after getting hit with a minor headache (not a migraine.) in the morning and deciding to sleep it off, i slept all day, again. they're putting something in my coffee, i think, when i'm out, and it's just forcing me to sleep it off. wasting my time with their stupidity...i'll just have to wait for it to stop.
with the weather getting a little warmer, it's a good excuse to get girled up a little when i go out, even if i don't have anywhere to go except get groceries. *shrug*.
i was up around 14:00, got some fruit and then had to crash yet again. i was up around 19:00. annoying urges that i do not want and choose to suppress aside, i hope i'm awake for the night, now. i should get some pasta fairly soon.
fruit bowl
so, this is my total fruit bowl for now. note that i do not have numbers for phenylalanine, tyrosine, threonine or trytophan. i need to derive my own numbers for the first two, and i haven't done the calculations yet for the last two. but, i think this is sufficient for all of them. the other amino acids do not have calculated rdis at this time, but they are not considered essential and can therefore wait.
fruit & vegetables
- 100 g strawberry (c,s...cr,se)
- 30 g guava (b8,c,s)
- 70 g kiwi (b8,c,k1...b,cr)
- 150 g avocado (b5,b8,b9,b16,b20,c,e,f1,k1,s...b,na,s,k,cr,zn,se....h,l,k,m,c)
- 120 g banana (b5,b16...cl,k,se....h)
- 45 g raspberry (c,s...b)
- pinch of cinnamon (s, mostly)*
- 1 tbsp of paprika (pseudo-a + lutein & zeaxanthin) (see below)
+
- cherries (from yogurt, ice cream) (extra pseudo-a,c,e,s + flavonoids)
- 45 g of blueberry or blackberry or cranberry (or multiples of them) (extra c,e,s + flavonoids)
this week, i have both blueberries and blackberries.
again: flavonoids are probably useless in vivo, but i haven't yet done the research to hone in on them and try to figure out which, if any, can be absorbed. in the mean time, if you're taking the chance on blueberries or cranberries for flavonoids then you should find pure juice, as trying to get much of anything at all from a handful of blueberries or blackberries is probably totally silly. i'm just adding berries for taste and enjoyment, primarily - if they're on sale, as blueberries were this week.
*i'm currently using a pinch of what i presume is cassia cinnamon and that i purchased more or less by accident. when that runs out - or perhaps sooner - i'll see if i can find some ceylon cinnamon, to avoid issues with coumarin. this is not in the chart at this time, and is the only thing i might expand this bowl with, that i can see, at this time. the primary purpose of adding cinnamon is for the aspirin. cinnamon, of course, also tastes pleasantly.
"dairy"
- 400 ml fortified soy milk (a, b5,b7,b8,b16,b20,d,f1...b,na,p,s,k,ca,fe,co,cu,zn,se,mo....h,i,l,k,m,c,v)
- 82.5 g of cherry ice cream (a,b5,b12,b13,b16,b20,k2...na,s,zn,se....i,l,k,m,v)
- 50 g cherry yogurt (a,b16,b20...na,s,co,zn,se....i,l,k,m,c,v)
the soy is heavily fortified, and these are major sources of protein, as can be seen.
cereal
- 40 g of vector (a,b3,b5,b7,b9,b15,b20,e,f1...na,cl,fe,zn,se,i)*
- 45 g of all bran (b5,b8,b15,b16,b20,f1...na,mg, p,s,cl,k,mn,fe,zn,se....h,i,l,k,m,c,v)
- 14 g wheat bran (b8,b15...s,cl,zn,se....c)!
these cereals are both heavily fortified, and the all bran is a source of bran - meaning it is a source of betaine, inositol, selenium....and, yes, fibre. you will pass this meal, trust me.
* - while the vector cereal is presumably a substantive source of protein, the amino acid amounts are not listed on the packaging, and the manufactured nature of the product means it is difficult to ascertain from the nutrition facts. this is therefore left as uncalculated and extra.
! - note that i have doubled the amount of wheat bran, for now, to meet the selenium amounts by brute force and have otherwise not recalculated anything. se has been added to all of the other items based on existing amounts. the raw wheat bran is consequently probably going to end up as a source of more items, including as a major source of betaine. this is done at minimal cost, but in an inefficient manner. this will be made more efficient in time.)
seeds
- 8 g of raw, hulled sunflower seed (e,f1...s,se....c)
- 12 g of ground flax seed (b16,f1,f2...b,si,s,ni,zn,se....c)
while listed as sources of protein, both only appear to be useful in this meal, at these quantities, for cysteine. rather, the sunflower seeds are a source of omega-6 & vitamin e, while the flax seeds are a source of omega-3, primarily.
