Reversing Heart Disease

[Auxin]

I hope to get a discussion going here of natural/ethnopharmacological ways to reverse decades of accumulated heart disease.

I'll start with my experiences to date. I grew up with a clinically depressed smoker in a household where no one cooked, we ate nothing but prepackaged and fast food with loads of meat and starting at age 13 I smoked daily for 13 years. Exercise was a dirty word.

When I quit smoking after my 27th birthday I had had obvious hardening in the veins of my arms for close to a decade, drawing blood was not always simple and I would have occasional pain wherever a major vein had to bend. My blood pressure was averaging over 125/65 (pre-hypertensive) and slowly edging up. A few years before I quit smoking my father, whos example I was following, had blood pressure of 170/90 right before his massive heart attack and 5 way coronary bypass. Drawing blood from him was an adventure even for experts, his veins were so hard. It was obvious his lifestyle was killing him which it did 1 month after he turned 66.

Bad shit man.

So I quit smoking, no patches or pills I just progressively reduced daily consumption at 1 week intervals over a month period until I hit 0. I figured w00t, that should do it. It didnt. 4 Years later my BP was still 120/65 (the low edge of prehypertensive) and my veins still sometimes hurt when I bent my arms or legs. I stopped the progression but that wasnt good enough.

Major changes time.

I quit drinking anything with sugar in it, exchanging them for various home brewed (and dirt cheap) medicinal herbal teas (see below). I significantly reduced red meat, exchanging it for chicken and fish. I started including vegetables in my diet.

3 months on my BP was averaging (over 2 weeks of readings) 115/63. Marginal improvement Arms still hurt when bending

So I started taking 1 mile walks several times a week for 3 months and reduced overall meat consumption. BP dropped to 109/61, well into normal range

Then I quit meat, yes dairy too- its liquid meat, yes fish too- its just wet meat. To compensate for the loss of dietary B12 I powdered B12 pills and mixed with powdered shiitake to the extent of 25 µg/g(tsp) and added it to my food most days. I quit nearly all prepackaged food, cooking my own food every day from scratch. And after a while I quit storebought snacks, pastries, and bread products- cooking those too. I essentially eliminated all food preservatives, additives, and aged foods from my diet. I started adding a dash of potassium chloride to any foods I know I'd add salt to. I also started fortifying extra virgin olive oil with vitamin D3 (more in winter, less in rest of year) and I use it in my daily cooking. I began going out every night walking 1 mile or more often riding a kick scooter (like a 2 wheel skateboard with handle bars) 2 miles and several times a month riding it for 5-7 miles to parks or the botanical garden. When I get home from my night rides/walks I do 30 squats holding a 8 kilo stainless steel bolt, 30 crunches, and 30 lifts of the giant bolt (I do it with my shirt off, yes it looks oddly masculine). And I started digging up a 1000 sq ft vegetable and herb garden. Turning sod into rich garden with just a spade, a shovel, and a hoe is exercise! Trust me. And now I do like 15-20 minutes work per day in the garden, hoeing and carrying 5 gallon jugs of water around when watering seedlings- that kind of stuff.

Crap man, that was a lot to get used to

But within 3 months the pains in my veins totally vanished and havent come back, my veins even feel softer to the touch now! Reversal of the sclerosis in my veins and arteries was a goal but I'll be damned I never expected dramatic changes in under 3 months! My blood pressure was down to 100/60 and kept slowly dropping. I plan to take 10 day averages every 4 months to see where it equilibrates. I dont know what my lipid profile is, in america testing that is not cheap so fuck it, I'll do it every decade or something starting when I turn 40 lol. I also feel better, I'm stronger, and my ass is no longer flat. Mmmm, actual ass

So thats my case report to date and a brief summary of my immersion deeper into hippiedom.

Anyone else have histories or wisdoms to share on this topic?

Notes on herbs n stuff:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil: This critter is correlated with good changes to lipid profile. It seems to increase HDL cholesterol, decrease LDL, and decrease oxidizability of LDL particles. The fats in olive oil are less oxidizable and the extra virgin type contains a class of antioxidants that seem to protect against lipid oxidation. Lipid oxidation sucks because it builds those plaques in arteries and can also combine with proteins to produce gunk that the body cant get rid of, this gunk can build up outside And inside cells and basically bogs down cellular processes when in cells.

