Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, is almost upon us. This holiday is celebrated with special prayers and the blowing of the Shofar (ram’s horn) in the synagogue. Equally important are the observances that take place at home, around the dinner table. Blessings are made over wine and bread, like we do on Shabbos. But we also eat a number of symbolic foods.

Apples are dipped into honey to represent our wish for a sweet new year. Pomegranate, with its many small seeds, symbolizes the numerous blessings we hope to receive in the coming year, along with the good deeds we hope to perform. Carrots are cut into circles to represent coins, to show our hope for prosperity in the coming year. Many other symbolic foods are used, many of them puns in Hebrew or Yiddish. The foods used vary, as some add in new symbols that are puns in English, while others use puns from other languages. A new one we started a few years ago is to eat raisins with celery for “a raise in salary.”

We’re supposed to eat lots of sweet foods and no bitter ones. Many traditional Rosh Hashana recipes use lots of sugar and other unhealthy ingredients. Over the past few years, I’ve developed healthier, more compliant versions of these foods. I make a honey cake that uses only honey for sweetness, not a mixture of honey and white sugar, and it uses rice flour instead of wheat. My daughters may or may not also make one with spelt flour.

As an O nonnie, many of my “sweet” food choices are limited. I’m fine with the sweeter vegetables, but I’m not supposed to have apples or honey. I’m sure I could make a “honey cake” using just molasses and agave, and dip pears in agave to symbolize a sweet new year, but I don’t plan to do either one. I’ll have one or two apple slices each night of Rosh Hashana, and eat the honey cake made with real honey. I will serve pomegranates to my type B son, even though they’re an avoid for him. The holiday symbols are important to me, and we only have a few bites of each one.

Over the summer, I didn’t worry too much about my 10 year old son’s diet. I let him go to sleep away camp and eat whatever they served at camp, even though I know it means non-compliant foods and way too much sugar. I also didn’t send him with elderberry or cod liver oil, two supplements that have helped him stay healthy, and because I thought it would be too much of an inconvenience for him. I regret that now, and plan to send him to camp with elderberry and cod liver oil capsules next year.

He got pneumonia while at camp, and ended up on antibiotics. Had he started getting sick at home, I would have increased his supplements, made sure he was compliant and completely sugar-free, and emphasized fruits and vegetables in his diet. This is only the third time in his life he’s ever been on antibiotics- normally I’m able to treat him naturally before it reaches this point.

When he came home, I vowed to make him eat healthy and get his little body back on track. That proved to be much more challenging than I’d anticipated, in part because our refrigerator broke, and in part because I was out of practice. All summer I’d had only one or two of the kids home, and I even had some days completely to myself. Getting back into the routine of cooking for all 3 of them was much harder than I’d expected.

So now he’s been home from camp for 3 weeks, and back to school for half a week. I’m not doing so well on getting him to eat fruits, veggies, and meats; he’d be quite happy to live on grains (preferably refined) and dairy products. He still has that cough and his endurance is much lower than it should be. He’s still carrying around extra fat on his body, as confirmed by the pediatrician. He gained much more weight this past year than he should have; based on how many inches he grew. It’s hard to get him to exercise when he’s not feeling well, and I’m afraid to push him too far. He got out of the habit of being active when he broke his arm in June, and I’m not sure how to get him back on track.

I’d like to be able to say that I put my kids on the BTD and they’re glowing examples of health. The reality is much more complex than that. I know what I’m supposed to do: offer lots of fruits, veggies, and compliant protein sources, and let him fill up on grains only after he’s eaten reasonable amounts of other foods, and encourage physical activity. But actually implementing this plan hasn’t been so easy.

I had a wonderful birthday month. My Strong Son, my Honorable Husband, and several friends took me out to eat. Great BTD choices everywhere we went.

Lamb and vegetables at Ghengas Kahn with SS. Steak and sweet potato with HH. One friend took me to a tea room where I had fabulous jasmine green tea. Two friends took me out for Mexican food. At one restaurant I had the best taco salad I've ever eaten. At the other I ordered a dinner with grilled chicken, rice, beans, and salad. It would have been delicious except they put pico de gallo all over the salad. I like spicy food, but I do not like raw peppers and onions!

