I needed to disable self sign-ups because I’ve been getting too many spam-type accounts. Thanks.
lil chick's log
I had one of my nausea episodes this week. I think I did eat some questionable things but I think something else is at play.
I over-ate and then laid down early to sleep. Bad idea.
Lions and tigers may be able to do this, but not me.
About digestion of dinner...
On nights now in which I don't feel my stomach has emptied... for the early part of the night I bolster myself up on two pillows instead of the usual one...until I feel "hungry". Then I know it is safe to lie flat. There is a tendency toward hiatal hernia in my family, perhaps it is that. You know, when I first came to this site lots of people spoke of tilting the bed, but I have an antique tester bed, and tilting it is not in the cards.
Anyways, I came here to talk about a strange thing I'm noticing. I think I've spoken here about how I'm not digesting dinner very well in the last year or so. Lots of gas and bloating and it's taking a long time.
The tradition in my family is "a drink with dinner"--Germans and French--perhaps the "way" of these cultures and handed down from both of my parents. It is how I've been living for a very long time. As part of lowering all toxins I've tried to back off from this (with varying degrees of success, LOL).
I've realized that I have much less bloating and gas when I have my little glass of red wine than when I don't.
I can almost see how this cultural tradition for the dinner drink might have evolved to keep detox mode from interfering with dinner digestion...
I also wonder about the possible benefits of red wine when it comes to reducing bad digestive-tract flora. Remember when resveratrol was the nutrient du jour? "improving blood vessel function, reducing inflammation, preventing blood clots, protecting cells from free radicals, slow down the aging process by activating sirtuins, anti-cancer properties"... bla bla
Or is it even the stress-lowering?
On my French side, (not the Germans I usually talk about) my grandfather loved red wine and lived to 96.
Not to keep harping on soluble fiber, but I used to have episodes of nausea at night from indigestion or something and that has only happened a few times since adding beans and psyllium to my diet!!! 🙂 I think it's sluggish bile. My son also has this problem and I keep telling him fiber fiber fiber!
Hi Janelle! thanks!
I realized I didn't say how much wine is the perfect amount. It is about 1/3 cup. Probably about half of what is dispensed at a bar or restaurant. More than that, and the effects turn negative. My guess is that the usual amount given at a bar is about right for someone twice my size (I'm 115 pounds).
There seems to be two types of people in this world, and some require, and do great on fiber... and some don't! My husband and I seem to be one of each. I could be wrong! It may be that I'm eating more fiber at dinner and that is goofing me up.
Our adult son often makes dinner and likes to always include "healthy food". (rabbit food LOL?)
If I did not say so before I have been an avid bed tilter about 30 months now. Swear by it. With or without a full stomach. Bed is plywood on milk crates with futon mattress on top. To get the tilt, I put another smaller futon mattress on top of that. I folded it length wise by a third. Now there are three steps down from my head to the first futon mattress. Feet hang off of that. With pillows and some blankets, it gets me 16" rise in 6' run feet to head. Life is so much easier from sternum up. Seems to help varicose ankles and leg cramps too.
Older brother has a Sicilian room mate. He has been in US about 50 years. Refuses to drink our wine. When home, he drinks a bottle a day. Wine here gives him headache. Sulfites? Nitrites? Pasteurization?
Quote from lil chick on September 28, 2025, 6:32 amOur adult son often makes dinner and likes to always include "healthy food". (rabbit food LOL?)
You notice the nausea when you eat 'heathy food'? What does that consist of? Lettuce? My mom says she gets very bad acid reflux when she eats salads, I was like uhhh that's not normal! She has been on proton pump inhibitors for many yrs and her stomach is just a wreck. She had her gallbladder removed yrs ago from partying too much... too much alcohol. Her gallbladder was basically gangrene it was so sick. It's sluggish bile. I harp on soluble fiber because it's the only fiber that can bind to bile and carry it out of the body.. otherwise we just absorb most of it back into our system no matter how toxic it is.
On the topic of the beans, I've been increasing the ratio of beans to rice steadily for months now, only dimly aware that I was doing it. I'm cooking beans now and it's a full half the tin enamel pot, which will be mixed with the half a pot of brown rice I'm cooking later on. I've come to crave these wonderful black turtle beans, these frijoles negros. I have days now where I move my bowels 5 times. Just yesterday it seemed as though more came out of me than I could possibly have put in. It couldn't have been old crud because everything looked perfect. I'm in the dark on much of this and am forced to speculate. For instance, a few weeks ago I had a big painful bump right down there where my food is passed. It was to the point of bleeding, and took a week to resolve. I can only speculate that this was a kind of acid burn from my bile passing antique vitamin a out of my system. A good sign, in fewer words. I can't praise beans enough.