Sunday, April 13, 2008

nourishment

I bought a big reference book last week about nutrition and vitamins and supplements. I did this because of my recent 5 month stint in Denmark. During that visit, I overate a well-balanced diet, so yes, I gained weight. But I experienced some very pleasant things while eating all those vegetables. The number one pleasant thing was an absence of canker sores. Those apoplectic little ulcers plagued me for years. Each of them with their own sinister personality; the seasonal ones, ignited by an abundance of tomatoes or nectarines had a hot little temper, but it flashed and then subsided quickly. Those cankers who showed up due to a stressful event would hang on like the uninvited and irritating houseguest, coloring my overall frame of mind while they happily slept in the bedroom of my mouth and stole my appetite.

5 months with no canker sores! That's simply never happened before.

So I wondered, could it be some sort of nutrient deficiency? How can I continue to feed my body this mysterious and apparently very necessary ingredient? The big reference book tells me that for cankers, I need probiotics (yogurt cultures) and Vitamin B. Sounds good, I've got a big bowl of the happy little bacteria napping peacefully inside two dynes on Owen's bed. Later today, I'll wake the divine organic whole milk yogurt with some mushed-up fresh fruit and pure sugar.

I found nirvana in the presence of an impassioned man with a bad wig at the Health Hut on First Avenue yesterday. He gave me my first lesson in expensive vitamins. My love for those magical little probiotics was fortified as I dropped too much money on a multivitamin that my body can absorb. I sit here now waiting for the long, shiny, thick and healthy hair and with my emery board at the ready. Surely, I'll need that later today when my nails go through some vigorous growth.

1 comment:

julochka said...

have you been reading nigella? you've managed to even make canker sores sound poetic. good job! :-)