Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => Other Health Discussion => Topic started by: Billie Blaster on June 01, 2017, 07:10:32 AM
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Hello all,
Haven't posted here for years, but thought I would just quickly share this link to a study about lower stress for the middle aged who eat lots of fruit and vegetables. It's gotta be good! (Except that it talks about 'serves' instead of 'servings' which mildly irritates me):
http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-health/research-shows-eating-fruit-and-veg-beats-the-middleage-blues-20170315-guz7ql
Bye for now,
Billie
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Dr Micheal Mosleys book " the clever guts diet " is excellent . £3.85 on Amazon.
" All disease starts in the guts " Hippocrates of Kos, the father of modern medicine.
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Thanks Billie Blaster - as expected, research is increasingly demonstrating the health benefits of lots of fruit and vegetables and a great variety. These form a huge part of my daily diet.:)
Hurdity x
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I love fruit and veg but for those of us with IBS then sometimes it really isn't possible.
In order to be able to get out in the morning I have to limit the kind of fruit and veg I eat.
As Taz said in another topic even peas can be problematic.
Great in theory though just not in practice
Mrs Brown
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I have definitely not had good food today and will pay the price tomorrow. We were given a posh afternoon tea at a hotel for a birthday treat and it would have been churlish not to go but I can feel the effects already and I didn't eat all of mine. Hubby did more than justice to his though ::) :cupcake:
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Good thread! Maryjane - have you read the whole book yet? I would like him to have included a diagram of the digestive system a bit remiss I feel!!! ??? !!!! I can't juggle the anatomy book and his book on the bed ::) - I watched his recent programme too.
I wrote down what I actually eat in a 'usual' day and it ain't much at all :-\ and certainly not as much fruit/veg that I should be getting down me, have decided to buy more tinned fruits and have added bananas, celery, grapes and prunes to my shopping list for the weekend but don't want to begin a new regime as we have a busy weekend ahead ::)
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Not sure that tinned fruit is all that good. Perhaps in the wintertime CLKD. Have you looked at the in season things. Strawberries and raspberries especially.
My DD buys the frozen fruits that you can whizz into smoothies. That could be an option. We put a dollop of natural yogurts and then blend. I can't have much due to my IBS but I have a " taste" of everything.
Homemade soups are also a good way of getting in veg. Salads at this time of year as things like baby spinach dont need cooking. Asparagus, kale, all easy to steam or eat raw. The supermarkets are full of this kind of thing. Have you had a browse for the easy stuff.
I just wish I could eat what I want with no thought to the after effects.
Mrs Brown.
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I realised today what a problem when shopping is: Himself will pick up every packet/box/food stuff and read how much per gram and probably put it back onto the shelf whereas I grab what I fancy in the moment. So today I 'got on with it'! there is a bowl of plums [they need to ripen], 4 small bananas, box of 'cotton' grapes, box of strawberries [although I don't like them much], fresh peas for podding straight into my gob - must be careful not to eat too many or I'll be complaining later ::): as well as some tinned fruits, two pots of LIVE yoghurt ....... watch this space ???
Have finished Dr Mosely's book apart from the recipes.
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Yes CLKD I have read it in a day , like big print . I found it really easy for average Jo public to understand without baffling us with science , my daughter has bought it also.
I eat as he says anyway , but good to understand the reasoning , I gave up sugar ( went cold turkey ) along time ago , but if I do have the odd treat I feel awful.
To get rid of the sugar need , o do what he does and eat some 90% dark chocolate love it now , wipes sugar pans dead.
Love sauerkraut and all that , we have put veg delivered weekly from a organic farm , it has cur d any very fussiness as I eat whatever is in the box regardless, as it changes each week on a 4 week cycle.
Cooked apple with cinnamon I have for breakfast every am also along with porridge / all sorts of ground up nuts / seeds fresh blueberries/ mixed with kefir, homemade bread ( hubby makes ) and some natural yogurt , which I am going to have ago at making as apparently very cheap and easy.
Also going to make my own saukraut.
