Terry Ryan
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Vegan Life in Sarasota, FL
Vegan goes mainstream.
I’m always willing to try the latest food craze, and my interest was on high alert when I met Chantal; a petite woman with a T-shirt proudly displaying VEGAN on the front. (She made it.) We made plans to meet for lunch at a later date where I would pick her brain about being a vegan. Recently, I’m just getting away from the Keto diet; a very meat and dairy based diet, and to tell you the truth, it was really against my grain to eat all the animal products. A vegan diet was something that sounded more like my style. Tip! Watch the movie Forks Over Knives available on Netflix.
Vegan VS. Vegetarian
The most asked question when I say VEGAN is what is the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian? Vegetarians will not eat meat but will consume animal products such as dairy. Vegans will not eat any animal products and some go so far as to not eat anything that has a connection to animals. For example, honey.
On a beautiful day in July, I met with Chantal at Simon’s Restaurant in Sarasota, FL. Hesitant at first to go to Simon’s because of an unpleasant experience I had around 10 years ago, I decided to give them another try after Chantal suggested it is a good spot for a vegan meal.Glad I did.
Simon’s is located in a unimpressive strip mall, but once inside we found a very inviting atmosphere of cafe tables and a friendly wait staff. Here is a picture of the menu board with interesting looking choices.
We ordered an Indian vegan dish, and I began my interview. Chantal said she came from a typical middle class family where dinner was served at the kitchen table each night. Meat, starch, and vegetables. Only on special occasions would they have dessert, and snacks like potato chips were rarely found in the house. Sounds like how most baby boomers grew up, The standard American diet. (However, Chantal grew up in the suburbs of Montreal. She is an anglophone, by the way.)
Let me describe Chantal. A charming woman with a shocking strip of white in her brown hair. Obviously in great physical shape and perfectly thin. I’d have to admit the vegan lifestyle looks good on her.
She said the transition to becoming a full-fledged vegan was gradual. A dying aunt told her to be careful of her health, and that inspired Chantal to slowly become a vegetarian before becoming a vegan. She admits that she ate a lot of carbs and not good carbs during this period. I also admitted that years ago I was a junk-food vegetarian. And I thought I was doing good as long as I didn’t eat meat. Wrong!
There are 3 different kinds of vegans:
- Dietary vegan: Person for health reasons only.
- Ethical vegan: A person who doesn’t want to eat animal products because they believe in the ethical treatment of animals.
- Environmental vegan: People who believes that mass producing animals and animal products is not good for the environment.
Chantal stressed that she likes to use whole foods as much as possible and stays away from processed foods not even using oils in cooking because they are processed. I asked her what she uses instead of oil for let’s say frying. Water!
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals.[b] A follower of the diet or the philosophy is known as a vegan.[c] Distinctions may be made between several categories of veganism. Dietary vegans (also known as strict vegetarians) refrain from consuming animal products, not only meat but also eggs, dairy products and other animal-derived substances.[d] The term ethical vegan is often applied to those who not only follow a vegan diet but extend the philosophy into other areas of their lives, and oppose the use of animals for any purpose.[e] Another term is environmental veganism, which refers to the avoidance of animal products on the premise that the industrial farming of animals is environmentally damaging and unsustainable.(Source. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism)
Totally intrigued, I decided to go all in to the vegan diet giving up all dairy and meat. This prompted a visit to the library where I found many vegan cookbooks. One of my favorite is OH SHE GLOWS cookbook.
Chantal’s typical day
Breakfast (around 10:00 after working out in her home)
Steel Cut Oatmeal with cinnamon and sliced apples or a smoothie made with spinach, kale, wheat grass, fruit. Right now in Florida mangoes are in season, so she is using a lot of mangoes.
No lunch
Around 2:00 she will have a snack of carrot strips and homemade hummus. Her hummus recipe is:
Canned chick peas
Water
Tahini
Garlic and lemon juice
Use an immersible blender and blend away. Order your immersible blender here.
Dinner around 5:00 – 6:00
Sweet Potato Red Lentil Dahl over brown rice, is a typical dinner she makes for her husband and herself.
