Dear Dr. Babooner,
Recently I accepted a co-worker’s invitation to go to a lunch buffet that she had raved about, but when I went down the line of offerings I didn’t see anything even remotely appetizing.
The restaurant featured the cuisine of a foreign country, so I didn’t want to appear disrespectful. I took a few of the less threatening items, but other delicacies looked absolutely prehistoric, like a paleontologist’s research project rather than a main dish.
My friend is enthusiastic about sharing her passions and seems unable to comprehend the possibility that others don’t feel the same way about it, so when she saw that I wasn’t selecting very much, she began spooning random servings onto my plate over my polite, but (to me) intense objections.
In “Weirdfoodistan”, she said brightly, “this is their custom! A good and generous hostess makes sure her guest gets the best and most of everything!”
Sitting at the table in front of this mountain of horrifying food that I was expected to eat, I committed an act of desperation – I faked an illness and pretended to pass out.
An ambulance was called and I was taken to the hospital and examined. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me, which complicated the matter and forced the hospital to keep me overnight. I missed work for two days, sympathy cards appeared on my desk the following week and I was charged $500 through my health insurance for the emergency services and some x-rays. I know that more bills are on the way.
Now this co-worker jokes about the incident and has asked me to go back there again to “finish the lunch we started”. But at these prices, I know I can’t afford it. Ever. How can I say ‘no’ in a way that is respectful and permanent?
Sincerely,
Mystery Meat Mortifies Me
I told MMMM one should never pretend to have a specific illness. Why? Real illness is always too close for comfort, and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is a famous story for a good reason. While good-hearted people have an infinite supply of sympathy for those who are suffering, it is possible to use up your personal portion if you appear to be greedy.
Also, actually having an illness is the thing that makes you an expert on all its symptoms and treatments. If you are pretending, it will only take a few questions to expose your deceit. That’s why, when faced with frighteningly exotic food, I claim I am on a “special diet”. Here’s the key – say as little as possible about it.
“I can only eat tortilla chips and cashew nuts. Sorry. I’d rather not talk about it. It’s between me and my doctor.”
The lack of specifics will immunize you against the accusation that you are a liar, and you’ll earn bonus points for discretion.
But that’s just one person’s advice. What do YOU think, Dr.Babooner?
Trail Baboon 
Morning all! Looks like you all were busy while I was out of town. I can’t wait to read all the Sleeterday comments. Of course, getting BACK into town on a bad weather day consumed my Saturday… delayed for quite a while in Dallas due to some cancelled flights back home. Although between the next-door neighbor and the teenager, shoveling was completed by the time I did finally get home!
As for MMMM today… wow. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile and I think my best advice is for MMMM to grow a spine. Sounds harsh so early in the morning, but seriously… to fake passing out rather than owning up to not having an adventuresome palate!?!?!
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Welcome back, Sherrilee. Killing time in Dallas was probably better than shoveling the extremely HEAVY snow we got on Saturday.
Speaking of growing a spine, I would like a new one to replace the one that struggled with all that wet stuff.
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and I want my hip back.
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I tried to run in the tall, wet stuff, which resulted in something like marching at a very fast pace, but only made it three miles before my calves got very tired. My two oldest sons cleared the snow, however, so spine is intact.
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I may be done riding, hoping to do about 80 more because I am 33 short of 4500 for the year and 80 short of 35,000 for the last 9 years. But this snow brought the change in weather I badly needed. Fall is very hard on me until we get a first blast of real winter. So my head is so much better today than it has been in quite awhile. Bet I can sneak in 80 miles yet.
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Clyde,
“Sneak” in 80 miles?? Well, if anyone can I bet you can… just be careful out there!
