Regarding "Diet", Humans Are "Opportunistic"

Image via Wikipedia

By John McArdle, Ph.D.:
www.vrg.org/nutshell/omni.htm
I really like this part: "They are basically *opportunistic* feeders (survive by eating what is available) with more generalized anatomical and physiological traits, especially the dentition (teeth). All the available evidence indicates that the natural human diet is omnivorous and would include meat. We are not, however, required to consume animal protein. We have a choice."
However, I tend to believe we only have a choice as a "whole" (humans), individually speaking, some are more adapt to these or those (carnivores, herbivores, frugivores, etc.) and a counter account: ecologos.org/mcardle.htm

Is "Homemade" Food Really Healthier Than Restaurant Food?

Image by Dimitrios Dalagiorgos via Flickr

I guess the answer is "yes", if you have a wonderful mother or partner who can cook "professionally", or, if you are a good cook yourself. If not, I think sticking on your own food might do more harm than good to your health.

In my experience, getting take-out foods from restaurants really is one of reasons that helped me tremendously on my health recovering. The reason is simple: since I can only be that much "creative" by myself, eating my own boring food everyday really could not supply all nutrition my body needs.

Recalling my past years, my diet had been never good but "Ok" until 2009, when I stopped almost completely eating outside of my house (because that's the time I started working at home). Back then I learned a "scientific" common sense that eating at home was always better than the junk foods from restaurant. So I started cooking myself everyday. However the truth turned out just opposite: after I mentally completely settled in peace, my physical health which was supposed to be on progress just went down, all the way down to the bottom. Finally, after my last serious relapse, which was summer 2010, I "woke up" from my false "belief" on some sort of healthy diet structure, and gradually realized that my own foods were the primary reason of my illness. So while I improved my "homemade" foods, I also started getting take-out foods from restaurant regularly, just give myself some alternatives on the taste and nutrition. Since then, my health started climbing up, from 20-30% of energy level to now, over 90% everyday.

Food, or diet, really is the last piece of the puzzle of my chronic health problem. I knew food was important many years ago but I did not really know what's exactly I missed until a little over a year ago. What I really learned? 1: listen to my body instead of listen to "professional". But of course, I do not mean "absolutely"; 2: diversity. Never stick on just one type of foods for too long; 3, health care is a personal thing, so is diet. It is up to everybody him/herself to find out what's the best.

Wellness

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI have been feeling pretty well for a while and this morning, I do feel 100%!

My last serious relapse happened one year and 2 months ago (August 2010). Since then, I believed that I found the "last" cause for my problems and believed that I would be on a right path to get well and it's only the matter of time. Looking back, I was right. I reached 80% over half year ago, reached 90% about half month ago (after I equipped with vitamins). And this moment, I do feel completely 100%. I have not felt like this for years!

I know I would not be feeling like this 24 hours a day 7 days a week straight from now on, but this is a milestone on my recovery. It proves that I am on the right path and I only need to hold on tight, continue to do what I have been doing, and eventually, even better than that "original" me - the person who always got sick sine very young.

Yes, I feel very happy and I do also believe, that the true happiness would not be possible without a good health.

Tobacco Trail - My Heavenly Free "Gymnasium" (3)

I live only 2 miles from this trail, but just discovered it very recently. What a shame! I took bunches of pictures ( I simply could not stop taking pictures of those stunning looking trees!). Considering I come from a country where people don't have chance to get so close to nature, this is quite overwhelming to me. For longtime, walking around neighborhood has been already very enjoyable, but walking on this trail where I could feel more "intimacy" with nature, is just a joy beyond "ordinary"! 

Tobacco Trail - My Heavenly Free "Gymnasium" (2)

I mentioned ATT (American Tobacco Trail) in my previous post. Since then I almost go there everyday. I also cannot believe I have been lived so close to this trail for over 5 years but just found it out by now.

  Today I went another station which is just about 2 miles from my house. This part of ATT is paved road, feels nicer to walk.

The trees are so tall and straight up on both side of road. On left side they were completely in shadow, but the right side they were captured by bright sunshine.

Tobacco Trail - My Heavenly Free "Gymnasium" (1)

 I went to Tobacco Trail this afternoon to have a walk, and I had a wonderful time with nature!
It is a trail made for biking. This station is only 2 and half mile away from where I live. Since I still feel riding bicycle would be too much to me, I decided to go there for walk.
I am glad I did! It was so beautiful! However I still wish soon I could ride bike so I could go further.

I

Vitamin Supplements

Image by Haydn Blackey via FlickrSince my last relapse (about one year ago), I have not been taking much vitamins. During recent over half years I absolutely took none. The reason is that since I carefully worked on my diet, I found the improvement made by foods were much more "tangible" than by vitamins. And this made me doubt the effects of vitamin. Of course I trust science and believe those elements are necessary but I was just not sure how well it works for my special condition. However, the recent several month my improvement was slow. I have been stopped in my 80% - 90%. So I wondered again. I suppose the diversity of foods is still not enough and vitamins might be needed.