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Excellent video too watch is this. 15 mins worth it IMO. 😊
https://youtu.be/gaY4m00wXpw
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Love fruit & veg, both cooked and in salads. Tend to get way more than 5 a day! I try to avoid anything with added sugar (gastritis), except baked beans & a little 70% dark choc, though for years made our own baked beans without sugar - so much tastier than tinned! I agree about home made soups being a great way to get veg into the diet and cooking veg definitely makes it easier on a sensitive tummy.
I stew tart-tasting eating apples such as Cox with blackberries (no sugar) - lovely with porridge or a home made cereal mix, moistened with plenty of yoghurt whisked with milk. Baked plums are also delicious cooled and eaten with cereals & the yoghurt mix. I like the mild tasting natural yoghurt brands & buy the high protein types to slow digestion & stabilise blood sugar. It is certainly easy to make your own yoghurt, especially with a yoghurt maker. Also tried & failed to make kefir in mine (with shop bought kefir as a starter) & have baulked at buying the kefir grains, for fear the stuff would die when we go away on hols!
Used to eat a lot of veggie meals, but these days, have a good portion of protein with every meal to minimise hypoglycaemia. Beans, nuts & eggs don't seem enough, so we now eat fish or meat every day. Also eat all sorts of nuts & seeds.
Made all our bread for a couple of years but the lazy way - soda bread - as can't be bothered with all that kneading & proving! These days I buy a thin, small-sliced, wholegrain bread, but only eat a slice or two a day, as too much wheat is sadly for me, tummy clogging. I love stodgy whole rye bread that's really substantial & suety, toasted on one side, spread with good olive oil & well seasoned with s&p or buttered if I'm feeling reckless! To avoid overdosing on wheat I use GF pastas & basmati rice, brown, wild & red Camargue.
For some reason I can't fathom, since peri, oily fish guarantees night sweats will be worse, even though the fish is eaten hours before, at lunch time :o Sounds barking admitting that & it took me a long time to put 2 & 2 together, but it does seem to be a fact! Another of the unimaginably weird things I could never have dreamed would come with menopause. We also eat white fish & a lot of chicken, but not much red meat.
Because of osteopenia I try to get lots of dairy & tend to soup up cottage cheese by adding something tastier. Love all cheese but especially brie left out to soften, proper feta, goats cheese & vintage cheddar. I don't go overboard though, as want to keep cholesterol healthy but get a bit fed up the goal posts keep moving on that one ::) If any of that sounds worthy, I relax it at weekends & on hols & think a little of what you fancy is a very good thing (and a lot is even better!) Love cooking, but cook far less from scratch these days - hot kitchen, sleep-deprived cook & sharp knives to hand mean only fools rush in to interfere.
IBS-C means I'm obsessive about fibre & get upset when I hear the old advice that a high fibre diet, together with drinking plenty & exercising ensures a clockwork gut. It certainly doesn't work that way for everyone! I've also taken probiotics for decades, as a good friend was involved in early R&D for these.
As I've got older, sympathy has grown for anyone who struggles to find a diet that suits them well, as when the digestive tract malfunctions in whatever way, simplistic dietary advice that doesn't work for you can make you feel a failure. It can take an age to work out what's causing problems & it rarely seems to be just one food group!
My bookshelves are groaning under the weight of cook books, nutrition manuals, gut books . . . I know, should get out more! That said, with the fantastic range of foods available these days, I still find it easy to eat well & enjoyably.
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Yes homemade baked beans are delicious and very easy to make .
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I can no longer eat Baked Beans :-X
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Fibre aggravates my IBS. It's difficult as Fybogel is helpful for constipation but causes gut spasms, wind and bloating. My gut is sluggish and I think the waste takes too long to pass through, thereby losing water and becoming hard and dry. Lactulose is helpful, Movicol is not :-X This all serves to aggravate the old piles too ::).
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Get some 'motillium' BJ - swallowed within an hour of the main meals it helps ease anything left over in the stomach/small colon so that there is room for the next meal.
I've had baked trout, English asparagus and new potatoes with butter and black pepper
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Sparkle - the gastritis & IBS-C combo takes some juggling doesn't it?! I do find sugar is the very worst thing, but it took an age to work this out. Cocoa also doesn't help mine & during a flare obviously anything acidic like fruit juice or wine is a no-no & coffee doesn't help. The worst I've been is when in Greece eating delicious food cooked/served with lots of olive oil & tomatoes day after day! I love Greek food, but by the end of a holiday, was actually longing to get back to bland boiled veg to calm my tummy down.
