DAY 34 ALKALINE YEAR Belief Systems

DAY 34 ALKALINE YEAR  Belief Systems

Something about dinner troubled me last night and now I know what it was. Sue, who cheerfully acknowledges that she’s overweight, urged me to keep part of the leftover apple pan dowdy.  I thanked her but said that since I don’t eat sugar and Jack is diabetic and shouldn’t, I’d better not take part of it.  She said she’s diabetic too but that the dessert is okay to eat because she used “half sugar and half Splenda” in making it. Furthermore, there were "lots of walnuts" in it, so the starch-and-buttery crust was the only no-no.  Never mind that walnuts are very acid-forming.   She felt generous in leaving two pieces,  one for Jack and one for our house guest.  As generosity is a joyous aspect of the human spirit, I assented, knowing I wouldn’t eat it.

Why, given the discomforts that reportedly go with  diabetes, would anybody continue eating in the old ways?  My belief is that ALL sugars, including the substitutes, contribute to the adverse cycle that the disease brings.  However, I know that’s my belief, and it may only be by showing people that I don’t get these diseases of aging, and that neither do most people who eat this way, that general change will  occur.

During the inevitable sugar debate at dinner last night, I remembered a recent New York Times article about a man who said he had eaten almost nothing but sugary foods since early childhood, when a psychiatrist reportedly told his parents to give him what he wanted to eat rather than to endure projectile vomiting when they forced him to eat vegetables.  In his mid-thirties when interviewed, he looked perfectly healthy.  He probably was.  It seems to me that the man was responding to his belief system, which became fixated early on, and that it was such a total belief that it carried him, at least into his thirties.  If his belief system isn't weakened by exposure, he could live until a ripe old age.

What if our beliefs are transmitted to each cell in our bodies, which respond appropriately? The Crusaders believed they had to kill and convert for Christ, and the Muslims vowed revenge down through the ages; neither displayed any godly sense at all.  While food wars aren’t likely to happen over the merits of sugar, sugar substitutes, walnuts and meat vs. eating alkaline,  the very fact that I felt troubled over conflicting beliefs means that food, like every other area of life, is an arena in which to practice compassion, toward ourselves as well as others.

DAY 33 ALKALINE YEAR Art: Ancestral, Fine, & of Avoidance

Today was a good ol' alkaline day, no surprises, no major temptations.  Spent the afternoon helping to hang a show, Honoring Our Ancestors, at our Senior Center. So many journeys people have made all over the world, whose descendants wind up here! The great grandparents of one vibrant woman came from China on a junk to Monterey, California, and started the fishing industry there.  The parents of another island couple both were painters; one was a house painter and one was a fine arts painter!

One person who helped a lot with the  Ancestors show, Jackie Kempfer, had just come from putting together her new studio.  She is meticulous and kind as well as being a fine artist.  As we only had one hammer, she wound up hanging most of it.  We all were so delighted by the variety of ancestors who showed up, figuratively speaking, that we decided to have a public reception the middle of next month.

Three of us stopped by our cultural center afterwards to see the opening of another show, this  one by students of Terry Johnson, himself an artist  of great scope and talent.  Most of his students are no slouches either.  I particularly liked the work of Bill Trogden, a retired architect who studied at Harvard with Gropius.  I easily avoided the hors d’oeuvres table as well as the wine bar, pat pat pat!

Another artist who helped hang Ancestors, Sue,  and her husband Bruce, came for dinner. Sue made apple pan dowdy for dessert and the men were most appreciative.  I cut up an apple for my dessert, explaining that I need to eat this way for a year because of the blog.  Thank you, blog!

Alkaline Year: DAY 32 ALKALINE YEAR A Loving Journey

Today started in a driving rainstorm, a wonderful time to stay home in my bathrobe, play Cribbage with Jack, dress in the late afternoon to attend our Yacht Club’s annual crabfeed, and, between these events, braid the stems of a dozen lavender wands I’d woven a month ago. In order to braid the stems tightly, it’s good to let the woven wands dry for a  month or so.  One of these days, if anybody would like that, I’ll publish my directions for making the wands. One reason I enjoy lavender so much: it, like me, is alkaline-loving.  Every fall, just before the rains set in, I give each of my 60-odd mature plants a cup or two of bone meal, much simpler than my nutrition, which requires new infusions a few times a day. 

Instead of staying home, today turned out to be a journey that was nutrition for the soul. A former associate called to say that K’s doctor was sending him to the Convalescent Center (CC) on a neighboring island.  Could I drive him there?

Of course!  K’s a big bear of a man, a retired contractor and sailor who has done a lot for seniors on this island. He has aged in place with his wife of 67 years.  She already is in the CC because he could no longer care for her at home.  I’d heard yesterday that she was failing, and regretted not having enough time to visit her then.  He hasn’t been able to visit her for some time, as it is difficult for him to walk.   Jack, who has lunch with K twice a week, agreed that I should go.

“I’ll catch the 3:30 boat & be home for the Crab Feast,” I told him. I tucked a sparkly purple lavender bag sachet into my purse for K’s wife, who loves stylish chotchka.

Forty-five minutes after we got on the ferry, we wheeled into the CC, where the worried-looking administrator approached us.  “I’m sorry you had to go out of your way to come here,” she said, “but if we admit K he’ll have to pay the full private fee.  His doctor’s nurse couldn’t catch you before you left home, but he’s decided to send K to the hospital on the mainland  for three days of tests and treatment; then they’ll discharge him to our place.”

That meant another 1.5-hour ferry ride to the mainland as our islands don’t have a hospital.  I called Jack.  “Honey, I may not make it to the Crab Feast tonight,” I told him.

“No big deal.  K is more important,” Jack reassured me.

The next mainland ferry didn’t leave for two hours, so we had plenty of time for a visit with K’s wife, who is frail and emaciated, dozes off every minute or two,  but retains her beautiful smile and personality of a movie star, as befits a girl who grew up in Hollywood.

“K, you’re looking good; your eyes especially,” she told him as he wheeled himself up to her bedside.

K took off his glasses and wiped away a tear or two. “I’m feeling good because I’m in the presence of two beautiful women,” he told her.  We all beamed at each other.  I was so overcome by emotion for these two lovers that I couldn’t think of a snappy retort.

At lunch before boarding the ferry, I had both starch and dairy, in the form of Asiago cheese in an excellent tomato soup, and half a grilled-cheese sandwich on dark rye.  Aside from that, my day-long fare has been completely alkaline as usual.