- 1 cup Kale, chopped.
- 1 cup Red split lentils.
- 3 cups 2 medium Sweet potatoes, diced small.
- 8 Tomatoes, sun-dried or medium sized.
- 1 Onion.
- 4 cloves Garlic, chopped.
- 1″ Ginger, peeled and chopped.
- 1 tsp Garam masala.
- Brown Rice
Kale and sweet potato dahl a great quick and tasty dish that can be made in an InstaPot it cooks a few minutes but it can be made in a normal pan. Chantal asked me if I had an InstaPot? No, I don’t because I don’t want another gadget in my kitchen. She said, “Oh you have to get one.”
She admitted that she has a sweet tooth. Fruit is a nice dessert or she has a couple of vegan desserts up her sleeve.
Vegan Brownies
Made with…
Sweet potatoes
Cacao powder
Coconut sugar
Dates
Almond butter
Vanilla
Baking soda
Sweet Potato Brownies
- 3/4 cup mashed sweet potato (1 large)
- 1 cup unsalted almond butter stirred well
- 1/4 cup pureed dates
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 4 tablespoons cacao power
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Instructions
Sweet Potato Brownies
-
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper.
-
Cook the sweet potato in the microwave on the appropriate setting until well cooked and mashes well with a fork. Place 3/4 cup of the mashed sweet potato in a large bowl, followed by the almond butter and dates. Whisk to combine.
-
Add the coconut sugar, almond flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Using an electric mixer, or by hand, mix until evenly combined and incorporated. Add vanilla extract and mix until combined.
-
Transfer batter (it will be thick) to the prepared pan. Using a spatula or your hands, spread and pat the batter into an even layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. (24-25 minutes is about perfect for my oven.)
-
Allow brownies to cool in pan on wire rack.
IMPOSSIBLE COOKIES
Mashed bananas
Almond milk
Dates mashed
Oat Flour
Oats
Cacao powder
Salt
Baking soda
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together (Chantal doesn’t have exact amounts and does it by eye.) Press a mound about a jar lid size on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and spread almond butter on top. Bake in a 350 oven for 10 minutes. Sounds yummy!
As far as what she drinks during the day, she came in with her own water bottle, glass of course. She likes to start the day with orange juice…shockingly, not fresh squeezed. Or green tea. And water throughout the day.
I roughly calculated the total calories she consumes around 1000. Practically starvation for the majority of the American population who eat sausage bagels for breakfast, subs sandwiches for lunch with a bag of chips, and pepperoni pizza for dinner with Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for dessert all in front of the TV. Chantal calls this recreational eating.
Her tips: DON’T EAT FOR RECREATION!
- Don’t eat in front of the TV.
- Mindfully eat at the dinner table.
- Stop the distractions while you are eating.
- Eat until you are 80% full. (It’s called “hara hachi bu”. It means, eat until you are 80 percent full.
Chantal believes in Hormesis – stressing your body for anti-aging.
One of the areas where the concept of hormesis has been explored extensively with respect to its applicability is aging.[13][14] Since the basic survival capacity of any biological system depends on its homeostatic ability, biogerontologists proposed that exposing cells and organisms to mild stress should result in the adaptive or hormetic response with various biological benefits. This idea has now gathered a large body of supportive evidence showing that repetitive mild stress exposure has anti-aging effects.[15][16] Exercise is a paradigm for hormesis in this respect.[16] Some of the mild stresses used for such studies on the application of hormesis in aging research and interventions are heat shock, irradiation, prooxidants, hypergravityand food restriction.[15][16][17] Some other natural and synthetic molecules, such as celastrols from medicinal herbs and curcumin from the spice turmeric have also been found to have hormetic beneficial effects.[18] Such compounds which bring about their health beneficial effects by stimulating or by modulating stress response pathways in cells have been termed “hormetins”.[15] Hormetic interventions have also been proposed at the clinical level,[19] with a variety of stimuli, challenges and stressful actions, that aim to increase the dynamical complexity of the biological systems in humans.
She says by me stressing my body out by play 2 hours of pickleball in the hot Florida weather is good for the hormesis principle. Good to know!
