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cooking spices, herbs
Quote from lil chick on July 13, 2020, 7:51 amRegarding alliums, I try to always buy WHITE onions, since there is most often a choice.
Whenever I've moved the first thing I do is plant chives. A recipe that I've tried that uses up a whole chive-plant "haircut" is called "herbes salle" by the French, but many "salted herb" recipes exist for many cultures. The recipe I have is mostly chives and onions. Probably lots of benefits to this sort of thing, as there can be with fermented things.
Chives and scallions, being green, have a bit more VA. But you don't eat that much of them at a time.
chive: 43.5 IU VA per teaspoon
slice of onion: .2 IU VA
teaspoon of garlic: .2 IU VA
Red onions are red because you of anthocyanins, not carotenoids.
We have used herbs and spices back home for centuries , though some are really beneficial and some are harmful, depends where your heath is at . I use herbs and spices which dont cause any issues for me .
Turmeric is great . I use it a lot . clove , cinnamon and ginger in tea is great and garlic in your food , I boil all my meals in tumeric , mint and garlic , its greta for taste , dont add chilly or peper it makes my symptoms worse
In kashmir we have this herbal tea and its supposedly great for health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahwah
There is a big difference between "normal" diets and a diet meant to rejuvenate the liver.
The zero VA diet is meant to help the liver get rid of substances that have brought us to a point where our health is impaired. Until the goal is reached, anything that slows the process is not a good idea, quite apart from the VA/caretonoids contents of spices.
Spicy Asian diets are a way to fight parasites and infections, but also a way to stop the cytochrome P450 and maybe other cytochromes from doing their detoxification work, allowing thus the body to absorb MORE VA.
The same can be said for saffron. Top of the top : saffron kulfi made of milk, saffron, sugar, pistachios/cashews. The ultimate VA shot and SO ADDICTIVE!
For example consider in North India tea boiled in milk with pepper, sugar and turmeric: the VA is mainly in the milk, the pepper stops the cytochrome P450 from detoxing the curcumin and the VA etc. You get a perfect shot of VA for someone who cannot eat beef and rice Grant's way. It feels very good (no surprise knowing the addictive factor of VA), the fluoride in the tea gets deep into the bones, it stops hurting for a while. But beware later of terrible cataracts and other VA problems. Yes the Punjabi granny drinks her yellow turmeric milk gratefully. For a while she does not feel her arthritic pains, but she is getting blind by the hour.
In the same India yogis traditional diet forbids ALL spices. Even garlic/onions are frowned upon. Some gurus think that they are worse than meat!
There is a difference between everyday diet and detoxification diets.
Another example: in Italy fifty years ago if you caught hepatitis (plenty of that then) there was no cure, and you had to eat "in bianco", that is "white only" for six months. No eggs, no cheese, no wine. This is not a normal Italian diet, it is a diet to help the liver.
I never took Accutane or VA supplements in any form. I have now understood how I poisoned myself with kulfi, spices, caviar and liver. I had a very good time doing it. Would I start doing this again? No. If I could go back in time would I again eat these foodst? No.
Interesting fact about Italy , I had hepatitis when I was 19 , and I wasnt given any medicine , all I was told to eat was chicken soup , white rice and peeled cucumbers , and more peeled cucumbers
That was quite a post @ourania, thank you for it! We might find that spice/herb free is best for everyone, or we might find that certain people need them? (because of the way their "onion" is peeling?)
I'm interested to hear more about what black pepper does to goof up VA detox? I've never felt curcumin did anything good for me. However, as a crazy cat lady I'm interested in black pepper because of the rumored help with toxoplasmosis. Gee, wasn't someone on this list just diagnosed with that baddie?
Strangely enough, I've never felt like there was anything wrong with my liver, but hub's liver does seem to need attention. I'm narrow across the liver, no weight gain there...(which is actually odd at age 57). Of course, I could be wrong. I've notably lived a life free of soda, fried food and excesses of alcohol (because of my sensitive system). I go decades without a donut or french fry or coke. (I find it a little harder to avoid booze, but more than one drink and I'll barf)
I worry that I might have goofed up my B-vities with my vegetarian/vegan experiments, (even though that is in the far past) and that I am best to make sure my absorption rates of vities are top notch.
I'm a lot more worried about my kidneys than my liver.
My liver area snapped to attention quickly after going lowered VA (two months in)
I think another reason I started this thread is because I like Flava. (for you international members, this is how I pronounce flavor, or as the Brit's spell it: flavour). 🙂
Flava good!
Maybe there are some that antagonize the process, and some that don't, or levels at which negative effects are in the noise. I think it is interesting how low the "Kitchen Pepper" spices are in VA, compared with the mediteranean herbs I generally use.
I don't intuit that strong spices are needed, and I think I'll stop with the cayenne.
I tried Townsend's "Kitchen Pepper" (from the video in the original post) last night on some meat and it was very gentle and scented the entire house. I'm not sure it swayed me away from my usual, I especially missed garlic in the rub.
@r Very interesting!
peeled cucumbers , and more peeled cucumbers
Meaning cucumbers without the carotenoids. Where was that?
I also enjoy peeled cucumbers very much at the moment! My instinct was right!
@lil-chick I also enjoyed strong flavors, but I noticed that following this VA-less diet, my sense of taste has exploded. I taste everything SO MUCH that I do not want to add anything except salt, or a dash of olive oil, or a few drops of Apple Cider vinegar.
Piperine deactivates cytochrome P450, allowing whatever pepper is added to to by-pass the first detoxification of the liver. Grapefruit does the same thing, which is why you are not allowed grapefruit when on some medications, you would get poisoned because the dose would be too much. As for the effect of cytochromes on retinoid acid, look here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3789243/
Most spices more or less deactivate cytochrome P450.
This year my husband picked up a couple of plants that bore tiny white (light yellow) incredibly hot peppers. I popped they tiniest amount into beans last night and I was on fire. I'm trying to dry some to see if I can use it like lower carotene version of cayenne pepper.
Quote from Ourania on July 14, 2020, 9:39 am...
@lil-chick I also enjoyed strong flavors, but I noticed that following this VA-less diet, my sense of taste has exploded. I taste everything SO MUCH that I do not want to add anything except salt, or a dash of olive oil, or a few drops of Apple Cider vinegar.
Piperine deactivates cytochrome P450, allowing whatever pepper is added to to by-pass the first detoxification of the liver. Grapefruit does the same thing, which is why you are not allowed grapefruit when on some medications, you would get poisoned because the dose would be too much. As for the effect of cytochromes on retinoid acid, look here:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3789243/
Most spices more or less deactivate cytochrome P450.
Very interesting, and I'm not sure I saw this post back then. I have a strange urge to use a bit of spice still, I get urges for cinnamon, cayenne, oregano, cumin esp. I have zero urge for black pepper. (which I've heard has oxalates)
Hi @lil-chick!
When I want spicy hot, I use a bit of oil in which I have marinated the seeds of the chillies. Zero carotene there. I use oregano nearly every day now. Cumin sometimes, rarely cinnamon. My taste buds are extra powerful now.