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lil chick's log
I was taking some pictures of my rosacea (for science) and realized that my facial skin is more orange than my neck skin.
Perhaps carotenemia that I never really REALIZED was going on. My chin/jaw area is really orange! darnit
I think my palms and soles are subtly orange as well. We aren't talking day-glo here. Subtle.
I was reading wikipedia about vitamin A and (can't remember where I got it, but it doesn't matter, there were no citations it was just a loosey goosey thought thrown out on wiki). It said that eventually, used-up vitamin A is released through sweat, sebum, urine and feces. I was thinking about sebum and how that does have a yellowish coloring. Old pillows always have a yellowish coloring. Armpit stains too.
Maybe the contents of our body oils become a bit less retinoic pretty quickly and that is why I suddenly think my hair is softer after only 3.5 weeks.
Another vote here for soap although I still don't use much of it haha. With my hard water soaps and detergents can be difficult. I actually use conditioner to wash my hair. Sometimes I notice sebum build-up behind my ears. I suppose that's not good.
I would also wonder about boogers and earwax... Both can be itchy!
I have this idea to post about the diet of my grandmother growing up in the depression, because it created such healthy individuals (at least 3 centenarians) and was so "meat and potatoes". I'm going by memory here and I will update as I remember what she told me. There were many children, but her father had a steady job.
White fish on Fridays, for instance, Scrod
Meat (nightly) (Pork and Beef)
Potatoes
Applesauce (always on the table) (used in small amounts as a condiment)
Stewed Prunes (always on the table) (suggested for constipation) (used in small amounts as a condiment)
Bread that was MOSTLY white with one cup of rye in the huge batch. This was given for lunch. It was I think given with
Butter
Grape Jelly
Canned Green Beans only on Sunday
Kraut
Pickles
Oatmeal for Breakfast
Milk tea (even for children)
Soups (for instance, made with a pork leg)
Home-made beer and wine for the adults
I'm not certain, but I think scrambled eggs for breakfast on Saturday
Absent from the list: rice, fresh veggies, tropical fruits or juices, veg oils. Not too much variation. Oooh another memory:
Pineapple for COLDS
All of these foods were bought in bulk and home processed. There was even some canning of meat done, such as pigs feet.
My grandmother liked jello a lot, but I don't know if it was part of her girlhood diet. Plain cookies were also a fave. (edited to add, it does appear that Jello might have been available for most of my grandmother's life)
They had sugar, but it seems the mother tried to limit it. For birthdays, my great grandmother made a plain cake with VERY LITTLE ICING. "just a scraping"
I'm betting that they made lard when they bought pork in bulk.
According to my grandmother on their tiny lot they grew green beans, plums and grapes.
Two of these great aunts of mine believed in the apple cider vinegar drink. I don't know if this was something they added on later, or learned young. My grandmother made a mean chicken broth.
Adding another memory: My grandmother disapproved of people mowing down a whole bunch of cheese at once (for instance, at parties). If I'm not mistaken, she thought it was slightly rude and gluttonous. I think she thought of cheese as a condiment, not a lifestyle. 🙂
I've reached one month on lower vitamin A. I believe that the facial "bug crawling" sensation is tapering off. My face has also gone down one notch in inflammation and yellowness. I haven't felt as much of the falling feeling in my stomach.
My appetite is YUGE and bowels are moving at about 3 times the usual, but no pain or upset.
Aches and pains seem good.
My diet is slightly different than that of others here and is still morphing. I eat chicken, pork and beef, I've eaten a some shrimp, tuna, lobster, scallops. I eat mayo, I eat coconut oil, I eat quite a bit of egg white, and I am doing lots of organic white flour, and about 1 cup per day of excellent quality raw skim milk. Almond butter, chocolate. Potatoes and potato chips. I've been drinking apple and grape juice, apple cider vinegar. I eat small amounts of apple, pear, grapes and strawberries. Tons of onions and garlic. I'd been doing some sweet corn but yesterday got the idea to drop that. Tried to get oats into rotation but don't feel like it--I think it will be a sometimes food. Cukes and pickles. Some olive oil but it isn't my fave. Maple syrup. Coffee. Rice. I keep an open package of ground beef in the fridge for quick meals. I cook my rice as I go. I have the urge to eat lots of SALT.
