Raw Food Diet

Since I already mentioned in my last blog post about why I am eating mostly raw food now, here are some more details about that and what has been working for me.

What is raw food?

A raw food is a fresh, whole, unrefined, living fruit, vegetable, seed, nut, dairy, or animal that has not been processed or cooked (heated beyond 118 degrees Fahrenheit). Sprouted grains fall in there somewhere as well - I am still looking into this, though. Heating food beyond this point causes documented changes to the chemical and molecular structure of food, which removes valuable nutrients, enzymes, and creates toxins such as carcinogens and free-radicals which cannot be easily eliminated by the human body. These toxins continue to build up as you consume your cooked meals and this can skew the acid/alkaline balance in the body, which can lead to disease and weight gain.

One of the important aspects of the diet concerns enzymes. Enzymes are important in the body for digestion of food, cell division, effective vitamin and hormone activity and a healthy immune system. All foods naturally contain enzymes; however, cooking destroys these natural enzymes and that means the body has to work extra hard to digest the food. Sometimes the body is not able to digest everything, which causes arteries and digestive tracts to get clogged up by undigested proteins, fats and starches.

What about how TCM recommends cooking your food?

My acupuncturist had told me many years ago that it was easier for my body to digest food when it was cooked, as does this acupuncturist (when I googled "raw food diet" this article came back high in the list of results): http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-13454/3-reasons-no-one-should-be-on-a-raw-foods-diet.html

That article explains why Traditional Chinese Medicine advocates cooking your food, and why I cooked most of my food for many years now. But the funny thing is that in general I feel a ton better - and like my body digests food better - when I eat it raw! Now I understand why.

I remember telling my acupuncturist a couple years ago that I felt great when I ate sushi. He told me that I shouldn't eat much sushi because it is hard for my body to digest. But my experience has been the complete opposite!

What does a typical day's food look like?

Breakfast is either:

• A green smoothie
• A bowl of fruit with nuts and seeds
• A parfait (yogurt, sprouted granola, fruit, nuts, seeds)

Lunch is the meal where I allow myself some cooked food (and take digestive enzymes):

• Fish (salmon, halibut, or oysters) and vegetables
• Ezekiel bread with either vegetable soup, or avocado/tomato/cilantro/olives
• Miso soup, brown rice and steamed vegetables
• Mashed potatoes using coconut milk and butter, with sautéed mushrooms in tamari sauce and a small salad
• Brown rice, sautéed mushrooms in tamari sauce, small salad

Dinner is either:

• Big salad
• Fresh green juice

Simple, right? And delicious! Switching to eating this food has not been that hard. The most difficult thing for me has been what I've had to give up: tea/coffee, alcohol, and sugar.

I do not do a perfect job at avoiding tea/coffee (caffeine), alcohol, and sugar. They are so abundant in our food supply, and a staple of socializing with people. So I try to limit these things as much as possible, but allow them occasionally. Every once in a while I allow myself a cup of tea or coffee, a glass of wine or beer, and a cookie/dessert otherwise I would go crazy!

The best way to eat and the cure for nearly every disease

I have finally found the answers.

...the answers to these health questions that I have been wondering about for years and years:

What causes disease?
What is the healthiest way to eat?
What causes allergies?

The answers to all these questions can be summed up in one word: enzymes.

"What the heck does that mean?" you ask.

Well, I have recently learned that enzymes are the live part of food. They are the thing that give food life. And in turn, give us life. When our food is devoid of enzymes (cooked or processed), it is devoid of life, and when we eat it we are not given life. In fact, "life" is taken away from us. For example, eating a cooked carrot actually requires my body to hand over enzymes (that its cells were using) to digest and assimilate the carrot. Even though the carrot gives me glucose, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water, it is not giving me it's life -- its' enzymes -- because these have been killed by heating it.

The body requires enzymes (metabolic enzymes) to do it's daily work: creating new cells, repairing old cells, digesting food, packaging up and excreting waste, etc. When you don't have enough enzymes it has to "borrow" them from your mucus membranes, your bones, your organs, and other "less critical" parts. This leads to things like allergies (since your mucus membranes are compromised), osteoporosis (since your bones are compromised), and essentially all other diseases.

Eating Paleo I still got sick, and over the past 2 years developed eczema. I sensed that Paleo was close to how I should be eating, but not quite right -- something still felt awry.

Fortunately, I stumbled across a website about how to heal eczema naturally, and the author of it pointed me to the teachings of Dr. Joel Robbins (Medical Doctor, Naturopathic Doctor, and Chiropractor). His talk about enzymes was particularly helpful in understanding how the human body works and how to keep it healthy.

Enzymes - talk by Dr. Joel Robbins: https://youtu.be/tTO8hwTFn_M

Here are some of my notes from this talk:

NOTES

Our bodies are made up of 3 components:
1. Air
2. Water
3. Food

That's it! You have some control over these things.

There are 6 reasons we eat food. Your body is asking for these 6 nutrients:

1. Glucose (to make energy)
2. Protein (for building structure)
3. Fat (padding and insulation)
4. Vitamins (used as catalysts in the body to help us process the glucose, protein, fat into body structure)
5. Minerals (used as part of the structure of the body, like bones, and are a catalyst)
6. Water (used in every metabolic process in the body to maintain life)

ENZYMES

Notes from Dr. Joel Robbins' talk you can listen to at: https://youtu.be/tTO8hwTFn_M

One thing that is always wrong if disease is present = LACK OF ENZYMES.

The body needs enzymes to function! Enzymes are the meaning of life - literally! These come from raw (live, unprocessed) foods. Raw food can be raw fruits, raw vegetables, raw meat, sprouted grains, or sprouted beans.

There are 2 kinds of enzymes:

1. Metabolic enzymes (body enzymes - these have to be replenished via an outside source, raw foods)
2. Plant enzymes

If there are not enough enzymes the body will cut down on metabolic functions.

The more we do to food, the less value is left in it.

• 2-5% of enzymes are destroyed when you dry or dehydrate food.
• 5-30% of enzymes are destroyed when you freeze it.
• 50-60% of enzymes are destroyed when you steam something.
• 40-100% of enzymes are destroyed when you cook something.
• 100% of enzymes are destroyed when you microwave something.

​What's the deal with children getting leukemia? It has to do with white blood cells. White blood cells clean up the blood stream. People who ate primarily cooked foods had a higher than normal white blood cell count. If they left off of the cooked foods for 48 hours their white blood cell count would go back to normal. These kids (and their grandparents/parents) need to eat raw food!

