THE DIET CONNECTION

Is there a diet connection?

There are seven foods that people with Fibromyalgia should NOT eat. These dietary guidelines help a significant number of people but having said that, what helps one person may not help another. That's a good thing because some of the foods listed I will have a real hard time giving up.

1. Nutrasweet
2. MSG and Nitrates
3. High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar and Simple Carbs.
4. Caffeine
5. Yeast and Gluten
6. Dairy
7. The dreaded nightshades

Nutrasweet is an excitotoxin. Here is the controversy that I went through on my Diet Coke segment.  This is difficult because I love fountain Diet Cokes. What does make sense is that people with Fibromyalgia already have over-active pain receptors  so why push the envelope by giving your body more to deal with by drinking something filled with excitotoxins. 

Crap. That one is awful. Give up Diet Coke?? 

MSG and Nitrates.  This one? Not so tough. Experts say that the MSG and nitrates that are commonly found in lunch meats and bacon intensify the pain sensation.  No prob. I don't eat that stuff anyway.

Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup and Simple Carbs.

High Fructose Corn Syrup isn't hard. I hate how quickly it gets into our cells and I try really hard not to have anything with HFCS in it. I think it's terrible for you. Sugar?? Sometimes that is a little difficult especially when I need a Peanut Butter M&M fix. Ok......I can live with that. I don't like it but I can live with it. I don't need simple carbs because it all goes to the back end anyway.

Caffeine which can include tea, coffee, diet coke and chocolate. OK........all of this is just BAD. No way around it......it's just bad. I don't even know what else to say except negotiations shut down when it involves chocolate OR caffeine. I honestly think I'd be comatose without it. I mean, I get tired now....let alone if I don't have a little caffeine in my system. 


NO WAY, NO HOW.

Yeast and gluten. Well, at least after the last one, which I honestly don't see me giving up, here's one I can live with. I've never tried to go gluten free but I don't have a lot of bread so the yeast thing isn't tough for me. 

Dairy. Not a major deal. I could care less.

Nightshades are bad too. I love tomatoes, peppers, potatoes. Eggplant?? Don't care. I read an article that stated nightshades contain nicotene. Really? It isn't as bad as the chocolate negotiations but my three favorite veggies are all color peppers, tomatoes and potatoes. Crap again.

Most of these foods are tough for me. Do they exacerbate the pain? Could the researchers be right? 

I'll have to track my symptoms more closely and see what happens when I eat certain foods. Damn. I hope it's not the Diet Coke or caffeine.

That would really tick me off.




Reference article on WebMD by Collete Bouchez.

ONE BAG DOWN A THOUSAND TO GO

Speaking of resolving issues and that huge pile of leaves..........

I need to throw my ex in a bag and be done with it.


He loved Valentine's Day. 

I'm sure this one is no different. It's a day for love. It's a day for sharing. I just didn't expect to share him with anyone else.

So I am going to throw this particular bag of leaves in the garbage.

I know that the next woman will eventually find him on another dating site all the while thinking he is a man of honor, integrity and all hers. His pattern never changes. I think I'd try the single sites. I'm sure he's there. He loved names like Cutie Petutie and the Farkles or the Farklettes. He loves to say suggestive comments in all caps so you feel the urgency. He loves to ask if you can come out and play. The longer everything stays the same, the faster everything changes. 

This is one of those huge life choices that I made and if I could turn back time, I WOULD HAVE NEVER made that choice. I would have kicked him to the curb in a flash and never let him have the power to get under my skin.

I have always hated to fail. That's part of the problem. 

Ok.  Leaves are in and this particular bag is out. 


Whew!

BY THE CHOICES WE MAKE

By the choices we make we create the life that we have.

Years ago a dear friend said this to me. We were discussing one of his girlfriends and she, in my opinion, had made a stupid decision not to marry him. Her life was in shambles and she just left. He said this about her. Carry forward and now this quote is still haunting me. I've never forgotten it.

When you really examine it you start to look at the choices you could have made and didn't. You also look at the choices you made to go forward but, in reality, they were choices to cover up the past. Is it a desire to move forward or a result of childhood baggage we still carry? Is it baggage that we don't even know we still carry?

