My New Blog - The Foggy Noggin Diner

 I just got my new blog up and running. I'm still working out the kinks though. I will continue to feature recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and research on food and the microbiome. I will also include a focus on low level chronic carbon monoxide poisoning and chronic fatigue. 

This blog, Mrs. Ed's, will stay here, as it still receives thousands of views. Thank you for supporting me all of these years. When you get a chance, check out my new blog and let me know what you think.

The Foggy Noggin' Diner

Parents SCDROCKS Conference (Virtual) November 14. 2020

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet Association is hosting an online SCDROCKS conference on November 14, 2020. It is a free Zoom conference for parents with children on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Included speakers are:

• Dr. Eric Vasiliauskas (Director of the Cedars-Sinai Nutrition & Integrative IBD Multidisciplinary Subspecialty Program and Professor of Medicine & Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine).

• Dr. David Suskind (Director, Quality Improvement; Co-chair, Nutrition Subcommittee at Seattle Children's Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington).

The following is from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet website:

PARENT'S SCDROCKS CONFERENCE

November 14, 2020 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm (EST)

We are hosting the Parent's SCDROCKS Conference via Zoom on November 14, 2020 at 12:00 pm until 4:00 pm (EST). Hear from and talk with Dr. Eric Vasiliauskas, Dr. David Suskind, Jessica Gartenstein, parents, children and more! We are excited to offer this Conference to provide parents and the community with support, guidance, inspiration and tools to help them manage and cope with life's challenges.  The moderated Open Forum is always a great experience! This event is open to anyone!  Everyone will leave the event with new information.  

For more information and to sign up

SCDROCKS Virtual Conference October 17, 2020

 This year's SCDROCKS conference will be FREE and on Zoom. The conference will be on Saturday, October 17 from 12-4 pm EST (11am-3pm Texas time). The keynote speakers are: 

Dr. Christine Bowman: "My SCD journey, commonly missed conditions and favorite treatments"

Dr. Laurie Keefer: "Resilience, Self-Care and the Brain-Gut Connection: Navigating a post-COVID19 world with a Chronic Illness" 

For more information and to sign up visit: https://specificcarbohydratedietassociation.org/scdrocks-conference-1

The SCDROCKS conference is sponsored by the Specific Carbohydrate Diet Association.

SCD Survey and Free SCD Video Library

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet Association is doing a survey that is open to SCD followers, caregivers and their supporters. It's a 5 minute survey but very important. Everyone will learn from the results, including the medical community. There is no identifying information. No Cookies. https://specificcarbohydratedietassociation.org/scd-survey

There are also free videos from the 2018 & 2019 SCDROCKS Conventions: https://specificcarbohydratedietassociation.org/

Find a Specific Carbohydrate Diet Support Group Near You

Local support groups for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) are popping  up. Check the following link to find one in your area, or start one in your area: https://www.scders.com/scd-support.html

The SCD has been helpful for many with Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Celiac Disease, autism, ADHD, autoimmune diseases.

Welcome to my blog (and why CO detectors do not completely protect you)

Hello and welcome to my blog. If you poke around, you will find many links that no longer work, but I hope there are still plenty of recipes and nuggets of information you can use. This blog was a labor of love during a time when my son and myself experienced tremendous improvement to our health after dealing with some life interrupting medical issues. I was on a hunt for answers to understand what happened to us (Celiac disease, markers for Crohn's, autism) and why we made such drastic improvements on a simple diet (Specific Carbohydrate Diet -SCD). Since then, there's been an explosion of research on the role of the microbiome in autoimmunity, gi issues, and autism, and how that microbiome is manipulated by diet.

I have been unable to keep the blog up to date due to unexpected health issues.  But once again, in my usual style, wanted to post links and to inform others of something I was unaware of that almost destroyed my health. In spring 2016, I began experiencing extreme fatigue. Not the "I just spent the day moving all my furniture across town" fatigue, but something worse that seemed to eat at every cell in my body. I was a special education teacher and had just made a move to another city, so I assumed it was due to that. I got some rest over the summer, but the next school year it was even worse. By this time, teaching had become a 65 hour work week, assuming my job was to blame,
 I made plans to work part time the next year, rest. and work on a cookbook. That summer, I was excited to start my new project, but found myself getting even worse. I remember going up a stair case in a parking garage that I had effortlessly taken a few days before. After the third step, it was all I could do to get up the next few. I became exercise intolerant, had bouts of malaise, every cell seemed so tired it hurt, it was even exhausting to breathe. My joints became stiff and painful, myalgia coated the outer layer of my arms and legs. I began to struggle with memory, vocabulary, access to my own personality, and unable to flex muscles. The muscle weakness had my face and neck muscles drooping and I looked as if I had aged 20 years in that year. My blood-work continued to come back normal. I received a diagnosis of Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease (UCTD). The first line of meds for that is prednisone and plaquinil (A lupus/malaria drug). The meds did stop the joint pain and pleurisy.

