Joey - ???? No way!!! I'm really, really surprised at how whole milk would be better for losing weight than skim milk. Blows my mind!! I don't know if I can go back to whole milk...it would taste so thick...would be good on cereal though. My goodness!!!

Straw - I don't like fish, so I'll pass on the salmon quiche...but the other one sounds great! Thank you!! :) :) :)

Carol: the best quiche that I had which didn't UP the scale was the spinach & sour cream quiche above using 8 eggs. It's the eggs that curb appetite. One slice of that plus a big salad was what kept the weight down, plus it's less salty with Swiss Cheese. It's the salt that UP the scale. I did daily food diary when I tracked my weight down to 110 last year, and the weight gain from salt WAS MUCH HARDER to burn off than weight gain from extra carb. If I overate on pasta or rice, it took 1 to 2 days to reverse the weight gain, but if I overdose on salt, it's 1 week to reverse the weight gain.

Monarda: I like stuffing with smooth but nutty ingredients like chestnuts, chickpeas (Gordon Ramsey's recipe), or boiled lotus seeds (my Mom's recipe). That's much better than bread crumbs. Frozen Roasted chestnuts from Trader's Joe is cheap & fast & addictive.

Recently I put portabella mushroom in pasta sauce and the mushroom wasn't that good. So I used the left-over sauté mushroom and roasted in oven at 375 for 15 min. It was absolutely delicious on top of pizza. Roast veggies is so much better than boiled veggies. My freezer is jammed packed with tomatoes from garden. My salsa is never good since I didn't roast my tomato, as shown in below recipe:

ROAST TOMATO SALSA: 1 jalapeños & 2 C. cherry tomatoes, halved

1 white onion, quartered & 1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1 t. salt, divided & pepper & 3 large tomatoes, quartered

3 cloves garlic & 1/2 c. fresh cilantro & Juice of 1 lime

1/2 tsp. & ground cumin

Preheat oven to 400°. On a large baking sheet, toss jalapeños, cherry tomatoes, and onion together with oil. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and pepper. Roast until slightly charred, 20 minutes. In a food processor, add roasted vegetables, quartered tomatoes, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Season with remaining 1/2 t. salt and pepper, then pulse a few times until mostly blended and slightly chunky.

OT - Sorry to be hijacking this thread, but I am trying to see if I can post pics on here using the "Photos" Apple app. If I can, I will be posting a lot more! Here is a rose for you:

Jacqueline - what rose is this? some type of tea rose. I don't grow any, so I don't know them very well. I see a tuteur in there but it doesn't look like the rose is growing on it, but beside it.

Straw - that salsa sounds great! I'm trying that soon! The large quartered tomatoes aren't cooked?

Teresa - so salt really causes weight gain. I didn't realize that.

I googled beets...and I found out they are really high in oxalates and are not good for people who get stones and who have kidney disease...that's me on both counts. Darn. I finally find a vegetable that I REALLY love, and it's not good for me. Why can't brocolli be terrible for me. LOL

Yeah, I love roasting chestnuts!! Yum!! They taste like potatoes to me.

Jacqueline - that looks like a substantial rose...it has quite the trunk on it!! Lovely flowers too!

BirdsLoveRoses: yes, the salsa recipe also used fresh tomatoes besides roasted. Great tip I learned from watching AmericaTestKitchen videos: put fresh tomatoes in at the last 5 min. of cooking to retain vitamins and the "tart taste". If tomatoes are cooked too long, they lose vitamins and become bland, rather than deliciously tart.

Carol: Salt cause weight gain, I gained 12 lb. from 110 of last year to 122 this month thanks to eating salty baguette with brie cheese. Brie cheese is not salty, but the baguette is. I drop down to 121 this week thanks to cutting out salty baguette.

When my daughter woke up at 5:30 am last few years for high school, I always make a big breakfast since she fasts for 9.5 hours in school due to a mouth full of bands & braces. We always buy low-sodium bacon with zero preservative, but they switched the formula and made it salty. With low-sodium bacon, tons of fat oozes out when I cooked bacon, so I can trash the melted fat. But with the regular bacon, NO FAT OOZES out, even when I cooked it longer. I also rinsed the salt from the bacon before cooking, but it doesn't help.

