Day 160 - Diet

“The word diet is often used to describe an eating plan intended to aid weight loss. However, diet really refers to the foods a person eats in the course of a day, or week.

The more balanced and nutritious the diet, the healthier the person can expect to be. A balanced diet means eating the right amount of foods from all food groups.

The benefits of a balanced diet are numerous. No single food contains everything the body needs so it is important to eat a wide variety.

The right amount of vitamins and nutrients can increase life expectancy by keeping the heart and body healthy, and preventing many long-term illnesses.”*

*http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/diet/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Today I had my second Bowen treatment.

I feel more relaxed after this morning’s session and the headache seems to be a bit better.

In terms of my new diet, I am struggling to come up with some dishes that do not contain any traces of wheat, yeast, dried fruit, sugar, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, chillis and all other nightshades.

In brief, I am starving.

And I am not too sure how healthy this can all be - at the moment I am certainly not maintaining a balanced diet.

I don’t think I can bear the sight of sweet potatoes, chicken, salad, spinach, goat’s cheese or eggs anymore.

Before starting my new regime, the headache had slightly improved - it was not as strong on a daily basis. The supplements the kinesiologist gave me must have been doing something. Or am I just accustomed to my headache, and nearly becoming immune to it?

Despite being open to all these new treatments, and doing my utmost to rid my body of the pain, I feel like the solution to it all is once again creeping further and further away.

Day 143 - Nutritionist

“A nutritionist is concerned with the study of nutrients in food, how nutrients are used in the body, and the relationship between diet, health and disease.

What we eat is an important part of our being. Food provides us with the energy and vital nutrients necessary to remain healthy and help us should we become ill.

Most of us know that diet plays a role in our general health, but over the years it has also been shown that specific foods can enhance our chances of avoiding certain diseases, and help us cope better with some conditions.

Knowing which foods are responsible is the first step to ascertaining how to go about addressing the problem, though this can sometimes seem like a detective’s nightmare. Often the only way is to carry out an elimination diet, by excluding certain substances.”*

* http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/nutritionist_job_description.jsp
http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Therapies/nutritional-therapy.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/healthy_living/nutrition/dietary_index.shtml

A few weeks ago there was an article in the paper about a nutrition consultant who had cured a boy the doctors had given up on. She bases her treatment on blood analysis and looks for deficiencies.

Today I went to see her.

The nutritionist examined my form. She tested me for vitamin deficiencies. She said that she was surprised about my headache, given my lack of symptoms (other than the headache of course) and vitamin deficiencies.

She believes my headache may well be related to my liver. She has suggested carrying out a detailed liver test in the next few days. The test will be delivered to me in the post.

She suggested taking some supplements - incidentally, these are the same as the ones the kinesiologist advised taking. It's reassuring to see that - finally - two different people advise doing the same thing. Maybe with the help of both of them I can solve the problem.

She advised eliminating wheat, yeast, sugar, dried fruit and alcohol from my diet.

Day 124 - Nightshade Foods

"Potatoes, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, tamarios, pepinos, pimentos, paprika, cayenne, and Tabasco sauce are classified as nightshade foods.

In the diet of Europe and Asia, only one nightshade food was eaten until recent times: the aubergine or eggplant. Then, in the 1600s and 1700s food and drug crops based on nightshades were imported from the Americas and for the past 400 years have penetrated and become ubiquitous in the Western diet. These include tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes and chili peppers.

Nightshades all contain nicotine in some form, although it may be named solanine (potatoes), tomatine (tomatoes), alpha-solanine (aubergine) or solanadine (chillies and capsicums).

A particular group of substances in these foods, called alkaloids, can impact nerve-muscle function and digestive function in animals and humans, and may also be able to compromise joint function.

Plants produce alkaloids as a regular part of their biochemical activity, and these alkaloids are primarily designed to help protect the plants from insects that would otherwise eat them.

It is now apparent that there are groups of people who cannot tolerate nightshades in their diets, wish to avoid them anyway or find that eliminating them helps alleviate a variety of mental, emotional and physical problems."*

*http://www.organicfoodee.com/inspiration/craig/nightshadefoods
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=62

I saw the kinesiologist again today. There hasn’t been much improvement since the first appointment. But I know it all takes time.

All I can do is wait (and hope).

The kinesiologist muscle tested me for food intolerances as he believes these may well be a contributing factor to my headache.

He told me to avoid tomatoes, potatoes, and, generally, all nightshade foods. I didn’t know all these foods (including aubergines and chillis) all fell into the same ominous sounding category as they all grow at night (hence the name nightshades), and, very interestingly, they all contain traces of nicotine (tobacco is also a nightshade). Ever had a really strong craving for a cheese and tomato pizza? Or a curry?

I looked back at my food diary that I kept in The Gambia and noticed that I was eating nightshades on a daily basis - with spicy chicken and tomatoes as one of The Gambia’s main dishes, it was hard to steer clear of many nightshade vegetables.

My new task is to continue taking my supplements and to rigorously exclude nightshades from my diet.