If we put into the body food that is void of enzymes, and we have a body that is run down and depleted of enzymes, that food does not get thoroughly digested. Digestive enzymes are part of the enzyme bank account. If there are not enough enzymes to go around, not enough for the heart/lungs/etc. it is broken down but needs some more digesting! It's not in small enough molecules to be used so the white blood cells are increased to attack that foreign invader. With increased white blood cells comes a fever. Fasting helps because the body doesn't have to digest any processing food so it can finish up house cleaning.

How do we deprive the body of enzymes? We eat foods that aren't raw - foods that have been processed. Pasteurized milk has enzymes but they are rendered inactive due to heat. If you apply heat above 112 degrees Farenheit most enzymes are denatured and dead. Chemicals added to foods can render enzymes inactive. Oxygen can render enzymes inactive (i.e. take a bite of an apple). Radiation (microwave) destroys enzymes. 12 other countries have outlawed radiation (microwaves) for food.

Dr. Pottenger wanted to know what processed foods would do to the body. His research was funded by himself. He divided 800-900 cats into 5 groups. The first 2 groups he fed raw foods. The other groups he fed processed foods. The first generation cats eating processed foods developed diseases near the end of their lifespans (diabetes, flu, allergies, cancer, etc.). The second generation developed those same diseases in the middle of their lifespans. The third generation of cats developed those diseases early - they were either born with the disease or it was a matter of days or weeks. Many of them were deformed. The pens where the processed food cats were kept had nothing growing in them. The pens where the raw food cats were kept had all sorts of things growing in them (plants). The third generation cats could not conceive - they were sterile. Or they would spontaneously abort.

The cells of the body give up their organic, alkaline minerals when you eat processed food (because the body needs enzymes to convert the calories/food into energy). It pulls minerals out of our tissues because they are the least vital tissues for our survival. 

There are two types of calories:
1. Live calories
2. Dead calories

To burn fat cells, it takes enzymes. Start eating live foods and you don't need to count calories! You will lose weight.

If heat has been applied to fat (oils) before it hits your mouth, it's going to be sticky to your arteries. Enzymes in things like avocados actually break down the fat and get it out of our system!

The only answer to free radical pathology (you put something in the body that should never have been in there in the first place, produce imbalanced molecules) is live food. Every degenerative disease has at its root free radical pathology, which can only be solved by eating enzymes!

The more we do to food, the less value it has.

ALLERGIES

Is it the pollen or is it the person? It's the person.

​It depends on the body's health. Healthy bodies do not have allergies. The body can be in a weakened state through stress and succumb to irritants in the air (like hay fever). 

There are two types of allergies that he references in this talk:

1. Airborne
2. Food

The reason the body reacts to airborne (pollen, ragweed, dust) is because the substance gets inside the body/the membranes. When it breaks through the body has a reaction and recognizes it has a foreign invader so it releases histamine. Histamines are released to cause localized swelling. The idea is to isolate this foreign invader to keep it from going deeper into the body. It's a defense mechanism. We look at that symptom as the enemy (if I could just get the itching or swelling down, I've solved the problem...right?), and take an anti-histamine. Have I really solved it? No, I haven't dealt with why the body is responding.

Why was that substance able to penetrate and get in the body when we have these natural defenses to keep it out? The mucus membrane is there to keep foreign invaders out. Why would something be able to penetrate? Because that membrane is in a weakened state.

What weakens it? Our fork, what we put in our mouth. That membrane has to be fed, nourished to maintain itself. The mucus membranes are one of the faster replacing cells in the body. The intestinal tract is the fastest. If there are no materials to build a new, healthy cell with, then it's not a good membrane.

Some people chalk it all up to stress. This is not completely off base. What does it cost the body to deal with stress? Vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein, carbohydrates. It is an expenditure that you weren't counting on. Some things go by the way side - there is only so much nutrition in the body, only so much we can take in each day. Stress can tax the body so much that it pulls things away from tissues in the body so they're not available. So those tissues are not fed, they're not healthy, and we have problems.​ In a word, this is "deficiency." Not feeding the body what it needs, especially the mucus membrane. 

There is another factor involved as well: toxicity. Toxicity is a substance that has no value to the body whatsoever AND will cost our body to deal with it. 

Every day we live, most Americans are consuming toxins. Air pollution, chemicals/preservatives in our food and water. Those come in and the body hands them over to the liver. The liver's main purpose is to neutralize toxins. It's #2 job is to eliminate metabolic waste products from our body. Dealing with toxins is a luxury function. When the liver gets overloaded it ends up storing a lot of these toxins and becomes a congested liver. When this happens it has to prioritize its role and it releases toxins into the bloodstream. 

Our body is always desiring to return to health. If the liver can't handle the toxins, it hands them to the mucus membranes. Why the mucus membranes? Because they are already making a fluid that is leaving the body, so why not put some poisons with it and get it out? Unfortunately, that causes those membranes to become somewhat inflamed. They weren't designed to do that so they're going to rebel a bit. That's called inflammation. If the membrane is then in a weakened state due to deficiency and inflammed due to toxicity, when you go out and breath the pollen the membrane does not have the normal barrier up so these will penetrate and get into the body. Then you have an allergic reaction. It is the combination of deficiency and toxicity that creates this problem.

Just address these two issues, deficiency and toxicity, the allergies will go away. It usually takes 2 years, or sometimes 1 year, then it goes away.

For airborne allergies, first, be tested for what you're allergic to. You need to know what your body is reacting to so you can try to deal with the reaction. To give the membranes, immune system, and body a rest so it can deal with repair. What can you do in the meantime? Allergy shots is one option. Another option is homeopathy. Or maybe herbs. They help control the body's reaction. It costs our body more to start it back up rather than just keep it running (keep our immune system running).

Allergy shots don't work after about 18 months - 3 years. They do help initially. 

What do the mucus membranes need a lot of? Vitamin C, Vitamin A, water. 

