Folks it has been far too long. And in truth I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to revive this blog, or myself in terms of creating and sharing my favorite foods and creations.
As I like to write in “bites” I will give a brief summary of my time of absence.
I became slowly allergic to most plants, became very weak and found myself in Hospital with an extremely fast heartbeat that wouldn’t chill out, very low sodium levels and high blood sugar levels, despite the fact that I eat no sugar and haven’t in years.
For what seemed like ages I was sleeping 14-16 hours per day and could only drink bone broth and consume very well masticated salmon, poultry and lamb along with avocado and preserved lemon. Once in a while I could handle some raspberries. Anything else was too painful to digest and would result in major inflammation centered around my neck, shoulders and back.
I learned about the benefits of the carnivore diet although did not go completely that way. I felt better and could cope with things like spirulina and wheatgrass juice powder etc, so these were how I took my greens. I also went the way of organ meats for a while as my body was so weak and out of sorts I was willing to try anything to just… not… feel like I was dying. I couldn’t even drink COFFEE! That was a killer.
I am extremely thankful for all the research that has been done in this area of the carnivore diet and for all the knowledge imparted by people like Mikhaila Peterson and found in my own biohacking that I could begin to incorporate the “fruits” of plants as they do not contain the types of phytochemicals that plants send out in order to fend off predators. Veggies really are trying to kill us, so it is important to keep this in mind when preparing them.
I began devouring the Thyroid Pharmacist blog from Dr. Isabella Wentz. I followed all of her recommendations but was continuing to get worse and worse. I listened to her Hashimoto’s Protocol book, bought a hard copy and began moving through the environmental liver detox. After several weeks I felt a bit better but still had ups and downs. People, despite my health yoyo-ing this detox was a brilliant thing and was life changing for me. In the worst of it I had to make peace with God because I wasn’t getting better… and I knew if I didn’t figure it out I might just waste away. After having this revelation of sorts, things started to click for me. I thought I was doing well with our food, cleaning products, body care items etc. Let me tell you, as well as I was doing it was not well enough and not informed enough. I downloaded the EWG.org app and started scanning everything in our household… and man was I surprised. I filled a black garbage bag with products I had thought were safe, and at least for me were not. I went two weeks without wearing any personal care products (aside from my schmidt’s deodorant) and I felt much, much better. Like I could breathe easily. At this point I decided to upgrade my skin care to Beautycounter, because although my products were good, they still scored in the range of 2 out of 10 (EWG Verified being 0 and 10 being mega toxic). Hey, 2 was pretty good considering that most of my life any time I wore makeup or lotion it literally burned my skin.
I thought I would scour my Ancestry DNA for signs of the MTHFR gene mutation and found it. I brought this information to my Naturopathic Doctor and he uploaded my DNA raw data to a site called PureGenomics, and then he kindly explained to me that I probably would have been fine if I had been for all intents and purposes a hermit in the middle of nowhere with my own cow to milk, my own produce to eat, with no florescent lights, no neighbors for 50 miles, no internet, power lines, microwaves or cell phones. Now, I haven’t seen my most recent raw data to be fair, but what Ancestry could provide showed that I only had one working methylation and detoxification gene. I not only have a double copy of the MTHFR gene, I have a myriad of other mutations as well. I seem to be the only person in my family to have double copies of these suckers. Having only one copy results in maybe a 10% reduction in detoxification and methylation capabilities, whereas double copies result in a 70% reduction. Yay for me! I really lucked out!
NOW: If you have a sensitive nature or a queasy stomach I would recommend you stop reading here and go back to your blissful ignorance. I have always been one to spare people if I could but I have no issues sharing and hearing things that would turn most people’s stomachs. I grew up on a farm with brothers and was on the mission field for 6 years. Nothing really bothers me. So please keep that in mind before you continue reading.
After finishing the Thyroid Pharmacist Dr. Isabella Wentz’s “Hashimoto’s Protocol” I realized I most likely still had a couple of nasty protozoa from way back in my exchange student days, and likely some parasites from my travels as a missionary in my twenties. She continued to say “if you’re not seeing improvement you probably have blastocystis hominis, H. Pylori or some other gut infection. Ding ding ding!!
I started a gut cleansing protocol which promptly confirmed the existence of parasites. (I mean… gross. Gross gross gross.) In truth this was not my first rodeo but as these critters have been in residence for 10 and some for 20 years or so, expelling them has been a nauseating, painful and long process. And the process is not over as I will be at this for a year at least. After about the first 45 days of the protocol I was able to handle a few select vegetables again. Some asparagus, green beans and a bit of kabocha squash… which frankly felt like eating candy after so long on bone broth. It was a very thanks filled Thanksgiving.
All that to say, I let my blog fall to the ground because I honestly did not know if I would even be able to EAT vegetables again, let alone write about fermenting them. Now that I am beginning to incorporate them again, I have hope and faith that I will continue to heal and be able to create new recipes to share again. In the meantime, I have gotten pretty good at tempering chocolate and have found that once in a blue moon I can enjoy a biodynamic pinot noir without too much trouble. Life is rich.
You will find I have made some changes around here. I will likely be blogging a bit more about health and lifestyle products, as they make a huge difference in our health. What touches our skin goes straight to our bloodstream without the wonderful filtering of the liver. It’s a big deal and something we need to pay attention to, or possibly pay the price with our health. I will also be re-vamping my website and working on converting recipes to a printable format… as well as incorporating some of the recipes I feed my family but don’t currently enjoy myself. You will find I have put up a “shop” tab in my menu which includes our Etsy shop page as well as my Beautycounter shop page. I have plans to add some favorite products and reviews to that section in the next few months… in line with my reputation for finding the weaknesses in all things. Lol! Please have a look around and share with whomever you might think interested! I so appreciate those of you who have stuck with me and enjoy my recipes… I love sharing them with you!
Further up and further in!
Very Sincerely,
Brenna May
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