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My parents never traveled and avoided eating out, preferring to “nuke” frozen dinners to eating anything the least bit adventurous. But once–much against their wills–my parents were sent on a business trip that included Singapore and Tokyo. When a Japanese businessman wants to impress a foreign business associate, he takes them to the best sea food restaurant he knows. And so my parents were escorted to a sampan famous for its exotic seafood (stuff with tentacles, stuff with great big eyes, stuff served on seaweed, stuff that had not been cooked). And my mother had not eaten seafood in her whole life.
But she was nothing if not game, and she didn’t want to spoil business by being too parochial to eat this special dinner. Partway through the dinner my father had to stop conducting business because from my mother’s side of the table there was a noise like a Toyota going through a woodchipper. It was just my mother munching her king crab, shell and all.
The easy answer to avoiding Weirdfoodistan dishes is to claim an obscure food allergy. That would be credible, given the end of the first meal. Otherwise, I have been known to declare that my religion is extremely strict about diet, and it would expel me if I ate this (whatever food it is) on the menu.
Be keerful in your cars. Baboons! I hear our highways are a big Dodge-em car rink.
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Try this one: Multiple Senstivities or fribromyalgia, which often means multiple sensitivities
I walked into the Applebee’s last night with family, my daughter’s favorite place to eat, and had an immediate bad reaction. I thought that would I tough it out because I hate making the world or just my family have to adjust their wants and needs to me. Also, I have never reacted to Applebee’s before. But 2 minutes into it I was sneezing violently. I am sure it was the BBQ sauce, bet they were making a big batch or something. When it came time to order I could not concentrate enough to order–off of a menu I do not much like and so many of its foods include ingendients to which I react, and they will never change the dish as it is described. By then I felt so awful 1) I did not want to eat and 2) there was no point in leaving.
Problem is that most people think multiple sensitvities is not a real issue. So try FM; it’s sort of the hot sexy disease right now.
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To this day I do not know how to eat a crayfish, not that I wan tto.
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Clyde, crayfish (IMHO) is THE solution to a lust for shrimp or lobster. harvesting them doesn’t kill other things (i’ve read 5 pounds of something else dies for every pound of shrimp caught) and i just hate thinking about eating a lobster that is 20 years old – (that took all that time to get there and then fed one person)
my sister-in-law is from Morgan City, Louisiana. she can clean up a platter of crayfish in a few minutes – she’s that adept at it. they (meaning Louisianans) have a bumper sticker that says “pull my tail and suck my head” – a rather raunchy way to describe how one eats a crayfish but that’s the method. the meat is sweet and tender. it is prepared much the same as a north shore fish boil – but in season one gets corn on the cob and always some hushpuppies (at least where we went, that was the side).
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one bite at a time
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In all the traveling I used to do all over the US, my top ten meals are all seafood. I loved mixed seafood meals, whether friedn ro boilded in one pot.
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Sounds like a really miserable event for you – doesn’t your family notice when you’re violently sneezing & get what that’s about?
I have a hard rule about never eating anything that goes “crunch” if you step on it! That include lobster, crab, shellfish, shrimp, and large forest beetles. All I have to say is, “I’m quite allergic to the sound this would make underfoot”.
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Nancy, they notice after awhile but they know I will not leave. By then I am miserable and will be for several hours. It’s my rule, which they know, that I am not going to make them change to fit me. Grand kids were there and had big plans for Applebee’s on the ride over with us. Will not disappoint them. I avoid places I know are a problem–once switched churches for that reason. But if things are started, I only very rarely back out.
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At a fancy restaurant once my date ordered Oysters Rockefeller. I knew you were supposed to swallow them whole, but when I put one in my mouth, it seemed so large I was afraid I’d choke on it. I tried to surreptitiously chew it into smaller pieces, without success. I finally did manage to swallow it, hoping someone close by had Heimlich experience if it became necessary. One oyster was my limit. (Lifetime.)
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Rise and Buck up Babooners:
I’m with Sherrilee on this one 4M — Get a Spine! If you don’t learn to directly say no to unwanted requests you will be either stuck eating things you don’t want to eat or have many hospital bills. This response to your friend is up to you! I can’t even think of more to write on the topic. It’s just that simple. Try this: “No thanks. I’m a picky eater and that cuisine does not appeal to me.”
