9-11pm, waking up without an alarm clock would be ideal.
- Stress control: meditation, deep breathing, yoga, walks in nature, periodic disconnections from daily activity.
- Giving up harmful habits: smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, limiting “screen time”.
- Maintaining a healthy body weight: Everyone has a weight they feel good at, so know and maintain that weight.
- Social relationships: It’s important to connect with those around you and have a support network.
- Regular medical examinations: those with autoimmune diseases know what I’m talking about, we usually feel the state of the disease, we know when we are in severe or moderate flares, or in remission, but it’s good to have periodic check-ups.
- Development of spiritual and intellectual life: read, read, read! By reading, your knowledge and consciousness will expand and you will perceive life more beautifully and more fulfilling.
February 3rd
Someone commented on yesterday’s post saying that her autoimmune disease has changed her life for the better because all her searching to understand and improve her disease has made her feel so much better now than she did before it started. It takes wisdom to come to this conclusion. It takes going through all 5 stages of loss to rise from your own ashes and recompose yourself to have this vision.
When my spondylitis started, I had just turned 19. In the period before the first symptoms there had been great changes in my life, changes that would have thrown a full adult, not just a teenage girl, out of balance. I entered the life of an adult tormented by physical and mental pains, and that’s how the next years of my existence unfolded. I did not have time to build a life, a family and a career before the onset of the disease. In hindsight, I say that was a good thing: I had nothing to lose.
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An autoimmune disease starts in young adulthood, between the ages of 25 and 45 (with the exception of spondylitis, which usually starts in adolescence), when you’ve built up momentum in life, invested in yourself, and are waiting to see results. It’s not easy to see all your expectations come crashing down and you have to start from scratch. That you have to give up everything you had planned until then and… what? To lose your vision. You no longer see the end of the road, that quiet life, that “and they lived happily ever after”.
Sometimes you cling to that vision, cling to it, complain that life is hard, wait to be saved, look for a miracle. And other times you let go. You understand that that can no longer be your vision and you start from scratch. You are no longer looking at the high sky, but one meter in front of you, at the next step. At first you feel like a lesser human being than you were before. You see the difficulties, the disadvantages, you feel the pains, you compare yourself. And after a while, you realize what you have gained: you have learned to be patient, to manage with little, to breathe correctly, to eat well, to take care of yourself, to value yourself, to say a firm “no” and a grateful “yes”. And live again!
Now your mind encompasses more than before. Stop getting in your head with the past and worry about the future, but enjoy Today. You are a new human. And you rejoice with all your Being. You are reborn.
February 4th
“A smile is the beginning of love,” said Mother Teresa. What can be nicer than starting your day with a smile? Smile, it’s Sunday!
February 5th
For those without patience and experience, homemade bread can be too difficult an exam to pass. We read posts about bread that contain specialist terms: autolysis, stretch and fold, 100% hydration, cold proofing, boule and other Chinese bakery words that discourage us from even trying to make bread. And if we add to the equation the fact that the bread must be gluten-free… the action gets more complicated.
Those gluten-free bread mixes make making a loaf simple: mix the ingredients in a certain order, a soft dough comes out, no need for kneading and other frills, pour into the pan, leave to rise, bake and the bread is ready. Simple. But those mixes contain unnatural ingredients: hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, dextrose and other tempting “goodies”.
But what if you could make a bread from natural ingredients so simply?
This no-knead millet bread is very simple to make: mix the ingredients, pour into the pan, leave to rise and bake. You will quickly get a loaf of bread that you can toast, you can use it for canapés, you can do whatever you want with it. It’s not bitter, the maple syrup and egg sweeten the natural taste of the millet.
How about you try it?
February 6th
I am a selfish person.
I think first of all about myself. When I do something, I think about what benefits me first.
If I feel envious, I think: what is the use of envy? That doesn’t make me have what the person I envy has. I think about what I lack, not what someone else has.
