Coconut Crusted Chicken with Avocado Sauce (AIP version)

Whoa!  Where did those last weeks go?  I've started, and neglected, this post twice already, so let's try and get something actually published this time, eh?

Here is a very easy, completely delicious paleo recipe that is worth a try, even if you're not paleo, or usually a coconut fan.  

Paleo Coconut Crusted Chicken

Click Here for Printable Recipe (PDF)

Ingredients:

(Makes 2 Servings)

For the Chicken

2 large, skinless chicken breasts

3 tbsp coconut flour

3 tbsp dessicated coconut

3 tbsp coconut oil

tsp salt

tsp dried thyme

Optional:  2 eggs.   If you are on the AIP, you can skip the 'egging' step and simply coat the breast strips with melted coconut oil before introducing them to the coconut mix.

For the Avocado Sauce

Oh She Glows Avocado Pasta Sauce

Instructions:

Cut the chicken breasts into three strips each.

Melt the coconut oil in a fry pan.

Turn the oven to 180C.

Mix the coconut flour, dessicated coconut, salt and thyme in a bowl large enough to toss the chicken strips in.

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If you are using egg

Beat the eggs in another bowl.

One by one, immerse the chicken strips in egg then toss them in coconut mix until covered and then put each in the fry pan.

If making the AIP version

Quickly swoosh the chicken strips in the fry pan to coat them with coconut oil, then toss them through the coconut mix until covered

After coating, place the chicken strips in the fry pan
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Allow the coated strips to gently sizzle (adjust the heat so that they don't burn), and turn them when slightly browned.

Once they are browned on both sides, remove from the fry pan to an oven dish. There will be some coconut and oil left in the pan that can be poured over the strips, if you want extra crunch.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until you are 100% sure the chicken is cooked right through (usually I do a sort of biopsy for this - check that the largest strip is fully cooked at its fattest part.

Drizzle with avocado sauce. Or, if you are me, just lay it on thickly.

Serve with all manner of healthy veges.

One serving is two strips. The nutrition data does not include the avocado sauce.

And here's a more recent pic:

Still works, still delicious. I'm getting better at cooking it to the right level without it sticking (the trick: more oil..).

Let me know if you like it and here's some good reading and a thought for the weekend:

Naughty Dogs!  (good to start the weekend with a shakes-ya-belly-like-a-jelly laugh)

Mentally Strong People: The 13 Habits they Avoid

Breakfast, Not Really the Most Important Meal of the Day - this links in very well with what I wrote on the subject, here.

7 Tips for a Great Start to your Day

The New ITP Protocol

Isn't this pretty?

Platelet building smoothie: spinach, berries, banana, coconut milk

Since the underwhelming impact of a 30-day paleo autoimmune diet, I've spent extraordinary amounts of 'some' time researching Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP). I've been reading papers, bugging experts and stalking forums, trying to determine what sort of lifestyle could maximise my platelet levels.  I'm not aiming for high platelets. The lowest end of normal would be just fine.  Let's set the goal at 150,000. If I get there, I'll buy myself one of these and throw a platelet party:

Source

It's a fluffy platelet toy!  You know, I think I'm just going to get one anyway. How cute.

It's encouraging to find that remission without drugs is not unheard of.  That's good. However,  as usually happens with natural healing, it's never the one thing that works for everyone.  There are a few themes emerging though.  Generally it seems that ITP people do better on lower and lighter protein levels than what I've been eating. That is, less red meat, more fish and white meats.

There is a lot of agreement that platelet levels do not respond favourably to a low-carb diet. I also found a study showing that a ketogenic (very low carb, high fat) diet is terrible for platelet levels, even if you don't have ITP. It's also agreed that more veges (especially vit K packed green ones) = healthier platelet levels and most people notice that stress and alcohol cause platelets to flee.

I'd say it's pretty obvious what I need to do: eat more veges (I'm thinking something close to the Wahls protocol: 9 cups a day), keep protein moderate, carbs at about 150g a day and live a very relaxing lifestyle that proscribes stress, worry and alcohol. Nothing too unexpected there.

Raw smoothies are my friend.  It would be great if the pretty colours could make a sort of rainbow smoothie, but.. it just turns brown when blended. Very disappointing.