On my NOT list is butter, cheese (although I cheated once and had cheese), cream, yogurt or cooked/pasturized milk at all. No egg yolks. Not saving pork or chicken fat. On the fence about chicken broth for some reason. Colored veggies are out and of course I will never miss liver haha... Cut WAY BACK on spices.
I will probably continue to have black beans now and then as I always have. (monthly?)
Would like to melt down some beef tallow but it is a messy chore that I dislike, and I'm already spending so much time skimming milk with my turkey baster, LOL. Eventually I'll get around to it, I hope.
My target diet is to eat my Grandmother's diet above. Once things have settled down.
Does anyone else remember the "Plant Poisons and Rotten Stuff" blog and forum? I'm going from memory here sorry if any of these details are wrong.
When I think back on it, Emma (I hope I'm not mistaking the name) was doing a LOT of plain burger and rice meals . And she liked the effect of the burger/rice meals as I'm remembering. (although she might have also been doing some dairy or eggs)
She eventually was diagnosed with auto-immune thyroid and I think she blamed her mounting list of food intolerances on having that disease.
I wonder if she is still out here on the interwebs, keeping up with the special diet forums, and if she remained on the FAILSAFE diet after getting drugs for her thyroid? Did she continue eating, and enjoying the effects of, plain beef/rice meals?
Of all the special diets I've tried, and there were many, I felt that my rosacea responded best to this one, and I suppose it was the closest to a low VA diet of all of them.
We have been told cholesterol was bad for us in food (I believed it at first way back in the 1980's but then rejected it pretty quickly)
Did (some) people FEEL BETTER off of egg yolks and off liver and drinking skim milk
(thinking it was because of "lower cholesterol")
When really it was because of lower A?
It's really grinding my gears to have to throw out cream and egg yolks!!! hahaha
I've swallowed the red pill. I've drunk the koolaid.
Even though I'm only 1 month into my 3 month experiment.
The determining factor wasn't as much how I feel (although that helps) it is how the idea is a known veterinary issue. (And yet discouraged and pooh-poohed as an idea in the human world). (oops)
Sometimes I really do wonder if we (and our domestic animals) really are alien! LOL. How could we be designed so badly? Do any non-domestic animals get A toxic?
These orange pigments, they absorb a certain slice of the sun's output and throw off others.
Why would that be something toxic to us, if we evolved with it?
Frustration.
Thought: humans are, in a way, domesticated... We aren't wild. Is it something about domestication that causes this? I've read that when animals (such as foxes) are specifically chosen *only* for tame personality... other physical attributes change as well. They end up colors not seen in nature, they end up with more infantile attributes and lower adrenal responses.
Quote from lil chick on June 21, 2019, 8:30 amI've swallowed the red pill. I've drunk the koolaid.
Even though I'm only 1 month into my 3 month experiment.
The determining factor wasn't as much how I feel (although that helps) it is how the idea is a known veterinary issue. (And yet discouraged and pooh-poohed as an idea in the human world). (oops)
Sometimes I really do wonder if we (and our domestic animals) really are alien! LOL. How could we be designed so badly? Do any non-domestic animals get A toxic?
These orange pigments, they absorb a certain slice of the sun's output and throw off others.
Why would that be something toxic to us, if we evolved with it?
Frustration.
Thought: humans are, in a way, domesticated... We aren't wild. Is it something about domestication that causes this? I've read that when animals (such as foxes) are specifically chosen *only* for tame personality... other physical attributes change as well. They end up colors not seen in nature, they end up with more infantile attributes and lower adrenal responses.
