Tight Pants, Colds, and Dairy-Free Fermentation

Pants Don't Fit? It Might be the Pants

If the clothes-o-meter says you're gaining weight, it might be the clothes that are off. Half the ladies' blouses I recently bought are medium sized (I normally take a small) and the jeans I just bought are smaller than the ones from before, even though they're they same brand, cut and size.

They're smaller in the thighs, too.

I thought I'd had too much prebiotic fiber.

This doesn't seem to be a one-off. One reviewer who bought the same jeans said she bought them a size up to wear over tights, but couldn't get them on even without tights. Over at Talbots--which normally carries high quality clothes--several reviewers complained about undersized jeans.

Click to enlarge (the screenshot--alas, it doesn't work on jeans)

Of course, if your jeans used to fit--well, jeans don't shrink from sitting in a drawer.

Another Cold Averted?

Regular readers know I'm prone to respiratory illnesses. But my last cold only lasted 12 hours (short COVID, maybe?) and I just spent a week feeling tired and kind of cold. I wasn't coughing or sneezing and didn't have a fever. But I was so tired and congested that I asked my hairstylist if he wanted me to reschedule, take a COVID test or just come in. (He asked me to get a COVID test and wear a mask.) Whatever it is, it feels like it's going away. I credit the probiotics I'm taking (fermented Biotiquest Immunity).

Dairy-free Shirota

I'm also fermenting L. casei Shirota, a bacteria that helps with respiratory infections. But since I have enough yogurt, I thought I'd ferment something different. A few research papers said the bacteria ferments fructose, so I used green bananas and coconut milk. The critters loved the bananas--in 36 hours, they turned them into mush. But it's delicious mush!

Shirota Bananas

2 green bananas
1 can coconut milk (no gums or thickeners--Native Forest Simple is a good brand)
1 cabbage leaf (the internet says it keeps the bananas from turning brown)
1 bottle Yakult

Pour the Yakult and coconut milk in a quart Mason jar and stir. Cut the bananas into thin slices, add them to the jar and stir them in. Add the cabbage leaf. Loosely put the lid on the jar. Put it in an insulated grocery bag or camper cooler with a heating pad set to medium. Ferment for 36 hours. Refrigerate when finished.

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An Objective Book about Other Childhood Vaccines

Today's decision by the CDC to add COVID shots to the schedule of childhood vaccines has some people concerned about the rest of the vaccines on the schedule. Contrary to fact-checker claims, adding COVID shots to the schedule means children will be required in about a dozen states to get a COVID shot to attend public school. Indiana isn't one of them--our childhood vaccination law doesn't mention the CDC and such a requirement could run afoul of our ban on COVID vaccine passports. But even freewheeling Indiana has some vaccine requirements and this kerfuffle has people wondering how safe those vaccines are. There's a book called Vaccines: Truth, Lies and Controversy by Peter C. Gotzsche, DrMedSci and co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, about the safety and efficacy of all those vaccines, including COVID and others. Cochrane was founded to "to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving healt

Diabetes Down, COVID Curiosities, New Glasses after Accident

Diabetes Down Despite Dietitians' Directions Last Sunday when I wrote about the grifters over at EatThis.com, which calls itself "Eat This, Not That," I was worked up enough to tweet to their medical expert board members if they stood by the site's article flogging sugary drinks and fast food for St. Patrick's Day. The site has over 1,300 articles, mostly puff pieces, on McDonald's and a news feed full of "the most important breaking news" on Doritos, burger joints and Chips Ahoy! I asked a dietitian who responded to me what exactly the "not that" part was in "Eat This, Not That." Important news about what you should eat! I was worked up until I remembered the saying, "You can't cheat an honest man." Meaning that this con, like a lot of others, requires some dishonesty on the part of the mark. Every Joe Six-Pack knows that cookies, chips and coffee-flavored milkshakes from Starbucks aren't health food. It takes s

Battered Cod and my Eclipse Pictures of my Colander

If you miss battered cod on a low-carb, grain-free diet, here's a recipe that'll satisfy your craving. It's based on a Dr. Davis recipe. Battered cod and cole slaw Ingredients 1 pound cod fillets 2 eggs 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 cup ground golden flaxseeds 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon garlic powder Instructions Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the cod into 1-1/2 to 2 inch pieces. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and butter. Beat continuously--don't let the butter cook the eggs. In a shallow bowl, combine the flaxseeds, cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Coat each piece of cod in the egg mixture and then roll in the in the flaxseed mixture. Place on the baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once. Eclipse Crescent Shadows Today was the total solar eclipse, and my house was in the "path of totality."

Eclipse Glasses, Probiotics for Heart, Muscle Recovery

Are your eclipse glasses fake? The total solar eclipse over North America is almost here, and Indianapolis is in the "path of totality," meaning the moon will completely block the sun here. A lot of people have gotten special glasses to safely look at the eclipse. But the American Astronomical Society says , "counterfeit and fake eclipse glasses are polluting the marketplace." Some of the counterfeit glasses appear to be safe, the society says, but others are fakes that are no more effective than sunglasses. One of the counterfeits they describe matches the glasses someone gave me. I don't know where she got them, and she's not someone I'd trust to perform adequate due diligence. I just got over an eye injury and I don't need another one--I'll try the pinhole method instead to see crescents during the eclipse if it's not too cloudy. Picture from Pexels . Heart Centered Probiotic I started getting scary heart palpitations several years ago

Blog Lineup Change

Bye-bye, Fathead. I've enjoyed the blog, but can't endorse the high-fat, high-carb Perfect Health Diet that somehow makes so much sense to some otherwise bright people. An astrophysicist makes some rookie mistakes on a LC diet, misdiagnoses them, makes up "glucose deficiency," and creates a diet that's been shown in intervention studies to increase small LDL, which can lead to heart disease. A computer programmer believes in the diet and doesn't seem eager to refute it because, perhaps, scientists are freakin' liars and while he's good at spotting logical inconsistencies, lacks some intermediate knowledge of human biology. To Tom's credit, he says it's not the right diet for everyone, but given the truckload of food that has to be prepared and eaten, impracticality of following it while traveling (or even not traveling), and unsuitability for FODMAPs sufferers, diabetics and anyone prone to heart disease (i.e., much of the population), I'm

Pain, Pain, Go Away!

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