Tao Meow's diet

[witch]

I don't usually like to start topics, but I want to give credit where credit is due. I had told Tao Meow I admired her diet, but was too busy, particularly with kids, to actually try it. However this recent bout of hayfever has changed my mind. Getting sick takes up valuable time, and I've been a wreck for the last three weeks. So I started on it yesterday, with a few modifications. I'm going to make the time. I want it to fit it with my own diet, so I'm not drinking coffee. And I'm tailoring it particularly to get rid of hayfever, so I'm specifically going to try to eat a red apple and red onion a day, along with drinking organic apple cider vinegar mixed with local honey and water twice a day.

 

It's funny, I came here to find out about CCOs and taoist men, I stayed to learn more about exercise and breathing practice, but I'm ending up changing what I eat! Although I suppose that's consistent--I believe the soundest progression is earth, fire, water, air.

[Yoda]

Doesn't Taomeow eat raw livers and kidneys??? I'd definitely lose weight!!! Good luck with it! It did sound healthy and energy enhancing.

 

Btw, ACV plus neti-ing doesn't cure but definitely helps with allergies in my experience.

[VeeCee]

Okay I'm so new to this I need a little help. What is the purpose of the red apple and red onion, as well as the water w/ vinegar & honey. My father-in-law (who was a beekeeper) used to drink water w/vinegar & honey everyday, but I never asked him why (and unfortunately he's no longer here to ask). Thanks!

 

V.

[三江源]

ACV makes your system more alkaline, is it. anything that makes you more alkaline helps.

 

Black cumin seed oil is a WONDERCURE for allergies. MSM + Vit C at a high ish dose also banishes allergies.

[VeeCee]

ACV makes your system more alkaline, is it. anything that makes you more alkaline helps.

 

Black cumin seed oil is a WONDERCURE for allergies. MSM + Vit C at a high ish dose also banishes allergies.

 

Thanks - may give it a try myself since I suddenly developed allegeries a few years ago.

 

V.

[Taomeow]

Yoda,

 

it's what I feed my cat, not what I eat myself!

 

Witch,

 

you have chosen wisely if I say so myself! Thanks for trusting my judgment... and good luck!

 

(I have to enclose a disclaimer re red apples and red onions and apple cider vinegar with honey: these are someone else's suggestions, not mine. I hardly ever eat red apples of any kind currently available, they're too sweet for me and too flavorless -- more like a wad of paper soaked in sugar water. Granny Smith is my only apple of choice on this continent -- these, when good, are pretty good, and I eat them almost every day. If I come across an inferior batch, I bake them, adding honey and cinnamon and butter and a handful of raisins and lycium berries and... or just bake them with no frills, baked apples are great, and baked pears, by the way, is a TCM food remedy for Lung qi problems, to which some varieties of hay fever do belong. I don't think red onions are special compared to the yellow ones -- except for a moderate dose of proanthocyanides -- you'll get way more of those from a glass of good red wine. Apple cider vinegar and honey are good but I mix them in a salad dressing, not in my drinking water. When I hear the word "alkalize," I grab one of my real books on nutrition --e.g., "Chinese Natural Cures," or "Russian Cuisine in Exile," or "A Taste of Japan," or some such -- and dance around shaking it over my head and laughing demoniacally.)

 

And, Witch, I promise... if you you have the time to read this book --

The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug,

by Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie Bealer --

and, having read it, still refuse to drink coffee --

 

then I give up, but not before!

[thaddeus]

 

and, having read it, still refuse to drink coffee --

 

 

What is the problem with coffee especially with regards to dopamine levels? I've read about studies where caffeine is supposed to raise dopamine levels. The only problem I see with coffee may be the adding milk/cream and sugar. Milk has already been shown to nullify some of the beneficial effects of tea on the circulatory system.

T

[Yoda]

And there is the "Caffeine Advantage" by the same authors... great book, although I don't do much caffeine these days.

