The Off Topic Thread...

Orla K

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Ah jaysus, you poor thing!

Broccolli and cabbage contain a chemical called DIM that converts 'bad' estrogen. to 'good estrogen' so maybe upping that would help after a month or two? There's also supplements of it if you need something stronger, they sell them on iherb.

In terms of the blood sugar issues, a good hack to stop the sugar hypo rollercoaster is to take glycerin diluted in water with a little lemon juice. One tablespoon in a big glass of water. You get glycerin in the baking section of the supermarket, it is a special type of sugar that doesn't need any pancreatic intervention to be absorbed.

It also helps with panic/anxiety that can sometimes come with low blood sugar.

Edited to say: Forgot with the hypothyroid that broccoli may be out, in which case you can try a raw carrot every day, it sort of does the same thing.

That's good to know, there's a load of things that can go wrong along with thyroid issues there's iron, vit d and a few other things. I'd need to test for them but I'm finding getting tests awkward. I had cortisol tested with a morning blood test, everywhere I read seems to think that the 24hr saliva test is much better but I don't think they even test that in this country. I had my antibodies tested too but the lab didn't bother to test it since my TSH was in the lab range, it was still high.

I really think my adrenals are a bit buggered, I think I've been hypo since childhood and prolonged hypothyroidism can make them work extra hard and with the past 5 years I've I'd be surprised if they were working properly.

doctorwhogirl

Orla, I suffer from same and seriously, this is like a magic cure

Warm milk (skimmed is what I had) and ground ginger and a tiny bit of stevia. Absolutely delish and it settled my stomach that was in RIBBONS.

rocky

Orla K wrote: »

...
I really think my adrenals are a bit buggered, I think I've been hypo since childhood and prolonged hypothyroidism can make them work extra hard and with the past 5 years I've I'd be surprised if they were working properly.

And the low carb diet didn't help...

Gummy Panda

rocky wrote: »

And the low carb diet didn't help...

How so?

Orla K

rocky wrote: »

And the low carb diet didn't help...

What makes you think I'm eating low carb now?
For most of that time I wasn't low carb
Before and during the worst of it I wasn't low carb
and lowering the carbs did help.


Seriously low or high carb doesn't seem to matter that as much as things like exercise (1hr medium or high intensity) or something like dieting. I only notice the thyroid symptoms getting worse when it's ketosis kind of low. Other than that from the test results I've gotten low carb seems to have more of an impact on TSH which isn't one of the thyroid hormones. When I was doing a higher carb(with gluten) my FT4 dropped way down which has much more of an impact on the body.

But as I said I don't know how my other hormones are getting on, so for the moment I can only go by how things make me feel.
Now off to buy some oat cakes because I got some fancy looking pate!(I'm also feeling a little better now, lets hope I don't faint in the health shop!)

El_Dangeroso

Clearspring organic oatcakes are my favourites. Only ones not made with veg oil!

Orla K

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Clearspring organic oatcakes are my favourites. Only ones not made with veg oil!

How do nairns fair? They're the only ones I can get in this town, I also go for the gluten free ones.

El_Dangeroso

Orla K wrote: »

How do nairns fair? They're the only ones I can get in this town, I also go for the gluten free ones.

Made with sunflower oil AFAIK.

Won't kill you for a once off but wouldn't be making them a staple.

Orla K

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Made with sunflower oil AFAIK.

Won't kill you for a once off but wouldn't be making them a staple.

I got them, I don't tend to get them that often because I find them easy to overeat on, for the calories in them they don't fill me up one bit.

They probably changed since last you looked but they have palm oil in them now.

rubadub

Was looking to see if people make danish pastries with coconut oil and found this.

http://ucap.org.ph/news-and-events/danish-government-scrapts-fat-tax

November 15th, 2012
Danish Government Scrapts Fat Tax

The Danish government has officially scrapped its tax on saturated fat after it was put in place in October 2011 in a bid to reduce the amount of saturated fat in Danish diets. The tax was applied at the rate of £1.70 (16 Krone) per kilogram of saturated fat on a range of food products including butter, milk, pizzas, oils, meats and pre-cooked foods. The government also revoked plans to introduce a sugar tax in January 2013.

Terry Jones, director of communications at the Food and Drink Federation said “It seems that the Danish government’s decision to remove its additional taxation on food is due to concerns about food affordability and the impacts on the industry. That the Danes have decided to abolish the measure after only a year also suggests that the measure has not delivered any discernible public health benefit.” Jones added that the complex problem of obesity needed to be addressed through a range of interventions by many different players and manufacturers were keen to play their part. “Instead of imposing arbitrary taxes, we have empowered consumers to make healthier choices that will lead to a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle by providing clear nutrition labeling, developing healthier choice and changing recipes to reduce the saturated fat, salt and energy content of many much loved brands.”

