Alberto's Journal

[nummi]

Maybe potato starch could help with gut issues? Helped me, I can digest somewhat more plant stuff (vegetables) than before and much easier. Though I now need to start limiting myself 'cause I tend eat them a bit too much now that it's easier.

It can be homemade easily if don't want the store-sold.

[albertoceraw]

Thanks, I don't even think there'll be store sold in mexico.

What helped after year and half of search, was I think, rice water. I found out about it in the most unsual way. After a while of not finding answers with doctors you think you'll only find answers in the internet. But casually I found someone who had the same problem and solved it drinking the water you get after boiling rice and guavas. I was skepticall, since I was 100 % raw paleo advocate at the moment, but decided to give it a go. I mixed that whith eating saurkrout and some high meat, and suddenly I could digest fruit, and then even vegetables.

However lately I did a coffee enema, and my digestion actually got worse.  It's not as bad as before, but I still resent the drawback. In a hope to regain the flora and to "negate" what happend I've tried to eat spinach lately, and now I have diarreah at work... But not as much undigested food, so I have hope I'll get better soon.

I think I'll add potatoes to see if it speeds up the recovery.  Thanks.

[jessica]

alberto can you send me a package of your cookies?

[albertoceraw]

Just let me see how hard it is to send food to the USA Jessica!

I'm making three types of meat cookie: Tumeric, grasshoper and chipotle ( mexican type of chili). I really like the tumeric ones after
workout.
 
Heres the nut bars.


******

My digestion is getting still weaker, I'm tending to fruitarianism and lean meat.  Have good energy though and mental clarity, but so much carbs only work doing a shitload of excercise...

[cherimoya_kid]

Alberto, tell us more about this "boiled rice and guava" water thing, please. I'm curious.

[A_Tribe_Called_Paleo]

Alberto, I too am struggling with gut/digestion/elimination issues.

One helpful thing I learned is to avoid spices, they can irritate the colon!

I've also learned to avoid cooked/processed foods, extravagant remedies, "miracle cures," and to keep things as simple paleo as possible.

[albertoceraw]

Alberto, tell us more about this "boiled rice and guava" water thing, please. I'm curious.

Sure.

Well, as it happens my friend had a very similiar story. Suddenly her diggestion started deteriorating until she could not digest properly food. Doctors did not help at all, and maybe after a year of struggle one of her mothers friends told her about a natural remedy, to make the rice water with guave "atole". Atole is traditional mexican beverage but usually made of corn. But basically it's just boiling rice and guavas together for about an hour, and drinking the water thats left.

She started taking it and began getting better, and also added pinaple with chia to the mix, which she says it also helped greatly. This she found out through some friends who trained for football, and the recipe was supposed to improve digestion.

At first I was skeptic, but since it was the first ray of hope after months and months of research I decided to give it a try.  I did the rice atole, and added some light fruit with saurkraut at night.  Then I began doind the chia thing also. Eventually I could digest all fruit, and before I knew pretty much everything. 

I think she took longer to recuperate, but she didn't do raw paleo or anything. Right now I think the mixture of atole and saurkraut was the best combination.

I stopped having digestive issues until recently when my liver started giving trouble. After the enema I stopped digesting well vegetables, but not like before. Right now it only gives me diarreah but it doesn't come out undigested.

Alberto, I too am struggling with gut/digestion/elimination issues.

One helpful thing I learned is to avoid spices, they can irritate the colon!

I've also learned to avoid cooked/processed foods, extravagant remedies, "miracle cures," and to keep things as simple paleo as possible.

Thanks for the advice. I don't think I suffer from my colon now. The only issue now seems to be a still fragile instetinal flora and a congestioned liver, which I guess is taking extra turns to detox my body right now.

Saddly simple 100% raw paleo was not enough for me. At first It helped me greatly, but then I began to hit a pleateau. And I'm happy I was oppen to other sources of healing, because If not I might have disregarded the rice water remedie. Raw paleo is the best way to keep healthy and thriving, but not sure If enough for healing in our current world.