On the topic of things people don’t like to eat, I don’t like curry flavors. I love lots of spice and chili peppers, but there is something in curry powder and chili powder that creates a metallic flavor in my mouth. Most unpleasant. I think it is cumin that is the offender.
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My best friend has a similar distaste for cilantro. She refers to it as “that devil weed.”
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Cilantro has a mixed reputation for just that reason.
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I like a little bit of cilantro in things, although not lots. But the seed, which I believe is called coriander — don’t like that at all. Get that metallic thing.
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I learned to like cilantro. I had a friend who made a cilantro chutney which was really overwhelming. All you needed was a tiny, tiny bit on the edge of a tortilla chip. I disliked it but kept trying. Gradually there was a little more on my chip, a little more, a little more… and now I’m a cilantro lover. I’ve always loved curries and ground cumin.
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i am a curry and cumin fan. the more the better. i must be alone because now i have to go to co-ops to get my spice bottles filled that came form sams or costco or somewhere that sells monster bottles of spice for 5 dollars. i burn through a cumin, a chili powder and a curry as well as a bunch of the other indian spices much faster than most. people freak out when thesee my spice rack. it is 30% bigger than the cupboard that hold my dishes.( i keep cups and glasses in a seperate cupboard same size as spice rack cupboard) cilantro is growing in the yard vigorously enough that i make a wonderful salsa and eat it all summer.
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And do we have that salsa recipe in the Kitchen Congress?
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Thus far, I think either the “grow a spine” or “feign a food intolerance” are probably the way to go. The former is more honest, and less likely to get you in hot water if you can’t come up with specifics. As for the latter, you can either go with something ubiquitous like onions, which are in everything, and so often difficult to avoid (Darling Husband can’t have onions – believe me, this is a very limiting food intolerance). You could go for the newly popular gluten intolerance, but that’s so “now” it’s almost becoming passe, and you wouldn’t want to add “so 5 minutes ago” to people’s descriptions of you (after “big old liar person” for claiming an intolerance you don’t have).
The other option is to say, “why yes, I’ll gladly try the food again from Weirdfoodistan, but please let me select my own things to try. I was brought up by very strict Norwegians who never served anything that wasn’t white, except peas, so color in my food frightens me a bit until I am sure of its taste and texture.”
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I cannot eat onions either unless fully cooked, one of Applebee’s “we will not remove” ingredients is onions. Lactose intolerant covers a lot of ground, which my wife is and my grandson is slightly–very common in Russians.
Secret ingredient of Scandinavian cooking are the whitening agents, according to John Louis Anderson in his Scandinavian humor book.
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I vaguely remember something on PBS about lactose intolerance. I remember that it’s really the normal state. Most mammals naturally become intolerant of lactose after having been weaned. We continue to drink milk into adulthood and therefore most people never become intolerant of it. This tolerance is really the unnatural thing. (If I understood and remember correctly!)
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Sounds interesting. My grandson, and many children in a much worse form, was intolerant from birth. My wife’s developed in her teen years with all of her major health issues of that time. I read a great deal about travel in Russian and Russian culture and it is very common there in childhood, but mostly like my wife. So maybe they are at least partly right. Interesting how Russians are so commonly lactose intolerant and alcoholic.
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russians are intollerant of alcohol the same way i am. one bottle of vodka and the walk and talk funny.
i have developed gluten and lactose intolerences recently( or at least discovered them recently) make me tired, stomach hurt, muscles ache, kind of like people describe falling asleep in a chair after thanks giving except with great discomfort. a veggie who reacts to dairy, pays dearly for fried food and can’t handle grains and other gluten stuff( i am still learning ) is a pathetic thing to behold. grapefruit for breakfast this morning , my favorite.