If I feel like complaining, I think: what does it help me to complain? Crying for pity takes my personal power and places it outside of me.
If I find it difficult to do something and I feel like saying “I can’t”, I ask myself: how does it help me to say I can’t? Let me try, maybe I can!
If I have too much to do, and that involves working to the point of exhaustion, I think: let’s test my limits! Even if I will fall from fatigue, the joy of the accomplished work is priceless!
If someone asks me for something and I don’t want to give it to them, I look the person in the eye and say: I’m sorry, I won’t be able to do that for you!
If I feel the need to compare myself to someone else, I say to myself: what good is it to me? It doesn’t help me if I feel smaller or bigger compared to others. That says nothing about me, except that I have great pride.
If I feel like casting a critical eye on someone else’s fence, I say to myself: what’s the use of gossiping? What am I missing that I want to leave myself to look outside?
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Yes, I am a selfish person, I think of myself first. I want to be well. If we were all selfish, the world would be full of self-satisfied and happy people. If we all took care of ourselves first, we would help those around us by relieving them of the burden of taking care of us. We would interact with each other without hidden interests or thoughts, without despair and arrogance, without aggression and intolerance. We would gladly give of our joy. This is how true altruism would be born!
What do you say, are you selfish?
February 7th
Human food consists of macronutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). All of them must be part of the daily diet, in different amounts and percentages, in general and in particular, for each individual.
When we follow an exclusion diet, it must be followed for a certain period and with great attention to the nutrients I told you about above.
I read a post where someone said she is on AIP, and within AIP she kept the entire Christmas fast. When you stick to AIP and eliminate all animal products, you pretty much eliminate all sources of protein. Because vegetable protein sources are prohibited in the AIP: legumes, nuts, seeds, grains. There is still some stray protein found in vegetables and nutritive yeast, but too little for the human body’s requirements.
Proteins are the building blocks of body cells. A house cannot be built without bricks. On the structure built by proteins is placed the binder represented by lipids (fats) and the fuel represented by carbohydrates.
Without protein the house that is our body collapses. A lack of protein in the diet has long-term effects and can do more harm than the condition for which we wanted to be on AIP in the first place.
What are proteins, what is their role and why people with autoimmune diseases should be very careful about protein consumption, I wrote in this article.
February 8th
About the organ meat.
Dr Sarah Ballantyne says of organs in her book The Paleo Approach that they are “the most concentrated source of almost every nutrient, including vitamins, minerals, healthy fats and essential amino acids”. In autoimmune disease healing diets, organs are used very often because of these healing properties and nutritional density. Because legumes and grains are discouraged in these diets, organs are excellent sources of protein.
About organ toxicity.
They are filters for toxins. It filters toxins and if they are in excess, they store them in fat, they don’t stay in the organs. This is theoretical, because if the excess is large, there are still some left over there. Anyway, this theory is controversial and I don’t get into contradictions. Another disadvantage is the high cholesterol and purine content.
It is up to each person how and if they use offal. My opinion is to use them. Dr. Ballantyne, an authority on the Paleo diet, uses them daily with success in moderate amounts. I would say that once, twice a week would be enough.
What do organs taste like?
Everyone has an impression about the taste of organs, for or against. I’ve always liked them, so I can’t say I made an effort to incorporate them into my diet after learning how beneficial they are for the health of people with autoimmune diseases. If you don’t have a very good opinion about the taste of organs, or you have a “dwarf” in the brain that protests (how should I eat livers, gizzards, hearts or kidneys!?) I suggest you send your dwarf for a walk and try my recipes.
In the first comment I present you a wonderful stew of turkey hearts and gizzards. In the “AIP Recipes” section of the blog you will find other recipes with organs.
February 9th
“It’s expensive to eat healthy!”
Do you know how many times I’ve heard that? I usually look at the person in front of me to understand what made him or her think that way. The reasons are many, and they have nothing to do with the cost of the parsley bunch in the market (it’s expensive 😊).
