Toast! Toast! I miss you the most!

Two loaves of bread, cooling on a rack a few minutes ago

I've lived without pasta
I could've done without rice
(Though I've risked a few grains
And they've been very nice)
And I haven't craved muesli
As much as I feared,
It being my favourite
breakfast for years
The glamour of cous cous
Had started to fade
Of porridge I've never been
Keen anyway
Potatoes? Abandoned!
Without being missed!
Though in winter, one baked
Will be hard to resist

The niggle, the tickle,
The craving I feel
Is for crunch with my breakfast,
Or with any meal
The butter, the honey,
The humble poached egg
All yearn for the touch
Of a slice of grilled bread
Toast! Toast!
I miss you the most!
At midnight the toaster
Goes pop with your ghost
As that wraith roams the house
And I dance to its drums
And follow the seductive
Trails of crumbs
I feel that I might
Nay, I know that I must
Bite lovingly into
Your o'arching crust
My cravings needs quenching
My needs must be met

I'll just go and check
If my loaf is done yet

So anyway, I decided it was time to try adding bread back into the mix and baked a couple of loaves today. No big deal, just a cool-headed, scientific decision. I can't report my findings yet as the experiment has only just come out of the oven but as soon as the loaves are at eating temperature, I'm in there!

Avocado Breakfast Recipie

Ingredients: avocado, handful of seeds, knob of butter, 1 or 2 Tsp lemon or lime juice

Slice the avocado in half and take out the stone

Tip the lemon or lime juice over the cut surfaces of the avocado, and into the hole left by the stone

Melt the butter in a small pan and fry the seeds for between one and two minutes. Seeds burn easily, so as soon as they look browned, remove from the heat and scoop onto the avocados

The seeds will sizzle in the juice, which is very exciting for breakfast time, and also stops them from getting burnt by their own left-over heat.

In the photo here I have used sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I sometimes use a seed mix from Lidl, which contains these and pine nuts. There is parsley in the photo which I am no longer using as ours is finished! I used to score the avocado to let the juice sink in, then I realised that leaving the avocado uncut was quicker and I got a bigger sizzle! 

For me, one half of the avocado is usually enough. I seal the other half with juice and put it in the fridge to use next morning.

Coming out of the fog to round up my week

Two weeks since I resolved to change my diet in order to be able to quit my stomach acid-reducing PPI drug, I still can't quite believe the success I've had. I've also really enjoyed all the new dishes I've been sampling, I certainly never thought that a reflux friendly diet would be any fun. Whenever I have read about beating reflux through lifestyle changes before, it has always been rich food, alcohol and smoking that have been the suggested triggers to avoid. The message that comes across is; 'you can either take the drugs or resign yourself to hermit's diet.' I'm almost surprised that 'stimulating conversation' hasn't been added to the list. But here I am, doing very well just by cutting down on carbohydrates.

My favourites this week have been Celeriac Mash, which I've made twice and both times eaten before I thought to take a photo, and Thai Fish Soup, which is an old favourite actually improved by the removal of noodles and the addition of broccoli and more fish!
I've also indulged my love of fresh Tuna with Tuna and Avocado salad, where the raw Tuna is 'cooked' cold by a lime and chilli dressing, and Seared Tuna Steak, where frying for one minute on each side leaves the tuna beautifully red and raw all through the middle.
We've also brought in the winter favourite, Pot Roast, a little early this year with a Brisket of Beef from the most excellent Model Farm, whose weekly delivery provides our milk, eggs, butter and most of our vegetables. Highly recommended.
So much for Gastric Reflux, what about that other malady? What about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome? I didn't expect to see immediate improvement in CFS as a result of this minor diet change, but I am hoping that it will be part of a foundation for recovery. One possible problem that has occurred to me is that by restricting carbohydrates, I could be reducing my energy still further. The solution is to make sure that the calorific value of the food I'm eating is sufficient for my needs, so what are my needs? CFS means that I'm not very active, but does that mean that I'm not burning much energy and so don't need many calories coming in? Or am I burning lots of energy to little effect, in which case I should be upping my calorie intake? In any case, in order to get some informed advice, I have asked my doctor for a referral to a dietician or nutritionalist and will report back. I hope to be posting more this week about a number of issues around CFS that have appeared in the fog of my brain while writing this, but which are for now, lost in the clouds.

