Apple Coleslaw

Today was my Friday - yay for three-day weekends! Unfortunately, though, my gut is still mad. I can tell the acid is bubbling up and it's causing my old problems again - chest pains, the feeling that I have to burp but can't. I feel like I take one step forward and fall backwards two steps.

Ergo, dinner tonight was simple. The husband has been asking for burgers, so I stopped by New Seasons and picked up some frozen Niman Ranch beef burgers. I didn't feel like making any buns, so instead I whipped up some guacamole to put on top of the burgers. I just winged the guac, but it turned out good:

- One large avocado
- Juice from one lime
- Couple dashes of Crystal hot sauce
- One slice of tomato - diced
- Dashes of freshly ground sea salt and pepper

Mash up the avocado and mix in all of the other goodies. Voila!

I also tried a new apple coleslaw recipe from the Paleo Plan website. I was a bit leary about it because the husband doesn't really like green peppers, and I wasn't sure about the apples, but it was actually really delicious! The husband really liked it, too - green peppers and all! I think I will only use 1/8 cup of olive oil next time though ... I don't think it needed a full quarter cup. I also made sure to dice the apple, celery, and pepper in to really small bits.

That's all I have for tonight. Just looking forward to sleeping in, not having to go to work, and having lunch at Dick's Kitchen with the husband tomorrow.

Omeprazole

I stayed home today. I haven't had to do that for a gut-related problem in awhile. Not really because my gut hasn't bothered me and not because I don't have hundreds of hours of sick time, but more because I don't like getting the stink eye when I actually use my sick time for being, well, sick. I almost called in yesterday,  but fear of the stink eye forced me to make the commute and get my gimpy self to my office. And you know what? I was miserable all day. So I refused to do it again today. Staying home didn't make me feel any better, but when your gut is grumbling so much that you can feel it moving (along with really angry sounds coming from it, too) there is something comforting about staying horizontal on the couch in your PJs, with your dog at your feet, and nearly unlimited Netflix at your fingers.

I apologize in advance because this post won't be terribly SIBO related or food related. It is a slightly cranky tirade at the makers of Omeprazole - what I believe gave me SIBO. Most know Omeprazole as Prislosec - which is much easier to pronounce and available OTC. It's a PPI - proton pump inhibitor. Its basic purpose, as I understand it, is to lower your acid production. When I went to see my primary MD two years ago, she put me on Omeprazole for my stomach problems; she believed it was acid reflux, I didn't. My husband has suffered with acid reflux since I have known him, and our symptoms were never the same. She did order some tests, but when the ultrasound and blood tests came back basically negative (they found stones in my gall bladder, but she didn't think that was causing my problems), I got the Rx for Omeprazole. It didn't help at all, so she had me double up to two/day, up from one/day.

Two years later, until very recently, I was still taking two pills/day. Earlier this year, I had an endoscopy where I learned that the nodules inside my stomach were benign, but most likely caused by the Omeprazole. My husband was told that the PPI he was on was hampering his calcium levels and he should take calcium supplements to adjust for it. And then the big one - by lowering my acid, the Omeprazole may have caused the bad bacteria to move in and ergo, the SIBO.

On October 15, I followed my ND's recommendation and dropped down from two per day to one. I had heard it was hard to get off of, but I had absolutely no problems. Success! On November 5, I started taking half a capsule by breaking open the blue Omeprazole capsules and emptying the contents into two veggie caps. That was a Saturday. By Monday, my stomach was getting gurgly and gassy, and by Tuesday it was atrocious and I was miserable. I emailed my ND and she said it was most likely the side effects of cutting back on it again. She suggested I go up to 3/4 a pill - which entailed a lot of juggling of capsules - and let her know if I was feeling any better in a few days.

