Of (Good) Food and (Not So Good) Doctors

First thing, first – the doctor’s visits. I think I would just bleed from my fingers if I type in one more time how much I hate all my doctors’ appointments. I have never been fond of medical staff, but since I moved to this God forsaken state with practically failed medical school, almost not graduates, it’s been even worse. Just hours and days of wasted time and no results, no new insight.

Mind you, I know that my disease is chronic and without cure. I don’t worry about finding an alternative solution for that. But since my new “food allergies” have started,  I have found not one doctor that knows, or cares enough to find out why my rashes and all my GI troubles are happening. They all wave it as “food allergies” and when I ask them “WHAT FOOD, then?!” They shrug and say “test all of them and see which one”. Really. Honestly.

I can buy that there is no conclusive food test that would rule out everything else (you gotta know what you’re looking for), but at the same time: could it be something different? Do they want to eliminate everything else, first?! Everything else that is testable and diagnosable?!  For the allergies, they need to trust that I have tried to stay away from pretty much everything and the symptoms are not much better. They are spotty at best, but definitely not gone.

I read a lot about my symptoms, and they can be allergies or any amount of immune deficiencies, for instance. One test was done for the Complement System proteins  and one of them was at the very lower end of the “normal” range, which, in some literature, can be a concern. Not for the GI doctor that ordered the test. I am not a doctor, but I would take that wild guess and just make sure I checked everything in here, to rule out an immune system problem and maybe temper down all the symptoms that have wreaked havoc in my daily life since last year. But hey, again: not a doctor, right?!

Speaking of doctors, the only one I sort of like is my cardiologist. He is very open, honest and thorough. He teaches me how to read my symptoms and my test results, and he offers me all the medical options, whether he knows I will nix them (like participating in studies or apheresis) or try them out (like diets, pills, reading books, etc). But, as my luck would have it, he is retiring. So, there I am again, starting with a new one (one of his co-workers), whose second specialty is, apparently, lipidology. Bonus for me, of course, but why didn’t I know this 5 years ago when I first moved here, that they have a lipidologist on staff?! Ah, well! Like I said – I’ve only sort of liked the one I have had. I am meeting my new guy in a couple of weeks. The office staff was supposed to call me with a stress test appointment (which I have not done since 4 years ago, but my symptoms have not changed, so this should just be routine) but it’s been 2 weeks since I have seen them and they have not called yet. So, we shall see.

The second point I wanted to make was the one good thing that came from all the crazy “food allergies”. Like I said it here before – it’s the vegan and virtually fat free diet I am on. The March numbers spoke for themselves as to what this diet is doing to my cholesterol. But the way I feel is even better, I think. I still wish I would exercise more, but that is my own fault: I get dragged into chores, and gardening and surfing online just to rest my overloaded brain from work that the days just rush past me! But the energy level is incredible, my skin feels better, my hair even looks better, and my acid reflux is very rare nowadays!

My mom cannot understand how I survive without meat and animal products, and she thinks I probably just eat carrots every day. Here are just a couple of pictures of some foods I made lately, both for dinner. 

One is oven fries (no oil, just organic Pam for coating the tray) with fresh tomato and onion salad and garlic roasted Brussels sprouts. The bread is homemade vegan bread, made by my husband:

The second dish is vegan burgers. These burgers have everything but the kitchen sink in them and they are delicious: black beans, corn, brown jasmine rice, onions, peppers, mushrooms, cornmeal. I ate them with the vegan bread and mustard. So amazingly flavorful. And no, I never feel hungry after these vegan foods. I only feel hungry if I don’t eat enough. If I eat just a grape, or just a carrot, I promise you I will be hungry. But that doesn’t happen! 

I still refuse to label myself. I just eat food, is what I say about my diet. I never say “never” so who knows what kind of food I’ll be eating tomorrow, but right now, it’s mostly veggies, starches and grains, and very limited oil, if any. And I mean very limited any oils (none of these: avocado, coconut milk, seeds, nuts). We shall see new numbers in about 2 months (August). Till then, I’ll keep fighting the new cardiologist and they newly ordered tests.