Favorite Teas:

One of my favorite innovations was dusting off my old espresso maker and using it to brew tea. I typically load two herbs into it, a teaspoon to a tablespoon of each, and blast it with water and dilute the resultant boiling hot tea to 1/2 L. I can blast each batch of tea 3-5 times for my full day supply of not-coffee (I still drink 2 coffees a day )

Melissa officinalis 'Lemon Balm' when dried it makes a nice mild smooth tea. Its noted for being calming, reducing excess thyroid function, and helping headaches. An iranian study found it to help alzheimer's patients. It contains various antioxidants centered around hydroxylated cinnamic acid derivatives like those of sage and rosemary. Its piss-easy to grow. I use it as a base for teas, providing more body that higher flavor.

Salvia officinalis 'Sage' this is definitely a favorite, it makes an earthy masculine tea. Its antiseptic and helps with digestion, its a vasodialator and is noted for being anti-anxiety but not sedating. Its antioxidant. Its also been found in some studies to help with alzheimer's, in the iranian study lemon balm was more effective. I use it for the flavor half of tea mixes on most days.

Strawberry Leaf can be used as tea where it supplies loads of antioxidant mainly from the cancer preventative ellagic acid (a polyphenol gallic acid dimer) which also helps prevent tooth decay. I use it as a base for teas.

Gynostemma pentaphyllum 'Jiaogulan' Theres two forms of this critter, bitter and non-bitter. I recommend the non-bitter. I love this stuff. According to PFAF "The whole plant is a tonic herb that improves the circulation, stimulates liver function, strengthens the immune and nervous systems, and reduces blood sugar and cholesterol levels[238]. It also has sedative effects, relieving spasms and lowering the blood pressure[238]. It is used internally in the treatment of nervous tension and exhaustion, peptic ulcer, asthma, bronchitis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer[238]." Its actives are the gypenosides which chemically overlap with the ginsenosides of ginseng, the two herbs actually share some of the same compounds. Its quite popular with the asian community in my town actually rivaling green tea and its the only tea I make without adding anything else to balance the flavor or strength, tho at times I add a pinch of lemon balm for subtle variety.

Grape leaf tastes a bit like strawberry leaf but is more astringent. Its packed full of the antioxidants resveratrol, resveratrols cis isomer, and has other variously hydroxylated monomeric and polymeric stilbenes (like epsilon viniferin) as well as flavonoids. Those are the same goodies that are believed to give red wine its cardiovascular benefits but grape leaf has way more and without that pesky alcohol. Its anti-inflammatory and improves vascular health as evidenced by its use in helping with varicose veins, haemorrhoids and capillary fragility.

[opiumfreak]

smoke mapacho drink ayahuasca its good for you

[hutch]

I hope to get a discussion going here of natural/ethnopharmacological ways to reverse decades of accumulated heart disease.

 

Wow man, that's excellent...what an improvement..well done!

You sound like you are on the right track....my journey started about a year and a half ago when I was 112.6 Kilograms...I knew I was a heart attack in the making as I felt lousy all the time...Blood pressure was through the roof. I could feel each pump of my heart thump into my head...the pain in my arms was all most the same as you described...

I kicked nearly all manufactured foods as well, preferring fresh and grown by me or sourced locally but the best thing I ever did was to start walking. I am 82 kilo now. I joined the Aust defence force in 1979 I was then at my fittest and then I weighed 79 kilo so I am nearly back to my prime weight...When I first started walking I hated it. It was such a chore but as my health began to improved I started to enjoy it more. I can now run...something I thought I would never be able to do again. The first time I tried I was carrying so much fat around my face that every time my foot hit the ground it would make my eyes blink..

I am no where near as committed as you are....I sneak the odd snack in here and there and I love my beef....and my pork, sheep, chicken, fish, goat....what ever moves if you know what I mean....

One thing I would suggest is maybe you look at the herb Macca....It turned me into a raging sex beast for awhile (no effect there on the mrs) but I really believe they gave me a lift...

http://en.wikipedia....epidium_meyenii

I went off them for about 3 months (I was broke) and believe I felt better on them so I now make sure I have room for them in my budget...

I like your tea idea's....I think I will look into that more so thank you for starting this topic....sounds like you will be around for a long while to come...

Cheers

Hutch

Edited May 9, 2011 by hutch

[Auxin]

Yeah maca is on my 'list' of things to try to find a way to grow. I have grown it before but only got radish sized roots, now that I'm taking my garden far more seriously I intend to source a low-elevation cultivar and in instances in which I keep vegetables alive through the winter under row covers I'll try intercropping maca so it can actually grow during the winter while I'm slowly harvesting the dormant kale, turnip greens, whatever, that theyre growing under. If it works it'd be available like a spring tonic vegetable around the time I dig up the whole garden.

