Have you ever considered yourself a scientist? You are. You make logical conclusions based on your experiences. It is perfectly logical to conclude that if you eat pasta or wheat bread and get bloated, or gassy or even have a slight cough after eating wheat flour products that you might have an allergy to wheat. The same might be true for corn and corn products. What about getting blisters, rashes or canker sores from something you ate? Most would assume allergy and just avoid those foods?
Now, what if more and more foods start giving you troubles, you gained or lost weight without changing a thing or your knees start aching for no reason? Other joint pains creep up on you and you wonder if you are beginning to get arthritis. You take yourself to a doctor and he says there is nothing wrong, only your symptoms continue. He agrees with you that you have what ever you say you have and he may even give you a prescription. Without further investigation the symptoms may progress to irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis, acid reflux, flu, or chronic fatigue. At first glance, each ailment seems unrelated. Then you might read an article such as this one or visit a practitioner who knows a little something about Candida.
Candida albicans is just one of the naturally occurring bacteria strains that live in the human intestinal tract. With factors like antibiotic use or poor diet, the Candida can get out of control and overgrow, turn into a fungus and create havoc in your body. It’s quite an eco-system in there that most of the time we pay no attention to. More and more Americans though, must start thinking past the daily Tums, Tagament, Pepcid AC, Zantac, Alka-Seltzer, Gas-S, Charcoal Caps, Bromo Seltzer, Maalox, Mylanta, Rolaids and that is just to name a few. Sounds like no one is spelling lasting relief. Perhaps they are just masking the real problems or creating some new ones.
At one time there was a TV ad that said, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Mother Nature sent lightening and thunder to express her upset. When you start messing with you natural body, it too will express its upset with symptoms. The symptoms can get louder and louder until there is a diagnosis. Often doctors will overlook Candida and treat each individual symptom. I believe in going to find the root cause so that you simply treat once and with the most natural cures you can, to effectively cure your wonderful body. Food is a fantastic place to begin. Learning how foods work for you, gives you the power to maintain feeling great most of the time and knowing how to get back to balance when you are off. Some people find immediate relief for many symptoms in just changing the foods they eat. That could be because switching from cane sugar to whole grains and fruits along with adding in more vegetables, beans and sea vegetables can fortify the immune system immensely.
For Candida, I often recommend herbal remedies along with some dietary changes because food alone is just too slow or not effective enough. For most people, being very strict with their food selection ought not to last too long or it can create problems in itself. Since an estimated 80% or more, of the American population has some Candida overgrowth, I would guess that most do not even know they have it. If you have chronic symptoms or things that you continually medicate, and would like lasting real relief, take a look and see if there is an underlying Candida condition to clear.
Food is fuel, pleasure, creative, sexy, entertaining, healing and a wonderful part of whole life. Enjoy experimenting, investigating, noting your results and let your scientist self emerge a healthy winner every day! Go to www.susanmarque.com for a Candida Free Cookbook.
Curry Pockets A fun way to eat veggies and packed with minerals thanks to the Arame. Sea veggies never tasted so good. Makes a great appetizer or addition to a meal.
3-4 green onions chopped 2-3 carrots cut into small matchsticks 6-7 Chinese cabbage leaves, chopped 1/2 C. Arame soaked for 5 minutes Safflower or olive oil Wheat free organic soy sauce Ume vinegar Curry powder Cumin powder Turmeric Garam Masalah Rice "paper" spring roll wrappers 1 tsp. Kudzu (optional) dissolved in a small amount of water
Sauté the onion, carrot, cabbage and Arame in a Tablespoon or two of oil. Add a sprinkle of Ume vinegar and a sprinkle of soy sauce. Add the spices to your own taste. I prefer more curry powder and turmeric with less cumin and Garam Masalah. Adjust by tasting. (Guideline might be 1tsp. Turmeric, 1 tsp. Curry powder, 1/2 tsp. Garam Masalah and 1/2 tsp. Cumin powder) add a small amount of water to cook everything together well. To thicken the sauce add the kudzu and stir while adding.
Heat a large round pan with 2" of water in it. Let the water get hot but not boiling. One by one add the Spring roll wrappers to soften. As one is soft you can lay it on a plate or cutting board and fill with a little filling and than wrap the wrapper around the filling like folding an envelope to create each "pocket". A nice presentation is to line a plate with butter lettuce leaves and place the pockets on top. You might even eat with the lettuce wrapped around the outside as well. Enjoy!
Millet "tostadas"
1 C. millet cooked in 3C. Water 1 recipe Carrot Salsa 1 recipe Cauliflower "Sour Cream" Avocado slices Cooked beans (anasazi, pinto, black beans or smoky aduki's are all good choices) 1 recipe Water fried greens (collards chopped fine are nice)
Spread the cooked millet evenly in a baking dish. (The bigger the dish the thinner you will be able to get the millet. Let it cool. Cut into 3"-4" squares and fry in a small amount of oil on each side.
Place a millet square on a plate and top with beans, greens, avocado slices, carrot salsa and the white sauce on top. Also great with fried onions.
Cauliflower "Sour Cream" Sauce
Although not exactly like sour cream this wonderful dressing is good both hot and cold and is great for those who do not tolerate soy.
1/2 Cauliflower, broken into florets 1/2 onion, sliced 1 clove garlic, sliced Olive oil Water Lemon juice Ume vinegar
Sauté the onion and garlic in a Tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan. Add the Cauliflower florets and water to about 1" inside the pan. Simmer until soft. Transfer the ingredients to a blender and add Lemon juice and Ume vinegar to taste. Blend until smooth. If your water has simmered away too much you may need to add some to get your desired consistency. Feel free to add any herbs or spices to make it your own dressing. (Fresh Dill or chives or Parsley are just a start)
Carrot Salsa 2 large carrots 1 clove garlic chopped fine 1/2 small onion sliced fine Sea salt Cumin Lemon juice Parsley chopped
Grate the carrots and mix with onion, garlic and a couple pinches of sea salt. Let sit for an hour to overnight and then rinse if too salty. Add cumin and lemon juice to taste and some fresh chopped parsley
