Antinutrients

I have come across the term "antinutrient" quite a bit recently. I remember laughing the first time I saw this word because I really couldn't understand what it meant. As I have read more, I have understood more of the meaning and the application of "antinutrient." There are two concepts surrounding this term that are important as pertains to my Crohn's and I thought I would share.

Our bodies need vitamins and minerals in order to function properly. We eat foods in an attempt to get to these essential components into our system. What most people do not realize, myself included, is that foods we eat can actually remove nutrients from our body. If a particular food mist have iron and Vitamin C in order to be properly processed, then when you eat that food your body WILL have those nutrients to process the food. It will either get the nutrients from the rest of the meal you are eating, the first place your body looks, or it will go to the next available source, itself.

The human body tries to act like a nutrient bank so that we don't have to worry so much about balancing every minute iota of food we consume. Whenever there are excess nutrients, they are stored in different parts of the body for future usage and emergencies. What the body never factored in was that it would only ever receive foods that were lacking in a large number of nutrients needed for processing. The continual consuming of antinutrients has made many of our bodies nutritionally bankrupt.

How can we expect our bodies to work properly if we are only eating antinutrients? Foods that are processed, homogenized, and overly pasteurized become antinutrients. Commercially farmed produce and commercially raised protein are on the precipice. Artificial components are the worst.

A Month to Die For

I've been a fairly bad boy this past month. I cheated and ate things I haven't eaten in years. So many people have asked, "...but a little bit of this wouldn't hurt, would it?" recently that I felt compelled to actually test it out. I'd be lying if I said this was entirely altruistic. While I was apprehensive, I was more excited to break this fast than worried.

I did set some ground rules for myself so that I did not put myself in the hospital, I.e. at most, only one meal per day for cheating. I really wanted to see for myself just how much one cheat would affect my Crohn's and my overall health. I am not going to detail every poor decision I made. What I will say is that every small item I ate during an otherwise legal day usually had a noticeable effect on my body.

My biggest cheats were cupcakes and dinner at an Italian Restaurant. I haven't eaten cupcakes in years. I found this little cupcakery and tried one and then another and another. I gorged myself on more than six cupcakes before I stopped myself. I experienced such a decadent sugar rush from the sweets. Within the hour I was experiencing the after effects. As much as I loved the flavors of the cupcakes, I doubt I would make them a habit.

I don't eat at many Italian restaurants due to the preponderance of noodles and breading in most of them. I decided to wave all inhibitions away and had a traditional Italian-American meal on a Thursday night. I had chicken noodle soup, fried mozzarella, garlic bread, baked penne in a tomato-cheese sauce, and hazelnut cookies. Again, things that I haven't had in such a long time. It was amazing just how much I enjoyed the flavor. I didn't feel wonderful the next few days, but I figured that proved I should stay away in the long run. On the following Monday I was in such pain that I couldn't eat the entire day. It took two days for me to recover.

Two weeks later we returned to that Italian restaurant and I ate the same things. This time it was on a Friday. Lo and behold, the same thing happened with my health. I have never experienced a delayed secondary response like this before, but the fact that the same thing happened both times only proved in my mind that pasta, bread, processed cheeses, and sweets are anathema to me. This experience also showed me that there can be multi-tiered and delayed responses with the secondary responses being much worse than the primary.

All of my experiences during this past month only helped to solidify in my mind that diet truly is important to making certain that my life doesn't spin out of control. I can also answer the question, "...but will just a little bit affect me?" Without a doubt, that answer is, "Yes!"

Sigh...

I have been so busy the past month. I haven't had time for very much and I am craving a small break at this point. I haven't really had time to change or experiment with my diet. The last thing I want to do is cause a flare up during a particularly stressful time. I have been training a lot of people at work and 4 of them are starting to show potential, maybe I will have some time to write again soon.

Decaffeinated

I am now fully decaffeinated. I'd be lying if I said it was easy or a cake-walk to go cold turkey. I have been fighting through my lack of energy and the craving I have for coffee and tea. It doesn't help that I actually enjoy the flavor of black coffee and tea. According to several books, it takes at least three weeks for your body to expel all caffeine from your system and to reattenuate to a normal hormonal regimen.

At the four week mark, I can say that I am finally starting to feel my energy return. I am starting my workouts again and am surprised at how alert I am at the end of the day without any caffeine. In the mornings, I no longer have that shadow of sluggishness. The only time that I feel the day beating on me is around lunch time, and I still feel compelled to get some tea. I will let my body adjust to this new equilibrium, though.

