New food experiments, an addition, and an observation.

So I decided to add New World vegetables back into my diet.

I have experimented now for over a year with going completely without Nightshades and New World veg*. I chose to drop Nightshades because of the connection to inflamation (I have rosacea and arthritis).  I dropped the New World veg simply because, since the New World wasn't settled until after the paleolithic, I wondered if our bodies haven't had time to adjust to eating them.

I will never eat Nightshades again. My rosacea dissappeared entirely.  My arthritis is vastly improved.  I will be happy to never eat another pepper, potato, or tomato again in exchange for actually being able to do (medium) squats!

But I felt like the removal of the New World veg brought no changes at all, good or bad.  I also don't think that there's anything inherently wrong with much of the New World stuff.  I'm actually not adding much!  Since I don't eat fruit, that leaves out the melons. Maters and spuds are Nightshades. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are tubers.  I hate avocadoes.  Corn is a grain.

LOL, that just leaves cucumbers and squashes (and I'm not a huge fan of squashes, though I wanna try the zucchini 'noodles'. I've heard they RAWK!)  I do adore cukes, though, and have been nomming 'em like crazy since the 'changeover'. :)

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I also have been experimenting with two new foods. Drinks actually. One was very quick and unpleasent.  I seem to read about fellow Paleos / primals / whole foodies who adore and swear by coconut milk. Well, I  happened to spot some at the Food Lion and thought that would be a pleasant way to add fat to my diet while trying something new.

I drank, perhaps, 2 ounces and felt immediately ill - nauseated.  Bleh.  So much for coconut milk.

I was at the Food Lion to get another bevvie: kombucha.  Our Food Lion is big into natrual and organic and has the GTs brand of kombucha.  I had always wanted to try it and it had minimal ingredients - all good - so I got the Multi Green flavour.

Again, I drank about 2 ounces and was immediately delighted with the taste!  It's fizzy and tart and quite refreshing.  I don't know if it's doing my body all the good that the faithful claim it will, but I'm enjoying my daily sip of bacteria and yeast!

Oh, and for what it's worth, I also tried Larabars (the ginger snap flavour, I also got pecan pie). Like the kombucha, it had refreshingly limited ingredients, all naural, raw, no sugar, no soy, no grains. It was pretty good, actually. Nothing to freak out about, but nice.  Since all the flavours have fruit, I won't be eating them, but I thought they'd be really great for the kids.

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Oh, and Bodog has officially declared that my diet and my interest in whole food and simple living has gone over the top. *rolls eyes*  Aparently I no longer have a tinfoil hat, but a "tinfoil helmet".  I think, maybe it was my exuberant discussions with the older members of his family about food and disease.  Or maybe it was my talking to my kids about how bad sugar and grains are for you.  Or it could  be my habit of leafing through the coupons from the Sunday paper, muttering as I turned the pages: "chemicals, sugar, sugar, gluten bombs, sugar, chemicals, carbs for your dog, sugar ..."



*tomatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes, squashes, potatoes, avocadoes, pepper, corn, and cocoa