I AM STRONG LIKE IRON
Aug. 21st, 2019 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI've been feeling weirdly good lately???
Still within expected operating parameters, but consistently on the better end of the scale, for like two weeks. I expect it'll dip back down eventually, but I haven't felt this good for this long in about six months, so whatever kicked me down a notch at the end of last year has hopefully worn off? Maybe??? I'm not used to having optimistic thoughts about my health, even mild ones like "maybe I'm no sicker than I was last year". *hopes I'm not jinxing myself*
Since this is such a cheery development, I decided to make this an unlocked post. Under the cut is some dry medical speculation of the sort I usually lock, but nothing generally distressing asides from talking about food and food intolerances.
So, things that have changed in the last few months:
-More Co-enzyme Q10 (I tried cutting it out since it's expensive, and then a while later felt a bit worse, so went back onto it)
-more probiotics (I ran out and took a while to replace them. But not months and months, so it's probably not this)
-no extended stress about anything.
-had a sniffly nose, took antihistamines for a while
Things that have changed in the last few weeks:
-Stopped eating so many persimmons and melons because they went out of season
-Eating Nutrigrain. Cam bought it and at first I rolled my eyes (it's a sugary cereal that promotes itself as healthy(*)) but it hit that EAT MORE OF ME TO FEEL GOOD button, so I have been.
-Cut down slightly on commitments (But there have been many weeks with few commitments over the last six months that had no similar effect)
-got all special interest-y about a new project. But that's worn off a bit now and I still feel ok.
-stopped taking antihistamines
I'm pretty sure I tried cutting out COQ10 after I started feeling extra tired, but I may be misremembering. I intend on keeping taking it anyway.
I did have a few stressful things happen last year, so I might just be finally recovering.
I'll keep an eye on my energy levels when I have access to melons and persimmons again. They certainly didn't used to affect me badly but it's possible that changed last year and then got worse over the summer/autumn with me eating so much of them. After my body decided it hates stone fruits I upped my consumption of the fruits I can eat. LEAVE ME SOME FRUITS, BODY. FRUITS ARE NICE >:(
I guess maybe taking the antihistamines fixed something, but because they made me tired I didn't notice until I stopped them? I haven't needed them recently which has been nice.
So, it's plausibly one of those, in which case no action is required for now.
But on the off chance it's the Nutrigrain, I'd like to find a less sugary, fibre-y alternative and see how that works for me.
The ingredients of Nutrigrain: wheat flour, oatmeal, maize flour, sugar, wheat protein, maltodextrin, molasses, oat fibre, salt, minerals, flavours etc.
I eat plenty of wheat and corn in general. I don't eat much oats because they tend to set off my IBS. I definitely eat enough sugar haha.
So, the thing that jumps out is the wheat protein. There's 8.5 g of protein in one serve, when apparently the average slice of bread contains 1g.
I eat a moderate amount of meat-based protein, and that does seem to be important to my health, but have tried eating even more meat/eggs etc in the past and it didn't seem to make much difference. So it might be wheat protein in particular.
And it turns out wheat protein is just...gluten. And lo, I got very unwell when I tried going gluten free a few years ago, and had a major downturn in health when I had to cut whole-wheat (and thus higher protein) cereal out of my diet due to IBS. Now that downturn was likely in part due to the IBS itself, but I do wonder if there's something about gluten that does good things for my system. Despite this being the exact opposite of the usual advice for people with IBS, haha.
Turns out the most gluten-y food is the meat substitute seitan, which I've enjoyed the few times I've tried it. I'm having trouble finding sources for plain seitan, and the recipes for cooking your own look troublesome. It's a common ingredient of fake meat, but often mixed with other things I can't eat, and "MADE OF GLUTEN" isn't something people tend to advertise prominently. I might noodle down to the local IGA and read the backs of all their fake meat until I find something promising.
It'll be hilarious if gluten DOES turn out to improve my health, considering it's bad rap, and me having every other sort of food intolerance.
(*)"Boys need protein and Nutrigrain gives them the protein they need to becomes Iron Men". It kinda pisses me off that it might actually have some merit. GUESS I'M A MAN AFTER ALL.