As well as vege-ing it up, I've been looking into supplements. I'm taking papaya leaf in capsule, liquid extract and herbal tea form, but I'm on the fence about the potential benefits. Papaya leaf is an Indian remedy for low platelets and immune regulation that seems to work spectactularly for some people, and not at all for others. There are a few studies, like this one, showing platelet increases in mice, and a few more that concentrate on the low-platelet after effect of dengue fever, but I wouldn't say the scientific basis is strong. There aren't any papaya leaf studies that have addressed ITP of unknown cause.

I'm going to try that papaya leaf for three weeks and see what happens.  I like to exercise caution with herbs: like any medicine, you can overdo it.

The only nutrient that consistently recurs in my readings and in interacting with smart people that know stuff, is Vitamin D.  This (below) is the one I'm taking, and at the moment I'm on 50,000IU a week.  I'll have a test in a few weeks to see what my levels are, but as I'm sun phobic (wrinkles!), I would not be surprised if I'm deficient.  

Vitamin D is not truly a 'vitamin' but acts more like a hormone in the body.  It is a well documented regulator of the immune system and also has a role in healing and preventing leaky gut through increasing expression of the proteins that seal up the 'tight junctions' in the intestine.

More readings on vitamin D (thank you Andre!)

An overview of sunlight, vitamin D and autoimmunity (full article, a very good read - it discusses one case of ITP).

Two case studies of ITP remission with high-dose vitamin D (they were also taking hydroquinone, but suffered relapse if the vitamin D was removed from their protocol).

Side effects of vitamin D overdose (and why it's better to sunbathe, if possible)

I'm also taking magnesium, and attempting to increase my intake of vitamin K2. 

And again, the waiting game.... blood test next Friday.  

Edit: Result - no real change. Last three months have been 75,000 / 77,000 / 73,000

Paleo Beef Stew (AIP, SCD, NSD, Paleo, Gluten-free)

Today's recipe is a basic paleo beef stew that anyone can make, and should make. So delicious, so very healthy. Do it.

Paleo Beef Stew

Click Here for Printable Version

Ingredients:

Serves 4

• 500g Grass-fed beef (diced). As usual, mine was from Lake Farm Beef
• 4 large flat mushrooms (sliced)
• 3 carrots
• 3 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 large or 3 smaller onions (chopped)
• 1 cup of stock or bone broth
• 2 tbsp vinegar (apple cider if you want to be AIP compliant)
• 2 tsp fresh grated ginger (or you can use dried, but it's not as good)
• large handful of fresh thyme (de-stalked) (again you can use dried)
• salt to taste

• 2-3L water

Directions:

Melt the coconut oil in a large stock pot and sautee the onions until soft

Add the meat, garlic and herbs and cook (stirring frequently) until the meat is slightly browned

Add the stock, water, vinegar, carrots, mushrooms

Turn the heat up until the stew is boiling, then turn down to a simmer, cover and let it cook for at least an hour, topping up the water if there is too much evaporation.

I favour a slow cook method, and let mine bubble away for 5 hours. If you find it there is too much liquid at serving time, just uncover, turn the heat up and let it bubble enthusiastically until the water is reduced.

Check the flavour and add salt if required.  Serve.

This freezes very well and is packed with nutrition.  Here are the nerdy stats, per serve:

Honey Week! Honey Fried Bananas.. Again

Do you know that it's honey week?  The Airborne Honey people have a few prizes up for grabs and I had serious plans to make something awesome and award winning. Buuuut, in spite of the overly complicated recipe and almost unbelievable kitchen mess, the pumpkin muffins were a big, fat, dry, chewy fail. 

Therefore I'm consoling myself with an old favourite. Honey Fried Bananas: Comfort food for grown ups.

Here's today's version.  I was too depressed about my muffin fail to do any dishes, so I present... the 'in-a-cup' edition.  Cute, yes?

Honey Fried Bananas

The process is very simple.

• Melt some coconut oil in a non-stick pan;
• Add banana slices (I used one medium sized banana);
• Drizzle honey over the bananas, or just add it to the oil if it's hard;
• Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the bananas;
• Wait until the bananas are browned, then flip them. This is a bit tricky, I found using a spoon or fork was better than the usual implement;

Serve with coconut yogurt or cream.

As they cool, the bananas become chewy and a little bit crunchy - a combination that causes the brain to float in a sea of happy juice for hours and hours.

Apricot Chicken (AIP, Paleo) + Reflections on Thrombocytopenia

Let's Eat!! If you don't like this recipe, well, I'm not sure we can be friends (unless you like chocolate, and wine, then it's probably ok).

