A Welcome From Dor
One immutable, non-negotiable, inflexible, hard-nosed, defining characteristic of Suppers is that as an organization we. don’t. tell. people. what. to. eat. With only one food rule – avoid processed food – we ask people to focus on running personal experiments to tease out data about what food makes them feel the best. Sometimes a little slip reveals more about your body than a slew of tests, as it did the day Sandy C lost her vision.
When you’re done reading her story, please let Dor know you want to join our experiment groups.
Throughout 2017, Suppers will be hosting a range of activities from 5-minute experiments in your email inbox to hosting group challenges in private Facebook groups. The Breakfast Challenge starts January 23rd; the next Breakfast Challenge will take place later this year. Members are already posting to a Whole30 group, however the “30 day challenge” has yet to begin — stay tuned. In the spring we will be hosting a vegan cleanse.
The point of all of these experiments and challenges is to help you understand and embrace the most important breakthrough Suppers offers — that How You Feel is Data!
Please enjoy the story of Sandy C’s Discovery, for there is no data so dramatically suggestive as instantaneous, spontaneous blindness.
Sandy C’s Story – Discovery
What happened when I took charge and became my own private investigator is nothing short of amazing. AMAZING!
I did one of the popular cleansing diets for a few weeks, nothing drastic, I was still having some relatively normal meals. I devoted myself to the program for six weeks: No sugar, no alcohol, no unhealthy snacking, just whole foods and some protein. My one daily treat was the 8-ounce cup of coffee that I enjoyed each morning. By the end of the six weeks, I felt great. I had lost 10 pounds and had a noticeably more positive mental outlook.
The way an elimination diet works, you start adding foods back and if suddenly a symptom returns, then you have demonstrated to yourself that that food is somehow a culprit in your particular body. Some people might get headaches back; some people might feel depressed; others might get a surge of inflammation like muscle pain or a rash that had quieted down during the experiment.
So I started adding foods back in, one by one, so that I could observe if a particular food was driving any of my health problems. I liked how I had lost weight on the elimination, and I didn’t want to undo all the good results by mindlessly returning to my old ways of eating. It just so happened that I walked up to my desk and someone had left a cold frosty Diet Coke. I certainly hadn’t been drinking soda on the diet, and in general I have a soda only now and then, but there was this Diet Coke sitting on my desk. I sat down, opened it and took a few deep drinks straight from the can.
It was a good thing I was sitting down because it wasn’t long before I suddenly lost my vision. The vision loss was like large black circles in both eyes; there was light and a kind of peripheral vision. I couldn’t believe what was happening, I think I was in shock. In any case, I can’t remember any other symptoms because my anxiety was through the roof. As I sat there, after several minutes the blackness faded and I could see again. The experience certainly got my attention. When I felt more composed, I clicked around on the internet to see what might have happened. I have no idea if the visual problems associated with aspartame explain my experience; all I really needed to know is that I need to never drink another diet soda. I tell my story to my diet soda-drinking friends, usually without results. That’s OK, at least they know who they can talk to if they want to feel better and become willing to work on their eating habits.
I am still in the early stages of my journey, and I’m grateful that I had a dramatic reaction to my first experiment. It helps me stay in the process of being my own private investigator, engaged in discovering my body’s ways of telling me how it reacts to the processed food supply. It has given me a whole new perspective on paying detailed attention to what I am eating and continuing with this important work.
No Soda for Sandy, By Allie
Jeez, I guess that’s the end of Diet Coke for me. My eyes don’t need any help accelerating towards a stronger prescription because as it is I can’t go more than a few months without leaving my glasses on an airplane in New Orleans or just not feeling like wearing them because nerding isn’t trending anymore. (It’s only moderately trendy to be a nerd right now). And then after I forget what hole they fell into. I only really need them when my eyes are super tired on a late night drive in the rain. Seriously, my eyes are fine I swear you guys.
