Cheese and Knives

I recently bought a Sámi game knife. It is really valuable - so
much so that I don't know how I managed without it and can appreciate
why those vikings carried their hand axes everywhere. I've been using
it many times a day during the process of moving house, walking
Charlie and doing everyday things like shopping, eating, buying
clothes etc. It can get into packaging, remove clothes tags, trim
wall / rawl plugs, slice cheese.... yes cheese....
no I haven't gone mad... I have reintroduced cheese into my funny
vegan diet. Here's why.

I had to have a bone density scan to see how my skeleton is holding
out against the onslaught of steroids my lungs have been needing this
last year or so. I was asked about my calcium intake - cheese, milk,
yoghurt... well all I have been having is calcium enriched soya
products and I don't think it has been enough - not if my nails are
anything to go by, anyway. These things might work OK for some
metabolisms but research into my genetics and family health history
has given me a lot of reason to believe that my maternal ancestors for
59,000 years survived on a diet of reindeer meat, dairy produce and
fish, perhaps augmented by a little seal blubber if they lived further
north in Norway. They would not have had access to the most
problematic food allergens around at the moment - things that are
causing problems for many many more people than ever imagined -
glutenous grains, certain nuts, beans and pulses (wheat [+ barley, rye
& oats for the coeliac], peanuts, coffee beans, chocolate, soya....)
Sure, dairy can be a problem for some people, but maybe we are a
product of our genetic make-up more than we realise, just as a cat
finds it hard to be a healthy vegetarian. Since reintroducing cheese
I've been starting to feel stronger and my breathing has felt better -
my chest has been a little tighter, but stronger, if that doesn't
sound too weird... less watery anyway - like all the gunk is
thickening up and being better able to do its job of bashing germs.
I am pretty convinced my family health issues boil down to this food
sensitivity stuff. My mother was a coeliac, as is my brother. The
number 1 cancer that coeliac disease causes is non-hodgkins lymphoma,
which is exactly what I had between 12 and 15 years old. My cousin has
had IBS and has lupus and my aunt has rheumatoid arthritis - there is
also a history of various other physical and mental issues in my
family, including asthma, that are all related to coeliac type
sensitivity, which is part of a broader auto-immune disease food-
sensitivity problem.

Research is being done in the US into a protein the body produces
called zonulin. Apparently too much of this in response to certain
food stuffs cause increased gut permeability. What then happens is
that larger mollecules enter the blood stream and surrounding tissues
and fluids (such as the interstitial spaces next to the lungs or the
blood brain barrier next to the brain). The immune system then starts
attacking these areas which can lead to cancers and other destructive,
tissue destroying activity - an excessively warlike immune response
charging round like a bull in a China shop.

Anyway, the future could hold therapy based on balancing this natural
zonulin protein and solving a myriad of immune diseases including
cancers, sarcoidosis, coeliac disease, lupus and perhaps conditions
such as pemphigus (where the body attacks its own skin - a hungarian
friend of mine got this - slavs are more susceptible to these
sensitivities too - anyone whose ancestors did not eat a standard
western european diet until recent times). It's interesting - it has
made me think about the strict Jewish dietary laws too - perhaps they
had such precise food wisdom based on what it was healthy for their
specific genetic make-up to eat and not eat - they have all sorts of
food combination restrictions such as not mixing meat and dairy, not
having any leavened foods at times (yeast is another potential
allergen so perhaps taking regular breaks from it is a good idea), no
shellfish at all... Julie recently found out that pork has
historically been a significant carrier for a certain potentially-
fatal parasitic worm.

Enjoy your cheese. I like Caerphilly and Wensleydale, but find cheddar
a bit sickly. Charlie is in food heaven!!!!