Eating gluten again

So I was convinced that eating a piece of regular bread would send me into a drunken, neurological funk. So I was apparently wrong.
It started with an ordinary supper of sausage and biscuits. Mine were gluten-free, and I think they were made of coconut oil, not lard. At any rate, they were too dry and starchy. I looked at the ordinary biscuits made with wheat flour and lard and said "Mom, you know what? I'm tempted to just ditch the whole gluten-free thing." She said we had plenty of things in the house for me to try. I was scared. I mulled things over in my head, and finally picked up a regular biscuit and took a bite. The taste was strange. It was like I could taste the baking powder, but it did have that gluten texture. I forced myself not to spit it out. I took another bite. I decided I didn't care for it, but I would see if I got sick. Did I? Nope. The next morning I had a regular biscuit for breakfast and didn't get sick. So now I am happily eating gluten again.
As I write this, I am staying awake for ANOTHER sleep-deprived EEG. Hey, it's all in the name of getting a diagnosis, right? I did see the neurologist. And finally I am hopeful that maybe someday the doctors WILL find out what is wrong with me.

Delicious Stage 1 muffins!

I was looking at a blog called "The SCD girl and her kid" and it has some awesome recipes that anyone early on SCD should try. Included was a recipe for carrot pancakes, which I had made before instead of squash pancakes. There was also a recipe for muffins. It called for 2 cups pureed fruit of veggie, so I used 1 cup each of applesauce and mashed carrots. I used the eggs, honey, and coconut oil, but omitted the cinnamon and vanilla. Best grain free muffins without nuts I ever tasted!

A trip to Farmer's Market

This morning my mother and I went to farmer's market. Or I should say one farmer's market, because it can't be the only one! There was nice fiddle music playing and we found local honey, eggs, beef, and lard! These things are hard to get. We also got vegetables and basil and cilantro to plant in pots, which I did. It was overall charming, and I commented: "This is how shopping should be!"

The $500 Question for Today

People frequently make health claims for the 'Paleo diet'. This is supposedly the diet we evolved to eat, as hunter-gatherers, and is incedentally grain-free.
But what if you don't believe in evolution? What if you believe that God created everything around the same time, and that He taught humans to farm? What if the 'diseases of civilization' are not from civilization itself but from an unbalanced diet? It was my mother who brought up these questions, incidentally.
I do not believe that diseases of civilization do not exist, but I also do not think that cavemen were completely healthy, seeing as how they starved half the time, or at least many of them did. I think diseases of civilization are caused by newer things, such as pesticides and antibiotics. Not farming.
There is evidence that antibiotics and vaccines can cause autism. You can make an argument on either side, but I stand in the middle. I think that vaccines and/or antibiotics can make an autistic condition worse, where it may not have manifested otherwise. I also think that not all forms of autism are alike, and that the 'autism epidemic' may be from different things such as antibiotics, vaccnes, all combined with industrial food. But I am not a certified health specialist, so I cannot say for sure.
So maybe we would all be perfectly healthy if we ate properly processed, organic food and everything was in moderation. Maybe if the doctors didn't shove antibiotics at you to make you go away, there would be fewer cases of autism. Maybe if everyone prepared their grains properly and there was no such thing as packaged, processed junk, there would be no need for grain-free diets that are necessary for healing in some people. This is just a theory, but maybe. Just maybe.

Why I am on the SCD diet

First you might ask "What is the SCD diet?" So first I will answer that. SCD is Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and the basic idea is that the only food you eat is easy to digest, so it doesn't feed bad microbes in your gut that cause brain problems. This means no grains, no sugar, and no starches (potatoes, tapioca, arrowroot . . .). Also the only dairy allowed is lactose-free. It has recently been approved as a treatment for autism and there is evidence that it can help schizophrenia. So what is there to lose?
I have been on this diet before for 'autistic' symptoms because I just felt awful. But after only a few months, I had a major psychotic break, was hospitalized and diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia, and taken off the diet. I was soon back on the GFCF diet because I felt drunk when I ate gluten. But going back on the SCD diet was not the plan - until a friend of my mother's went on it. Mom flipped through the book, and before I said good night, I mentioned:
"You know, when I was on that diet, my brain and my tummy felt way better."
So now I am back on the SCD diet and all I am eating is meat, eggs, carrots, bananas, honey and Welch's grape juice. Do I feel deprived. No. Apart from occasional sweet cravings, I feel sorry for everyone else when I see the junk they are putting into their bodies. Not all of them are, so I am not trying to be judgemental. I just want to feel my best. And this is how I do it. It may not be the same for everyone, but this is what works for me.