Somehow, somewhere, I can across an article about how an improperly vented exhaust fan above a gas stove could reduce lung function in asthmatics. Since my lungs were compromised by the UCTD, we decided to check it out. Sure enough, our exhaust fan was a recirculating one, meaning it didn't vent to the outside, it recirculated the exhaust back into the kitchen. All gas stoves put off some degree of carbon monoxide, so it is vital that they properly vent to the outdoors. We also began to open the windows in the house more. I did get a degree of relief with the open windows, but then the bouts of malaise seemed to hit harder when the windows were closed (and there are no windows in our kitchen). We called the gas company and they did a carbon monoxide check in our home (it's free if you think you need one). The oven was putting out 60ppm carbon monoxide. NOW, here's the spot in the story where most people say "Didn't you have a CO detector?" followed by "We always have a CO detector!". Well...guess what!! The CO detector will only go off at levels that will kill you within a few hours (70ppm and up). They don't warn you of levels that will maim and kill you slowly. 0-9 ppm in considered the safe level for homes. Fire fighters wear gear at levels above 30ppm, and your basic CO detector isn't going to detect 60ppm. What's more, if you are damaged by chronic lower level doses, there's not much they can do, it hasn't been researched enough, except now researchers are realizing that it may be considerably overlooked.

My neurological symptoms slowly got better over the course of a year. I began to regain my energy levels, but I still get to keep the UCTD as my CO door prize. However, with the trigger gone, I began to get noticeably better, I was full of hope. My rheumatologist  decided it was time to lower my prednisone dose, to taper me down. I was only going from 4 mg to 2 mg, and CRASH. I spent 6 weeks in bed exhausted and writhing in pain. I wasn't flaring, but my body didn't want to part with the prednisone. So now I'm still hopeful, but the healing process is going to take longer than I expected, as often happens. If you have read this far, bless your heart. But I'd like to think there are some good morals to this story:

1- Sometimes you just don't see that train coming. It happens.

2- Hopefully you are more aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide and your vigilance will extend beyond trusting a CO detector.

3- This is my excuse for links that don't work (that's my story and I'm sticking to it)

Without further ado, some links about Chronic Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning.

Chronic and occult carbon monoxide poisoning: we don’t know what we’re missing https://emj.bmj.com/content/19/5/386

Low-Level Carbon Monoxide Dangers | Family Health | US News https://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/articles/2008/02/25/low-level-carbon-monoxide-dangers

REPORT: Effects on health of prolonged exposure to low concentrations of carbon monoxide https://oem.bmj.com/content/oemed/59/10/708.full.pdf

Domestic gas appliances and lungdisease https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/52/suppl_3/58.full.pdf

Do Gas Appliances Impact Asthma? — The Asthma Education Clinic
http://www.asthmaed.com/journal/2014/11/21/do-gas-appliances-impact-asthma

A Rare Cause of Chronic Headache that May Be Misdiagnosed as Migraine: Chronic Carbon Monoxide Poisoning - ScienceDirect  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452247316300619

Occult carbon monoxide poisoning: A cause of winter headache https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0735675787903202

Carbon Monoxide Pollution and Neurodevelopment: A Public Health Concernhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4568061/

Non-Diseases or CO Poisoning? https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/28/non-diseases-or-co-poisoning

Low Level Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Association with Fatigue and Fibromyalgia
https://coem.com/environmental-education/low-level-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-association-with-fatigue-and-fibromyalgia/


Recognition of chronic carbon monoxide poisoning. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10605352

Post Antibiotic Buffet for Bacteria

If you have read "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" by Elaine Gottshsall or "Management of Celiac Disease" by Sidney Haas, the premise of the SCD diet is to deprive harmful bacteria of certain carbohydrate food sources. Here is an interesting article that talks about the post antibiotic buffet for bacteria. (I'm no scientist so by all means read for yourself and do not trust my interpretation). It seems that after antibiotics there is a spike of certain carbohydrates that gives unwanted bacteria an advantage over the others.

The article is in Digital Journal and is called "Scientists Demonstrate How Antibiotics Can Alter Gut Flora Allowing Infection"

Raising the Bar - Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten-Free (Grain-Free, Refined Sugar-Free)

Raising the Bar - Grain-Free and Refined Sugar-Free Bars is the theme for this round-up of Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten-Free. Cookie bars are perfect for picnics and summer get togethers, they usually travel well and hold up to the summer heat better than an iced cake. So why not have a variety of grain-free and refined sugar-free ones to choose from? Sounds like bliss to me.