On the subsequent ride to the mainland, K wanted to use the ferry’s elevator to go upstairs to the bathroom.  It was so hard for him to get out of my low car that I enlisted help from a strong-looking male passerby.  In the main salon I read to him from Cruising World, one story about catamaran sailing in Baja California, and another one by a middle-aged sailor chatting in a hospital room with his mother, herself a lifelong sailor. I know he enjoyed the story because he listened so intently.

After leaving him at the hospital,  before the long ferry ride home, I stopped by the supermarket and bought a lot of organic vegetables plus, as a special treat, a jar of cream to diminish wrinkles.  I know it’s probably too late, but I never can say never!

DAY 31 ALKALINE YEAR Health Care Debate: Golden Halo, Clay Feet

October 28, 2009 Our national health-care debate, while sporting a golden halo of respectful care for each other’s insurance needs, has clay feet because of its total absence of emphasis on individual responsibility.  Such neglect can only erode our greatest resources: ourselves.

When I worked in Hawaii with elderly poor folks, it was common to find a new client using 10-20 prescription medications which they could not manage despite the plastic containers cleverly labeled with “day of week” and “time of day.”  A friend told me today that her late husband, who’d never taken any medicines, was hospitalized with a heart attack, came home with  12 different prescriptions.  She put red stickers on the bottles for AM, blue for lunch, green for evening consumption. 

At another job, I worked with a person who used every single day of sick leave every month for more than five years, also asked co-workers to contribute some of our vacation time (I did) when his ran out, and sometimes fudged a day on the time sheet when too drugged out from the latest surgery to drive to work.  Lifestyle changes relating to nutrition, exercise and methods to increase inner peace and self-acceptance could have extended his healthy life as well as those of the elderly poor.

However, such changes are not rewarded substantially in any insurance plans I’ve seen.  Kaiser comes the closest, with a strong educational program, to helping people become aware of the need for healthy habits.  Lowered premiums for people who certify that these changes are in place?  Nobody does that much; most of the large companies apparently figure that the healthy’s lack of illness will balance the unhealthy’s over-use of healthcare resources.

Nowhere is this more evident than in human nutrition. Have you noticed, lately, that  people are munching everywhere?  This empty-calories consumption is ubiquitous.  In a local classroom, a bright teen-ager used the Heimlich Maneuver to save the life of his teacher, who was choking on a. . . Tootsie Pop.  What in heck was the teacher doing eating a Tootsie Pop in class?  What sort of example was he setting?

How do we achieve healthcare plans that reward people for taking care of themselves, without neglecting the neglectful?  I don’t know if we can. Part of the problem, of course, relates to truthfulness.  I’m writing this blog on alkaline eating; for all you know, I could be scarfing down bacon and chocolate milkshakes.  (Okay, I did have some corn chips with my guacamole last night, and French bread with my yam soup when friend Sue and I ate lunch in Roses Restaurant, today.)  Perhaps healthcare companies should be required to provide low-cost plans to people whose practitioners attest their claim to healthy lifestyles: an absence of smoking; drinking wine or spirits;  alcohol being extremely acidic and right up there with coffee; age-appropriate exercise.  Certainly there couldn’t be any more moral dishonesty in such a  practitioner-documented requirement than currently exists in Medicare prescription frauds.

Such provisions would add lustre to the halo as well as encouraging healthy feet on which our health care could become newly balanced.

DAY 23 ALKALINE YEAR  Drying Herbs

My women’s group has an annual boutique to raise money for college scholarships and to support a small college.  Our members vie to bring new items to sell, usable or decorative household equipment and furnishings, and of course the baked goods.  Not wanting to do the latter, and having simplified  life to where we have a minimum of household stuff, I decided this year to focus on herbs.

All summer, I’ve been drying lavender, from the stalks which I grow, weave and sell.  (See orcaslavender.com.) I used to dry lavender by hanging it in the garage, which took several months.  Because this summer was warm and dry, I took to spreading the plants out on top of the hot tub and leaving them in full sun for a week.  I stripped the dried stalks by hand; it helps to wear clean cloth gloves.   An unexpected windfall of a friend’s lavender, free for the cutting, meant that I had enough to fill several dozen small bags  that I purchase on Papermart.com.

What other herbs might work?  Looking around my kitchen deck, the sage plant caught my eye.  We’ll never use even a small amount of the sage it produces.  Ditto with the oregano plant next to it.   Technically you’re supposed to gather sage when it’s just at the budding stage, but these leaves are fragrant, so into my dehydrator they went.  Tomorrow I’ll do the oregano. The sale will take place just before Thanksgiving, perfect for turkey stuffing.  I’ll package them in small plastic baggies.

One of the advantages of simplifying my diet has been that I’m becoming more conscious of flavors.   The soups and  vegetable stews I’ve been making seem tastier than they used to.  Hm.  I may not offer all my herbs at the boutique.

DAY 30 ALKALINE YEAR Eating with Others Sustains Us

October 27, 2009 Today was Food Bank Day; we’re such a small community that it’s only open one day a week.  Once in a while somebody suggests that it would be good to open one night as well, to accommodate working folks; in the meantime one woman picks up for the dozen or so families who are in that position.  What’s wonderful about our Food Bank, housed in the social hall of the Community Church, is that everybody, volunteers and participants alike, eat lunch together.  For a long time, the church ladies made the lunch; now, three other churches are taking one week a month to provide the food.

Peter Farb and George Armelagos, in their book Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating  (1980), pointed out that in all societies, eating is the main way of initiating and maintaining human relationships.  Certainly, that’s true here.  For the volunteers, a break from stacking the cans on shelves, or bagging the basic foods that everyone gets, or picking up donations around town (my specialty) is a welcome chance to talk with friends and relatives who may be on either side of the counter.

Although I didn’t eat much today, having had a very late breakfast before coming to the Food Bank, I enjoyed good Red Zinger tea and chat with one of the most physically beautiful men I’ve ever met!  He’s tall,  maybe 6’6”, with high, chiseled cheekbones and comfortable posture.   He also knows a lot about energy medicine--which I’ve read a lot about--from having been a massage therapist for many years, and he discusses the merits of techniques from shiatsu to rolfing and Swedish massage and chakra balancing with great authority.  One advantage of being my age is that lust doesn’t get in the way of a good conversation!