Going down in flames

'this was my lowest-energy day so far this week'

Should this extract from last Thursday's blog post have raised a red flag? Probably, but on Friday I rather optimistically went to watch my nine-year old on the last day of the sailing course that he's been doing at Edgbaston Water Sports. He'd been telling me all week about how much he'd been enjoying it and, well, it seemed like a good idea. It was not until we were half-way home that I realised that I was in trouble.

I should say something here about CFS here, and this is just my personal experience as I know that different sufferers face a wide range of symptoms at varying levels of severity. For me, the first indication that I'm overdoing things is not a feeling of tiredness. I feel tired every minute of every day and any physical activity at all exhausts me very quickly. This means that the measure of available energy that works so well in a healthy person, tiredness, is for me a very unreliable indicator. This means that it is very easy for me to persist with a tiring activity, particularly one that doesn't feel tiring, say for example sitting and looking at boats in a reservoir, for too long. The first I know that there is any problem, is that I become irritable and short tempered. Unfortunately this symptom is not an early warning system, once I get to this point I know that my energy budget for the day has been over-spent. Unless at this point I can lie down in a dark, quiet room and rest for the remainder of the day, then there will be a 'hangover' of exhaustion which will further limit my energy for one, two or even three days.

Sarah was driving us up Highgate Middleway on the way back from the reservoir when I commented on her lane placement, and snapped at her reply. I sat in a sulk for a couple of minutes before it sunk in that I was in an 'energy crash' situation and that there was no escape. I closed my eyes and stopped talking. It would be at least twenty minutes until we got home, and I would just have to sit there and wait. What is tiring about sitting in a car? Sitting down tires me, the engine and road noise tire me and the movement tires me. It was about half an hour before we were home and I could retreat to bed. Again, the feeling of complete exhaustion was too familiar to gauge my energy level by and it was my emotional state that gave it away, a kind of undercurrent of negative feelings, raising up in turn like evil salesman retailing negative thought processes. Why not indulge yourself in misery? Have you considered utter despair? How about a good, seething bout of rage? Once lying down in the quiet dark, my body was now able to rest, and the challenge was for the brain to remain aloof, to allow those emotions to run themselves out, without being swept along. It took a couple of hours to completely pass through this crisis phase and the remainder of the day had to be given over to rest.

So, fascinating insight into the life of a CFS sufferer, or laboured excuse for not posting on Friday? I will attempt, in any case, to make up for failing to tell you about Friday's breakfast by describing it here. Baked anchovy on egg on mushroom, a pretty good idea I thought and, who knows, maybe it could be delicious. Maybe the mushroom was just past it's best. Maybe if the egg had stayed on top instead of running off over the baking tray. All I know is, I didn't enjoy it one little bit.

Dinner was much better; Avocado topped with Lime juice, toasted seeds and Parsley. The Avocado is scored with a grid pattern so that the lime juice, which is added next, can seep into the flesh. The Pumpkin seeds are heated in a frying pan for one minute, before adding the sunflower seeds and heating for a further minute. The Parsley is thrown in for a few seconds, and then the contents of the pan are used to top the avocado. Lovely. Had the same again today!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are floating in stomach acid

I think I may be trying to do too much with that title and failing today anything at all.

I just want to record the sudden realisation that struck me after writing yesterday's blog: I have quit eighteen years of acid-suppressing medication and have suffered only the most minor symptoms of Reflux! Since previous attempts to come off the drug, or even reduce the dose have met with immediate and dreadful illness. I can only put this down to the changes I have made to my diet. This whole project was kicked off by my doctor's request that I stop taking the tablets for three days in preparation for a blood test. Yesterday I had that blood test and this morning I left the tablets in the box with the fervent hope that there they will forever remain.

Poached Haddock on Spinach

Fish for breakfast? Why not, the Japanese do it all the time. Poached Haddock on Spinach with Ginger and Grana Padano. The fish is begging for a cheesy, creamy or salty sauce, none of which are very stone-age. The sliced ginger garnish, which I originally threw into the poaching pan with the idea that it might impart flavour to the fish, turned out to be the ideal garnish to give the dish some much needed zing. Sarah says I should have poached with a bay leaf or two, so that is noted for next time. I also had a repeat of yesterday's breakfast... sorry, writing about reflux I should probably refrain from ambiguous use of the word 'repeat'. Let's say that I reprised yesterday's breakfast of Yoghurt, half-eaten apples (yes, there was another one) and blueberries. The only change was that, on finding no blueberries in the fridge, I picked some from the bush in the garden. This blueberry bush is actually the property of our six-year old, but he gave his permission for me to harvest a few berries, though he himself declined to sample any, giving as his reason that he is 'waiting for them to grow plump.'

