I am quite glad I reintroduced the Chaste Berry. Am feeling less cranky. Am still bloated and tender all over, but less so than a few days ago. What a journey!

Time magazine, Sep 2 issue, has a cover article about diet and health. The article is interesting in that it basically pits the carb camp against the fat camp. Which is better, low carbs or low fat?
I say a balanced diet is best, especially one that does not include refined anything or starchy foods, like potatoes, as a regular component. Oh, and sugar and caffeine, and non-organic meats.

Refined carbs, like flours and sugars, are bad for us, and the Time article does a decent job of explaining why.
Carbs are OK in their natural form, and in small quantities, but other than that they wreak havoc on the body's ability to process and convert to useful sugars - the sugars everything converts to so we may survive - resulting in overweight, disease-ridden humans.
As well, an overdose of fats and proteins can tip the balance toward heart problems, and eating too much in general will create an internal imbalance in which the body loses its ability to regulate food intake. In other words we lose the ability to stop eating when we should!

Pesticides are dangerous to our health and to our environment. Much has been written on this, in both peer-reviewed and public discussion forums. While the Times article doesn't really go into that discussion, the argument that natural and fiber-intact foods are best, and smaller quantities more healthy point toward that 'organic' type of eating habit. Why eat hormone-laden beef which is also much more fatty than free-range (and tastes much worse), when you can get the good stuff that is also better for you?
Same for fruits and veggies. Compare, for instance, an organic tomato with a pesticide tomato. The taste differential alone will convince you to buy organic (even if you don't care about the health aspect). Or a strawberry! Nevermind that strawberries (and cherries) are the most pesticide laden edible flora on the market. Never mind that they are also most prone to bacterial overgrowth b/c they are packed and shipped in indiscriminate manner by huge food producers. If you buy organic you are almost ensured the product is local. But nevermind that either. Do the taste test. Nine times out of nine, the organic strawberry has flavor! My taste test has proven to me that pesticide berries don't have any flavor. None, Nada, Niente.

Please don't take my word for it. Do your own taste test. And don't stop with these two. Try your own favorites. Go for a free-range chicken and you will remember the lovely delicate flavor from your childhood.

Etc.

I am on a rant. I think I've said what I need to say for today.
TTYL
Posted by LST 9/7/2002 12:25:02 PM

Ten days ago we changed the mix of herbs I am taking (me and my chinese herbalist) b/c I was getting too 'hot' - meaning in chinese medicine the body retains heat and creates a different type of stagnation than if the body is 'cold'. The problem is, the earlier mix was working really well to keep my hormones balanced. I wasn't getting the muscle spasms and weird cycles that I had been in previous months.

We had to stop the tonifying herbs - the ones that balance the hormones - in order to directly address the heat issue. OK. I finished the new herbs and I do feel less prone to rashes (which is why we changed, I was getting rashes on my skin). But now I am back to a high FSH and feeling cranky!

And my back is prone to spasms again. And cramps abound, even off-cycle. Everything hurts. This is most unpleasant. My advice - don't let your FSH rise too high!

As for my IBS, I have noticed that I function more smoothly when the hormones are kept in balance. Not like this is any new info, but when one is actually living and experiencing a smooth digestive system instead of a cranky one, well, one really gets used to it. So, knowing, theoretically, that balanced hormones help balance digestive operations is quite different from actual experience.

I'm here to tell ya - it's great! Today I am reintroducing one of the balancing herbs. It's called Chaste Berry, and in ancient times it was used on men to keep their libido in check - hence the name. It has different properties for women, though. It helps regulate and balance hormones. Some women have even used it for PMS, altho there are better herbs for that. This one really is good at the balance thing, keeping spasms and cramps at bay, as well as the general body crankiness and abstract pains (you know, the ones you can never really define for your doctor, so she thinks you are nuts?).

That's all for now. More later.
Posted by LST 9/2/2002 06:27:37 AM