fungi & protists
- 5 g of nutritional yeast (b1,b2,b3,b4,b6,b7,b9,b12,b16...s,cr,se....k,c)
- 5 ml of algal oil (b12,16,f3,f4)
the yeast is loaded with b vitamins and the algal oil is the only substantive source of epa & dha in my diet at this time.
while i haven't finished calculating amino acid levels, this minor tweak for the wheat bran means that i am confident that this bowl is otherwise complete, at this time.
some other considerations for future additions:
major minor carotenoids
1) lutein + zeaxanthin - there was a major study done a few years ago:
so, it seems like a rough rule of thumb is that i should be aiming for around 12 mg a day, total, with 4 mg per meal, minimal, on my current schedule, given that this is fat soluble. this is very rough. for this meal, i should get about .4 from avocados, .0612 from raspberries, .0854 from kiwi, and only .026 from strawberry. there's only .1416 in the total bran consumption, at most. i can add .07812 from flax. and, that's it.
.4 + .1416 + .0854 + .07812 + .0612 + .026 = 0.79232 mg.
so, that's a little low. and, it doesn't seem like fruit is a good source of this nutrient, in general - it seems like it's a vegetable thing.
the exception seems to be paprika, which is technically a fruit. paprika is an easy, cheap source that i have on hand. to get to 4 mg, i'd need to add:.
.79232 + 13.158x > 4 <---> x > (4 - .7932)/13.158 = 0.24371485028
so, that's about 25 g - probably two big tablespoons.
.7932 + .25*13.158 = 4.0827
what's that going to taste like?
if you really want lutein without a supplement, it seems like you're going to be forced to eat leafy greens. we'll see if i think i need to add this to the pasta bowl in the presence of a capsicum onslaught or not, but the addition of a bit of broccoli should help, too.
let me commit to adding one tablespoon, for now. this is fat soluble. so, if i'm getting lots in my other two meals, i can maybe cheat a little. or, maybe i can add more to the pasta bowl, instead...
how are my eyes? i had an unnecessary surgery performed on me as a child, on the insistence of my psychotic and clinically retarded mother. my father took me to see several specialists, who insisted there was nothing wrong with my eyes. but, my calvinist mother, who neurotically thinks everything is genetic and perfectly pre-determined, and doesn't believe in the slightest concept of free will or chance or randomness in the universe at all, decided that i must need the surgery because she needed it. i need to be clear on this - there was no evidence at all that i had any vision problems, but she insisted i must need the surgery, simply because she needed it - the genetic relationship left no space for chance in the matter (an absurd misunderstanding of genetics, to say the least) and i had no choice in the matter, nor did my distraught father, who had to watch his only son have his vision destroyed in some kind of perverse ritual sacrifice to the gods of genetic predisposition. my father fought her as hard as he could, but the court gave her custody because she has a vagina and he didn't and she found some hack that was willing to do it, in the end. my eyesight has been horrible ever since - i can barely see five feet in front of me.
so, i've had to learn to live with poor vision; i need more than lutein to fix my eyes. i doubt it's reversible, but i don't even know.
but, i have little to lose by following the above report as best i can.
there's a review here:
2) lycopene - the fact is that we don't yet have any positive data indicating that lycopene actually does anything, but we at least can absorb it, and that's pretty different than this list of flavonoids that we don't absorb at all. so, it works as an anti-oxidant in vitro and we can actually absorb it. so, it seems promising, but the studies just aren't extant, yet.
i've assumed that the lycopene data for guava applies strictly to pink guava rather than the green ones i'm eating (which are less domesticated and have more vitamins, overall), but is there a little in there? there's otherwise really no substantive source of lycopene in this meal, at all.
that said, based on this study, i think i should be aiming for about 5 mg/meal, to start, until i can get a better grasp of it:
with the exception of 100 g of pink guava (3.33x more than i'm currently consuming), there is no source of fruit that gives me anything close to that. i'd have to drink a carton of grapefruit juice, or start adding in large amounts of watermelons - which are otherwise nutritionally void.
so, realistically, you'd really have to get it from tomatoes, and i have added a tomato to my pasta bowl for that reason. but, until i can get some more serious data on the actual efficacy of the chemical, i'm not going to worry much about it.
i'll do a more serious write-up when the time comes.
chlorophyll
without seriously looking into it at all, i'm going to baselessly assume that there's plenty of chlorophyll in the guava, kiwis & avocados, together. in fact, i think i can taste the chlorophyll in the guava & the kiwis - i think it's what gives it that piney taste.
...green kiwifruit has one of the highest concentrations of chlorophyll, after avocado (Ashton et al. 2006).
flavonoids
as mentioned, i'm going to throw some extra berries in for fun, whenever they are on sale.
i'll put the pasta bowl in a new post because i'm stopping to eat.