rectocele diet

Hi Mommynow,

Diet for the Whole Woman will be up on the store by Monday. I’ve also listed my favorite food books in my reading list.

My food philosophy isn’t weighted in a lot of ethics and judgment, but rather with the realization that so much has changed in the last hundred years. Eating high on the food chain is risking unprecedented toxicity these days as well as being associated with extreme cruelty to animals.

The major issue for all of us, but particularly those with rectocele, is keeping a healthy population of intestinal microorganisms. At the forefront of that mix is the bacterium lactobacillus. Even traditional heavy meat-eating cultures always had some form of lactobacillus culture, like naturally fermented sauerkraut, to go along with it.

If I were you I would ditch the meat, calcium pills, and multivitamin and increase greens, grains such as barley, brown & wild rice, and lentils.

There is a very powerful drink you can make with sprouted wheat that will completely change the condition of your gut within 48 hours. You will feel the effect of this – for me it was a boost in energy and overall well-being. It may sound like a lot of work, but it’s really very easy and if you are desperate, Mommynow, you will go to the effort to at least experiment with things that may help. Here’s the recipe:

Ann Wigmore’s Rejuvelac:

All you need for this are organic whole wheat berries and good water.

• Soak about a cup of wheat overnight in water.

• Pour into a strainer, drain and rinse with cool water.

• Leave the strainer in the sink and cover with a wet dishtowel.

• Let the wheat sprout for 24 hours. You will want to rinse and gently shake them every 12 hours so that they don’t dry out.

• Grind the sprouting wheat in a food processor until it forms a soft ball of dough.

• Divide the dough evenly and drop into three large jars filled with pure water. It will sink to the bottom.

• Cover the jars. You can use cheesecloth and a rubber band or just drape a clean dishtowel over them. You want the friendly bacteria, which are always present in the air, to be able to get in, but also keep dust and bugs out. Let the jars sit undisturbed in your kitchen for three days.

• At the end of the third day strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer. Drink a large glass right away and store the rest in the fridge. Soak more seeds for the next batch. Drink a large glass morning and evening.

Rejuvelac looks and tastes like mild lemon juice and works like a wonder drug on the gut.

:-) Christine

Hi Mommynow, my rectocele bothers me the most out of all my celes too. It's usually when I need to have a BM that I am the most bothered. Once I do that, then I am usually ok the rest of the day. I find that a decaf coffee a day helps to keep me regular. I also try to eat clean as much as possible, ie, as few processed food as possible.

Christine mentioned the lactobacillus. I buy that in granule form whenever my baby is on antibiotics. It's behind the counter at my pharmacist's, it costs about $15 for 12 packets. You mix those with food or drink. You don't need a prescription for it, so it might be an option for you for the short term...

I'll try to pinpoint anything else that helps/hinders me.

Kathy

There's a plethora of probiotic pills, granules and elixirs on the market, but rejuvelac is magic somehow – like the difference between raw and cooked lemon juice.

Hi Dearie,

I forget that I was just like you when I was your age! All the iron and calcium we need is contained in a well-rounded vegan diet. With calcium it’s really more an issue of how much we hang onto rather than how much we consume, and that depends on the pH of our blood. Most Westerners eat a diet that is more on the acidic side and what we do best on is a more alkaline diet – our blood is slightly alkaline.

A healthy body will not allow the blood to become even slightly acidic, so it’s constantly dissolving calcium from our bones to neutralize an acidic diet. Contrary to what you might expect, grains and nuts are on the acidic side, and lemons and beans are alkaline! This sort of thing is measured in the ash of a substance after it has been burned inside a test tube. That is also what remains after the fires of digestion. You can change the pH of grains and nuts by soaking them overnight and washing away the acidic substances in their outer skin coats that protect them from spouting before they are meant to.

Whole wheat berries are just grains of wheat. Do you have a natural food store near you? If I remember correctly you are in Canada. In the States, we have natural food co ops and you can even start a buying club with other like-minded folks and have monthly orders trucked to you at a very reasonable cost.

Many foods contain a greater amount of calcium than cow’s milk, including pinto beans, carob powder, almonds, figs, sunflower seeds, and corn tortillas!

Iron-rich foods include leafy greens like spinach, broccoli rabe (rapini), chard and kale. A light steaming will dismantle the oxalic acid contained in them that interferes with iron absorption. Cherish and protect any wild dandelions near you and eat them raw! Others are all beans and legumes (peas and lentils), dried black figs, raisins, molasses, apricots, sesame seeds, and even the spices cinnamon, curry powder, thyme, rosemary, and paprika!

:-) Christine

thank you for posting the recipe for rejuvelac, that stuff is awesome. i had it once at a great raw food deli/restaurant in chicago, and i really liked it. i didn't know it was so easy to make at home, i'm going to try it this week.

peace.
michele

Great, Mommynow...I think you're going to see a big difference in your condition as you change your diet. Also...seeds are the powerhouse of vitamins, minerals, and oils that you'll need to round out vegetables and grains. Seeds/nuts I use almost everyday are almond, sesame, and pumpkin. You can grind these and fold them into cooked grains or pasta. I thicken stews with almond and sesame and thicken red chile with ground pumpkin. I guess maybe even raw almonds are off your list, but you might give them another try, as they are such a mild, hearty food. Don't worry about the bit of tannic acid in their skins - it's a great blood thinner. Diet is all about balance. I love a little goat cheese and quality egg too, but only occasionally and from very good sources.

I'm feeling a bit sheepish here. I never measure how much wheat I sprout and grind for rejuvelac because I always sprout at least two cups and then form the remainder into little loaves that I bake for 2 hours at 275 degrees for sprouted wheat bread. Just for the drill, I sprouted one cup of wheat and found out today that it's WAY more than you need to make three large jars of rejuvelac.

So...I'll try to be a bit more specific. First of all, I use half-gallon jars. These are mason jars that are not easily found in stores but can be ordered from their website. I've always kept all my dry food in these large jars just because they are so very practical with their caps and lids. The size dough ball I place in the water-filled jars is the size of a golfball or just a tad larger.

I hope this clarification comes in time. I've had visions of many jars out there filled with huge globs of dough.

Christine

Hi MommyNow,
A great way to eat tahina is to mix it with some lemon juice, water, garlic, and add cilantro or Dill chopped up, and black pepper. (Sorry, vague about the amounts as a learnt this in Israel and I kind of know just by estimating now). Mix it until smooth which can take a bit of doing as it is a strange, thick texture. It really is delicious this way though and very nutritious too! One of my favorites.
Michelle.