Paleo Apricot Chicken

Click Here for Printable Recipe

This is a recipe borrowed from my friend Beatrix. It's the one she sweated over to make AIP compliant when we ate together recently. I swear, it is delicious.

Ingredients:

(makes 5 servings)

* 6 chicken breasts, skin off
* 3 tablespoons coconut oil
* 3 chopped onions
* 1 can coconut milk. I used AYAMS - net weight 270g
* 1 can of apricots in juice (this was 400g net)
* 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
* salt to taste
* fresh or dried herbs - I used a large handful of fresh thyme, savory and oregano, finely chopped

Method:

* Melt the coconut oil in a frypan and sear the chicken on both sides, sprinkle salt on each side.

* Transfer the chicken to an oven pan and put in the oven to cook at 180C. It is ready when cooked right through.

* In the same pan from which you just removed the chicken, sautee the onions until softened, then add the apricots (including juice), vinegar and herbs. You can add a little more salt if required.

* Let the apricot concoction simmer for 10 minutes, then turn down the heat to low and stir in the coconut milk.

* Return the chicken breasts to the frypan and swoosh them around until they are covered with the sauce.

* Serve.

Just for you, I did crunch the stats. This is per breast, with about 1/5 of the sauce.

Musing... I was reflecting today on the way that positive things so often emerge from what seem like negative situations or conditions. 

Obviously, at the moment I'm reflecting on my immune thrombocytopenia, reading my way through a pile of research and becoming immersed in the process of discovery. Like other autoimmune problems, the studies can't agree on the causes, but there is an 'shrugged consensus' that there is 'probably' genetic susceptibility + something that starts the process (e.g. a viral infection) + an ongoing environmental trigger. The last point is hotly debated. However, conditions like celiac disease support the 'trigger' theory - removing gluten and related proteins usually results in celiac disease remission.  There may be environmental triggers for other autoimmune conditions, but discovering them is time-consuming and not attractive research (no big drug money to be made).

"Environmental" could be anything, including, but not limited to foods.  Kek suggested that I might be triggered by housework and I've really taken that on board.  No more housework; it's almost certainly bad for me.  If that works, instant scientific renoun. ;)

Come to think of it, have truer words ever been spoken?

Sorry, where was I? Thrombocytopenia.

In terms of treatments that work, there are steroid drugs, which I hope to never need, and surgery (spleen removal), which seems pretty damn radical, and doesn't always work. There are a few random studies (mostly case studies, although there are a few mouse studies) suggesting that Chinese or Ayurvedic herbs and/or high-dose vitamin D may help - I'll be trying these.  I'm very grateful to Seth Roberts (PhD, author of the Shangri-La Diet), who posted my plea for help on his blog. The information I've received from his readers has saved me months of research and given me a much needed boost of confidence. 

My plan is to intelligently try those research-based ideas in an organised manner until something works, or I feel I've exhausted all options.  It's not in my nature to sit back and accept that nothing can be done, and in any case, it really is about the journey, isn't it?  When I think of some things I have deliberately 'lost': eating disorders, excess weight, arthritis, acne, what I feel most is a sense of gain through the process: knowledge, friends, confidence, skills, understanding and many adventures. And that's just the health related stuff.  I think the principle stands for other challenging life experiences too.

I think that's enough philosophising for a Thursday.  Let's make that apricot chicken recipe and get some eating underway!

Honey Fried Bananas, you complete me. AIP

Yesterday was just a good day.  The sun was shining, Fisher and Paykel sent me a new tablet PC (present for spending a gazillion dollars on a new tardis fridge) and then a friend from the anthroposophical reading group gifted me some home-grown honey in return for something I was supposed to do for him, but in the end didn't. He gave me the honey anyway. Some people are just nice.

I put that honey to the best possible use: fried bananas.  To anyone that thinks they could never do an Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) diet: try this and you'll realise there is nil deprivation involved.

Honey Fried Bananas

The process is very simple.

Melt some coconut oil in a non-stick pan;
Add banana slices (I used one medium sized banana);
Drizzle honey over the bananas, or just add it to the oil if it's hard;
Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the bananas;
Wait until the bananas are browned, then flip them. This is a bit tricky, I found using a spoon or fork was better than the usual implement;

Serve with coconut yogurt or cream.

As they cool, the bananas become chewy and a little bit crunchy.  My brain swooned.

I even packed some to take on a client visit. They were still warm when packed and melted the yogurt. Somehow this make it even better.