When I was first diagnosed after endoscopy, I worried about it terribly and tried really hard to work out what I needed to avoid to relieve symptoms. Ranitidine helped me but not Omeprazole - it was years ago, but from what I remember, Ranitidine is a histamine blocker so this seemed to show that food intolerance was involved rather than over-production of acid (which I think Omeprazole reduces). This could be rubbish btw, as my memory is also! I haven't taken meds for gastritis for years now & mostly manage well without. I think the HRT has somehow helped the gastritis (perhaps because I'm less stressed on it) but it may also be that the particular probiotics I take now help to keep inflammation down.
Babyjane - I sympathise - the IBS-C is the bane of my life - bloating from it puts pressure on a painful back problem that disrupts my sleep. Unlike you, I can't tolerate Lactulose - the sugar in it seems to give me so much pain! All bulking agents like Fybogel & osmotic laxatives like Movicol I find too bloating, but the thing that has worked best for me is Linaclotide - a prescription drug that increases peristalsis & draws fluid into the gut, but is somehow not as bloating as Movicol. This might be worth a go if your GP will let you have a trial.
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Bl***dy nightmare trying to manage digestive issues.
We should all have a degree in stomach management. ::)
CLKD, Motillium is no longer available unfortunately.
The thing I lack is will power. I start off really well but I get sidetracked. I'm on Zantac just now. It seems to just keep it under control. On really bad days I take Lansoprazole. I think my IBS was triggered by over use of PPIs so I try not to use them more than I absolutely need to.
I've tried all sorts over the years.
At one point Hubby confiscated all my pills and threw most of them in the bin. In my attempt to sort things out I was taking loads of pills every day...most of them herbal. I was in a right mess to be honest. I've cut everything back and the only supplement I take is my pro biotic. I find them very helpful and notice a difference when I run out.
Onwards and upwards ladies.
Mrs Brown
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Oh Sparkle, that is so much for you to deal with. How horrible for you. I agree that being bunged up lower down seems to aggravate heartburn/ gastritis, so anything we can do to improve this should help symptoms throughout the digestive tract (& the rest of the body for that matter). I really hope the probiotics will help you, but wonder if you find that different types have different effects, as they seem to with me - some actually seem more bunging :o which we really don't need!
I find the subject of probiotics fascinating (saddoe that I am), especially with regard to mental health & think the field may have huge potential, with different probiotics & combinations of them possibly bringing all manner of targeted health improvements in the future. Because of their supposed links to mental health & purported ability to alter immune reactions, I'm also cautious & vigilant with them, as it seems possible that there is also potential for harm, though I've not read many a bad word about them, except in relation to users who've had recent surgery, are severely immunocompromised or have pancreatitis. As with all supplements, I think it's sensible to approach them with respect & cautious vigilance.
I also take GOS powder (galacto-oligo-saccharides) - which is supposed to promote growth of probiotics, but find that FOS (fructo . . .) is bad for gastritis, gut cramping & wind! I had been taking the GOS for years before it was recently credited on a Michael Mosely programme as being helpful for sleep. I really struggle with sleep so knew it wasn't helping mine, but swapped from taking it with breakfast to bedtime, as detailed on the programme & after a week or so thought there was a real improvement in my sleep. Then last week, sleep went more or less back to how it was before, so I'm not sure now what to think! Predictably, couldn't get the stuff for love nor money for a few weeks, as sleep-deprived, menopausal women everywhere were probably beating down shop doors to get at it ;D Breathed a sigh of relief when Boots had it back in today, so I won't run out now & can carry on with the bedtime experiment!
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The best way to get prep and probiotics is theough food , bought ones are transient so in/ out don't last .....however things like fermented foods / garlic / leeks etc etc properly work on getting the good bacteria into guts and have FAR more bacteria in them , when we have trillions and trillions of bacteria , a few billion are a drop in the ocean ......food food food all the way , for a lasting effect.