So this morning I stayed in bed, gurgly and uncomfortable, and Googled Omeprazole. Wow. If only I had done that two years ago - I would have never started taking the shit. What I am experiencing is most likely "acid rebound," the crappy side effect that happens when your stomach starts making acid again and over compensates for the fact that it hasn't had enough in a really long time. I read blog after blog of people who can't get off the stuff. They try and try but the symptoms coming off the stuff are just as bad or worse than before they started taking it.

Ironically, just last night we watched a documentary called Food Matters. It addressed the fact that the correct foods are the best medicine for your body, and that pharmaceutical companies don't want people to get better because they make gabillions of dollars from their pill industry. The documentary should have had its own section just about Omeprazole.

With the gurgly stomach of death, I'm not hungry - mainly because any time I try to eat something my stomach revolts. So I only left the house today to go get a Berry Berry smoothie from Laughing Planet for a late lunch, and after a 2+ hour nap, I made the husband some baked tilapia and I just had some of the green beans I made to go with it. I see some more lbs being dropped in my near future.

At least the husband ate well  tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'll go to work - grumbly tummy or not. And hopefully the 3/4 of a pill will do the trick for now, and soon I can go down to 1/2 a pill without the acid rebound. And then down to a 1/4 of a pill and then finally off of this shit all together.

During a time when the Occupy Wall Street/Portland/Elsewhere movements are going on, and the masses are tired of being the deprived 99% with foreclosed homes and no health care and lost jobs to overseas outsourcing, I sit here thinking that I am sure all of the big pharmaceutical execs sit amidst that elite 1%, making money off of making people sicker, not better. To those people, all I have to say is "Suck it." Karma can be a bitch and I hope they get their's sooner rather than later.

Dogfeathers

Food carts are one of my favorite parts of Portland. To some, food carts are synonymous with roach coaches; but here in PDX, they are kicked up about 100 notches. You can find anything you could possibly want: soup, vegan sushi, pizza, hamburgers, even beer! A few of my faves would be:

Flavour Spot for sausage waffle goodness
Grilled Cheese Grill for the sinful Moondog
Koi Fusion for spicy pork tacos (hold the cilantro, please)
Whiffies Fried Pies for the vegan mounds (coconut cream and chocolate chips)

However, there is nothing on any of their menus that is SIBO friendly ... trust me, I've looked. I miss food carts. And living in NE Portland, you can't walk a mile in any direction without running into one. It's really depressing.

But there is one that I can go to, and I frequent it every weekend - plus, sometimes during the week if I can leave the house early enough. And it is also in walking distance - just a few blocks from my house. It is called Dogfeathers - they don't sell food; instead, they sell coffee and juice. And the juice is amazing! Everything is freshly squeezed to order while you wait.

My summer drink of choice was the Oggy Doggy (peach, strawberry, and apple juice) with ginger. Now that peach season is over, I think I have finally decided on the Portland Sunshine (apple, orange, strawberry, and ginger) with blueberries. But with any of the drinks, you can't go wrong! And Ian and Jennifer will gladly make suggestions and substitutions to make your drink just perfect!

So until my gut bugs are dead and gone, my food cart of choice will be Dogfeathers. And once the gut bugs are dead and gone, I will still go to Dogfeathers, but as an extra goodness for something to drink for my Koi Fusion tacos. (Both are conveniently located in the same pod at NE Mississippi and Skidmore.)

Coconut Bread

When I was a little kid, my favorite birthday cake was a bunny cake. It involved two round cakes: one served as the head, and then the other - when cut correctly - served as the two ears and a bowtie. Licorice was used for the whiskers, gumdrops for eyes ... and lots and lots of coconut to cover the whole thing and give Mr. Birthday Bunny the illusion of fluffy white rabbit fur.

I really didn't care about any of it except for the coconut. I freaking love any and all things coconut - coconut cream pie, coconut curry, coconut water. My all time favorite dessert is German chocolate cake - really for the nutty, coconut goodness that is the icing.