On the AIP, sweeteners like honey, maple and dried fruit are to be kept to a minimum, so this won't be an everyday thing. It's nice to know though, that should the need arise, I can indulge without messing up the protocol, and hopefully, the desired result.

Next Post: An AIP update. How's it going? How am I feeling? What have I changed? Do I still have my sanity and my friends? Have I lost weight? What about socialising?

All shall be revealed.

As Sure as Lunch and Taxes... Lamb & Pumpkin Salad

Today, I'm doing my taxes.  Actually, that's also what I was doing yesterday.

It's probably what I'll be doing next weekend too because last year I wasn't too flash on the organisation. I've revised my sloppy ways a lot recently (I repent!), but this doesn't save me from the messy backlog or the unreasonable demands of my accountant (you want receipts and invoices??). Eee gads. :-/

Lunch!

I wanted to show you how easy it is to construct a good AIP lunch out of leftovers.  It's a really useful habit to cook more than you need at dinnertime and stash it in the fridge for lunch (or breakfast) the next day.

Last nights dinner was lamb chops and roasted pumpkin. Today I reheated some of the pumpkin and meat, added watercress and avocado, sprinkled with kelp salt and lemon juice and.. that's it! Done.

And with that, I'll get back to the bank statements.  I think this is irony, or perhaps a paradox.  I need to work to pay the tax I owe, and yet, I have to take two days off work just to figure out how much tax to pay. 

Now where do I claim for catfood and vet bills?  Razzy is my therapist after all. I'm sure that's deductible.

Parsnip Chips (AIP, FODMAPS) / Coconut Milk SOS / Terrifying

There are times when a deep search of the inner self reveals a longing for something salty and crunchy.

We could discuss the origins of such cravings, analyse a few childhood memories: birthday parties, trips to the dairy with mum, bag-of-chips-keeps-the-kids-quiet-for-ages bribery.  I'm sure it's all there waiting to be dredged up and expunged with some inner child therapy.

Or we could just integrate and get busy in the kitchen. Grown-up chips do not come in packets or from potatoes. They come from nutritious root veges lovingly crisped in the home oven - the one with no temperature markings left and a door handle that keeps detaching (individual ovens may differ).

Again, this is hardly a "recipe".

Ingredients:

1. Veges.
2. Olive Oil or Coconut Oil

The amount and type of veges are up to you. In the pic, I have used two large parsnips. Most veg will shrink a lot during cooking.  Other veges that work well are sweet potatoes, swedes, carrots, beet and you can even use courgette, or any other vege that looked at you sideways.

Kale Chips, also, are a firm favourite around here, with or without the parmesan.

Method:

Finely slice the vegetable. I would absolutely recommend using a slicer attachment for the food processor. The way the slices are uniform and will cook evenly.

It's ok to do it by hand if you are steady, but it does take a while.  You need to aim for approximately the thinness of a fat potato chip.

Drizzle oil over the vege slices then, using your impeccably, food hygiene safe hands, massage the oil into the veges.

Spread the veges evenly over a baking tray. A tray with holes (the sort the allows heat to also flow under the chips, makes the cooking process easier, but it's not 100% necessary.

Cook in a slow oven (say 150-170C) until they are at the desired level of crunchiness (about 20 minutes). Keep an eye on then and give them a stir every now and then - this is especially important on a metal tray, so that they don't burn on the underside.

Remove the chips as they become ready. The smaller ones will cook much faster. If the goal is to end up with a bowl of chippies, you'll have to discipline yourself not to immediately eat the ones that are done.

Once they are all done, season and eat.

If you are on the SCD, it's up for debate whether parsnips are ok or not. Some people do well with them, and some suffer.

Coconut Milk

I have taken your advice, consulted my AIP cookbook, and made some coconut milk. 

It looks pretty and tastes great, however, I have an issue.

1. No matter what I do, I can't get it to make yogurt or kefir. It does get slightly tangy, but doesn't thicken at all, even when I persistently shake the jar to recombine the cream and water.

Any ideas on that?

2. So.. at the end of the process, I have heaps of dessicated coconut left. As it takes a lot of coconut to make the milk, I can see a coconut pileup situation developing.  Yes, I could compost it (wasteful!), or go mad with baking (TBH, I'm a bit coconutted-out right now), but there's an awful lot of it. What do you do?  Freeze it? 

I also discovered that the 'Natural Value' brand of organic coconut milk has no additives, and no BPA in the can lining. Does anyone know if this can be found in NZ?