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Sparkle - sorry, my post was misleading! I didn't run out of the GOS - was still taking it at bedtime during the week my sleep went back to poor ::), but had been trying to buy more as was afraid it would be out of stock for months after the TV programme. I want to carry on taking it at night it to give myself more time to decide whether it is effective for sleep as well as helping my gut. I hope the Optibac Extra Strength help you. I currently take their Every Day brand with a teaspoon of their BB12 "With Fibre" (though the fibre is FOS, which I'm iffy about) & their "For Women" now & again. Have had several other brands over the years, some rather expensive!
Maryjane - I agree about probiotic rich fermented foods & PREbiotic containing foods such as onions, leeks, bananas. I eat all of these in abundance, but as I need all the help I can get & was introduced to taking the capsules more than 3 decades ago by a microbiologist working in the field, I'm a sucker for marketing & need the hope of improvement from trying to do all I can to get better!
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There's a lot of how to get 'biotics' from foods in Dr Moseley's recent publication, sadly I can't eat onions - we do use lots of ginger and garlic and I occasionally eat leeks raw ......
I haven't done as well with my 'new' diet (started yesterday ;D) ........
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I was out and about so fruit was at home and there were fatty foods for sale at the Event, we had taken something from our freezer but it didn't de-frost ::)
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I love a long walk with my DH who is carrying the packed lunch ;D - shall we meet; where and when?
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....... muttering away then ;D - often my School Reports stated "Must Try Harder" ::)
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Sparkle I'm the same eating out always causes me to bloat, I do think it's down to portion size they seem to have got bigger over the years, I've been known to have just a starter, as I really hate to waste food!
CKLD I always got 'must try harder' on school report!
But a long walk with a packed lunch is also a favourite of mine :)
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I'm with you, Stellajane -- can't abide poor quality fruit. Lots of talk about fruit consumption in the replies, but really, it's vegetables and leafy greens that should form the majority of our fresh foods. They are really the superstars, so I don't worry at all if I only have one piece of fruit a day, but I do if I'm not getting my greens. I had a week or two recently of eating pretty stodgy stuff in the main, and my complexion was not best pleased -- I got some huring great spots. Yikes. I also wonder if legumes count as vegetables. In my book they do.
And totally with those who talked about gut health. I have been brewing kombucha for about a year and a half now and drinking it daily. Wait a great health tonic that drink is, and homemade is so cheap.
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Hello ladies.
I have been following a plant based diet for a while however it was difficult to feel satisfied on fruit and veg alone. I came across the work of Dr. John McDougall who says we should include starch based foods like potatoes and rice in our daily diet. I have been doing this for a few weeks and I am convinced it's helping me feel less hungry and better generally ( though that could be due to hormonal changes of course). There is plenty of information about Dr. McDougall on the internet should any of you be interested in what he has to say.
Wishing you all well.
K.
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Well all very interesting!
We have come a very long way from the diet we have evolved to live on and there is so much processed food, fat and sugar around that it's no wonder that guts protest!!
I would be interested to have a look at the book mentioned - but I wonder how many digestive problems would be eliminated or minimised with a gradual return to a more natural and varied diet and without the need for medication and supplements? Has there been any work done on this?
I totally agree that eating out always upsets my guts - I usually end up waking in the night and downing a few indigestion tablets - ditto when I go on holiday and eat out a lot - this is because almost all restaurant meals seem to swim in fat or cream - even the vegetables (in my experience) unless you stick to salads. Alcohol has the same effect - but it (gut!) always settles down when I am back to my normal diet ( which sounds very much like yours Wrensong as I just skim read it - except for fewer carbs!). I am sure that excess of one foodstuff ( as a general term!) could also add to the problem. Those of you for example who say they can't eat baked beans, or peas etc - they are both "wind" inducing foods due to the compounds they contain - but I am sure we are better off eating a variety of veg for example every day. The meat and two veg idea has a lot to answer for. Most of our meals have lots of different types of veg but not a lot of one type.
Kathleen - I'll look him up when I have the time - because I had cut out most pure starchy carbs (when I'm at home) but then felt I should eat more grains so make sure I have muesli a few times a week as well as my fruit, yogurt and boiled eggs!!!