One of my first SIBO symptoms was a sudden onset of lactose intolerance. Lactase enzymes helped at first, but by the time my birthday rolled around in May this year, I had cut out all dairy. However, for probably the last 10 years or so, I have had at least one German chocolate birthday cake (the all-time record was three for one birthday - so much coconut icing goodness!). With the dairy cut out, I tasked my husband with finding a vegan version. I didn't have much hope in it being grand, but I thought it would be ok. This being PDX, one has quite a lot of choices of vegan bakeries so it shouldn't be that hard to find one.

I feel like I should give my disclaimer about vegans. If you are forced to cut out cheese, milkshakes, and all other dairy happiness for some medical reason, then vegan food is your friend. However, if you cut out cheese voluntarily, then IMO you are batshit crazy. I like a lot of vegan food, but I also really like cheese and I would never give it up voluntarily.

So back to my vegan bday cake. The husband found a great vegan bakery on Alberta Street (Back to Eden) and I must say it was divine! No one could even tell that it was sans dairy and eggs.

I have returned to the bakery several times and have loved everything I have tried. Sadly, this no-sugar silliness has put a halt to my Back to Eden visits ... for now. I will be back!

I am not a sweets person - I will take salt over sugar any day - but maybe the old adage is true: you want what you can't have. As a result of 7+ weeks with no sugar, I now want desserts. Or maybe it's really just the bready goodness of cakes and dessert loaves that I miss. Either way, in addition to my cooking, I have taken up baking - something I have done very little of in the past. My baking gadgets are pretty sparse - who knew I would actually need a flour sifter some day? Well, I bought one, but contrary to what I was told, it doesn't sift almond flour. I don't know what kind of sifter you need for almond flour, but if I find out I will have to get one. So tonight I made a mediocre pork cacciatore and really wanted dessert afterwards. The bananas weren't ripe enough for banana carrot muffins, I was out of apples for apple cinnamon bread, and I was about an ingredient short for all of the new recipes that I wanted to take a stab at. Then I came across one on paleoplan.com for coconut bread. However, it wasn't listed in the dessert section - it was listed in the sides section. Odd, but whatever. So I made it and it wasn't too bad. Pretty dense - somewhere between a scone and maybe shortcake. I sliced it up, drizzled some honey over it, and sprinkled some unsweetened coconut on top of it and called it dessert any way. I think it would be best with maybe some fresh berries and honey on it. It would actually probably make a really good strawberry shortcake now that I think about it.

Coconut Bread
One word of warning, make sure you melt your coconut oil before adding it to the eggs and honey. Trust me on this one.

SIBO Chili

Yes, I am blogging. I know, I know ... not another one. I always said that I was nowhere near interesting enough to wax poetic on the Internet. However, now I think I may actually have a story to tell and maybe someone out there will find it useful.

I was diagnosed with SIBO (small intestine bacteria overgrowth) by an ND on September 2, 2011. Yes, that was two months ago. So why start telling my story now? Well, I thought the "cure" was just taking some herbal pills, cut out sugar for 4-6 weeks, and voila! I would be better. Well, Tuesday I started week 8 of the diet, I'm back on the herbal anti-microbials, the bacteria is still waging war in my gut, and yes, I am a bit pissy at this point.

I'm sure you have questions at this point - let's see if I can cover them quickly.

