Alex has been in full flow this week and, since he says it so well, I would like to send you to his blog!
For those of you who are interested in ‘the gluten question’ his post, Non-coeliac gluten sensitivity: we’re not there yet illustrates all too clearly that confusion is not confined to ‘may contain’ labelling! But Alex is a good guide so if you want to get to grips with what NCGS actually is and whether or not it exists, read his blog.
He was also to be found on the Skinsmatter blog where he wrote a delightful piece inspired by his mother’s ricotta! In the Italian country side the whey that was drained off when you were making ricotta was used to bathe babies who were suffering from itchy skins or rashes. Now have all those eczema doctors missed something here?
As Alex points out, the whey that would have been used to bathe the children by his grandmother and her friends would have been unpasteurised – so filled natural probiotics. Could that have been relevant? To read more – and learn how to make ricotta – check in to his blog.
Still on the subject of milks, this week John Scott offered me a positive plethora of reports on the connection between the infant gut microbiome and the likelihood of the child suffering from allergies. This piece will gladden the hearts of goat’s milk enthusiasts! Researchers in New Zealand (the home of Nanny infant and follow on formulae) compared the stool microbiota of infants fed goat milk formula, cow milk-based formula, or breast milk. And they found that the microbiota of the babies fed the goat milk were closer to those of the babies who had been breast fed than those who had had cow’s milk formula!
And finally, Micki Rose alerted us to a report in the Telegraph trumpeting ‘scientists find the first biological proof that ME is real’. Researchers based in New York and Boston have found that those who have been suffering from ME/CFS for three years or less have increased levels of immune cytokines and especially high levels of a molecule called interferon gamma which has been linked to the kind of fatigue people feel after having flu. Well, delighted though we are to have any new research which adds to our knowledge about ME (you can read the paper here) this is not exactly the first time that we have had scientific proof that ME exists! See, for example, Dr Sarah Myhill’s excellent book, It’s Mitochondria, not Hypochondria.
And one more exciting bit of news for those who are interested in electrosensitvity – but I will do it the honour of giving it its own blog!
It is said that Anthony and Cleopatra bathed each other regularly in asses milk, so the idea of milk being good for the skin goes back a long whey..!