So salt retains the fat inside the bacon, and in our body as well. The hardest weight to burn off is weight from eating salt, and NOT starch. With starch-weight, I can always burn it off with exercise, but even exercise can't un-do the salt-weight ... the only way to flush out the salt is eating tons of RAW veggies & fruits high in potassium.

Baguette and brie...that sounds incredible!! But, good to know! :) I always buy low salt bacon...tastes amazing...and, yeah, lots of fat oozes out. Really? Full salt bacon doesn't lose fat when it's cooked? That's surprising. And I love BBQ potato chips. Salt! Whimper. I don't want to give them up. Maybe just cut back.

The act of chewing brings satiety and emotional fulfillment. Sam in NY (organic rose forum) used to stress me out with his picking fights with many women, and I used to eat lots of potato chips back then (I was 125 when I left Houzz). Without stress, I munched on 2 cups of RAW carrots instead of potato chips, and dropped down to 110 last year.

Could it be the meds you take which make you more sensitive to "bitter element" in veggies and fruits?

Meds have many side-effects, my pathophysiology professor once told us how his Mom took meds for diabetes which blunted her "salt-tastebuds" .. she COULD NOT taste salt and made the entire pot of pasta too salty. Below link has a long list of meds that affect tastebuds "Fifty percent (50%) of the top 100 drugs of 2017 in the United States have the potential to induce chemosensory complaints and side effects."

Influence of medications on taste and smell

Teresa - I suppose my meds could affect my tastebuds...but I think I've always been like this. I've always thought that alcohol tastes terribly bitter...and this was before I was on any pills. I've always been a fussy eater (ask my mom LOL I drove her crazy)...and I think it's because of the bitterness. Good link...thanks! :) :)

Carol: you are right about some people are born with taste-buds more sensitive to bitterness, they are call "supertasters". My husband is a supertaster .. this week I baked a frozen pizza and pile up tons of fresh spinach on top. I put spinach on the last 5 min., but pizza was soggy so I baked it 5 min. longer, and husband complained loudly that the spinach was bitter, while I and daughter loved the spinach on top.

We buy this giant bag of raw carrots, and only I & daughter eat it, while husband never eat raw carrots. Below link state that supertasters eat more salty food. True, one time husband bought a salty Campbell soup, I said it's too salty and wanted to throw that away. He argued with me, so while he's out of the room, I put more salt in that soup to test him. He came back, and ATE THE ENTIRE soup without noticing the extra-salt I put in. So his taste-buds are sensitive to bitterness, but HE CANNOT TASTE THE SALT. Which explains why my blood pressure is low at 98/64 (tested at doc's office 10/24/29) while husband's BP is higher.

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/supertaster#characteristics

"Supertasters are particularly sensitive to bitter flavors in foods such as broccoli, spinach, coffee, beer, and chocolate. Supertasters are born with this ability. Indeed, research suggests a person’s genes may be responsible for their supertasting abilities. Supertasters often eat excess salt

Salt does successfully mask bitter flavors, so supertasters may keep the shaker handy at mealtime. For example, supertasters may add salt to grapefruit. They may also add increasingly high amounts of salt to salad dressings in an attempt to cover bitterness in leafy greens. Foods like grapefruit, beer, and hard liquor may be in the no-go territory for supertasters."

Yes, I've heard that term before. I do know for a fact that I eat to compensate the bitterness. If I taste the bitterness...it doesn't go away until I have something fattening like butter. I usually make popcorn when I get that bitter taste...cause it will last for a few days. I used to try drinking pop...but sugar doesn't help. I did mention in some other thread that I tasted this litmus like paper to see if I was a supertaster. If you are...you're supposed to taste it for a few hours. I tasted it for a week. It was awful! I should have just had a big bowl of buttery popcorn. LOL

Carol: A good doc. will change meds if it causes long-lasting bitter taste in the mouth, see below link: "Dr. Wyatt on WebMD says that some drugs cause a bitter, metallic, or salty taste in your mouth. Some common drugs that cause taste changes are chemotherapy drugs, antihistamines, antibiotics, and some hypertension medications. So, if you have noticed a bitter taste in your mouth that you can’t get rid of since starting to take a certain medication, speak to your doctor to see if he can change it."