Today was special in another way: somebody is stepping up to the plate who can take over my job of coordinating volunteers when Jack and I go to Arizona at the end of the year. Maggie, on her first day today,  spent a lot of time stacking groceries, trying to figure out where donations should go.  Requirements for the volunteer coordination are  a little tact, and knowing what the various jobs require.

Sunny, chilly afternoon: Susan and I walked around the lake with her Stanley and my Binka.  There are so few people using the lake at this time of year that we let them off their leashes; they chased each other, tussled, growled and had a ball.  Her one-woman show is coming up soon at our artists’ cooperative, Artworks; she seemed relaxed today after a lot of hard work putting it together.  It has a common theme of a vanishing American artifact: clotheslines.   In this day of Laundromats and home dryers, she spends time imagining what different people would hang out if they had clotheslines.  There’s so much more about her work that is unique; she deserves lots of success.

DAY 29 ALKALINE YEAR Drink, Don’t Eat! (Just foolin’)

October 26, 2009 Even while eating alkaline, I tend to eat more snacks than I need, as evidenced when a pound of almonds or sunflower seeds disappears overnight!  To change that habit may take me some time, but I’ve started by substituting water for snacks some of the time. Will report back in a month!  A constant companion these days is a trusty stainless steel quart bottle full of alkaline water and a teaspoon of powdered greens to be sure I get enough.  The stainless prevents people from asking dumb questions such as, “Are you still drinking swamp water?”  As I drink about three quarts of water a day,  it’s a handy way to prevent over-snacking.

I first started drinking powdered greens in Honolulu ten years ago, because my co-workers and I found a small place that served both powdered greens and juice made from kamut sprouts.   We found that the greens gave us an energy boost.  Every time we went there, one or two people would be drinking the fresh juice and discussing their recoveries from various diseases.    Knowing I wasn’t eating enough veggies, I bought a greens supplement made, if I recall rightly, by Dr. Hajiwara.  I did this intermittently for several years, but for the last two or three have switched to DocBrocs, made by the pH Miracle folks.  Both preparations can be found online.

Some people have told me they can’t eat kale, one of the highest alkaline-forming vegetables, on doctor’s orders because it interferes with calcium absorption.  It’s true that the oxyates found in such greens as kale, as well as phytates, found in cereal grains such as oatmeal and bran, interfere with calcium absorption.   Just don’t eat them within two hours of consuming foods that you depend on for calcium, including supplements.  So if you have a blender soup for breakfast, as detailed in yesterday’s blog, and are taking a calcium supplement, use the latter at lunch.  If you're drinking water with added powdered-greens, as suggested above, make one quart of clear water and take your calcium supplement an hour into that bottle.   If it takes you three hours to finish a quart, there should be no interference with the absorption.

DAY 28 ALKALINE YEAR Breakfast Soups

October 24, 2009 Today being cold and wet,  I decided to make a breakfast soup.  Jack has eaten them in the past but prefers his bran cereal with blueberries and rice milk, a healthy choice according to conventional nutritional wisdom.  It takes me only a minute or two longer to make my soup than it does for him to take blueberries out of the fridge, pour the cereal,  and add the rice milk.  Add a couple more minutes to the “longer” for heating it on top of the stove or in the microwave.  I prefer stovetop.

In my heavy-duty blender, I add the meat of an avocado, a few Brussels sprouts left over from dinner a couple of nights ago (refrigerated, of course),  some raw broccoli, part of a raw yellow crookneck squash,  a stalk of leftover cooked asparagus,  a couple of tablespoons of organic salsa (Muir Glen usually), and a cup of vegetable broth, or at least enough to come three-fourths of the way up the veggies in the blender. Pacific brand is organic but pricey; you can save money by making your own broth when you cook vegetables at night, storing it in a glass container in the fridge.  Turn it on the machine and WHIRRR! There’s your soup.   Heat & eat!

It is unusual, in food writing, not to specify the exact amounts in a recipe,  but I adapt to whatever is in the refrigerator.  Leafy greens, such as radish leaves,  scallion tops, and kale, added raw to the blender cup, make tasty soups along with a few of the “harder” vegetables.  To stay in a good supply of fresh veggies, I need to shop three times a week or visit the garden at least that often.  

DAY 27 ALKALINE YEAR Leftovers & Football

October 24, 2009  Today was football Saturday, with Jack’s beloved Oregon Ducks making a whopping victory over the University of Washington.  Had intended to go out and pound fertilizer spikes near the apple trees, but watching the televised game, plus a little nap when Oregon was comfortably ahead, proved more enticing.  It used to be that we would eat one, maybe two, bags of Orville Redemacher’s finest while watching a game, but I substituted a healthy batch of leftovers and we didn’t even miss crunching the kernels.   Jack had roasted salmon with a fresh lemon quarter (he eats these too!), pureed yams, and a slice of pie, and some almonds.  I enjoyed the yams, their coconut/nutmeg flavor intensified by overnighting in the refrigerator, the small amount of remaining ratatouille, an avocado, and a few more almonds. 

DAY 26 ALKALINE YEAR Company Dinner

DAY 26  ALKALINE YEAR   Company Dinner

October 23, 2009 This evening can best be described as a partial  “time out” from alkaline eating.  With Jack, two other couples and, for part of the evening,  Damien, I enjoyed a full cuisine: roasted salmon, ratatouille (eggplant, onion, tomatoes, with freshly-ground basil and turmeric), pureed baked yams with coconut milk (recipe from Day 24), Brussels sprouts,  and, for dessert, apple pie (spelt crust, healthier maybe but with a heavier texture than I like) with a spoonful of Lopez creamery’s cinnamon ice cream.  I opted for pear juice and two of the dinner guests had a glass of wine, and I chose tea instead of coffee.   Mostly we talked and talked and talked some more, the sorts of conversations that paused on occasion because we all,  I think, felt comfortable and well-fed!  So now it is nearly midnight and even when I don’t eat totally alkaline I want to keep this blog going.

Will I return to being an alakarian?  Tomorrow and the weeks after that will tell the story.

DAY 25 ALKALINE YEAR Is Concern about Flu Isolating Some of Us?

October 22, 2009 We needed to go to the mainland today; I was fortified with my usual avocado, almonds,  and alkaline water with powdered greens.   We sat on the ferry with a couple whom we’ve not seen for some time.  The husband expressed great concern about “catching” flu, merely by going to the mainland and rubbing shoulders in stores with the general population.    He said he “got” it the last time because he went to see his doctor.  The waiting room, he said, was full of “hacking, coughing sick people” and he came down with flu the next day despite being vaccinated.

