theguardian.com/food/2019/m...
There has been a lot of discussion about mood in GCA/PMR recently - and I thought this was worth the read. I'm NOT saying it is the wonder answer - but it does underline why it is important for us to look critically at our diet when we have either PMR or GCA and are on pred.
Thank you PMRpro.
Anther reason good food lifts the spirits: it looks good and cheers us up. I noticed this because yesterday I went to a potluck supper (St Patrick's Day being the excuse for the get together). It was my first time to go to an event in the building where I now live so was anxious to make a good impression, but hate cooking. So I made a tray of cut up vegetables in the colours of the Irish flag (not hard - orange green and white - and a few pea shoots as garnish, pretending to be shamrocks) and when I placed it on the table with the other dishes already in place it was like the sun had come out. Bar one small bowl of salad everything else was a shade of beige or brown. Smelled delicious but dreary to look at. I will be sure to always bring something colourful in the future. 
Where DID beige food come from? Or is it sometimes a reflection of an age group? You know, how ladies of a certain age start to wear shades of beige????
Beige? Heaven forfend!
Beige is a dirty word around here!
"When I am old I will wear purple" and I do.
I agree I feel better just looking at a colourful salad, but the smell of fresh bread!
No beige in my wardrobe!
Oh...might have one pair of sandals - but I’d probably call them Gold!
I do have beige stuff - it does have advantages for wearing the colours I prefer!!!! But shades of beige and mud are really not favoured ...
I wear beige but I also wear lots of vibrant shades too - depending on the mood or occasion - I steered away from vibrant colours when younger as felt they clashed with my vibrant red hair, sadly no more.... but you can wear anything with 'vibrant white'!
I always thought when we are told not to eat beige foods it's because it isn't wholemeal etc....bland!
I believe the thinking behind this is that fruit and vegetables contain lots of healthy phytochemicals which also give these foods their colours, so you know, for example, you're getting beta carotene from orange carrots, and anthocyanins from purple berries.
And I suppose we get B vitamins from beige carbs!
When I was a music student in the 70's I used to cook in a vegetarian restaurant in Glasgow. In those days vegetarian food was all brown, sludge green and pretty bleugh looking. The difference between me and the worthy vegetarians who ran/worked there
was the fact that they perpetrated the vegetarian way of life but actually couldn't cook very well, whereas I could cook well and be more inventive with the ingredients which were new to me at that time. Nothing wrong with beige food as long as there is plenty of variety and colourful stuff to offset it. The organic bread supplies I've been making in our house for over 40 years all look pretty beige to me - in fact I'd be a bit concerned if they didn't - it doesn't bear taste comparison to the mass produced stuff!
I DO like beige white bread yes - sourdough rules!! But not boring beige food. Though the chestnuts and chestnut mushrooms with veal chap (ammended: chop) just now were rather fine, albeit a tad uniform in colour!
How does one translate that? A real chap? with mushrooms and chestnuts? Poor man - do we need to alert the authorities?
Bleugh - too late at night!! Suitably amended ...
Thanks PMRpro, interesting link. I may be ancient and too ill to go ANYWHERE except when I'm taken to hospital appointments .... but beige ... never!
Agree we are what we eat, yet despite my lifelong diet of home grown, home cooked food, wholefood and so-called colourful "Mediterranean Diet", grass-fed meat, wild salmon and everything in moderation plus the good fortune of an innate happy, optimistic nature, this horrible GCA/PMR illness has floored me and caused me to finally question (after 4 yrs 3 months) whether I'll ever regain sufficient vitality to walk beyond my garden gate. I really feel for other sufferers who may become seriously depressed and if colourful food helps in any way, bring it on!
Brightly coloured clothes have always affected my mood, touches of red particularly have lifted my spirits and many pals agree. We sometimes hear of colour therapy and its good results, sounds as if we'll have to 'watch this space'
Eat a rainbow every day!
I struggle a bit with blue, indigo and violet here ...
...red cabbage, eggplant, black olives, blueberries, red onions, blue potatoes, blue corn, plums, blackberries, purple peppers, lavender....
🍆🍇
See, I think of aubergine as yellowish!!! Use it all the time! I don't eat much fruit at all and the other purple stuff isn't to be found here. Red onions - but they are Red...
Not red like strawberries, and beets, too, are purplish. You must get blueberries and blackberries in season? And red cabbage? I agree some of the other things like purple potatoes are hard to come by. We eat red cabbage or beets quite often.
