@Mossy, do you mean the brand or type of French bread like the baguette? I was trying to think of popular French brands, but couldn’t come up with any.
That’s great! My grandmother used red potatoes too for her potato salad. Aside from digestibility—baby potatoes typically being easier to digest—the best potato really depends on its growing conditions and less so the variety, IME. After spending months testing numerous varieties from different suppliers, I (happily) settled on the baby Yukons. They’re from a local supermarket chain and even better than the Upstate Abundance—they’re consistently so creamy and flavorful that they don’t need any added butter or salt, but they’re half the price and available year round.
Alexandre is excellent, yes, but prior to caring for my dad, the majority of my dairy (and eggs) came from a local 100% grass-based, biodynamic, A2 certified (raw) dairy farm that practices Calf at Foot where the calf stays with its mother, something that’s important to me. I’ve known the owner for over 16 years now. I found his farm just after my spine collapsed and I was recovering from veganism. After hearing what happened to me, he started supplementing his herd’s diet with sea minerals to give me the most nutrient dense milk possible. The man is an earth angel. We geek out on health and science whenever I get the chance to visit the farm. He introduced me to the French scientist Louis Kervran and his controversial theory of biological transmutation and last time I saw him, he had started using a refractometer to test the Brix of his herd’s milk.
Thank you for the heads-up on Vital Farms. I saw a YouTube video on it a month or so ago. I had always assumed their hens were fed supplemental feed containing soy as it’s a common practice in the industry, even for pastured. I don’t know of any brand on the market whose hens are fed entirely on pasture—Angel Acres Farm, owned by the ‘Strong Sistas’, sells eggs that are tested to be low in PUFA, though—or if it’s even possible to maintain the health of the hens and egg production to meet demands, while keeping the cost of eggs reasonable enough to not offend the consumer. With that said, I haven’t bought their eggs since maybe 2024. I buy a “humanely hatched” brand that uses the technology in-ovo sexing to end the practice of chick culling.
It’s great that you’re tolerating bananas better. That’s another good indication your health has improved. Did cooked bananas also cause a serotonin response, previously? If I’m not mistaken, Ray recommended cooking them because of the raw starch. I used to only tolerate them raw when overripe. I haven’t had them in quite some time, though. My diet was further simplified because I’m having to prepare 6 meals a day, currently.
Thankfully, I overcame the dysautonomia so the only effect protein has on me now is positive, but the majority of my fuel came from potatoes—I was averaging upwards of 4 lb daily. The concentrated carbs helped, but it was immersing myself in nature regularly on the trail that was most responsible for calming my nervous system and restoring my thyroid function so my adrenals weren’t having to compensate with adrenaline. I had this epiphany that it was not my body that needed convincing it was safe to relax, but me who needed it. I’ve heard it said that we should get out of our comfort zone, but it occurred to me that I’ve never had one. Figuratively speaking, I’ve been putting out fires since I was a child and always preparing for the next one. I knew I needed to take my healing beyond the cell back to the self, but it was challenging to do so when I felt so disconnected from myself, hollow even, since my mum’s passing and distracting myself with the demands of caring for my dad wasn’t going to reconnect me.
I didn’t overcome the dysautonomia overnight, but I stayed committed to getting out on the trail at least 4 days a week, and one day, while on the last mile stretch of one of my hikes, I had a moment, a breakthrough, when there was what I can only describe as a lifting of the veil between this world and heaven. I thought I knew peace, but just like hell has no floor, the depths of it are endless, I discovered that day that heaven has no ceiling. To go from feeling completely disconnected to feeling connected to not just myself but everything, to know life’s tragic realities, intimately, and at the same time its miraculousness, was life-affirming. I was reminded that the source that created the mountains I’ve climbed is the same source that created me to be just as enduring, and whatever comes my way I can handle it because in hindsight I always have, and where, in the past, I would have gone into fire-extinguisher mode hearing the doctor say my dad had what killed my mum, I felt at ease, in the flow and have remained so. I’m not just drifting around the ocean on a surfboard, at the mercy of the water. I am the water.
And thank you. ️ Yes, you can definitely relate. Being a caregiver is a lot, but I’m just so grateful to have more time with my dad that I didn’t have with my mum.