 

Anyone remember where the link to Taomeow's diet is... I don't know how I got the idea she ate raw kidneys, but if that's not a part of it, I'd at least like to reread that post.

 

This just jumped into my head:

 

I have a friend of gypsy descent (I forget which nationality that is) and his mom owns a very traditional gypsy cookbook. (incidently, they liked to drink blood straight from a bleeding animal... lots of chi there, I'm sure!!) I'm not making this up, but many of the recipes start out with "First, steal a chicken..."

[Neijia]

Anyone remember where the link to Taomeow's diet is... I don't know how I got the idea she ate raw kidneys, but if that's not a part of it, I'd at least like to reread that post.

 

 

I remember reading the thread, just not the specifics. Where is that link?

[Christoph]

 

www.paleodiet.com

 

http://www.arthurdevany.com/evolutionary_fitness/

 

 

Give your immune system a break from phytic acids in grains,legumes and beans, indigestible protiens in dairy and grains and stabilize your blood sugar by avoiding potatoes and other moderate to high GI foods.

[witch]

Red onions and red apples are highest in quercetin, which is supposed to help with allergies. I'm going to give it a try. And the local honey desensitizes to local antigens.

 

So far so good, I'm sticking to it, pretty much. Three questions--was poultry off the list? And also what about corn, like homemade popcorn? And is butter okay? (Please tell me butter is okay!)

 

I will never drink coffee because it immediately makes my spontaneous orgasm ability go away for several hours (because of the serotonin-raising effect--it raises dopamine but it raises serotonin more). Even if I eat too much dark chocolate I get the same effect.

[Taomeow]

I remember reading the thread, just not the specifics. Where is that link?

I don't remember if I posted it here, but here's a copy of my entry at Empirical Taoism a couple of months ago re my eating patterns:

 

***

I'm quite a grazer, and never eat big portions of anything.

 

I eat almost exclusively organic. On a typical day, my breakfast is two cups of very strong black coffee with some sugar, no milk, followed by a brunch of uncured organic bacon and eggs (it's a grounding health food if you're a Vata-Pitta) or buckwheat or congee or kicharee (a rice and beans dish) or a cup of kefir. Midday, I eat an assortment of fruit and berries and drink an occasional glass of vegatable juice. For dinner I will usually want a thick mushy soup winter time, or a colorful anything-goes salad summer time, followed by a meat or fish dish with vegetables, or rice pasta or something else Thai style made of rice noodles, or a curry or some such.

 

I am a very good fusion cook if I say so myself, and can invent dishes falling back on all my expeirence with Russian, European, and Asian cuisine, and often do. I am very meticulous about preparation methods for my meals, always mindful of the "how," not just "what." E.g., you won't catch me steaming my veggies (yuck!) or ruminating them raw (double yuck!), I stir-fry them for as many minutes (usually two or three) as it takes for them to become brighter rather than duller -- the moment the color intensifies they're at the peak of their nutritional value. There's exceptions of course -- e.g., a much longer preparation time is needed for most mushrooms I love (not the tasteless button mushrooms of the supermarket) and an assortment of sauteed veggie dishes made with eggplant or squash or sweet peppers, Turkish or Greek or South European style. I try to vary and rotate my veggies a lot and keep using everything out there, there's few I don't use (rutabaga, jicama, and corn are out, everything else goes).

 

I avoid all gluten-containing grains related to wheat (this includes oats). Bread I either bake using a mix of several gluten-free flours or substitite with Asian or Indian rice or garbanzo thingies. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but when I do feel like something sweet, it's usually chocolate ice cream, which I eat a whole can of to get it out of my system and then forget all about for a couple of months or more. With the exception of this and organic kefir, I don't eat any cow dairy products. I buy sheep and goat cheeses, my favorite one is Haloumi from Cyprus.

 

I make herbal teas and decoctions regularly. I cook medicinal soups when necessary (with things like ginseng, deer antler, sea horses, angelica root, and so on.) I occasionally make fermented foods -- sauerkraut or kimchee -- and drinks (kombucha). I drink a glass or two of red wine here and there, not every day but perhaps every week (I tend to forget about the health benefits of wine, I should drink more, and more often.) If I eat out, nine times out of ten it will be Japanese.

