errantember

I've been brewing kombucha, with varying degrees of success, for some time now. I'm currently eating according to the Slow Carb Diet from the Four Hour Body, which means no refined sugar, fruit, or fruit juices, six days a week. Since I don't know how much sugar kombucha has left in it, especially with such a varied brew process, I went online trying to find out. I looked at about five different sources and methods, but the results were so varied as to be useless. I think the only way to get the real story on how much sugar remains in my brew is to test it. And while it would be pretty easy to test using, say, diabetic urine strips, for glucose, I'm actually a lot more interested in how much fructose (which is way worse in almost every way) is left. Anybody who has ideas on cheap ways to test for fructose content, please let me know!

I'll be switching from the Slow Carb diet to the Paleo Solutions (which is similar but with a few important differences) at the end of the month. At that point I'll be doing a short write up of my Slow Carb experience.

For years I've had various depressive symptoms, sleep complications, and general fatigue. In an effort to improve things, I decided, after much research, to explore food sensitivity testing. In addition to the symptoms I've had, food sensitivities can cause migraines, muscle aches, bowel problems, and a host of other crazy symptoms. I decided on the MRT test from Signet, which is expensive but currently the best thing going. The general idea is that many people have an immune reaction to foods that isn't allergic. There are three types of food problems. Allergies are what most people are familiar with. For instance, I'm allergic to peanuts. Food intolerances, like lactose or gluten intolerance, are situations where you body is actually genetically unable to properly digest something. The MRT test if for the last category, in which food substances trigger an incorrect immune reaction. This can sometimes happen hours or even days after the food is eaten, making it very difficult to detect. The test works by exposing blood to various foods and food additives (150 in all) and measuring the response.

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