Meds that cause bitter taste in mouth.

I also agree with above link "Vitamins and nutrients are needed for the body to function properly, including its taste and smell functions.

For example, Dr. Colin Tidy on Patient.info says that zinc is needed for the senses of taste and smell. Before taking zinc supplements, Dr. Tidy advises checking for zinc deficiency, as too much zinc can also lead to a bad taste in the mouth as well as other complications.7

The Harvard Medical School says that a B12 deficiency can also cause loss of taste."

The nutritional yeast I'm using has 250% B12 vitamin but only 9% zinc (I get plenty of zinc from meat), this affects my taste buds: I'm very sensitive to salt and sugar, but I love sour taste as in lemons, grapefruits, kiwis.

Sour tastes...LOL...ACK!! :) I don't think that any of my medications are causing a taste problem with me. I've had this for a very long time. :) Some people love to put slices of lemons in their water...too sour/bitter. Thanks for all of the great advice!! You've always got my back!! :)

Taking care of my health is more important than roses. Mom lived to 93, so the life-span for a female is at least 80 years. But the life-span of roses in my zone 5 is sometimes 1 year .. a dry winter is enough to kill a bunch of own-root roses, same with freezing rain in winter in my poor drainage clay. A skinny rose-friend in CA first recommended lemon-water to me .. this gal was 64, 5'2" and 95 lb. She's a vegan. So I tried lemon-water back in 2014 .. the most I could drink was 1 sip, too sour & bitter for me back then, so I gave up. Then another vegetarian friend in Texas gave me nutritional yeast in Jan. 2019, that completely CHANGED MY TATEBUDS, and I'm able to drink at least 2 cups of lemon-water a day. I consume 1 lemon and 1 grapefruit a day .. both sour.

Above link (previous post) mentioned that too much zinc can cause a bitter taste in mouth. Remember the CNN news about a 17-year-old boy who went blind & partially deaf due to a diet of Pringles potato chips & white bread & sausage & fries since he doesn't like texture of certain foods. He was tested HIGH in zinc, and low in B12. An excerpt from below link: "The patient's extreme diet led to nutritional optic neuropathy. His vision had worsened to the point of blindness by 17 years of age, and doctors identified vitamin B12 deficiency, low copper and selenium levels, a HIGH zinc level, reduced vitamin D level and bone level density, according to a statement from the University of Bristol. By this stage, vision damage was permanent."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/03/health/poor-diet-blindness-scli-intl/index.html#:~:text=%28CNN%29%20Eating%20a%20diet%20of%20french%20fries%2C%20Pringles,warned%20of%20the%20dangers%20of%20a%20poor%20diet.

Teresa - I didn't know a person could go blind from nutritional deficiency. Horrible! I wonder if his parents were charged with Neglect of a minor.

I really hope the nutritional yeast changes my taste buds too!

I'm using NOW nutritional yeast and I like it better than KAL since it's less salty plus zero lead. My appetite is suppressed with just 1 TBS of nutritional yeast .. can't go for 2nd serving. But I still take 2 Brewer's yeast tablets for its chromium to stabilize blood-sugar.

23andme Genetic testing site is fantastic to trace relatives (lost through adoption), or genetic predisposition toward a dozen diseases. Last year we paid $120 (normal price was $200) for my 18-year old daughter to be genetically tested in health-profile, and it was worth it.

Thank God my daughter doesn't have the 2 genes for breast cancer .. her Swedish grandmother had double-mastectomy's when she's 40. My niece also had double mastectomy's when she's 32. This niece has a breast-cancer gene inherited from her Canadian/British father.

The two genes that my daughter has: a slight chance of Alzheimer's in late life, and predisposition to diabetes. My Mom and most of my sisters have diabetes. At 60, I'm always on a low-sugar diet to keep my blood sugar normal.

