Is There a Connection between Potatoes and Arthritis?

 

Alkaloids in Potatoes and Tomatoes

   Part 2
 Last time I wrote about alkaloids in certain members of the vegetable family that may affect people with arthritis. Catch up here.

Cooking Alters Alkaloids

Now here is the good news. If you cook these vegetables - potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant or peppers, then this destroys 40-50% of the alkaloids. So my Mum was able to get away a little bit with eating the tomatoes in her soup as they had been cooked. Raw tomatoes would have been much worse for her.

An easy way to tell if the potatoes in your cupboard are likely to have excess alkaloid in them is to check if they are green or sprouting. Always remove sprouted areas before cooking and if there are lots of sprouts on a potato then throw it away or plant it in your garden. This way you can grow your own fresh potatoes for the rest of your family in six months.

Tobacco

Tobacco, although not a nightshade, has alkaloids in it. Remember that the next time you light up a cigarette, especially if you have arthritis.

There is a substance in the Solanaceae family of plants that blocks activity in an enzyme in nerve cells. This can affect the nervous system control of muscle movement and you can get twitching, trembling and paralyzed breathing or convulsions.

Inflammation and Arthritis

The joints can become inflamed after eating potatoes and/or tomatoes or capsicum and is recommended to eliminate any member of this family group of plants from your diet if you suffer from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis or other joint problems like gout.

Some nervous system problems are Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Diabetes, Depression and Anxiety.

Sweet Potato

Sweet potato does not belong to the same family as potatoes so you may be able to substitute this for potatoes. If you are affected by tomatoes, then think of all the things tomatoes are in – tomato sauce, pizza sauce, tomato paste, tomato soup.

Food for the Brain

  Eat for Your Brain

Did you know that you can eat certain foods to make your brain healthy? If your brain is healthy, it works better. If your brain works better, then you are smarter. Sounds good?

Here is a list of foods proven to benefit your brain - omega 3 fats, salmon, walnuts, fruit and vegetables especially including spinach, tomatoes, onions, blueberries and apples with their skin on, flax seed, chia, quinoa, barley and tumeric.

You know many of these and it is well worth getting to know some more. 

Gluten Free Seeds

Chia and quinoa are two of my favourites. These are both gluten free. Chia is a seed that is full of Omega 3. Use ground or whole seeds. Add to your breakfast for a good start to the day. Chia can be added to gluten free products to help them stick together.

Chia is different to Chai. Chai is a warm milky tea with spices in it. Chai, the drink, originated in India. Chia, the seed is food for the brain.

Quinoa, pronounced keen-wa, is a favourite of mine. It is a very small seed. Use quinoa flakes as a breakfast cereal or add to soups or stews to thicken. It is very easy to use. Readily available in the health food section of the supermarket. 

Foods to Avoid

Foods to avoid for brain health are trans fats, saturated fats, syrups and bleached flour. Bleached flour is white flour. Use whole grain flours, they are better for you. Syrups are full of sugar.

Start on your brain health now - eat something from this list each day!

Vegetables and Fruit

Fresh Apricots growing on a tree

Food Nurtures Our Body

We need food to nurture our physical body. In the early days of humanity food was gathered from the surroundings from plants and trees or animals that were caught. People went in search of the food, expending physical energy. 

How We Find Our Food Today

Fast track to our food system today, 10,000 years or so later. Not many of us expend energy in gathering our food unless it is a trip to the supermarket where we gather our food in abundance in a weekly trip.

Importance of Food in Wealthy Societies

People in Western society have become lazy and want their food by the quickest, easiest method as they are always on the verge of engaging in their next activity. Food is no longer as important to us as it was in days long gone because there is an abundance of it in our society. It becomes more important in societies where it is scarce. Over the generations revolutions have been fought because of lack of food.

Foods Can be GOOD or BAD for us

Food can be used to nurture our body. Increasingly, scientist are proving that it can also be used to make us ill - too much sugar, too much fat, bad fats, foods with high GI, food colouring, too much meat, smoked meats and too much food, yes, too much food.

Science is also helping nutritionists prove which foods are so good for us and why. Some of these foods have red and purple skins or green leaves. We have all heard that vegetables and fruit are good for us. Now we have access to the knowledge of which of these vegetables and fruits are the best and why.

More about these foods next time...

Dry Brushing for Good Health

 

Dry Brushing for Healthy Skin

Dry brushing is an easy thing you can to for yourself each day. It stimulates the circulation system and the lymphatic system of your body. The lymphatic system rids your body of toxins. Dry Brushing helps to detoxify your body.

Dry brushing clears your skin of dead, dry flakes. It is generally advised to dry brush before showering although people with sensitive skin may find doing this after a shower is better for them. 

Brushing Direction

Start brushing at your feet. I prefer to use long sweeping motions with the harder sweep going towards the heart and the softer, recovering sweep going away from the heart. Others suggest circular motions. 