The real villain here for Sandy is clearly Diet Coke. I’ve heard from more than a few folks plus real and !FAKE! news about that specific soda being the culprit for a lot of issues – even death. Though I don’t know the chemical compound which could be to blame and while there are definitely not nearly enough studies to back up these claims, it’s tough to argue with personal experience. Especially when there’s definitely not ONE thing that is “healthy” about Diet Coke. Still day after day after year after decade, people will continue to drink this soda — and pretty much every soda.
The thing is, beverages are easy to overlook as part of a diet in general because…well…they don’t fill you up, they give the illusion of offering hydration, they’re somewhat see through or totally clear so they also offer the illusion that they’re…dare I say it, healthy? Low calorie? I don’t know how else to explain the Big Gulp. I mean WHAT THE HECK YOU GUYS. Why does this exist?
Oh my God so many things. First of all, I literally thought that the Big Gulp was as big as it got WHICH IS WHY I MENTIONED IT in the first place. Super Big Gulp? Double Gulp? By the way, the Double Gulp is 64 ounces. 64 Ounces is the minimum recommended amount of water that everyone should be drinking every day. (It’s actually half your body weight, in ounces, like 140 pounds divided by two is 70 ounces per day, but whatever.)
This brings me to…the X-treme Gulp. P.S. What is it with Americans and misspelling the word X-treme to do things that should really just be called unnecessary? Barf. Oh and also you know that ridiculous FULL GALLON soda cup that is on the far right? The X-tremely unnecessary one? It costs $0.99 to refill that sucker. The soda tax should be looking sexier and sexier to everyone right now – it would eliminate the possibility of such insane, inane refill scenarios.
Beverages are also a known culprit in childhood obesity and the many shocking cases of Type II Diabetes in children. Beverages! It’s so easy to look past the sugar, even as a parent but especially as a kid, when the sugar has dissolved into liquid and the liquid tastes good. It’s so easy to forget that a 99 cent Arizona iced tea has 64 grams of sugar – SIXTEEN TEASPOONS – per can. (Not per serving, per can. But, really, who opens a can and doesn’t finish it besides college freshmen? And who puts 2.5 servings in a non-resealable can besides criminals? Exactly.)
So basically in modern times you have to actively, consciously, make the choice to look at labels, to understand sugar in grams vs. teaspoons, and make sweetened (chemically or naturally) beverages a treat instead of a routine. Drink water. Nothing so flavorless ever tasted so good. Lol when my brother was home for the holidays we were sitting down for lunch and he asked me what I wanted to drink. I said “Liquid”, and he said “What kind?”, and I said “Plain” and then he laughed because he thinks I’m funny.
If you’re just starting out with the whole water thing (just go with me on this) and you “don’t like the taste” of water, no worries! A doctor once told me that plain water doesn’t absorb as efficiently in the body without a little sumthin sumthin in there anyway! She drinks water with fresh lemon or other citrus, and a bit of juice! I guess the body absorbs things more enthusiastically when it knows there’s carbohydrates in there. And electrolytes. Anyway, the point is – start where you are. Start with half-water, half-your favorite beverage. Experiment with different fruits to place in water. Try cucumber water! There’s a reason why that’s a thing.
Just do one thing for me…if you buy an X-treme Gulp, calculate the number of teaspoons of sugar it contains before drinking it. OK, I’ll just do that for you: It’s 100. There are ONE HUNDRED teaspoons of sugar in an X-treme Gulp (gallon) of soda. The recommended number of teaspoons per day for an adult male is NINE TEASPOONS. Women have a recommendation closer to six teaspoons.
I’m going to let that sink in before we review.
Things We’ve Learned Today
- The Big Gulp is actually the smallest Gulp
- One teaspoon equals 4 grams of sugar
- The highest daily recommendation for teaspoons of sugar is 9 (about 36 grams)
- If you divide your body weight in two and transfer that number to ounces, that is the number of ounces of water you’re supposed to be drinking everyday but a 64oz minimum is a good rule of thumb
- Beverages may contain chemicals, calories, and sugar so check the label, including the serving size
- Water doesn’t have any chemicals, calories, or sugar, and it’s free for many Americans
- Allie gets REALLY mad and goes on rants sometimes and everyone else has to kind of just deal with it because she’s definitely not going to stop and they all know she’s probably right anyways
One more thing. It is illegal for a food-serving establishment to refuse to give you water for free. They can, however, charge you for the cup. FYI.
