Monday, November 30, 2009

DAY 65 A Four-Day Hiatus


After five days of poor eating initiatives—a persistent storm of consuming coffee (4-5 cups of decaf with cream and sugar), leftover chocolate mints that I’d resisted at Thanksgiving, turkey hash with curried rice, sweet braided bread that a friend brought from a Swedish bakery in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, coffee, cookies and panini at the weekend fair where I was selling my lavender sachets, lots of cheese and crackers—I awoke this morning with a dull headache and flatulence.

The latter always reminds me of my Grandmother, a tiny lady who lived with severe osteoporosis and a stronger faith.   One Christmas when she was in her early nineties, after an enormous meal, all the uncles and aunts and parents and children—some sixteen, if I recall correctly—were seated around a blazing fire in the cavernous stone fireplace in our living room.  After a while, she excused herself, walked slowly to the library, and closed the door.   Even amidst several conversations, everybody could hear what happened next; it sounded as though cannons were being fired in the library.  In a few minutes, she slid the door open and walked back to her seat by the fire, a little smile on her face.  The rest of us struggled to contain our laughter.  Nobody said a word!

Back to the present: my dull headache persists.  OK, makes no sense to wallow in this self-imposed misery.  Before starting the day, I’ll drink a glass of water with powdered greens, thank Grandmother Ferris for showing me the results of poor eating choices as well as some pretty good things to do—her love of the Biblical phrase, “Be still, and know that I am God” was the basis for my off-again, on-again attempts at meditation and prayer—and live in hope that I’ll return to eating alkaline again  today.

What caused my storm of poor eating choices?  Certainly the ways I chose to respond to the stresses of an extra-busy week had a lot to do with it, which points  me once again  toward meditation as the best way out of stress; wasn’t doing much of that this past week either.   On my kitchen bulletin board is an aphorism, its source long-forgotten: “Argue for your limitations, and they’re yours; argue for your possibilities and they’re yours too.”  It is just possible that I’ll be able to respond differently to stress today.  Tomorrow will take care of itself.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

DAY 61 A Magnificent Thanksgiving



This was one of the best Thanksgivings ever!  Yes, I broke down and ate everything, except coffee and wine.  Everybody brought special dishes: fruit salad, turkey with stuffing and gravy, green beans in sauce, pies; I did yams, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts and asparagus, and a green salad.

However, it was the people, much more than the food, that made the evening special!  Susan Mustard, a fine artist, brought me a magnificent collage she’d made from a photo taken last summer when I  was selling lavender wands at the Farmers’ Market!  She builds her collages from old book covers, books that other people are throwing away, which she treasures for their beauty and variety.  I have loved her collages since I first saw them, and to have this one is deeply moving.  Her husband, Jim, is a tractor aficionado who enjoyed talking about the machines with Chris, who repairs and collects these workhorses.  Carole, who with Chris and myself, grew up on North Beach Road here, is going to Austin, Texas, for Christmas, and Susan and Jim last year moved  here from there.

My old friend Jan, who had a stroke last year that was so severe, the doctor at first didn’t want to order physical therapy because he didn’t think she’d benefit from it, WALKED in on the arm of  Robert, her significant other and caregiver par excellence. I was overjoyed that they could come.  Even though she still has some physical impairment from the stroke, she retains her amazing intellect.

Chris and Evelyn made a super-moist turkey with Evelyn’s unique stuffing and gravy, and we chatted for a while after the guests left.  They are going to spend Christmas in Hawaii with their son and his wife.   Our houseguest, Damien, helped people to their cars, cleaned up a smashed dish, and in general was his most caring self.

There is so much to be thankful for, and friends top the list!  Happy Friend-giving, everybody!


Wednesday, November 25, 2009

DAY 60 Eating Alkaline Saves $$$ on Food Budget




I am willing to bet all comers that I can save $30  weekly on a two-person budget by eating alkaline, over what I’d buy to make Standard American Meals.  The reason:  I’ll be buying fresh fruits and vegetables, a little seasoning, rice and coconut milk, almonds and sunflower seeds, whole-grain cereals such as emmer and oatmeal, olive oil, instead of what I’ll NOT be buying: coffee, sugar, packaged, processed foods, meats, dairy, starches such as breads, and of course, alcohol.   I’d welcome suggestions for the comparison, which I’ll start in January, 2010.

Oops! Missed Day 59; preparing for Thanksgiving!  Wishing everybody a happy one!

Monday, November 23, 2009

DAY 58 THIS ALKALINE YEAR: Oncologist Backs Sugar Cutback!


Birthday lunch for another friend today, with a surprising boost to alkaline theories!  The birthday girl is a cancer survivor, still in chemotherapy but will find out tomorrow how the treatment is progressing.  Her oncologist told her that sugar feeds cancers, so she did not want dessert, although the restaurant had some beautiful and tempting ones.   I and another friend who were with her didn’t have dessert either.

