Comments on: Sweet Chestnuts

By: The humble potato « Plant Poisons and Rotten Stuff - The Blog

The humble potato « Plant Poisons and Rotten Stuff - The Blog — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 21:38:14 +0000

[...] Solanine can be a problem for failsafers and for the general public. Solanine levels tend to rise in potatoes that have started to sprout or go green, though the green colour itself is chlorophyll. Different varieties of potatoes seem to have different levels of solanine. Solanine symptoms are usually gastrointestinal – consisting of hiccups, acid, nausea, and stomach upset including cramps. Solanine can also give you heart palpitations. For the first couple of years or so that I was on the failsafe diet I thought I didn’t tolerate potatoes. I thought that perhaps baking potatoes formed glutamates because of the strange symptoms I was having. Actually, I eventually figured out it was the solanine content. Now I am more careful, I tolerate jacket potatoes very well. I have experimented with a few varieties of potatoes. I definitely don’t do well on generic potatoes packaged as ‘baking potatoes’ – particularly ones with that peculiar creamy flavour – I get heart palpitations and hiccups. Potatoes with too much solanine seem to be the only food on earth that can give me hiccups. However, I do very well on Maris Piper potatoes. I think my Autumn carb staples are going to be potatoes and sweet chestnuts. [...]

By: Alien Robot Girl

Alien Robot Girl — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Hi DanI’m aware that kombucha/sauerkraut/fish oils contain chemicals. I try to be open minded about vaguely plausible alternative therapies at least until I’ve tried them. In this instance, probiotics were a resounding failure that did indeed give me many problems. I don’t regard probiotics/bad bugs/candida/etc in the least bit relevant to food chemical intolerance. This reflects the feedback from probiotic trials done by hundreds and thousands of failsafers in Australia, who also found them irrelevant.Vitamin K – only K1 foods are high in salicylates. Vitamin K2 is found in animal fats and fermented foods and is actually more potent. I prefer to get my K2 from animal fats. Having done multiple trials, I don’t think K2 is very important. It acts as an anti-glutamate, that’s about all.I could get hold of No-Fenol and Phenol Assist if I wanted to. But I’m not really interested in them as the chemistry of what they do makes me think they’re a placebo. They turn one kind of phenol into another kind of phenol. This doesn’t have much to do with salicylates or polyphenols. We don’t even know if single phenols per se are reactive. Peptizyde for opioid peptides is probably more useful.

By: taty

taty — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:02:00 +0000

Sorry I cannot help with the test of chestnut (= chataigne in French, right?)because I am kind of healed from salicylates trouble now (mainly via my sticking a few months at least to Optimal Nutrition, which is my personal best bet). I will try and find in my students files who would be ready to try. Alas, we have not that many failsafes-to-be over here. They generally do not have to go that far and get better in a more simpler way, with my “true food” programme emphasising on uncooked wholesome fat. Happy to read you again. You are one of the few I regularly readbut I can understand that being confronted with religious beliefs is hard to someone who is fact-oriented. I had the same feeling but had a chance to give so many conferences and seminars in the last 12 years that my will to share was fulfilled. I am leaving that field too. Finishing the next 12 books (true! no writer’s block on my part) in the next 12 months (they are introduced on http://www.taty.be/topos/). I will then start a project (kind of “docteur aux pieds nus”) teaching African women to cultivate spirulina in their backyard for complete nutrition. Or work with horses. Or paint. But will not stop blogging because I need it to feel structured.Sorry this is getting too longCiaoTaty

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:25:00 +0000

One post for the whole of November! I’m missing your wisdom!Seriously, hope you are doing OK and that the dog is being fun.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:19:00 +0000

I’ve discovered your blog through random googling on salicylate intolerance (and also amine issues) and was going to post comments on some of your posts, but realized some were from early last year, so I thought I’d post some really random comments here.At one point you mentioned you were going to try kombucha and/or sauerkraut. It’s my understanding that at least sauerkraut is very high in amines. I was taking raw sauerkraut to help increase friendly bacteria, but am wondering if it made my itching and other symptoms worse…Also, fish oil was mentioned. I read elsewhere that it too may be high in amines.Re vitamin K (and also your post on bicarb of soda for sals): As you probably know by know most foods high in K are high in sals. That’s where I think that high-dose and high-quality probiotics may be part of the answer. First they help make the natural vitamin K we need — esp if we aren’t getting it from foods, and second, they create an acidic environment that helps control the bad bugs and yeast or fungal issues that may be a big key to all of this. Bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda) alkalizes (sp?) the gut…probably not a good thing, at least long-term. Fungal and yeast infections thrive in alkaline environments, hence the reason magnesium may cause candida to grow faster…Finally…do they sell No-Fenol and/or Phenol Assist in the UK? I’ve tried them off and on before w positive outcomes, but haven’t been able to afford to take them on a regular basis. Products like No-Fenol help break down phenolic and salicylate foods, I think by helping to separate the carb portion(?), and many with AS and/or autism and/or just plain old anxiety have reported improvements that sound too good to be true, but again, when I took them (also Peptizyde, which helps digest casein in milk and gluten), my anxiety went so low that I thought I could quit my klonopin cold turkey (which of course I didn’t). Medicaid pays for klonopin (clonazepam) but not digestive enzymes or probiotics…I’m rambling…I’ll shut up. Just wanted to add my two cents.Thanks for creating this blog!Dan

By: Alien Robot Girl

Alien Robot Girl — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:03:00 +0000

Hi Anon,Beneficial polyphenols are few and far between, but I think they exist. Milk thistle (silymarin) is one, as it raises glutathione levels. That’s not to say it doesn’t have side effects. Quercetin is interesting because although it wreaks sulphation, it also suppresses leukotriene production and relieves a lot of the inflammatory problems of failsafers. I can only take around 175mg of milk thistle – more than that gives me brain fog.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:57:00 +0000

Your blog is brilliant. You HAVE come a long way.One point I’m confused on…aren’t poly-phenols the enemy if you’re pheno sulfo-transferase system is not working?I am not able to tolerate the majority of foods on failsafe…many of them contain poly-phenols. Chayote is the only vegetable I can tolerate.The book “Staying Healthy with Nutrition” details phytonutrients, including various poly-phenols and lists the phytonutrients in most common foods. This made it clear to me why I am unable to eat lentils and all grains except millet; they often contain quercetin and various other poly phenols. I notice that many people on Failsafe are not able to eat a lot of the ‘failsafe’ foods.Thanks so much for all the wonderful information you have shared.

By: Mother Nuture

Mother Nuture — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:20:00 +0000

How are you preparing them, out of curiosity?

By: Alien Robot Girl

Alien Robot Girl — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:32:00 +0000

Just cutting a cross in the bottom and roasting them on about 220C for 25 minutes.

By: Elena

Elena — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:53:00 +0000

I’ll give it a go if they’re not too expensive.