Let’s move on.
Sandy’s story was about an amazing (amazingly bad but still pretty amazing) effect that a beverage had on her body. So Dor and I thought that today I would teach you how to make a different beverage that can have amazing effects on the body: Golden Milk.
Golden Milk is super trendy but very ancient. The reason why Golden Milk is a healing beverage is because it’s basically Turmeric in drinkable form. And Turmeric is very, very healing.
For the past generation, turmeric has been gracefully climbing the rungs of modern medicine to find its place towards the top. It has been, and will continue to be, studied for over 20 years for its anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer properties. But this ginger-like root has been used as medicine in Southeast Asia for like literally thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicinal practices as well as religious Hindu ceremonies. Plus, it will dye the crap out of your hands, counter, cutting board, etc.
Anyway, the one thing they are discovering about Turmeric in science that you may not have known (and it’s why Golden Milk is particularly useful) is that you have to consume like a lot of Turmeric to make a difference, medicinally speaking. More than would be palatable, say, in a curry or a plate of food. This is why they sell those Turmeric pills at the health food store – because if you poured that much on dinner you might not want to eat dinner.
Golden Milk solves that problem by encapsulating the flavor of Turmeric in coconut fat (or milkfat) and calming it down, offering a balance of sweetness and spiciness, and allowing the drinker to quietly enjoy a strong, filling cup of tea that must be slowly sipped. The flavor of golden milk is only mildly “acquired” and can be something that you, your children, and your family will begin to crave in a short time.
Here’s how to make it:
Step One: Place coconut milk or whole fat milk, turmeric (raw or dried), ginger, coconut oil, and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and peppercorn into a saucepan and bring to a slow simmer with some water. Ideally the mixture should simmer quietly for about 10 minutes.
Don’t boil the mixture – ESPECIALLY if you are using real milk because it will scald and then it will taste NARSTY. The water in the recipe acts like a buffer for the heat. Once it evaporates, the milk is done.
I let mine go more like 15 minutes because it wasn’t “golden” enough.
Step Two: Stir in a dash of honey, if desired, alcohol-free vanilla, or stevia until dissolved. Use a fine strainer to separate the liquid from the roots and spices. Pour into mugs and garnish with freshly grated cinnamon or nutmeg. Serve warm.
Golden Milk
1 cup coconut milk, almond milk, or whole milk
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 nutmeg pod (*optional)
1 1-inch piece raw turmeric, thinly sliced (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 1/4 inch piece ginger, chopped
6 peppercorns, white, black, or pink!
up to 1 Tablespoon honey (*optional, use stevia or another sweetener if desired)
freshly grated cinnamon and/or nutmeg for garnish
- In a small saucepan, over medium heat, stir together milk, water, and coconut oil. Add cinnamon stick, nutmeg, turmeric, ginger, and peppercorns. Bring to a slow simmer, watching closely. Simmer for 10 minutes. Mixture will thicken slightly.
- Stir in honey or sweetener and strain over a fine strainer into a mug. Garnish with freshly grated (or dried) cinnamon and nutmeg, if desired. Serve warm.
Suppers is a brain-based recovery program for preventing and reversing health problems with food. If you want to submit a story about how you achieved your goals by focusing on a diet of whole foods, please send in a story to Dor!
If you would like to join our mailing list, please send an email to our administration and let us know what interests you in health and/or cooking! To become a subscriber of The Purple Apron, email Allie and she’ll put you on the list!
As always, head to our website for recipes, tips, stories, meeting schedules, registration for workshops, and more! The Suppers Programs is dedicated to helping YOU make your own personal transition towards a healthier life. Join us and discover your path towards vibrant health, seated next to a caring Suppers member, enjoying a divine meal together!
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