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One of the problems with having FM is that all the “diet experts” want to tell me and others that it is really a fault of diet, such as gluten or lactose or red meat or not enough of this or that. Closely related are the vitamin and mineral experts. If I were gluten intolerant as about 50 people have tried to tell me, I would have died years ago. I live on breads and pastas. I lose weight on breads and pastas and rice and grains of all sorts. A couple of people have insisted if I gave up dairy products I would be just fine and do not know what to do when I tell them I gave them up years ago, excpet for a binge every now and then.
Not that all these issues are not real.
We need Joanne in this discussion right now, this is right in her wheel house.
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Hadn’t thought about this before. I believe in telling the truth for all kinds of reasons, including that it is often more complicated to lie because you have to remember your story. But I’m Midwestern enough to lie instantly, repeatedly and gracefully if doing so will spare the feelings of someone else. Just how I was raised.
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i think thats wonderful steve (lie)
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I really really value your opinion, tim!
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MMMM: Identify a key ingredient if you can, and declare a food allergy. No one would want you to die during the meal.
Happy Monday, all.
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after reading the entry, i may. i don’t like whiners and spineless punks. let em go. survival of the new millenium
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My wife has severe ulcerative colitis and she reacts to so many things, such as cilantro. So there’s a disease to try. If they ask for details, get graphic. They won’t want to eat either.
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LOL Clyde!
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My mother didn’t have to lie about when she was at a restaurant – she simply vomited at the table occasionally. No one except my dad knew that this wasn’t caused by a food allergy, but by social anxiety.
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I can’t write this AM: my mom didn’t have to lie about food allergies.
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Uffda! I believe that would work.
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CB – what was it that caused her vomiting?
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I have leprosy, AIDs, cancer, so I can’t eat that?
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The drawback to claiming a specific food intolerance, like gluten or onions, is that you’d have to stick with the story. Then you couldn’t ever take a bagel in the breakfast meeting again if you claimed gluten. Or there would be a restaurant lunch during which a big plate of onion rings was ordered for the table, but carefully kept away from you. A far better strategy would be to invent a diet, the Dr. Cashdollar Diet or something of that sort, and then you can always change the rules as you go. No onions are permitted – except if accompanied by a gluten, so these onion rings would be okay because of the breading. Well, of course I couldn’t eat meat last time – that was a Monday, and Monday is the day after my cleanse day, but I can still eat meat on Tuesdays. If you make the rules complicated enough, no one will remember them and expect consistency.
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Oh, now this I like. Room for creativity and such!
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You show sophistication, Linda, in the fine art of prevarication. I’m gonna have to keep a sharp eye on you!
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Now that I’m thinking about it, I know a couple of people who are always on these weird diets. I can never remember what the rules are. Hmmmm.
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Greetings! We missed out on the snow in Fargo. Like Sherrilee I have a lot of catching up to do on the last few blog days. We spent our time in Fargo visiting our son and restocking our kitchen for the winter with all the things we can’t find west of the river-Turkish olive oil in cans, dried cannolini beans, PG Tips English tea, 50#s of Swany White flour, basmati rice, Dunn Bros coffee beans, San Marzano canned tomatoes, Smart Chickens (as opposed to dumb clucks) etc. It sort of felt like we were driving the Wells Fargo Wagon back home. My son wanted us to purchase some odd looking fruit with tentacles when we were in an Asian food market, but we declined. I would recommend to 4 M to find one edible thing on the menu and fill his plate with it, leaving no room for the unidentifiable. We took my parents out to eat in this weekend and my vegetable-hating father actually ate artichokes and asparagus. We didn’t tell him what they were until after he finished them, but he liked them and said he would probably eat them again if he had the chance.
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Artichokes and asparagus are the cadillac and mercedes benz of vegetables. Impossible not to love them.
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Then I am a Chevy vega.
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Ooh, I just discovered PG Tips, fabulous!
Congrats on the veggies with your dad. Mine was like that about everything but green beans (canned).
