Healing the Gut Tribe - June!!! - Page 3

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by the_dalai_mama

any tips for conjunctivitis welcomed! :

Breastmilk is best.

If you can get your hands on some (anyone's ) breastmilk and squirt some in your eye several times a day for a few days to a week, that should do it. Just keep it refrigerated and fresh each few days, if you aren't using it from the "tap". I had some kind of red/pink eye infection and the opthamologist just said good hand washing, and don't rub/touch it. I didn't do drops or anything. You could also try some of those eye solutions that are for soothing irritation from contact lens, but they have chemicals.

Pat

[artisticat]

any tips for conjunctivitis welcomed!

Are you nursing? Anytime I am having eye itchies or redness or anything I just keep putting expressed milk into it and it gets better.

[WuWei]

Mometezuma, your sig line is too long.

[WuWei]

Mometezuma, are you taking any anti-inflamatory drugs for pain? They can cause irritation of the bowel. Grapes are supposed to be high in natural anti-inflamatory properties. I know that they are very high in salicylates and we avoid them on the Feingold diet. Perhaps there is a correllation. I am assuming the blood is red, not old black tarry. I hate to say it but the cure-all for gut pain is Pepto-Bismaul, on an acute basis only. I had Montezuma's Revenge in Cancun and thought I would die for the abdominal pain, gas, etc. The Pepto cured it with one or two doses.

Pepto does have some salicylates in it though and that can cause its own issues if taken regularly. But there is something in it that addressed my gas pains. It sounds like the mechanical fiber, or perhaps the pesticides are irritating the bowel, imnsho. Chilean grapes are very, very high in pesticides. So, we do not eat them from December to May when US grapes are unavailable. I'd quit the grapes and see if things improve.

Another consideration is that fish oil does thin the blood (more free bleeding from irritated "wounds") and I don't know the doses that you are taking, or if that has changed recently.

Oh, and you might try some "Gripe Water" which is just fennel and ginger. It is the best natural cure all for gut/stomach issues. Or, try adding feenel and/or ginger to the Green Glop. There are issues if you eat tons of ginger, I believe, but I don't think most people could stomach too much.

You might also try massaging lavender in a clockwise direction onto the abdomen. I don't know if it is the lavender oil topically or the aromatherapy that has a positive effect on abdominal discomfort. I don't know acute homeopathy, but I am a big fan of that route too. It helps one to heal yourself.

I think it is the pesticides.

Pat

[nicholas_mom]

: subbing

[~Shanna~]

Originally Posted by JaneS

(Although it irritates me to no end that the folic acid mantra is the one thing the med. establishment latches onto when there are so many other nutrients which are just as crucial to a babe's development AND do cause birth defects if seriously deficient!

AMEN sister!

This type of compartmentalization I notice all the time now. I just read an exerpt from Omnivoires Dilemma, and the author was talking about what a uniquely American perception it is that we have to have scientists in a lab tell us what is good for us and what is bad for us - he tied this in with our nation not having a food tradition of our own, so we don't have a collective nutrition "memory". I'd always wondered what in humans made us latch onto food components as good or bad, and his suggestion that it's an American idea is pretty interesting.....Anyway, TESTIFY (said in a southern drawl you'd hear at a tent revival)!

[Annikate]

Originally Posted by Shanna4000
AMEN sister!

This type of compartmentalization I notice all the time now. I just read an exerpt from Omnivoires Dilemma, and the author was talking about what a uniquely American perception it is that we have to have scientists in a lab tell us what is good for us and what is bad for us - he tied this in with our nation not having a food tradition of our own, so we don't have a collective nutrition "memory". I'd always wondered what in humans made us latch onto food components as good or bad, and his suggestion that it's an American idea is pretty interesting.....Anyway, TESTIFY (said in a southern drawl you'd hear at a tent revival)!

A friend just turned me on to this book - it's VERY interesting & so relevant. (I want his new book too!)

[caedmyn]

Well for now I am going to assume DD's rashes/eczema are teething related and not goat yogurt related

Goat yogurt question: for those who make it, how thin is it supposed to be? I've made 3 or 4 batches so far, and they're all very runny. The latest batch is only very slightly thicker than the milk itself. It is tart, although not as tart as I had expected from everyone's descriptions, and it smells/tastes like yogurt.

TMI question: what color is "normal" for stools? Mine have been kind of orange lately--not bright orange, orangish brown I guess. I have been eating quite a bit of butternut squash, could that affect the color?

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by caedmyn

TMI question: what color is "normal" for stools? Mine have been kind of orange lately--not bright orange, orangish brown I guess. I have been eating quite a bit of butternut squash, could that affect the color?

Yes, I believe so. Carrots in quantity do this to us.

Pat

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by Momtezuma Tuatara

Subbing

JaneS.

Can I pick your brains please?

You mention blood in the stools and pain.

Just recently I noticed blood in my stools, and it followed massive gut pain, and gas.

In the last month I've had chronic lower back pain, and front lower abdomen pain, and find the only way I get pain relief is a hot water bottle.

Like you, no way am I going for a referral, or even to the doctor. I know what sort of a gravy train that lands up on.

My husband thinks this is all my fault, as it started when I upped my green smoothies in a big way AND added into the mix, chilean grapes.

BUT I also had a short spell of this when our grapes were ripe and I was eating them as well.