[eveheart]

Sounds like atole has been a good starch source for gut flora to help you "recover" from your ultra-low carb "experiment," but I'm curious why you have chosen a cooked starch for this purpose? You can achieve the same gut health with raw starches from paleolithic food sources.

[albertoceraw]

Sounds like atole has been a good starch source for gut flora to help you "recover" from your ultra-low carb "experiment," but I'm curious why you have chosen a cooked starch for this purpose? You can achieve the same gut health with raw starches from paleolithic food sources.

Well, it's actually the other way around. I went low carb because I didn't have any gut flora. I did try a lot of raw starches like jicama, plantain, seeds and nuts, but they didn't work. They made me bloated and gasy, with no subscecuent improved digestion.

I'm actually not sure why the rice water works altough I can speculate. Theres little info on the net, but in Mexico it is a common remedie for babies with diarreah which even doctors prescribe. It's also very popular in asian countries for topical use.

[A_Tribe_Called_Paleo]

I've found raw vegetable/root starches are very hard to digest. I would never eat a raw sweet potato. Steamed, mashed, and then cooled works best for me.

Some people that suffer from IBS do terrible with Fiber(ive found mainly insoluble, i do ok with small amounts of fruit). Fermenting and cooking essentially predigest it for our weak guts. I get the same effect from unripe fruits, vine/sun ripened is the way to go for IBS.

this post just now brought me back to when i was a young child. At dinner i would only eat the tops of broccoli(steamed). my father would get very upset, called it being wasteful, and made me eat the stems. they gave me horrible stomach pains, and gas. He also tried feeding me raw carrots. I vividly remember throwing up my first raw carrot. I suspect that after continuous force feeding, my body adapted somewhat. Now 10-15 years later, the fiber has taken its toll, and worn my system down.

[albertoceraw]

I've found raw vegetable/root starches are very hard to digest. I would never eat a raw sweet potato. Steamed, mashed, and then cooled works best for me.

Some people that suffer from IBS do terrible with Fiber(ive found mainly insoluble, i do ok with small amounts of fruit). Fermenting and cooking essentially predigest it for our weak guts. I get the same effect from unripe fruits, vine/sun ripened is the way to go for IBS.

this post just now brought me back to when i was a young child. At dinner i would only eat the tops of broccoli(steamed). my father would get very upset, called it being wasteful, and made me eat the stems. they gave me horrible stomach pains, and gas. He also tried feeding me raw carrots. I vividly remember throwing up my first raw carrot. I suspect that after continuous force feeding, my body adapted somewhat. Now 10-15 years later, the fiber has taken its toll, and worn my system down.

Yeah, before paleo I thought fiber was always good. That there actually wasn't something like to much fiber. I  don't remember how it happened that I lost my flora. It was when I began trying to cure my candida and began doing experiments with digestion.  I think I increased somewhat my consuption of fiber, but I was mainly cooked veggies and nuts and seeds. I also drank probably too much kefir. And I also tried enemas for the first time, which now after what happend, could've been a mayor factor! Thing is, I don't remember if I did them previous to loosing my intestinal flora.

Anyways I don't have IBS symptoms now, and before this recent lapsus, was doing great with fiber again. Even eating raw carrot and stuff.
I think I'm getting a bit better now,  stopped excercise to get some rest and got the flu afterwards. Nut and seed digestion improved again. ( I know people advise against them, but I they're important in my diet due to the pyroloruia like symptoms.)

I think I'll do an egg flush on the weekend.

[jessica]

If you have pyroluria like symptoms you should probably stear clear of all foods hij in copper and focus on foods higher in sinc and b vitamins.  Nuts, seeds, fruit and veggies are generally all higher copper than zinc.  You would be better off to eat raw or cooked meats, especially muscle meats with plenty of fats and also egg yolks.  Look up the high copper connection to pyroluria and see if that doesn't ring true to you. Copper zinc imnbalance tends to make exacerbate candida symptoms as well.  Look up all of the minerals that help combat candida, selenium, sulphur, tcetc, you may be low in those as well.

[eveheart]

Well, it's actually the other way around. I went low carb because I didn't have any gut flora. I did try a lot of raw starches like jicama, plantain, seeds and nuts, but they didn't work. They made me bloated and gasy, with no subscecuent improved digestion.