• Yes, I see an ND. She specializes in gut problems and she is awesome! Yes, I tried the western route. Over the last two years I saw several western doctors, a GI specialist, and a surgeon. I had CT scans, blood tests, an endoscopy, three ultrasounds, and random heart tests. I had three ER visits, two of those just in the last nine months. None of these people could diagnose my problem. They suggested I do everything from take more Vicodin to have my gall bladder removed to take ulcer meds (though they had already ruled out ulcers). My acupuncturist finally referred me to my ND and she did more tests and finally gave me a diagnosis. So, yes, now I see an ND.
• Yes, there are antibiotics; no, I don't want to take them. Everything I have read says that antibiotics don't work, and often times these cause even more problems when prescribed for SIBO. Patients take them, they momentarily get better, their symptoms flare up, they go back on the meds ... continue cycle for years. No thank you. Instead, I take a combo of herbs and whatnot called Thunder Pearls.
• The diet is a strict no-sugar diet; the bacteria feeds off the sugar, so I am basically starving them. I can eat six things: eggs, nuts, meat, most veggies, ripe fruit, and  honey. If it's not listed, I can't eat it. So yes, no pasta, rice, dairy, bread, grains, beans, soy ... nothing fun and good.
• Why the blog? Information about SIBO is super limited; information about what to eat on the SIBO diet is even more limited. So I thought maybe I could share what I have been doing to help other people with these pesky gut bugs. And even if you don't have SIBO, the recipes I am finding are quite good, gut bugs or not.

My ND always asks me if I am hungry. Technically, no. I am eating. Oftentimes I fell like I am eating the same thing over and over and over though. What I am hungry for is good food. Exciting food. Different food. My favorite foods. My great grandmother was born and raised in Italy; I am only 1/4 Italian, but apparently I am the 1/4 that really loves food. And I live in Portland. If you have never had the pleasure of stopping in PDX, it's a food lover's paradise! I have a friend who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., who comes out here every other year; she says it's to see me, but it really may be just to hit all of the amazing local restaurants with me. The hardest part of SIBO for me is that I can't really dine out - there are only so many garden salads with grilled chicken, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar that one person can eat. So I have had to start cooking. A lot. I know how  to cook - and I even like to cook - but I like to go to a restaurant where someone cooks and cleans up after me a hell of a lot more. My husband says that even if we went to a new restaurant every day we would never run out of restaurants in PDX - perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but it would probably take you a good year or two to hit them all. And a lot of them are really, really good so you will definitely want to go back a few times to make your way through the menu.

Ergo, tonight, like many others, I worked nine hours, commuted home across the bridge, stopped by New Seasons for some fresh ingredients, came home, and made the husband and I some din din. Tonight's dinner was chili with almond/coconut buns on the side for sopping/dipping, and apple cinnamon bread for dessert. (Note about Paleo: my current favorite website is paleoplan.com. The Paleo diet is very similar to the gut bug diet, so I tend to go there for ideas that I usually tweak a bit to fit my picky pallette. I'm not really a proponent of the Paleo diet (I love healthy, whole grains like quinoa way too much), but it just happens to have a lot of great recipes that I can use right now while fighting the gut bugs.)

SIBO Chili
(Variation of Paleo Plan's Bison Chili)

• 1 Tbs coconut oil
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1 red or green pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 lb extra lean ground beef
• 1 lb dark ground chicken
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1 (14 oz) container of Emerald Valley mild salsa
• 8 oz diced tomatoes
• 1 (4 oz) can mild green chiles
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp ground pepper

1. Heat a heavy bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat.  When the pan is hot, add coconut oil.
2. Add onions, celery, pepper, and garlic, and sauté until onions are translucent, about 3 or 4 minutes.
3. Next, add ground meats, cumin, chili powder, and thyme.
4. Stir while this cooks, about 5 to 6 minutes.
5. Pour in salsa, tomatoes, green chiles, salt, and pepper.
6. Simmer for at least 1 hour.

Paleo Buns
(One note: I bake the buns for 15 mins instead of 10.)
Tonight I placed a bun in my soup bowl and spooned the chili on top of it so it could sop up the juice - delicious!

Paleo Apple Cinnamon Cake
(One note: I add five minutes to the baking time on each.)
I have made this four or five times now. It is amazing! Three people finished off a loaf of it in one night. I have made the loaf and the muffins - the muffins are small, but are easily portable so they are my preference. I found the arrowroot powder at New Seasons in the bulk section, but Bob's Red Mill also sells it.