This is a couple who are so hooked on SAMS (Standard American Meals, for anyone who may have tuned in late) that vegan eating is repulsive to them.  I listened for a few minutes, then excused myself and left to write this blog in my journal.

The conversation made me wonder: How many old people, old or young,  isolate themselves for fear of “catching” something?  This seems like a negative side effect of a partial understanding about germ theory, one which leaves us projecting fears of disease onto the outside world, then hiding from it.  Although I used to think of Pasteur’s germ theory as plain, dead wrong, I no longer feel that way.  Sure, people “catch” bugs,  but only when their internal milieu is compromised.  If our blood and lymphatic systems are optimally alkaline, we’re not going to get those critters.  And with our acidic SAMS, many people have low-level acidosis that predisposes them to flu and other diseases no matter how many vaccinations they get.  When I was eating SAMS, many years ago, I also was being vaccinated and I always came down with colds and flu within a few days of the shot. 

The difference between eating alkaline and eating SAMS is that I'm no longer anxious about flu, cancer, or any of the other major diseases that  seem to float around like Hallowe'en spooks.  I don't feel any compulsion to eat this way; I'm doing it because I want to.  No longer at the mercy of food whims, I'm fueled by something more important: to the degree that I can succeed in eating alkaline, happily and with regard for others, so can anybody else.   This way of eating could benefit the whole world, because every part of it is sustainable for the planet.

Day 24 ALKALINE YEAR Milk Substitute In A Yummy Hot Dessert

What do you substitute for milk when eating  alkaline?  Cow, goat and sheep milk are all mildly to moderately acidic; rice milk is moderately acidic; soy milk is very acidic, as are all soy products (tofu, soy nuts)  However, unsweetened almond milk and coconut milk are mildly alkaline, along with other nutritional attributes.  Both contain some protein.  A cup of coconut milk has 41 grams of calcium, and significant amounts of iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, according to the U.S. Nutrient Database.

As I don’t usually serve desserts, Jack being diabetic, I decided to give the boys a treat last night and made this yam pudding, a yummy hot dessert on a cold night:

2 medium yams, baked at 350 degrees F for about an hour, or until they are very soft

1 cup coconut milk, warmed

1 tsp. nutmeg

Mash the yams in the hot coconut milk; add nutmeg and beat well to remove lumps; place back in warming oven until ready to serve.

DAY 23 ALKALINE YEAR Drying Herbs

My women’s group has an annual boutique to raise money for college scholarships and to support a small college.  Our members bring beautiful  items to sell, usable or decorative household equipment and furnishings, and of course the baked goods.  Not wanting to do the latter, and having simplified  life to where we have a minimum of household stuff, I decided this year to focus on herbs.

All summer, I’ve been drying lavender, from the stalks which I grow, weave and sell.  (See orcaslavender.com.) I used to dry lavender by hanging it in the garage, which took several months.  Because this summer was warm and dry, I took to spreading the plants out on top of the hot tub and leaving them in full sun for a week.  I stripped the dried stalks by hand; it helps to wear clean cloth gloves.   An unexpected windfall of a friend’s lavender, free for the cutting, meant that I had enough to fill several dozen small bags  that I purchase on Papermart.com.

What other herbs might work?  Looking around my kitchen deck, the sage plant caught my eye.  We’ll never use even a small amount of the sage it produces.  Ditto with the oregano plant next to it.   Technically you’re supposed to gather sage when it’s just at the budding stage, but these leaves are fragrant, so into my dehydrator they went.  Tomorrow I’ll do the oregano. The sale will take place just before Thanksgiving, perfect for turkey stuffing.  I’ll package them in small plastic baggies.

One of the advantages of simplifying my diet has been that I’m becoming more conscious of flavors.   The soups and  vegetable stews I’ve been making seem tastier than they used to.  Hm.  I may not offer all my herbs at the boutique.

A new development with my lavender business: at the Food Bank today I worked next to another volunteer who weaves lavender wands.  We decided to get together tomorrow, compare techniques, and see if we're close enough in our weaving styles to make an effort to sell them on my Website when the new one is completed next month.  A  lavender Co-op?  Possible!

Day 22 ALKALINE YEAR A profound shift in nutritional awareness?

Googling “Acid and alkaline nutrition” this morning brought up some 903,000 entries. Does this signal a profound shift in nutritional awareness?

I think it does, and that it is driven by soaring healthcare costs.  When prevention of disease  is as easily managed as it is by shifting away from our society’s emphasis on an acidic diet, many of us find “eating alkaline” a small price to pay for avoiding major illnesses*.  There are contraindications, primarily within our drug-company-financed medical research, and while I can’t know that ethical and moral considerations will prevail at such institutions as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and the University of California,  I certainly hope and pray that will be the case.  Although I’ve seen much research indicating that food choices such as I’m practicing correlate with absence of disease, science moves by the preponderance of research and the new paradigm will likely take many years.  However, nutritional awareness is a more basic part of human experience  than scientific research.

Having said this, I must confess:  at the FEAST supper last night, I ate a smallish chunk of a delicious French baguette probably spread with butter and garlic, dipping it in my vegetable soup.  Although it was my first bread in 21 days it was not a big deal, although I’m a purist at heart!  Made up for it by politely declining the dessert: apple crisp topped with enough whipped cream to mousse a goose.  The supper benefited a program that gives credit for high school students to learn and apply farming techniques.  It was a great joy to listen to the students’ stories and see a slide show of their farm experiences, from diverting water to preparing a new organic fertilizer.    When my mother graduated from this same high school, it was called “Orcas Island Agricultural School,” so it is wonderful to see a program that applies new technology to the meritorious old profession of farming.

* To understand what is meant by "eating alkaline," go to Day Two of Alkaline Year.

DAY 21 ALKALINE YEAR Alkaline-forming Foods

A distinction may need to be made between alkaline and alkaline-forming foods, and the distinction explains why experts differ on what’s alkaline and what’s not.  In her useful little book, The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide, Susan E. Brown, PhD, CCN, discusses techniques for analyzing not only a food’s composition before it’s eaten, but also its composition after the body metabolizes it.  Until recently, estimates of acid-alkaline food impact were based on a technique that involved burning up the food.  If the ensuing ashes contained acidic remains, including sulfur, phosporus, and iodine, the food was deemed acidic; if the ashes contained calcium, magnesium, potassium and other alkaline minerals, the food was called alkaline.