I've also gone to several dessert events recent days. Some were related to my birthday, some were business related, and some were church events. The thing I learned about myself is that while excess sugar on a regular basis is not advisable for anyone, as long as I stayed away from wheat neither my mood nor my weight was effected. I had several pieces of pie - with interesting discussions about why I ate the filling out of the crust. I also enjoyed a serving of flan, a Mexican egg custard with a sauce that is not too sweet.

So for me - forget the birthday cake and bring on the birthday pie!

The day after my birthday I told a friend that I now have 364 days to do everything I wanted to do while I'm in my 50's. A few of those days are already gone. Perhaps next time I'll tell you about one of the things that I wanted to accomplish while before I turn 60.

A continuación y para abrir boca me gustaría compartir con ustedes un vídeo critico elaborado por mi colega y buen amigo Eric Morrison referente a estudios médicos recientes que presumen haber encontrado el hilo negro cuando en realidad el Dr Peter D Adamo ya lo ha venido diciendo desde hace mas de dos décadas!!!

Anexo el texto traducido para aquellos que no le entiendan:

"ABC, CBS, LA Times, Washington y Huffington Post, UK Daily Mail y muchos otros sitios de noticias acaban de informar acerca de un estudio realizado por la escuela de salud pública de Harvard en un diario de la American Heart Association, mostrando una correlación entre el tipo de sangre y el riesgo de enfermedad cardíaca.

El estudio concluye que las personas con sangre tipo O tienen el menor riesgo en cuanto a enfermedad coronaria y que los de sangre AB tienen el riesgo más alto.

Los medios de comunicación apenas están captando esta estadística, pero la información no es de ninguna manera nueva. Investigación que se remonta a la década de los ‘50s ha demostrado este mismo fenómeno, con docenas de estudios posteriores que han obtenido la misma conclusión. Es decir, la literatura científica nos ha venido diciendo esto durante décadas; que el tipo de sangre es un factor importante en enfermedad cardíaca.

Lo que me indigna es la respuesta de algunos de los expertos médicos. El Dr. Steve Nissen, de la Fundación clínica de Cleveland fue citado: "No hay ninguna implicación clínica sobre dicho estudio",Y el Dr. Robert Eckel, de la Universidad de Colorado está convencido de que, independientemente del tipo de sangre, los consejos de salud deben seguir siendo los mismos - que vienen siendo simplemente: "vivir un estilo de vida saludable", y punto.

Sí, estamos descubriendo todos estos vínculos genéticos innegables respecto a enfermedad, y los expertos nos dicen que hay que adherirse a los mismos protocolos de callejón sin salida que se aplican para todos. Nos tendríamos que preguntar: ¿Qué es un estilo de vida saludable, según los expertos? Y ¿Quiénes son dichos expertos? Nadie sabe realmente, y cada asesoramiento de un campo contradice al otro. Pero, entretanto, al menos se han puesto de acuerdo en que deberíamos dejar de preocuparnos por el factor del tipo de sangre.

Quizás parte del problema radica en el hecho de que el primer doctor en reconocer la correlación existente entre el tipo de sangre y las diversas enfermedades es licenciado naturópata en lugar de médico titulado. Muchos médicos alópatas son conscientes de la investigación del Dr. Peter D'Adamo, fundada bajo el concepto de alimentación por tipo de sangre o fisiología, pero parece que pocos están dispuestos a levantarse a favor de dicho concepto. Fue él quien primero descubrió la literatura médica existente entre el tipo de sangre y la susceptibilidad a las múltiples enfermedades y fue quien solito dio el paso siguiente al preguntarse: “Que es lo que puedo hacer para remediar este fenómeno patológico de nuestros tiempos?"