While I had fish (lox with capers) and a little rye bread and sort of a cheesy mixture to spread on the bread, and therefore cannot say it was alkaline except for the greens that came with it, I did continue my 58-day coffee abstinence, didn't even consider wine, and had a very good ginger-lavender tea.  I feel excited and uplifted by the experience because it seems that some allopathic physicians, at least, are understanding more about the roles of our common foods.

Another friend and I walked our dogs around the neighboring lake, noticing that the dogs, off their leashes as the area was deserted except for us, covered ten times as much territory as we did!  They are such fun to watch:  running like greyhounds, the smaller one as fast as the larger pooch.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

DAY 57 THIS ALKALINE YEAR: Mandolin Supersedes Food!

Today nothing much new happened on the food horizon; for the second day, I’ve been practicing mandolin a lot.  I started using a good playalong DVD, and it will likely take a week before my finger callouses harden.  Goal for this go-around is to be able to play a lullaby for my 15-month-old granddaughter in Boston at Christmas.  Jack is going to Portland (OR) for the holiday with his twin grandchildren and we will meet in Tucson on December 30.  In the meantime, Thanksgiving is beckoning!  Now, if I can just figure out "Turkey in the Straw" maybe the guests will let me perform!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is our annual Holiday Festival, which I played a small role in starting before I retired as Senior Services Coordinator, and this year I'll have a booth to sell lavender wands and sniff bags and other sachets.  Our Orcas antiques dealer is lending me a prop for my table.  Part of the proceeds benefits the Orcas Senior Center, where the event is held.

Friday, November 20, 2009

DAY 56 Parties & Alcohol

More people would have  happier holidays, I suspect, if they followed the practice of our friends Dick and Patty.  For their once-in-a-while Christmas party, they don’t serve alcohol, not even in punch.  This is for practical rather than philosophic reasons: they live atop a high hill and the first—and only--time they held a large party with an open bar, somebody ran off their road, fortunately with minor injuries.  “I couldn’t face it if somebody hurt or killed themselves,” Patty said.   That has of course, happened at other island parties, as it has all over the land. 

Given the fact that most alcohol is very acidic,  I welcome the chance to substitute sparkling pear or apple juice for wines and hard liquor.   From the vantage point of  a non-drinker, I find people lighter, more fun, easier to talk to when everybody is sober rather than sodden.  From the vantage point of being a former drinker, I find it glorious to wake up the next morning without a headache.  

Having said that, I’ll probably serve--but not drink--wine at Thanksgiving because I know that at least one of the guests would be lost without it.   (The enabler in me persists!)  However, as I’ve become less accepting of a glass of wine, I find that more of our friends are doing the same.  At a dinner with two other couples recently,  half a bottle of wine was consumed before dinner and none during the meal, although I’d brought out another bottle just in case.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Day 54 – Similarities Between the Glycemic Index and Eating Alkaline


According to Wikipedia, “the glycemic index (GI) is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion, releasing glucose rapidly into the bloodstream, have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down more slowly, releasing glucose more gradually into the bloodstream, have a low GI. For most people, foods with a low GI have significant health benefits. The concept was developed by Dr. David J. Jenkins and colleagues in 1980–1981 at the University of Toronto in their research to find out which foods were best for people with diabetes.”

Eating alkaline for relief of many ailments including diabetes was pioneered by Dr. Robert O. Young (The pH Miracle  (2002), The pH Miracle for Diabetes (2004)).  He believes, contrary to conventional medical wisdom, that all types of diabetes can be controlled and eliminated by eating alkaline.  Several case histories bear out his claim.  The developers of the glycemic index have not made that claim.  Furthermore, Dr. Young suggests that all diseases have one base: acidification of the blood, which can be remedied by eating alkaline unless the disease is too far along, and that the general population would do well to do the same to prevent disease.

In many ways, the glycemic index is similar to eating alkaline.  High-alkaline fruits, such as  cherries, tend to be relatively low on the index (22 for cherries), while dates, acidic, are high on the index(102).    Same goes for vegetables:  broccoli, lettuce, onions, red peppers, all 10s on the glycemic scale, all are high alkaline.

A food footnote:  Tonight’s dinner included a veggie pizza with a rice crust and some cheese (Amy’s brand); I seem to be getting away from eating 100 percent alkaline to 80 or 90 percent.  That’s where  I can comfortably stay for the remainder of this year and probably for the years to come.  So far in these six-plus weeks: no meat or fish, no alcohol, sugar only a couple of times and that in very small quantities, starch a half-dozen times.   I feel great!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

DAY 52 THIS ALKALINE YEAR: The Alkaline, Adaptable Onion




Donna Rhew sent me this  story about protective aspects of having onions around the house.  During the 1919 flu epidemic, a doctor was visiting farmers to see if he could help them to combat the pervasive disease.   The doctor came upon a lot of people suffering from flu, then came to one farm where, to his surprise, everyone was healthy. When he asked what the farmer was doing that was different, the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in each room. The doctor asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under his microscope. When he did this, he found that  the onion had absorbed the flu bug so that it didn’t get to the family.

Another story along these lines: a hairdresser in Arizona said that several years ago many of her employees and customers were coming down with the flu.  She placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. (No word on what happened to the customers.)

