On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 11:07:05 -0600, Matt Baker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

...
 >I would be interested in knowing why you don't eat seeds.
...
 >Theola

Normally, by seeds I don't mean nuts and legumes, but in this message I
will use the word in its botanical meaning. Further, I'm not a biologist.
Most of my life I've been dealing with computer. So my reasoning around
this subject maybe a bit naive. Well, here's my explanation:

Sometime in the beginning of autumn of 2002 I read the paper "Cereal
Grains: Humanity's Double-Edged Sword" by Loren Cordein. Maybe you have
read it too. This paper presents a lot of negative statements about cereal
grains.

At first I was deeply shocked. Then I started speculating
. Cereal grains
are seeds, as the author points out. I remembered some other types of seeds
I had learned are poisonous e.g. apple and cherry (in sufficient amounts of
course). The idea that maybe all seeds protect themselves against me eating
them and somehow punish me if I eat too much of them or don't break down
their defences properly, came to my mind. I decided to avoid all kinds of
seeds, processed or not, just to see what happens.

I speculated further. Seeds can sprout and so can e.g. potatos. I decided
to avoid everything that can sprout or has recently sprouted, again, just
to see what happens :D.

The food categories that remained after this radical, sudden and perhaps
not very logical elimination were fruits, berries, certain vegetables,
animals and eggs. By animals I mean here even birds, fishes and insects.

Earlier in the summer of 2002 I had given up pasteurized milk and milk

products after reading some scary stuff about them. Then I tried raw milk
and became extremely weak. I'm not sure if the raw milk was responsible for
this. I think so. I also made my own raw butter and cheese, tried them and
liked them, but after a while I decided to drop the whole dairy thing.

After a while on avoiding both dairy and seeds at the same time, I started
to notice some extremly positive changes in my mental and physical
condition. I just couldn't belive it. In the beginning of 2002 I had given
up candies and experienced some positive changes but this new change was
revolutionary! But of course I didn't know which of the foodstuffs had been
the cause of my miseries before the elimination of dairy and seeds.

After about two or three months I reintroduced wheat porridge! The result
was that I felt miserable. My skin started to itch and turned uglier. I got
a strange feeling in the stomach. My jo
ints started to ache. I concluded
that wheat had been one of the negative factors in my early lifestyle. I
eliminated it for all future.

I reintroduced cooked potatos and my mental clarity disappeared almost at
once. I feld bloated and got a mild headache. Therefore, I send cooked
potatos to the same place as wheat porridge ;). I don't know how I would
react to raw potatoes. I used to eat them sporadically before and liked
their taste.

I tried raw peanuts and felt bloated afterwards, a bit less than with
potatoes, but still. I got gases and mild hemorrhoids, and the consistency
of my stool became creamy. I tried peanuts under several occasions after
that with almost same results, because peanuts taste quite good :). I've
decided to avoid them.

I reintroduced hazelnuts and didn't notice any ill effects except that my
skin became a bit darker, maybe because of the oil inside the nuts. But
  I
still feld great. So I eat hazelnuts. I also reintroduced walnuts with no
negative reactions. So I eat walnuts as well. The fact that I can eat
hazelnuts and walnuts maybe falsifies my hypotheses that all seeds are bad
for me, or maybe it doesn't.

Reintroducing pasteurized dairy was a complete disaster. My pimples
returned and I got flu like symtoms.

Currently I lack the courage to make any further experiments. I feel fine
with my current menu. Maybe you can motivate me to extend it.

Fredrik