Beware Fruit and Nuts!

I breakfasted late and so didn't feel in need of a big dinner, but I did feel in need of snack and decided to try a mix of fruit and nuts. This gave me the second experience of notable reflux symptoms since beginning this diet, the other being a seemingly inoffensive vegetable soup. So, was the problem the fruit, the nuts or the fibre content? More experimentation must follow to answer these questions. It is as well that the six-year old helped me finish these, given my bad reaction. As well for him too, as we two have been home alone together most of the day and low energy has meant that I haven't been as entertaining a housemate as I would have liked to be for him. He did however get to watch 'The Last Airbender' movie while I rested, which absolves a multitude of sins.

Bolognese with raw courgette 'Spaghetti'

Sarah is making Spaghetti Bolognese for tea, so all I need to do is to make low-carb spaghetti. This is done by bringing a coarse cheese grater to bear on a courgette. This does a great job of reproducing the chewiness and sauce-bearing properties of spaghetti, while tasting so fresh and healthy that one begins to wonder why pasta was ever invented. I would really recommend this dish, and would serve it with a slightly more liquid sauce than you see pictured here, so that those courgette slivers can get themselves really well coated.

As I've mentioned, this was my lowest-energy day so far this week, but certainly nothing out of the ordinary. This is very promising as I've been very active and excited about this project and with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS. Do I have to keep putting this in full? could I stop now?), the excitement is almost as tiring as physical activity.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, I leave you for another day, still floating in space, still producing stomach acid. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, please comment and inform me. And when you do comment, please take the precaution of copying your text; Blogger loves to lose your comments, and it's easier to have a second try if you don't have to retype!

Day Four: Where did it go?

Only one meal photo? There has been a lot going on today and what with one thing and another...

What you see here is plain, live yoghurt with blue berries and slices of recycled, home-grown apple. This is an apple that has been grown in our garden, half-eaten by a child (who shall remain nameless. He knows who he is), popped in the fridge by Sarah, then relieved of its brown bits and sliced small by me. I was tempted to do egg and spinach again but branched out in the interests of keeping the blog, and to some extent my life, interesting.

Late morning saw the arrival of Brother-in-Law Sam to swap his trailer tent, that we had, for our trailer tent, that he had, for reasons that are outside the scope of this narrative. It turns out that he has used and really rates the Stone Age diet, and it was good to have a conversation on the subject with someone who has read a little more guidance than I have. I should have guessed that he would have some knowledge on the subject as he and my sister Judith have tried out every diet scheme known to humanity, or more than two anyway, which is two more than I had before this experiment.

Dinner was a quarter cauliflower, sautéed in rape seed oil for fifteen minutes. It really was that simple and I wish I had a photo because it looked as good as it tasted. And before you ask, it looked great. Two children and Sarah sampled it and gave it the thumbs up. You'd would think that I'd still be peckish after this meal, and you'd be right. I gave the fridge a good tidy up, and liberated manifold odds and ends of salad and veg that, as my Mother would put it, 'Really needed eating up.'

I have been having energetic days, measured against my low baseline as a Chronic Fatigue sufferer, and my stomach has been behaving itself very well. One measure of my energy is the length of Tai Chi session I feel comfortable doing, and a measure of stomach pressure is how low I can go on the folding moves. In the forty-minute session mentioned on day 2 my 'scoop the sea' barely scooped the wave foam! In today's session I scooped nearly to the sea bed, but only managed twenty minutes.

Sarah made chicken chow mein for our family tea and I had the stone age equivalent, chicken chow mein with no noodles! It probably should have been without soy too, because of the salt content.

'And so,' in the words of Samuel Pepys, 'to bed.' I'm not going to give you the kind of running commentary on the intimate details of my life that Mr Pepys provides but don't worry, if I spew you'll be the first to know. 

Day Three: And now in colour!