Okay, I am off to a good start and I wanted more information. I went to a couple of vegan restaurants in Sarasota. Both were good and I like that there are choices in Sarasota for vegans.
I started talking to other people about a vegan diet and found out my friend Margie who I have shared many a steak dinner with is primarily a vegan now. What! The earth stopped spinning…hell was frozen over. She gave me a few tips about vegan replacement food she uses for “hamburger” and “sausage.” I found the frozen vegan food section at Publix and picked up Italian sausage patties. I thought they would go great with the pasta and sauce I was making for dinner.
This is where it gets tricky for me. I have an autoimmune disease and do not eat gluten, and will make pasta for my husband and mother, but will just have the sauce over zucchini noodles. I will also not have bread and now that I was facing a vegan diet, I would be cutting out more items to eat. I turned to eating more fruits and juicing fruits and veggies…of course organic.
Here is a list of my favorite juicers:
- Brevville 700 Watt Juice Extractor+
- Aicok Slow Masticating Juicer Extractor Easy to Clean, Quiet Motor
- Breville BJE830BSS1BUS1 Juice Fountain Cold XL, Brushed Stainless Steel Centrifugal Juicer
- Omega NC900HDC Juicer Extractor and Nutrition Center Creates Fruit Vegetable and Wheatgrass Juice Quiet Motor Slow Masticating
I recommend the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead by Joe Cross for juicing inspiration. Here is the link to Joe’s website. LINK
(Joe Cross, if you are reading this…I love ya!)
Everyone thought the vegan Italian sausage tasted like the real thing, and I would most likely serve this again, but this was really processed food and I don’t want to resort to processed foods.
I found many cookbooks on vegan recipes with mouth-watering looking pictures but yikes, so complicated. I liked the simpleness of the Keto diet of throwing a steak on the grill and serving that along side a baked potato with butter and sour cream with a toss salad. More research is needed. On to YouTube.
There were many vegan YouTubers One man made baked sweet potatoes, rice, sauteed veggies, chick peas, raw veggies, etc. for the entire week and stored daily portions in plastic containers. I watched another person try going vegan for 30 days. At the end he proclaimed that he didn’t miss meat products but found it hard to eat enough calories during the day. That’s true. It would be hard to find an overweight vegan.
Here is a good Youtube video. The recipe is for Coconut Curry Chickpeas with Rice, And I made it! Delicious!. https://youtu.be/Msk8lc6KQg0
Curry chickpea coconut vegan recipe made by Terry Ryan
People always ask…If I go vegetarian/vegan how am I going to get my protein?
Ugh! The same old assumption that if a human doesn’t eat animal protein that they are going to shrivel up and die or something. The beef and dairy industry have done a fantastic job of brainwashing us using millions of dollars in advertisement that we absolutely need animal protein. No we don’t. The largest animals in the animal kingdom are vegetarians. Elephants. Silver-backed apes. Cows. Horses.
And plants have plant proteins. Yes, humans can live a very healthy and athletic life on plant proteins. Spinach has 5 grams of protein in 1 cup. Lentils (1 cup) has 18 grams. A person needs only 40 grams per day and that is debatable..
What about Vitamin B12?
If by consuming animal products are only way of getting the daily dose of B12, then maybe humans are supposed to be meat eaters? But then I found this info. Many, many years ago, humans ate a plant based diet. They forged daily for berries and root vegetables that they did not wash with chlorinated water before eating. The soil or microorganisms that clung to the food contained B12. Now B12 is lacking in the vegan diet because of poor soil and strenuous washing of our food before consuming, for good reason! Okay, B12 is an inexpensive supplement to purchase. Order yours here through AMAZON.
Beauty of Sprouts in Sarasota, FL
What to expect to happen to your body when you begin eating a plant-based diet
- You may lose weight.You’ll reduce inflammation in your body. If
you are eating meat, cheese, and highly
processed foods, chances are you have
elevated levels of inflammation in your body.