I can see people scowling as I talk about my self-immolation. Why would I do such a thing? Why would I put myself through this hell when I have so many other health issue to attend to? It is because of my other issues that I am doing this. My breathing is better. My allergies don't feel as bad. And I don't like prednisone. Caffeine stimulates your body in a very similar way to prednisone and causes many of the same issues. That was my biggest motivator.

I won't go into nuance, but I do know that the differences in my body and attitude are already perceptible. I will continue on this path and build my energy reserves back to their previous heights.

Chronically Malnourished

Our food sustains our bodies. If our bodies cannot process that food, then we become malnourished, get sick and waste away. This series of thoughts is very prevalent in IBD. Everyone "knows" that in the past my Crohn's has kept me from absorbing nutrients thus causing a downward spiral into flare-ups and pain. I am at a point that I am questioning this paradigm. I am asking myself, "What if the entire reason I have Crohn's Disease is because of the fact that I have been chronically malnourished my entire life?"

In the past century, our foods have become processed more and more. Everything is overcooked, extruded, or stripped down to a singular defined purpose. Our original foods were synergistic containing many natural nutrients that worked together in our bodies well. When we destroy most of the nutritional merit of our food through processing, it means we must eat that much more just to get a base minimum in order to survive. Couple this with the added artificial vitamins and minerals that our bodies cannot process as well as their natural counterparts, and we have an issue.

I remember growing up and always having soda, sugar, and other boxed confections continually throughout a given day. Eating this way for so long, and being told by the governing bodies that it is okay, would have depleted so much of my bodies resources and capacity.

I am going to see what happens. My body is a bank for vitamins, minerals, and energy and I currently have little to no savings.

Evolution

Entities that evolve are able to move forward while those that stay the same eventually die-out. There must always be some form of evolution in how we live our lives, otherwise we aren't really living our lives. I am always reading, always learning, always testing my boundaries. My evolution through time has very little room for absolutes. In reality, there are very few absolutes that stand the test of time. When I read Breaking the Vicious Cycle, the one thing that always disturbed me about Elaine's arguments was the finality of it all. It was all so perfect and absolute. I was already so close to Specific Carbohydrate perfection, that I decided to use the diet as a stepping stone to allow me to do more research without having to worry about whether or not I was going to set-off a Crohn's flare.

Over a year later, I am still doing rather well with my health. The diet I have followed has been a beginners step allowing me to do much research into many different methods of food preparation and into myriad different types of food. I am at the point where I think I need to put theory into practice to see what my body tells me. I am hoping that my research into probiotics, fermentation, phytic acid, organic foods, enzymes, caffeine, etc. will help me take a step beyond. I am not afraid of failure, though. The worst that could happen is that I go back to a strict Specific Carbohydrate Diet. 

Don't misunderstand my intent, either. I am not going to be going back to sugars, potatoes, and breads. Those foods are addictive drugs on their own. I decided that my full decaffeination would be that transition point. As of today, I am fully free of caffeine. I haven't had anything with caffeine for three weeks. Let's see where this goes.

Hospital Sleep

It's been so long since I have been in the hospital, that I forgot just how little a patient gets. One of the biggest contributors to any recovery is ample rest and especially sleep. You would think that doctors and nurses would know this and so let people sleep. Instead, patients are poked and prodded throughout the night as a means to supplement the very uncomfortable bed and the noisy, belligerent roommate that wants attention from everyone. I wasn't even the one spending the full night in the hospital this time, and I was drained.

I would hope that at some point, the establishment would realize that they would do better to let us sleep through the night when we are interred so that we might get better faster. Then again, if we recuperated at a faster speed, the hospitals wouldn't be able to charge our insurance like they do.

Pedialyte

I love Pedialyte and I extol the benefits of drinking it to just about anyone around me. It is a very delicate electrolyte solution that also replaces zinc lost when we have diarrhea. It is made for babies, so it is still a little harsh on our sensitive systems. I always have two bottles in my home at any given time for an emergency situation. If I am fasting, I will use Pedialyte to help maintain balance. If I find that I have eaten something inappropriate and need to let it pass through my system, I can always rely on Pedialyte to help keep me going when I cannot eat anything else. I am fan.

Last week, I found myself purchasing Pedialyte again since I had caught a bug and was having extensive diarrhea. In the past I have always purchased the original, clear version of the drink; but there was another that was partaking and so he asked that I get one of the flavored bottles. Having only ever drank the clear I had only ever checked the label on the clear. As I was purchasing the fruit flavored variety, I decided to check out the label. I was amazed to find that it had sucralose in it. On a following trip to get more Pedialyte I checked all of the flavored varieties and found that they all have sucralose. I was amazed that such a noxious anti-sugar was incorporated into something that is purportedly made for babies.