Breakfast: poached egg on wilted spinach

I've come up with a great idea of including some pictures of the Stone Age food I've been making on this blog, this could revolutionise the Internet! I ended up taking two sleeping tablets last night, which was not stone age of me but did give me a very good night's sleep, from midnight(ish) until Ten. I should mention that my occupation at present consists solely of trying to get better, my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) means that I'm not able to work.
I hope that a quick glance over these photos will convince you that I am a nouvelle cuisine kind of cave man. Breakfast is poached egg on wilted spinach with a sprinkling of nutmeg, salt and pepper. I prefer poached to fried egg, but normally fry due to not being very confident about poaching. I determined to learn the knack and, like a true Neanderthal, reached for my Delia. As instructed, I poached the egg in simmering water for a minute and took off the heat for ten. Perfect results, very tasty.

Dinner: mushroom pizzas

On to dinner, and I found a recipe for low carb pizza, replacing the pizza base with a baked Portobello mushroom. I couldn't get Portobello, so I had to make to with two big mushrooms. I baked these for ten minutes on a greased baking sheet (only greased after they started sticking) and then added my sauce of tomato puree, balsamic vinegar, grated ginger and basil, with toppings of sliced garlic, green olives, toasted pine nuts and grated Grana Padano cheese. This all went into the oven for fifteen minutes and came out looking so delicious that I ate them without stopping to take a photo. Luckily I had taken this one just before they went in.

Tea: raw courgette, carrot and broccoli

I had an hour or so of sleep in the afternoon and haven't really woken up since. I didn't feel very hungry at tea time, so I though I'd have a bit of raw vegetable. I used a potato peeler to slice up half a courgette and a small carrot, and added a few broccoli florets. This started to look like quite a nice little dish, and I felt encouraged to add pine nuts, nutmeg, grated Grana Padano and a little vinaigrette dressing.
I really enjoyed this dish. I found that the raw vegetables really slowed my eating pace, and I savoured more than I might have with a cooked meal.
I've had no reflux problems today, but I have been very tired and light-headed at times which I'm putting down to my poor sleep the night before last. With CFS, missed sleep or over-exertion cast a long shadow, it can take a few days to recover. I do feel like someone 'taking a cure', even though in practical terms all that I have done so far is to reduce my carbs and cut out artificial sugar.

Day Two: Tai Chi, Belching, and Dubious Humour

Woken at 7:30AM and unable to go back to sleep. I have a headache from the lack of sleep, but I have passed the night without a reflux attack. I saw a recipe yesterday for a sort of fancy fried egg, but can’t find it now so make up a fluffy egg white with ginger and cinnamon and fry it with the yolk dropped in the middle. Interesting. Sarah makes a nice soup for lunch with carrots and runner beans. Nice, and not apparently containing anything that might offend the delicate stomach, but I have quite a lot of pressure in the stomach, belching and a little reflux. Maybe it’s just down to my being two days off my stomach acid tablets. Anyhow, reflux while awake and standing is easily dealt with, it’s reflux while asleep that is the killer.  I manage an afternoon Tai Chi session. Because of my Chronic Fatigue, I do very little in the way of physical exercise. I find Tai Chi a great way to get a low-impact, gentle, full-body work out, especially because it’s easy to shorten or lengthen a session depending on the energy I have available. Today, I do around forty minutes, which so far, is about my limit. A final meal of yesterday’s left-over roulade, salad and corn on the cob, which is 20% carb but I didn’t check until after I’d eaten it. If I’m awake at midnight, I’m going to have to take something to help me on my way. Of course, knocking one’s self out might not be that wise when one is prone to relfux attacks. One bit of advice for those who do, is to sleep with the head higher than the feet. If one can sleep standing up, that is ideal, but those of us who find this difficult can resort to raising the head of their bed. I’ve done this with some wooden blocks and so tonight I’ll be sleeping at around five degrees, so I’d better wear my bed socks! I’m joking, it’s a five degree angle, not five degrees centigrade. *Tumbleweed*

Day One: Stone Age Yoghurt, Cream and Wine

I have yet to get a full impression of what the Stone Age diet should consist of, but I'm starting with food that is very low carb, unprocessed, without added sugar and, if possible, organic. Breakfast was mushroom omelet and some live yoghurt, should have been plain but none in the fridge so fruity it had to be. I think that the Stone Age diet should be non-diary, but I’m sure that I’m going to need some probiotic action, so I’m including the live yoghurt for now. For lunch, Sarah whipped up an egg and vegetable roulade containing, courgette, cauliflower and onion with onion, parmesan, cream and wine. Again, not strictly stone age, but low carb, definitely low carb. It’s day one my friends, only day one.