It's the price as much as anything out of season. It is funny - in Austria and Germany you get the coloured potatoes. Here spuds are really unappealing - aimed at making gnocchi I suppose. The local dishes are more based on bread, dumplings.
Nigella Lawson has a lovely red cabbage salad which contains red onion and pineapple juice. I leave it over night and the juice softens the cabbage and makes it easier to eat and relaeses the dyes so that the whole bowl goes purple. I love it.
that sounds wonderful. I'm looking that up!
I usually add the rest of the rainbow as well, strips of pepper and carrot etc. and then some fresh ginger so I can kid myself it's anti-inflammitory!
“Blue”, “purple” potatoes!!! My 80 year old brain can’t cope with that!😂😂 Potatoes are white or yellow as far as I am concerned.😏
There are something like 4000 varieties of potatoes in Peru. Here's a link to a picture of some of them.
raisingmiro.com/2012/04/23/...
and more about purple potatoes:
parade.com/847649/stephanie...
Yuck!!!
Oooohhh - yum! One in the middle looks like the Anya ones I bought in the UK. Lovely nutty flavour. Love the Charlotte variety as well. But I've never seen anything like them here.
We've recently started getting more varieties. They even sell a package of multi-coloured baby potatoes because they look pretty. Even had purple potatoes. May buy them more often now that I know they are healthy, but they are very seasonal, grown by local, adventurous farmers, not shipped in bulk from far away.
They don't taste significantly different and the flesh isn't as dark usually.
Japan has a tradition that on certain days you prepare the meal with at least 7 ingredients (spices don't count)... Color and presentation of the food is just as important as the taste. Sometimes the meal is almost an artwork, just like the plate you made.
I'm guessing you meant 7 ingredients, yes?
Lovely uplifting thought Heron. Food for thought indeed!
Most of the time I try to limit my carbs, but every now and again, "pie and chips" _ sorry (not) x
Thanks for sharing the article.
The better I eat, the better I feel.
OH and his step-dad who lives with us have jumped on the “healthy eating” bandwagon. Nice that all three of us are more on the same page as I (or he) can cook one thing we’ll all eat.
That is in my dreams!!!! Getting calories in OH is what matters - and I wouldn't eat what he will eat! Raw or nearly raw veg is very easy to prepare... 
Doesn’t beat steak and kidney pie with chips though?
'Fraid so - not a steak and kidley person! My flatmates at uni loved it and carefully removed the chunks of kidney for themselves. I would look up from grace - and comment on the kidney. They couldn't understand how I knew - I could smell it!
All “innards” are taboo now. Our parents lived on the stuff and my lot lived till their 80s and 90s!
Mam made me eat liver because I was anaemic, I hated it!
No, no - innards are growing in popularity again. Had lamb innards in the south of France a few years ago (OH ordered them, I kept quiet and helped clean the plate, the aquaintaince we were with had to open his mouth) - they were fantastic! Tender and a delicate lamb flavour - the guy at the next table had ordered a double portion and said they came highly recommended!!
I love ofal - all of it except tripe. Husband not so keen but all my kids love it and will ask for one of their favourites when they come home - ox heart and lambs' kidney pie with loads of spring greens and broccoli. Calves liver just catching sight of the pan is sublime.
I've been vegetarian for many years but in fact I always loved all sorts of meat. I ate liver until my kids got so stubborn about not eating it that I gave up. Used to love liver and bacon. Or steak and kidney pie. I drew the line at tripe, however. I remember simply swallowing the pieces unchewed I found it so revolting, And although oxtail soup was very tasty the "meat" was gummy and horrible.
I don’t eat much meat (and you don’t get much in tinned steak & kidney pies!) 😂😂 I do buy one every now and then (it reminds me of England)!😂
And ketchup x
Ketchup - for anaemia? What a revolting thought!!
With tomato ketchup
Even more revolting!
Thank you so much for this.
Interesting articles, your excellency, (I think that's how one addresses an ambassador!) - thanks for posting the links. However, I think this is the direction in which everyone should be headed, not just those with PMR as sugar is well documented for contributing to/feeding/causing inflammation .
The trouble is that most medics do not rate nutrition or lack of it as being the biggest contributary factor to our state of health. Here's a link to an excellent documentary - also Australian - which is very revealing, concerning and well worth watching. I make no apology for having posted this link before. . there will be people who missed it last time and I happen to think its message is very important.
youtube.com/watch?v=SY_tmt5...
That Sugar film
Um - no link
Sorry about that - my B12 levels are obviously deficient - there is now!