• Vitamin C foods: green pepper (loaded with it!), citrus (especially oranges). Don't use ascorbic acid because it is missing 6 other components (co-factors) that make up natural Vitamin C. Our body needs all 7 of those components. High doses of ascorbic acid stimulate the adrenal glands. That's fine to help get over a crisis (better than a drug anyway), but this is not food.
• Vitamin A foods: anything that's orange like carrots, sweet potatoes. Synthetic Vitamin A is not good either.
• Water

In summary, for airborne allergies: Test, find out what you're allergic to, find an appropriate remedy to control (homeopathy or allergy shots), feed the membranes Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and water.
​
For food allergies, if you take any food and break it down to its basic nutrient components, virtually every food has glucose, protein (amino acids), fats, minerals, enzymes/vitamins, and sometimes water. Why should the body react to something it was designed to run on? Any food you want to name, broken down to its basic nutrient components, should be able to be used and recognized by your body.

Why would it react? It has to react to something in those basic components. Without those components there is no life. So what is the body reacting to? It has nothing to do with the food being consumed, it has to do withdigestion of the food. Good digestion should take any food and break it down to those basic components and then hand those nutrients to the liver, which then disseminates them to the body. Good digestion should do that. So why would the body react?​ The body reacts because that food is not being thoroughly, properly, adequately digested. It's not being broken down to its basic nutrient components.

​Food allergies is a digestive problem.

The most common allergy is the inability to digest protein. Protein is made up of amino acids. Those are building blocks. A good analogy would be the alphabet. There are 26 letters in the alphabet. How many words can you make from the alphabet? There is no limit. So with the 24 amino acids that make up the thousands of proteins in this body, the same 24 amino acids make up carrots, dogs, cats, etc.

If your body wants to make a new heart cell, the heart does not care about the source of the amino acids -- the digestive system does care. It just needs amino acids to make a new heart cell. It wants it in the blood stream as amino acids. It comes into our system as food. It is our digestive system's job to take the food and break it down into individual amino acids. If it only breaks food down to thedipeptide stage, it will also absorb in the blood stream as a dipeptide. How much digestion takes place in the blood stream? None. How would the body view that then? Medically, as a Circulating Immune Complex (CIC) - a foreign invader, something that shouldn't be there. If this is a component of food allergies - the allergy mechanism of the body releases antibodies to go in and grab these CICs, and it's going to grab them, neutralize them, and there they go. The body would rather not do that. If the liver, the great detoxifier of the body, is in great shape it will grab these CICs and eliminate them. If your liver's in great shape, no food allergies - even if you have a digestive problem. If you have food allergies then you know that you have a congested liver. This will not show up in blood tests, you will not have elevated liver enzymes - so if you go to a traditional MD they will tell you that you don't have a liver problem because your blood tests come back normal.

If the liver is congested, it is unable to detoxify the CICs. So the body gathers up antigens (which are protein structures that are chemically the opposite of the CICs), which neutralize the CICs. However, the liver is not able to eliminate the CICs so it has to find another way to get rid of it. So the body sends it to the mucus membranes (sinuses, lungs, or skin) in an attempt to get rid of it.

Let's work on the cause: digestion, strengthening the mucus membranes and/or skin.

How do we help with digestion?

1. Do some testing to find out what you are allergic to. Let's put the body in a "sling" while we are helping it to heal. If you find out you are allergic to corn or to wheat, you need to eliminate it from your intake for a time. 
2. Take enzymes to help digest food better and repair the digestive system. If the digestive system is not digesting food properly, it is usually because it is lacking the enzymes.

A gland is running slow if it is lacking certain nutrients. If you give the gland a hormone it will often start slowing down even more. Secondly, we have not addressed: why is the gland running slow? It is not a hormone deficiency. It is lacking certain nutrients. Most glands are missing minerals and fatty acids - good fats. Same with the digestive system. It is running slow if it is lacking the proper enzymes.

Dr. Edward Howell was a Medical Doctor who went into practice in the 1930s and is considered the Father of Enzymology (the study of enzymes). He did many studies himself on enzymes and collected thousands and thousands of enzymes. The most studied phenomena of medical science is enzymes. And yet the least talked about, the least addressed. One of the theories that he came up with is "the enzyme bank account." We are born with a certain amount of enzymes in our bank account. If you equate enzymes to money: everyday we live we are going to "spend" a certain amount of enzymes to live. Every metabolic function requires enzymes to happen. You can hand the cell all the protein, glucose, minerals, and water you want, but nothing's going to happen without enzymes. Laman's definition of enzymes would be "chemical lubricant." It lubricates the metabolism of the body. The engine of the automobile does not run on oil, however, how efficient is that engine without oil? It just doesn't happen. So what he theorized is that we are born with this bank account, and it's not the same for everybody - it depends on what mother was eating when she was carrying that child and her health when she conceived. Dad even has some part in it, but most of it has to do with what mother was consuming when she carried that child. So everyday we live, we are going to burn enzymes to keep the brain functioning, the heart, etc. including digesting food - that takes enzymes. We have the choice of replenishing the account everyday. And that is by taking in foods that have the live enzymes in them - by eating raw foods. And if you want to eat raw meat, I don't suggest that, but ok that is a good source. Raw fruits and vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, sprouted beans are all good sources to pay back the account for what our body spent that day. But the average American will go 7-14 days without consuming something raw. And even when they do consume something raw it might just be a slice of tomato. So what's going to happen to that account? It becomes depleted. You can make a science experiment out of this: if you want to deplete the account of the enzymes needed to digest carbohydrates, just eat a lot of refined sugar or a lot of processed, complex carbohydrates.

Something else that Howell found that every food in nature, in its raw form, let's say that that food happens to be high in carbohydrates, it has an appropriate amount of carbohydrate splitting enzymes. In the proper amount to digest the amount of carbohydrate in it. If that food has a lot of protein, guess what kind of enzyme is in there? Protease - protein splitting enzyme.

So if you grow up eating a lot of cooked/processed protein, which enzyme are you going to deplete? If you grow up eating a lot of fried/fatty foods, you're going to find that fatty foods don't agree with you. When you were younger you could eat a lot of fatty foods, but now you're gaining weight because when those fats come in the body would love to break them down and use them for energy but your body does not have the enzymes anymore, and all it can afford to do is store them as fat. Or protein, if you just get indigestion and heartburn...I wonder why.

