Today’s from-the-garden baking experiment: low carb (thanks, almond flour) zucchini (my plants have been producing like crazy!) bread breakfast cookies. They’re also a good source of prebiotics, courtesy of oats and chia seeds. Prebiotics feed the native good bacteria in the gut, keeping it strong to fight off infection. And they support the immune system. 💪 One cookie was actually a pretty filling breakfast. Thanks, fiber. Did you know most Americans fall far short of the daily recommended intake of fiber? In fact, a recent study* reported that only 5% of men and 9% of women get the fiber they need. That matters because inadequate fiber intake is linked to a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, two of the most common diseases in the U.S. Women should aim for 25 grams of fiber a day. Plus, it can cause a host of digestive issues and other chronic health issues.
“Usual Dietary Fiber Intake in US Adults with Diabetes: NHANES 2013-2018.” Derek Miketinas, PhD, RD (Texas Woman’s University) et al.
Harvested the first zucchini from our garden yesterday. And this morning, I made zucchini bread! I got the recipe from a book called Best of the Best from South Carolina Cookbook, which I picked up at a free little library near work while on a lunch break walk to destress. Win!
Grateful for food and the ability to eat it (gonna hold onto this one for a while!). Last night, we made individual pizzas with the gluten free crust from My GF Chef at Crack A Daddle Do Farm . Mine had a lemon-garlic-tahini sauce with tomatoes; mushrooms from DarkSpore Mushroom Company ; swiss chard and red onion from JBo Ranch ; kalamata olives; banana peppers; and feta cheese. For breakfast today, I had a mushroom and sundried tomato quiche (also from Crack a Daddle*) with some citrus fruit (so I can put the peels out later to dissuade the neighborhood free-roaming cats from using our mulch like a litter box). I also made some homemade strawberry (from the farmer’s market, of course) sourdough muffins with a crumbly topping, which came out fantastic. And as an additional note, I’m now the kind of person who drives her own herbs.
Trent said, “Is that a quiche from Crack a Daddle? They’re doing a lot more prepared foods now.” And he’s right. They are because people want convenience…but also healthy and good-for-you foods. We had their stuffed shells and Bolognese the other night, and I’ve got their Tuscan Chicken Pasta bake in the freezer for the next time I don’t feel like cooking from scratch for dinner. Next best thing to homemade because I know it’s made with good ingredients and not laden with preservatives that are bad for my microbiome and overall health. Win!
eatfresh #buylocal (for me, that’s at the Simpsonville Farmer’s Market !) #Maintain2022
Sometimes I impress myself. Pork tenderloin (with an amazing new homemade marinade) and veggies (squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes) + peaches (because obvi): it’s what was for dinner, and it was good. #domesticgoddess #Maintain2022 #eatfresh #buylocal
Pork tenderloin from Bethel Trails Farm Veggies from Lein Farm Peaches from Hyder Farms
All available at Simpsonville Farmer’s Market every Saturday 8-12 at City Hall.
Marinade:
🍋 juice of ½ lemon 🧄 2 teaspoons minced garlic 🌿 ¼ teaspoon each dried basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley 🍶 ¼ cup oil 🤌 ½ teaspoon salt 🤏 pinch of black pepper 🥄 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 🍯 2 teaspoons honey
🥳🎉 It’s negative! Negative! Negative! NEGATIVE! And even better it’s negative on the PCR/NAAT. 🎉🥳
TL;DR skip to bottom.
So c-diff testing, especially for relapse, is a little complicated. No one test is considered accurate enough to treat a relapse. So if this test were positive, I would actually need at least one more test before they pump me full of antibiotics again (antibiotics that, you know, destroy your microbiome and leave you susceptible to bacterial infections). There are 4 possible c-diff tests. The cytotoxicity test is the most accurate all around. It’s the gold standard. Positive or negative on that is pretty definitive. But almost no one will do that test anymore because it’s labor, time, and resource intensive. The ELISA tests (which would have been my next step if positive on the PCR) actually test to see if c-diff spores are releasing toxins at the moment. If positive, you have an active infection for sure. However, it’s less stable and therefore less accurate. The GDH/antigen test is accurate but only tests for the DNA of any strain of c-diff. That means it picks up even non-toxigenic strains, and there are lots of those that aren’t harmful at all. Most doctors do the PCR test for initial infection and first for suspected relapse (followed by an ELISA and/or GDH/antigen). The PCR tests for the DNA markers of toxigenic strains. It’s highly accurate and highly sensitive. Read that again: it tests for the gene that identifies a toxigenic strain. That, my friends, means that as long as they did this test right (and let’s assume they did), they found no DNA markers for toxigenic cdiff. The gene is not there. In a highly accurate test. That means not just am I negative BUT ALSO: I managed to eradicate all traces of that deadly bacteria. That means it’s not early signs of a relapse AND I’m not at risk of relapse anymore!
NO RISK OF RELAPSE!
So maybe I had a virus and maybe it’s a blessing in disguise because I got this test result, which was unexpected. In order to get cdiff again, I would need to actually come back into contact with spores and be reinfected. No relapse. Hallelujah.
Thank you for all your support through prayer, good vibes, positive & healing energy. If you sent it, thank you. This is the best possible result.