American vs British Eateries

“All in all, I think the British actually hate food, otherwise they couldn’t possibly abuse it so badly. Americans, on the other hand, love food but seldom care what it tastes like.”
(Bill Marsano)

Since I have been on this almost 100% vegan diet, it’s been hard, if not almost impossible, to eat out and stay loyal to the diet. My husband and I eat out, I would say, more than your average middle class American couple, although we both cook and we cook well. But we also love food, and one gets tired of one’s own flavors.

Last month, we traveled to London, UK, for our anniversary. We spent about 5 days in the city, walking (a lot!) and taking pictures, re-learning history and visiting landmarks. We also ate. A lot! Everyone had told us not to get our hopes up about English food, as it is B-O-R-I-N-G, or at best “fair”. But I have to tell you: to us, it could not have been further from either of those words. They know how and what to do with a piece of meat and some potatoes, for sure! And every dish tasted like the ingredients, not like sugar or excessive salt, or heavy oils, or heavy buttermilk batters, like American dishes do. There was a purity to the British tastes that I have yet to find in our own country.

I have mentioned here before that it is close to impossible to get PLAIN, un-buttered toast in America. Even when you specifically ask for that, they cook it on the greasy grill, not in a regular toaster, and you get fat on it, regardless of what you ask. In Britain, toast is …well, toast: just a slice of bread of your choice, popped in the toaster, slightly dried out and on the plate. With butter on the side, if you wish to add. Some places in the UK get more creative about the spread on the toast, too: not only do they have all sorts of jams and preserves, but they have roasted pepper, avocado, olive spreads as well.

Soups are not heavy with cheese, either. In America it’s impossible to go to a mainstream lunch place and get a vegetarian (I don’t dare hope for vegan) soup where milk, buttermilk or cheese has not been added to the broth! Not so in London: I ordered this tomato soup one night which was delicious, and the freshly grated cheese (and plenty of it), came on the side. The soup was freshly roasted pureed tomatoes with a hint of basil in it. So fresh! 

 

My breakfast one morning: left side was roasted pepper spread with mushrooms, right side was avocado garlic and herb spread with grilled tomatoes. The "potato patty" on the side was deep fried and cheesy, but it was on a separate plate and it did not "contaminate" the rest of my food. 

 

This is the tomato soup I got one night: cheese on the side. And you cannot see this, but there was another dish with croutons, on the side as well. 

 

My favorite, very, very plain and no frills breakfast: naked bread, a cup of fruit and three jam options (top right of the picture). These are the most enormous pieces of nine grain bread I have ever seen. Not sure if you can tell, but they were longer than my silverware!

 

The only dish that "broke" the rules: vegetarian bangers and mash! How cool is that, though?! The bangers did have soy in them (which I knew they probably did and which I cannot have, either), and the mash had cheese in it - I only ate some of them.  

It is very hard to travel, for business or pleasure in The States – travelling is the ultimate eating out experience, as you really have no other options. I am pretty sure all the sautéed veggies are either cooked in butter or chicken (or beef) broth, which I cannot do on my no meat and no animal products diet. 

And back to the US: I went out the other week and ordered a salad. All salad, with fruit on top and raspberry vinaigrette. I am not sure if you can tell, but the vinaigrette was creamy, definitely not all vinegar and fruit, but something else to make it creamy.

I still have no idea what this food intolerance is, 4 doctors later and counting! But I do know I feel better when I stay vegan. It’s like playing Russian roulette every time I eat out, though – and it’s not fun. I don’t live in a super-cosmopolitan town, to be sure, but even when we travel to more “worldly” places within the US, I struggle to find something that is honestly “clean”. Yet another challenge I have to live with, I suppose, and as we know: no one lives in a bubble!

Is the Truth Really in the Numbers?

And so it goes, on another wild goose chase, of sorts.

Since around December, I have drastically changed what I eat and for the most part my entire daily routine. The drive for the change was my latest echo-cardiogram that showed a “not quite yet operable”, degrading aortic valve that has been regressing into bad and worse over the years.