So we depleted the account. We want to replenish to the body not the end product enzymes (i.e. at the health food store - hydrochloric acid, etc.). What would be a approach is to hand the stomach cells the enzymes they need to make hydrochloric acid as opposed to just taking HCl. There's no reason for your body to heal and you're not feeding the body what it needs to heal if it's going to. Let's eat better - raw fruits and vegetables, drink fresh juice. However, a little paradox: you're eating all these good foods now but due to past sins you're not able to get out of that food all that's in there. So you're going to need to supplement with enzymes -- plant enzymes/vegetarian enzymes. Taking these with a meal does not allow you to just eat whatever you want to. You have to avoid food allergies while you are replenishing your diet with enzymes. Some food allergies are so bad that you have to use HCl and pancreatic enzymes along with. But we try just the plant enzymes first. If you're not seeing results after about a month you may want to add HCl along the way.

Thirdly, you can find homeopathy remedies for food allergies. It is a control mechanism to put the digestive system in a sling while it's allowing it to heal.

In general there are 3 foods that contribute to both types of allergies (whenever a patient complains about sinus problems, when the pollen comes out, or they complain of a food allergy, once they get off of these for 3 weeks see what happens): dairy - with the exception of butter, wheat, and corn. Those are the most common. They all contain a protein. Wheat contains a protein called gluten which a lot of people have struggles with. And dairy seems to have a protein (casein) that people with allergies struggle with. Relieving the body of having to deal with those usually really helps with all types of allergies.

Most people go into the natural realm with the concept: doc, what can I take to feel better? You've asked the wrong question. The first question should be: what was I doing wrong that caused this problem? The body was not designed to have symptoms unless we have violated it in some way.

What was I doing wrong / what do I need to correct / what do I need to change in my lifestyle? Diet. That's the biggest area. And we need to lean towards fresh and raw: 70% at least. Avoid the caffeine, avoid the red meats, avoid the fried foods, sugars, refined flours. Not totally. It is not necessary to be 100% strict and rigid. The body can handle 30% of cooked foods. Also, the more rigid you are the more nutrition and energy you burn worrying about "I am not quite good enough." Don't make this a religion, don't become a fanatic - just make better choices. One bad meal is not going to ruin your health.

Exercise is helpful to cleanse the body as well.

Stress creeps up on us because it is very difficult to measure. Everyday that we're under stress causes our body to expend more energy than average. And yet we only eat and sleep enough for one day so we accrue a debt. Thinking also comes out of the same bucket of energy.

People with asthma are usually perfectionists who spend a lot of time worrying they aren't quite good enough. Most children with asthma are first born children. They have a unique temperament about them: they are great leaders, they are smothered with love, they are responsive to leadership, and they want to please. It is energy economics. The emotion realm got the energy. So the liver is taxed and the negatives are handed to the lungs. So stress is a real factor.

One other factor is attitude. Perfectionism often translates to self criticism.

If you are a parent with a child who has asthma, ask yourself if you are smothering them or putting too much pressure on them. Then back off.

Irritation (attitude) is another one. Who are you allergic to? ;-)
What can I take to facilitate the body's road back to health?

A therapy is only as good/effective as the body can respond to it. What determines the body's response? How sound it is nutritionally. 

HERBS

Herbs have vitamins, minerals, protein, etc... but they also have another ingredient which sets them apart from food: a known toxin. That's what makes an herb an herb, what separates it from being a food. It's not a chemical toxin, therefore it is not as a-negative to the body, but it is still a foreign substance that a body has no use for and will cost us to deal with it.

There are times when herbs are important, necessary, and needed.

You're not sick due to an herbal deficiency. There's no such thing. You're sick due to a faulty lifestyle. You weren't feeding your body what it needed. You're poisoning your system, your deficient. But if we're in a crisis right now, trying to avoid surgery or medication, you can take an herb that will potentially avoid you having to do those things. But that's not the answer. The answer is we need to get your body de-toxified and feed it. 

Here's how herbs work. Does the laxative move the bowel or does the bowel move the laxative? The bowel moves the laxative. We need to be asking the questions: why is the bowel sluggish? Why is it not working right? What do I need to do to help it? Maybe it's not enough roughage in my diet, not enough fluid.

Another example: a person says they have a congested liver. They take goldenseal to flush the liver. Do you not think that your body already knows that the liver is congested? And the body would love to de-congest the liver. Why is the body not doing that already? Could it be it can't afford it because of your lifestyle? Because there's not enough nutrition in it to do that, because you keep poisoning the liver and it can't get its nose above water? So why would I want to force the body to cleanse the liver when it knows that it wants to but it can't afford to?

The herb does not provide the energy, it provides the stimulant.

So where does the body get the energy to cleanse the liver? Well, goldenseal is a threat to the liver, so the body finds what energy it can to cleanse. But at what cost to you? People take herb after herb after herb and get more tired and more tired and more tired.

There are times when herbs are important, though. For example, if a person is having a heart attack give them nitroglycerin, which is a poison/toxin. How can it keep them from dying? It dialates the blood vessels, gets more nutrition into the heart. But why wasn't the body already doing that? It couldn't afford it. The nitro forced the issue.

Use herbs when there is a crisis, but don't think that they are the answer.​

No processed foods

After 4 days of going keto, I stopped because I was feeling very nauseous.

I don't know if this is because of:
1) the "keto flu" which I guess is very common when people switch from being a sugar burner to a fat burner, or
2) if my body just couldn't handle digesting that much fat (apparently fat can be hard for those with any kind of compromised digestion to handle), or
3) if I was eating too many foods made with cow's milk (which I am very sensitive to). I couldn't think of much else to eat that was high in good fat.

I also realized I might have been eating too much: apparently many people in ketosis only need to eat 1-2x per day.

So I took a step back and am re-evaluating what to do.

My goal is to get my A1c down to the 4-6% range and to feel healthy.

A couple years ago, I stumbled across this blog and I emailed the writer about how she got her A1c down to a normal (4-5%) range. Here is what she told me:

"I don't follow the Bernstein diet to a T, I have a bit more carbs than he recommends, but not much more.  The thing I do that helps me use very little insulin is to exercise for 30 minutes once a day and then eat no processed foods.  So I don't eat any deli meats or crackers or cereal of any kind...nothing with flour in it unless it's almond or coconut flour.  I eat a lot of vegetables and veggie soup and juices (just green vegetable juice).  I do eat fruit because I seem to do well with it.  But I don't have too much.  I have a hard time with a low carb diet, too so I include fruits and sweet vegetables into my diet to help me manage my hunger and energy levels.  I find that as long as I stick with fruits and vegetables I do pretty well." -Sysy

So I think I will try this. It is very similar to Paleo and going ketogenic, but gives me a little different focus.