Can't watch - copyright claim. Could you give more information so we can search for item ourselves?
Same here - not allowed...
Sorry about that - I just filed the link on my desktop and the last time I used it, it was fine. Most links now seem to lead through to a commercially available version available on dvd or a trailor. However I have done some foraging on the net and found a way into it.
Type "That Sugar Film" (minus the inverted commas) into the google search bar. Most video results lead to a commercial site but one box (the top centre one which has a newspaper cutting about a heart attack) with Vimeo and Looply Floopy(yes!) written in it at the bottom will take you to a video link which is at the top of a Vimeo page.
There is no sound at the beginning just a monochrome viewer notice relating to Aborigines and relatives. The sound starts to kick in with a shot of landscape with a crop growing. Be aware that it's quite a long documentary, but the time spent watching it is worth every minute! Will be interested to know what you think about it when you've had a chance to watch it. Enjoy and prepare to be shocked in places!
Was this the sort of info covered in the film? recipes.timesofindia.com/ar...
See my response to PMRpro - thanks for your interest!
Thanks. Turns out our library has copies, also there's a book. So I can see it that way.
Do let me know what you think about it
Don't know if you can view this outside Canada:
Finally watched last night. Don't know how that young man could stand doing what he did. And his journey through the US was horrifying.
HIs dedication to his career as a journalist was certainly above and beyond what could reasonably be expected of him. I think it should be mandatory viewing for all school children! That sugar (together with other refined carbs and processed foods) is an insidious slow release addictive poison which basically works on rotting our bodies is horrendous to me. The NHS is on its knees because of it and people aren't really taking any serious account of that.
Another speaker worth listening to is Dr Robert Lustig - "Sugar - The bitter truth"
There is also "Pure, White and Deadly" by John Yudkin, the man who possibly started it all off in 1972 and was my hero. It is available free online as a pdf
telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/w...
I had a proper copy until we moved and all my books got chucked as we have no space here! But reading the pdf is like reading something out of time ...
Thanks for that link - I look forward to revisiting that later have an order for a raised pork pie from my son to fulfil right now. So need to do that first! Didn't it break your heart jettisoning all your books? We have thousands (literally) and it would be a wrench to part with any of them...It's going to be a big problem for our children when we are gone :o) lol, lol,lol, :o)!!!
It did - but OH was adamant! Now my Kindle is a boon - no shelf space required!
Fortunately my husband is as squirral-like as I am when it comes to books. Problem is he's like that with lots of other crap too such as wood, electrical bits and pieces dead radios etc etc.! I am as guilty as him withsquirraling but mine tends to lean towards stocking the freezer and larder, but at least he can eat the likes of homemade sauages, casseroles, jams and pickles (too much sugar there though - big problem!) But then there's all my dress making and furnishing fabric - now that drives him around the bend!
Am not sure about kindles - they look convenient and I know others like them - but I find it difficult not to be wary of buying something which isn't physically in my hand when I've paid for it - eg what happens to all the books you've paid for if the kindle thing goes up the spout?
We haven't thousands, but hundreds! However, if I pick one up to dispose of OH grabs it and says "not that one"! As I ended up with 20 (out of a big pile) and OH was beginning to look sad - I abandoned it!
We have similar here - I put stuff out with the rubbish and if I don't conceal it well I find back in the house after the rubbish has gone!
I'm sure I've heard him. There have been a couple of programs about sugar I've seen on our tv so feel as informed as I need to be. I don't consume much sugar at all, certainly not "hidden" as I don't eat those foods. I keep nagging hubby not to drink fruit juice. Also discovered the cans of tonic water he buys list sugar as the main ingredient!
Are you sure water isn't the main ingredient? I don't drink very often, but when I have a G n T, it has to be decent tonic without aspartame or sacharin, which taste foul so sugar has to rule for me on these occasions - which probably happen about 4 times a year at most - am assuming my body can cope with that!
all I know for sure is that when I stop eating sugar my osteoarthritis doesn't hurt so much!
That doesn't surprise me - sugar feeds inflammation in every part of the body. Try to view the documentary I mentioned above!
You are talking my kind of language now ! First step, diet. All those wonderful coloured vegetables, fruits and last, but definitely not least, spices. However, make sure they are organic, not covered in herbicides and insecticides. Also check if they are genetically modified to find out what has been inserted into the seeds. An example is the fish gene in strawberries, so that the plant better resists freezing in cold weather.
Our bodies getting 'used to' a certain level of Prednisone
Keeping the cortisol down (diet and lifestyle)