Technically, you can't not have any gut flora. Each person's gut flora is nourished and sustained by what that person ingests. Whatever gut flora you have, it will change when you change the food you feed it. Sometimes, a switch in food might result in initial discomfort, like the gas and bloating you described, but the gut microbiome is very maleable. Initial discomfort is not an indication that something is wrong, only different. Sometimes the gut flora that you hope to have can be introduced with supplements, fermented foods, fecal transplant, and so forth.

By the way, many of my vegan friends claim that, if they ate meat, they would die. They are actually describing the same effect: a new food causes initial discomfort because their digestive microbiome was prepared to digest something else entirely.

[albertoceraw]

If you have pyroluria like symptoms you should probably stear clear of all foods hij in copper and focus on foods higher in sinc and b vitamins.  Nuts, seeds, fruit and veggies are generally all higher copper than zinc.  You would be better off to eat raw or cooked meats, especially muscle meats with plenty of fats and also egg yolks.  Look up the high copper connection to pyroluria and see if that doesn't ring true to you. Copper zinc imnbalance tends to make exacerbate candida symptoms as well.  Look up all of the minerals that help combat candida, selenium, sulphur, tcetc, you may be low in those as well.

Yeah as far as I have read, pyroluria/ high copper is what best describes my symptoms. However, one of the mayor improvements I had last year was when I started eating sunflower seeds daily. Before that I still struggled badly to get work done and be productive.  I began taking a zinc supplement some weeks ago and it seemed to improve a lot my condition, mainly I noticed that I recovered way better after excercise, which left me cloudy before.. I've haven't taken them as much i after I stopped seeing improvements.

So I can't say its common pyroluria, but it's something among those lines. Still, I think I should be more regular with zinc supplementation as it supposedly takes up to a year to get zinc normal.

Technically, you can't not have any gut flora. Each person's gut flora is nourished and sustained by what that person ingests. Whatever gut flora you have, it will change when you change the food you feed it. Sometimes, a switch in food might result in initial discomfort, like the gas and bloating you described, but the gut microbiome is very maleable. Initial discomfort is not an indication that something is wrong, only different. Sometimes the gut flora that you hope to have can be introduced with supplements, fermented foods, fecal transplant, and so forth.

By the way, many of my vegan friends claim that, if they ate meat, they would die. They are actually describing the same effect: a new food causes initial discomfort because their digestive microbiome was prepared to digest something else entirely.

I know, I was speaking very freely. I meant more like no fiber flora.  And I did try to go beyond that initial bloating and stuff, but at two weeks it only seemed to get worse, so I don't think it was just my flora getting used to it. I would get even more violent reaction from other things.

I find it weird that people would get really bad reactions from raw good meat since it doesn't seem like it needs too much bacteria to degrade it.

I'm  happy to find that it didn't take anything as drastic as a fecal transplant, or worse, something amongst AV lines like eating shit, to recover my digestion.

[albertoceraw]

A small update excercise related.

For a while I've been drinking fruit juice after workout. I usually train capoeira for 2 hours 3 times a week. At first I tought a lt of juice (Carrot, orange, tangerine) was excellent after workout to replenish lost energy, since it's fairly quick energy and also rehidrates the body. However I avoided juice in other situations because of how quickly it raises the sugar levels, and I told myself that after workout it was ok because of the raised insulin you get.

However now that I've been doing excersise for about 4 months. I feel like I don't need that much anymore after class. Before I would end really beat up and gulp the lt of juice in one gulp. Now I can barely finish it and it raises my sugar levels.

No more fruit juice I guess. Maybe just a small smoothie of slower releasing carbs.

[eveheart]

No more fruit juice I guess. Maybe just a small smoothie of slower releasing carbs.

I'm not a big fan of drinking foods. You need to chew foods, especially carbohydrates, because the mouth, tongue, nose, facial muscles, etc., are part of the digestive tract, where many digestive signals get generated, transmitted to the brain, and used to inform the stomach, liver, gall bladder, intestines, etc. what's coming down the hatch.