Hurdity x
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Hurdity - if you read Dr Moseley's most recent book about the gut you will see that there are indeed, people talking about and trying out various 'natural' diets with follow up research, in particular with fermented food stuffs. I have yet to reach for the saukeraut [sp] .... we used to make our own fruit vinegars with excess raspberries or blackcurrants. Poured over steam puddings instead of treacle tha understands ;D
Struggling today.
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Yes I saw a TV programme when he was looking into this and he carried out an interesting (but not very scientific!) experiment about people trying different foods and I think their gut content ( brain really isn't working at the moment - or rather, memory!)? I don't have trouble with my gut (well of course it varies like everyone else's and I bloat or not and get cramps or not, am "regular" or not depending how often what and when I eat - or drink!) but am still interested.
Hurdity x
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Hello ladies.
I have been following a plant based diet for a while however it was difficult to feel satisfied on fruit and veg alone. I came across the work of Dr. John McDougall who says we should include starch based foods like potatoes and rice in our daily diet. I have been doing this for a few weeks and I am convinced it's helping me feel less hungry and better generally ( though that could be due to hormonal changes of course). There is plenty of information about Dr. McDougall on the internet should any of you be interested in what he has to say.
Wishing you all well.
K.
Like you Kathleen, I'm powered by plants and am so glad to hear what Dr. McDougall says, as I think that there's a (latterly, paleo-induced) hysteria about carbs. I do understand that refined carbs are not our friends, as others have said, but brown rice, wholemeal pasta, potatoes, kumara (our name for sweet potato), etc. I think should be a normal part of a diet (of course, not necessarily for the IBS sufferers). I have, give or take a kilo, or two maintained the same weight for decades and I eat loads of 'em.
I found, like you with adding in more carbs, that I am more satisfied with more fat and protein at breakfast, so have upped those. You know, lashings of peanut butter on wholemeal homemade bread, and thick creamy coconut yoghurt to kick off. I think the extra calories balance themselves out by not snacking so heavily mid-morning, which then mucks up my lunch, etc.
Billie
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I was thinking about peanut butter last night in my bath ::) - white toast with butter followed by a spread of pea-nut butter ....... I prefer smooth: you?
I saw the programme ages ago when Dr Moseley swallowed a camera that followed his gut function - can't get more scientific than that! Something I would like to do myself ...........
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It's to my personal shame, CLKD, but I am unable to advise which kind of peanut butter I prefer. What have I been doing all my life? I can advise though, and this will be meaningless to you as I think you're in the UK, that I prefer Marmite to Vegemite, but above all Promite. (Yes, I can hear the gasps of the antipodean Vegemite lovers out there). ;D
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Re the eating unrefined carbs - I don't make a habit of eating many refined carbs and sugar but even on a healthy diet including these I was putting on weight and failing to lose it - which changed when I swapped many of my carbs (in muesli, bread, rice and pasta - latter too were usually refined though) for more protein and even more veg. However there are lots of carbs in pulses, beans and many vegetables aside from the normal potato - and my diet does include plenty of these - so still plant based if not high in cereals/spuds!
Hurdity x
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BBuster - :thankyou: ......... our family always grew their own and everything was seasonal. Lots of fruits/veg. and home made, cooked fresh.
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ours too CLKD, bottled fruit in Kilner jars :)
It is a sad sign of the modern world that there is so much introspection about what we should/shouldn't, could/can't, mustn't/must eat. No wonder eating disorders are on the rise, it is so confusing for people, especially youngsters.
Too must examination of what you are going to eat takes all the enjoyment out of the meal for us and it is too easy to get obsessed with food, and as for cutting out whole food groups like some celebrities do, well that's just silly.
You can be a normal weight but still be malnourished ::)
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Hi Hurdity,
I swapped many of my carbs (in muesli, bread, rice and pasta - latter too were usually refined though) for more protein and even more veg. However there are lots of carbs in pulses, beans and many vegetables aside from the normal potato - and my diet does include plenty of these - so still plant based if not high in cereals/spuds!
You mentioned on other threads having probs with episodes of hypoglycaemia & that excessive tiredness makes it difficult to wake up in the morning. I know you rightly say here you get carbs from pulses, beans & veg (& presumably fruit), but if you have significantly reduced overall carb intake & substituted more protein (& veg) is it possible you're now not getting enough carbs to meet your body's energy requirements?
