"Toxic Food Syndrome" update - Reintroducing "Toxic" Foods.

I originally posted about the Immuno Labs Toxic Food test back in July when I started it. You can click <----- to read that post for more details about it. So it's been about 3 months and it has come the time to begin reintroducing the foods that show up on my "reactive" list (in red). Under my Doctor's advisory, I have started with the items on the list with the lower reactive level numbers. That means I'm starting with the foods that have a +1 next to them. The way it is reintroduced is by eating 1 of the +1 red items and waiting a couple days to monitor any effects. It is a time consuming process and can be very frustrating, but if you suffer from any illnesses that can't seem to be resolved by any other conventional western medicine techniques then you would most likely have the patience to do it. I've been reintroducing for almost 3 weeks now. To be honest, I haven't made it very far down my list of +1 items. I started by testing wheat. I used soba noodles as the source of wheat. Japanese soba noodles are buckwheat noodles, but if you read their ingredients you will see that almost every packaged soba noodle sold has wheat flour as it's dominant ingredient. I found this very interesting when I began the elimination diet process. Since I was not able to eat wheat for about 4 months now, I thought of eating soba in my beginning days of the diet. Buckwheat is actually a yam and not wheat at all. This meant that I could eat buckwheat noodles (soba), the problem was I would have to find a 100% buckwheat noodle. I have only found 1 local source to purchase a 100% buckwheat noodle and it is at Whole Foods. Needless to say, I did not purchase it because of the ridiculous price! Anyway, I love soba so I started my wheat reintroduction with commonly found packaged soba noodles served in a modified Kitchen Basics brand chicken stock which meets my dietary restrictions. I've been enjoying this at home and it is a wonderful change from eating potatoes and corn every meal. I've also tested soybean in the form of tofu. Tofu or soybean has been questionable. I am not sure yet. I had some bad experiences due to eating at restaurants in the 1st couple weeks of my reintroductions and have basically compromised the controlled variables of my tofu experimentations. I don't think I had any reaction to the tofu, but am not certain. I will re-test it over this weekend with the block of tofu I have sitting in the refrigerator right now. I wanted to verify my tolerance of wheat for certain prior to moving on. Yesterday was Kelli's Birthday. She's been living the past 4 months with my diet. Not necessarily eating only what I am eating, but living with the inconveniences of not being able to go out to restaurants for meals like most normal people. I had a great idea as we were walking around in Waikiki to try eating lunch at Matsugen Soba on Beachwalk. I posted a blog about eating at Matsugen Soba back in 2007 and it is linked here. Amazingly, I even had a producer from the Martha Stewart Show contact me about using my photos that are in my blog post about Matsugen. This is when they did an episode on Matsugen Soba opening a restaurant in New York. I ordered the Kinoko Sansai Soba and Kelli had the Tenpura and Hiyashi Udon. She requested no shrimp, all vegetable tenpura. We both enjoyed our noodles. I made it 24 hours now and no signs of intolerance. On the other hand, one of the vegetable tenpura that Kelli bit into was avocado! She is allergic to avocado and had to spit it out. She had a little stomach ache which may have been due to that avocado. Anyway, she is not part of this toxic food test but it was just a coincidence. It was a delicious meal! An example of what Kelli has to deal with is not being able to go out to Hy's Steak House or Ruth's Chris for her usual Birthday dinner. Since I wasn't able to take her to a steak restaurant for dinner (safe dinner), I made us steak dinners last night. It filled us up, tasted great and wasn't prepared with any ingredient that could have left me in pain the rest of the weekend. We even had a delicious dessert! Strawberry & Lemon Sorbet! All for under $30! Hahaha. What a bargain!

Happy Halloween! Pumpkin Contest Photos.

Yesterday, Kelli had a furlough day because she work for the state of Hawaii as an HGEA member. It was also her Birthday. Anyway, we took a walk through Waikiki for her furlough/Birthday. The Outrigger Reef Hotel & the Outrigger Waikiki Hotel had Halloween Pumpkin displays. Here are some photos of the pumpkins that we saw.

Study: Keep mobile technology on sidelines at holiday gatherings

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2009/10/19/daily6.html Study: Keep mobile technology on sidelines at holiday gatherings Pacific Business News (Honolulu) This "study" was just published on the Pacific Business News website today. I thought I would share it because I absolutely cannot stand it when the person(s) accompanying me uses their electronic device while in a meeting, having a meal or at a special engagement of some sort. I have to admit that there are exceptions. I obviously use my phone as a camera to photograph my food quite a bit. The thing is I would normally only do this while at personal dining functions. I don't bust out my camera phone if I'm having a meeting with someone that is meeting me regarding business and photograph my meal. With this being stated, I would think it is acceptable for the guests at a special engagement or holiday party to use their mobile devices to take photographs or videos if the event normally would be something to be photographed or captured on video. I think it becomes acceptable to use my (or your) mobile device as usual if the congregation is very casual or informal, for example just hanging out at a cafe or out shopping in a group and things like that. The point at which I believe the results of this study should begin to apply is when the person(s) you are meeting with has had to set aside a specific time slot in their schedule that coincided with your schedule to conduct a certain task of importance. Holiday gatherings should fall under this even though it may not be business related. Holiday gatherings are usually time set aside to spend with one's family and/or close friends. I find it difficult to justify answering a call, making a call or checking email/texts or internet during such an event's formal schedule. There will always be those additional exceptions like a guest or group of guests have not arrived yet and may have lost their way so might call another member of the party for directions or to explain their tardiness. There are all these justifications on the proper etiquette to follow these days because "times have changed". Since most of you who are actually reading this would probably be current with today's technology etiquette, what are your thoughts? After all, you are a blog reader, most likely a blogger (couple things that are still considered out of the norm for many people), probably take photos at gatherings, meals or other events for your blog, probably tweet and I know you must have a mobile phone that makes phone calls as well as transmit and receives data of some sort. What is acceptable to you?

Moris's visit to Edomura Wonderland in Nikko...

I read on my friend's blog, Moris's Aloha Style Blog, that he visited "Edo Wonderland Nikko" as part of 1st year anniversary celebrations. Check out that website! It's quite graphic intensive and takes quite a while to load the initial page. Lots of maps and information about the place that takes you back to the samurai era of Edo, the Edo Period. I'd like to visit this place the next time I visit Japan. I've been the the Eigamura studio in Kyoto, but I think it was late in the day or a holiday of some sort so there weren't any performers at that time.