 

(Sorry to post so late, I was going to try to post before vacation but did not get a chance.)

 

 

 

 

Victoria of Gluten-Free SCD and Veggie brings her Apricot Slice. The perfect take along to any BBQ.  They are SCD and Paleo friendly. Her blog is also full of veggie dishes as well, one of my favorite blogs.

 

These Berry and Coconut Slices are also SCD and Paleo friendly.  Debbie of An Aussie with Crohn's,  has many other grain-free goodies, well worth a peek. 

 Mmm..Grain-Free, Vegan Carob Chunk Cookie Bars. Madison's Eating 4 Balance has a fun mix of recipes, life, and health topics.

These gorgeous morsels come from Lisa of Real Food Kosher. Her Cranberry Crumb Bars with Pecans and Rosemary look amazing.

 

 Summer is here and I wanted to have a no bake recipe: No Bake Macadamia Apricot Coconut Snack Bars.

I also have Coconut Lime Bars. They have a crispy shortbread crust with a lime curd filling.

I hope you enjoyed this round-up!

Be sure to check out For the Love of Food. Nooshin is hosting for August and the theme is fruit.
Last month was Primal Travel Food from Sunny of And Love it Too.

No Bake Macadamia Apricot Coconut Bars (SCD, Paleo)

You don't have to heat up the house for these.

No Bake Macadamia Apricot Coconut Bars (SCD, Paleo)


6 oz Dried Apricots
1/4 cup boiling Water
1/4 cup Honey
2 cups Macadamia Nuts, raw and unsalted
2 cups finely shredded Unsweetened Coconut

Line a 7" x 11" dish with wax paper, allowing some to hand over the edge for "handles".

In a small bowl, soak apricots in boiling water for about 10 minutes to soften. Place apricots with liquid, and honey in food processor. Pulse until mixture is a puree. Add macadamia nuts and pulse to desired consistency. Scape into a large mixing bowl and mix in coconut. Pat mixture into dish and refrigerate. Makes 15 bars.

This is one of my submissions for Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free.

Go Ahead Honey Deadline Moved Up

Due to an unexpected busy week, I will be posting Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten-Free on Sunday. So there is still time to get in your recipes!!

Send me the link to your entry and a photo of it by this Saturday. My email address is innerterrain@gmail.com Label it "Go Ahead Honey" in the subject bar

Coconut Lime Bars (SCD)

These bars have a crunchy shortbread crust, a tart lime curd filling, and a crunchy coconut topping. This is also my submission for this months "Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten-Free".  I'm the host for July and the theme is "Raising the Bar - Grain-Free and Refined Sugar-Free Bars". So check back here at the end of the month for more great bar recipes, and submit a recipe of your own.

Coconut Lime Bars (SCD)

Shortbread Crust:

1 1/2 cups Almond Flour
1 cup Unsweetened Coconut, finely shredded
4 TBSP Butter, melted
2 TBSP Honey

Lime Curd Filling:

4 TBSP Butter
1/3 cup Honey
1/2 cup Lime Juice
4 large Egg Yolks

Topping:

1 1/2 cups Unsweetened Coconut, finely shredded
1/2 cup Almond Flour
2 TBSP Butter, melted
1/4 cup Honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or grease a 7" x 11" baking dish (I used a Pyrex dish).

For the Shortbread Crust: In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond flour and the coconut. Mix honey into melted butter and then pour into flour mixture. Stir until combined. Press into prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven.

For the Lime Curd Filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together filling ingredients. Then place over a medium heat and stir constantly until mixture thickens and coats the spoon. Do not overcook. Remove pan from heat.

For the Topping: Combine the coconut and almond flour in a large mixing bowl. Stir honey into melted butter to mix. Pour into flour mixture and stir until combined.

Pour lime curd filling over the crust. Then evenly sprinkle coconut topping over it. Bake about 15 minutes. Cool before serving.

Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free - Raising the Bar (Grain Free, Refined Sugar Free)

I am hosting Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free this month! It's my third time (see here and here). It is a gluten-free blog carnival started by the fabulous Naomi Devlin of Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried.

Nowadays, Grain Free is becoming more popular, appealing not only to the GF crowd, but also many health conscious folks as well. So what better than to have a Gluten-Free and Grain-Free theme? This months theme is Raising the Bar - Grain-Free and Refined Sugar Free Bars. So if you have a great brownie or bar that's Paleo, SCD/GAPS, Primal, Low Carb, or just simply Grain-Free (and Gluten-Free of course), join in.