Since I like lists, here is my new list of DIET DOs and DON'Ts:

1. Exercise 30+ minutes per day
2. Eat no processed foods (i.e. NO deli meat, crackers, cereal, flour).
3. Eat lots of vegetables, vegetable soup, green vegetable juice.
4. Eat fruit, but not too much.
5. Eat only 30-50g carbs per day (about 15g per meal).

FYI: One of my favorite snacks right now is this - baby carrots and hummus - which has 12g of carbs in one serving (3oz of carrots and 2 Tbsp of hummus):

Ketogenic Diet: Day 3

First, here are the cold, hard facts:

Keytones?
Yes - tested positive for Light to Moderate this morning and tonight. :-)

Weight:
Is down by 3 lbs since I started this diet.

Blood sugars have been:
Breakfast: 114
Lunch: 139
Dinner: 137

Food:
- Breakfast was my favorite sweet and savory omelette again, along with coffee (with ghee and coconut oil -- this made me feel a little ill today).
- Lunch was (what I could find from a quick run over to Trader Joe's because I didn't have time to pack one today) Miso ginger soup, baby spinach and greens, bleu cheese, candied pecans, and cranberries with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing (which I only used half of to keep the carbs down).

- Dinner was Low Carb Ham and Black Bean Soup I made to use up leftovers.

Now for the thoughts and feelings about this....

What I am feeling in one word: calm.

Here's some elaboration on that. I am surprisingly not craving carbs like I used to. My mind is not crazy with this constant need for fuel. It has been a very calming feeling for me. Very zen-like. My mind and body seem to steadily have the nutrition/fuel they need throughout the day. I am not always thinking about my next snack or next meal because I feel full, satisfied, and nourished. Even on the 40 carbs per meal plan I was doing, I constantly felt the need to eat (carbs) for energy. It was weirdly kind of stressful.

On this plan, the main thing that stresses me out is what my doctor said to be careful about: limit animal products. Because apparently when you eat higher on the food chain you are exposed to more toxins that get stored in fat cells. So I have been trying very hard to make about 75% of my diet vegetables and only 25% meat/eggs/dairy.

Ketogenic Diet: Day 2

When I woke up this morning I used some Ketostix to test if I have ketones in my urine. Sure enough, I had Light to Moderate! Score!

Here was breakfast - 1.5 slices of bacon, coffee with ghee and coconut oil, and one of my favorites! "Sweet and Savory Omelette" recipe from the Buzzfeed Clean Eating Challenge:

SWEET AND SAVORY APPLE OMELET

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium apple, thinly sliced
• 2 large eggs for women; 3 large eggs for men
• 1⁄4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄8 teaspoon kosher salt

Procedure

Heat olive oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat, then add the apple slices and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Meanwhile, crack the eggs into a small mixing bowl with kosher salt and 1⁄2 teaspoon water, and beat with a fork until thoroughly combined. Spread the apples evenly on the bottom of the non­stick skillet, then add the eggs. Turn the heat to low and cook 3 minutes, until the bottom of the omelet is set and the top is only slightly liquidy. Carefully flip the omelet and cook 1 minute. Serve omelet with the other half of the apple, sliced. (I did not do this - I only had the half of an apple in my omelet to keep my carbs down)

347 calories, 23.6 g fat (5.2 g saturated fat), 22.8 g carbohydrate (5 g fiber, 16.4 g sugars), 13.6g protein, 421 mg sodium, 372 mg cholesterol

Yum!!

Then I had a lunch meeting for work, but fortunately it included all things I could eat: lots of veggies and some meat!

What you see above is: Caesar salad, squash vegetable medley, Greek salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, chickpeas), and chicken. Also, iced tea with lemon. It was delicious!

My blood sugars have been pretty stable it seems, although I don't quite have my insulin doses worked out yet since I am trying to be conservative, so it was 142 at breakfast, 169 at lunch, and 174 at dinner.

Dinner was at a friend's house, and fortunately I was able to put together a ~17g carb dinner of spaghetti squash (1 cup), tomato sauce (1/2 cup), and lil smokies.

Ketogenic Diet: Day 1

I couldn't stop thinking about this new diet, so I decided to start it today.

Here's my approximate calorie/protein/carb/fat breakdown to maintain my current weight:

• 2,150 calories
• 109-183 grams of protein per day (15%)
• 30-50 grams of carbohydrate per day (5%)
• 191 grams of fat per day (80% or 1,720 calories)

BREAKFAST:

• 1/2 mason jar of homemade chicken/bone/veggie broth
• Spinach salad with a few strawberries, pecans, and raspberry vinaigrette
• Coffee with 2 tsp ghee (clarified butter), 1 tsp coconut oil

Blood sugar:

My blood sugar was 209. Normally I would take 2.5 units of Humalog to lower it (1 unit H for every 40 mg/dL over 83 mg/dL), but I was instructed not to do this initially so I didn't.

Insulin:

I took 3 units of Humalog to cover breakfast. I also lowered my Lantus to 8 units instead of 9 this morning. 

MID-MORNING SNACK:

Breakfast tided me over til 9:45am when I got hungry and ate a package of seaweed (good source of iodine and only 1 carb!). At 10:30 I ate a handful of (about 1/2 cup) peanuts. Even though these aren't Paleo, they are fairly low carb (10g) and satiating (14g of protein, 28g of fat).

Blood Sugar:

I tested my blood sugar and it was 204.

Insulin:

I took an additional 2 units of Humalog to bring my blood sugar down.

LUNCH:

• Spring greens
• 4 strawberries
• Handful of walnuts
• 1/2 cucumber
• 6 snap peas
• Raspberry vinaigrette dressing
• Ham (leftover from Easter...)

Blood Sugar:

At 12:40pm I tested my blood sugar and it was 193.

Insulin:

I took 2.5 H to bring it down and 2.5 H to cover lunch carbs.

So that about puts me at my 50g carb limit for the day! I will need to have absolutely no carbs at dinner to stay under...

I am feeling pretty good.

Trying a Ketogenic Diet

I have started reading the book "Keto Clarity: Your Definitive Guide to the Benefits of a Low-Carb, High Fat Diet" by Jimmy Moore and Eric Westman, MD.

...and it has been amazing.

My spouse told me yesterday, "Why do you need to read another book about nutrition/low carb diets? They all say the same thing. Surely, you can't learn anything from another book like this."