In time, scientists  began to understand that a major effect of food  lay in  the types of chemical compounds left in the body after it was metabolized.  Techniques and formulae for analyzing this began to be developed by such people as the German scientists, Drs. Thomas Remer and Friedrich  Manz (1995) and later, Dr. Lynda Frasseto of the University of California (1998) and Dr. Russell Jaffe, who developed the most inclusive formula (to date) of calculating the impact of foods on body pH.  About that formula,  Dr. Brown writes that it has been “validated by his over twenty years of clinical experience in reversing chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis”.  She, too, has used this in working with “hundreds” of people who adjusted their early-morning pH levels by dietary modifications.

To me the most surprising food that I now take to be alkaline is lemon juice.  Its basic composition would lead you to think it is acidic, but it is highly alkaline forming in the body, according to Dr. Brown.  Last Thanksgiving the guest at my right, a feisty retired University of California biology professor, thought that was dead wrong and became so incensed at the idea that he moved over to the other side of the room and lay down on a couch to get over it.   Science does move on!

Writes Dr. Brown: “The more we understand about our body’s pH balance, the more we appreciate the complexity of our biochemical workings.  Clearly, the tables [that comprise her  book] are a “work in progress,” and over time, new scientific understandings will enable them to be refined and expanded.  For now, these tables will provide you with a good basis for developing a life-supporting alkaline diet.”

From now through the rest of this blog, unless other evidence comes to my attention, I’ll use the word “alkaline” to mean “alkaline forming,” from Dr. Brown’s tables primarily.

From scientific brouhaha to earthier matters, I’ve been drying apples for a couple of days now.   My dehydrator has been humming the whole time, full of my yard’s sliced Spitzbergens and  Roxbury Russets.  Both are still too green to provide enjoyable eating, but they will provide tasty snacks all winter.  Although most apples are moderately alkaline, drying them concentrates their sugars, so I wouldn’t eat them in the same quantities I’ve allowed myself with almonds.   I also sprinkle a cinnamon-nutmeg mixture on them before drying; Jack said the flavor “just explodes” in his mouth!

This morning after church, faced with our good Outlook Inn’s menu fare of sausage, bacon, eggs, brioche toast, and other goodies,  I chose unsweetened oatmeal cooked in coconut milk (both low alkaline) with half a sliced banana for garnish.  Superb flavors!  No regrets!!  I’m going to try this cooking technique at home with quinoa and raisins, for variety.  Instead of coffee, I splurged on my favorite Foxtrot tea, composed of peppermint, chamomile and rooibos, the latter an herbal plant that grows in South Africa.  All caffeine-free and satisfying.

DAY TWENTY ALKALINE YEAR Enough Protein? You Bet!

October 17, 2009  Today a friend asked if I was  getting enough protein during this time of eating fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, and almonds.  It’s a fair question, although my perception is that most of us eat far too much protein.  I came home and consulted the two important Internet resources:  the Recommended Dietary  Allowances (RDAs) and the U.S. Nutrient Database.  Both are compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Both are easily accessible online.

As a woman over 50, the RDAs say I need 50 grams of protein a day.   Today, I came in way over the wire at 61.95 grams, according to the  database, which breaks down its estimates according to size, weight, whether the food is cooked or uncooked, with or without salt.   Here’s what I ate, with the grams of protein in each item:  avocado (4.02); whole grapefruit (1.22); 2 large apples (1.16); a medium banana, (1.29); ½ baked yam (1.02); a medium tomato, 2.28; half of a red pepper (.85); a medium artichoke (3.47); a cup and a half  of raw almonds (45.34) and a half cup of Savoy cabbage (1.30).

I probably snack too much on almonds!  But if I weren’t eating them, and wanted to make that 50 grams of protein, there would be many choices, including, by grams: ½ cup cooked quinoa (4.07); ½ cup dried sunflower seeds (14); ½ cup cooked eggplant .41); a medium raw carrot (.57); a cup of cooked beet greens (3.70), ½ cup cooked beets (1.43).

DAY NINETEEN ALKALINE YEAR: WEEKEND FEAST

DAY NINETEEN ALKALINE YEAR

Weekend Feast

October 16, 2009 With the winter solstice still more than a month away, stormy weather seems to generate participatory activities on our island; in summer everybody is busy with tourist-related businesses or house guests or both.  Now is the time we enjoy each other.  For instance, tonight is a performance “workshop” of Dickens’ Great Expectations, to which Jack and I are going with neighbors to see a cast of local actors directed by a noted Seattle woman.  Tomorrow (Saturday), begins for me with centering prayer at my church, then a walk through Farmers Market to buy fall vegetables, a three o’clock drop-in to a going-away party for two artists, Susan Osborn and David Densmore, who will be traveling for the next year, and then a talk by Peter Fisher about the current status of Madrona Point. 

The latter is a forested  point of land that divides Eastsound into Ship’s Bay on the east and Fishing Bay on the west.  It is the only property in the continental United States that was purchased by a native American tribe for spiritual purposes, with the blessing of the National Council of Churches and, eventually, the Feds, whose annual appropriation to the Lummi tribe paid for it.  The land, designated by county ordinance as “forever wild,” went to the Lummi around 1990 as a site to honor their ancestors, with the condition that no buildings would be erected on it except for a small cultural information center, and that no wheeled vehicles would be allowed on it.   Unfortunately, some of us “European types” used it without carrying out their beer bottles and candy wrappers, and the Lummi closed it a year or so ago to the rest of us.   I’m looking forward to hearing if there is any solution that will allow us to help the tribe police the trash and to let everyone enjoy walking on Madrona Point, gather red berries in the fall from the red-barked trees for which the Point is named, in order to propagate trees all over the island (you crush the berries and mix bat guano with them, then bury them in a secluded place) and to pick blackberries in late summer.  Since the Lummi live mostly on the mainland, a lot of their succulent fruit goes to waste here.

But back to the feast of activities and events: Sunday is a lecture on “Memory and Emotion,” by a University of Washington professor.  The subject intrigues me because in using EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), I’m coming to understand  that emotion serves to keep memories in place, and that tapping on the main acupressure points helps to remove the emotions that keep me lodged in the negative parts of my past.  Nothing wrong with visits to the past; I just don’t want to live there!