Lo que descubrió el Dr. D'Adamo y como indica con mayor claridad la investigación: el tipo de sangre A tiene un mayor riesgo de enfermedad cardiovascular porque produce más factor de coagulación. También tiene niveles más altos de cortisol, la hormona que eleva la presión arterial y el colesterol LDL. Tanto el tipo A como el tipo AB producen menos niveles de una enzima llamada fosfatasa alcalina Intestinal (IAP) que los otros grupos sanguíneos, poniéndolos en desventaja cardiovascular grave en cuanto a la digestión óptima de las grasas, debido a la función principal del IAP, que viene siendo un arma eficaz que metaboliza el colesterol en la dieta.

Y adivinen qué? El Dr. Peter D'Adamo había publicado esta información en 1981. Ha llevado más de 31 años para que los medios de comunicación capten el concepto, mientras que los cardiólogos apenas se rascan la cabeza pensando en las posibles consecuencias.

Ahora no me malinterpreten. No tengo nada en contra del establecimiento médico. Pero parece que el Dr. Peter D'Adamo ha sido acusado de practicar medicina poco seria o de charlatanería por el grave pecado de aplicar su investigación alimentaria a sus pacientes antes de que sea comprobada mediante estudios clínicos controlados con placebo. ¿Cómo es posible que sea peligroso el que un naturópata le cambie la dieta a una persona, mientras que un Alópata que altera la bioquímica completa del paciente con fármacos cuyas consecuencias han sido poco estudiadas sea alguien responsable? No hago acusaciones, sólo planteo preguntas.

Tal vez se seguirán riendo sobre la dieta del tipo de sangre otros 30 años más antes de que se presente suficiente evidencia convincente para ir modificando el status quo. Pero tarde o temprano, se convertirá en la norma, y nosotros con nuestras arterias limpias estaremos bebiendo nuestro té verde, pensando, No quiero decir que ya se los había dicho... pero si se los había dicho."

Quisiera no dejar de mencionar que es de suma importancia que reforcemos nuestra inmunidad este regreso a clases!
Tomando algunas medidas preventivas reducimos de manera positiva nuestra probabilidad de contagio:
• Todos sabemos que la inmunidad comienza en nuestro intestino. Ingiriendo aquellos alimentos adecuados y benéficos de acuerdo a su fisiología, están ya tomando un paso importante para mantenerse saludables. Intensificar el consumo de alimentos benéficos, eliminando aquellos a evitar en su dieta.
• El estrés merma la inmunidad. Resulta difícil evitar el estrés, pero tomarse unos momentos para relajarse – encontrar 10 minutos al día para únicamente sentarse y cerrar los ojos, hacer algunas respiraciones profundas alternando el lado izquierdo luego el derecho de la nariz, así como la meditación, han demostrado ser medidas útiles y eficaces.
• El ejercicio aumenta la inmunidad! Encontrar una actividad que sea la adecuada y practicarla rutinariamente. Dar una vuelta a buen paso por la tarde en este clima fresco otoñal es una excelente manera de terminar el día relajado y disfrutar de la belleza de esta temporada.
• Evite los azúcares refinados y grasas saturadas. Aunque usted este comiendo de acuerdo a su tipo, a veces estos encuentran la manera de colarse en nuestra dieta – estar atentos y sobre todo, aprenda a leer ingredientes en todo lo que compra con empaquetado llamativo y con leyendas que engañan.
• Tome sus vitaminas y sus minerales, sin aditivos o derivados químicos así como productos comprobados científicamente para elevar su sistema inmune como ARA y ProBerry.
• Siga los lineamientos de etiqueta en cuanto a toser o estornudar, cubriéndose la boca y la nariz. Lávese las manos con frecuencia y evite tocar su cara.

El sistema inmunitario, cuando se encuentra en perfecto funcionamiento, tiene una capacidad notable para luchar contra la gripe y los resfriados. Incluso si una infección se llegara a manifestar, su sistema inmunitario fortalecido, contra ataca de manera eficaz al poco tiempo!

Desde la antigüedad, el saúco ha sido utilizado en el combate a la gripe. En experimentos realizados, el saúco realmente ha demostrado poder inhibir la réplica de toda cepa de virus de influenza humana, tanto la A como la B.