[Gunter]

medicinal mushrooms, like shiitake and ganoderma

cut out all hydrogenated fats or oils, these are often illegal outside of the USA because of the damage they do, the body cannot eliminate them

they do more damage than meat and dairy and are in so many products

[Auxin]

I second the medicinal mushrooms, thats actually why I chose shiitake to compound into my only B12 and half my riboflavin source even tho oat flour would be the right density too, and much cheaper. Good to have mushrooms in ya diet.

The trans fats were why I quit commercial pastries and sweet snacks. Also dough conditioners! Here in the US we put azodicarbonamide in nearly all bread products despite it being linked to asthma and allergies with the implication that it may cause other immune damage- funks illegal across 1/3 the planet. We also use a confused assortment of emulsifying agents which are often very impure and of unknown toxicology. Emulsifying agents in foods marketed to children are known to cause kidney damage and heart fibrosis with a distinct probability of also causing neurological damage. "Modified" starches and fats are appearing in foods, they dont have to say how they are modified and the licensing info for each 'modified' form is protected under industry-shielding secrecy laws. We arent even allowed to know what we're eating!

The horror of reviewing what is known about the abundant dough conditioners used here is what got me observing the old custom of a weekly 'baking day' 15 years ago if you said I would have a 'baking day' I would have laughed in your face and taken the pipe away from you. Breads and rolls and cookies come out just fine without egg or trans fat/lard/margarine. A handy trick for breads is to use lemon balm or strawberry leaf or sage tea as 1/3 the water, it acts as a healthful bread preservative

Turmeric Bread Rolls (with curcumin absorption enhancing piperine):

Water 1 cup

Oil 2 tbsp

Brown Sugar 2 tbsp

Salt 1.5 tsp (part of it being potassium chloride if available)

Unbleached Flour 3 cups

Turmeric 1/2 tsp

Black Pepper 1/2 to 1 tsp according to taste

Yeast 2.25 tsp

Prepare in bread machine on 'dough' setting, make into 8 balls, bake at 175*C (350*F) for 18 minutes

Bread Cookies with Raisins and Coconut:

Water 3/4 cup

Oil 2 tbsp

Cinnamon 1/2 tsp to 2 tsp according to taste

Brown Sugar 1 tbsp

Salt 1 tsp (part of it being potassium chloride if available)

Unbleached Flour 2.25 cups

Yeast 1 tsp

Prepare in bread machine on 'dough' setting, when it beeps to add stuff add:

Sugar 1/3 cup

Shredded Coconut 1/3 cup

Raisins 1/2 cup

When ready make into 16 cookie patties, bake at 175*C (350*F) for ~18 minutes

They puff up since theyre bread and theyre soft, if you like you can cut them open and put jam in like a little cookie sandwich

I like the bread machines for making dough, healthy bready stuff with minimal labor

[santiago]

smoke mapacho drink ayahuasca its good for you

 

opiumfreak just for a laugh i thought i would entertain your comment and do a bit of research, what i found was that ayahuasca raises blood pressure and nicotine aka mapacho raises blood pressure. i find it a tad useless and silly for you to promote them as lowering blood pressure especially the blatant advertising for your mapacho in a thread it should have no part in.

im just curious to know why you think mapacho and or ayahuasca may contribute to reducing blood pressure long term or short term?

[Evil Genius]

Hi Auxin, i rarely read post that are this long but i read almost the whole thread. Very nice written and very interesting. I come from almost the same background and made pretty much the same experiences.

Well without the topless walks. Family history of smokers, sick as a dog, quit smoking, stopped eating sugar, slowly recovered and went to the best health of my life. I only drink tee too and only binge drink every few months or so. I could do a lot more if i should get problems again but atm its looking good and i go with the old saying "never change a winning team!".

I cant really say what is affecting my cholosterol levels because i rarely test em but i can surely add some things that work for me. You know, its paradox because i eat VERY fatty foods. Thats because i once heard that fat transports vitamines and so i always make sure to get as much fat in my products as possible. Thats probably not very logical but i assume that people who eat fatty products also take in the good fats. And they might do more good than the bad fats do harm. Coffee is pretty healthy too and i make sure to never miss my daily dose. I read it lowers the cancer rate immensely so thats a no brainer for me as long as i dont reach the caffeine levels that make my heart jump out my chest. Not sure if it affects the blood pressure in a bad way though. I think about buying me a pressure meter and will have an eye on that. But in my eyes, the advantages of coffee overweigh the disadvantages clearly if you stay below the critical amounts. Just started collecting my own nettle and blackberries tea and i plan to add some more plants to this list later this year. bye Eg

Edited May 10, 2011 by Evil Genius

[Zen Peddler]

fish mate - eat a tonne of it. Mdae a massive difference to a friend with heart disease.

