Candida Cleanse: Day 14

Whew! In 1 hour and 20 minutes, I will have completed 2 weeks of my candida cleanse. I haven't had any symptoms of die-off in almost a week. Several of my candida symptoms are improving dramatically, which is awesome. Hooray for experiments that work!

Unfortunately, on Thursday, I started to experience massive sugar cravings. Why I didn't get them earlier, I have no idea, but for the past 2 days, I've had visions of Skittles, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, cookies, chocolate, and ice cream noisily tapdancing through my head. I've managed to hold off on succumbing, but it has been tough. Fortunately, it hasn't been anywhere near as difficult as when I quit caffeine. That was pure misery. This is more of an annoyance. I almost gave in to the craving this evening, but somehow I managed to park my butt and not get a cupcake.

My goal is to keep away from the refined sugar until I go to Colorado in a week and a half for my best friend's wedding. At that point, my cleanse is done. There's no way I'm going to pass on gluten free, dairy free wedding torte (hooray for having a best friend who is also a glutard!). I'll be honest, though, if these cravings keep up the way they are now, I might not be able to hold off for that long. We shall see...

Chocolate: The Good and the Bad

For my botany class this quarter, I had to do a research project on a plant of my choosing. Being a chocoholic, it seemed natural to go with Theobroma cacao, the chocolate plant - Theobroma translates to "food of the gods," and cacao is what the plant was called by Mesoamericans. The history of chocolate is fascinating* (the Aztecs used cacao beans as currency and valued it more than gold!), but I was much more interested in the health benefits.

The Good

Chocolate has all sorts of chemical constituents that make it a wonder food. All of the good stuff is found in larger quantities in dark chocolate than in milk chocolate, and it's found in even larger quantities in cocoa nibs (roasted cocoa beans that have been shelled but haven't had anything added to them).

-It is the best source for theobromine, a natural stimulant similar to caffeine (which chocolate also contains in small amounts) that has also been shown to be one of the best naturally occurring cough suppressants.

-It contains Phenylethylamine, a chemical that occurs naturally in humans that seems to be responsible for people falling in love, and it is present during orgasm. It can also relieve depression without any negative side effects.

- It has large quantites antioxidants, chemicals that help to prevent cancer.

- It contains anandamide, which has a role in short-term memory (I'm totally eating chocolate while cramming for exams from now on!) and is necessary for implantation of embryos.

- Tryptophan, an essential amino acid (which means it's not produced by the body so must be eaten), is found in chocolate. It is the rate-limiting factor in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter important for relaxation. (It's the same chemical responsible for the food coma you get after eating a huge turkey dinner)

- It's a great source for magnesium, which assists in the absorption of calcium. It also turns out that magnesium deficiency makes PMS worse, so the chocolate cravings that women get are perfectly reasonable, and we should pay attention!

The Bad

Unfortunately, there is a dark side to chocolate. Most commercially produced chocolate is tainted with child slavery. The Ivory Coast is the largest producer of cocoa beans in the world, and slave trade in boys is rampant there. They are either kidnapped or sold for absurdly small amounts. They are forced to work under harsh conditions, are beaten regularly, and are only given enough food to survive. Because they are so inexpensive, they are viewed by the plantation owners as completely expendable. What makes this even more appalling is that chocolate manufacturers know that it's happening, but aren't doing anything to stop the problem. A common excuse is that because beans from plantations that use slave labor are mixed with beans from plantations that don't use slave labor, they can't determine whether what they're buying is slave-free or not. What they are really saying is that they don't want to make the effort and expense to ensure that they are buying beans from good plantations. Unfortunately, this includes all the manufacturers of the most popular candy in the US.

Fortunately, we do have options. Your best bet is to look for the Fair Trade symbol on your chocolate (you should do that for coffee, as well). Fair trade means that the plantations they are buying from guarantee their workers a living wage and decent working conditions. My personal favorite fair trade chocolate comes from Theo Chocolate, a local Seattle company. They are the only organic, fair trade bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the US. For more information on chocolate slavery, and for a great list of chocolate companies that produce slave free chocolate, check out http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/.

*A wonderful, well written, and beautiful book with tons of info on the history, and the preparation of chocolate is The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with recipes by Maricel E. Presilla

For more info on the chocolate in general, check out http://chocolate.org/

Almost Vegan Banana Bread

I've had bananas in my freezer for a while just waiting to be turned into banana bread. Today, I looked through dozens of banana bread recipes online for one that used honey and whole wheat, and that also didn't use eggs (I'm out and didn't feel like buying any). I found an excellent recipe that not only met my requirements, but it also didn't use dairy. It's a much healthier alternative to regular banana bread using only 3 tablespoons of oil instead of a stick of butter, and it tastes (in my opinion) just as good.

Because the recipe calls for honey, it's not technically vegan, although I know many vegans who still eat honey. To make it a truly vegan recipe, you could substitue agave nectar, or possibly even maple syrup.

Instead of walnuts, which I'm not a fan of, I used a 3oz bar of Theo 70% dark chocolate that I hammered until it broke up into small pieces. The chocolate was a delicious alternative, but next time I think I'll only use 3/4 of a bar. The banana was obscured somewhat by the chocolate. It might also be quite tasty with cacao nibs instead of chocolate.

Of course, everything I used was organic, and the chocolate, honey, and flour were all local. Overall, I'm quite happy with the results, and I'll definitely be making this recipe again.

Mmm, Cookies

Today, for the first time in a lonnnnnng time, I baked cookies. I decided that I needed to get rid of some of my peanut butter. It's perfectly good Trader Joe's organic peanut butter, but compared to the amazing deliciousness of the freshly ground organic peanut butter available at Whole Foods or Ballard Market, it's bland and boring. I can't justify buying the amazing peanut butter while the other stuff sits in my pantry. So I looked online and found a recipe for whole wheat peanut butter oatmeal cookies. They turned out amazing. Plus, all of the ingredients I used were organic, and the brown sugar was fair trade. The only thing that could have made them better was if I'd added Theo chocolate. I know for next time.

Although my cookies aren't made from local ingredients, they were made almost entirely from products that were in my pantry from before my decision to go local. I did buy vanilla extract, which of course, isn't available locally, and baking soda. While I am making every effort to eat locally, I am not a purist. I mean, sometimes, you just need something that comes from a different locale, like vanilla. When I buy peanut butter again, it will be made from freshly ground Oregon peanuts, instead of a jar that has peanuts from who knows where, a processing plant most likely somewhere in the middle of the country, and a distribution center that could be entirely different from the factory location.