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25 February 2011

Sugar and Black Tea

So, I've fallen down on once-a-week posts. But that's okay; a lot of February was spent depressed or busy or both.
I have hopes for the citalopram, and especially for both my doctor and my CSW telling me to do things that are good for me: look, the doctor said so! Obviously, I *have* to (at least try to) set aside time every week to write. (No joke; my doctor told me to write. At least once per week.) And I think that'll help me do it, because I'm not just counting on myself. It's not just me I have to answer to.

Similarly, when he heard about my anti-inflammatory diet, he told me to keep up with it. So here's what I have to report:
The anti-inflammatory diet lists foods to avoid and foods to eat. I spent January sort of gearing up to it, finding out what foods I eat normally that I cannot eat due to the diet (did you know some pasta sauces have sugar in them? I didn't), etc. The last Sunday of January marked the point where it was serious: it was three weeks of strict adherence to the lists, after which, I would start adding food back in, one at a time, and monitoring their effects.
The diet (found in Healing Depression and Bipolar Disorder Without Drugs) suggests testing sensitivities to foods by abstaining from it for three weeks, and then enjoying it three times in one day, and then monitoring the effect for the next two days.
So, Sunday, I ate sugar. I put raw sugar in my cereal and drank juices with sugar in them and ate organic fruit snacks with evaporated cane juice in them. The next two days I had blinding headaches hovering around my right eye, and a constantly runny nose.
Wednesday, I drank black tea (and was so glad to have my tea again!) several times that day. I have had a couple of bad headaches, but I don't know if they're related: they didn't stay in one place like the sugar-headaches, and they were off and on. Really two headaches yesterday and today. (At least so far. There's a fair amount of day left today). But other than the headaches, I didn't notice anything: pain levels stayed about the same, no unusual sinus reactions, etc. So, I will continue monitoring the rest of the day.

I'll decide what I'm trying next before I go to bed tonight. It'll either be really good dark chocolate (no milk involved) or dairy. I also have to decide whether black tea will continue to be avoided at least for now. I think it might be smarter to continue to avoid the things on the "no" list, at least for now.
I'll keep you posted.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like progress. I wish you the best. I am leaving a note about the sneak preview of Trolley Whole foods. Its on fb. Don't know if it will be a decent source, or just another more expensive way to sell the same old stuff. Good Luck.

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