[woof woof woof]

Aux! Awesome to read how you are taking care off yourself now! Like Zen Peddler said... fish! Good fats and protein! Once or twice a week at least. Your body will thank you for that too! I know that you can get the same omega's from nuts,... but a little variety is usually a nice thing.

what I learned from reading this is to start focussing more on is extra virging olive oil. and eat more fish.

[Auxin]

Yeah, in the correlations between meats and heart disease and cancer fish was the least worrisome one to me. The fats are precursors to antiinflammatory hormones and overall the oil reduces elevated serum triglycerides and the protein itself seems less solidly correlated to cancer but there was the BP disaster, and now fukushima

In theory fish may be good but I'm in no rush to start up on it.

I dont think I lack for protein- I get lots of barley, wheat, and oats and some nuts and I've been putting on muscle without feeling weak. I tend to wonder what effect too much protein has. All the numerous diseases of affluence seem to happen as protein consumption rises. Correlation doesnt mean causation but I figure why consume more than needed.

I was wondering about coffee too and I do have a meter so back in june I measure my BP, drank coffee, waited half an hour, and tested BP again. I did that for 4 consecutive days, not enough data to get a firm average but enough for getting a feel... in no instance was there a large change in readings and the average was a 1.5 point drop is systolic and a 3.25 point rise in diastolic. For me at least coffee doesnt seem to have any profound effect in the short term.

Some researchers say black coffee consumption is correlated to a slight increase in esophageal cancer instance. Theres debate if its the tannins or the heat. When I quit milk I wanted some sort of 'creamer' and all "non-dairy" creamers are made from milk here so I got inventive and ground lentils to the consistency of salt. The idea is the protein would do what milk protein does, that is bind the tannins and neutralize them. I put just a very small sprinkle in with the grounds like one single granulated lentil and it reduces the tannin flavor to my desired level. Nifty little trick.

Nettle seems like good stuff, EG. I ate my first ever bowl of it just a few days ago

[ThunderIdeal]

i've thought about eating fish if i could grow my own, but that pretty much means fresh water fish and i'm not sure if any fresh water fish are very tasty??

i do, very rarely, eat a krill oil cap, but my attempt at answering omega 3 is to add a lot of flax seeds or similar to my cereal. i used to get flax oil caps.

the best thing for me seems to be yoga, but yoga styles vary so much, and though i started nearly a decade ago i am still figuring out how to do it properly, so it's not easy to get the full benefit of it. i can attribute lots of problems to quitting yoga, things which i had attributed to aging and other things. it can be very remedial, but i can't comment on all styles. i would recommend a style more on the ashtanga end of the spectrum, flowing through poses quickly with the breath. it has to make you sweat and always try your best to contract your muscles.

[Evil Genius]

I stopped eating fish completely. Thinking about people using the oceans as their garbage dumps, i just dont see the benefit of it. There was a report in our newspaper recently that the place i live, our local fish are so filled with cancerogen chemicals that they´d suggest people not to eat em. And they even know the companies that cause this by letting their used water getting back into the sea. This is fucking scandalous and im insanely mad about that. No fish for me, thanks.

[planthelper]

chris, those are fantastic news, and all i can add atm is, that as said already, maybe think of increasing your protein intake.

i once lived with a vegetarian, and mostly stayed away from protein, and once the relationship ended, and i cooked meat and sea food again, i felt much, much better and stronger.

proteins are the only good source of iron, forget the crap said about you can get enough iron from vegies....

iron helps the blood to carry oxygen, no wonder you don't like your walks!

that vegetarian, i mentioned, agreed after years of my input to, eat the best cuts of lean meat once in a while, and yes every time she did, she was suddenly far more energetic, and did not feel like sleeping in abundance...

there is only one downside to a healthy diet like yours, and this is that the body (at least mine does) reacts very badly, if you suddenly provide him with some of the bad stuff you mentioned (sugar, the bad fats, etc).

if i eat crappy fats, i get sick within moments, but when i was used to eat junk, this never happend.

and one more thing, if one doesn't feel like walking or cycling (cycling is good for the brain, parkinson symptoms fade for a while after cycling) just ignore the feeling, because after 15min of walking or so that feeling of, "i don't wanna walk" goes away.

i guess you and most of us, share the abilety to "enjoy nature" soooo much, that walks are never boring for us.

i remeber starting a similar thread a long time ago, but with the focus on angina pectoris and stress induced chest pains, and you auxin, i'm pretty sure of it, came up with ton's of herbal info, regarding the treatment of this condition. selenicereus was one of the beneficial herbs.

how thick is your blood auxin? i found out repeatedly, that once i stopp drinking alcohol, my blood seems to get much less viscose and i get chest pains.

instead of using blood thinners, i always had the interesst of using leeches instead, once bitten by a leech, i always feel more at ease inside my body....