Is the "me" that I see unworthy or unlovable? Where did this come from? Was the wound in childhood so severe that my choices based on this fear perpetuated it?  If it was a wound from childhood, why can't I remember it? Usually it's based on a trauma and the only one I can remember is the loss of my parents. Both sets. Somehow, there is a nagging feeling that  something is still in there that I can't quite put my finger on.

I think age matters.


As we get older I think it's only natural to look back. Hindsight and maturity bring a different perspective to life decisions. I think needs change also. What was important to me in my 20's and 30's is not where I am now. Basic needs never change but emotional needs do change.


What are my emotional needs? Even now, I'm not quite sure. Knowing requires getting through all the muck and walls I've created over the years to keep the imperfect and vulnerable from showing. I don't think many of us enjoy being open and vulnerable. To us "intimacy-phobes" it's the silver bullet. 


On the other hand, is there a possibility of too much truth about yourself? Why do I feel like I have to have all the answers? Maybe it is really a case of "if it's not broke, don't fix it." If we are living life without too many problems......who cares? Why do I have to be open and vulnerable? Do I really want to know?


Yes, I do.

Being vulnerable is a HUGE pile of leaves. If we would just rake them once in a while; all those emotional leaves would be nicely piled up, put in a garbage bag and thrown out. The problem is we let the leaves pile up and then when you try to have fun and jump in you find that they've been there so long the ones at the bottom are all yucky and icky. It's like trying to jump into a giant compost heap.


I'm wading into the pile of leaves that I raked.  It feels very icky at the bottom and I haven't even begun to get through it all. As I look around I take a big sigh. On top of all that I haven't even begun to start pulling the weeds.

ENGLISH CLASS SO MANY YEARS AGO

I am certain that there are defining moments in life. 


I am also just as certain that we let some of those moments slip back into our memory banks.

Years go by and we sometimes lose touch with those who were such an important part of our lives. What was precious and wonderful still brings a wistful smile to my face and a wish that for just one moment I could be back in English class with a group of guys that were, to me, the best group of guys in the whole world.

We spent times memorizing Hamlet. I can still recite most of my soliloquy. "To be or not to be, that is the question..."  We spent times breaking into uncontrollable laughter.  To one, I was his favorite Jew and the other wrote that I was a very special Rose. To me he was not only my number one Senior boy but my friend. It was three special people that had a bond that lasts until this day. No matter how much time has passed, no matter what has happened in our lives, the moment we re-connected time went away and we were once again the three that could laugh and share a special point in our lives.

It was a high point in my life to learn that one read this blog and that it touched his heart because many years ago he touched mine.

I'LL HAVE A DIET COKE WITH A LITTLE CONTROVERSY ON THE SIDE

There is a growing number of researchers and holistic advocates  that are convinced that these toxins are the cause of a number of diseases and Fibromyalgia is one of them. Excitotoxins  are chemicals,  amino acids or food additives that over-excite the brains neurons and may cause them to burn out. They react with specialized receptors and cause their destruction and, according to several articles I read,  these toxins are present in almost all processed food. 

It seems that the liquid form of these toxins are giving scientists the most concern because the toxins reach your bloodstream quickly. The most common form is in diet sodas. Since the average person drinks of 43 gallons of diet drinks a year, if this is true, we could be drinking a lot of poison. As a Diet Coke or Pepsi  (I like both) junkie, I decided to investigate.

I've read the emails that went around. I got them all. I carry Diet Coke's everywhere. I'm partial to fountain drinks and enjoy them so my friends made sure that I was aware that I was drinking something that could clean batteries and at the same time eat up my insides. I used to say that I had it running through my veins.

While I'm sure it's probably not the best for you I'm not ready to buy into the aspartame controversy yet. I know that there will always be people that are hyper-sensitive to aspartame. There may be severe allergic reactions as well.  I know it's not a "natural" sweetener and I'm fine with that.  

The makers of Nutrasweet have also developed a sweetener called Neotame was approved in 2002 but it is not widely used in foods at this time. Neotame is heat stable and does not break down into phenylalanine. Phenylalanine, rather than being a dangerous chemical,  is actually one of the essential amino acids. From what I've read, the reason labels declare it on the label is for those with a sensitivity to it. There's controversy about that also.

So, while there is a ton of controversy floating around, there is also enough evidence to refute the claims. I personally don't think there is a conspiracy in regards to aspartame and will continue to read articles on both sides of the fence.