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I had a bit of a stomach thing last night, so it is experimentation time


Randomguy

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I am in Cleveland now, the heart of it all, the Paris of Ohio, and home to all things good in the world.   Since it is possibly America's most cosmopolitan city, you would think that the populace would keep reasonably fit and healthy, be well dressed, and speak many foreign languages, but you would be wrong if you were looking at my family and this area in the western suburbs of this sprawling hub of commerce.  

So I have been here a few days without a hint of a vegetable or a piece of fruit, just hanging with the family and eating what they eat.  Don't get me wrong, I like junk food as much or more than the next guy, unless the next guy is from Ohio.  I ate mostly junk food with Old#7, you see, but there were grocery places within walking distance where you buy buy fruit and vegetables and the like.  Plus, we ate high-quality junk food there for the most part.  Anyway, I don't have a vehicle and I have to wait until my brother or his wife go to a store to buy more carbs, seeing as this is about all they eat.

I convinced my brother to go to Trader Joe's so I can stock up on some things I know they will have.  I buy romaine lettuce, salad dressing, english cucumbers, kalamata hummus, grapes, protein powder, oranges, rice pudding, tomatoes, cheese (mozzarella and some variety pack or other in tray form), broccoli, cauliflower, and some various other products.  I also buy a bar of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap, because my brother's house only has body wash, and we all know just how stupid that stuff is, but I digress.

I am excited about having some reasonably healthy fare for a change, and immediately start with a glass of protein powder mixed with water, then a small salad, then some hummus, then some grapes, and then rice pudding.  Small amounts of everything, because I didn't want to get too full, seeing that it was 9:00 or so when I started eating.  The trouble started around 11:30, and I sprinted to the restroom lest I take up after jsharrt.  Intestinal distress lasted roughly and hour and a half, then it was mostly done.

I suspect the lettuce, because almost every time in my life that I have eaten something that gives me food poisoning or just wants to make an immediate and dramatic exit, it is vegetation.  I am experimenting, though, and will go through things sequentially to find out what did me in, in full knowledge that it will probably happen again (for science).  I just had the protein powder 30 minutes ago, and all seems fine, so I am moving onto to hummus in a moment.

This is what passes for fun in North Olmsted, Ohio.

 

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Good luck in the food desert that is Ohio. I have sworn off junk food for a month and am cooking heathy food once again. Isn't there a farmers market near there? Steal a neighbors car if you have to, they won't mind, it's kind of expected there in the Paris of Ohio. Give your body time to adjust to the new roughage. Once it does you'll be feeling more better.

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Just now, Old#7 said:

Good luck in the food desert that is Ohio. I have sworn off junk food for a month and am cooking heathy food once again. Isn't there a farmers market near there? Steal a neighbors car if you have to, they won't mind, it's kind of expected there in the Paris of Ohio. Give your body time to adjust to the new roughage. Once it does you'll be feeling more better.

Good idea, I was a bad influence on you there!  

I will lose 10 lbs, I decided, I was 174.6 yesterday morning.  Not sure if I can completely swear off junk food here while being social with the family, but I will attempt to temper the worst of it.  I seem to have lost my taste for massive amounts of sugar, so that is helpful.  I will look for a farmers market this weekend, too!

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14 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

Eat your McChicken, put some extra salt on your fries and have an extra McSweet tea.  You will feel all better.

That's a trap. That diet will put you in the Parr8hed dialysis clinic! I'd get a second opinion. I'm sending LAJ to your clinic when his kidneys fail. Any day now.

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20 minutes ago, Old#7 said:

That's a trap. That diet will put you in the Parr8hed dialysis clinic! I'd get a second opinion. I'm sending LAJ to your clinic when his kidneys fail. Any day now.

Here is the diet I have seen my brother eat since I arrived (I seldom see his wife eat, but it is the same diet, except for her every 20 minute cigarette habit).

Wake up:  White bread toast with margarine or frosted mini-wheats.  Lunch is a bagel and margarine.  Snack is poptarts, cookies, or chips.  Dinner is a hamburger or hotdog if at home, similar if ordered out for taking home (they always take food home) and consume whilst watching tv.  

My parents eat slightly better, but only because of the slightly more variety they have.  My mom eats hardly anything these days, as food no longer tastes good to her.  Plus, she has diabetes, so my dad tries to give her decent choices from a protein perspective, but she won't eat a lot of it.  Stouffers reigns supreme, sometimes take out food brought home.