[Auxin]

The girl that was fatigued without meat, did they prove that it was specifically iron deficiency? or was it just general anemia or simple fatigue and weakness.

Chronic B12 deficiency first presents itself as an anemia with weakness and fatigue. I watched this scenario proceed all the way to brain damage, scares the shit out of me. Trick is the body cant absorb much more than a 2 day supply in a day so vegetarians need to consume a little most days of the week, thats why I recompound the pills into cooking ingredients. Severe hypovitaminosis B12 scares me more than cancer.

Riboflavin is another one I have a hard time wrapping my head around. Lots of people say "many vegetables provide abundant riboflavin" but I investigated the numbers and it seems damn hard to get enough on vegetables alone. When I crunched the numbers on my diet I was getting like 25% what I should Riboflavin is the bodys flavin source for FAD, flavin adenine dinuceotide, a key electron transporter. Its deficiency can look like iron deficiency anemia plus dry mouth. I recompound it into the same stuff I put B12 in.

Iron is another I'm keeping an eye on. I reckon I probably get enough from vegetables and spices but if I ever begin to doubt that I could just add some ferrous sulfate powder into my shiitake powder vitamin stew

Not sure how thick my blood is, it doesnt seem abnormal in either direction when I cut myself. Doesnt look too thick and I clot in a reasonable time. I rarely get bruised but when I do it is reasonable in appearance and vanishes in 2-3 days.

...once bitten by a leech, i always feel more at ease inside my body....

Are you sure your not just Really Damned Kinky?

[ThunderIdeal]

was i mistaken to think this is a general health and wellbeing thread?

vitamin B2, interesting. wiki says it is destroyed by exposure to light, so i wonder if there is much left in milk by the time you drink it. i wonder how much is left in anything!

i always thought coffee was a pretty unhealthy drink. any further justification for coffee-drinking will be appreciated

[random]

What a great inspiring thread Auxin, thanks for sharing your experiences, very validating for the believers and very appealing sounding to those that are on their way to changing their diets as radically/positively as you have, yours.

Any chance of sharing some more recipes? Or a link to some recipes that you'd recommend?

edited to add: what kind of shredded coconut do you use? Raw coconut that you shred yourself, or store bought packaged shredded coconut? The store bought variety contains sulphur dioxide, a nasty additive. Thanks, hope you can add some more recipes!

Edited May 11, 2011 by meeka

[Auxin]

I use storebought sweetened shredded coconut. I didnt think my brand had SO2 in but now that I check it does have the near equivalent of sodium bisulfite. Woops, lol.. I'll have to pay better attention next time. With any luck the cooking let it find a partner and oxidize to sodium sulfate.

Soy sauce got me like that too. I bought a new (cheap arse) brand of soy sauce by the liter, got it home, it had sodium benzoate in. 'Bastards!' It used to be only packet soy sauce that had benzoate. So next trip to the store I get my old reliable friend Kikkoman soy sauce. Get it home. Well slap my ass, sodium benzoate! NEXT time I'm gonna fucking look! (and boycott any brand with chemical preservatives other than salt).

Recipes: I really dont believe in recipes they way most people do them. I follow established recipes for baking, with frequent small variations/additions (like pepper, turmeric, dill seed, raisins, etc), simply because baking is the easiest thing to fuck up

Following too rigid recipes for general foods leads to a less diverse diet and frequently having to pay inflated prices for essential ingredients. I mostly just toss together what I have and boil it and christen it 'food'. Beans and lentils are a good protein source and they balance well with grains (most of which, contrary to urban myth, are like 20% protein) I can relate some foodish recipe outlines I generally follow tho:

Borscht, basically any soup or stew with beets in. A common way I might make borscht is as follows:

2 L water is put on heat with some EV olive oil in, I toss in some potassium chloride to balance the salt I'll add when eating (the two compete and if theres no potassium then salt will raise blood pressure), a handful of lentils is tossed in for bean protein and folate, and a handful of barley or whatever grain is handy (whole grains are best due to the heart, et al. healthy tocotrienols [*]), that gets up to boiling while I chop up and toss in a 6-10 cm beet, after that if I want it more stewish I'll chop up and toss in several potatoes or maybe two potatoes plus a turnip or parsnip or rutabaga, you can add a chopped carrot or two if your into the added sweetness, potatoes take like 13 minutes boiling to get soft so start counting when you toss them in (I dont peel potatoes, thats throwing away the most nutritious part), then in goes any other veggie I might have and then whatever greens I have on hand: kale mostly since its got loads and loads of vitamins and lutein (a chain breaking lipophilic antioxidant that can reduce heart disease promoting lipid peroxidation), if I both feel like it and remember I may also toss in a hand full of dried whole wheat noodles 6-8 minutes before its done. If it comes out too thin I just chuck in bulk oats, fuckers thicken anything- I use them in chilli, pasta sauces, whatever.

Near the end I add 3 tsp of a vitamin mix I make out of shiitake that I currently fortify to contain 50 µ/g B12, 833 µ/g B1, µ/g B2, µ/g B6 per gram (teaspoon). At the end I add spices, I often like a western euro or italiany flavor so in goes stuff like oregano, marjoram, thyme, winter savory, maybe garlic powder, and lots of dried basil- I use basil like a vegetable, its quite nutrient dense.

Edit to say, beet pigment is not decolorized by human metabolism and if you consume enough it can even come out in your pee. So if you eat borscht and your pee turns red it wasnt kidney damage

Garlic Stew, ok this is a hell of a lot like my borscht but without beets, usually without the whole grains, and with lots of garlic at the end. I also often am more likely to use bok choi to make it creamier and with the garlic I swear it gives it a hint of butteriness. I'm also more prone to add cabbage, tho I do sometimes use it in borscht. Celery leaves are a spice, if you choose to add celery (a scantly nutritious heavily pesticided crop, lol) chop and add the leaves at the end here- nice terpenoid spice flavor.

Curry stew, like garlic stew but with 1/2-1 tbsp turmeric added at the start and curry powder and black pepper instead of garlic at the end.

You can see I like me stews Heres another stewish thing...

Chili, I like to chew my chili. I also like to cook food in 15-20 minutes, fuck boiling for 3 hours, so my beans are not amorphous slop- they get chewed. Chewing releases digestive enzymes and stuff so you can absorb folate, B12, fats, et al. This is to feed a single hungry person (ie. 1/4 gallon+ of dense food):

I presoak a hand full of beans and a smaller handful of grains in 1/2 L water for a few hours before cooking. The water can be drained and replaced but I rarely do. Then on to the heat, I usually add a handful of lentils, then in goes some EV olive oil and turmeric. I get her boiling while chopping up veggies. One veggie I tend to save for chili is cauliflower petioles and main stalks. You know those fleshy leaf stalks at the base of cauliflower most people throw away? Good eatin' man, adds a bit of creaminess vaguely like bok choi. While I have the cauliflower out I generally add a chopped curd too. In goes leafy greens. I've found chili doesnt hide oxalate so well so if I add lots of collards or swiss chard or whatnot I also add just a bit of food grade limestone in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Keep it boiling so the beans get at least 13 minutes in boiling water. Dont ignore the often discarded leaf stalks and central veins of vegetables, as far as I know theyre universally edible. There is very little vegatal scraps going from my kitchen to the compost, nearly all is eaten. OK so the beans are now chewable, I add some oats to thicken it and I turn off heat and add a few squirts of home made or healthy bought hot sauce, 1/2-1 tsp curry powder, the fortified shiitake powder, and usually some whole green olives. Tomatillos are great too (dont eat their 'paper bag' covering) and if I have fresh green onions on hand I add them very last because theyre great hot-but-raw.

Walking onion is a cool plant, grows clusters of little seed onions on the top of the plant, plant these to grow loads and loads of green onions. The bulbs store for half a year in the fridge and the growing onions dont mind freezing temps. So productive in the spring I chop and dry the left over 40 plants so I can plant new veggies.

Ramen and vegetable, I boil up leafy greens and bok choi when available and often cauliflower in ~650 ml water for a good 8 minutes with a bit of EV olive oil, I put it through a collander and save the liquid. Hot veggies get a bit of oregano and garlic powder mixed in- but only a little, plus a dash of potassium chloride, veggie pot gets covered. Liquid is adjusted back up to 1/2 L if it went under and brought back to boiling, in goes block of ramen noodles or dried spaghetti, I just ignore the ramen spice packet- its not healthy, boil for 5 minutes or until soft, turn off heat, add 1 tbsp soy sauce and fortified shiitake powder.