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Something to get excited about: Angela's Cookbook.  Can't wait.

Something terrifying: Miss J in halloween costume, with true witchy attitude. I should mention she is in theatre school and knows how to commit to the character. The cat toy narrowly escaped being painted black.

BTW, it's not the scary face that's terrifying. Do you see how tall she is? (my baby!).

Kumara and Banana Slice - Gluten-Free, Vegan, AIP, Sugar-free

Not much blogging going on around here, you say? That's because I'm currently on an autoimmune diet that occupies all my free time with food preparation.

I'm on day 15 now (half way!) and am getting the hang of it, but at first it felt a bit overwhelming. I'd say, when being as strict as this, you'd might as well forget about eating out. Finding a suitable lunch at the mall is impossible.

However, necessity often drives creativity, and sometimes, that even results in something edible. By that, I mean edible by other people, not just me. I can eat anything. Those long-ago days of bodybuilding diets rendered my tastebuds permanently tamed (or permanently confused, I'm not sure which).

Kumara (sweet potato) and Banana Slice

• The flesh of two large kumara, boiled to tenderness (this came to 400g boiled kumara.
• One medium sized banana
• 5 tbsp (~110g) coconut flour (or you can use dessicated coconut)
• 4 tbsp coconut oil (~70g)
• 1.5 cups water (use less if you are including dessicated coconut instead of coconut flour)
• 1 heaped tsp (~5g) of agar agar (or use gelatin if you're not worried about vegan-ness)
• Cinnamon and Ginger to taste (I used 2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon - that's a lot of spice)
• tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Blend everything to a thick paste in a food processor.

Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes or until it is slightly firm. It will firm up a lot as it cools and the oil and gelatin set.

Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan. Cut into slices or squares.

I have found this a useful breakfast with some coconut yogurt (exhibit 'A', to the left), and it's easy to wrap a bar or two in foil and cart around for hunger attacks.

The flavour is sweet enough for me, and I wanted to avoid any added sugar, even natural ones.  You could add honey or maple, or even drizzle some over it before eating, if your sweet tooth requires it.

The bars freeze nicely.  My freezer is packed with things labelled 'AIP' right now, which helps instil a feeling of 'relaxed and organised'.  Now, how to obtain that same feeling toward my filing my tax return. .... ?

Avocado on Mushrooms

Hello Weekend, Hello sunny spring day, Hello Nia class, Hello Day 3 Autoimmune Diet (hello to you, caffeine-withdrawal sciatica*) and Hellooooo avocado on 'shrooms.

Sorry... but just look at it!  The perfect avocado.  It needed to have its moment of glory on Fit to Blog. Double apologies to Kek, who can eat neither avo's nor 'shrooms (FODMAPS diet). No more avocadoes after this, I promise.

Big mushrooms are fab.  You can do things with them that would otherwise require bread: e.g., use them like hamburger buns.

The important thing is to bake them on a rack (say a cake cooling rack) over a dish because they lose a lot of water and can become soggy if left to wallow in it.  I simply peel the skin off, bake for 10 minutes max at 180 and then dress them up.

Today's ones were a side for a lunch made of paleo-friendly leftovers on a bed of silverbeet and dandelion.

Dandelion is such a useful herb. When I see ads on TV for chemicals that kill dandelions I want to throw things. TV is very bad for my sanity.

* I always get intense sciatica for 3-4 days when I give up coffee. A bit of Googling confirmed that it's a common occurrence in caffeine withdrawal.  Panadol deals to it. I'm not trying to be a hero here, just de-caffeinate my bloodstream. Yes, panadol is not on the autoimmune diet.  I don't care, I'm grumpy, I'm suffering hypocaffeinaemia and just . literally . can not.

Like these dogs.  ( funnyyy)

Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) Diet - Personal

It's been a while since I did anything crazy with my personal nutrition but... I'm about to. You'll probably love it more than I will.. 

Back in February, during a routine blood test, I found that my platelet count is abnormally low. Further testing showed that, for god-knows-what reason, my body is making antibodies against its own platelets. My immune systems eats my platelets.  Nice. Good one, macrophages.

The symptoms aren't really bad, just annoying. Slow wound healing, and my arms and legs always have bruises that I can't contribute to anything. I'm lucky. It could be much worse.

