I’m sitting here eating goat yogurt, berries, banana, with some nuts on top. I eat this same breakfast five days/week, and it gets so monotonous that some days I don’t care if I eat breakfast or not (I always do). I know this food is good for me, but there are times when I yearn for an egg mcmuffin or something like that. When I get to those times, I remind myself that my gut is healthy now, so don’t blow it. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when I suffered from ulcerative colitis, and I felt lousy. I have been asymptomatic for two years, and my dietary patterns, I believe, have made all the difference. As I do research of food and eating for my book, my current diet is validated by current research into what is good to eat and what is not., although there are still some cloudy areas. What worked for me is this; I increased my consumption of fermented foods such as sauerkraut, yogurt, and various pickled foods. I also started eating a lot more fish, added raw honey instead of sugar (honey wipes out bacteria that cause diarrhea), and use either olive oil or extra-virgin coconut oil for cooking. I also eat wheat and barley quite a lot, sometimes in their young ‘sprouting’ stages which is wheat and barley grass. I made the switch to goat’s milk cheeses and yogurt. Goat’s milk is less allergenic and does not suppress the immune system like cow’s milk (homogenized and pasteurized), goat’s milk alkalinizes the digestive system because it is the dairy product highest in the amino acid L-glutamine. L-glutamine is an alkalyzing amino acid, helping to raise blood pH. Too many foods in the American diet are acidic, and too much acidity in the body slows down the action of enzymes (there are three types of enzymes: digestive, metabolic, and food enzymes (found only in raw foods)), and you really don’t want to slow down their actions-very unhealthy, even dangerous. Goat’s milk contains twice the healthful medium-chain fatty acids (MCT’s) which are highly antimicrobial (they kill unhealthy bacteria). I eat an apple a day, eat organ meats, and a lot of soup and stocks, which I make. Meat stocks contain minerals, collagen, and electrolytes, and contain good amounts of natural gelatin, a digestive aid. I also eat a lot of spinach, carrots, kale, broccoli, and tomatoes. Beans and lentils are in most of my soups, both good sources of zinc. I do eat more red meat than I probably should, but heck, I’m no saint. I am, however, totally healthy, and I feel a bit wiser-still at work on the wealthy part.
A little long-winded, I admit.
PS: I want to send a big congrats to a long-time friend who has lost 30 pounds since early August, and has used the concept of high-intensity, short-burst training we discussed last spring!
Stay well, John R Blilie, M.S.
HaveItHealth.com