Not sure what I'll do when I run out of soy sauce if all the brands are now using sodium benzoate Possibly just add several tbsp of non-fortified diced shiitake while boiling the veggies (to add savoriness to the liquid) then find some complementing spices for the noodles.

A good snack is just chop up some greens and drop in boiling water, take off heat, drink the liquid and eat the greens. Common food but oddly many people dump the liquid down the drain Bread roll goes good with greens, mmm

Banana peels ARE edible! Its also where the clear majority of nutrients are. I dont know why westerners ignore the peels, just make sure the banana is ripe or its kind of astringent. I just whip out my pocket knife, slice into the banana, grab the slice with my teeth, and whip the knife through it without cutting my nose. It has the amusing capability of blowing peoples minds.

Ok, so those plus my various baked goods and snacks of plain whole dry oats makes up most of my diet. Well that plus peanut butter, jam, fresh fruit, and nuts. Been eating like that every day and with no meat since winter solstice, over 1/3 a year, and along with exercise I've burned off fat and replaced it with muscle and lowered my blood pressure and feel better overall

I just discovered that squash and pumpkin leaves are a nutritious vegetable! Fuckin sweet man, I'm growing a 100 sq ft squash patch this year, that'll be loads of greens. They say older leaves are too woddy but they also say the water leaves are boiled in tastes good, so I'mma save the old leaves seperate and use them to make veggie stock.

Chili with tomatillos tonignt, w00t

Edited May 11, 2011 by Auxin

[Alice]

Great thread Auxin! I never thought it was possible to see such dramatic changes as you describe, but rather it would just slow the progression. Very inspirational, thanks.

2 Q's:

Roughly how long since you quit smoking (which seemed to be the start of your major lifestyle changes)

and

Do you work full-time? (I don't know how you find the time to do all this).

Edited May 12, 2011 by Alice

[random]

Fantastic ideas Auxin, I'm gonna copy and paste your recipe/food plans and use them in the near future. Stews and the like are my favourites too so I'm definitley going to try those all natural flavours, i'm a bit bland with my cooking so will look forward to trying this out.

There you go, I wasn't aware kikkoman soy sauce had that in it either will have to suss this out further or one of my fave pre-made flavours will be banned from my kitchen LOL ugh I love soy sauce!

Do you grow your own potatoes? I've found store-bought potato skins are yuk but home grown ones lovely and sweet mmm

*thumbs up to this thread*

[planthelper]

i don't think that lady was ever tested in a proffessional level for iron deficancy, i was my amateur diagnose.

i guess she had no b complex issues, as she only occassional drank alcohol, but took all type of vitamin supplements and herbal remedies, in abundance! i cooked everything from scratch and it contained lot's of vegies.

i can take my speculations around iron deficancy even further, and propose as followes.

that lady took vitamin C pills in extreem high doses, and it's said (by the sienticst) that very high rates of vvitamin C somehow destroys the iron in the body. i think to remeber, this happens in a similar style like iron corodes.

i know another lady, who fits a similar profile, meaning they take too much vitamin C in, but many ladies like the fact that vitamin C overdoses gives them the runns, so they loose weight.

maybe this dirrhea, is a way how the body tries to return quickly to normal vitamin C levels.

why don't you invest into some herbal iron tonicum (allthough i think they are crap, compared to protein)

and see, if you suddenly enjoy walking for hours?

ferrous sulfate powder, is an extreemly poor iron source for animals or plants, as you know, i don't say, this methode doesn't work at all but the uptake will be close to zereo.

chelated iron, would be much better.

ti would be concerned using ferrous sulfate powder, because it might damage blood vessels, even "good iron" comming from vegies, fruits or protein, can damage the blood vessels, if present in very large ammounts.

with this, i'm pretty sure to remeber all correctly.

leeches, this is my firm believe, have enourmous potential as medicine.

i propose again my theory that, laying on leeches miraclusly healed, people hundreds of years ago, from all disease caused by thick blood and other heart and cardivascular problems.

but than, the stupid doctors thought, they can achive the same result by blood letting and sucktion cups!!

in short, at the beginning they were on the right track, but the later (the doc's thought it's the more sientific aproach) modifications of this practice turned out useless.

the fact that suction cups and blood letting, were thought of achiving the same as leeches, has somehow even rippled onwards into our current time.

many doctors think leeches don't work, just like suction cups and blood letting.

sorry for this mild side track, but leeches can help to reverse heart and cardio vascular problems, in the same style as warfarin.

and this is one of my theories i'm most proud of, unfortunately, i will never get any credit for it, but some other wanker in a white lab coat will one day, hehehe.