Post a gluten-free recipe for a brownie or bar and link it to this carnival. Your recipe will need to be gluten-free and grain-free, but your blog does not have to be. If you do not have a blog you can email me your recipe with photo. Grain-Free ingredient possibilities may include almond flour, coconut flour, vegetables, starches, amaranth, quinoa, etc. Possible sweeteners may include honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, dates, fruit, etc.

-Send me the link to your entry and a photo of it by July 28, 2013. My email address is innerterrain@gmail.com Label it "Go Ahead Honey" in the subject bar.

-Check back for the recipe round-up. I will try to get the recipes posted by July 30.

You can check out June's Go Ahead Honey at And Love It Too, the theme is Primal Travel Food.

Here are some Grain-Free and Refined Sugar-Free bars from around the web to inspire you:

Grain-Free Fig Bars  (SCD legal) from yours truly

Luscious Lemon Bars (Nut-Free and SCD legal) from Against All Grain

Coffee Brownies (SCD legal) from Gluten-Free SCD and Veggie

Berry Honey Bars (SCD Legal) from Heal Balance Live

Sweet Coconut Curry Grain Free Granola Bars (SCD legal) from the Urban Poser

Almond or Peanut Nut Butter Bars from Heal Balance Live

Pecan Pie Bars from Without Adornment

Brownies- using coconut flour from Comfy Belly

Strawberries and Cream Almond Bars from Eat the Cookie

Coconut Butter Blondies from The Food Lovers Kitchen

Orange Almond Squares from the Spunky Coconut

Flourless Brownies from the Spunky Coconut

Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies from The Tasty Alternative

Banana Praline Snack Cake (SCD)

I'm baack! This blog has been a bit deserted for awhile, but I have some good things lined up for July. One is that I am hosting Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten-Free. I'll have more details later this week. For now here is a moist cake with some caramel/praline gooey stuff on top.

Banana Praline Snack Cake (SCD)

Praline Topping:

3 TBSP. Butter
1 cup chopped Pecans
1/3 cup Honey

Cake:

2 Very Ripe Bananas, mashed
2 1/2 cups Almond Flour
1/2 teas. Sea Salt
1/2 teas. Baking Soda
1 teas. Cinnamon
1/4 cup Butter
1/3 cup Honey
2 eggs
1 teas. Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 7" x 11" casserole dish (I use my Pyrex dish).

Make the pralines by heating butter and pecans in a skillet over medium heat. Stir often and cook until pecans are lightly toasted and fragrant. Add honey and boil for 4 minutes while stirring, and then boil one minute without stirring. Keep a close watch to insure mixture does not burn. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

For the cake batter: Mash bananas in a small bowl and set aside. Place dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine. Melt butter in a small saucepan (or micro in a bowl). When it is melted, remove from heat. Stir in honey. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Pour mixture into dry ingredients and combine. Stir in mashed bananas. Scrape batter into prepared dish and sprinkle the top with praline topping. Bake 30 to 40 minutes until cake tests done with a toothpick.

When You Swallow A Grenade (Link to Great Article)

Here is a link to a great article titled "When You Swallow a Grenade" by Carl Zimmer and published on the National Geographic web page. It gives a brief history of anitbiotics and their role in changing gut flora.

Replacing Saturated Fat with Heart Healthy Oils

If you are a Gary Taubes fan you may like this one. A link to this fascinating little study was posted by blogger David Evans on his "Healthy Diets and Science" (a very fun blog to dig around in). The name of the study is: "Use of dietary linoleic acid for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and death: evaluation of recovered data from the Sydney Diet Heart Study and updated meta-analysis" and it was published this month in BMJ. The Sydney Diet Heart Study was conducted in 1966-1973 with 458 males, aged 30-59 years, who already received care for coronary issues .  The study was to measure the effectiveness of replacing dietary saturated fat with omega 6 linoleic acid (safflower oil).  The researchers assumed that the safflower oil would decrease total serum cholesterol and thereby increase health benefits. And yes, the cholesterol levels did decrease.  However, death rates for all causes of mortality rose for those on the "heart healthy" oils.  We all know the extent of dietary advice given that we should replace saturated fat with omega-6 rich vegetable oils such as safflower, soybean, and corn oil, and yet most of us are unfamiliar with the lack of evidence to conclusively back this up. Here are some eerie comments from the study:

"Advice to substitute vegetable oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) for animal fats rich in saturated fatty acids (SFAs) has been a cornerstone of worldwide dietary guidelines for the past half century. When this advice originated in the 1960s, PUFAs were regarded as a uniform molecular category with one relevant biological mechanism—the reduction in blood cholesterol. Omega 6 (n-6) linoleic acid (LA) was the best known dietary PUFA at the time. Therefore, the terms “PUFA” and “LA” were often used interchangeably when interpreting clinical trial results and delivering dietary advice...
However, there is currently no clinical trial evidence indicating that replacing SFAs with n-6 LA, without a concurrent increase in n-3 PUFAs, lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease or death. Thus, benefits attributed to PUFAs as a general category might be due to n-3 PUFAs specifically, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. Such benefits are not necessarily generalizable to n-6 LA or other PUFA species. Since n-6 LA is the most abundant dietary PUFA, and edible oil sources with markedly different contents of fatty acids are commercially available it is important to ascertain the benefits and risks specific to n-6 LA."

"Oxidation products of n-6 LA have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease,  and alcohol use and cigarette smoking are major sources of free radical mediated oxidation.Therefore, we hypothesized that alcohol use or smoking at baseline modified the association between longitudinal change in PUFA intake and mortality using likelihood ratio tests (α=0.15). The original SDHS investigators posited that the LA intervention would reduce serum cholesterol as an intermediate for the prevention of cardiovascular death. Thus, to examine whether the magnitude of postrandomization changes in total blood cholesterol were associated with mortality, we calculated hazard ratios for each mortality outcome as a function of time varying change from baseline in total blood cholesterol."

"Among intervention patients (in whom the PUFA increase was n-6 LA from safflower oil), an increase of 5% of food energy from n-6 LA predicted 35% and 29% higher risk of cardiovascular death and all cause mortality, respectively (models adjusted for age, dietary cholesterol, body mass index at baseline, smoking, alcohol use, and marital status)."

"Conclusions Advice to substitute polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats is a key component of worldwide dietary guidelines for coronary heart disease risk reduction. However, clinical benefits of the most abundant polyunsaturated fatty acid, omega 6 linoleic acid, have not been established. In this cohort, substituting dietary linoleic acid in place of saturated fats increased the rates of death from all causes, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease. An updated meta-analysis of linoleic acid intervention trials showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit. These findings could have important implications for worldwide dietary advice to substitute omega 6 linoleic acid, or polyunsaturated fats in general, for saturated fats."

American Sweet Tooth

Created by: www.OnlineNursingPrograms.com

The gals at FlipCookbook had this posted on their site. I love it. Sonia and Raj host a Sunday blog carnival called "Sugar Free Sunday".

Happy Everything 2012

As 2012 comes to a close, here's wishing everyone a warm holiday season. My posts have been sparse this year due to projects and such. I'm hoping to accomplish more on this blog next February after my student teaching stint is up. I will be hosting Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free in July. Naomi is leaning her blog carnival toward a more primal theme in 2013, which means more grain-free recipes. Her blog, Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried, has a wealth of SCD/GAPS and grain-free recipes if you haven't seen it yet.

The Real Bears

Ever wonder what happened to those polar bears on the Coca Cola commercials? This version comes from The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). It's very cute.

Recipe Review - Zucchini Pizza Crust from The Gluten-Free Homemaker

I was the blessed recipient of a bag of zucchini and Linda of The Gluten-free Homemaker recently posted a recipe for Zucchini Pizza Crust. Our family is a crispy crust bunch so I added 1 cup of cheese to the crust instead of 1/2 cup. I also salted the shredded zucchini and let it sit in a colander over a bowl for about 45 minutes, then squeezing it to remove some moisture, so I did not add salt to the crust. Instead of tomato/pizza sauce I added 1 minced clove of garlic to 1 tablespoon of olive oil and brushed it on the cooked crust, topping it with cheese and prosciutto. The Booger pulled the topping and cheese off and just ate the crust (that's ok, he's still eating vegetables). Eddie liked how crispy the crust was. Thanks Linda!

Blog Neglect

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to blog. But it's for good cause. The city park in our little town is desperately in need of upgrades, with no city funds to do it. A group of us mothers decided to form a group to raise money for new playground equipment. We started talking with others who also longed for walking trails, a pavilion... So we started a community group to raise money and fix up our park. It's a big project and I have been trying to get as much done before school starts. I'm in a busy, blurry tailspin, but at the same time it is so exciting to see the community coming together. Even kids are getting involved. A very worthwhile endeavor.

Here's a link to the Booger's TV interview: http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=517522

I started posting parks we visit at: http://playgroundsandpicnics.blogspot.com/
Another playground planning committee member has contributed too. We hope to design something unique for ours.

Of course I will be making SCD goodies for the bake sale.