In case you have missed my feelings concerning fake sugars: I hate them. They cause so many issues with my system that I stay away from them no matter what. Why would anyone want to use a fake sugar that was originally intended to be an insecticide? Regardless, I still find the clear Pedialyte to be a great help in staving off dehydration and keeping me on the side of the living.

Dehydration

Dehydration is a looming issue for anyone with Crohn's Disease and is a very dangerous thing. This past week, I was able to see first hand what can happen when someone is dehydrated. Dehydration follows a very linear path as someone loses the water and electrolytes in their body to different bodily functions while neglecting to replenish them at a commensurate rate. That means that you not only have to replenish the water expelled, but the sodium and potassium salts that are lost during urination, sweating, and breathing. This is very important to acknowledge for anyone with any form of IBD due to the excessive amounts of diarrhea we experience.

We lose a lot of water. We lose a lot of salts. We lose a lot minerals, especially zinc, when we have diarrhea. If you are just drinking water rather than electrolyte solutions, that fatigue you are experiencing is the first sign of dehydration. If nothing is done to remedy the dehydration, then you will eventually be unable to get out of bed and lose your mental faculties. I saw all of this occur first-hand. If you find that your mouth is dry, it is really hot out, or that you have even mild diarrhea, make certain that you are drinking a pediatric electrolyte solution. Don't drink the flavored varieties, just the clear ones.

Hospital Food

I have been in the hospital quite a bit the past few days. I have my computers with me, my iPad and many different phones. I don't think I have ever been patient support in such a capacity before. I already know, and am used to, the general public's lack of understanding of Crohn's Disease especially when it comes to dietary requirements. As this is my first time in a hospital where I am semi-conscious and able to remember my surroundings, I find it very disheartening to listen to the dietitians as they speak to other patients. As I covertly listened to what was being said between "professional" and patient, I think I finally understand the general mantra that most dietitians follow: 1. The patient must eat the dictated meal in order to live. 2. Give the patient whatever drugs is necessary to facilitate number one.

A great example of this was the diabetic that was rushed to the emergency room alongside us and then would up in the same room with us. I know what diabetes is, generally speaking. I know that when someone has diabetes that they must change their diet every bit as much as someone with Crohn's Disease. In fact, most people with diabetes, in my lay opinion, would benefit greatly from following the Specific Carb Diet. Instead, what I saw was the dietitian feeding the patient carbohydrates and sugars in astonishingly large amounts and then administering insulin in order to deal with all of the inappropriate food. Let me put this another way, this is like giving someone a known poison that tastes good because the antidote is handy in large quantities at bedside. What kind of stupidity is this?

It is no wonder that people with any form of IBD have so many issues trying to find some semblance of a real life while trying to find a diet that doesn't cause some form of pain. There is little to no attempt in the mainstream dietary establishment to cater to or construct a dietary plan for patients. The only person that even seemed to realize she shouldn't give the patient sugar was the CNA. Wow... 

To The Hospital I Go

It's not what you think. I have never been on this side of the equation before. The tremulous shaking and worry that I feel right now is ridiculous. The hospital won't let me in to see him yet, so I am trying to pass some time while calming myself down. 

Down and Out

This past week has been a tad difficult for me. Not only did I sprain my left foot, but I also started a caffeine detox regimen to reduce my caffeine intake to 100mg/day. I have finished my first week of the detox, but it takes three to four weeks for anyone addicted to coffee to fully acclimate and for the hormonal imbalance we impose on our bodies to rebalance. Anyone that has gone through "die-off" knows a little about how this feels. Regardless of the situation I am in, the lethargy I am fighting, and the headaches I am feeling I find that after this first week I am starting to feel different. Knowing a definitive timeline for my body to rebalance has truly helped me keep on track. I have had a cup of coffee in front of me every morning just so that I knew I had the willpower to deny the addiction rather than just staying away from coffee altogether. I still allow myself tea (hot and iced) throughout the day, but the amount of caffeine in the tea does not go over my goal threshold. 

I may be absent from much of the world while my mind clears. Today is the first day in a week that my mind has been clear and I have not had a headache.

The Dangers of Health

I don't know exactly what I did to my left foot, but it really hurts like hell. I cannot put much weight on it at all. The pain began this past Friday and grew through Saturday. I did a bunch of research and found that the area that was hurt was my midfoot and that it is actually very common for runners and joggers to sprain or break a bone in this part of the foot. After several self exams, I came to the conclusion that nothing was broken. If my midfoot was broken, pressure would have caused pain and it did not. I can only assume that my long job on Wednesday of last week came back to haunt me on Friday. Regardless, I have been inactive while I have been letting my foot rest. Today I was actually able to put some pressure on it in the afternoon without my foot feeling like it was going to fall off. 