Whether the stories are myth or reality may well depend on whether you believe them.  Regardless,  onions and other members of their family including garlic and shallots and scallions are very alkaline and pleasant additions to any meal.  In one branch of Buddhist faith, monks reportedly aren’t allowed to eat onions because they are regarded as a sexual stimulant.

Maybe it would be useful to place an unpeeled onion in the Thanksgiving cornucopia?  Below is one of my favorite recipes using this adaptable vegetable:

Braised Onion Rings—Peel and slice a pound of large onions into rings and place in a big saucepan.  Add freshly-ground pepper, a teaspoon of thyme, a teaspoon of sea salt, and a cup of  vegetable broth.  Bring it to a boil; cover; reduce heat and  cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove cover and reduce liquid (if there’s any left) by raising the heat for a few minutes.   This is a fine garnish for baked acorn squash.



Tuesday, November 17, 2009

DAY 51 List of Alkaline Foods

Here's the list of alkaline foods that some of you asked for.  I compiled it  from The pH Miracle for Weight Loss (Young, Robert O. and Shelly Radford) and The Acid Alkaline Food Guide Susan E. Brown and Larry Trivieri Jr.  I highly recommend both books; the latter is a little easier to read and also includes acidic foods. Both are on Amazon.]

Food                                                            Highly    Moderately      Modestly
                                                            Alkaline            Alkaline         Alkaline
Artichokes                                                                        x
Asparagus                                                x
Avocado                                                                           x
Beets                                                                                 x
Bell peppers (green or red)                                                x
Broccoli                                                                            x
Broccoli flower                                        x
Brussels Sprouts                                                                                    x
Burdock root                                            x
Chinese cabbage                                                               x
    Red  cabbage                                                                x
     White cabbage                                                             x
Carrots (organic)                                                                                   x
Cauliflower                                              x
Celery                                                      x
Collards                                                   x
Cucumber                                                                        x                       
Dandelion greens                                                             x
Eggplant                                                                          x
Garlic                                                                               x
Grasses                                                    x
Green onions (scallions)                                                  x
Jicama                                                                             x
Kale                                                         x
Kohlrabi                                                  x
Lettuce (red, romaine, iceberg)                                       x
Mustard greens                                        x
Okra                                                                               x
Onions                                                     x
Parsnips                                                   x
Parsley                                                     x
Potatoes                                                                          x
Radishes (red or daikon)                          x
Rutabagas                                                x
Snow peas
Sea vegetables                                         x
Soy sprouts                                             x
Sprouts                                                   x                                            x
Squash (Hubbard or summer)                                         x
Squash (Winter)                                     x
String beans (alkaline only
   when beans unformed)                                                x
Sweet Potatoes, yams                              x
Taro root                                                x
Turnip greens, turnips                                                    x
Watercress                                                                      x                        


DAY 50 Dinner Kitchen Approval


DAY 50 Dinner Kitchen Approval

Vestry approved the Dinner Kitchen, thank God!   Finished polishing our United Way’s holiday card with the help of some other folks, and am going to settle in with a book tonight.   For dinner, I split a small squash, dabbed olive oil on to keep it moist, baked it while sautéing a filling that included beets, onions, and parsnips with leftover quinoa.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Day 49 THIS ALKALINE YEAR Blew it! More Important Considerations




Not one, but two meals today were acidic. At breakfast after church, on a rainy cold day, I meant to order potato pancakes (even then, that would have been starchy) and ordered German pancakes instead.  A little fatter then crepes and made with the chef’s mother’s recipe from the Old Country, they came topped with powdered sugar,  a small pat of butter and blackberry preserves, which I spread judiciously while savoring each bite!  If I’m going to sin,  I might as well enjoy it, right?

I had a very small portion of bruschetta, sautéed eggplant, tomato and mozzarella cheese at lunch and was able to substitute herbal tea for the temptation to have a glass of white wine while my cousin had a martini.  Dinner was a mix of almonds, grapefruit, and a banana.

A friend suggested yesterday that the distinct basement of the spiritual life is worrying about food.  In the context of the discussion it seemed inappropriate to tell him that I’m not worrying about it,  I’m treating it as a sacred subject, worthy of considering and writing about.

However, something much more important is troubling me tonight:  human life.  The  United Nations World Food Program (WPF) estimates that one billion people will die of starvation this year.  The WPF is trying to raise six billion dollars to feed them. So far, around two billion dollars has been raised.

Equally important, I feel, is helping people to make sustainable agriculture (SA).  It surely can’t accomplish long-term goals to feed people unless there can be imparted some realistic hope for the future.  Along these lines,  one charity that is exceptionally worthy is The Heifer Foundation.  This world-wide group provides whatever animals people in a small community need and are used to, a flock of chickens here, a water buffalo that can help cultivate land or a herd of goats to supply milk and fertilizer, or a hive of honey bees in another area.   

