Since my last post I ended up restarting the parasite herbal cleanse and stuck to it for about 8 weeks. I started with a very small dose and slowly increased until I was at the recommended level. I didn’t notice any side effects this time. About 4 weeks into it I noticed quite an improvement in my digestive symptoms. The often loose stool, undigested food, plae in colour, was starting to all go away. Then after the 8 weeks I stopped the cleanse and still the symptoms stayed away. It was only a few weeks after moving into a new house that I realized I had hardly any digestive problems for weeks. Not 100% sure it was parasites, but it seems that this herbal mixture really fixed me up well.

I had also gone ‘off’ eggs when I last posted. I have since been having them once or twice a week only, and have been rotating between duck and chicken eggs. I have a small local farmer that sells both at the farmer’s market. It’s incredible how good they are. Lately I have been able to have small amounts more often, as I have been using them to make muffins.

I used to rely solely on almonds for making baked goods while on SCD. I was almost scared of trying anything different. Message boards and other bloggers seem to claim that everyone should have the nut baked goods. At the same time there seems to be a consensus on coconut flour being too ‘advanced’. Well I figured after almost a year of eating nut baked goods (not constantly, I would go weeks without, just to make sure I’m not addicted) I was going to try coconut flour. So I got the book ‘Cooking with Coconut Flour’ from my library and gave it a go. Oh My these were good. I don’t even like coconut that much but wow, these muffins were like cupcakes they were so good. Light, fluffy, way better than dense almond flour. So of course I gorged and ate three right away. I figured this would help me find out if coconut flour was truly an ‘advanced’ food. Well I was fine. In fact, I did better gorging on these than I did only having one almond flour muffin per day. So to anyone who is nervous about trying coconut flour, go for it! It’s worth trying at least. I just think if I had been having these instead of nuts I would have been so much better off. I would think it’s also more helpful against Candida and bad bugs, since coconut seems to have such healing properties. If you’re like me, it’s better for you and easier to digest than the nut flours. A side effect quickly noted was that I seem to get a weird body odor with almond muffins if I eat a lot. With the coconut muffins, I actually smell good.

After I realized that I did better with coconut than almonds, I decided to experiment to see if I could include nuts in my diet in some other way. I had done the basic almond flour recipes, tried it with applesauce instead of eggs, tried soaking the almonds before hand and tried having very small portions infrequently. All three methods seemed to produce the same result. I can eat them without being sick, until I eat too many, say 2 per day for a few days. I seem to do ok if I only have 1 or 2 muffins per week, but still have that weird body odor. Then I tried just eating a handful of nuts. Not soaked, not ground up into flour or butter, not cooked. I did this for a week, and surprisingly the body odor stayed away and no digestive symptoms surfaced. So of course I thought immediately it must be something else in the muffins that was bothering me, except that I did the same recipe, with coconut flour in place of almond, and had been eating those every day. So something about cooking nuts just doesn’t sit well with me. I’m wondering if it’s something to do with the type of fats they’re made up of. Coconut flour is mostly saturated fat and withstands heat well. Almond flour is mostly monounsaturated fats which aren’t quite so stable in heat and can go rancid. Rancid fats can definitely affect body odour. I’m also wondering if it has to do with the Omega fats balance. Almond flour is high in Omega 6, while coconut is not. Maybe my body doesn’t like the extra Omega 6.

If anyone is wondering why I even bother with nuts and baked goods, I am seriously trying to gain weight. Everytime I cut out nuts (or now the coconut flour that has taken their place) I lose a few pounds and freak out. That’s with eating lots of meat and good fats, as much vegetables as I can have, and yogurt made from 10% cream, sometimes 2 cups a day. I think I just need more calories, but eating more meat doesn’t seem to help and I’m reluctant to use more honey, fruit or higher carb vegetables. The coconut flour muffins I made are actually quite low carb (and lower than the almonds, which need more honey!). So I guess you could say I’m now doing a lower-carb version of SCD, and I’m liking it.

I’m looking forward to trying out a few coconut recipes, like coconut ice cream or adding coconut milk to some indian dishes I make. Any extra coconut and calories sounds like a good plan to me!

I’ve been away from the blog for a while trying to figure out what to try next in an attempt to get rid of all my digestive symptoms. I have been on SCD since January 2008 and am still having problems. I found GAPS a while ago and incorporated some of that into my plan as well. Basically GAPS is SCD with extra care on the dairy and supplementation.

I was still having problems this fall with digestive symptoms and so my naturopath suggested a diagnostic test by Genova called the Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis. She suggested I get the full test plus parasite test but that was extremely expensive and not covered by my insurance. So I got the full test, and went to my family doctor for an Ova & Parasites test. The CDSA test showed that I am not producing enough stomach acid or pancreatic enzymes. I have some markers of inflammation which can be due to infection by parasites or bacteria. My doctor ran bloodwork and did the O&P; test. The O&P; showed nothing, which doesn’t say much because it is a test that has many false negatives. The blood work showed some elevated liver enzyme and elevated eosinophils. This could be due to parasites as well. So my naturopath decided I have parasites, and my family doctor did not disagree. My family doctor is using this as an opportunity to refer me to a new GI doctor, now that some test I have had done showed something is up. Her hope is that finally a GI doctor will take me seriously and be of some help. I won’t hold my breath.

This past month I tried doing a parasite herbal cleanse prepared by my naturopath. It contains black walnut, quassia, artemisia, berberis, cloves and chiretta. I started on it too strong in the beginning and ended up suffering for 2 weeks with the dreaded ‘D’. So at this point I have stopped taking it but plan to start it very slowly soon. The goal is to take it for over a month to kill all parasites. I’m also supplementing with Betaine HCL and pancreatic enzymes.

Since doing this cleanse I have noticed I can’t seem to tolerate the same foods. I was doing great on eggs, meat, SCD yogurt, raw cheddar cheese, bananas, avocado, applesauce, stewed veggies and some nut baked goods (nuts soaked). I’m actually thinking that right now eggs are really bothering me. I plan to cut them out for 3 days (really tough! it’s my breakfast everyday) and see how that goes. I already tried cutting out nuts and that didn’t help at all, and adding them back in seemed completely fine. So I’ll continue with the nuts. If the eggs are ok, I may see if having too much chicken is bothering me.

For now, here is a recipe I have been making with extra bananas lying around the house:

Banana Nut Muffins

2 cups blanched almonds, soaked
1 egg (optional)
2 bananas
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup honey

Blend almonds to make almond flour or butter. Add all ingredients and mix well. Spread into two 8″x8″ baking pans or muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes.

You might notice my nut recipes all look the same with a tiny difference in the amount of nuts or honey. That’s because I haven’t exactly strayed too far from the original nut butter brownies recipe. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, right?