Wednesday, May 26, 2010

make healthy beautiful wish!



I've been shopping at Vietanamese grocery stores since I was 20, but somehow never discovered the instant cereal drink section. a girl from my Eastern Nutrition class is always eating some kind of oatmeal type packet with seaweed in it, so when I went to pick up some kuding cha for my air conditioning induced sore throat, I made sure to scour the aisle for some kind of breakfast gruel. While most of them had wheat flakes, I was able to find this lovely blend which is relatively gluten-free, if you eat oats. It contains oats, Job's tears, green mung bean, lotus seed, and oligofructose.

It's lightly sweet, bland, a little nutty. the consistency is fairly gluey with a few flakes or lumps. I made a double serving and added water to the texture of pudding, but it's probably intended to be served more as a beverage.

Coix seeds, mung beans, and lotus seeds are all used to strengthen the digestive tract as well as clear internal dampness and heat. Internal dampness and heat are a sort of mystical-sounding Chinese Medicine concept that basically breaks down to "metabolic friction." They can manifest as skin problems, muscle and joint pain, bloating, edema, urogenital dysfunction, digestive pain, diarrhea, insomnia, anxiety, even bleeding. They can be caused by stress, improper diet, lingering pathogens, weather, or congenital predisposition.

I assumed oligofructose was the same as regular fructose, i.e. fruit sugar, but it's actually a type of fiber that is about half as sweet as regular sugar. it's called a prebiotic because it is digested by intestinal bacteria. it helps with calcium absorption and may help prevent yeast overgrowth.

one packet breaks down to 143 calories, 29.6 g carbs, 6.6 g fiber, and 4.6 g protein. it also has relatively high iron, B vitamin, and calcium content for an unfortified cereal.

and finally, the package has a lovely Engrish description on the back:

Oat and Job's tear are both annual plants. Job's tear is especially renowned for it's high nutritive value as "The kind of grass family." Oat has been proven to be good for healthy by many agricultural experts and scholars in Europe and America in their researches. The combination of Oat and Job's tear is able to compliment each other and provide excellent nutrition to keep healthy."

In summary: this shit tastes good. it'll make you gorgeous, sexy, and give you superpowers. Total win.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

happy fibromyalgia awareness day

somedays it's hard to carry an invisible boulder.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

in the days we sweat it out on the streets

my body is a temple.
my body is a cage.

hope is the thing with feathers.

I can feel them inside my lungs when I'm running along the lake path. I can't take a deep breath.

I can run twice as far as I could ten years ago. I guess I got more chasing me.

I count to five. over and over. there's little room for thinking when you're choking on a broken heart and metaphysical wings.

I will be the fittest person with fibromyalgia on the planet. you will never, ever think to look at me that I have an untreatable nervous system disorder that makes me feel like someone's been borrowing my body at night to play rugby in.

at least this way I own the pain.

for the fucking win.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Love after Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

-Derek Walcott