Still within expected operating parameters, but consistently on the better end of the scale, for like two weeks. I expect it'll dip back down eventually, but I haven't felt this good for this long in about six months, so whatever kicked me down a notch at the end of last year has hopefully worn off? Maybe??? I'm not used to having optimistic thoughts about my health, even mild ones like "maybe I'm no sicker than I was last year". *hopes I'm not jinxing myself*
Since this is such a cheery development, I decided to make this an unlocked post. Under the cut is some dry medical speculation of the sort I usually lock, but nothing generally distressing asides from talking about food and food intolerances.
So, things that have changed in the last few months:
-More Co-enzyme Q10 (I tried cutting it out since it's expensive, and then a while later felt a bit worse, so went back onto it)
-more probiotics (I ran out and took a while to replace them. But not months and months, so it's probably not this)
-no extended stress about anything.
-had a sniffly nose, took antihistamines for a while
Things that have changed in the last few weeks:
-Stopped eating so many persimmons and melons because they went out of season
-Eating Nutrigrain. Cam bought it and at first I rolled my eyes (it's a sugary cereal that promotes itself as healthy(*)) but it hit that EAT MORE OF ME TO FEEL GOOD button, so I have been.
-Cut down slightly on commitments (But there have been many weeks with few commitments over the last six months that had no similar effect)
-got all special interest-y about a new project. But that's worn off a bit now and I still feel ok.
-stopped taking antihistamines
I'm pretty sure I tried cutting out COQ10 after I started feeling extra tired, but I may be misremembering. I intend on keeping taking it anyway.
I did have a few stressful things happen last year, so I might just be finally recovering.
I'll keep an eye on my energy levels when I have access to melons and persimmons again. They certainly didn't used to affect me badly but it's possible that changed last year and then got worse over the summer/autumn with me eating so much of them. After my body decided it hates stone fruits I upped my consumption of the fruits I can eat. LEAVE ME SOME FRUITS, BODY. FRUITS ARE NICE >:(
I guess maybe taking the antihistamines fixed something, but because they made me tired I didn't notice until I stopped them? I haven't needed them recently which has been nice.
So, it's plausibly one of those, in which case no action is required for now.
But on the off chance it's the Nutrigrain, I'd like to find a less sugary, fibre-y alternative and see how that works for me.
The ingredients of Nutrigrain: wheat flour, oatmeal, maize flour, sugar, wheat protein, maltodextrin, molasses, oat fibre, salt, minerals, flavours etc.
I eat plenty of wheat and corn in general. I don't eat much oats because they tend to set off my IBS. I definitely eat enough sugar haha.
So, the thing that jumps out is the wheat protein. There's 8.5 g of protein in one serve, when apparently the average slice of bread contains 1g.
I eat a moderate amount of meat-based protein, and that does seem to be important to my health, but have tried eating even more meat/eggs etc in the past and it didn't seem to make much difference. So it might be wheat protein in particular.
And it turns out wheat protein is just...gluten. And lo, I got very unwell when I tried going gluten free a few years ago, and had a major downturn in health when I had to cut whole-wheat (and thus higher protein) cereal out of my diet due to IBS. Now that downturn was likely in part due to the IBS itself, but I do wonder if there's something about gluten that does good things for my system. Despite this being the exact opposite of the usual advice for people with IBS, haha.
Turns out the most gluten-y food is the meat substitute seitan, which I've enjoyed the few times I've tried it. I'm having trouble finding sources for plain seitan, and the recipes for cooking your own look troublesome. It's a common ingredient of fake meat, but often mixed with other things I can't eat, and "MADE OF GLUTEN" isn't something people tend to advertise prominently. I might noodle down to the local IGA and read the backs of all their fake meat until I find something promising.
It'll be hilarious if gluten DOES turn out to improve my health, considering it's bad rap, and me having every other sort of food intolerance.
(*)"Boys need protein and Nutrigrain gives them the protein they need to becomes Iron Men". It kinda pisses me off that it might actually have some merit. GUESS I'M A MAN AFTER ALL.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-07 11:40 am (UTC)Canned didn't occur to me, I'll look into that!