More than 20 years ago I was asked by a nutritionist treating me for IBS to follow an anti-candida diet - an extremely low carb diet that turned out to be a Very Bad Idea! I think these are largely discredited these days, but at the time they were widely advised for IBS-type problems. Anyway, after a couple of weeks I felt so weak on it I could barely lift one foot above the other to get up the stairs - it was far too low in carbs to be healthy. Needless to say I would not recommend it to anyone. Didn't help my IBS either! I realise your diet won't be this extreme, but also know how hard it can be to work out what is going on when the body doesn't work as it should. If your blood sugar was falling too low overnight though, I would expect you to have problems sleeping well, rather than sleeping deeply, so that goes against what I suggested above ;D Feel free to ignore me!
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Sparkle, I think we chatted about gastritis earlier in this thread & I've remembered something else that might help you. When I was first diagnosed I spent a lot of time researching possible causes & one of the things I found was the suggestion that salicylates in foods are thought to aggravate the condition. These are also found in Aspirin & I think, Ibuprofen, both of which I avoid for that reason. Anyway the list of foods containing salicylates is long & it would be difficult & unhealthy to avoid them all, but the worst I found, for me, were blueberries. I never eat these now & also have to be careful with strawberries & raspberries. I also found that scooping out tomato seeds & eating only the flesh meant I could tolerate these - fiddly, but meant I could still have a few of them cooked & in salads during a flare. If I remember rightly, there's a lot of stuff written about the glutamine in cabbage being helpful for stomach inflammation & it's suggested drinking the cooled boiled cabbage water can help heal the stomach lining :o. I didn't go that far, but you can also use a little of the cabbage water for making gravies - I know many people do this anyway. You can also buy glutamine powder as a supplement, but I didn't find this helpful. :)
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My late F in L always drank the water that fresh veg. had been boiled in. Tomatoes are well known for causing gastric upsets, it's the skin that is the problem ;-).
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As an aside I take Nurofen 4 pain without ill effects.
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Almond butter is 👌 also " whole earth" peanut butter / sugar free is lovely also.
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I bought Meridian Coconut and Almond butter this week. :yes:
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What do you eat these butters with? I can't eat nuts anymore whole but miss the taste and nutrients - but don't eat much bread either as diabetic.
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I have Jacobs cream crackers under my butter ;-)
I've had 2 pieces of chocolate for pudding :D
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What do you eat these butters with? I can't eat nuts anymore whole but miss the taste and nutrients - but don't eat much bread either as diabetic.
What about on little crackers, corn or whatever you can eat coldethyl. Some of the new nut butters are smoother and softer in consistency so spread well. x
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I can't find rice cakes anywhere .......... are they worth buying?
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I can't find rice cakes anywhere .......... are they worth buying?
They are very dry and pretty dull but I used to eat them when queasy with migraine sickness. There are much tastier crackers out there! Every single supermarket sells them, plain and flavoured, usually in the savoury cracker areas x
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Sadly can't eat crackers either - a single cream cracker is five carbs and one is never enough !! I'll maybe just eat out of jar with a spoon!
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What about on a carrot? I'm not joking, give it a try! x
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Celery?
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Carrot would be ok - like celery but don't think stoma would - some juggling with two different dietary needs!!
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Celery goes well with nut butters, one of my favourites wth nut butter is Crista & Mollica piada wholebreads especially when you warm them first😋 oatcakes are another good one. I was buy Meridian & no added sugar as well, taste so nice!
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I found rice cakes eventually: like eating polystyrene ::)
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CLKD - have just read the last page of this thread and was about to warn you that if you're not used to them, rice cakes have all the charm of polystyrene . . . but I see I'm too late! They are useful on a GF diet - if you decide to tile the ceiling to distract you from the boredom and don't mind the seventies look. If you want to use up the packet, I've managed to tolerate them best with something moist like hummus or if you don't like that, perhaps cheese spread. Alternatively, save them until you need to send something fragile in the post, then relish smashing the damn things up with a hammer.
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:rofl: :thankyou: I remember Artexing the ceilings ::) ........
I don't fancy putting anything on the rice cakes yet. I've never eaten hummus :-\ but perhaps pea-nut butter?
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Marmite only ......... I haven't eaten that for a few years ::)