Unfortunately I'm on a GF/DF diet. I also avoid legumes and nuts because I read that lectins can be inflammatory. Is this an another example of misinformation?
Re: seafood. I enjoy sushi (I stay away from the big fish like tuna because of their mercury content). Anyway when I have some I get a boost of energy. I wonder why that is?
@Jimbo39 You can find a reason not to eat anything, but you will starve. Perhaps the list of foods you are currently eating is so small you create nutritional deficiencies? Still certain foods are known for causing problems. You can be tested for gluten sensitivity and find out whether you have a problem. Certain genetics can show whether or not you can tolerate dairy or if you are lactose intolerant. Your current gut condition may dictate what foods can be tolerated as well. After a nasty flu bug the distressed gut won't like much more than rice, banannas, toast and clear fluids, but as it quickly heals it tolerates more. Those with infections causing ulcers will have to be careful in what they eat and so on.
But since you have reduced your variety of intake you are in the position of being able to add one type of food back at a time in order to see how your body reacts to it. Keeping a good food consumption diary can be very revealing. Some foods process longer than others so noting your reactions over two to three days is important. Don't add in any other new food within that time frame to rule out the cause.
Jumping on various diets...well some are actually dangerous in the short term and/or the long haul. You might want to check in forums with folks who have been on particular diets for a while and see what their complaints are. Long term low carb folks for example often end up really regretting avoidance of complex carbs after a few months or more. We are omnivores, used to obtaining a wide variety of plant and animal foods. The variety contains many compounds that the body needs, and we have really only researched and identified a few components.
You really might want to consider checking with a nutritionist who might match your particular illnesses with what might be beneficial. Or visit various sites, and slog through it yourself. A few sessions with a decent nutritionist might get you pointed in the right direction. Since a lot of our disease is food based and most doctors are not educated in nutrition, a lot of easy fixes to problems are missed and the problem grows worse with time along with the costs of finding new band-aids to fix various symptoms, rather than simply solving the underlying problem. One free site with lots of good food info is here:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=14
Now of course plants don't like being eaten anymore than anyone else. So what to do when you can't scream, run, or fight? Grow thorns and make chemical weapons that activate when injured. Making the eater ill is a good survival tactic.
Humans, being forever hungry, have over time devised various effective methods to neutralize harmful components of plants, such as various prep and cooking techniques, combinations with other foods to chemically alter problematic compounds, and so we obtain the good stuff. Investigation of traditional cuisines it quite interesting.
Nuts, seeds and beans contain vital nutrients, the perfect long lasting concentrated food package for building a new plant in a really good storage container. I would hate to miss out on all the vital nutrition they contain. I suggest you learn about preparation techniques.
Problems with lectins? Some people are more sensitive than others due to their physical condition or genetics. Soaking both beans and nuts is one way to reduce problems. There are more methods. You can add an enzyme product such as that sold as Beano and others to help digest beans and other foods. BTW, eating fresh plants provides you with many enzymes that help your body process food, and temperatures over about 118 degrees destroy these enzymes. Look up each type of plant to determine what parts are edible and how to prepare each for safe consumption. Yes, we could start a good survival TV show on this...
Check out this short article:
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-lectins
Plants contain a lot of fiber that the body needs. Much of that fiber is quite soft, helpful to the gut, and the body utilizes it in many ways. Cholesterol binds to fiber and thus excess is excreted from the body. And that excretion gets a whole lot easier and more regular when you eat adequate fiber. You shouldn't have to strain to create a BM. And you don't want food rotting in your gut forever and causing blockages. Your gut microbes feed on fiber and need it to survive. You need the good microbes and don't want to starve them out. Plant fiber is sold as prebiotics, gut microbes are sold as probiotics...but those nuts, beans and seeds along with whole fruit, grains and veggies have a lots of essential fiber.
Knowing I had problems despite taking daily a multi vitamin/mineral, I began to research what was missing in our diet as a group and why. Of particular
worry are the
widespread deficiencies of fiber, magnesium, iodine, selenium, essential fatty acids and the vitamins A and D.
Vitamin A, is very unfortunately, mostly supplied as
carotene which
converts very poorly to A in the body. Carotene is supplied instead of true vitamin A in order to avoid over consumption toxicity, as A does not wash out of your body like B vitamins do. Vitamin D is also stored in the body and so also under supplied due to over consumption toxicity concerns. Too much of one can deplete the other. As usual this brings us back to the need for a widely varied diet.
Western society has largely become over-fed, but under-nourished. High calorie foods with little nutrition are widely available catering to our natural cravings for salt, fat and sugar. Processed foods have largely reduced the nutrients and just supply these 3 cheap ingredients in products built to withstand long shelf life and have certainly not been designed for health but rather for what costs least in mass production. The common acronym for our Standard American Diet is SAD. We vote on our food with our purchases. Too bad we don't know more about what we put in our bodies. At least education is available online.
About the sushi, unless you prep the fish yourself, you really don't know what fish you are eating. Many of the popular fish on the menu have long been fished out due to the massive over fishing by industry. The temporary menu replacement with other fish has become permanent and the consumer is generally unaware... even in sushi. Of course when eating raw fish, you risk getting parasites like worm eggs that can hatch in your body. Cooking can kill those worm eggs and keep you parasite free. Avoiding disease is a major reason why food is cooked - to kill hazardous microbes and other nasties.
The use of kelp in sushi, the dark green wrap, is helpful since it contains iodine from the sea and is one of the better sources of iodine. The use of kelp in the Japanese diet gives them more iodine and has been linked to reduction in various diseases.
It is interesting that you get energy from seafood, and perhaps it is due to iodine. When you read reports from folks supplementing with iodine some do mention more energy. I believe I perk up a little when I take a drop or two in a glass of water once a day. Of course iodine is just one small but very necessary micro-nutrient without which we will suffer.
"Oats, peas, beans and barley bread..."