I removed anything with wheat, but that hasn't improved things. So I'm going backwards and looking at how to get even more basic. Which is scaring my husband somewhat, so I'm trying to cover the knowledge bases so that he won't be so upset.

I've just bought the book you suggest at Amazon.com.

As much as it pains me to say to any woman, but I think your DH is right. (However, you have an exceptional one.)

I don't think a dr. would connect it with your green glop but I certainly would. The oxalic acid in raw beet greens, chard and spinach is very irritating to the digestive tract. I think it's indeed possible that you have eaten so much as to cause inflammation.

I would pull all those greens out and even the raw fruit for a while and stick to some foods that will be soothing to your gut and easy to digest. And some raw fats and cod liver oil to help heal. Let me know if you want to figure out some more foods that will help.

I forget what your glop recipe consists of, but also greens in the Brassica family are best cooked or fermented to reduce goitrogens too.

[memory maker]

well we are now in day 2. day well went well. I now am hungry, but nothing sounds good except eggs and fruit. my head is a little hazy feeling too. My dh isnt quite all on board yet. He thinks he can sneak in not legal foods and then it will just take longer for the healing to happen. The main thing he is having trouble with is his energy drinks (red bull) I told him this isnt like a lose weight diet (cheat and it will take longer to lose the weight) He needed to follow it fully or it wasnt going to help him. I am correct on this arent I?

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by JaneS

oxalic acid in raw beet greens, chard and spinach is very irritating to the digestive tract.

<snip>

but also greens in the Brassica family are best cooked or fermented to reduce goitrogens too.

?????How do you know this stuff.

Yep, I am in the presence of a nutrition god.


Pat

[Gale Force]

:

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by scubamama

?????How do you know this stuff.

Yep, I am in the presence of a nutrition god.

Nope, not I, this is straight from another one of my nutrition bibles: Nourishing Traditions.

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by memory maker

well we are now in day 2. day well went well. I now am hungry, but nothing sounds good except eggs and fruit. my head is a little hazy feeling too. My dh isnt quite all on board yet. He thinks he can sneak in not legal foods and then it will just take longer for the healing to happen. The main thing he is having trouble with is his energy drinks (red bull) I told him this isnt like a lose weight diet (cheat and it will take longer to lose the weight) He needed to follow it fully or it wasnt going to help him. I am correct on this arent I?

Absolutely.

If you are trying to change gut flora, continuing to feed them sugar will keep the bad guys alive. If you want to increase your minerals and improve your health, the phosphoric acid in soda will continue to pull them out.

My DH is exactly the same way with his gut problems, and why they have now continued for years and years.

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by caedmyn

Well for now I am going to assume DD's rashes/eczema are teething related and not goat yogurt related

Goat yogurt question: for those who make it, how thin is it supposed to be? I've made 3 or 4 batches so far, and they're all very runny. The latest batch is only very slightly thicker than the milk itself. It is tart, although not as tart as I had expected from everyone's descriptions, and it smells/tastes like yogurt.

TMI question: what color is "normal" for stools? Mine have been kind of orange lately--not bright orange, orangish brown I guess. I have been eating quite a bit of butternut squash, could that affect the color?

Goat yogurt is quite thin due to the casein protein molecules being smaller than cow's. They just cannot support a thick gel matrix that the probiotics make. However, it should be very tart to eliminate all lactose. Which starter are you using? I had a lot of problems with Progurt.

Orange veggies only effect stool color if you are not digesting them properly.

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by JaneS

Nope, not I, this is straight from another one of my nutrition bibles: Nourishing Traditions.

Yes, teacher, I shall read the nutrition bible.



Pat

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by Shanna4000

AMEN sister!

This type of compartmentalization I notice all the time now. I just read an exerpt from Omnivoires Dilemma, and the author was talking about what a uniquely American perception it is that we have to have scientists in a lab tell us what is good for us and what is bad for us - he tied this in with our nation not having a food tradition of our own, so we don't have a collective nutrition "memory". I'd always wondered what in humans made us latch onto food components as good or bad, and his suggestion that it's an American idea is pretty interesting.....Anyway, TESTIFY (said in a southern drawl you'd hear at a tent revival)!

this made me literally laugh out loud.

That is very interesting and somewhat true I guess... although I would blame more our food manufacturers and their marketing. In any competitive environment, you have to have a good and an evil. And "foods" that are exclusive to one manufacturer are able to be sold for their exclusive profit. Therefore it is beneficial for them to brand certain whole foods that anyone can produce as evil (and cheap processed branded food as good).

[Annikate]

Originally Posted by scubamama
?????How do you know this stuff.

Yep, I am in the presence of a nutrition god.

ahem . . . she is a godess

[~Shanna~]

Originally Posted by caedmyn

Goat yogurt question: for those who make it, how thin is it supposed to be? I've made 3 or 4 batches so far, and they're all very runny. The latest batch is only very slightly thicker than the milk itself. It is tart, although not as tart as I had expected from everyone's descriptions, and it smells/tastes like yogurt.

Mine was pretty runny - I used mine more as a smoothie base than as custard-type yogurt. I worry about this as well - is the runniness a sign that it's still lactose-heavy? For the record, my raw cow yogurt turned out more firm, and when I made it in a quart jar (instead of the Stalton container) it came out runny again

ETA: Ah, Jane just answered this. Yes, even my runny yogurt tastes tart. But is it tart enough? (she asks with a raised eyebrow)