- I envy you! (And not in the good, admiring way. I’m still trying to understand the springs of that hostile envy, which you feel strongly from the other person. I’ll let you know when I succeed).
- I don’t feel like messing around with diet changes! That’s how I learned from my mother, to eat fried potatoes with bread, that’s how I do it! That is it!
- I once went to someone’s house and he gave me kale to eat. I didn’t like it, so I’ll never try something new, because it’s not good! And it sure is expensive!
- I never make green salad (put any “healthy food” you can think of here) because my husband (kid, mom, etc.) doesn’t eat it. So, I only buy potatoes, because they are cheap, green salad is expensive! (Yes, we have springs in our minds that make us believe that something else is actually the reason we reject something).
- Kale chips are expensive, coco-puffs are cheaper! Do you know how much a bag of sweet potatoes costs?! (I think that even now there are people who take 2 sacks of potatoes and 3 of onions in autumn, just to be there, because maybe the apocalypse is coming).
- Influencer So-and-So, with millions of followers, says to eat avocado, goji, spirulina and ashvaganda. Well, she has money, I cannot I buy avocado every day! (I wonder what avocado would be? What would it taste like?)
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Healthy eating comes from changing the way you think. And changing the way you think comes from self-education, curiosity and courage. So… come on, have courage! Let go of the preconceived idea in your head that tells you that eating healthy is expensive, and find the real reason that makes you reject the idea of eating healthy.
February 10th
You say you want to find happiness.
Do you think that if the world proves you right, that will make you happy? Are you willing to fight to the death for your justice? How will fighting bring you happiness?
Are you waiting for others to make you happy or for circumstances to change without doing anything about it?
Are you always mumbling about how unhappy you are? Do you always say “I can’t be happy”?
Do you expect happiness to be an explosion of pink clouds, or a shower of money, or the eternal regrets of your enemies tearfully begging you to forgive them?
We keep hearing around us that happiness is a choice, and many of us don’t understand how that comes. Simply put, it’s like this: stop waiting for happiness to come from the outside, from others, from objects or from money.
Stop waiting for happiness, start cultivating it in yourself!
When something is not working in your life, there are 3 alternatives that can make you happy: accept, change or give up. The fourth alternative, staying there and suffering, does not make you happy. And fifth, to stay and want to change others, not only does not make you happy, but also makes others unhappy.
If we gather our Being from the outside and stay inside ourselves, we will have more chances to be happy. You say you can’t find happiness, have you looked for it in the right place?
February 12th
When we talk about fish, everyone agrees that it is healthy, and from this point of view it should be consumed as often as possible.
If we compare the recommendations for fish consumption with those for meat consumption, most voices will say to consume little to no meat, and fish, again, as often as possible.
If we again compare the consumption of meat with that of fish, this time referring to the percentage of fat, we will receive the recommendation: lean meat, fatty fish. Yes, we should eat fatty fish, not lean. Fatty fish is rich in Omega 3, Vitamin D, Vitamin A, Vitamin B12, and other health benefits. And if we eat fish with bones, such as small fish (sardines, sprat, etc.), we will also benefit from a good portion of assimilable Calcium.
Yes, fish is a bit more expensive than the rest of the food, but if we are determined to “work” for our health, we will find ways to consume it without making our wallet cry: we will look for offers, we will buy a cheaper kind of fish, compared to other fish species, we will buy canned sardines, etc. Methods exist, we just want to find them.
How do we cook the fish? Well, if we still make the effort to consume fish, then let’s cook it as healthy as possible, but without compromising on taste.
Here is how I prepare fish in such a way that it is both healthy and tasty, and does not fill the whole house with the smell of fish. My new recipe on YouTube, a simple, spice-crusted baked trout recipe. I leave in the comments a written version of this recipe, this time with carp.
February 13th
The modern woman goes to work full time, then comes home, takes care of the children, cooks, washes, cleans… If she can afford it, she outsources the housework and takes the child to after school. So that they can work even more, make even more money.