Meanwhile, the Danish Food & Allied Workers Union welcomed the government decision saying that the tax did not work as intended. However, the European Public Health Alliance disagreed with claims that the fat tax did not work saying that the tax was not allowed to remain in place long enough to see its effect on health.

Back when it came out there were arguments about it, many citing coconut oil

http://shamaniceconomist.blogspot.ie/2011/10/denmarks-coconut-oil-tax-is-just-tax.html

Over the weekend, Denmark became one of the few countries to specifically tax food. The new “coconut oil” tax is based on the saturated fat content of food. The government says the new tax may encourage citizens to eat more healthy food, but the tax falls most heavily on coconut oil, a very healthy food, and lard, a very unhealthy food, with no distinction between them.

And the fact is, saturated fat is an essential nutrient. It forms cell walls and other essential parts of the body and carries three of the best-known vitamins. Most people eat more saturated fat than they ideally should, but when scientists experiment with diets that attempt to eliminate saturated fat, the result is an increase in cardiovascular disease and other degenerative diseases as cell walls begin to break down. That is, a no-saturated fat diet (actually having 1 or 2 percent of food energy from saturated fat, because it isn’t possible to eliminate all saturated fat) is more harmful to health than a high-saturated fat diet. The latest scientific evidence suggests that saturated fat does little harm in itself, and that most of the problems associated with saturated fat come from the absence of fruits and vegetables, which generally have high nutritional value and exceptionally low levels of saturated fat.

The tax won’t particularly shape consumer behavior either. It may sound shocking that coconut oil will now cost $30 per kilogram, but a chef doesn’t really use coconut oil by the kilogram, and if you are determined to eat healthy, an extra $2 in the price of an ingredient is not likely to stop you. On the other side, the people who don’t really pay attention to what they eat probably also won’t notice that a donut now costs 25¢ more. So the new tax is really just a tax, a way to transfer money from citizens to the government by making them pay more for their food.

Food taxes are rare for a reason. Everyone needs about the same amount of food. Food taxes push poor people deeper into poverty while having minimal impact on rich people. This makes food taxes an unpopular and morally questionable revenue device. The “coconut oil” tax has other failings, including administrative difficulties and a suspicion that it falls more heavily on domestic producers than on importers. In Denmark, political observers are betting the new “coconut oil” tax will be repealed within a year. If the government cannot repeal the tax, it must at least revise it to make some kind of distinction between health food and junk food. A more sensible version of a food tax, for example, would simply tax all foods other than fruits and vegetables.

El_Dangeroso

Yeah, heard about that. Completely unworkable in a country where you can easily drive some where else to get your butter.

In other news, vegetables make you happy and sexy:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121009102003.htm

I know correlation and causation and all that malarky but we know that giving colourful veg to people made them appear more attractive to others in pictures:

http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/12/beauty-in-a-bowl-eating-fruits-and-veggies-may-improve-skin-tone/

Today so far I have had an apple and some beetroot. Want to see if I can make it to 7 today.

adox

Just wondering what everyones favourite source of iron is in their diet? I`ve been using myfitnesspal for the last few weeks and the one glaring deficiancy in my diet seems to be iron. I usually only seem to consume less than half the RDA.

El_Dangeroso

I wouldn't overly stress about it, your body only usually absorbs 10% of Iron from food, if you need more you will absorbs more, vitamin C helps here.

But if you are truly deficient you just can't beat liver. It has all the co-factors necessary to absorb and utilise iron correctly.

Other good ones are leafy green veg, sardines and steak!

El_Dangeroso

Speaking of liver (kind of obsessed with it at the moment), today I learned that on the original Weight Watcher's program, dieters were required to eat 8 ounces, uncooked weight, of liver every week.

How awesome would it be if that were still the case?

Liver is easily the best weight loss supplement out there IMO. If you have 100g of it you cease all cravings for food. (though that could be because it's sort of gnarly tasting, currently trying to find ways around that..)

doctorwhogirl

Any suggestions for cooking liver? I have never tasted it? And ideas for accompaniments? If it fills me up/is good for me/tasty I'm in there like swimwear

Orla K

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Speaking of liver (kind of obsessed with it at the moment), today I learned that on the original Weight Watcher's program, dieters were required to eat 8 ounces, uncooked weight, of liver every week.

How awesome would it be if that were still the case?

Liver is easily the best weight loss supplement out there IMO. If you have 100g of it you cease all cravings for food. (though that could be because it's sort of gnarly tasting, currently trying to find ways around that..)

Would pate work for cravings too, cos I f*cking love pate! I've been slightly obsessed with liver this year too, and other organ meats but I haven't been brave enough to try other things, I tend to buy them for the cat(and the butcher cuts it up into little cat bite sized pieces for me because I'm not fond of handling that meat. I must root out some recipes for organ meat.

