Scotland and the Scottish

 

The Massed Pipes and Drums – Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Click on the picture and listen.

 

The climate of Scotland is quite moderate and very changeable. Rainfall totals vary widely across Scotland. As the old Scottish saying goes, ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes!’

Scotland is famous for its stunning landscape: From wild coastlines to sandy bays, dense forests, sparkling lochs, and the Highlands.

  

‘Loch’ is the Scottish word for lake. The legendary lake monster ‘Nessie’ is told to live in Loch Ness, a lake in the Highlands. The Highlands are famous for the ‘Highland Games’.

The Scottish Highland Games had their historical beginning in the middle ages. It was then when the  chief of clans started to choose the best men at arms.

These games still take place with caber tossing, stone throwing, weight throwing for distance (the weights are made of metal and have a handle attached by means of a chain, the implement is thrown with one hand using any technique), weight throwing for heights and sheaf tossing (a bundle of straw (the sheaf) weighing 20 pounds (9 kg) wrapped in a burlap bag is tossed vertically with a pitchfork over a raised bar).

STAPP…Steve Stapp of Aurora, Colo., competes in the caber toss at the Pikes Peak Highland Games, Saturday, July 17, 1999, in Colorado Springs, Colo. The caber toss is a traditional Scottish athletic event, dating back to the 16th century. (AP Photo/The Gazette, Jay Janner)

The Great Highland bagpipe  is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland. It is now also used in the British military and in pipe bands throughout the world. Playing a bagpipe goes back in Scotland to the middle ages.

 

Let Food Be Your Medicine And Your Medicine Your Food: Extra assignment

6 recipes with food that helps the condition

For breakfast

The first recipe is a fruit smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of strawberries (fresh or can be frozen)
• 1 sweet apple (with skin for the vitamins, without core)
• 1 pear (with skin for the vitamins, without core)
• 1 cup of apple juice
• 3 tablespoons of coconut milk

Method:

Wash the fruits. Then mix it all in the mixer. Put in the fridge.

If you are very hungry then you add 1 cup of cooked rice and some more apple juice. This amount is enough for a whole day.

Second recipe:  oat beagles with mushed fruit

Ingredients:

• 2 oat beagles
• 1 basket with strawberries (250g) or chunky applesauce from the supermarket
• sugar

Method:

Mush strawberries with the mixer and add sugar. Put on the beagles. Instead of strawberries you can also use chunky applesauce.

for lunch

The third recipe: Carrot & apple salad

Ingredients:

• 4 medium carrots
• 1 apple

Method:

This salad is made of raw ingredients. You have to use a food processor to cut the apple and carrots into small pieces. After that you have to mix it. It is easy and quickly.

The forth recipe: coconut milk rice with chunky applesauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of coocked rice
• 2 tablespoons of coconut milk
• a lot of chunky applesauce

Method:

Mix the coocked rice with 2 tablespoons of coconut milk. You can eat it warm or cold. Put a lot of chunky applesauce on top of it.

The fifth recipe: Cottage cheese with peppers and cucumber

Ingredients:

• a packet of cottage cheese
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/3 of a cucumber
• a little bit of salt

Method:

Peel the cucumber and cut it in small pieces, cut also the red pepper in small pieces. Mix the vegetables with the cottage cheese. Spice up with some salt.

For dinner:

The sixth recipe: Rice with pepper, carrots and scrambled egg white

 

Bell Pepper

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cooked rice
• 1 pepper (red, green, orange or yellow)
• 1 carrot
• 2 egg whites
• oil
• salt

Method:

Wash and cut the pepper and the carrot in small pieces. Cook them and put them on top of the warm rice. Seperate egg white and egg yellow and make scrambled  egg white with the hot oil. Put some salt on everything.

What do the docters recommend or prescribe?

Bell Pepper

 

 

That is the advice Elly got from the internet:

Ellie cut out coffee, chocolate, all proteins, all animal products, dairy products, most food actually. She usually eats strawberries, apples, and pears for breakfast. For lunch she often makes soups from a combination of carrots, apples, cucumbers and sometimes peppers.