After that, on Sunday, comes the real FEAST, a benefit in the Odd Fellows Hall  for a local program that gives teen-agers hands-on experiences in sustainable farming and building.  I’m interested in it because I want to understand the economics of getting more farm food into the Food Bank—and others around the country--on a year-around basis.  We had a splendid turn-out this summer of gardeners from all over the island donating their surplus fruits and vegetables, as well as an organic farmer, paid by a donation, who brought beautiful bounty from his crops.  In January, will the Food Bank be back to canned goods?

DAYS TWO, THREE AND FOUR: ALKALINE YEAR

[EDITOR'S NOTE: These three blogs were actually written Sept. 28, 29, and 30 in my journal, and I thought I'd posted them Oct. 1 but only saved them in draft, so am posting them Oct. 15]

DAY TWO Sept. 28, 2009 6 AM Orcas ferry landing

Usually when we go to the mainland we pick up a cuppa while waiting for the boat. Most often, that is accompanied by a bran muffin. Jack can't eat or drink anyway due to his pending surgery. That helps me stick to this alkaline-year resolve too; so eating is sociable.

Eating alkaline varies somewhat for individuals and groups that adopt it. For me, it means eating primarily vegetables, some fruits, grains, seeds, nuts, with no meats or fish, processed foods, sugar (except in fruits), coffee, or dairy products (we use rice milk), and drinking at least a liter of water daily (I add with green powder to my trusty stainless-steel water bottle). This vision/outlook is heart-healthy and has many other benefits that I'll explain below.

It's true that eating alkaline seriously restricts choices of road food. So I brought along a bag of almonds. Today, while waiting for Jack to come out of the surgery, I'll go to the farmer's co-op in Bellingham, pick up avocados and grapefruit to eat in the motel, and some good alkaline water. At home we have water with a good pH, although I'd to buy a water filter to bring it up to 7.3 or 4. (Not this year, my dear! until the economy improves)

Good hydration is difficult on the road. I'd like my drinking water to have a pH of at least 7.4 and occasionally if I've eaten or drunk badly, up into the 9s. For long trips, I usually carry pH drops, available in health-food stores, to increase the potency of bottled water.

As long as I can foresee events, I can plan my nutrition around them. Today, for instance, I anticipate a certain amount of anxiety while waiting for Jack's recovery, probably a few new concerns as we return home. Comfort food is OK as long as, for this one year, it's primarily alkaline.

So much of my nutrition devolves onto choice. I am choosing alkaline foods this year for the purposes of 1) understanding optimal balance for my body; 2) educating others through this blog; and 3) enjoying improved health, without rashes, headaches, colds, flu or any major illnesses.

During the past year, eating alkaline less than optimally (60 % of the time), I've only had one bout of flu. That one, which forced me to hand over honchoing a church breakfast, came after I'd eaten and drunk a lot of SAM (Standard American Meals) for several days on a trip across country. An outside "bug" may have infiltrated my thus-compromised blood during the flight home; the woman next to me sneezed a lot. But the precipitating factor, in my view, was that I'd created an internal climate that was friendly to the outside germ.

This concept comes from Professor Antoine Bechamp, a scientist who during his lifetime published many more scientific papers than his contemporary, Louis Pasteur. Bechamp's greatest contribution, which went virtually overlooked due to Pasteur's distortions, was his discovery of what he called microzymas, small cellular components that, when activated, started from within the breakdowns that result n various diseases depending on where the cells were beginning to change.

Generations later, scientists are still probing the question of what activates cellular breakdown. Bechamp hinted, in his book The Blood and its Third Element, that blood quality is the instigator. Claude Bernard came up with the concept milieu interne. Walter Cannon, early in the last century, referred to the maintenance of constant conditions of bodily fluids as homeostasis. Later in the last century, Robert O. Young came up with the concept of pleomorphism, defined as the process of cellular breakdown. He showed, via microscope, the process as it relates to specific illnesses. Where the cells break down relates to what the illness is called: atherosclerosis if near the heart, diabetes if in the pancreas, and so on.

Crucial to Young's hypothesis is that what keeps us healthy is the pH of the blood that bathes all our cells. The way pH intake affects our blood is easily demonstrated, as I've done several times. Using pH paper, available in most pharmacies and health-food stores, test the alkalinity of your urine. Dissolve a teaspoon of baking soda into comfortably-warm water and drink it. Ten minutes later, check again with the pH paper and note the difference.

It seems as though scientists are subject to the same emotional fits and vagaries as anybody else, which in my opinion accounts for the intemperate comments on this alkaline hypothesis. "Hogwash!" and "Crank," are but a few of the epithets applied to alkaline theory, phrases that reflect more upon their drug-company-dependent authors than upon scientific truth. After all, if cancer, heart disease, diabetes and their many variants, all can be understood as stemming from blood quality, which in turn is dependent by what--and how much--we habitually eat and drink, who needs to raise money for breast-cancer research? Why not, instead, turn efforts toward educating the public about optimal nutrition? Surely people who invest now in drug companies could make money out of backing optimally-produced foods.

Well, that's what I'm trying to do, educate by example, this year. In many past years, I wasn't sure enough of what optimal nutrition was, to write anything such as this. Now, I am. Another important influence on my own nutritional choices has been Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Gosh, after reading his descriptions of cattle feedlots, and recalling that when Jack and I drove up from Arizona last winter we endured horrible odors for 10 miles before and after a feedlot where beef cattle were standing in manure while eating steadily, I don't have any trouble giving up meat.

10 AM Left Jack in his room in the hospital, to return about 1:45 when he should be out of surgery, walked Binka the dog in a wonderful cedar park, disposed of her poop, then to the bookstore to find another copy of a book that rates most foods from "most alkaline" to "most acidic." On to the food co-op to buy emmer, the tasty grain that has the best amino-acid content of any grain going, and a few other groceries. Around noon, checked into the motel, devoured an avocado and a grapefruit, both organic. Brief rest, then back to the hospital, where Jack was out of surgery, color good, asking for a Reuben sandwich. ARRGGHH! It's his body and his habits, and I love him anyway. Also, at home, he's appreciative of veggies and able to stay off red meats and sugars most of the time.

