Tentative PCOS diagnosis...so many questions

Dragonwolf

KnitOrMiss wrote: »

I love pickles, Claussen are my favorites... Are they fermented? **crossing fingers dramatically** Cannot do sweet pickles at all...blech. How do you ferment them?

As a general rule, if there's vinegar in the ingredients, it's not fermented. The link in my last post has a how-to for making fermented pickles, but I haven't done it myself, yet. I keep meaning to, but then get busy before my cucumbers go bad.

KnitOrMiss wrote: »

I've looked into water kefir and kombucha, and there seems a lot to it. I've made sourdough before, but honestly, it is forgiving as far as if you forget a day, etc. Are these as forgiving? We use worcestershire sauce often, so that's good... I've heard kimchi is scary... LOL I've only had sauerkraut once, despite being 25% Polish, and usually the smell if offputting, but now that I know many people rinse it before cooking it, and I already love cabbage, I might try this... I'm scared, but ...

My problem with cheese/dairy is weird. I don't have any problem at all with hard cheeses. It is soft cheeses/milk. I'm okay with cream, even half and half. It is the ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt stuff I have such huge problems with... Sour cream I can do in small doses. Cream cheese I can handle when cooked. Yogurt I can tolerate when I'm visiting Aunt Flo, but since that doesn't happen anymore with meds, I don't try. But Greek Yogurt gets like Cream Cheese, and that has actually made me quite ill before. Cannot do cheesecake or anything like that. Makes my tummy hurt...and makes me queasy. I don't know what it is. Cottage cheese I can stomach, but it makes me ... rumbly?

Speaking of cycle effects - does your gut flora alter cyclically? Or just random with food eaten and all that?

Milk is intermittent. I can drink it, but my body treats it like a mild sensitivity (like it builds extra phlegm and if I drink too much, a tummy ache). I don't have this issue at all with any gelato or ice cream or custard, anything like that. I just don't understand.

The Greek yogurt thing is a bit weird (it's casein-heavy, not whey-heavy, but it may be something else), but the rest sounds consistent with issues with whey, one of the proteins in milk. Allergy/intolerance to whey (the main protein) is pretty common among those with dairy issues.

Ricotta is cheese made from the whey by-product of mozzarella.

Cream cheese often has added whey in it (which may be why you can tolerate it sometimes, but not all the time; it might have to do with the brand).

Cottage cheese is often made from the byproduct of making butter, which is very protein-heavy (since the vast majority of the fat was pulled out to make butter), but can be made with whole milk, too. The curds part are the casein proteins, and the liquid is mostly whey and water.

Cream and sour cream are generally low in whey (and casein, and lactose), as the cream separates out, due to the density differences of the proteins and fats. Half and half is relatively low in it, too, though obviously has more than cream.

Good ice cream has more cream and egg in it than milk, which reduces the per-serving amount of whey. Custard and gelato have even higher cream contents than regular ice cream (yes, there are actually quasi-regulated differences).

Yogurt retains the 80/20 whey/casein protein ratio and removes the sugar, so...yeah.

As for gut flora, not much is understood about it, but to my knowledge, there is a certain amount of cycling and it changes based on what you eat. Different flora thrive in different environments and push out other flora. If you get sick or take anything that disrupts the biome (antibiotics being the big culprit, but I suspect Metformin when it has adverse effects will do it, too) will change the composition. Your microbiome can change in a week's time, in fact.

If you're interested in further reading, Dr. Eric Topol has a ton of resources on it, including some cool experiments that explore changes in a couple of people's microbiomes over the course of a year. I can't find it off hand, though.

Making kombucha is a little involved, but kefir isn't. Here's another recipe that's simpler. I'm not kidding when I say that the bulk of it is "sit it on the counter and let it do its thing. Add some sugar each day to keep it fed."

As for other fermented veggies, there are crock pots designed specifically for that purpose. You might want to check that out. Other than that, just keep it in a pot or other type of container and let it do its thing. You can stick it somewhere out of the way, like in a closet or something, while it ferments.

KnitOrMiss

I'll have to-do some research this weekend it seems. Kinda nervous to fix things with such limited funds and all. Thanks for all the amazing info!