En estudios científicos utilizando extracto de la fruta del saúco se demostró su eficacia en el tratamiento de la influenza tipo B. Dicha investigación mostró que las personas a quienes se les administro el extracto de saúco mejoraron mucho más rápido que aquellas a las que se les administro un placebo.

¿Por qué funciona el saúco? Pues bien, los investigadores encontraron dos razones realmente. La primera es que las personas que tomaron el saúco fueron capaces de producir títulos más altos de anti-hemaglutinación para la influenza B (lo que significa que su sistema inmunitario funcionó mejor y ahora tienen un nivel más alto de reconocimiento en caso de que les volviera a dar "gripe").
La segunda razón es que el saúco inhibe la neuraminidasa (sí, exacto, la misma neuraminidasa contra la cual los científicos están gastando millones de dólares en el diseño de medicamentos).

Una importante pregunta que no ha sido debidamente contestada aun:
¿Sera igualmente eficaz el extracto de saúco contra las cepas de la influenza A?
La respuesta definitiva se basa en su método de acción, su capacidad en vitro y las observaciones clínicas, que ha venido realizando el Dr. D'Adamo, por medio de su suplemento Proberry y la respuesta seria probablemente que sí. Sus pacientes tomando el suplemento Proberry, mezcla de saúco, concentrado de arándano, cereza y manzana, parecen transitar fácilmente a través de la temporada de "gripe".

La palabra de precaución con que dejarles seria que a la hora de suplementar a diario el Proberry, más no siempre es mejor. Altas dosis pudiesen llegar a producir náusea. Si está tratando de evitar una "gripe" una pequeña dosis diaria podría ser muy efectiva. El Dr. D'Adamo recomienda el Proberry a todos y en especial a las personas con sangre tipo B y AB debido a su alta susceptibilidad al virus en general.

Por lo tanto, ahora que se aproxima la época de "gripe" con este regreso a clases recuerde su benevolente saúco!

Agradezco infinitamente que me escriban con sus preguntas, sus dudas, pero sobre todo agradezco cuando se toman el tiempo para transmitirme sus excelentes resultados obtenidos siguiendo sus lineamientos personalizados. Gracias Mil!

Yesterday we went to visit some relatives. An aunt from Baltimore came to visit another aunt in NYC. Her decision to come up was made at the last minute, leaving us very little time to work out the details before the visit itself. It’s a 50 minute drive to the NYC aunt’s home, and it’s been a hectic week already with school coming up.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast then got on the road. When we arrived, we started to discuss lunch plans. There are several kosher restaurants in the area, but it’s hard to find safe foods for me in restaurants. My kids are healthy enough to have the occasional “cheat meal” but I can get very sick from even trace amounts of wheat, corn, or potato. I didn’t relish the thought of being run down and out of sorts for the next several weeks from one meal out.

We finally decided to go to her co-op and do some grocery shopping instead. Going shopping with 7 people was rather chaotic, but we put together a nice meal. We bought two HUGE heads of lettuce, scallions, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, avocado, baby carrots, hummus, avocado, canned tuna, lemons, cottage cheese, and rice cakes. We came home and started making a salad, with hummus and baby carrots put out for an appetizer. Salad dressing was made with fresh lemon juice plus olive oil and salt that she already had in the house. We made a tuna salad with the canned tuna plus lemon juice and mayonnaise she already had. She sliced the avocado and put it out on its own plate.

Unlike many other social meals I’ve experienced in the past few years, I walked away from the table completely satisfied. I didn’t get sick from the meal because there wasn’t anything in the meal that was bad for me, except for the cherry tomatoes that I easily avoided. All in all, it was a very pleasant family get-together. Not only did I enjoy time with my relatives, but I didn’t even have to worry about getting sick from the food I ate or getting sick from not eating enough.

Before leaving, I told my hostess that we need to do this more often, and that next time, we should prepare the exact same meal- only she should do the food shopping before we get there!

In my last blog I mentioned several foods that I used to crave, but that no longer have a hold on me. I also mentioned several foods that I still fantasize about, though I don’t buy them or eat them at home.