Whether our personal contributions are large or small,  each one is  part of a sacred call, from beyond ourselves.   For instance,  tomorrow our church Vestry is considering a proposal for funding a “Dinner Kitchen,” an evening meal once a month for disadvantaged folks here. It’s an outgrowth of our new work with the Food Bank, helping the Community Church by making a lunch once a month for 50-70 participants.  The other churches here that have large enough congregations also are participating.  It may not seem like much, but I know that the food, and the cheer with which it’s served,  has a multiplier effect, helping people to help themselves. 


Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull), in his delightful new book Hypnotizing Maria, considers the beliefs that we hold without knowing it, the beliefs that can change as we acknowledge and challenge them.  For me, one persistent belief has been that I can't do much to help others.  That belief is changing and, I pray, will continue to do so. 



Saturday, November 14, 2009

DAY 48 THIS ALKALINE YEAR: What Do You Do When Experts Disagree?




A couple of days ago in this blog, in a discussion about vegans’ practices,  I commented that soy and its products were very acid-forming, according to The Acid Alkaline Food Guide (Susan E. Brown, PhD and Larry Trivieri, Jr.), p. 143.   Therefore they should not be part of an alkaline diet.    Today in the email came an impeccably well-researched article from Dr. Robert O. Young, quoting meta-studies  (the biggest cheeses in research as they summarize the data from case-control studies--smallest cheese--and whatever prospective studies--bigger cheeses--have been done when it comes to nutrition) that support a connection between intake of soy foods and low incidence of breast cancer.

Reasoning from these studies, Dr. Young said: “. . . soy protein is one of the leading anti-acid or alkalizing and therefore anti-carcinogenic foods  being studied.”  How does this jibe with Dr. Brown’s finding that soy foods are acid-forming?

It doesn’t.  My guess is that  as human psychology as usual plays a big role in health and disease,  and because many of us have come to believe that plant foods are better for us than meats,  soy has stepped in as a convenient source of protein.  So my concern now is not so much “Who is right?” as to “What do my cells and I believe?”  Built-up belief systems die slowly of their own weight.   I like eating alkaline.

So I’ll go with Dr. Brown and not eat soy products until someone calls into question the whole process of looking at foods as acid-forming or alkaline-forming, and until the methodology of determining this is made clear, I’ll still regard Dr. Young as my favorite expert.

Today’s best meal, so far, has been a yam-and-apple soup, made with baked yams and a big apple, cut up, and pureed with the addition of cinnamon, sage, and coconut milk.  Jack had toast with his.

Friday, November 13, 2009

DAY 47 THIS ALKALINE YEAR Nutrition and Sleep




Picking up on the last part of yesterday’s discussion, where I expressed my belief that our food choices affect our mental health, my nutrition is, in my estimation, somewhere between “very good” and “excellent.”  If both statements are true, my mental health also should be exceptionally good.  In some ways, it is.  I tend to face problems and solve them.  One common problem that I’ve not been able to solve completely:  getting a good night’s sleep.  Could nutrition play a role in this?

Maybe. My barriers to sleep may also lie in the realm of time management.  I tend, nowadays, to relax in front of the computer at night, playing games such as Orbitz Stacker, reading friends’ emails and comments on Facebook, checking the news on several sources.  Another roadblock is late-evening eating.  I tend to nosh on almonds, celery, apples during the computer sessions.  What if my tummy is so busy processing the onslaught tht it won’t let me sleep?

There!  I’ve identified two important barriers to sleep.  For the next few days, I want to try an experiment, a sub-experiment, if you will, to this alkaline year.  For the next few days, I want to forego all computer usage after 8 PM, instead substituting a good read for the computer.  The nutritional part of the experiment involves two practices: 1) not eating or drinking anything after 8:15 PM except 2) consuming a glass of hot soda and water around then.

Some other initiatives that make for a good night’s sleep include soft music, such as Steven Halpern’s Sleep Soundly or Stella Benson’s solo harp music, all of which have worked for me at different times.  Joan Borysenko’s suggestion to use the bedroom only for sleeping and sex is good sense too. EFT works well oftentimes.   The fact that I sometimes—more often lately—have difficulty falling asleep means that some facet of my life remains unaddressed.  We’ll see if Nos. 1 and 2 above are good answers to the problem.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

DAY 46 This Alkaline Year: Vegan, Vegetarian & Alkaline



Yesterday I read in the Boston Globe a  good article about a society formed by vegans  to encourage each other, and younger persons, to be herbivores.  I feel that’s all well and good as far as it goes, but couldn’t help noticing that a lot of their substitutes for meat consisted of soy products, all of which are very acidic.   I appreciated the article because it helped me to understand more of what I’m doing, still very successfully at Day 46. 

Alkaline eating offers more choices than the simple ones of whether to eat meat or seitan.   It means ingesting primarily the hundreds of foods that are alkaline-forming. (See Day 21.)  Most of the choices that herbivores make are exactly right for maintaining the blood at proper alkaline levels throughout the body, with the exception of soy-based products such as tofu.  And the story didn’t indicate where vegans stand on the sugar issue. 

What has fascinated me ever since I became interested in eating alkaline a few years ago, is the question of whether this extensive cluster of choices can be effectively carried on over a lifetime, or whether it is best adopted as a prophylactic. To guard against or to prevent disease is a question on which prospective studies could be done to benefit humanity. 

