Look for restaurants in your area that make things from scratch. It will
help and I would think in your area (CO being the naturalist place it is)
there would be some good ones. You can get take out from those places too. I
would guess this is maybe the biggest difference in the last month. I used
eat out practically everyday.

One address:

http://www.toddycafe.com/

Strips 67% of acid out of coffee. I simply refuse to give up coffee. I
bought one of these two weeks ago. Now, it isn't AS good as brewed, or
rather I should say it is a bit different than brewed. Really smooth. But it
is very good. You only have to make every once in a while (I do it on say
Saturday night). It really does make a HUGE difference. Use filtered water
for best effect. Best 30 bucks you can spend.

I'm telling you, I"ve decided that for some folks, if it isn't the way God
made it, your body is going to do terrible things. I knew that about me too,
from when Grandma's packaged soft cookies came out. I took one bite of those
(this was back in my college days mind) and I could TASTE the chemicals
used. I couldn't finish (and believe me, I could eat anything back then).
Same with aspartame. I will say, I've had *small* amounts of Splenda that
didn't seem to cause a problem, but mostly, I'd just stick with honey or
something if I need it. See if you have a local natural foods CO-OP with a
deli. Mine is SOOOOO great. The food is delicious. THey make different stuff
everyday. I have been just getting some of their salads and stuff and their
"take home" meals. Faster than take out, and better. I also have great luck
with Amy's Country Vegetable pot pies, the black bean enchildas and her
Chili with cornbread. (I do take Beano before I eat anything really fiber
filled - just to make sure). I still think that there is something funky
with my ovary but all the other stuff as reeeeeaaally made a 180 turn.

YOu just have to figure out which things do it for you or not.

Perhaps you should try a good soup (no cream) and see how that works.  
MLB

I feel fo ryou, Monique. When I'm stressed I get the most aweful stomach
cramps then really bad diarrhea too. I have to watch what I eat, as well.
Oddly, if I eat too much from the cabbage family, it sets of my cramps and
diarrhea. As do all non-naturally occuring sugars (ie, I can have sucrose,
fructose, glucose and galactose and lactose but thats about it). I also have
to watch by coffee intake, too much or too strong and I'm racing for the loo
soon afterwards. It didn't seem to be the caffeine, though, but rather,
something else in the cofee, as decaf can do the same thing, and I'm worse
if I have instant coffee than I am if I get a proper brew. Tea just makes me
pee alot, btu doesn't cause cramps.

Not coincidentally, I found really increasing my fibre intake and decreasing
my high-GI foods (like white bread, white rice, chips etc etc) and high-fat
foods (fries, pizza etc) and beiing careful with high protein foods (like
red meat, cheese - its OK to eat them providing I'm eating them with a good
amount of roughage) also helped. Having, erm, 'bulk' in the system seemed to
stop it from breaking down into liquid whenever I was stressing. Oh yeah,
and drink more water. It sounds counter intuitive, but bulky and well
hydrated colon contents are far more resistant to the vagueries of stress
induced cramps and diarrhea than hard, dry stools (coz the body has trouble
moving those along so tends to 'fluch' them out, rather than letting them
move along naturally).

And small meals often seems to work better than large meals with big spaces
of 'nothing' in between.

Make sure you walk every day. The act of walking also helps the various
muscles, tendons and other bits in our gut area push along the contents. Its
also good for you and releives stress :-). One thing I found with my job and
stress was that if the weather wasn't good enough to go outside and have a
quick walk and see grass & trees & sky etc etc, was to ignore the PC (which
is hard when one is addicted to RPCA....) and *paint*. I keep a stash of
water colour pencils in a draw, and colour in/paint line drawings i've found
on the 'net. I'm in no way an artist, but there is somethign about applying
bright colours (everything where I work is grey or some sort of dull muted
colour) and being creative about what colour to apply where that really
de-stressed me.

Hope you can find somethign that helps in all that.

Yowie

It's not too bad here in Lincoln actually. But I can imagine down south
would be horrible.

Hey, check this out:

http://www.oklahomafood.coop/pipermail/members/2005-February/000217.html

Why fat free as opposed to low-fat?  My understanding is that fat free
foods often uses sugar or other sweeteners to "make up for" the flavor
loss.

Charlie came home with several different types of treats for the dog last
week.  He said the guy running the cash register was snacking on some of
them.  I must admit they smell better than what we used to give our dog when
I was a kid.

And my daughter ate plenty of Purina Dog Chow when she was a baby.  Didn't
seem to do any harm.

Jo

Depends upon what else was available! ;-)  Actually, it's
perfectly wholesome food (and, unlike some dog-food, does
not contain ground bone, which isn't particularly designed
for the human digestive system).  The fish-flavored ones are
a bit too fishy-tasting for human palates, and the meats are
too bland (although a little salt and a few herbs would
probably take care of that), but if it were served to you
with crackers and a spreader, and you didn't know it was
"pet food", I suspect most of us would ind it perfectly
acceptable.

As I understand it, foods raised without pesticides are free
of pests because of being grown with other foods that repel
the pests that might attack them.  Also, sometimes the
pesticides incorporate themselves INTO the food (DDT and
food-fish, for example - one reason DDT is no longer
routinely used).