After the test that confirmed antiplatelet antibodies, I did a bit of research and concluded that this probably is a side effect of my 2009 glandular fever episode because the glycoprotein coating ('sheath') on the virus is quite similar to the sheath on platelets. Specifically it contains similar carbohydrates. So the antibody for the Epstein Barr virus can mistakenly identify platelets as a target. The other possibility is that the virus damaged my gut (leaky gut), allowing proteins into my bloodstrem that shouldn't be there. How that works is, these proteins tend to attach themselves to internal structures, making those parts of 'self' look 'foreign' in the eyes of the immune system - the immune system is entirely xenophobic; if it's not self, it must die. I put together a few ideas around those theories and made a half-arsed attempt at an autoimmune protocol. Mostly this involved giving up alcohol, cutting back on dietary lectins, reducing coffee, taking glyconutrients and making some lifestyle changes to de-stress.  I wasn't very dedicated.

After a few months, my platelets went up by 7,000. That's not much but it lulled me into complacency and I got lazy.  Alcohol consumption resumed, I got slap-happy with grains, nuts and seeds and the daily espresso became .. "more". *looks sideways*  

And, now my platelets are only 75,000 (noooooo), which is the level where I could be referred to a haematologist.  But, you know, I'm all about self-healing, and tend to argue with doctors, so let's give self-platelet raising a decent bash.  I'm going to do 30 days on an auto-immune paleo diet (AIP), plus add a few supplements that I'll detail later as I haven't quite nailed that yet.

If you are unfamiliar with what a paleolithic diet involves, it really is a case of being complicated because it is so simple.  Based around what humans ate in the pre-agricultural era, 'paleo' is shorthand for avoidance of:

• Processed Food
• Grains, beans, pulses
• Dairy (although some people do eat it, usually in fermented form: yogurt, kefir)
• Sugar
• Industrial Oils (e.g. all oils except olive oil, coconut oil, natural animal fat and grass-fed butter)

and inclusion of:

**Mostly**

• Grass-Fed Meats
• Fish
• Eggs
• Veges, lots of veges, especially non-starchy ones.

**And Also**

• Fruit (1-2 pieces a day)
• Healthy Fats
• Nuts and Seeds (preferably sprouted)

It is a lower, but not low carbohydrate diet, depending of course, on individual food choice.

You can get quite tricky with it, for example, some people do eat grains if they are soaked, sprouted and fermented (I do this sometimes). There are personal variations: some people drink coffee and alcohol, some don't. Some use sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, dried fruit, xylitol, stevia and erythritol.

Don't even get me started on 'paleo' people that seem to live on nut, dried fruit and coconut-based treat foods, pancakes and muffins.  These things are ok sometimes, but meat, fish, eggs, veges, fruit, nuts and healthy fats in recognisable form should be the focus.

The Autoimmune protocol takes the regular paleo diet one step further, eliminating all nuts and seeds (including seed-derived spices like cumin and mustard),  nightshades (which I almost never eat anyway), eggs, as well as coffee and alcohol.  The idea is to eliminate anything that might stimulate an inflammatory response or irritate the gut. The Whole9 has a good shopping list for the AIP here. It's very short.

I have had to give up coffee (*insert apocalyptic music here*). I'm not going to lie: the thought depressed me to near-death. I'm 3 days coffee-free now and it's dire, but not quite deathly. I'm still drinking green tea, so that's evening out the caffeine detox symptoms. Sacrifices aside, I've read enough positive anecdotes of autoimmune success on this protocol that I think it's really worth a try. I don't know anyone that's improved their platelet count on such a regime, but someone has to be the first, right? I'd never heard of anyone curing their osteoarthritis either, but that worked.

And if it's a big, fat fail, well .. hello espresso. ;)  

What this means for the blog is that once I get through my backlog of recipes and ramblings to post (and there are many), you'll be getting a few weird AIP recipes. I've already recruited Pinterest as my new best friend in this mission (the link is to my Autoimmune Paleo Diet board), begged a kombucha scoby from a friend, and got my coconut yogurt yogging.

I'm ready. Let's go!

PS. Pls send vibes for platelets.  I'm not adverse to a little supernatural intervention here. ;) Vibes gratefully accepted.

Links

Sarah Ballantyne PhD (The Paleo Mom) - Cliff Notes for her upcoming book - which I will be buying, Ms Ballantyne knows her stuff. The entire protocol is outlined on that link, it's very useful.

20 Page Preview of Mickey Trescott's Autoimmune Paleo Book.   I've already bought this for inspiration and will review it once I've worked my way through.