While there are many similarities between books like this, I actually do learn new things from each nutrition book I read. This book especially brought a piece to the puzzle I needed to learn so badly: my 50-120 grams of carbohydrate diet I've been trying to do for the past year is actually not ideal.

Here's why:

In the article, "Debate: how low can you go? The low down on the low carbohydrate debate in type 1 diabetes nutrition" the following question is answered:

"Can a nutritional regimen based on low carbohydrate intake provide safe and more effective glycaemic control for healthy type 1 diabetes glycaemic management?"

Fraziska Spritzler, a Registered Dietition and Certified Diabetes Educator, who contributed to the Keto Clarity book, gave the "YES" response. And Carolyn Robertson, another expert, gave the "NO" response.

To summarize, here is what I learned:

1. Human bodies can function on fat or carbohydrates as a primary fuel source. This has helped our species survive. Sometimes people need to use primarily fat for fuel (i.e. the Inuit tribe), and sometimes people need to use primarily carbs for fuel. There are pros and cons to each kind of fuel source. Surviving primarily on fat does not always give you an optimal amount of micronutrients or antioxidants (which you typically get from fruits and veggies). Surviving primarily on carbs can be hard on your heart, brain, and liver since it takes some work for your body to keep your blood glucose in balance. Also insulin (which is required for the digestion of carbs) creates inflammation in your body, and can lead to weight gain.
2. Ultra low carbohydrate diets (less than 50g of carbohydrates per day) can be very effective, but must be well planned out to get an optimal amount of nutrients each day. This is the diet that Dr. Richard K. Bernstein (a type 1 diabetic himself, and endocrinologist) recommends for achieving normal blood sugars. They can be hard to stick to due to social situations often involving carbohydrate-laden eating/drinking. Also, many of Dr. Bernstein's recipe suggestions in his book involve milk/cheese/yogurt/sour cream, which I cannot eat. There is a fantastic interview between Jimmy Moore (of Livin' La Vida Low Carb) and Dr. Richard K. Bernstein at this link: http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/288/dr-richard-bernstein-on-the-low-carb-diabetes-cure-ep-254/
3. Semi low carb diets (50-120g of carbs per day) make blood glucose erratic/unpredictable for type 1 diabetics. This is because the body derives fuel from both carbs AND/OR fat. And you don't necessarily know what your body (your liver) will decide to do that day. So this type of diet makes managing your blood sugars much more difficult. To quote Robertson: "A low carbohydrate plan is not a good strategy for people with type 1 diabetes largely because they lack effective biological feedback, or the capacity to recognize a change in the liver’s rate of glucose secretion."
4. Higher carbohydrate diets (120+ grams of carbs per day) can be harder on your heart, brain and liver due to greater fluctuation in blood glucose throughout the day and night. It is much easier to stick to because it is so flexible, cheap, and the type of diet that most Americans adhere to. It is the diet I've been doing for most of my life.

Since I have never actually given the ULTRA low carb diet (under 50g per day) I am going to try to do this during the month of May and see how it goes.

When I wrote to my diabetes team about this they did say, "I do have to say this is not a diet we recommend for people with Type 1 diabetes but for 1 month you should be ok as long as you monitor your ketones and blood sugar often."

So what about ketones/diabetic ketoacidosis?

Diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA for short, is a very serious condition that I may need to be careful about when doing an ultra low carb diet.

Keith Runyan, MD, is a type 1 diabetic and says that those with DM1 do not need to worry about going into diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) when following a ketogenic diet. Here is a quote (below), and a link to where he talks about this: http://drkrunyan.com/About.html

"In summary, DKA is a serious potentially life-threatening complication of either T1DM or T2DM caused by acute illness in a person with diabetes, undiagnosed diabetes, or noncompliance with insulin therapy in an insulin-dependent diabetic. Persons with diabetes should understand that utilizing a well-formulated ketogenic diet in the treatment of diabetes does NOT increase the risk of developing DKA. Nutritional ketosis is a normal consequence of the fat and keto-adapted individual who is restricting dietary carbohydrates to between 20 – 50 grams/day. The table below shows the various levels of ketone concentrations in the body to help differentiate between ketosis and ketoacidosis:

Body Condition	Quantity of Ketones Being Produced
After a meal	0.1 mmol/L
Overnight fast	0.3 mmol/L
Ketogenic Diet (Nutritional Ketosis)	0.5 - 6 mmol/L
> 20 days of fasting	5 - 10 mmol/L
Diabetic Ketoacidosis	15 - 30 mmol/L

So, my goal will be to make sure my ketones are between 0.5-6 mmol/L (Nutritional Ketosis) while on this diet.

From looking at a conversion calculator online, 0.5-6 mmol/L = 9-108 mg/dL.

How will I figure out what to eat?

Jimmy Moore has some good recipes at this link: http://www.livinlowcarbmealplan.com/recipes/

How will I need to modify my medication?

These are the recommendations my diabetes care team gave me:

1. Start by only taking the amount of insulin needed for the # of carbs I eat. Don't take any insulin for correcting blood glucose at the start (and see how this goes).
2. Reduce basal insulin by 1 unit at AM and PM (so 2 units total reduction) to start. 
3. If my blood sugar drops at night, I need to reduce my PM basal insulin by 1 unit every 2 days until no more low blood sugars at night.
4. If I have low blood sugar during the day, I need to reduce my AM basal insulin.
5. If I start to lose weight, I will need to reduce my basal insulin even further.
6. Monitor keytones daily.
7. If I eat large amounts of protein at a meal I will need additional insulin, as protein forms into glucose if there are no carbs available - it just takes longer.
8. Have glucagon handy in case I go low.

Here I go....!!!

Healing Eczema Diet

After 3 days of consistently high blood sugars in the 300-400 mg/dL range (normal should be around 83 mg/dL so this is really high), taking 2-4x as much insulin as I normally do, and talking to my acupuncturist about my new vegan/pescatarian ways, I need to make a change.

He said I need to do a diet that is first and foremost good for my blood sugars.

So I am basically going to follow the advice of this lady and her healing eczema blog, which seemed to help me some before: http://www.eczema-natural-healing.com/eczema-and-diet.html

This diet basically follows the Paleo diet principles...

Breakfast (4am-12noon)

Make a fruit smoothie with:
1. Banana, strawberries, raspberries, apples, oranges, cherries, peaches, plums, and/or pears.
2. Golden flax seeds freshly ground (2 Tbsp), wild crafted blue green algae, green drink mix, organic unheated coconut oil, and probiotics.

