Food is one of my absolute favorite things about being alive in this meat husk. Things such as the crisp bite of a Honeycrisp apple freshly plucked off a stately tree, the aroma of brick-oven fired pizza in the company of adored friends, the earthy bite of a carrot after prying it from the fragrant soil, all of them excite my soul.
I beyond adore food.
So, my sentencing to food prison due to autoimmune dysfunction has been a bit hard to bear. I tend to be a bit of an optimistic soul, but to have something that I truly cherish removed from my existence has been a bit of a mental trial.
That said, the abstaining from all things gluten, dairy, and sugar has helped me immensely. Over the last eight weeks my health has improved a ton, and because of the improvement it has become a bit harder to not partake in the bounty that is food.
Earlier this week I decided to do a test and have something that I very much love, curry. There are plenty of vegan curries out there, and many of them I love, but chicken tikka masala is one of my favorite dishes of all time, and Utara Brewing Company and Curry House in Sandpoint, Idaho makes some of the best I have ever eaten.
Tikka though, has dairy in it, in the form of yogurt. I figured my first experimentation with ingesting a bit of dairy should be in fermented form, and the cool thing about Utara is that they also have the most amazing gluten-free cauliflower naan on the menu that tastes excellent, which meant that I was able to only try the one trigger.
So before you could say, proceed with the potential inflammation experimentation, I had a fragrant clay bowl full of steaming jasmine rice, chewy, garlicy naan, and a large portion of senses-assaulting tikka masala.
I was a very happy camper.
Utara is one of my favorite places to eat locally anyway, because it used to be an old service station and now it is a brewery. It's pretty fun to sit at a pub table stuffing one's face where cars used to have their oil changed.
Plus, your view is watching the master brewer crafting all manner of fermented bliss. They are even introducing a hard tea soon and I must say I am most intrigued to give it a try!
Whenever I eat gluten, sugar, or dairy I wake up the next day feeling like I have the flu. And what I mean by that is the bone burning, muscle-aching aspect of the flu. The following morning I noticed a bit of achiness which tells me that immune system still doesn't like dairy at all, but at the same time there was absolutely no thyroid-swelling assault, so I count this as a win in the I get to eat foods I love once in a while department.
But that said, I am still going to have to be all vigilant and militant about what I consume. For the last several years I have spent most of October-March in a complete immune system flare state of doom, and one of my goals is to avoid that completely this coming Fall-Winter.
So, gluten gets to stay gone, and dairy will only be enjoyed once a week and on very limited special occasions. Sugar, well, I'm so used to not eating it that most dessert foods are repulsive to me now so that's not really a problem, I just mostly missed pizza and cheeseburgers on occasions with real cheese, but since there are so many GF options in bun and flour form now, I am not having an issue there at all.
My next plan is to secure some raw, A2A2 cheese from a local dairy and run an experiment on that type of dairy to see what my immune system thinks of that food. I really do think it's our American food products and production additives that are causing most of my harm, and you wouldn't believe the amount of similar stories I hear from others on the same topic.
So, another goal is to keep up with producing as much of my own food as possible. I have plenty of eggs, I grow a large volume of my own produce, and once I get the plastic on the new large hoop house I plan to have a nice little secession harvest of greens to eat weekly so I don't have to buy them. Not that I don't love buying things from my local farming and homesteading friends, I will still do that when it comes to food items I don't wish to grow and don't eat a lot of, but overall I want to produce as much of what we ingest as possible.
It should be a fun challenge, and who doesn't love a good experiment?
The place is a lovely place to eat that kind of meal
It looks really lovely
Thanks @razfat! It really is excellent place to enjoy a meal for sure!
!PIZZA
I love your lifestyle and how you value your health by consuming the right food. Anyway, thank you for sharing @generikat !🤗
Aww, thanks for the kind words and thoughtful reply @maryjolly, your reply made my day😊
!PIZZA
I know people who order expensive flour from Europe to avoid the whatever it is in American grains besides gluten that could have inflammatory effects. Industrial mono-crop agriculture is an efficient way to produce calories, but is it in a healthy form? I would argue usually not, especially when mega-corporations like Monsanto et al. are involved.
You know, with the elder child involved in the market beef program in 4-h and FFA, I heard a lot of marketing and education-speak about how industrial-ag is feeding the world. I love farming and ranching, but just because something is efficient and meeting a needs volume need doesn't necessarily mean that its holistically good for the entire system. What I find interesting is that agriculture has been as hard hit by identity politics as everything else, and if you espouse an opinion or even just ask questions that run contrary to either side's ideological line, you get lambasted. But I like basted lamb so there!
Sorry, couldn't help myself there.
Also, I have my own personal theory about why our food is the way that it is, and it has a lot to do with corporate monopoly, cradle-to-the-grave forever customers for all their products, and if a person is chronically ill they are a far more profitable entity for such a system. I know everything in this plane is far more nuanced that generalized postulates, but dang it JT, as people who suffer autoimmune dysfunction, we both wouldn't wish that malaise on anyone, yet 60% of humans are afflicted with it and the number is growing, exponentially, so conversations and actions need to be happening at the very least.
!PIZZA
Cleaning up my food was the key to improving. I did much better when we were raising most of our food. Now I have to buy whatever I can find, except the vegs I get from the gardens. I’m glad you have improved so much!
Thanks!😊
And I hear you on the raising of food thing. These days I have to balance it all with available energy, buying my time by only doing what I can that doesn't cause me harm through overdoing it, and keeping my food intake as whole foods as possible. It's quite a juggling act, huh! I am glad you are improving as well, I know it's been a rough go for awhile in your realm, so more homestead veg for both of us lol!
!PIZZA
Yes, please!!
I wonder if I will be able to keep up my resolve not to plant a garden this year? I know home-grown produce is the best there is, but I nearly did myself in last summer and fall, trying to keep up with that massive garden I planted. I have travel plans this summer, so why plant a garden that will not be weeded or watered while I am gone? And why plant just enough to eat during the summer months when I could just as well plant enough to preserve and eat all winter? Well, that's how I exhausted myself last year.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting produce from fellow friends and neighbors and at the farmer's market. Plus, it totally sounds like you need a year off. The T and I are doing a much smaller garden this year as my only plans are to bake at the theme park three days a week and garden. Bliss....Hopefully some traveling and rest will be most restorative for you this year😊
!PIZZA
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