I’m not certain that any eating regimen can prevent disease unless it is accompanied by improvements in mental health.  George Vaillant,  in Aging Well (2002),  wrote: “The concept that involuntary coping mechanisms like projection and delinquent “acting out” may mature into altruism and sublimation . . is a very modern concept that has evolved only in the past forty years. For such transformation becomes visible only through the vantage point of the prospective study of lifetimes.”  He then noted that “evidence  that defenses could continue to mature into late midlife seemed clear” in all three cohorts of Harvard’s eight-decade Study of Adult Development.”

That said,  I strongly believe that our food choices affect our mental health; this is best seen in the behavior of alcoholics, those who eat too much sugar, and in those who do not feel in control of their eating choices.   So I’d encourage anybody who’s keeping a food journal to reflect on the changes in their own coping mechanisms along with different eating choices.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

DAY 45 THIS ALKALINE YEAR: Tough Squash

DAY 45 This Alkaline Year  Tough Squash


Do you have difficulty cutting squash before baking them?  The array in our supermarket is splendid, but I didn’t take advantage of it for a long time because the darn things were hard to cut up.  Then a friend gave me her secret: zap them for 30 seconds in the microwave.  Softens up the toughest ones, or even pumpkins, so they can be cut into baking-sized pieces.


Winter squash are the most alkaline: Hubbard, summer, and zucchini squash are all moderately alkaline.  After baking, I often place them in the blender with spices, a little vegetable broth or, better still, coconut milk, and make a warm soup for cold evenings.  Nutmeg, cinnamon, and garam masala are my favorite spices for these tasty vegetables, also for yam soup.

DAY 44 THIS ALKALINE YEAR: Clothes Connect the Years

Today was a clothes-buying day, as two or three “events” are forming on the November and December calendars for which I’d like to look sparkly.  We have a chic establishment known as Aurora’s, which stocks gently-used clothing at very small prices.  I found a lined dress and jacket in a bronze, glittering fabric, a black overblouse flocked in velvet, and a silky orange shirt, altogether for less than $25.  I benefit, because of being slim, from the pithy saying, “This island moves on its stomach,” and its corollary, “Everybody comes here as a size 10 and leaves as a size 42”.

I have a deep, abiding attraction to clothes.  It started a few miles from where I now live, because a girl my age, Donna,  and her older sister lived nearby and they had a trunk of dress-up duds.  We spent countless hours adorning ourselves in old curtains, sheets, and dresses, which became ball gowns and ritzy working duds, for airline stewardesses,  journalists, and equestriennes.    I didn’t know it, but we were preparing for becoming grown-ups; clothes connect visions across the years.  My own children being boys, I missed out on the fun of helping daughters play this way, but I can’t wait until my grand-daughter is old enough to spend time “on her own” here with Grandma!

The Catholics served lunch at the Food Bank today and it looked like some fine casseroles and salads, home-made bread (they are A-1 in this department), and an enthusiastic audience.  When it was my turn for a break from putting Xs on labels so recipients wouldn’t take them back to the market to exchange, I sat down for a very good fruit salad and a bunch of grapes.

After a few other chores, I came home, sewed up a hole or two in the orange shirt (it was more than gently used, but I love the color),  nibbled a lot of almonds and celery,  prepared for a United Way board meeting on Thursday, and played a word game online.  When Jack comes home from Pepsi night with his son at the Lower Tavern, we’ll eat veggie stew from last night, in which I used quinoa for thickening, and tell each other stories about today.

Monday, November 9, 2009

DAY 43 THIS ALKALINE YEAR Twenty Ounce Windfalls!




High winds last night produced  a culinary bonanza today, in the form of Twenty Ounce windfalls.  Next to my cousin’s house is an apple tree that my grandfather and his brothers planted nearly 100 years ago.   He was president of our Apple Growers Association,  until these farms declined here as a result of intensive farming with access to railroads in eastern part Washington.  Nobody has pruned or fertilized the tree since the 1920s.

When I drove up to her house, two deer were  feasting on the windfalls, their pelts grey and white tails dripping from all the rain, their bellies fat from all the apples.  She and I rescued enough to fill three large grocery shopping bags.  Twenty Ounces are well named; they are 4-5” in diameter,  and I’ll use them to make applesauce. Naturally sweet, they’ll need no sugar, only a little cinnamon and nutmeg.

My cousin and I had lunch at the same restaurant where I ate more acidic than alkaline last week and today it was no problem.  They had a good minestrone soup, and I didn’t eat the baguette & butter that I couldn’t resist last week.   Why, I wonder?  Maybe it has something to do with making these choices public.  In writing about them, I’m becoming more conscious of them, and of my own strong desire to make good choices.