With a history of blood sugar issues, I used to avoid oranges completely. However, I grow oranges at my house, and I hated not eating my own excellent fruits. I found that if I eat them whole, sharing one orange with my two grandchildren, I get no negative blood sugar impact from part of an orange. In contrast, OJ usually contains an armload of oranges, so quantity alone is responsible for a lot of the sugar jolt in OJ. An orange has about 10 g of sugars, so compare half an orange (5 g = not much) to how many oranges you use to make a glass of OJ, and you'll quickly see how the sugars add up.

[albertoceraw]

I'm not a big fan of drinking foods. You need to chew foods, especially carbohydrates, because the mouth, tongue, nose, facial muscles, etc., are part of the digestive tract, where many digestive signals get generated, transmitted to the brain, and used to inform the stomach, liver, gall bladder, intestines, etc. what's coming down the hatch.

With a history of blood sugar issues, I used to avoid oranges completely. However, I grow oranges at my house, and I hated not eating my own excellent fruits. I found that if I eat them whole, sharing one orange with my two grandchildren, I get no negative blood sugar impact from part of an orange. In contrast, OJ usually contains an armload of oranges, so quantity alone is responsible for a lot of the sugar jolt in OJ. An orange has about 10 g of sugars, so compare half an orange (5 g = not much) to how many oranges you use to make a glass of OJ, and you'll quickly see how the  add up.

Yeah, I rarely get problems with sugar when I am eating the fruit. Yet I still find curious the change, I think I'm doing excercise more efficently and don't need as much to replenish glycogen as before.

Aside that, I've had some other changes theese weeks. I've had problems with "uncontrolled energy". For example, waking up tired and then surges of enery at night, a BIG increase in libido ( which is unfortunate since I'm single right now). I've been having problems concentrating and doing mental work, but not in the same way as before. Actually I suspect now it's because some sort of detox/healing might be going on, I sort of feel underneath normality rising up again.

I really hope it's that and that it may pass quickly, since I've been really irritable and grauchy at work. If it keeps up like that it may drive me into loosing my job. I'll try to eat as much seafood as I can since I think thats helping right now.

[albertoceraw]

Today my great grandmother died. She was 109 years old.

And contrary to the usual posts of old age here, it was bit sad that she died so old.

She was a remarkably strong woman who lived by her own up until she was almost 100 years old! She even travelled alone! But she had a tragic accident and she was hit by car. Her hip was shatered and even still she would do arm bars to try to keep strong and  things. However eventually she could no longer walk and this was unbearable to her. TO have to depend on other people, this depresed her inmensely. Confronted by her helplessnes and inability to do things for herself she began just whishing for her death. She was so strong that this almost took another 10 years, 10 years resenting her fortitude and asking God to take her.

Now she can rest.

[goodsamaritan]

Condolences to you.  My friend and healer Sifu Jen Sam says around 90+ people who had figured out old age usually succumb to injuries like that.  Sifu's own father died at 95 hit by a car as he tried to cross the street.  My own grandma at 88 had pneumonia in the hospital after their mishandling when she fell down the stairs and broke her wrist, but I sent my aunt to save her.  Then at 95 my grandma slipped in the bathroom and dislocated her hip and had complications of pain and atrophy and bed sores because it took my aunt 3 months before she called me for help. I fixed her up along with 3 healers but her mobility is now severely limited.

[TylerDurden]

True, having to endure the last few years of life in incapacity or pain can be a problem.  I think, though that rpders generally will have  better prospects in old age, such as stronger bones so that falling is less likely and less of an issue if it does happen, along with far fewer chances of getting strokes, heart attacks etc.

[albertoceraw]

One thing I've noticed, especially among old women ( who sadly where raised to serve other people) is that the worst thing is to feel useless. They struggle a lot to keep working and doing everything by themselves and I think this eventually leads to injuries and problems. Even in good health one should plan (and accept) a more contemplative, meditative life in the last years.

My great-grandmother biggest strength became her biggest weakness. One should be flexible to life, no matter what. 