Another symptom made me felt quite certain about my lack of calcium was arthritis on my figures (I had terrible arthritis symptom all over my body in this early spring, but later other parts were all fine except my left hand). I could not make a fist by my left hand, especially when I got up in the morning. So, I decided to "arm" myself with two supplements: calcium and multi-vitamin.

I bought liquid calcium and multivitamin in softgel form (liquid and softgel are supposed to be easier to absorb). I got them from Vitamin Shoppe (I like their quality of products and reasonable price. So highly recommended).

Pork Leg Bone Soup

I found "pork leg bone soup" is extremely health! Lots of calcium and other nutrition factors. And it's so easy to digest.
I was feeling quite fatigue several days ago but this soup changed my energy level almost immediately. This was also because I felt I wanted this soup! My body was telling me what it wanted (and this made things so easy!).
This soup as matter of fact is popular among Chinese people (that's why I can only get it from Chinese supermarket), but somehow I did not make it often before. Now I acknowledged its "power" and will make sure to include it in my regular diet.
I learned several "tricks" to cook this soup:
1. cook it for hours until it turns white;
2. after water was boiled put some sliced ginger roots and little vinegar (vinegar can make calcium dissolved quite thoroughly into soup).

3. right before the water was boiling, clean those floating stained stuffs carefully to make the soup clean.

Donut Peach

I found this "donut peaches" taste exactly the same as one type of peaches from my home town, except the shape is different. They are truly the best peaches in the world!

Delicious Discovery

Image via WikipediaSoon it will be Full Moon Festival, a holiday celebrated in China by eating "Moon Cake" (and watching full moon at night, better with some romantic companies, of course). I was in Chinese grocery store yesterday and found there were many kinds of moon cakes already. What's even better was I found my favorite one: Five Nuts. I bought two boxes (each boxes contains 6 of them, each of them is quite small size but elegantly made) and tried some already. My God! It tasted good!

For long time I stopped the "hobby" of having snacks. And I was learned (where? healthy magazines?) that most snacks were not healthy. So for years I had been keeping myself in very "healthy" diet" which eventually brought me into big trouble. Now, time to get my life back!

This 5 nuts moon cake is best to go with tea!

Up Climbing Health

Image via Wikipedia
For couple weeks I have been feeling quite differently from before. I do not feel much "risky" when I have to work a little harder, and light exercises never brought me problems.

A couple of days ago I quickly caught a fever but quickly I recovered. It was said that a cold or fever sometime is a process of detoxification that your body does for itself. Not sure if it's true but this time, after recovering from fever, I feel pretty good, even a little better than before the fever.

Now, with a condition I could exercise almost everyday, I feel I am on the way back to my normal.

Diseases vs. Health

Image by NVinacco via FlickrWatching tennis tournaments such as Wimbledon is always a joy to me, and mostly because of Roger Federer. However, I am not writing about tennis nor tennis stars in my health blog, instead, I am writing down my little thought about "disease" and health, triggered by my favorite tennis star.

It was said that Federer has a disease called "mononucleosis". Such a fancy/serious name(!) which I wish I could have and "proudly" present to those who question my health problems. But the fact is I do not have a name for my "problems" (if we don't count "chronic fatigue"). To many medical experts this means I have no problems after all.

Really, modern medicine found me in perfect shape, even though in many cases I could not stand up still for a few minutes, yet modern medicine can find problems such as "mononucleosis" (not sure how serious it is, but at least with a NAME) on persons like Roger Federer, who can play tennis for hours!

I am not saying that Federer doesn't have this disease, or this disease doesn't exist, what I am trying to say is that modern medicine seems to care only about "diseases", not "health". In other words, modern medicine can kill diseases, but not necessarily bring health to people.

I recently know a person, an elder Chinese guy who only eat one meal (dinner) a day, yet he is in great physical shape (he could act normal even without sleep for a whole night, or a couple of nights. he could go hiking 12 hours without any trouble). I was quite amazed and talked about this to a friend who is working professionally in medical field of diabetes. She was actually a little worried about this guy by saying: "well, don't be fooled by your eye. He might not have a good results if he took a blood check."

Then I had to think: I had "perfect" reports of blood checks almost everytime, but I am not nearly as healthy as this guy, who might not have a "beautiful" blood report like mine. So here comes my question: who should we trust: our body, or the report of blood check?

My answer is simple: of course we should trust our body. A perfect blood check report doesn't necessarily tell us how healthy we are, because (again) modern medicine is focused on "diseases" only, it doesn't care about "health". Of course, I am not trying to denounce modern medicine, but simply point out a fact which I firmly believe: there is a huge blind (even dangerous) spot on its conventional theory, experiment and practice.