After a while, it gets tiring. Even though she likes what she does, she gets tired. She notices that she is tired, but she does not stop. She doesn’t know how to do otherwise. It is like she is a mouse in a merry-go-round, in which she keeps running, because a merry-go-round has no beginning and no end, it is a circle. Until she can’t run anymore.
When a woman falls ill with an autoimmune disease that throws her off the merry-go-round of life, everything changes for her. She has pain and debilitating symptoms, but that’s not all. The biggest pain is that she can no longer do what she used to do: physical and intellectual work. At work or own business and at home. Work around the clock. She can’t DO it anymore.
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“TO DO” is a masculine verb, yang. It involves action, continuous movement, speed, force. Designates the person outside, the provider.
At the other end is “TO FEEL”. The feminine verb, yin, which shows contemplation, flow, harmony. The predominantly feminine person uses the outside to nurture the inside.
If we imagine the masculine as a huge, strong oak that does not bend in the wind, then the feminine is like a lush reed that dances with every breeze. Yang is strong, yin is flexible.
All people have both male and female energy, only the proportions differ. The women I talk about in this post are predominantly masculine in energy. And the disease stops them from DOING. It forces them to move into feminine energy. To sit, to observe, to FEEL. To not do it anymore.
At first it will be difficult, because they will still want to DO something, to look for remedies, to force, to fight the disease. Also in predominantly masculine energy. Only when they stop, breathe slowly and look within can the healing begin.
Everyone has the yin-yang ratio with which they are in balance. Women also need yang energy, otherwise they would be like hens that do not leave the nest. When they find that inner balance between DOING and FEELING, the healing can begin.
When they allow themselves to FEEL without fear, when they take the time to look within without prejudice, when they no longer feel guilty for stopping for a moment, an hour or a day from DOING to FEEL, the healing can begin.
Febryary 14th
If water is the most consumed liquid on the planet, coffee is second. 60% of people drink at least one cup of coffee a day. Taking into account the fact that people drink three times more coffee from Monday to Friday, compared to weekend consumption, we conclude that the “black drink” is associated with work, not relaxation. Most people start their work day with one or more cups of coffee.
Although the consumption of coffee has increased and continues to increase, in countries where tea is part of the traditional culture (UK, China and India) all tea remains the most consumed liquor. Green tea, black tea, and other local specialties, caffeine is also at the top 😊.
I didn’t drink coffee until I was 40. I tried it, I didn’t like it. And I don’t know exactly what came over me, but slowly, slowly, I started to like it and consume it daily, prepared by myself, in the kettle, sweetened with half a teaspoon of raw sugar. This gives it a special flavor, I don’t need any other additions. I don’t have a favorite brand, I change them often and enjoy them leisurely.
Is it good to drink coffee? Does it have health benefits, or on the contrary, does it harm us? I wrote an article in which I outline some characteristics of coffee.
February 15th
In an autoimmune disease, the pain is not just physical
When we are diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, doctors focus on our body and all therapies address the physical. And if the doctor doesn’t ask us about our soul and mind, about our emotions and thoughts, how can we understand how important it is for healing to happen on all sides of us: body, mind, soul?
It is difficult for us to understand that if we have ankylosing spondylitis, for example, we cannot cure joint inflexibility and pain if we ignore mental inflexibility and psychic pain.
People who have been overweight and have lost weight take years for their minds to understand that they have reached a normal weight. Although the scales and the mirror show them the truth, their mind and soul still remain at their original weight. They will continue to go to the extra large department and cover their bodies with shame.
I remember when I got a splinter in my heel it took a lot of mental effort and many days to stop tiptoeing after the heel healed. Because only the body (heel) had healed, in my mind and soul the pain was still alive.
When the body is suffering, then we most need to help our mind and soul. Because we are not just the visible body, we are more than that, we have body, mind and soul that we should keep in harmony.
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