Vitamin A may be Mother Nature's way of preventing us from overstaying our welcome. Fish produce millions of eggs, but in the end, they wind up with two that survive so the population is stable. The longer we live the more vitamin A we store until it kills us. Nobody knows how long humans would live if the world wasn't full of Vit. A. Maybe we will find out now that some of us are trying to avoid it.
Judy, I suppose that could be it? I can see how vit A may be a purposeful monkey wrench in the system, (mother nature works in mysterious ways!) But I don't want it to be that. (I don't get a say though! ) 🙂
Do wild animals have a higher tolerance? It certainly would affect the choice of lab animals in experiments.
When reading about Polar bears this week I read that they have a huge ability to store vitamin A because their diet demands it. Which is why you don't want to eat polar bear liver.
quote: "So why is it so lethal? Arctic predators such as polar bears have a greater capacity to store vitamin A in their liver than most other animals. It is thought to be because of the effect of naturally occurring vitamin A in marine algae being passed up the food chain to the polar bear." https://www.121dietitian.com/never-eat-a-polar-bears-liver/
So perhaps it is about adaptation. Are some people's genes adapted to only a certain amount of A? (I posted about body styles a few posts back) I can see how that may be. And when those genes were in situ, in their original environment, all was well and they had their traditions and lived happily and without itching.
And then something broke, the diet changed, the mothers failed to instill the trad diet in their children, or whatever. Sort of like moving polar bears to the tropics.
I guess I've always intuited something was off with my diet and have always fiddled.
At this point I've gotten kind of blase about special diets. Matt Stone's "just eat the food" idea is wise (is he here?) 🙂
We want to be in control, but our health is an amalgamation of what we ate yesterday, last year, etc, etc ...going all the way back to whether our grandmothers were breast fed sufficiently a century ago.
Our current experiment is that we think we maybe have enough vitamin A for our entire lives. OK. I've seen that. I've overdone other good things. I got out of balance. Smart to back off as soon as you realize.
From what I've seen, the body is all about stasis and it's going to help you get back to balance.
Will that old Vitamin A we stored suddenly go poof one day? Maybe it expires haha. And we will suddenly be done with the challenge? Will we suddenly NEED some? We will know our needs have reversed?
Some things I've learned: Happiness counts for a LOT and more than we realize. Our bodies are smarter than we are and we should listen to them. 🙂
We seem to be going similar paths. I did a stricter stint on the low A diet in November last year and saw some great results (better sleep, more energy, less inflammation). With the holidays and my love for food, I got sidetracked because of social gatherings and never got those same results back. I've since dialed down diet wise. I try to listen to my body and not sweat it too much when I make bad choices. I take mistakes as lessons learned for next time. Since I have no life threatening issues yet, I figured the stress from controlling my diet might be worse than occasional slip ups.
I've been tuning in with my body more and have established these as my staples are pasta, bread, oats, potatoes, any kind of meat, tomatoes, berries (I seem to have issues with some, but haven't figured it out yet), apples and dairy. I use honey and maple syrup as my main sweeteners. Herbs and spices to taste. Lemonade and apple juice also seems to provide some benefits.
The key is not to listen solely to the brain response from the food since the brain loves calories, anything high fat and/or sugar is well received by the brain and addictive. Evaluating energy levels, quality of sleep and symptoms after meals are better indicators of what the body needs and tolerates. Intuitive eating is the best path someone can choose to get back to health. Individuality is of utmost important to achieve health since you have to find foods that both your mind and your body enjoy.
Personally, my main issue seem to be with plants. I tolerate animal sources of vit A well, but I've tried various colorful fruits and vegetables and oftentimes my response to them was not so great. Soreness, night sweats, increased hunger, moodiness and joint pains are some of my main symptoms. Carotenoids, oxalates or fibers could be causing those issues, but at this point the reason doesn't matter, I want to feel like myself and will achieve this only by listening to myself not some recommendations from authorities or the Internet.