Can My Bike Cure My "Fibromyalgia"?

I have been suffer quite serious joints pain/stiffness (rheumatism arthritis, I have this problem for years, sometime worse sometime better) since late spring, when weather got humid. I found riding bike made me feel better than walking. So I bought a bike. But I must do it slowly. Any tiny amount of "over-exercise" can do more harm than good. However, eventually I believe this is the "solution for my "Fibromyalgia".

Yoga on Time Square, NY

On June 21, thousands of people gathered on Time Square New York to welcome Summer Solstice.

A Good Video Presentation about CFS/ME

Some Pole Bean from Backyard

A Cute Little "Thief" In Backyard

This tinny hare kept perfect still just until I got a clear shot.

Cold Feet & Red Meat

Now, after my taking red meat regularly for over half year, my "cold feet" symptom pretty much disappeared. And these couple of days for the purpose of detoxification I cut off red meat again from my meals, I found my feet started feeling cold again. So I learned this connection almost for certain, that red meat was a necessary ingredient of my meals because they have something to do with my blood circulation or anemia (if cold feet was due such causes).

Too Tough to Listen to Our Body?

Many doctors/people suggested or implied that most CFS/ME sufferers were mentally fragile so that they exaggerate their physical conditions. I have found just the opposite: they usually are mentally tough persons. I even tend to believe that their mental toughness is not at all the solution of their illness, as some doctors/people supposed, but one of (important) causes of their illness: their tough minds consciously or unconsciously ignored their physical needs, always push themselves to do things that their bodies cannot really afford to do, so their bodies cannot receive right kind of cares (such as enough rest, right nutritions, etc.) and eventually are no longer able to sustain normal functions.

This is at least 100% true to me and mostly likely true to a few chronic ill persons I know.

Body and Mind (again!)

Image via WikipediaWhen I mentioned sometime to people that in many cases our physical problems have not much to do with our mental states, I did not mean there is no connection between them (as many people mistakenly understood), instead, the connection is tight: our body has so much power over our mind, and our mind has limited power to our body.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

I further believe, even our intelligence, the way we think, the way we feel, our long last mental peace and our happiness all rely on our physical condition.

Of course, physical health doesn't guarantee our happiness, but our happiness cannot exist without our physical well being.

P.S. I consider "disability" and "chronic illness" (or "disease") two different physical conditions. "Disability" causes inconvenience but "chronic illness" causes suffering. People with disability may mentain healthy mental condition but people with long term illness, who constantly suffer pain or other physical unwellness can hardly stay mentally cheerful.

Weight Control

Image via WikipediaI have removed the scale from my bathroom. I used to weigh my weight everyday and I got so tired of it and eventually realized it did more harm than good.

After I started to eat "normal" over half year ago, I gained a few pounds, on the top of many already extra pounds. As my energy got back, I have been able to exercise (walking and cycling) almost everyday. So my weight stopped increasing. Actually it seemed to decrease. I was very happy about that. However, about half months ago, I discovered some delicious Chinese food: a fired pancake, which I have not tasted for centuries. So I had one big piece of it every morning for one week straight and one day, I found my weight rushed back, increasing stealthily! Maybe I should not worry about it too much, but the thing is, not only my weight back up high, some other symptoms occurs as well! Of course, pancake is just one reason, not enough vegs is another. So these couple of days I ate vegs like a herbivore!

Did I not listen to my body? Well, I guess listen to our body doesn't completely equal to listen to our stomach.

Cilantro From Backyard

I planted cilantro last year and did not do a thing this year, it grew up by itself! I can get this much once a couple days! How loving the mother nature is!

New Vegs in Back Yard

This is one of my favorite vegs: green peas.

Moisture, One Way to Relieve Allegy

Image via WikipediaI found that certain degree of humidity could relieve my allergy symptom, actually instantly!

During night sleep, sometime I would wake up by sneezing, running nose, etc., but if I turn on my humidifier, soon, probably within a minute, my nose stopped running and I could breath normally again.

This actually makes sense to me. The allergy sources, such as pollen, or dust, would be absorbed by moisture. That's why rain help help people feel better during the season because it washes pollen away.

Now I turn on humidifier even during the day, I tell you, it works!

P.S. Anything I write in blog are "personal experience".

P.S. Just heard that if you use carpet at home, using humidifier is not a good idea. I have wooden floor, which is not problem.

Chronically ill people & hope

Image by o5com via FlickrThe best a chronically ill person (I am talking about the kind of illness that CHRONICALLY TORTURES a person physically) can do is keeping hope. As long as these people do not give up hope, they are the bravest.

To expect a chronic ill person to be happy, to be cheerful, to have a "positive" attitude, is not only an action of lacking sympathy, but also of senseless ignorance .