While short-term inflammation (such as after
an injury) is normal and necessary,
inflammation that lasts for months or years is
not. Chronic inflammation has been linked to
the development of atherosclerosis, heart
attacks, strokes, diabetes, and autoimmune
diseases, among other conditions.Studies consistently show that when people
go plant-based, their blood cholesterol levels
drop by up to 35 %. In many cases, the
decrease is equal to that seen with drug
therapy—with many positive side effects.Cravings change after two weeks because
your taste buds change.You may feel gassy and bloated.You may have more energy.
You might avoid blood sugar spikes and
crashes that impact your energy level.Your skin may glow and pesky skin issues
clear up. (sOURCE: https://www.mamasezz.com/pages/ultimate-little-guide-to-plant-based-eating)
Is going vegan easy. Heck NO! I have to say that it is a challenge and I wish anyone going down this dietary road the best of luck. In the meanwhile, I was militant about sticking to the diet in the beginning but I really found it close to impossible. Harder than eliminating sugar! Now, I’m trying to be as close to vegan as possible without driving myself crazy and occasionally having dairy.
Hugo-my writing assistant
The ladies at Beauty of Sprouts in Sarasota, FL, my favorite vegan restaurant. I’m the one in the tie-dyed shirt.
Thanks for reading,
Terry Ryan
How to Deal with the Pain from An Autoimmune Disease
How to Deal with the Pain from An Autoimmune Disease
By guest blogger, Patrick Bailey
In the wake of the technological revolution in the field of health, science, and technology, some things still remain unclear, such as the cause of autoimmunity. Through the years, scientists are trying to find cures for this debilitating set of diseases but until now it is still vague. While the search for its causes and cures are still ongoing, scientists have found ways to manage its symptoms.
There are approximately 50 million Americans nowadays suffering from an autoimmune disease. The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association reveals that only a small part of this population can name at last one autoimmune disease. It is now the eighth main concern of women. It also shortens eight years from the normal lifespan. Autoimmune diseases cost the US health care $120 billion annually greater than the burden caused by cancer, which is only $70 billion in a year.
Dr. Elliot Rosenstein, one of the pioneers of the Institute for Rheumatic and Autoimmune Diseases at Atlantic Health System’s Overlook Medical Center, said that autoimmune diseases are infamously hard to diagnose and there is no cure for them even if they are recognized.
Order the InstaPot Here from Amazon
Dr. Elliot Rosenstein further says that patients diagnosed with the similar autoimmune disease do not present a similar set of signs and symptoms. Most of the patients suffer from dizziness, low-grade fevers, nausea, fatigue, and weight loss. These symptoms are vague and can be caused by several medical conditions. Rosenstein adds that there is a tendency for these manifestations to overlap. To differentiate patients with lupus from patients with rheumatoid arthritis can be very hard.
What is an Autoimmune Disease?
Our body has an immune system that shields us from infections and diseases. However, if you have an autoimmune disease, this protection transforms as an enemy that assaults by mistake, the healthy cells in our body. This disease can upset various parts of our body. When the immune system becomes overactive, it harms its own tissues. When the immune system is suffering from a deficiency disease, the body becomes susceptible to infections because of its ability to combat invaders is reduced.
Usually, the immune system can differentiate between your own cells and foreign cells. However, when there is an autoimmune disease, it identifies other parts of the body like joints and other organs as foreign. When this happens, the immune system discharges proteins called auto-antibodies to attack the strong cells.
There are various examples of autoimmune diseases; this includes Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus, and Multiple Sclerosis. Other types of autoimmune diseases are Psoriasis, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Vasculitis, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, to name a few.
Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases
If the disease is diagnosed, there are various treatments that are usually administered to patients. The treatment aims to regulate the autoimmune process, lessen the symptoms, and as much as possible help the body to continuously fight the illness. The treatment includes taking several supplements to fill in the lacking substance that the body needs. These are vitamin B12, hormones for thyroid, and insulin. There are times that treatment requires a blood transfusion and physical therapy.
Some patients take medicines to alleviate the abnormal response of the immune system. These are immunosuppressive pills like non-steroidal medicines and steroids. Some disease uses Interleukin suppressants and TNF blockers. However, the majority of the patients use pain relievers to ease their suffering. While these are effective medicines, most of the time, these medications are only used for suppressing the pain and not directly targeting the cause of the illness.