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The only reason my dad ate them is because they were covering the walleye he wanted to get to.
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Whatever works!
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We used to haul crates to Rhame when our daughter lived there. I think I did tell the story of how my daughter and her husband found it impossible to choose between more than 200 choices in ice cream (they stood and counted) when they moved back here. The Bowman grocery story did offer a total of two–vanilla and chocolate in the big gallon buckets.
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Good morning doctors,
If you can’t give a firm no to all that food, at least come up with a good excuse, or should I say “lie”. Dale’s idea about a special diet that can’t be disclosed is good. You could say you are not feeling well without over doing it and fainting.
It is hard to turn down food when some one thinks they are providing a special treat. There have been a couple of times when I didn’t show much interest in something especially prepared for me. I can eat almost anything and should have eaten more of the especially prepared food. So, maybe MMMM should have just tried eating some of that food like Steve’s mother did in Japan.
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Or you can pick at it and say you’re so full. This actually JUST happened to me on Friday. I asked if the black bean soup was made w/ meat broth and was told “no”. Well, the waiter and English weren’t that good of friends – the soup came literally drowning in meat broth and chunks of meat. Since it was already late and I was worried that my companions would wait to eat if I made a fuss, I just pushed it around w/ the spoon, ate out some of the black beans and when they came to take the plates away, I said “the first courses were so good, I guess I got filled up too fast.” Worked like a charm.
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but you forgot to tell the waiter to take it ff the bill or it would come out of his tip. his english will not get better if you don’t make it a point to understand what he is answering
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I remember being out to dinner as a teen with a best friend’s family, and whatever it was on my plate that I hated, I tried covering it up with my napkin. Worked fine till the waiter cleared the table and took the napkin.
M-4 could have used George Carlin’s line from Fussy Eater: (something like) “I don’t like dat! That doesn’t look right to me… YOU like it, YOU eat it!”
This “not standing up for yourself” and telling your truth is the theme of SO many sitcoms, movies, operas… I’m with the Get a Spine group, but I’m notoriusly “nice” in social situations, so I wonder if I’d take my own advice.
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Morning!
At the same time, learning to eat new foods is good for you MMMM. Faking an illness? Please….
I tried Lentel soup the other day. I didn’t even know what a lentel was before that… but this was pretty good!
And just last week a friend handed me a smaller reddish/ orange fruit and said ‘Try this; don’t eat the leaf’… he said it was some sort of Cambodian fruit but he couldn’t remember the name. It was OK; tough skin, sort of pear consistency… not a whole lot of flavor but I didn’t have to fake an illness either.
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I have to agree with the “get a spine” group. I think I’d say something like, “No thank you. It’s interesting but I’d rather not.” Being forced to eat something I don’t want to eat rubs me the wrong way – so does paying lots of money for a feigned illness. But then again, I love tricking meat eaters with my veggie chili when it has been made with Boca Crumbles. I swear they don’t know the difference!
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Dear 4M – call me. i’ll go anywhere and eat (almost) anything. i taught a cultural foods class for a couple years and always told the (college) students that a closed mouth signified a closed mind. like children, they had to at least taste everything i prepared for them (my request, but not enforced, certainly). i discovered, early on, that if i had them help me prepare the food they were more invested and more open. it was a lot of fun, and those kids who had never even eaten a kalamata olive ate stuffed grape leaves, Hoppin’ John and collards cooked with pork hocks, jambalaya, crayfish gumbo, sweet and sour chickpeas, salty lassi, and a host of other delicacies. but i always made sure there were a few dishes that they knew and would eat. we examined many cultures, religions, foodways. and they were really good about being open. but many refused (during our “movie day” watching Babette’s feast) to eat the Japanese sesame/minnow snacks 🙂
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh–Babette’s Feast. I own it on DVD–must watch it again. For a Lutheran pastor, it is a great lesson. Have based a sermon or five on it. Good article in Lutheran magazine about aging which deals with the theme of Babette’s Feast without knowing it.