After lunch, we drove  to North Beach to let Binka the dog have a good run; she scampered and leapt in the high winds, which drive straight down from the Strait of Georgia, sculpturing the gravel into high mounds on the upper beach, tossing logs onto the grass beyond.  A few years ago, neighbors and I rescued a whole beach just west of where we walked today; storms had resisted all our attempts to make stone barriers against the waves.  Our rescue, which resulted in a beach that has expanded ever since, consisted of taking out the stone barriers and installing 10,000 cubic yards of small round stones and two small curved stone structures, only one or two feet high,  extending into the water at each end of the renovation project so that the stones could pass back and forth over them with the longshore currents.  The beach has grown mightily since then.

Perhaps there’s an analogy with this alkaline year; I’ve given up all the barriers  in the forms of “I must” eat everything,  planting instead the small stones of intention and choice.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Day 42 THIS ALKALINE YEAR Funny, Full Day (s)




I woke up laughing this morning because of what happened yesterday that I didn’t write about.    To appreciate the situation I’m about to describe, it would help to know that 1) our island has a 35 mph speed limit in most places; 2) my friend’s husband, L,  has Parkinson’s, is in denial of his diminished capabilities; and 3) there is an unusually long, steep hill near their home.   A few weeks ago,  L’s  son convinced him that he should not drive his big car any more, by appealing to L’s sense of right and wrong.  “What if you stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake and killed a child?  Instead, you could get one of those new electric cars, that will only go 25 mph.  That way you’d be unlikely to hurt anybody except yourself.”  L agreed.

So did his wife, although after helping L research electric cars on the Internet she became increasingly concerned about his choice: although relatively inexpensive ($6,000), it was not suitable for winter in these parts because of not having a hard enclosure, and the particular model that excited him had very little leg room for L, who is a tall man.  But she could not coax or argue him out of it.  “Okay,” she told him, “it’s your choice.  You make the arrangements.  I’ll drive you to the mainland to meet the dealer, but I’m not going to be part of it; I’ll go off and do the grocery shopping.”

The appointed day, a cold, blustery one,  arrived, and she left him to deal with the situation.  When she arrived back at the ferry,  she saw him huddled in the vehicle, right at the head of the ferry line.  Soon the boat arrived and he was the first car on.  He came back and sat in her car during the trip, because he was. . . duh!. . . cold, and. . . double duh!. . .  his legs were cramped.

When the ferry arrived at our island,  he was the first driver to leave the boat.  My friend realized, in horror, that  his top speed was about 15 mph, and that every car on the ferry—50 or 60--would need to follow him on the 17-mile route across the island.   Too stubborn to pull over, he led the creeping cortege  toward their home.  A somewhat smaller line of cars, some having turned off on other roads, followed him up the long hill towards his driveway, now at 11, 10, sometimes nine mph. 

Three-quarters of the way up the long hill, in a huge rainstorm, his electric vehicle ran out of juice.  He must have known it was happening, as he was able to park mostly off the road, at the edge of another driveway.  Ignoring the backed- up traffic, he tried to get his wife to push his car.   She told him he was crazy and that if he didn’t get in her car and come home with her, she’d leave him there.  

Later that evening, he told her he thought he’d made a mistake in getting the car, but she still felt so humiliated and angry from his flawed decision and the slow procession across the island that she couldn’t discuss it then.  When she finally gained perspective on the situation, a friend said:  “Maybe you could rent him out.  I bet other husbands would pay for that so their wives could see how good they are by comparison.”

* * *

Anyway. . . today was an amazing day that I never could have foreseen, and I ate alkaline all the way through!   Yesterday,  I learned that our priest had broken his forearms, and  at the  8 o’clock service we found that painful truth was true.   He’d been on vacation with his wife.  While putting luggage in the car’s trunk he’d stumbled over a suitcase; hurtling towards the tarmac, he put out his arms to break the fall and fractured the arms instead.  I started wondering what I could do to help and guessed maybe the best thing would be to make a lamb stew and take it to him and his wife, as she has had her hands full being his arms, so to speak.

As I was making the stew, with fragrant turnips, beets, onions, carrots,  yellow squash, and  chunks of lamb floured and sautéed in a little olive oil with lots of pepper and some salt,  I realized there were a few other people who might enjoy a stew too.  Packing up portions for six people, I remembered another friend who is by himself because his wife is in a nursing home on another island, and asked Jack if he’d like to take a seventh meal to the friend.  Jack is such a trouper!  He likes his friend very much and enjoyed a couple of hours watching football with him while I took the stew to the other recipients.   Best stew I never ate!

Jack had noticed that I’d not left any for him and our houseguest, so I stopped at the store on the way home and found ingredients to make another one, this time reserving some vegetables for my own portion.  In this second stew, I used a little paprika in addition to the salt and pepper, which also enhanced the veggies’ flavors. 

DAY 41 THIS ALKALINE YEAR Plan, Plan, Plan!


This has been a laid-back, friends-and-neighbors sort of day. It started at 8 AM with a walk around the lake with my neighbor and our dogs, went on to Centering Prayer in the parish hall at church, then a neighborhood meeting and potluck (I chose salad, took but didn’t eat bakery cookies because persons whose last names begin with T were supposed to bring desserts & I didn’t have fruit handy) in a lovely old mansion that’s on the National Historic Register, after which I visited an old friend who had a stroke about a year ago. Jack watched football with another friend. 