Do not add melons, blueberries, or grapefruit to the smoothie – these must be eaten separately.

Lunch (12-4pm)

Have either:
1. Fish (salmon, halibut, or oysters) and vegetables
2. Ezekiel bread with either vegetable soup, or avocado/tomato/cilantro/olives
3. Miso soup, brown rice and steamed vegetables
4. Mashed potatoes using coconut milk and butter, with sautéed mushrooms in tamari sauce and a small salad

Dinner (4-8pm)

A 16-24 oz. glass of vegetable juice made with:
• 2 stalks celery,
• 1/2 bunch parsley,
• 2 carrots,
• 1/4 bunch cilantro,
• 3 leaves of kale,
• 1/2 cucumber,
• 1 green apple.

Add and alternate, in very moderate amounts: ¼ beet, cabbage, zucchini, bell pepper, bok choy, etc.
If still hungry after this drink, eat some raw, organic nuts and/or seeds: pine nuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, or soaked almonds.

Snacks:

• Fresh fruits
• Fresh vegetables (cucumbers, carrots)
• Unsalted nuts or seeds

Days 1-2 of less meat

YESTERDAY 3/3/15:
Of course the day I decide to stop eating beef and chicken, one of my friends texts me and asks if I'd like to come over for dinner - of gumbo.

Gumbo I learned is basically a lot of meat - especially beef and chicken - in a stew. Kinda the worst thing I should be having right now according to my new principles...

So I brought a salad over, ate a couple slices of homemade sourdough bread prior, and had just a couple bites of his gumbo.

PROS:

• Up until that point I was doing a pretty good job of staying away from meat. And interestingly enough, my body and digestive system felt lighter. Much better.

CONS:

• However, my blood sugar was sky high before bed that night. I chalked this up to my body not being used to eating so many carbs and so little protein. So I took a big shot of insulin to bring it down and woke up around 12:30am with a blood sugar of 43 - so I had to eat more carbs to get it back up. Definitely felt like a roller coaster.
• Also, I weighed myself and my weight was up a little bit from what it has been. I've been trying to lose weight and keeping track very closely, so this was a bummer to see.

TODAY 3/4/15:
Breakfast this morning consisted of homemade vegetable and bone broth with some added (heirloom wheat) ramen noodles, and cooked dark leafy greens.

I was feeling very hungry by 10am and ate 2 dates, some walnuts, and a bowl of oatmeal. I had to take an extra shot of insulin for this.

I definitely feel more hungry on this lower protein diet. But that could be because I have added grains instead of fruits/veggies as some of my main calories this morning. I've heard it said that your body sends hunger signals when it needs additional nutrients - of which grains don't have very many. When I eat a green smoothie for breakfast I don't feel as hungry as I did today. So that is what I will try tomorrow (today was really cold outside so I wanted something warm to eat).

Really, that is my main goal: to eat more fruits and vegetables, therefore crowding out my need to eat very many grains or much meat.

Farewell to Paleo?

For the past year, I have been dealing with this pesky (ugly and itchy!) eczema on my hands -- or, as I've learned my grandpa used to call it (referring to it on his own hands), "the creeping crud."

Here is a picture of it from today (it has morphed throughout the past year):

I've tried modifying my diet in a number of different ways to make it go away. It seemed that some of the most effective things to make it get smaller were to alkalize my body by doing things like stop drinking coffee, green smoothies for breakfast, juicing lots of green veggies for dinner, and eating less meat. This lady's website really helped me out: http://www.eczema-natural-healing.com/eczema-remedies.html

But I could never get my eczema to totally go away. Juicing every night in particular got to be a tough regimen to follow (and not very fun, as dinner is nice to share with family/friends).

So my interest was piqued when when I started reading a blog by a guy who has studied Eastern and Western medicine, used to have skin problems but now doesn't, and used to eat Paleo and now eats a whole foods, plant-based diet. Here is a link to his blog: http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/

He says that red meat and chicken aggravate eczema - and since he has switched to not eating meat his skin problems have gone away:

"In general, it is standard practice in Chinese medicine to recommend elimination of red meat and poultry from the diet of people with inflammatory skin conditions because long empirical experience as well as Chinese theory indicate that these foods create inflammation (we say that they create heat)."

Here is a link to his "Farewell to Paleo" blog post that got me re-considering my own diet: http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/2011/06/farewell-to-paleo.html

These are the things I am going to try over the next 1-2 month to see if they help clear up my eczema and overall health:

1. Become a "pescatarian": avoid meat (especially chicken and red meat), except for wild caught fish.
2. Keep my carbohydrate intake down by eating more vegetables than fruit or grains. I used to aim for 40 carbs or less per meal when I was Paleo. Now I may try for 60 carbs per meal.
3. Eat only gluten free grains (rice, corn), einkorn flour (which is low in gluten), or homemade sourdough bread (also low in gluten). 
4. Eat only fermented dairy (goat or sheep cheese/yogurt, no cows milk for me).

Also I need to think about sources of protein. Here will be some staples for me I think:

• Wild caught fish
• Hummus
• Tofu
• Peanut butter
• Almond butter
• Nuts
• Hemp
• Chia seeds
• Sesame, sunflower, and poppy seeds

Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

Buzzfeed's "Clean Eating Challenge"

Mitch and I have spent the past two weeks doing Buzzfeed's "Clean Eating Challenge," which was basically two weeks of almost-Paleo eating, all real food - no processed food, and a LOT of fiber (I realized later...).

Here is a link to the Challenge: http://www.buzzfeed.com/christinebyrne/clean-eating-challenge

A big part of the reason I wanted to do this challenge is because I needed a "boost" to get back into low carb, healthy eating and Buzzfeed made it super SIMPLE:

1. Every single recipe is planned out for you,
2. along with 2 grocery lists (you go shopping on Saturdays),
3. and the carb counting is already done for me so I knew exactly how much insulin to take before every meal without even having to think about it.

For those three reasons, this was a great diet. We also learned some delicious and nutritious new recipes!

For other reasons, it was not. Here's what I ran into:

1. We ate so many greens and uncooked vegetables that my digestion could not handle it very well. I wish they would have incorporated more cooked veggies or soups that go with salads to help with the digestion factor.