[Auxin]

No I dont work full time right now. Cooking dinner from scratch really only takes 18-30 minutes once you get a rhythm down and often times thats for 2 days worth of food for two people (I only eat 1 meal and two sizable sacks per day, thats nothing new- I've been doing it since highschool, sure reduces daily cooking time lol), my nightly exercise takes about 25 minutes, and once a gardens established a fair sized one can be maintained with like 20 minutes work per day (every day), and I only bake 1 day per week. All that should be doable while working full time, tho if you throw in young children it could get a bit stressed lol. The spot where not currently working helps is in that I expanded my gardens greatly this year and that took time, tho if I had done the first breaking of sod with a gas tiller it would have taken much less time to kill all that sod via. turning with shovel.

I quit smoking january 2006. When a smoker quits it statistically takes 8 years before their probability of lung cancer lowers back down to the norm. When I still felt like shit while nearing my 4 year anniversary of quitting ciggies that is what helped spawn all the changes of the last 6 months or so. I figured if I felt like shit my insides almost certainly still looked like shit even 4 years on.

I quit alcohol in 1998, pot in 2003, and I'll likely quit kava somewhere between 2015 and 2070

Even if I like to 100 I'll likely still seriously consider an acid tab or cactus tar ball so long as my heart is in good shape ...tho probably not very often!

This year I'm growing a 3 meter row of red skin potatoes basically as an experiment to see what yield I get. I plan to continue to get most my potatoes from the store but it could be handy for getting the more expensive types like red skin and should provide a good info basis just in case the prices ever skyrocket.

I'm also doing a comparative grow of 4 meter rows of sweet basil and the japanese near-equivalent aka-shiso to see what yield I can get from those with virtually no irrigation, mostly just for reference at this point since I can get bulk dry basil here for $3.50 USD per pound.

[Auxin]

PH, I do enjoy walking! I think you misread something somewhere lol... I routinely go on 5 mile kickscooter rides or 10 mile scooter/walking medicine hunting treks and in neither case do I ever need to rest, my stamina is great now.

I will keep iron supp on the table as a thing to investigate if its ever suggested by any symptoms I get tho.

The vitamin C thing could indeed have played a part, it metabolizes into oxalate which could strip minerals out.

Extremes of any nutrient seem bad, high or low, particularly if its in isolated supplement source. Vitamin A supplements increase cancer rates in smokers, vitamin E supplements block tocotrienol and other-tocopherols absorption which may increase incidence of cancer and heart disease- or at least not lessen them, folic acid supplements mask the main symptom of devastating chronic B12 deficiency, excess vitamin C supplements promote kidney stones, etc.

Supplements indeed do have their uses but, when it can be achieved, getting nutrients from foods seems far superior

[CβL]

About the only things I can add is that vegetables are much healthier when only sparingly cooked. Originally, vegetable cooking was mostly to break down starchy roots. Leafy vegetables need no such preparation.

Seeds are a great food source, simply because they're packed with the nutrients (loads of metals) that a young seedling would need to grow in a potentially deficient system. I eat a lot of sesame seeds, simply because they taste so good, and are even better for you. They are practically a seasoning. Pumpkin seeds are another seed well-worth eating.

In terms of tea, I highly recommend redbush tea over black tea. Tastes similar enough to replace black tea, and supposedly is full of anti-oxidents. Realistically, my tea-drinking is habitual - so it's probably better that this habit is a good one (I think).

Lastly, shredded coconut is largely saturated fats. I wouldn't worry about this though. I'm pretty sure that saturated fats are only a major problem when eaten in large amounts with carbohydrates.

[Auxin]

Saturated fats and cholesterol are a tricky one. Both are correlated to heart disease in most studies. However, in most studies the sources of most saturated fats and all cholesterol is from meat. Thus they can be regarded as a marker for meat consumption. Once lots of low fat meats get used the correlation between saturated fat and heart disease becomes fuzzy. When they compare saturated fat from peanut oil or coconut with caloric equivalents of fats from canola or olive theres still a slight correlation with heart disease, sometimes statistically significant, but nothing like the studies of old that made saturated fat and cholesterol seem like poison.

'The China Study' makes reference to lots of clinical studies that demonstrate interesting relationships like that and the book interprets the data in a reasonable way. The case they make, backed by peer reviewed science, is what convinced me to eliminate all animal protein for at the very least 1 year. Probably longer, its easier than I expected- it just rules out nearly all fast food I've just been freezing blocks of food for when I cant cook.