Hi All,

I have some questions about the Explorer Diet I hope you can help me with. I live in Australia and the fish here are not the same as they are up North. Also, some fish that have the same name as the northern fish are not actually the same. Most of the fish on the Explorer list are unknown to me. Are there some guidelines I can use in finding fish I can eat?

Also, listed under Beans are butter beans? Which butter bean is meant? The fresh yellow wax bean? The small lima bean? Limas are an avoid for me. Or what?

Are all 100% sprouted breads okay? I can get sprouted kamut bread here which is more agreeable to me than sprouted spelt or wheat - is it okay?

Gooseberry and groundcherry are superfoods. I have cape gooseberry growing in my garden and the dried variety is readily available in the shops. This is a close cousin of the groundcherry. Is this also a superfood for me?

I will much appreciate your replies. This is a wonderful resource - this meaning you!

Quoted from Mona

Also, listed under Beans are butter beans? Which butter bean is meant? The fresh yellow wax bean? The small lima bean? Limas are an avoid for me. Or what?

This thread talks about the confusion between butter beans and limas...  Lola has a post where she quotes that butter bean is the seed in the wax bean pod once it matures.
http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-GTDdiet/m-1250312690/

Quoted from Mona

I live in Australia and the fish here are not the same as they are up North. Also, some fish that have the same name as the northern fish are not actually the same. Most of the fish on the Explorer list are unknown to me. Are there some guidelines I can use in finding fish I can eat?

Guidance:

http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-xpress/m-1255756515/

More details:

http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-xpress/m-1253837147/

Quoted from Mona

Are all 100% sprouted breads okay? I can get sprouted kamut bread here which is more agreeable to me than sprouted spelt or wheat - is it okay?

I would assume for explorers following the book diet that 100% sprouted kamut would have the same rating as 100% sprouted wheat.

Quoted from Mona

Gooseberry and groundcherry are superfoods. I have cape gooseberry growing in my garden and the dried variety is readily available in the shops. This is a close cousin of the groundcherry. Is this also a superfood for me?

Unlisted foods are supposed to be treated as neutral, but I often look at what is botanically related for guidance about what the likely rating of a food would be.  But if you look through the list of rated foods there are many exceptions to this assumption.

Gooseberry and groundcherry are superfoods. I have cape gooseberry growing in my garden and the dried variety is readily available in the shops. This is a close cousin of the groundcherry. Is this also a superfood for me? From Mona

My SWAMI Explorer diet has this: Groundcherries, Cape Gooseberries, Poha - all on one line as  Superfoods. Gooseberries are listed as a diamond. Of course, I am an A-Type but this might help to at least figure out where you stand with the "cape" gooseberry.

Thanks. That is helpful. I'll go for it.

Cheers,
Mona

Welcome Mona There are a few of us Aussies on the board so you will have plenty of company (am Aussie altho' I live in NZ)

Whole Grain Kamut Wheat is listed in my SWAMI Explorer as a neutral. I don't know if sprouted would change that or not, but Dr. D. didn't list it. I'm so taken with my old favorites, Amaranth and Sprouted Wheat, that I haven't bothered too much about Kamut even though I like it very well.

Quoted from ABJoe

This thread talks about the confusion between butter beans and limas...  Lola has a post where she quotes that butter bean is the seed in the wax bean pod once it matures.
http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-GTDdiet/m-1250312690/

I never heard of such a thing in my entire life, but I suppose we can learn something new every day! I wonder how the people who came up with this would describe a BUTTERPEA that is supposed to be a cross between a butterbean and a pea. At least that is what people think it is! Actually, I get along with them better than whatever a butterbean is and any kind of pea except green peas. I haven't forgotten the awful mess trying to figure out what a WHITE BEAN was supposed to be circa the GenoType Diet. I never saw one except in a picture online at ONE place that they could be bought in a can! Needless to say, I never ate a WHITE BEAN. BUT just the other day I actually saw them in a grocery store! 'Way too late - they are now an avoid dot for me!! Or maybe I was just lucky!

butter beans are related to lima beans, but they are bigger and paler in colour and they have a stronger flavour. Lima beans tend towards green, butter beans tend to be whitish / yellowish in colour.

butter beans also go by different names depending where you are... fordhook, dixie, henderson and madagascar beans are all names for butter beans that i have heard. yellow lima bean is another.

a lot of the photos on the internet are mislabelled... some calling the smaller green lima bean the butter bean and vice versa... but i know for sure that the green flat bean that is about the size of a penny is the lima bean (i'm allergic to those) but the bigger, flat and yellow ones are butter beans (i can have those ones)

as for the groundcherrie thing... i checked my SWAMI and it is listed as a neutral.

Quoted from zenphoenix

as for the groundcherrie thing... i checked my SWAMI and it is listed as a neutral.

Where are all the O Explorers when we need them!?

I can't deal with beans, except green beans/string beans.

I have a hummus problem.  It kills me. I don't eat it anymore.  I'm not sure what is worse -- the garbanzo beans or the sesame.

Since starting this I haven't attempted any of the beans (other than green/string) listed in the Explorer diet.  

Beans.  Eeew.  

Quoted from smugalert

I can't deal with beans, except green beans/string beans.

I have a hummus problem.  It kills me. I don't eat it anymore.  I'm not sure what is worse -- the garbanzo beans or the sesame.

Since starting this I haven't attempted any of the beans (other than green/string) listed in the Explorer diet.  

Beans.  Eeew.  

Yeah, those b e a n s.......... I'm glad Dr. D. spared me on the SWAMI and delivered me from so many BEANS! They make me want to screech! The Great Northerns are not too bad though, and, of course, I get along with string beans just fine. I could eat them every day.

no ballony beans for me either

@ the bean hate!

i have very few beans on my SWAMI also - thanks goodness!!!

i have lots of nuts which is awesome (and i get a 1/2 c a day!)... but very few beans (butter beans, string beans, cannelli beans and pinto beans) for which i am happy!

Quoted from Spring

Where are all the O Explorers when we need them!?

I know i had that thought too!

I have ready access to DD1's O Explorer SWAMI, but I don't have much experience with Aussie foods. I don't buy foods if I'm not sure of their SWAMI/BTD ratings (except sometimes at the Farmer's Market, in season) and I limit how many "OK for one family member, but not another" foods I buy.  

In the "bean" family, I  buy green beans (frozen and canned and occasionally fresh), black beans, great northern beans, and pinto beans (dried) and light red kidney beans (canned, for DS.) Since I don't know what butter beans are, I don't buy them.

If sprouted wheat is neutral, and kamut is neutral, then sprouted kamut has to be at LEAST neutral, possibly even beneficial (since kamut is better than wheat, and sprouting increases the rating of the grains, but I don't know if the sprouted kamut is "enough better than regular kamut" to push it out of the neutral catetory.) But since you know you tolerate it better than o ther sprouted breads, that makes it a good choice.

Thanks to everyone for the information and comments. I've learned something from each of you.

Can you tell me if "Potato, white with skin" listed as an avoid for Explorers, means that peeled white potato is neutral?

Mona

Quoted from Mona

Can you tell me if "Potato, white with skin" listed as an avoid for Explorers, means that peeled white potato is neutral?

No.  This means that whatever color the white potato skin is, it is an avoid.