Painkillers and prescription opiates, in the course of time, can also affect the body. Physicians prescribe aspirins and other anti-inflammatory medicines to ease the pain. But stronger immune suppressing pills have grave side effects that could result in more serious problems in the future. The most effective way to combat and treat an autoimmune disease is to know its underlying causes. Knowing the sources can easily heal your body. Here are several ways on how to deal with the pain from autoimmune disease without the painkillers
- Eat Nutritious and Healthy Anti-Inflammatory Food
Change and include anti-inflammatory foods in your diet. This includes taking in food rich in Omega-3, green leafy vegetables, and turmeric. Aside from these, avoid consuming foods that are high in sugar. Include at least nine servings of vegetables and fruits every day. You should also limit saturated fats to at least 10 percent daily. It is also recommended that you eat fish three times a week. You should also avoid eating refined sugars and processed foods. Several studies discovered that eating anti-inflammatory rich food will not only protect you from certain illnesses but will also help you lose weight, stabilize your blood sugar, and increase your metabolism.
- Repair the Gut
The easiest way to start repairing your gut includes consuming anti-inflammatory diet, eradicating gluten, and eating whole food. This is because the majority of the immune system heavily relies on the gut or digestive system. If this gets damaged, your immune system will be left unprotected to foreign opportunistic elements like bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. Your body will trigger your immune response and will aggravate your enteric nervous system. This will result in a wide array of problems such as mood disorders, allergy, autoimmunity, arthritis, and many more.
- Increase Physical Movement
Regular exercise is a natural anti-inflammatory. You do not necessarily need to enroll in a fitness gym or buy a treadmill to do this. Start by moving around more frequently and use your body more often. Exercise also allows you to sweat out toxins from your body and relieves you of stress
- Practice Relaxation
One of the main factors that aggravate the immune response of the body is stress. It is very important that you include several calming and deep relaxation techniques in your lifestyle to lessen anxiety and stress in your body. There are many ways to relax nowadays; this includes practicing Yoga and getting a massage.
- Get Enough Sleep
Irregular sleep, poor sleeping pattern, and lack of sleep can harm your metabolism. When this happens, you will have cravings for carbohydrates and sugar, which push you to eat more. To reverse inflammation and to achieve good health, getting enough sleep is essential.
Autoimmune diseases, like any other illnesses, can be remedied by a healthy lifestyle. Healthy living is not a trend but rather a way of life. This is the proper way that our lives should be lived. These natural steps suggested above are just simple and practical truths that most of us forget amidst living this busy life.
Thank you for reading. We appreciate all your comments.
Terry Ryan
Now We have to Worry About Lectins…Oh Boy!
Let’s take a look at Dr. Steven Gundry’s book, The Plant Paradox, which is all of the sudden the IT book since Kelly Clarkson said she read it and lost 45 pounds. What ensued is a stampede to the book store by thousands in hope that they too will lose 45 pounds. After all, Kelly said she did this, lost weight, without exercise! Hello! Lose weight without exercising. Much different than the poor people who were forced into workout slavery by Jillian on The Biggest Loser! Boy, she got under my skin.
I, being a self-described health researcher, thought it my duty to check Dr. Gundry’s book out. What did I find? Dr. Gundry is against plants. What???? Okay, some plants. He claims that plants have their own defense mechanism that wards/kills maundering insects. The big plant evil ingredient is LECTIN!
What is lectin? A plant protein. Lectins in plants are a defense against microorganisms, pests, and insects. They may also have evolved as a way for seeds to remain intact as they passed through animals’ digestive systems, for later dispersal. This irritates your digestive system and causes an inflammatory response and leaky gut.
Dr. Steven Gundry sets out to demystify long-held myths about plant-based foods. These foods, believed for the most part, to be healthy, have been responsible for hurting the human body for so long.
Gundry exposes the real cause of weight problems, and if you’re one of those people who seem to be eating right and doing all the right exercises, yet suffering weight problems and related diseases, then you’ll want to read this book. Gundry’s book contends that your weight loss efforts are failing not because of any fault of yours, but because you’re mostly misinformed.