One food that I really miss is popcorn. I like crunch, I like salt, and I like butter. Popcorn has all three. Plus it has a lot of fiber. But I rarely fix it because it isn’t good for either HH or me. It is avoid for Type O. While it is neutral for Type A, it is infrequent neutral for diabetic Type As. HH was pre-diabetic until he got serious about the BTD and dropped his blood sugar by 20 points.

Occasionally he can coax me into fixing some air popcorn with olive oil during a movie, but not often.

This week I tried something that satisfied my longing for popcorn.
I bought a bag of puffed millet earlier in the summer. I like it as a snack with a Tablespoon of carob powder and a little almond milk. HH likes it in the mini casseroles I fix him for dinner.

Tonight I put some ghee on top of a bowl of puffed millet and warmed it in the microwave for 45 seconds. I stirred it, salted it, and tasted it.

It’s not popcorn, but it satisfied the part of me that craves popcorn. I have a feeling I’m going to be making this Un-Popcorn a lot.

Whenever our family goes out to eat at a place that has a salad bar, the lettuce usually has cabbage mixed in with it. That means I have to “pick” through the lettuce mixture to minimize the amount of cabbage I put on my plate. I will then further pick out any cabbage I see as I eat the salad.

Not too long ago my wife made the comment that we had both witnessed a man doing the same “picking” through the lettuce a few years before I was introduced to ERFYT. I remembered the incident and recalled joking to my wife that the guy must be “weird” or something.

Now who’s the weirdo picking through the salad.

I since have found an alternative lettuce source from the nearby taco bar that has shredded lettuce all by itself. It’s easier to eat and no one is the wiser.

My 40th birthday was this weekend, and my teenaged daughters made me a special birthday surprise. I was expecting a cake, as that’s the traditional thing to bake people for their birthdays. I’ve been having birthday cakes since my first birthday- my Mom has a photo somewhere of 12 month old me, in the high chair, covered in chocolate frosting.

I don’t do so well on sweets these days. While I’ve continued to bake cakes for my children’s birthdays, I haven’t been indulging myself. I don’t even feel well if I eat too much fruit; it messes with my blood sugar. There are a few sweeteners that are compliant for me, and we do have them stocked in the house. But I can only have about a teaspoonful a day without ill effects, and you need way more than that per serving in a cake, A gluten-free, agave-sweetened birthday cake would be compliant, but I wouldn’t be able to have more than half a slice without feeling sick, and the taste and texture would have been “off” compared to the sugar and spelt cakes we normally bake for everybody else. So nobody would have much enjoyed the cake, and I would have eaten at least a whole slice and then not felt so good afterwards. I haven’t eaten dessert in months and I don’t miss it.

Fortunately, I have a couple of amazing daughters who know how to “think outside the box.” Instead of a cake, or even a dessert, they made a birthday side dish. They started out with some zucchini and yellow squash, cut into rings and hollowed out into “cups.” Then they made a sweet potato filling, and used a plastic bag with the end cut off to fill the zucchini cups in a decorative fashion.

I tried to stay out of the kitchen while they were preparing my birthday surprise, but I wasn’t completely successful. I saw them doing something with boiled sweet potatoes and guessed they were baking a pie. Then, during the mad dash to get everything ready before Shabbos, I was the one who put the sweet potato dish into the oven to warm up. But they still managed to surprise me.

The reason nobody was in the kitchen right before Shabbos is because they were busy working on other parts of the birthday celebration. They put up a hand-made birthday banner in the kitchen, minutes before Shabbos began. When it was time to serve the food, Leah put “candles” into the dish of sweet potato/zucchini cups. Since we can neither light nor blow out candles on Shabbos, she used toothpicks with little “flags” of paper taped to them. One said “40!” with the dot from the exclamation point becoming one eye of a smiley face. That one was in back. In the middle, in a row, were three toothpick flags reading “Happy” “Old-“ “ness!”

This was just as much fun as a real birthday cake; the kids enjoyed the preparation and decorating, and it was just as wonderful in the presentation at the table.

Who needs cake?