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Two other wonderful movies that feature excellent cooking: “Big Night” and “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman.” Both are highly recommended!
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14 requests for Big Night ahead of me at the library…. sigh.
But that reminds me… who recommended “Little Heathens”… I’m enjoying it a great deal!
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just watched EDMW for about the 6th time; and Big Night makes me laugh so hard (at the “no cheese on seafood” rule, e.g.)
if you like food flicks – try “Tampopo” although i can’t get it on Netflix – think it’s not on DVD.
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“Waitress,” about a woman who invents pies, a wonderful little indie film, with a tragic story behind it. The waitress makes up a new pie in her narration to match her moods.
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I gave the book to Steve. I think I have a note in the front.
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one of my all-time faves too, Clyde. i wonder if our old hellfire and brimstone, preaching to the choir guy would have ever considered even watching BF? i was a little afraid to show it, thought it might be too subtle, but the kids got it and loved it. need to watch it again also.
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I had a wonderful couple in the Castle Danger church I served. He had a PhD in physics and she a masters in ceramics. They were so fascinating, lived a life rich in the arts and science, open to everyone and everything. I once made a vague reference to Babbette’s Feast when they were visiting us to check us out. Her eyes lit up. I think that’s why they joined.
They used to sit behind a woman who grew up in the mountains of Norway. So I used to look in that corner and think “How do I do a sermon for all three of them?” But the church was like that, many simple and wonderful people who had so much to teach by the lives they had lived (and did not know it) and so many people of high learning who were open to life and change and adventure.
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This group of people sounds wonderful, Clyde. Castle Danger is a town?
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Castle Danger is barely a town, a community, just south of G0ooseberry Park. There are long long arguments about the name. I will summarize if you want.
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I have the perfect and permanent excuse for turning down any kindly offered foods: my stomach is in my chest & attached to my throat. This is true. This stops ’em dead! Even I haven’t figured out what I can tolerate or how much. A little too much food and I’ll burp every few seconds for a couple of hours. Fortunately, this occurs in the privacy of my own home, but makes it awkward to eat out. I’ve also learned the hard way that eating out with others actually causes a big problem: being talkative while consuming a meal creates large amounts of swallowed air. Now then, for me to cease all conversation while socializing over a meal is like asking me to swim the English Channel.
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How’d I lose my screen name anyway?!
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We will never tell, CB.
Among my wife’s many problems is severe reflux. I do not tell her what you have gone through. Makes my issues sound trvial.
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Clyde – your issues are far from “trivial”! Mine are irksome but rarely really severe anymore. I’m just glad to be alive and have many more normal days than not. I’m already predicting, however, that this Christmas day will find me overwhelmingly sentimental. My kids razz me every holiday for opening up my mouth and saying stuff like, “Isn’t this wonderful being together again?” They accuse me of being the only person who can’t resist editorializing an occasion rather than just living it!
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Well, they’re wrong. 🙂
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DALE, DO NOT READ THIS
the wrost part of this day is that we cannot do requests or watch Dale and JEP or Mike assemble a wonderful array.
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Agreed. 😦
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Okay, for those of you who don’t know the marvels of lentils, plus those of you who do, here is a lentil soup recipe as good as they get. I’m eating this as I post. You can cheat by not using bacon or wine or balsamic vinegar, and it will still be marvelous!
Steve’s Ultimate Lentil Soup
4 slices bacon, ¼-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped fine
2 med carrots, peeled & chopped medium
3 med garlic cloves, pressed
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 bay leaf
1-2 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
1½ c lentils, rinsed & picked over
ground black pepper
1 box plus 1 can c chicken broth
1½ c water
1 c dry red wine (merlot is fine)
1½ tsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves
Fry bacon in large Dutch oven, stirring, until fat is rendered & bacon is crisp, 3-4 minutes. Add onion & carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes, bay leaf and thyme; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in lentils, salt and pepper to taste. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until vegetables are soft and lentils have darkened, 8-10 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to high, add wine. Bring to simmer. Add chicken broth and water; bring to boil, cover partially and reduce heat to low. Simmer until lentils are tender but still hold shape, 30-35 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Puree 3 c soup in blender until smooth, then return to soup. Stir in vinegar and heat soup over medium-low heat until hot, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 tbsp parsley and serve, garnishing bowls with some of the remaining parsley.