Buy From Amazon by Clicking here
Dr. Gundry Bio
Steven R. Gundry is an American cardiac surgeon and held the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery title while he was a Professor at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine.
Here is a comment from a representative from the Hallelujah Vegetarian Diet.
First, I don’t buy the war between animals and plants or evolution. In Genesis 1:29 God originally gave us the plant kingdom for food. My understanding of creation is that mankind is the crown jewel of all God created, and He put us in place to be good stewards of His creation. So, thinking that plants were made to be food for us just makes sense. There is a symbiotic relationship between mankind and plants, even indicated by their generation of oxygen for us and our generation of carbon dioxide for them. They are good for us and we are good for them. I don’t see a war here.
Is it a coincidence that some of the most allergic food contains the most lectin?
Beans
Tomatoes
Peanuts
Potatoes
Soy Beans
Wheat
Dr. Gundry has products/supplements that he claims helps your system ward off the ill effects of lectin.
From the Amazon listing: At his waitlist-only clinics in California, Dr. Gundry has successfully treated tens of thousands of patients suffering from autoimmune disorders, diabetes, leaky gut syndrome, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases with a protocol that detoxes the cells, repairs the gut, and nourishes the body. Now, in The Plant Paradox, he shares this clinically proven program with readers around the world.
The simple (and daunting) fact is, lectins are everywhere. Thankfully, Dr. Gundry offers simple hacks we easily can employ to avoid them, including:
- Peel your veggies. Most of the lectins are contained in the skin and seeds of plants; simply peeling and de-seeding vegetables (like tomatoes and peppers) reduces their lectin content.
- Shop for fruit in season. Fruit contain fewer lectins when ripe, so eating apples, berries, and other lectin-containing fruits at the peak of ripeness helps minimize your lectin consumption.
- Swap your brown rice for white. Whole grains and seeds with hard outer coatings are designed by nature to cause digestive distress—and are full of lectins.
He has a 4.4 out of 5 star rating.
Looks like he has many fans. In my opinion, if it worked for Kelly Clarkson, it can work for you.
Here are some of the supplements he recommends.
Thanks for reading,
Terry Ryan, health blogger and pickleball enthusiast
Read This: Books by Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain has died!
What a shock! Just after Kate Spade’s suicide the news reports today that Anthony Bourdain passed away from suicide. That lovable, deep voiced, tall, slender gray-hair man, who ate anything and everything, who could have you believing that eating goat testicles was a journey into culinary heaven, is gone. Not just gone but died by his own hands. 
Suicide has been on the rise. Since 1999, it has risen 30% in middle-aged men and women. Children’s suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in children. For goodness sake! What is going on!?
What was going on inside Bourdain mind that would cause him to hang himself? We witnessed a rather jovial personality displayed on TV. His first food and world-travel television show was A Cook’s Tour, which ran for 35 episodes on the Food Network from 2002 through 2003. In 2005 he began hosting the Travel Channel’s culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (2005–2012) and The Layover(2011–2013). In 2013, he switched to CNN to host Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
Bourdain’s breakthrough writing piece that was in the New Yorker circa 1999, was Don’t Eat Before Reading, a funny take of behind the scenes at restaurants. After reading that story, I thought twice about eating out. It took me years to dine from a buffet again. Here are some books that Bourdain wrote.
- Kitchen Confidential
- Medium Raw: A bloody Valentine to the World of Food And The People Who Cook
- No Reservations: Around The World on an Empty Stomach
- A Cook’s tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines
- Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical
- The Booby Gold Stories
A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine—now with all-new, never-before-published material.
Medium Raw marks the return of the inimitable Anthony Bourdain, author of the blockbuster bestseller Kitchen Confidential and three-time Emmy Award-nominated host of No Reservations on TV’s Travel Channel. Bourdain calls his book, “A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook,” and he is at his entertaining best as he takes aim at some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, Alice Waters, the Top Chef winners and losers, and many more.