[JeuneKoq]

There was this 90 something years old ultra-marathon runner who said: "you don't stop running when you start getting old, you start getting old when you stop running"

One should be flexible in life according to one's own abilities, not because "I'm old so I should start being reasonable and stop being active altogether". Thank god my grand-parents remain somewhat active, even the oldest one (almost 90 years) who still go for rather long walks.

The main task of an elder is of course to share it's knowledge and teach life lessons.
No one wants to feel useless, because being useless either means being dependent and wasting other people's energy, or basically being left to die if the burden (you, the useless person) is too great to carry.

Nowadays people are artificially kept alive on meds, in such a state that death would likely be more desirable for both parties. In Paleo times (aaahh, the golden Paleo times!), when a person came to the conclusion that it could not keep up with the rest of the group anymore, or which presence would likely put the others in danger, the person would have the wisdom and decency to leave the group and die.
I think the time between critical health decline/advanced disability and death would've been a lot shorter in these times, so you'd probably have a few last days of limited activity before realizing "it's time".

[albertoceraw]

Jeune, I agree with you. It's exactly about knowing your limitations.

Last weekend I went to visit my cousin in a town called Huitzilac. It's a beautiful foresty place where he's studying permaculture, and working a piece of land with some friends. He's growing vegetables, raising rabbits and even built a temazcal, wich is a mexican sauna.
I bought one of the rabbits for lunch and left there fantasizing about having a similar life.

[albertoceraw]

I had some interesting, profound dreams tonight. Oscilanting between incredibly pleasant and nightmarish. Lots of emotions from fear,  hate and persecucion to incredible beauty, tenderness and love.

It's been such a long time of illness that I didn't even remember what love felt like. And now it looks like finally I'm recovering my mind.

It's so complicated to talk about having mental issues since it all deals with an ontological realm which people rarely find use in mapping or talking about.  It's easy to say my leg hurts, and having others imagine or recreate this. However, saying that you can't feel due to biological reasons... it's almost impossible to get across.

The religious legacy of seeing the mind-emotions as separate from the body makes it almost impossible to talk about disease. If you feel biologically depressed, they assure it's because of negative thinking or emotional distress, etc.

I tried so hard to communicate to my family what I was experiencing, and failed miserably.  Ex. I developed authism which impaired greatly my ability to communicate, they would only see it as "he doesn't want to communicate, he's being anti-social".

End of rant.

This days have been difficult, but it indeed looks like it's because of some healing taking place as I suspected. It's still pretty hard to go to work with all this swings in mental states, recent blood-sugar episodes and still erratic digestive behavior.

I'm just doing my best to keep productive in spite of this and do my best to eat as well as I can. Having lots of liver and beef fat; drinking green juices; getting lots of seafood on the weekend;eggs; saurkraut; seeds.



This is what my lunch looks like.

Another big change in behavior. Did some research and experimentation and I'm taking EMF seriously now.  Has made a definite role in the last days in my healing.

It's feels so strange having emotions again, I don't even remember how to live with them anymore.

[jessica]

Hey Alberto, I dont know if you have ever considered it but i know that certain mushrooms have helped me to recover from physiological splits where I really lost touch with the majority of my emotions, and very much helped me process and explore both positive and negative aspects of the complete extent of my emotional range .  Right now I am experimenting with Lions Mane mushroom which is said to restore and repair the nervous system, but in the past I have done many experiments with low doses of psilocybin mushrooms, which have been an incredibly effective, and safe, way to explore emotional pathways that I had shut down due to extreme emotional trauma.  There are plenty of studies out now that confirm what I had learned in the past through self experimentation and the experiences of friends and family.  I have also written a bit on the forum about those experiences and my feelings regarding taking mushrooms as medicine.  There are also many other avenues to explore to connect the body and brain in a safe and healthy manner, yoga, breathe work, meditation and yes, DREAMs, exploring dreams and creating a healthy body and lifestyle that promotes the awesome healing of a body in tune with its own proper circadian rhythms...!  Its a beautiful journey you are on and  you might be surprised that, after having gone through so much emotionally in the past, that instead of being hindrances, your emotions can now be an ally and a guide and your ability to discern them properly your best strength  

What do you do for work?  Do you think there is a better job out there that might be more conducive to healing?