6 PM, BACK AT THE MOTEL: One of the books I found earlier today was God's Nutritionist, a collection of observations by Ellen G. White, a founder of the Seventh-Day Adventists, for whom I have a lot of respect. When I worked in Honolulu, I always stopped by their hospital for lunch and was never disappointed. Mrs. White (1827-1915) advised: "Physicians who use flesh meat and prescribe it to their patients, should not be employed in our institutions, because they fail decidedly in educating patients to discard that which makes them sick." Ms. White's 20th-century editor had added a contemporary quotation from American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (9/99): "Populations of vegetarians living in affluent countries appear to enjoy unusually good health, characterized by low rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and infant mortality."

I know there’s a big difference between correlation and causation. However, Robert Young has made tens of thousands of photographs that show cellular breakdown in as many individuals; these cellular breakdowns have well-defined patterns corresponding to diagnosed disease states. That’s enough to cause me to eat alkaline.

DAY THREE September 29, 2009

Breakfast at the motel today was a grapefruit and an avocado, washed down with a bottle of pH 9.5 water that I found at the co-op. I wish that bottled-water companies were required to label the pH of their product; apparently they are required to do that in parts of Europe but not in the U.S. Total cost for my three meals (lunch and supper yesterday, breakfast today): $13.16.

Horrible headache last night, probably left over from that chocolate mousse cake, wine and crabcakes and coffee with refills of two nights ago. I've often noticed that intemperate eating does not directly (within a few hours) affect my physical symptoms. I think that eating unhealthily blunts the sensibilities so that you may not feel sick until the dis-ease breaks out. Anyway, thank God I lived through this one; I expect such headaches to decrease markedly during this coming year. Good to look forward to that!

Brought Jack home in general good spirits although very tired. Not in any pain, though he'd refused painkillers. The doctor had performed an angioplasty, according to his assistant who came by to check this AM.

DAY FOUR September 30, 2009 Choices, choices! Wonderful night's sleep, no headache, old friends from here & Hawaii coming for dinner tonight. Jack happy to be home, playing with Binka, good game of cribbage with breakfast. My choices for today include A) cutting more lavender downtown at Enzo's, where the owner gave me permission to do that; B) a 12 Noon lunch birthday at Chimayo's for Sue Lamb (I can eat a small salad); C) coming home and preparing dinner afterward; D) taking Binka for a walk around the lake (2.7 miles); E) Richard Fadem's class on James Joyce's Ulysses.

Because of needing to tend to Jack earlier, it's already too late for Professor Fadem's class, so I'll have to scrub that one for this year, it being three weeks into the course. I never have liked James Joyce but figured the class would be good for me because the teacher is widely admired. O well, maybe next year! Likewise, there's no way I can spend a couple of hours cutting lavender and also make the luncheon and walk Binka and prepare dinner. So I'll choose B, C, and D.

A good reason for walking Binka is that these walks are when I habitually drink my first (sometimes only!) liter of water with green powder.

3:30 PM: So much for choices! After walking Binka, who at 11 months of age thinks she's a mountain lion and often walks in a crouching position to stalk squirrels and birds, I had 20 minutes to get to the birthday party. Undid her leash, reached back into the car to pick up my water bottle, and she was gone! Heard an ominous surprised "YIP!" from the road. Went out to look for her, called and called. No Binka!

Walked back into the house, where Jack, recovering from his angioplasty, was concerned. "I don't care if she is gone, I can't spend any more time looking for her," I told him. "Sue's party is more important. Can you make your own grilled-cheese sandwich for your lunch?"

Upon hearing his affirmative, I dabbed on lipstick, grabbed Sue's present, & took off. Halfway to the party, that ominous YIP! shot up from my unconscious. Was that Binka being hit by a car? Could she be disabled, lying in a ditch? Or worse?

Rushing into the restaurant, I explained to the birthday girl and to the other guests that our dog had vanished, might have been hit by a car. Jack couldn't drive (for 48 hours after the surgery), so I needed to return home & look for her. Handed Sue our gift & left.

Parking the car far enough away from the house so that Jack couldn't see me and worry more, I searched the roadsides north and south, then the nearest crossroad east and west. Then I went inside to see Jack. "Left the party early, needed to search for Binka, but didn't find her."

He said: "Somebody must have picked her up. Better call the Animal Rescue League and the Sheriff."

The League's answering machine said they opened at 2 PM. It was now 1 PM.

Settled in to make a salad for supper, from previously-cooked young beets, now sliced and with a diced apple. Easy prep. Ellen G. White, I'd read last night, wrote: "Those who entertain visitors, should have wholesome nutritious food, from fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple, tasteful manner. Such cooking will require but little extra labor or expense, and, partaken of in moderate quantities, will not injure any one."

I saved the beet juice to cook other veggies nearer to mealtime. There was a mango dressing in the door of the fridge; that would work despite whatever pH content it bore. That, of course is what you have to determine by the contents on the label, figuring out whether it contains any or all of the five alkaline minerals: calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron and manganese, and in what order. From my previous writing experience, I have on my bookshelf numerous references to help me analyze that, but lacking the time do do it, it's easier to avoid all processed foods. Normally that would include processed salad dressings--my standard dressing is lemon juice with olive oil, the former having an alkalizing effect inside the body, but today was not a normal day. O well, I didn't promise to be perfect!

Finally, at 2:15 PM, the phone rang. It was Ron, who lives about three miles away. He and his wife , Kathy, had picked Binka up on the road about two blocks from our home. "She was running right down the middle of the road," he reported. "She got right in the car with us, loved being patted. I had her number from her license, but had to wait until the League opened to find out who the number was registered to."

What a relief! We retrieved Binka with many thanks to this kind couple.

Our old friend arrived at 5;30, and we had the simple dinner that Ellen G. White would have approved: the beet-apple salad as first course, then a gemische (unsure of spelling but it sounds like what it is) of cooked (20 minutes boiling time) buckwheat groats, mixed with sliced orange pepper, chopped rainbow chard stems, tomatoes, tiny eggplant, zucchini, shallots, all sauteed in the beet juice, then topped with chopped chard leaves and simmered, adding a little more vegetable broth if needed, along with turmeric, garam masala, sea salt and grated fresh peppercorns. Ann had brought a small seedless watermelon and organic strawberries for dessert. Perfect!