2. We ate a lot more legumes than I am used to eating, since Paleo does not allow legumes. And this seemed to make my bowels go crazy - lots of bloating, gas, and [minor] pain. I discovered that my body does not handle legumes well.

3. I did not lose any weight, though I had hoped to lose some. Maybe this is because I mostly eat healthy anyways? I was at a loss for figuring this one out...

Here is one new food I have never eaten before (that I remember): fennel. And it was delicious in a salad!



So anyways, I'd recommend giving it a try with some of the modifications I mentioned above.

The downside to fermented foods

As a follow up to my last post about fermented foods/drinks, I wanted to share one downside to them that I discovered - and did not read about at all prior to increasing my consumption of them. This downside is teeth sensitivity.

Granted, it should be fairly obvious that acidic foods/drinks are hard on one's teeth. It is just not something that crossed my mind until it happened to me.

After drinking a fair amount of vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and kombucha over the past couple years for my digestion and general health I recently started having very sensitive teeth. I thought about what might have caused this sudden, extremely painful change in my health and realized that the likely culprit is all of the acidic things I have been drinking lately!

So this past month I started using sensitive toothpaste and cut way back on my vinegar and kombucha consumption. And do you know what happened? I got a cold!

Unfortunately, now I need to work on finding another way to increase the probiotics in my life besides relying so heavily on acidic drinks like kombucha.

Fermented Food

Dr. Loren Cordain's book, The Paleo Diet, says that fermented foods were not part of our primal ancestors' diet. But in his new Paleo Diet blog he has mentioned fermented foods and probiotics in a positive light and recommended them in some circumstances.

Specifically, here is a quote from a Q&A on The Paleo Diet Blog explaining why probiotics can be helpful to us today, even though they may not have been a part of our Paleo ancestors' diet:

Q: In your book, you said not to consume fermented foods. However, in the new Paleo Diet blog (which is great, by the way), I've seen probiotics recommended a couple times.
So I'm wondering ... did Paleolithic man consume fermented foods? 

A: Yogurt, leavened bread, alcohol, pickled foods and other fermented foods clearly require technology to produce and consume. However, pre-agricultural humans ate plenty of fruits and vegetables (good sources of soluble fiber), which encourage growth of gram positive gut bacteria. For most people, after years on a low-fiber high-glycemic load diet, probiotics have been demonstrated to have many therapeutic effects, perhaps because they restore the gut flora that likely would have been present had they been consuming large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout their life.

Being that I have eaten many foods over my life that encourage the growth of bad bacteria (for example: sugar, grains, processed food) as well as been exposed to stress, pollution, and taking antibiotics, I decided to look into the positives and negatives of eating fermented foods - to help my gut flora be in balance - while I am trying to follow a Paleo Diet.

First of all, what are fermented foods?

Wikipedia has a nice definition that says:

"Fermentation in food processing is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions."

And the benefits of it include:

"The primary benefit of fermentation is the conversion of sugars and other carbohydrates into preservative organic acids, e.g. converting juice into wine, grains into beer, carbohydrates into carbon dioxide to leaven bread, and sugars in vegetables. 

Food fermentation has been said to serve five main purposes:^[12]

• Enrichment of the diet through development of a diversity of flavors, aromas, and textures in food substrates

• Preservation of substantial amounts of food through lactic acid, alcohol, acetic acid, and alkaline fermentations

• Biological enrichment of food substrates with protein, essential amino acids, and vitamins

• Elimination of antinutrients

• A decrease in cooking time and fuel requirement"

- Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermented_foods

Basically, fermented foods have been around for thousands of years in cultures all around the world, as a means of preserving food. For example, here are a few traditional fermented foods from different cultures/countries around the world:

• Korea: kimchi
• Japan: miso
• China: pickled vegetables, kombucha
• Middle East: olives, wine, yogurt
• Rome/Germany: sauerkraut, beer

One of my personal favorite probiotic foods is kombucha. So when I learned (from numerous sources) that 70-80% of your immune system resides in your gut (!!!), and that it can be helped by consuming probiotics, I decided to put this to the test with kombucha.

Here is my story of how I did that.

Since I am a type 1 diabetic, I am at higher risk for developing the flu and it becoming fatal. So the Western medical community recommends I get a flu shot every year to help avoid this sort of thing. But according to one health researcher (and author of the "Great Taste, No Pain" food combining method), Sherry Brescia, whose food principles I have found to be generally sound and whose e-newsletter I receive each week, stated recently:

"despite what the drug companies claim, there are simply NO studies that PROVE flu vaccines significantly decrease numbers of flu cases or mortality (deaths) from the flu. All studies prove that they don't. Flu vaccinations repeatedly come up short in study after study when it comes to having any measurable impact on reducing illness and death from the flu."

I ran this by my doctor and acupuncturist and neither disagreed with what she said. So I decided to not get a flu shot these past 2 years, and instead increase the amount of probiotics (foods and drinks -- but mostly kombucha) I consumed to help give my immune system a fighting chance.

And do you know what happened?

I haven't gotten sick in 2 years!!

Now it helps if you know that every single year before these past couple years I got sick at least 1-2 times every year. So you can imagine how happy I am to not be getting sick or needing to take antibiotics anymore. And all of this is because of one dietary change I made: drinking 2-3 bottles of kombucha per week.

I would make my own homemade kombucha because it is so much cheaper to do this this way (only 50 cents per gallon!) but since I have an autoimmune disease I am more "delicate" and need to drink the store bought stuff. The reason for this is because store bought kombucha is more highly regulated/controlled, with less risk of any bad bacteria growing in the drink (and my immune system not being able to fight it off). In most cases, the acidity of the drink prevents growth of unwanted contaminants. So I would highly recommend to make your own kombucha unless you, too, have an autoimmune disease.

Another benefit I have found to kombucha is that it helps my digestion greatly. For awhile I had to drink straight vinegar (2 Tbsp) before every meal to help me digest my food. This was so disgusting to me and stripped my teeth of enamel. Fortunately, around this time I discovered kombucha, and that drinking a little bit of it before every meal had the same positive effect on my digestion as vinegar! And I think (most) kombucha tastes DELICIOUS. It is like drinking a mild beer in my opinion. My personal favorite type is GT's Multi-green flavor. Not everyone I've talked to likes this particular brand/flavor so I would definitely suggest trying a few different kinds until you find one you like.

So that's been my experience with this "wonder" drink with 2,000+ years of tradition behind it. How has it helped you?