No running for me for four to six weeks.

De Stress

Find a way to remove excess mental anguish from your life. I think that I am going to do that. I am going to take an electronic time-out in order to do live some. I am hoping that it helps with those things that punching a wall or working out cannot remove.

The Biggest Organ

Our skin is so important. It protects our insides from the outside world and it keeps all of our vital fluids and organs from leaking all of the place. There are so many other things that our skin does and most of us just take it for granted because it never asks for anything in return. For some of us, though, our skin can be a great cause of pain, discomfort, and stress. I used to think that my skin was not perfect because of all of the issues that I have had. Like others with an auto-immune disorder, I suffered from eczema, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, etc. I have wrote this previously, but let me reiterate the fact that when you have one auto-immune disorder, the chances of you getting secondary and tertiary disorders jumps exponentially. 

I am certain that many of you have felt some form of uncontrollable itching on your bodies, some form of cracking of the skin, some form of scaling of your skin. None of these things are pleasant. I loved the feel of using Irish Spring soap on my body for so many years. I would use a washcloth saturated with Irish Spring and scrub every single part of my body in extra-hot water. My skin would feel so tight and refreshing after I finished my cleansing routine...for about an hour. For the rest of the day my skin would itch so bad that I could swear I was covered in bees and fire ants stinging me at the same time. For as long as I could remember, that is always what my skin had felt like. I figured that everyone else always felt the same way.

At some point my fingers, eyes, ear lobes, and elbow creases started to dry out and crack. No matter what I did, I couldn't keep them from cracking. Add in scaling and cracking on my scalp and I was not a very happy person. When it was just my skin itching, no one would know what was going on, but when my parents saw the cracking in my skin they started to question what was going on. The conclusion was that my skin was as sensitive as my mother's. I was told that I needed to start using non-soap cleansers since they weren't as harsh on my skin and that I should start using lotion as well to keep my skin hydrated. I was also told that I needed to lower the temperature in my showers since the hot water pulls moisture out of my skin. Like any good little boy, I tried this regime for a day and then went back to what I was previously doing. I didn't feel "clean" when using my mother's products. I found that in addition to having very dry skin I also had very oily skin. This combination makes one very susceptible to eczema and psoriasis. 

Over time, I learned that I needed to stick with the cleansers my mother gave me. To keep my skin from drying out I stuck with the non-soap, turned down the heat on the water considerably, stopped scrubbing, and started using a non-oil based lotion. I had no idea that my skin was so ashen for so many years. As I stuck with the new cleaning regime, the oiliness of my skin lessened quite a bit. I learned from a dermatologist that when you dry out your skin your body uses oil as a means to replenish your skin's vitality by keeping moisture in; oil production goes into overdrive. I was washing my face several times a day because of the oil production. When I learned this new fact, I started using a soft warm cloth to remove excess oil from my skin throughout the day. I was amazed that the amount of oil my body produced went down even further.

I continued to refine my cleansing rituals and the care I put into my skin over the years. I only use Oil of Olay cleansing bars when I shower and I use it at most once a day on my face. I only use a wash cloth with warm water to remove oils and dirt from my face; I never scrub. After a shower, I always use a non-oil, oatmeal based colloidal lotion to keep moisture in my skin. I no longer feel that overall sense of itching anymore. My ear lobes, eyes, fingers, etc, no longer crack the way they used to. I no longer have scaling of my skin. And the wonderful thing is that this regime works VERY well at keeping my skin under control when I have been on prednisone in the past; I just increase the number of light, warm wash cloth wipings. 

Big Hot Fudge Sundae with Nuts and Whipped Cream

I have been craving a big hot fudge sundae with nuts and whipped cream for days now. I refuse to break my "vows" and eat one, though. There are just too many things that go wrong when I eat so many offending foods at once. I really miss the layered experience I get from a really well made sundae. I love the hot fudge with the cold ice cream. The fluffiness of the whipped cream, the crunch nuts, the creamy ice cream, and the smooth chocolate. Even after all these years I still have such a vivid memory of the sundae. 

Cravings out of thin air are nothing new for me, but to have one linger for so long is truly tormenting. I live so close to a Dairy Queen and I almost ordered the sundae yesterday. The poor after-effects keep me from going that far, though. If the craving keeps on hammering me, I may break around day eight.

