Greetings, it's Eric Bakker, the naturopath from New Zealand.
Thank you for coming back to our channel.
We're talking about salicylate sensitivity.
So if you're just jumped into this video and you haven't looked at the others, there's
a whole series of videos on salicylate sensitivity that you may want to look at.
Now we're going to talk about foods to avoid if you've got this kind of sensitivity, okay?
Again, I'll repeat myself again.
If you're taking aspirin every single day for blood thinning or for stroke prevention
or for other reasons, some people take it for cholesterol lowering, for example, be
sure that you don't do what I'm talking about.
Because it's likely a waste of time to take all of these foods out of your diet if you're
taking 500, 600 milligrams of salicylic acid every day.
That's what's got to stop.
At least you have to cut that back to see if there's cause and effect in terms of the
salicylate and the sensitivity that you've got.
If you're taking the drug every day, you're only going to know by cutting back on the
drug, not cutting back on the food.
So let's look at foods to avoid now.
If you're not on aspirin every day and you believe you've got a salicylate sensitivity,
then this is the video for you.
I haven't found much information on the internet, particularly YouTube or social media, about
salicylate sensitivity and the things I have read or heard on videos is pretty weird, some
of the stuff that people come up with.
"You can't eat this food and you have to avoid all of these foods."
Come on, come on.
Just back off, slow down a bit.
Everyone's panicking about gluten.
Everyone now is starting to panic about tomatoes and solanaceous in the nightshade family because
of lectins.
People are starting to panic about a lot of different things now, and all this knee jerk
reaction because of social media, people are coming in there.
I can find studies today that can show you that a wide range of foods that you're eating
now may not be healthy.
And if I keep pushing that, you're going to freak out and probably stop eating those foods.
And then other people will pick up on that and start pushing it out.
And before you know it, I've started a whole new trend that water is toxic, that Coca Cola
is better for your health and stuff like that.
So just be careful what you read, because some of it may be crap, all right?
So, what are you going to avoid?
Well, the common thing that I always have worked with with patients is, if you believe
a group of foods is a problem because of something in that food that could be stimulating, like
the salicylate, it's pretty darn obvious that the very first thing you do is take out the
highest category of that food to see if there's any change in symptoms.
There's no point taking out the foods with the lowest level of salicylates first.
You take them out with the very highest and then your work in that order down.
Makes sense?
It does to me.
All right, so let's look at the really high category of salicylates.
For example, if we look at spices and herb's, which I really like to work with in the kitchen,
if we look at those, you got to be really careful.
If we look at paprika, we look at curry powders, we look at harissa, we look at many formulations,
like little things made up with different spices in them for example.
Often they're very, very high in salicylates and they can stimulate a reaction in people.
All right?
So I've got some notes written down here.
Curry powder, paprika, rosemary, and thyme.
Rosemary and thyme in particular are high in salicylates, so you need to be careful
with those.
So very high is honey and licorice and peppermints.
In fact, any confectionary containing mint.
Like, it could be gum, it could be a mentos that you're sucking on, but something could
be very high.
I gave up chewing gum years ago.
And the reason being, is because when unofficial sugar started to come in, I started to notice
a dryness at the back of the throat and the nose and a very slow dull headache I would
get every now and then.
And this is just chewing a few pieces of gum a day.
So when I gave that up, that dryness disappeared, that headaches disappeared.
So try and be intuitive with your body.
If you're chewing something regularly or eating something, and you're getting a dryness or
some kind of sensation and you don't know what it is, don't just point to the nearest
tree and say, "It's that pollen."
It's probably darn well something that you're chewing on every day or eating.
If you got annoying symptom, it may be a salicylate problem.
So just be careful of gum and confectionary, all right?
So if you look at the very high vegetable category to avoid, we're talking capsicums.
So bell peppers.
We're also talking tomato products, whether they're tins or cooked.
Cooked in particular, you need to be careful with.
Courgettes or zucchinis, those green things.
Those long green things that ain't cucumbers.
I really love them cooked up in olive oil.
High in salicylates.
Green olives, red chilies, gherkins, radishes, endive, a kind of a lettucey kind of thing.
If we go to the high but not very high category, we're looking at different types of sprouts,
like alfalfa sprouts.
Broad beans, cucumber, eggplants, watercress.
So, and again, tomatoes.
In this time it would be stewed or cooked.
So just be careful of the tomatoes.
We're not talking the lectins here, we're talking salicylates.
If we look at the very high for the fruits to avoid, if you think you've got a salicylate
problem, the berries.
All the berries.
Apricot would have to be one of the highest, though.
Blackberry, black currant, blueberry, boysenberry, cherries, guavas, dates, grapes, loganberry,
oranges, pineapples, plums, prunes, raisins, raspberries, red currant, any dried fruits
too, basically.
Dried fruits are very high in salicylates.
Now this is a mistake many, many vegans make and vegetarians, is they load up on dry fruit.
Lots of dates, lots of apricots, lots of figs, all this kind of stuff.
Lots of bloating and farting, people.
Just be careful.
Too much sugar, too much salicylates, can cause a problem with your immune system.
All right?
And nuts.
If we look at very high, we're looking at almonds and water chestnuts, but many nuts
are moderate and salicylates.
I've always, always maintained for patients, never to eat handfuls of nuts in one day.
And many people believe that you can eat several tablespoons of almonds or hazelnuts every
day.
It's not a great idea.
These are very concentrated foods.
These are seeds that make a whole tree grow.
They're potentially super powerful foods.
I only eat a few here and there.
It's not good to eat large amounts in one sitting of any kind of food that you like,
because this is where many people end up coming to my room to talk to me about some problem
that they got.
And usually it's because they ate too much of one food.
There's a good tip for you.
Take care and we'll catch up in the next video.
Thanks for tuning in.