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Sounds lentilicious.
A couple of days ago Barbara mentioned having trouble getting lentils to cook thoroughly. Here are some tips I lifted from about.com:
• Salt added to the cooking water will toughen the lentils.
• Acidic ingredients such as wine or tomatoes can lengthen cooking time. You may wish to add these ingredients after the lentils have become tender.
• Older lentils will take longer to cook because they have lost more moisture. Do not mix newly-purchased lentils with old ones. They will cook unevenly.
(That last tip seemed especially relevant to me, because I buy beans and pasta and put them in decorative glass jars in the kitchen. Maybe I should put a “use by” date on them.)
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Thanks, Linda! I think I may have been dealing with some pretty old ones…
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Steve – that looks like an awesome lentil soup recipe. Could you clarify a couple things for a kitchen-challenged baboon? 1 can of tomatoes — what size? 14.5 oz or 28 oz? 1 box plus 1 can chicken broth — what size box? Quart or 32 oz or more? 14.5 oz can? Thanks!
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Good questions. I prefer 28 oz tomato cans, but the smaller is okay. The box of chicken stock is 32 oz, I think. Actually, you can use water for the liquid in this recipe as the other flavors are so strong, but it is a luxurious touch to use that much chicken stock. Sorry to be vague.
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Thanks Steve!
The lentils have been duplicated in Kitchen Congress.
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I’m having computer problems and I am now using my back up computer that I almost never use. It is a suprise to me that I can use it to participate in Trail Baboon.
A note to Tim and any one who might be interested in hearing The Orange Mighty Trio which is set to play on Wed., Nov. 17th at 9PM at the Red Stag Supper Club in Mpls. The band will be missing it’s piano player and they may have some one who can sit in with the band or it might just be a duo. I will be coming up to the cities to this event. I hope to see you there, Steve, if you are still planning to be there.
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i will see if i can get there . wednesdays are booked pretty solid but i think i can be done by 9.
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Greetings! Home after a long day at work. With all the security there, doing personal stuff on the internet during break is concerning to me.
Referring to discussion above about food intolerances, etc. I don’t pretend to know a whole lot about FM, but food sensitivities, diet and lack of sufficient minerals all play into it, I believe. There is a wonderful doctor who cured himself of CF/FM when he started med school — Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum and he’s written several books. One of the more famous of his books, “Fatigued to Fantastic” is his natural protocol to help overcome CF/FM (I know they’re not the same, but they are related). His most recent book also addresses that as well.
Clyde – even though you say you live on grains, that doesn’t mean you tolerate them well. A food allergy involves an immune system response. A food sensitivity is more subtle and can involve inability to digest, metabolize and eliminate effectively the offending foods. Oddly enough, the foods you’re most sensitive or allergic to are the ones you crave and want the most — it’s a weird stimulant reaction — hard to explain.
As far as lactose intolerance, what Krista said is mostly true. Once young mammals are weaned they have no need for milk. Logically, do humans NEED to drink cow’s milk (or goat’s milk for that matter)? Calves are huge and grow 100 lbs in a year or something like that. Human breast milk is very different and has very little protein or calcium, and babies only grow 15-30 lbs in a year. Honestly, we don’t need any milk as adults — particularly not from a different species. I know this is heresy, but in nature it just doesn’t happen. I know dairy products are a part of long human history for survival, etc., but they had it fresh, raw, unpasteurized, unhomegenized, cultured, no additives, etc. That is much easier for folks to handle, generally. Clean milk from a clean dairy is excellent in moderation — unless, of course, it gives you problems.