Remember the soles of your feet. Many people have hard skin on the soles and heels of their feet. Brush these regularly to have soft supple skin.

Brush up the calves and thighs, tummy and hips, reaching around to your back as much as you can. This is why a brush with a long handle can be of help. Brush your hands, forearms and upper arms, shoulders and chest. If you have dry, flaky skin, see it fall off.

You don't have to brush all your body each day. You can concentrate an one area or alternate areas. 

Dry Brushing helps Relieve Itching Skin

Dry brushing can help ease the itch of skin rashes but do this with care. Listen to your body. Do not brush where it hurts. Do not brush over infected or broken skin.

Leg Cramps

This stimulation can also be good for your legs if you are prone to leg cramps and also if the circulation in your legs is not very good. Be careful if you have varicose veins. Do not brush over them.

Enjoy your fresh, silky skin.

Flower Essences and Physics

 

Flower Essences are connected to Physics

The Relationship of Flower Essences to Physics

This is my explanation of how flower essences and physics are related.

Every physical thing in the world vibrates. The cells in all things move or vibrate. These vibrations are so minute that we do not see it happening. The cells in our body are moving and vibrating all the the time. When they cease, we stop being alive.

We cannot see this happening but nevertheless, it happens. Lots of things happen in life that we cannot see or feel or hear, yet they happen. Scientists have now proven that water can hold energy.

Another type of science that is only in its infancy is nanotechnology. This is a science of extremely minute objects, smaller than was ever thought possible until very recent times.

Flower Essences and Homeopathy come into this field of energy. They are such minute forms of energy that scientists are now only slowly beginning to develop the machines to be able to measure this.

Just because we don't know about something does not mean that it is not in existence.

Shake the bottle of Flower Essence Before taking

The energy of flowers is held in the water. On some level in our being we accept this. To stimulate this energy, shake the bottle vigorously a few times or bang it on the palm of your hand before you take the drops. This stimulates the energy and gets it moving again.

The same shaking, stimulating or succussion should also happen before we take Crystal Elixirs or Homepathy. The science behind all these medicines is the same. The substance the energy is in needs stimulation to make it work more effectively.
So try to remember to 'Shake, Rattle and Roll' your essences or elixirs or homeopathy pillules or liquid before you take it and you will get more benefit from it.

Have a great day!

Boosting our Glutathione Levels

 

NAC helps boost glutathione

How to boost Glutathione in our Body

The best way to improve the Glutathione levels in our body is is to take a pre-cursor. What on earth is that? Well if we could take glutathione, it doesn't have much effect on our body. It does not blend into our system. We need to take something that is the food for our body to make the glutathione for ourselves. This works well and improves the glutathione levels in our body.

N-acetyl-cysteine

This fancy chemical sounding word is the name for the substance needed by our body to enable it to make all the glutathione it wants. However we do not have to remember the big word. It is generally referred to as NAC. It's much easier to remember.
Our body is like a chemical factory making chemicals here and there depending on what it has to use and what the body needs.

 

What is NAC?

NAC is an amino acid that contains sulfur or sulphur. Same word, different spelling. N-acetyl-cysteine is more readily absorbed and is a powerful antioxidant and anti-viral.
Glutathione is important in the brain and blood and cells. 

What is NAC used for?

Many scientific studies have shown that NAC is beneficial for 

• Depression

• Bi-polar

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

It boosts the immune system. It is an anti-mucolytic which means it deters excess mucous in the body, especially the lungs. Therefore it has been used by patients with Cystic Fibrosis.

 

So How do I Take NAC?

So, to boost your glutathione levels it is important to take NAC or N-acetyl-cysteiene. 

NAC comes in powder or capsules. Be aware that it does have a strange smell but if it is doing you good then get used to the smell. If you take the powder, mix it in water.

Take 600mg - 3000mg daily depending on what is wrong with you and how much you need to boost your system. Take this in divided doses, that is, morning and night. It can have a remarkable effect.

Where do I Get it?

NAC is not well known and can be a bit difficult to find. Click the link below or try your local health food store or the internet for supplies

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The Food We Eat

 

Fresh apricots still on the tree

Why is food Important?

It stops our hunger
It gives us energy

Food - The Supplier of Nutrients

Do we ever think of food as the supplier of the Nutrients we need? I would think this was rarely on our mind.

I am suggesting that we should carefully select the food to eat because it supplies our main nutrients to keep our body going. Without food, we die.

In our Western society, we are very lucky that we have a vast array of foods to eat. However we do not often choose GOOD food.

Food Renews our Cells

Good food supplies good nutrients to our body. If we need some minerals to strengthen our body we do not go out and find a rock to lick for the minerals. Even if we did, we could not process the mineral in that form.