That is what Ellie gets to know from the dietitian:

There is no cure for Ellie’s condition. Because of her diet Ellie is 1 ½ stone ( 9,5 kg) under her ideal weight. She does not have a lot of fat and much worse she has a lack of proteins. The female body has a final need for protein. 45 to 50 g is the day minimum. If you do not eat enough protein it will cause that your muscles are broken down. All the major organs in your body are made of muscles. Ellie’s diet will damage her heart, she is in danger of cancer, osteoporosis and will even  get problems with her gum health and teeth health. If Ellie continues with her diet she will not have a long life.

The advice of the dietitian:

Ellie has to leave the safe route she has chosen with food because she does not want to smell. The dietitian wants to put Ellie on a low choline diet rather than a no codeine diet. Ellie gets a low choline diet and is allowed to eat:

• egg whites
• bread
• oats
• rice
• coconut milk

Ellie will work with a low choline food plan. She has to find out what causes an odour. It is different for every person how strong the body is triggered and reacts. After a time Ellie will be able to live with a healthy diet and without or nearly without the disgusting odour.

 

Diet from the internet:

You can reduce the odour by avoiding foods containing the chemicals trimethylamine, choline and trimethylamine N-oxide. This means avoiding:

• milk from wheat-fed cows
• eggs
• liver
• kidney
• peas
• beans
• peanuts
• soy products
• Brussels sprouts
• broccoli
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• seafood (fish and crustaceans), although freshwater fish can be eaten
• lecithin and lecithin-containing fish oil supplement

 

One condition described in detail: Fish-odour syndrome

Thats what Ellie told about it…

Ellie James (42 years old) is traumatized by a rare condition. For the past 11 years she has suffered from trimethylaminuria also known as the fish-odour syndrome. Hormones, illness and diets can cause a particular smell but for Ellie it is much more complex. Her different odours are such as sulfurets, ammonia, band rubber, rotting garbage and marzipan.

When you have fish-odour syndrome your body loses the ability to break down a compound in certain foods. This causes that you give off unpleasant smells. The smells range from fish to rotten eggs. Living with this condition is often socially isolating. It can result in depression, and other psychological problems. It is not only that it just smells disgusting. You can be spreading the smell for 15 feet. That is a big problem if you are in a small room or if you are on public transport for example.

When the smelling happens you will see people start rubbing their noses. Because you are actually gassing them, their eyes can water, they can cough or can sneeze.

For some people the symptoms are not always there but unfortunately for Ellie they are. She constantly smells. She stopped going out in public and did not want to go to the shops anymore. She lost jobs because of this. Ellie says that she has really, really suffered. At one stage she was even borderline-suicidal. Borderline-suicidal means that you constantly and again and again have suicidal thoughts but that you don’t seriously commit suicide. It is important to get help then.

Ellie went to several GPs. None of them knew what she had. Most suggested that she had a mental health problem and she could imaging it. After 11 years living with this condition, Ellie only recently got a formal diagnosis. She researched het condition and symptoms on the internet. When she read that her odour probably could be managed through a diet she changed her nutrition. Ellie took the extreme step and cut out all but a hand full of foods. Ellie researched which foods are hiding choline  and completely cut them out. She said that she probably reduced her odour by about 70%. She is worried about it because she does not understand enough about the food connections. Ellie is afraid to make mistakes. She never had any proper professional advice about her diet. She lost 3 stones with her diet (about 20 kg). In the last 10 month she further lost 2 stones (about 12 kg). Ellie’s restricted diet is dominating her live. She feels like in a food prison. Ellie wants that food is pleasurable for her again. That is why she came to the Food Hospital GP.

That is what the GP said:

Trimethylaminuria (TMAU) or fish-odour syndrome is a condition that will never go away. TMAU is a compound that is produced by the body. Normally the body gets rid of it very quickly by an enzyme. The trouble for Ellie is that she has not enough of that enzyme. So her body does not get rid of it. It builds up and is released in the saliva, the breathe, in secretes of your body, the vagina, the skin and the urine. And it is very very smelly. There is no cure for Ellie’s condition. Limiting or avoiding food with a high choline content makes it possible to minimalize the constant smells.

 

At the Food Hospital they are worried about the diet of Ellie. That is why Ellie has to see a dietitian.

The symptoms of the fish-odour syndrome are different very bad body smells. But the consequences of that go further: mental problems, social problems, social isolation, skin problems and diets that can cause health problems.