I was going to ask why did weightwatchers change that but I'm guessing it's because very few people actually ate it.

Orla K

doctorwhogirl wrote: »

Any suggestions for cooking liver? I have never tasted it? And ideas for accompaniments? If it fills me up/is good for me/tasty I'm in there like swimwear

It can taste like someone else's vomit for the first while eating it. It's normally fried liver and onion in gravy.

Oh and do not reheat! It can only be eaten freshly cooked!

Animord

doctorwhogirl wrote: »

Any suggestions for cooking liver? I have never tasted it? And ideas for accompaniments? If it fills me up/is good for me/tasty I'm in there like swimwear

Oh I LOVE liver...

Cut your liver into thinish lengths, maybe half a centimeter thick.
Fry lots of onions in butter on a medium heat until soft and sticky, set onions aside and increase the heat in the pan until it is smoking hot. Put in the liver and cook for about 30 seconds, until brownish on the outside and still pink in the centre. Put the onions back into the pan to reheat then spoon the whole lot over mashed potato. In the meantime deglaze the frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Give the pan a good stir with a wooden spoon to get all the sticky stuff off it and pour the resulting juice over the liver and mashed potato.

Heaven on a plate!

Emeraldy Pebbles

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Speaking of liver (kind of obsessed with it at the moment), today I learned that on the original Weight Watcher's program, dieters were required to eat 8 ounces, uncooked weight, of liver every week.

Lordie, I misread this as "eat 8 ounces of uncooked liver a week"! :eek::o

Brian?

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Speaking of liver (kind of obsessed with it at the moment), today I learned that on the original Weight Watcher's program, dieters were required to eat 8 ounces, uncooked weight, of liver every week.

How awesome would it be if that were still the case?

Liver is easily the best weight loss supplement out there IMO. If you have 100g of it you cease all cravings for food. (though that could be because it's sort of gnarly tasting, currently trying to find ways around that..)

I love a bit of liver myself. Only lamb liver for me though. Pig or cow is too strong.

Google devilled liver. It's liver coated in flour and paprika. A Victorian delight.

rubadub

There was a program on about how many ice creams have little or no dairy fat in them nowadays. In the program he was using coconut oil. Now I remember whey powder is a common item in cheapo ice creams. So I am going to have a go making high protein coconut oil ice cream with no sugar just a strawberry flavoured sucralose based powder.

I have made a sort of mousse a few times before with jelly & whey powder, I froze some by mistake the other night and it was OK.

Seems to be a few hits on google for protein powder & coconut oil ice cream. Some are using coconut flour which can be got in some asian supermarkets. Coconut ice cream is probably pretty nice and might be cheaper than using the oil.

Redisle

Made a good batch of stock using the Turkey Carcass yesterday. Storing and freezing today. Part way through the process here!

It has the consistency of jelly so contains tons of lovely gelatin. I simmered carcass for 3 hrs + veg for last hour then removed & strained and reduced by about a half. Shame to think of the amount of lovely turkey bones being thrown out without further use like this!

Wanderer2010

Anyone know where i can buy hummus, I tried some the other day at work and it was very nice but Tesco or SuperValu didnt have any when I popped in, the girl told me its not a big seller. I am willing to get it online or in a health store if anyone has any idead? Thanks.

Zombienosh

Everywhere has hummus, try dunnes or you can make your own pretty easy.

El_Dangeroso

Eggs still not associated with stroke or heart attacks says largest meta-analysis done to date:

http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e8539

Tell us something we don't already know..

rubadub

Redisle wrote: »

Storing and freezing today.

Those tapered jam jars on the right are great for freezing. You can partially defrost them by sitting them in lukewarm water (hot might crack the glass) and because of the taper the contents just slides out while still rock solid. With regular jars the contents are held in by the shoulder at the top.

El_Dangeroso

Really old study but I never saw it before:

Aspartame makes depression worse:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8373935

Mellor

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Really old study but I never saw it before:

Aspartame makes depression worse:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8373935

30 mg/kg/day, so about 2.4g for a average man. Sounds like quite a high dose? How much in a can I'd diet coke. (Asking for a point if reference, not to debunk it)

El_Dangeroso

Mellor wrote: »

30 mg/kg/day, so about 2.4g for a average man. Sounds like quite a high dose? How much in a can I'd diet coke. (Asking for a point if reference, not to debunk it)

Bout 250mg in a 500ml bottle. So yep, the doses were high, remember it is a short study though, so higher doses would need to be used to observe an effect. I'd love to see a longer term study with moderate to heavy usage over years.

I totally take the point that it may not be relevant at lower doses. But if I had issues with depression I'd avoid to be on the safe side.

(Former diet-coke addict here - )

Zombienosh

x post from H&F

thought people here would into it also.
http://www.sportsandfitnessshow.ie/

Free tickets from the site so worth a check out.