In another hour, we’ll go to hear a singing group from Portland (OR) at the cultural center. They are having a reception sponsored by The Lower Tavern, which rightly claims the best burgers in town, at least from my experience of nearly three weeks ago.    I’ll eat some fruit and an avocado beforehand; planning always helps! 






NOTE: This was written, but not posted, yesterday.  The singing group, Stolen Sweets,  had the most perfect timing and harmony that I've heard in a long time.   Jack loved the burgers and brew; I ate some of his cole slaw.


Friday, November 6, 2009

DAY 40 THIS ALKALINE YEAR Does Food Change Our Energy?





During lunch at the EFT workshop today, we got to talking about food as energy, and the conversation went well beyond what we all know as calories.  Is it possible that the kinds of food we eat change our basic energies?  I think so.  An obvious example, for many of us, is that when we eat sugary foods, we get sort of hyper, and all the disease states associated with high intake of junk foods are characterized by changes in attitude, feeling, thought.  Such changes certainly aren’t the same for everyone; a teenager may consume lots of junk foods without obvious energetic changes, where if I do it, I’ll notice the difference almost immediately.  However, on thinking back to a teen-aged time when I drank lots of Cokes, I remember a time of confused thinking and poor choices of other activities. 

Back to the basic question, it seems to me that our beliefs change our energies even more than the food we eat.   That may sound incongruent, coming from a woman who’s spending a year eating alkaline,  except that as you may have deduced, I believe that will do me a lot of good; indeed, it already has, witnessed by the fact that I sat through seven hours of discussion, exercises, and insights without feeling bored once.  Used to be, in meetings, that my feet and legs would twitch with restlessness!  Most of the credit for the new awareness goes to Nancy Southern, experienced therapist, coach, and sensitive human that she is,  but I also felt inner peace about the whole process.


Perhaps food changes the extent of our energies, while belief changes their direction.

The workshop was very productive.  When we began, we stated our inner and outer intentions for the seven-hour session.  Inner intentions were  feelings: how did we want to feel at the end of the day.  Outer intentions were more in the area of what we wanted to accomplish.  Someone remarked that this would be a good exercise to do at the beginning of any day, along with  checking in again at day’s end.

Yams are baking in my kitchen and I need to make a vegetable stew for Jack.   Good day!

Thursday, November 5, 2009


DAY 39 ALKALINE YEAR Learning from Failures  & Successes

Today I flopped!  Lunch with Jack at our favorite restaurant and couldn’t resist three slices of a baguette, with butter, all very ACF*, along with a cup of very good squash soup.  The restaurant had cheese (ACF) in the soup, which made the lunch a total failure.   I enjoyed it, but wished the soup had been flavored with spices rather than cheese.

Why is it,  I wonder, that restaurants (and food writers) tend to think one “healthy” ingredient in a dish means that the whole mess is good for vegans and alakarians?  I’ve seen the most horrendous combinations of dairy, meat, carmelized sugar and a lone bit of vegetable on menus.  That said, the responsibility for choice still rests with me and I blew it.

On the other hand, an hour later while visiting friends, I had no trouble resisting the cookies, and the sense to ask for hot water when the other choices were caffeinated tea and coffee.  Tonight for dinner I made baked squash (medium AF), filled with lightly-boiled kale (high AF) with squash seeds sautéed in a little olive oil and a veggie burger for Jack.

Tomorrow is a retreat and a treat.  Six of us who use a therapeutic modality known as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are gathering for seven hours to work on individual and group intentions.   I’m taking the usual grapefruit, avocado, almonds and sunflower seeds, and a jug of alkaline water.

*ACF = acid-forming; AF = alkaline-forming

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

DAY 38 ALKALINE YEAR The Living Matrix


 Last night, in a friend’s home, several of us saw The Living Matrix, an alternative-healthcare film that presents several scientists discussing energy healing.  I am convinced of the validity of working with our energies.  Back in 1956, when I didn’t know a chakra from a doughnut and much preferred the latter,  I was going into final exam week at college.  Severe tooth pain was interfering with my study time.  The notion came to me to see if I could will the tooth pain down to my big toe, where it wouldn’t hurt so much.  Sure enough, my toe throbbed all week, but my brain was free of pain and I was able to study for the exams.

What if, as scientists such as Bruce H. Lipton, PhD (The Biology of Belief) and Candace Pert, PhD (Molecules of Emotion) have found,  every cell in our bodies is a thinking, communicating energy producer and consumer?  Doesn’t that mean that we contain within ourselves, trillions of resources that we can use in our daily lives?

Certainly food is a way of stimulating our cells, so that we can use these resources for ourselves, for humanity and—who knows?—for the universe.  Our beliefs about food DO matter, and the more we put our God-given intelligence about nutrition to work, the better everybody will feel and behave.