DAY EIGHTEEN ALKALINE YEAR APPLE SEASON

DAY EIGHTEEN ALKALINE YEAR

APPLE SEASON

October 15, 2009  The abundance of apples this year is overwhelming!  My five trees, include a Roxbury Russet, at least two Cox’s Orange Pippin, with no records on the others.  The Russets aren’t quite ready yet, but the Pippins are huge and tasty, red, with some  red and yellow-green stripes.   Had one for breakfast--sliced so as to prolong the enjoyment—along with a half grapefruit and a handful of almonds.

In fact, the abundance of everything is amazing, in the middle of a world going through what some days seems like more than its share of misery.  Down in the village of Eastsound this morning, a man was selling “pinks,” salmon that normally come this way in October.  He’d caught them two days ago in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and a 5.6-pound one, well iced, cost $15.  I did freeze it because it will not be used for a week, and then to feed dinner guests, stuffed with rice or quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah), tomatoes and dill, baked in orange juice.  At that meal, I’ll enjoy the stuffing and whatever salad makings  and veggies are available for side dishes.

For dinner tonight, I’ll feed the menfolk and myself a vegetable stew consisting of yams (baked, diced) and beets (boiled, quartered slices), steamed small crookneck squash, a sautéed diced leek, freshly-ground pepper, sea salt, herbs de Provence, and, as they seem to like it, the staple turmeric.   (If they want it, I have both turkey burgers and veggie burgers on hand.)  Maybe baked apples for dessert, holding the brown sugar on mine.

Another insight that amazed me today, is how simple everything has become!  No longer do I worry about how many calories anything contains, or which food group it belongs to, or whether people will think I’m nuts.  No conflicts over eating fresh-baked bread, tofu, quiche, or ice cream  (all highly acid-forming).  My jeans fit; I can tuck a shirt inside them, and my weight is staying right in there between 113 and 119; my scales give a five-pound range whenever I remember to use them.

Walking our dogs today with a friend, I realized that the gift of this year has not come out of the blue; for years, I’ve been making little nutritional changes that made this decision to eat alkaline so easy, as it has been.  If you’re already doing that, or plan to, I wish it has been or will be the same for you!

DAY SEVENTEEN, ALKALINE YEAR Eatings at Meetings

DAY SEVENTEEN ALKALINE YEAR

Eatings at Meetings

October 14, 2009  In our local paper the other day was a story about a heroic young man who'd saved his teacher when the unfortunate man choked on a Tootsie Pop during class.  Why on earth was the teacher eating in class?    I suppose it's no different than a board meeting; seems like everybody eats everywhere these days.  


My  big challenge today was a United Way board meeting, which I chaired, on a neighboring island, Lopez, that has an incredibly good restaurant, Vita’s.  We’d decided to have lunch brought in from that wonderful place.   Not to give United Way an undeserved bad name: we each paid for our share.   I’d reserved mine before starting this alkaline year, and knew the food would be healthy, beautifully-prepared and also that it probably would include goat cheese, filo crust, boned chicken in peanut sauce and maybe crab cakes.   It did! What a feast!  Everybody else had a little more because I stayed with the vegetables.

Until the enormous tray was actually placed on the conference room table in the Lopez Library, where we met, I’d no idea if I could stay alkaline on this one.  I was pretty sure that Vita's would provide some straight vegan choices and they as usual did not disappoint.   In a handsome presentation, the  tray included marinated, sliced tomatoes, cucumber, and a salad of shredded carrots and, perhaps, cabbage, all of which I enjoyed fully. 

How lucky we are to live in a world of choices!  Home on the afternoon ferry and time now to walk Binka around the lake, so this will be a short blog.

ALKALINE YEAR DAY SEVENTEEN LUNCH AT THE FOOD BANK

October 13, 2009 This has been a lovely day, although not without a mishap!   Persuaded Damien to carry my pressure-cooker pot of turkey soup—must have weighed 40 pounds-- to the car this AM, and proceeded to the Food Bank with no idea if anyone would be there to help me carry it in, as it doesn't open until 12:30; the lunch is served in the church about noon.   A women's meeting was in progress, but there didn't seem to be anybody else there except an unfamiliar white-haired gentleman browsing at a bookshelf.

 “Pardon me,” I said, “does your doctor allow you to lift heavy things?”

“I don’t look that old, do I?” he smiled. “Sure, I lift grain sacks all the time.”

Max was there to see the pastor, as a representative of the Michigan-based Our Daily Bread, which publishes small booklets with a Bible reading for each day of the month. True to his word, he hoisted the heavy pot and carried it down to the church kitchen, and accepted my thanks graciously.

This was the first time that I’d used the kitchen, as well as the first day that my church down the road was providing lunch.  In pulling out platters to use for the bread and cookies, I accidentally smashed a nice glass one, just as the community church’s coordinator came through the door.

OOPS!  Great way to start!   She was very kind, said it had probably come from a garage sale anyway, and I promised to replace it.  Just then the other three from my church arrived with home-baked bread and salads, and we all got busy setting things out.  Our quartet became so excited about the process that we decided to try to set up a winter program in our own quarters to supplement this fine one.

I received good feedback on the soup, mostly favorable except for one man who said I hadn’t cooked the carrots long enough.  He was right; I’d put them in this morning so they wouldn’t be squishy.  But, as he explained, he didn’t have back teeth so they were hard for him to chew.  Good to remember when doing this again.

A half-hour later, my cousin arrived.  She lives on Social Security and the Federally-funded Senior Lunch, held on the same day as the Food Bank, at $4., is a bit pricey for her.  Although the Senior Lunch is supposed to be by “suggested donation,” diners are shy about offering less than their friends are paying.  Anyway, in the process of greeting her, I told her about smashing the plate.

“Don’t worry, I’ve a dozen I’ve picked up at garage sales,” she said. “You can drive me home after I get my food, and you can choose what you want.”

Back at her home, she pulled out two gorgeous dishes and I chose a clear-glass one with a heart pattern carved around its rim.  BINGO!

After returning to bring the plate and help clean up, I picked up the mail at the post office, came home to freeze the remaining turkey soup as what Gourmet used to call “frozen assets.” 

This blog is supposed to be about alkaline eating, so perhaps it would be best to end with what I ate today (including dinner plans):  a sip or two of turkey soup (no turkey) to be sure it was seasoned properly, half a grapefruit, a big avocado, four handfuls of almonds, an apple, garlicky mashed cauliflower (cooked, then mashed with sautéed garlic), a cup of a stew made from  diced eggplant, asparagus, red pepper, and red quinoa.