My Chronic Fatigue symptoms have been normal, I’ve not done much physical activity but my mind has been very active all day with researching, planning and writing about this whole health diet project thing. Result is that I can’t sleep I could take Nytol or the stronger sleeping aids that I have for these occasions, but I’m reluctant to muddy the water of the diet. I’m still awake at 3AM, but I’m awake with positive thoughts and feelings!

Back to the Stone Age with Gastroesophageal Reflux and Chronic Fatigue!

Where should I begin: Ten thousand years ago, when the beginnings of modern agriculture began to alter the human diet? Eighteen or so years ago when I first began to suffer from Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)? A couple of years later when I started the tablets for GERD that I have taken ever since? Eighteen months ago when I was struck by a virus that led into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)? Six months ago when the CFS was diagnosed and I began therapy to manage the condition? Five days ago, when the latest in an occasional but on-going and devastating series of nighttime GERD attacks caused me to go back to the doctor? Or this morning, when on the Doctor’s advice, I ceased my daily GERD tablets in preparation for a blood test?

I had mixed feelings about coming off the tablets that control my GERD symptoms. I hate having to take them, but previous attempts to reduce the dose have always resulted in an immediate return of acute symptoms and a return to the tablets. Now with the all-consuming condition of CFS to contend with, I am even less inclined to take the risk. But this morning, when my wife reminded me to take my tablet, I broke the news to her that I was coming off it for a few days. She was as apprehensive as I was, she knows how hideous my reflux attacks can be and the idea of removing the pharmaceutical line of defence does seem crazy. Added to that, my own minimal research, (the first Google result) suggested that the blood test is of very limited use as a positive result, can indicate an historic as well as a current infection of Helicobacter Pylori.

In this depressing state of affairs, the third Google result was far more appealing: ‘Get rid of heartburn and GERD forever in three simple steps’. Of course, I am far to old and cynical to believe the headline, but I’m also inquisitive enough to follow the link. The page turns out to be one of a series of articles by Chris Kesser suggesting, broadly speaking, that GERD is caused, or at least exacerbated, by low levels of stomach acid. If this is true, then my tablets are actually perpetuating my GERD, while keeping the symptoms under control. But why would pharmaceutical companies produce a drug that actually prolongs the condition it treats? Could they be motivated by the desire to sell more drugs, rather than the desire to alleviate human suffering? Reluctantly I have to admit it: this does seem to be in keeping with corporate business philosophy.

In truth, the idea that corporations will ever operate for the public good, is based on, as Douglas Adams would put it, three things: ignorance, stupidity and nothing else. But getting worked up about injustices that one is powerless to address is a dead-end street, particularly for a CFS sufferer with a very limited daily energy allowance. So I put the phrase ‘The love of money is the root of all evil’ to the back of my mind, and carried on reading. As I did so, I was occasionally aware of a vague sensation of bells ringing. Some of the ideas expressed in the article seemed familiar. In a world of ‘Solve All Your Problems Now’ headlines, it is ever more important to give credence to these little hints.

The article seemed to have areas of crossover with ‘Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’ by Dr Sarah Myhill, a book I began reading some weeks ago and which, despite finding very interesting and potentially useful, also contained detailed technicalities in which I got bogged down. Now, I revisited it. Both the book and the article discussed unwanted bacterial proliferation in the upper gut, the book details the importance of vitamin and mineral nutrition, while the article points to the function of stomach acid in enabling absorption of these vitamins and minerals. Most of all, both the book and the article promote the value of the Paleo or ‘Stone Age’ diet in combatting both GERD and CFS.

Now, I am an ex-programmer. And a programmer is always looking for ways to create generic functions which can be used to solve multiple problems. As well as pointing to possible links in the causes of GERD and CFS, my reading was now offering me a possible solution to both. I can resist launching an anti-corporate pharmaceuticals campaign, but I can’t resist this, I have to give the Stone Age diet a try!