Having said this, I’m going to offer a variation on straight alkaline eating, intended only as a very occasional treat (I ate seven!)   Our hostess last night served coconut macaroons, made with egg whites (low ACF*) and unsweetened shredded coconut (low AF*).  MMM!  To make them, whip the whites from two large eggs with a pinch of salt until stiff, fold in a cup of coconut, drop a teaspoonful of the mixture onto a cookie sheet oiled with coconut oil, bake in a preheated 300-degree oven 20 minutes; turn down oven to 200 degrees and leave in another 10 minutes, or more if you like browned macaroons.




*ACF= acid-forming; low AF = low alkaline forming 

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

DAY 37 ALKALINE YEAR Eating While Cooking

DAY 36 ALKALINE YEAR  Eating While Cooking

While making zucchini bread for a mob (our turn to serve lunch at the Food Bank),  I began to realize the need to curb my own intense desire to taste food while cooking.  In the first place, if you believe in germ theory as presently promulgated, it’s unsanitary.  If you don’t hold such beliefs, it’s a question of what you’re cooking.  For instance, with zucchini bread, my old cookbook calls for sugar and flour, both of which are high acid forming (ACF).  All my life, I’ve tasted whatever I was cooking, but the habit has to go.  Hint:  washing up quickly after the baking removes temptation to lick the pan! 

Monday, November 2, 2009

DAY 36 ALKALINE YEAR Thanks, Dr. Sattilaro!

While waiting for my friends’ carpool to go to an auction on San Juan Island, I started thinking about Anthony Sattilaro, MD, whose 1980s book with Tom Monte, Recalled by Life, had boosted my resolve to begin changing my dietary preferences. Diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer in 1978 when he was President of the Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia, he became cancer-free for a few years and lived until 1989.  He attributed this to adopting a macrobiotic diet, with lots of brown rice, sea and land vegetables.  He was so inept at cooking for himself that he needed to hire people to cook for him.  If he’d known then what many people now know—the alkaline foods—he might well have lasted a lot longer.  What he came to believe—and it’s all dependent on our beliefs—was that brown rice (low ACF*), polenta (made with corn meal, medium ACF), noodles, tofu and other soy products (all high ACF) constituted along with the veggies a healthy diet.

Finding that the macrobiotic diet was not completely satisfying—I’m not fond of seaweed (high AF) despite having grown up where there’s lots of it--he returned to most of his previous nutritional choices before he died.  His ultimate demise (from either pneumonia or cancer) was hailed by some as meaning that diet, especially macrobiotic diet,  couldn’t do anything to prevent or cure cancer.  I think Dr. Sattilaro was going in the right direction without all the necessary tools.

I couldn’t have done this blog a few years ago because the scientific underpinnings just weren’t there.  Dr. Robert O. Young’s pioneering work, for instance, in The pH Miracle (2002).  The guide to managing pH levels of food in your body, by Dr. Susan E. Brown and Larry Trivieri (2006), is indispensable for planning meals and, for that matter, choosing foods when eating out.  At the auction today were sandwiches, a fruit salad, squash soup and cookies, plus lots of well-frosted cakes.  No surprise: I chose the fruit salad (most fruits are in the AF ranges) and squash soup (high to medium AF), enjoyed the auction action,  and held off bidding on the sugary foods; one almond cake went for $45, so I saved myself money as well as unhealthy eating.

Wrote Dr. Sattilaro [in Living Well Naturally (1984) p. 41]: “A good diet is your best defense against serious illness, but it is more than just protection against disease. . . [it] can make you feel better in body and mind.”  Thanks, Dr. S!

*ACF = acid forming;  AF = alkaline forming

Sunday, November 1, 2009

DAY 35 ALKALINE YEAR Headstart on Holidays


Served hot soup to cold trick-or-treaters last night at church, where we gave out bracelets that lighted up instead of candy, and also “soul cake,” in small enough pieces so sugar highs wouldn’t come from us. (I skipped the cake and had a cup of bean soup, low acid-forming on the beans but also with lots of alkaline veggies.) The church is in the middle of our  village, where everyone comes to show off their costumes; many children and their folks came in also to walk the indoor version of our Labyrinth, this one on canvas.  We’ll have a permanent outdoor version by next spring.

At the church first-of-month breakfast this AM,  I feasted on  a dish of oatmeal (good moist oatmeal, low alkaline forming) with raisins, medium alkaline, a few green grapes (medium alkaline forming) and a mandarin orange (very alkaline forming).  Around lunchtime I had a grapefruit (medium alkaline)  and some sunflower seeds (low alkaline).

This afternoon was another festive occasion: the Garrisons’ annual cider pressing party. They have restored an old island orchard and the trees are prolific!  Childen and dogs frolic under the trees while everybody else gabs, eats, and takes turns with the pressing.  The leftover apple mash is thrown out to the deer, who in a few days will be staggering around under the influence. Apples and apple cider are usually  medium alkaline forming, but I wasn’t hungry, so spent the time visiting rather than eating.

Back home, with two good Scrabble games, I had a few handfuls of almonds and an avocado.  Jack having had dinner at the party, ate some almonds.

One of the reasons that so many people get sick during the holidays, I believe, is that they consume so many acidic foods, both while cooking and while attending parties.  If it makes them happy, great!  I prefer wellness.  So today was a fine headstart for the feast days to come!