My Joints Creak

I can remember my knees being sore and/or painful when I was as young as 14. The joints in my hands and elbows have been sore for a tad longer. Apparently, the pain and soreness I feel in my joints is a mild form of arthritis. It may seem obvious what it is, but for the longest time it was not obvious to me. I knew about arthritis and what it was; but I also knew that it usually only affected aged individuals. I was still young and invincible and so the thought that I might have inflammation of the joints never even crossed my mind. As I have read more over the years, though, I have come to the conclusion that the arthritis has always been there and it is not going away.

As we all know by now, Crohn's Disease is an autoimmune disorder. A person with one autoimmune disorder is more likely to suffer from other such disorders, even if on a lesser level than others. Arthritis is also an autoimmune disorder. I didn't just read this in place. I read it in many places. The correlations and direct relationships that were drawn were amazing. It was probably good that I read about the relationship because it allowed me to start taking some sort of action to help my joints. I started to strengthen the muscles around my joints during my workouts. I listen for snaps and pops in my joints when I am moving, and they happen quite a bit. I always make full-sweep motions to keep my range of motion intact. I try to make certain that I keep my diet in a proper place for my Crohn's since I am certain it is also affecting my arthritis. 

As I get older, though, I am going to have to take a much more direct approach to my creaking joints. My right knee is sore almost every day now and I have to be care when standing after sitting. I refuse to use my arms to boost me out of my seat since I want to keep as much strength in my legs as necessary. Luckily, I have access to large bodies of water where I can keep my body moving and get that full range of motion work-out happening whilst taking off a large bit of the load caused by my weight. I know that I should be able to get cortisone shots, but steroids really are the VERY LAST thing I want to put in my body due to my wonderful past experiences. 

Let the search begin for foods that replace joint lubrication.

Fresh Salsa

I made some fresh salsa and, while it was not piquant, it really tasted good. Not only was the salsa SCD legal, but it was also my first attempt at natural fermentation of food. I was rather apprehensive, but am pleasantly surprised by the results. I am not going to go further into the topic of fermentation in this post since I plan on creating a post solely dedicated to the topic. I will post the recipe for the salsa as soon as I have finished tweaking the recipe. The minimum time for fermentation is 12 hours, so I am waiting to see what happens along the way. 

Majority of the Ingredients

All Ingredients Prepared and Mixed Together

After 12 hours of Fermentation and Topping Avocado

I Reserve the Right

Before posting anything on my blog, I always do a lot or research, testing, self-evaluation, and more research. It is always important that what is immortalized in writing has a sound backing. Most of the time I write in specifics about diet, work out, symptoms, etc., but every now and then I write in a fairly general tone. The general tone is reserved for how I see the world, how my thoughts color my actions, and for topics where I am researching an item yet have not determined a clear set of rules. The topics usually tell about what I experience and why I stay away from that particular item or action.

Unlike many of the "established" researchers, I know and accept the fact that I am still learning about my condition and how it affects my life. While, at times, it may appear as though I am taking a 180 degree turn on a topic, in actuality it is me breaking the code for that particular topic. In many of those cases I am moving from shunning an item altogether to implementing rules that allow me to partake of at least a small part of a given item.

I have added a lot of knowledge recently that has given me some "Ah ha!" moments with previously verboten foods. I have been able to start differentiating some once monolithic items by creating subcategories for the items and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.

What About Bob?

I might be showing my age a bit by referencing "What About Bob?," but I don't care. If you haven't seen the movie, you should. It is a funny movie starring Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus. The reason for the reference is due to the mantra that was espoused during the entire movie: "Baby Steps." There was never really a moment where I thought, "Wow, this is a great mantra that I can use to get through my life." Looking back, though, it is what I have always done. I have taken just one moment at a time -- a snippet of a task. There are just so many tasks and situations that occur that feel overwhelming. So overwhelming that you just want to shut down and not deal with the world any longer. I am certain we have all had those situations where there has been a big mountain looming overhead with no end in sight. Any time that I have worried or agonized about that mountain, I have never been able to get around it or climb to the top. The times that I didn't think about the enormity nor the magnitude of the mountain, I was able to overcome the obstacle simply by taking one step at a time.

I find that taking "baby steps" has definitely helped with my Crohn's Disease. Before, I tried to tackle anything and everything in one fell swoop. There was no mountain too big nor too wide. That mentality found me crashing and burning far too many times where my illness was concerned. Crohn's Disease is the biggest mountain I have ever had to climb and I am still climbing it. There is no going around it. We must all make our way to top of this mountain one step at a time all the way to the top. I figure by the time I make it to the top I will be in perfect health, the world will eat and live like me, and I won't have to worry about my dark passenger. In the interim, I will continue to break daunting goals and unrealistic tasks into little snippets so that I can "baby step" to the completion line.