The amazing thing is that nobody is particularly overweight, despite not being active pretty much at all.  My brother lives about a third of a mile from my parents, and this warrants a drive every time.  They are amazed that I would prefer to walk.  I took a walk a couple of days ago that was roughly 5 miles, and think that was extreme, despite my SIL walking that everyday when they visited me in NYC.  My brother could stand to lose 25lbs, and my dad could lose about the same, although neither is obese, especially by Ohio standards.

Portion sizes are under control for my brother and father, so there is that.  My SIL eats hardly anything, and my mom eats hardly anything, the drugs she takes do that to her.

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1 hour ago, Randomguy said:

Here is the diet I have seen my brother eat since I arrived (I seldom see his wife eat, but it is the same diet, except for her every 20 minute cigarette habit).

Wake up:  White bread toast with margarine or frosted mini-wheats.  Lunch is a bagel and margarine.  Snack is poptarts, cookies, or chips.  Dinner is a hamburger or hotdog if at home, similar if ordered out for taking home (they always take food home) and consume whilst watching tv.  

My parents eat slightly better, but only because of the slightly more variety they have.  My mom eats hardly anything these days, as food no longer tastes good to her.  Plus, she has diabetes, so my dad tries to give her decent choices from a protein perspective, but she won't eat a lot of it.  Stouffers reigns supreme, sometimes take out food brought home.

The amazing thing is that nobody is particularly overweight, despite not being active pretty much at all.  My brother lives about a third of a mile from my parents, and this warrants a drive every time.  They are amazed that I would prefer to walk.  I took a walk a couple of days ago that was roughly 5 miles, and think that was extreme, despite my SIL walking that everyday when they visited me in NYC.  My brother could stand to lose 25lbs, and my dad could lose about the same, although neither is obese, especially by Ohio standards.

Portion sizes are under control for my brother and father, so there is that.  My SIL eats hardly anything, and my mom eats hardly anything, the drugs she takes do that to her.

The problem that I see with that Ohio diet, (LAJ and RtJ both pretty much eat this way) is not the fact that they are morbidly obese but they are lacking in essential vitamins and minerals for a healthy life. LAJ has diabetes and Stage IV chronic kidney disease. He can't fight infections well and has had MRSA twice. RtJ is headed down the diabetes highway, it's only a matter of time. Stouffers and similar prepared meals are engineered to hit the pleasure center of the brain with specific doses of sugar, salt and fat. Very little nutrient wise. This way of eating has become the norm in the US and is a major factor in the current state of our health care system.

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32 minutes ago, Old#7 said:

Stouffers and similar prepared meals are engineered to hit the pleasure center of the brain with specific doses of sugar, salt and fat.

Prior to eating the Trader Joe's stuff, I had a Stouffers white cheddar mac and cheese.  I am not completely ruling that out as a cause of the trouble, but it seems more unlikely as it is highly processed.

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I was eating Aldi's fancy lettuce, 4 little heads in a container, Romaine, Butter, and I don't know what all. So I would be in the pooper shortly after lunch, every day.

Being a slow learner it took me awhile to put 2 & 2 together. When I found the container of lettuce that had been in the back of fridge for at least 2 weeks, and still looked as fresh as the day I bought it, I quit buying salad, pretty much quit shopping at Aldi's.

And I'm not quite so 'regular' now. 

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Lettuce, huh?  The last time I had a stomach problem I thought it was due to the fact that I didn't notice the Kaiser roll on which I had piled meat, cheese, lettuce and mayo then was eating had a solid layer of mold on the bottom until I was 3/4 of the way through.  I never suspected the lettuce!  Maybe that was the cause!

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Last night I dined with my brother and his wife.  Angel hair pasta, a jar of pasta sauce and a pound of unspiced ground beef fried and added to the generic sauce and served with green tube cheese.  The side dish?  Bread with margarine.  Lemon bars finished it off, although I doubt there was any actual lemon in the box mix that produced them.  

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1 hour ago, Randomguy said:

Last night I dined with my brother and his wife.  Angel hair pasta, a jar of pasta sauce and a pound of unspiced ground beef fried and added to the generic sauce and served with green tube cheese.  The side dish?  Bread with margarine.  Lemon bars finished it off, although I doubt there was any actual lemon in the box mix that produced them.  

Did you shit yourself after?

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