I eat no meat, or animal products (no dairy, eggs), about 95% of the time. I eat cooked veggies only at home, because you see, in the restaurants they cook everything in butter. Even ‘unbuttered toast’ is absolutely impossible to order in the US of A!

I eat salads out, almost exclusively, except when I travel, when I indulge in bread or fish. I do eat fish about once or twice a week on an average (some weeks, I eat more). To top that, I have had allergies to foods, and the list there has grown every day, it seems. So, I am staying away from soy, too, and because of the fat content, I eat very little nuts, avocadoes, or any oils too. So, yeah, my list of foods is shrinking and shrinking. People ask for labels nowadays, so they ask me all the time if I am vegetarian. I hate labels, but for sake of simplicity I call myself “soy free vegan”, and it’s mostly accurate, except for the days when I eat fish and (very rarely) a piece of turkey (as close to 99% fat free as I find).

And just last week, I went in for the repeat blood tests. I am still allergic “to something”, but even after months of seeing doctors and trying to figure out “what” that something is, we still cannot tell for sure. But all my cholesterol values have dropped unbelievably since September:

Test	September Value	March Value	Difference	Regular Range
Cholesterol	410	284	-126	100-199
HDL Chol	40	31	-9	40-59
LDL Chol	344	225	-119	0-130
Triglycerides	133	142	9	48-149
Chol/HDL ratio	10.3	9.2	-1.1	0-3.1
LDL/HDL ratio	8.6	7.2	-1.4	0

 

I can tell you that this diet is agreeing with my level of energy, too. I wake up earlier, I snooze less and I work 12 hour days most days. I feel horrible in my stomach for the most part, because I still think something, somewhere is wrong with my digestive tract, but I feel great anywhere else. My one wish is still to exercise more, to make my heart stronger.

I still won’t know for sure whether the diet changes will slow down the valve’s degradation, till the following echo-cardiogram in December, but here’s hoping.

One puzzling thought I do still have is my increasing triglycerides: they were hardly ever elevated before, and they typically tell you that if your diet is healthy, they should be low. Well, mine went up! The only fat fraction that did so. Again: am I ever easy to figure out?!

One Day … ahem… Dish at a Time

If you remember, right before Christmas, I got the news that my aortic valve is shrinking as we speak, faster than I thought or even ever realized. When I saw that picture(linked to the above blog) of what my valve could be looking like, something went off, or on, in my brain, not sure which. And the way I eat had to change. I have loved food all my life and have indulged plenty, but at the end of that December something just snapped inside and I just have to keep fats away from my arteries! I will just have to do my very best, this time!

As a result, I have been looking for and trying on plenty of vegan recipes, and I have eaten mostly meat and dairy free. Egg whites are about the only animal product I’ve eaten lately. I don’t use oil in my sautéing, either, or cheese or even butter. I use a vegetal butter in my grits, but it’s not fat free – that is, so far, my biggest challenge at home: trying to make mashed potatoes and grits with fat free vegan butter. It doesn’t exist: you either get the fat free (with milk) or you get the vegetal butter (with fat). Who knew that someone raised in Romania, with a carnivore family and meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner growing up can actually pull this off?!

Here are some examples of dinners I have made lately. They were all incredibly delicious and so filling. I am not missing meat yet. I know it will happen, and I even wonder which meat I’ll crave first. But for now, I am looking forward to my next tasteful and fatless meal! 

 

Gimme Lean vegan sausage with garlic and fresh herbs, over mashed potatoes mashed with Earth Balance butter and light soy milk. My husband made the bread - no milk, eggs or butter in it. 

 

 

Curried Brussels sprouts with potatoes, tomatoes, onions and herbs, over dirty jasmine rice

 

Teriyaki vegetable stirfry (broccoli, bell peppers, yellow squash and mushrooms) with Lightlife vegan "chicken" strips, over rice noodles

 

Bean soup (cannellini beans, potatoes, bell peppers, onion, celery, carrots, tomatoes) with herbs and chilli seasoning.

The biggest challenge is eating out. The only "safe" food I can find is salads - and that is a bit old after a while. And with a full week of being on the road for work coming up, the stakes are about to get very high.