Plants are the great 'in between' processor for us. Rocks that contain minerals have worn down into soil over thousands of years. Plants then grow in the soil and their fine little root systems absorb micro quantities of these minerals from the earth.

We absorb Mineral from Plants

When we eat these plants - usually green, leafy vegetable plants - we absorb the minerals. Our body can absorb the mineral in this form.

When the soils we grow our crops in are depleted of these minerals then we need to take the minerals as supplements because we NEED minerals.

Therefore, it is just not good enough to eat, we have to select what we eat. We should select the food we eat that is good for us. We should not just choose food because it looks nice or tastes nice or it is easy to pick up and satisfy our hunger or emotional need. It should also be good for us.

We are what we eat

Keep snack food to a minimum and use it only as a rare treat. Do we want the cells of our body made from fried food, pizza, chocolate, sugar or ice cream? Do we want to be forever tired?

Or do we want the cells of our body to be made of fresh, nutrient rich food that will give us energy? Your choice!

Irritable Bowel Disease and Potatoes

 

Potatoes, friend or foe for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Potatoes have been the basic food for millions of people around the world for generations. Science is now suggesting that they may not be good for everyone.

If you have any sort of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) then it may be a good idea for you NOT to eat potatoes. Here's why.

A few weeks ago I wrote a couple of articles about the alkaloids in plants. These protect the plants against fungal disease, parasite attack and bacteria.

Catch up here for the background and here.

Now scientists have found that there is a connection between people with IBD and potatoes, especially fried potatoes. Scientists are like detectives. They keep looking for signs, symptoms and details, and look at lots of statistics before they come to their conclusions.

If you have any connection to a garden and your grandparents grew potatoes as many did, you may know that the stems and leaves of the potato plant are poisonous. Well the same poison is present also  in the skin of the potato and in the outer layer of the potato near the skin. This is why it is always a good idea to peel your potatoes.

Glygoalkaloids are the little culprits that irritate the bowel of sensitive people with Crohn's disease or Ulcerative colitis. You will see in my previous articles that I talk about the connection between potatoes and inflammation. Well it is also inflammation in the bowel.

Therefore it is a good idea for anyone with any sort of Inflammatory bowel disease to avoid potatoes and any of their relatives. This includes tomatoes and eggplant. When you are thinking what to eat, you have to be your own detective. Potatoes also includes hot potato chips from a fish and chip shop, and potato crisps from the supermarket. It also includes mashed potatoes and potatoes in a pot of mashed vegetables.

It especially includes fried potatoes. Fried potatoes are especially bad for anyone with IBD as the toxic alkaloids are concentrated.  

• So store your potatoes in a cool dark place to the slow the build up of alkaloids

• Don't eat the skins of potatoes

• Don't eat fried potatoes

• Don't eat old potatoes as the alkaloids build up in them. If you have IBD and decide to eat potatoes, eat young, freshly grown potatoes.  

All About Your Mouth

 

Your lips are the guardians of your mouth

Our Mouth is Sensitive

Do you ever think of your mouth?

Lips

Our lips are the surrounding outer edges of skin. They guard your mouth. They open and close to let things in your mouth. Your mouth is the cavity within.

Our Teeth

We think of our teeth, especially if they ache. We like white, bright teeth.
To keep our teeth white and bright and shiny we must clean them often.

When I was growing up, a girl at school had GREEN teeth! You don't believe me? Well, she did. She refused to clean her teeth and it looked like algae growing on them. They did not look very pleasant.

The Tongue

The tongue is also part of the mouth. We use it when we speak to help us form sounds and we use it when we eat and drink to help move the food around in our mouth. The tongue experiences heat and cold from our food. It is our sensory taste centre. It tastes sweet and sour, spicy and sweet. Naturopaths look at the state of the tongue to give them an idea of what is going on in the body.

Sometimes after a hard night out our tongue may feel furry. It can feel dry or sore, cracked or blistered. If our tongue is sore it is difficult to eat and sometimes to speak.

Saliva

Our mouth can be dry or drooling with saliva. When we are nervous, for example before a public speaking engagement, our mouth can go dry. If we smell our favourite food then our mouth can be filled with saliva. Saliva helps us to soften our food and begins the digestion process.

Mouth Ulcers

When we are run down from exhaustion, stress or over work we can get little blisters or mouth ulcers in our mouth on the inside of the cheeks and the tongue. This is a warning sign to look after ourselves.

Gum Disease

Our gums are also a part of our mouth. We can get plaque - tough calcification around the base of our teeth. When this builds up bacteria starts to grow around our teeth and goes into our gums. Our gums are important because they are the sensitive skin that support our teeth and hold them to our jaw. If gingivitis is not treated it can lead to periodonitis which is an even more serious disease.

Stay tuned for more info about our mouth and what we can do to keep it healthy.

Cheers

(Thanks to my husband, Fred, for his beautiful reduction woodblock print to display)