My apologies to dairy farmers, but the marketing machine of the ADA has put dairy products in the food pyramid and turned it into a “health food” (NOT). Being a Wisconsin girl, I enjoy occasional cheese and yogurt, but I can feel the effects if I overdo. Just as a side note, there are a few products that are marketed as “health foods” that simply aren’t — soy milk, or soy anything. Most soy is GM and inhibits enzymes and nutrient absorption. The Asians usually had soy in a fermented form, which mitigates these properties. Just FYI …
Clyde – I’m saddened that you aren’t able to enjoy a meal with your family at a restaurant. Allergies and sensitivies can be a nightmare. My best recommendation is to check out Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum’s books and see what you think. My guess is it would involve a complete change of diet and lifestyle, but I’m not sure. But I am totally impressed that you continue to ride with the type of pain you experience.
Hope that helps — I’m certainly no expert. A naturopathic doctor would be the best resource. In answer to today’s question — I would eat or try anything at least once.
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Thanks Joanne, but his stuff on curing himself of FM is just nonsense.
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Joanne, I jumped kind of fast there, unfairly. Had a very nice experience (see below) and then a rather negative one just before I posted. Anyway, there are two doctors who have published claiming to cure FM; but I do believe the test of a medical claim is reproducability, and neither doctor’s claim has stood up.
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Dr. Teitelbaum’s protocol may not work for everybody, but he has helped tens of thousands of people and his patients overcome their CF/FM symptoms — whether in person, through his books, web site, etc. I’m not sure how much the general medical treatments help, but they probably don’t help everybody with everything, either. Dr. Teitelbaum has a high success rate if you follow his protocol. Just because mainsteam MD’s don’t know or believe in what he does, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have merit.
It’s not my intent to convince you of anything. My only wish for you is to find comfort and joy in what you feel comfortable doing and pursuing the medical treatment that make sense to you. I’m merely giving solid, truthful information as I know it from the other side of the fence so to speak.
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Oops — lots of posts simultaneously. Wikipedia lists Dr. Teitelbaum as the leading doctor/researcher for 3 decades for CF/FM, as well as a link to a double-blind, placebo-controlled study showing significant improvement on patients using his protocol … FYI.
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P.S. — I actually heard Dr. T speak, met and spoke with him a few years back. An absolute dear of a man — deeply caring and kind, and passionate about helping people. OK — I’ll shut up now. Need shower and bed.
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To Barbara’s question (since I couldn’t reply below it several posts back!): my mother was extremely uncomfortable in social settings away from home, most of all with my father’s infrequent business meals. I believe that her anxiety simply overwhelmed her to the point of fainting at such events. Unfortunately, fainting is sometime preceded by throwing up. I sometimes get the same feelings in a crowded theater or a play. I begin to feel faint, then thoughts of falling over or throwing up fill my mind. I don’t if this is hereditary or modeled, but I always map out an escape plan when in a public venue.
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I had the pleasure of meeting tim. He came down to buy some of my tools this afternoon. He is as interesting and delightful a baboon as he appears. tim, my wife loved meeting you. She loved the hat.
Update on my hip. Scared me badly when it happened shoveling the snow Saturday, which I do not think was as heavy here as in the Cities, although we do have a few broken trees around. Maybe why we had so many more inches was the form in which it fell here. Anyway, when it happened I heard a pop and felt a snap right in my hip/pelvis. But it appears to have only been a pulled muscle. I thought at the time I had broken a bone, which I did once many years ago as a stress fracture in my foot. It is recovering quite well.
Just so no one worries again, I will probably not be on much the rest of this week.
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Aging’s a bitch, isn’t it? Oh how we took for granted being healthy and well?
Every time I get a headache or stitch in my side, I can’t help but wonder if it’s the cancer recurring. Give me a few good years & I’ll get over it 🙂
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