More than just a companion to the hugely popular Travel Channel show, No Reservations is Bourdain’s fully illustrated journal of his far-flung travels. The book traces his trips from New Zealand to New Jersey and everywhere in between, mixing beautiful, never-before-seen photos and mementos with Bourdain’s outrageous commentary on what really happens when you give a bad-boy chef an open ticket to the world. Want to know where to get good fatty crab in Rangoon? How to order your reindeer medium rare? How to tell a Frenchman that his baguette is invading your personal space?
This is your book. For any Bourdain fan, this is an indispensable opportunity to hit the road with the man himself.
The only thing “gonzo gastronome” and internationally bestselling author Anthony Bourdain loves as much as cooking is traveling. Inspired by the question, “What would be the perfect meal?,” Tony sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail, and in the process turns the notion of “perfection” inside out. From California to Cambodia, A Cooks’ Tour chronicles the unpredictable adventures of America’s boldest and bravest chef.
It is a shame for someone to give up on life, but you never know what is going on in other people’s minds. And we all know that all the money in the world cannot make you happy.
A toast to Anthony Bourdain. May is cooking in heaven now.
By Terry Ryan
Depression and Hypothyroidism
Are you depressed?
Depression and hypothyroidism are two peas in a pod. Unfortunately, the depression goes non-diagnosed along with the malfunctioning thyroid. Hypo people experience a gradual decrease in energy and start having other symptoms like:
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Panic attacks
- Brain Fog
- Lack of ability to concentrate
A smart doctor will test for abnormal readings in a TSH test indicating hypothyroidism. A brilliant doctor will test for T4, T3, TPO, Reverse T4, D3 levels, B12, Iron, Ferritin. (Post continues after the coupons.)
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Usually after a 3 months course of a thyroid hormone replacement therapy, a patient will experience more energy and ability to resume their work and social lives like they once used to.
Example of some thyroid prescriptions:
- Synthroid
- Tirosint
- Armour Thyroid
Unfortunately for many, the thyroid prescription isn’t sufficient to clear away depression. What are the signs of depression?
- Lethargy
- Insomnia
- A disconnect from social interactions
- Thoughts of suicide
- Persistent gloomy thoughts
- Changes in appetite
- Inability to focus on things
- Forgetfulness
- Rage
- Uncontrolled outbursts
- Lack of sex drive
Lack of thyroid hormone in the brain will cause this. T3 is the power hormone that has been shown to regulate the levels of serotonin in the brain. In particular, T3 is found in the limbic system, a part of the brain that regulates emotions. The limbic system is a set of brain structures located on both sides of the thalamus, immediately beneath the cerebrum.
Limbic System
Not enough T3 in your brain, your serotonin levels drop, leading to depression.
Psychiatrists will test for TSH to see if a treatment plan for depression should include a prescription for a synthetic or desiccated thyroid hormone. Many times, a patient will have better results from depression if they are prescribed a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) for six months to one year. After which they may be taken off the SSRI unless the depression comes back, then a longer course will be prescribed.
If you experiencing depression, lack of energy, and anxiety, speak to your health care provider and ask them to perform a physical test; feeling the thyroid for abnormality, and lab work to see what your thyroid levels are.
Don’t put up with the medical runaround. Ask specifically for thyroid tests to see if you are hypothyroid if your main complaints are fatigue, anti-social, brain fog, etc. Might as well rule out or confirm hypothyroidism.
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What happens if my thyroid levels are in “range?”
This is where it get sticky. You have all the symptoms for hypothyroidism and your lab tests come back as normal. So frustrating! I was complaining about symptoms for years before I was diagnosed. If you find yourself in the pre-diagnosed hypothyroid phase, you can consult with a functional doctor that believes in the Wilson Temperature Syndrome philosophy. That doctor will treat symptoms and not just lab tests by prescribing T3 hormone replacement only; not with T4.
You can learn more about the Wilson Syndrome and how to find a physician who has trained with Dr Wilson by going here. HERE
You deserve to feel your very best and you have to feel your best to properly navigate through this hectic life. Be your own best advocate. Demand to feel normal.
Thanks for reading,
Terry Ryan
Health Blogger
Terry Ryan
D5 Creation