Sharing this article (with recipe) from my morning reading.
➡️ Fennel: supports digestive enzyme production ➡️ Cumin: same + bile secretion, helps with digestion of fatty foods ➡️ Turmeric: anti-inflammatory + supports gut lining ➡️ Cloves: powerful anti-inflammatory
I used the first three pretty frequently when I was healing (and this recipe in the article is similar to one I made…without the veggies until I could tolerate them). I still use them regularly, and I drink a CCF (cumin, coriander, fennel) tea daily, particularly after meals. Coriander also aids digestion.
Today I’m #grateful to be back home and back to my routines! Even before CDI, I always felt best when I was on routine. After CDI, routine became even more important to healing. Even small shifts in routine could cause a PI-IBS flare. That’s gotten so much better now that I’m over a year out. But it’s still good to get back on routine. I’m doing a bit of a kitchari “cleanse,” since I did so much new and different eating over the last week. I’m back to my tea and turkey tail extract and tongue scraping and morning face mask and hour-long dog walks and yoga (although I did do some yoga every morning and evening on a towel in my hotel room 🙂 ). These are all things that helped me while healing, and now they’re a great way to make sure I stay healthy, especially after a change in routine. Just because I healed my gut doesn’t mean I can start taking it for granted again! Do you have a get-healthy or stay-healthy routine that’s helped/helping you?
Kidney bean (with chia seeds) burgers: proving you can make almost anything a burger (I’m still avoiding red meat)! LOL. What I am personally excited about with this meal, which I made last week, is that it was topped (as md sided) with cabbage slaw with cotija (this is a low lactose cheese) and paprika-Dijon aïoli (also on the side for dipping). Cabbage. Raw. Not cooked. Not fermented. That’s a first. And I thought for sure I’d have problems. But…no! So that’s my #successstory from last week.
🌱 Beans are such a good source of nutrition, including fiber and prebiotics. Great for the gut. I introduced them slowly and over time, and I now eat them regularly. If you have trouble with beans, I would encourage you to try adding in small amounts over time. As the expert in an article another group member recently shared, “Some people then mistakenly think they have irritable bowel syndrome or a gluten intolerance and back off the fibrous foods.You have to start gently. Increase the amount and type of fibre gradually. The answer to a problem with beans…is actually more beans.” Article: http://bit.ly/3q61jAU.
🎵 Or as we used to sing in my childhood, “Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart. The more you eat them, the more you fart. The more you fart, the better you feel. So eat your beans at every meal.” 😂
❤️ They really are good for the heart, too…not just because of the fiber but because of their significant amount of antioxidants. They’re also linked to reduced frequency of breast cancer. Eating beans or lentils two or more times a week was associated with a 24% reduction in risk of breast cancer.
I’ve been considering what my guiding word for 2022 should be. I’ve settled on “maintain.”
That might not sound particularly inspirational or aspirational–that’s what I thought. But the word stuck to me like glue. I tried to come up with something better, but it just kept coming back to me: maintain. And there are some obvious reasons for this, I think. After a year of healing, of fighting for my health and wellbeing, a year focused on maintaining it makes sense. I want to maintain my health–physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. I want to maintain balance (especially work-life balance). I want to maintain focus, energy, gratitude. I want to maintain all of the good practices I adopted last year and years prior. I want to maintain the lessons learned.
And yet maintain… maintenance…seems like a really low bar. But let’s face it: after the last two years, it’s really not. And also, there’s something to be said for maintenance (ask anyone whose car/AC/appliance/tooth breaks down because they ignored their scheduled maintenance/checkups. And anyway, the world just kept floating to the top: maintain. And I pulled out my Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary and flipped through to find “maintain.” And now it seems even more apt. Maintain. Uphold, defend, carry on, keep up, assert, justify, sustain against opposition, persevere. Maintain. No wonder it kept rising to the top. So here we are: #Maintain2022.
In related news, this dictionary came home with me from Winthrop. It was probably a Writing Center reject. But at one point it apparently belonged to Dot Thompson (which will be relevant to Winthrop peeps like Jo Koster ). And that was another sign for me to stick with “maintain.” And also, I tucked between its pages random newspaper articles about language. There are also index cards with definitions of certain words and notes, including someone’s phone number on this page, which I’ve marked through because who knows whose number that was or is (I clearly didn’t think to note that 😂).
Background: Several years ago, I started choosing a word or words to guide me through the year, an idea I stole from Mary How.
2015: “life begins at the end of your comfort zone” 2016: empathy 2017: grateful 2018: Patience. 2019: Release. 2020: {I don’t remember…but can you blame me?} 2021: Healing 2022: Maintain
1/2 c coconut oil + 1/2 cup local honey + 1 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp salt. Mix it all together and then add 3 cups oats and 1 cup sliced almonds. Mix it really well. Spread it out on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 300° for ten minutes, stir. Then 10 more minutes. When I take it out of the oven I’ll add dried fruit if I want to and smash it in there with a spatula. Then I let it cool completely on the baking sheet. I can break it into big and small pieces. I like adding it to plain unsweetened coconut milk yogurt.
Wider than the Sky 