 

What else. I meticulously avoid all chemicals, preservatives, frankenfoods, and seldom use anything out of a can or a box or otherwise molested. For junk to munch on, e.g. movie popcorn substitutes, I fry sushi nori to a brittle crisp or buy obscure stuff from an Asian market -- Vietnamese or Indonesian, e.g., still blissfully backward enough to include no chemicals in their taro chips or walnut-date candy. I keep my diet high-fat, using high quality fats.

 

The things I would change aren't up to me, of all the things the here-now can offer I'm making the best use as it is. If it was up to me, I'd have access to all those astonishing fruit and berries I used to have in season in Russia (gooseberries, black and red and white currants, sour cherries, real strawberries, real apricots, real plums, and so on). I would also prefer to live closer to a large Asian market and explore their astounding variety of live seafood more closely. In a perfect world, I'd have a bucket of caviar in my fridge at all times.

[Taomeow]

Three questions--was poultry off the list? And also what about corn, like homemade popcorn? And is butter okay? (Please tell me butter is okay!)

 

Organic poultry is fine, but I don't eat it every day, nor every week. (Even "organic" still means unnaturally fed chickens -- my grandmother had chickens and I know what a real chicken eats, and it's not corn on corn chased with corn! They eat, ahem, earthworms, which are abundant in a rich, rich soil enriched with nothing but the chicken's very own manure, and they'll be clawing and picking and pecking all day long. And then they get a handful of now wheat, now rye, now sorghum to complement their diet. And then when the time comes for one of them to say good-bye to it all and turn into "poultry," whatever you make out of it results in a bird of paradise, a heavenly angel with crispy wings -- and that's how you know what a real chicken tastes like. This, I could eat every day, but the commercial chicken excites me not, so I eat it maybe once every ten days.) I much prefer red meat. Of all red meats available, I favor lamb. Because it's not very popular in this country, there's not many (if any) lamb factory farms, and even ordinary (non-organic) varieties have a chance to have come from a grazing animal (of course pesticides and sh...t is another story, so I do try to get organic varieties.)

 

Corn... I'd stay away from all corn and all its countless incarnations. For some of the most worthy of attention reasons why, I suggest this book:

"The Omnivore's Dilemma," by Michael Pollan.

 

Butter -- butter is great, but do make sure you buy organic (fats accumulate the bulk of the toxins an animal has been exposed to) or, better yet, try ghee (clarified butter)-- healthier, great for frying (unlike butter), the taste is more intense (so if you like the flavor of butter, you might enjoy the fact that ghee tastes about the same but stronger), and can keep indefinitely without refrigeration. You can get it at a HFS, or you can make your own if you have the time, it's fairly easy.

[witch]

Thank you--now I know what I needed to know. I've read up a bit on allergies, and I'm going to kick this hayfever naturally. Two ways I can do that are by avoiding food allergens and by eating foods that help with respiratory allergens. I'm working at this, I never want to go through this again!

[freeform]

Taomeow, I demand to be invited for dinner!

 

[thaddeus]

Thank you--now I know what I needed to know. I've read up a bit on allergies, and I'm going to kick this hayfever naturally.

Witch, what's the deal with caffeine and dopamine?

Thanks,

T

[witch]

Caffeine causes an initial brief surge in dopamine, but soon after a drop. Simultaneously it also elevates serotonin very high and keeps it high for hours, until the caffeine wears off. Since my goal is to keep dopamine high and serotonin moderate and steady, I avoid caffeine.

[Bum Grasshopper]

Yoda

 

Gypsies are a nomadic race believed to originated from Egypt. Having been in a Hungarian dance troupe I have had the pleasure of dancing to many Gypsy musicians as well as learning their unique style of dancing.

 

I'm not making this up, but many of the recipes start out with "First, steal a chicken..."