Growing roses for me is about sniffing fragrances, so I get into buying FRAGRANT spices for cooking in the winter. The last time our family went to a restaurant was when daughter was 2, now she's 18. No reason to eat out when I can cook healthy dishes with decadent aromas. Spices are best when they are freshly grounded and bought in SMALL QUANTITIES, as with Penzeys spices. After consulting with cooking forums, plus my past 5 years of buying lots of spices, below is my $42.98 order of spices for 2022. $43 of spices fill my house with amazing aromas daily for the rest of the year.

Ruth Ann's Muskego Ave Chicken/Fish Seasoning, Tandoori Seasoning, Bay Leaf Whole, Bouquet Garni, Vietnamese Cinnamon, Florida Seasoned Pepper, Mural Of Flavor, Air-Dried Shallots, Mexican Oregano, Mignonette Pepper blend. Plus 1/2 cup of Penzey curry (free with order).

Subtotal : $42.55 Shipping : $0.00 Tax : $0.43

Order Total : $42.98

I agree...thank God your daughter doesn't have the 2 genes for breast cancer!! And Alzheimer's is like diabetes of the brain...so by controlling her sugar...she's staving off Alzheimer's.

Carol: Thank you for that fantastic info. I never tempt my daughter with sweets, but husband constantly buy sweets.

Husband (63) and I (60) didn't get the genetic testing since we are too old. However, 23andme Genetic testing helps with children. One neighbor girl got cancer at 13 year old .. she went from an active runner to being in a wheelchair .. a total surprise for everyone.

A more comprehensive and accurate genetic testing is Invitae, that is trusted by doctors across the world.

Had my niece been tested by Invitae (only $250 for cancer screen), she could have avoided double-mastectomy's at 32. My niece works as a veterinarian so she avoided eating meat, and ate mostly fish, beans and dairy products. Unfortunately dairy products UP breast cancer.

Invitae genetic health screen is only $350 and tests 147 genes to assess cancer risk & heart disease & others. After my niece got breast cancer, she and her parents were genetically tested by Invitae to find that the breast cancer gene is from her Canadian/English father.

23andme genetic testing only tests for 2 breast cancer genes, macular degeneration, diabetes, and a dozen others. Most likely I will pay $250 for Invitae cancer screen which tests 61 genes for inherited cancer for my daughter. My Swedish mother-in-law told me about the ordeal of her double mastectomy's at 40.

An excerpt from Nebula Genomics website: "In 2019, Invitae presented a study at the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics annual meeting. Specifically, the study outlined that the many individuals who had undergone BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer risk by 23andMe were wrongly given negative results. This is because of 23andMe genotypes only three genetic variants, known as founder mutations, within BRCA1 and BRCA2, whereas Invitae sequences the entire BRCA genes.

Therefore, after testing 100,000 individuals, Invitae determined that 5% of these individuals had BRCA mutations known to increase the risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. Among these individuals who tested positive, Invitae determined 94% of non-Ashkenazi Jewish individuals and 19% of Ashkenazi Jewish individuals harbored mutations that would have been missed by the 23andMe test."

Not sure if this is the right place to post this question, but something is going on with my mini rose, and I would love to have your diagnosis, Dr Straw !
She was the very first rose I got, a little supermarket mini rose, and she was planted at the foot of the grape-vine that got Esca.

I still haven't gotten around to pulling out the grapevine, just cut it way back, but it's something I need to do before the end of the month. I am worried about disturbing the rose's roots in the process.
So, the rose is still blooming right now:

But it has lost a lot of foliage and some of the leaves look like this:

I'm not sure if this is a deficiency (phosphorus?) or a disease.

Supposedly Esca doesn't affect roses, so I doubt it could be that, but the red color is very similar to what happened to the grapevine leaves with Esca so I am a bit worried.
Should I just toss out everything that's in that pot?

I am a bit sentimental about this rose since it was my first. I hope it can be saved. What do you think?

The reddish tinge on youngest leaves is from too much iron. I would remove those red-lava-rocks on top. Msdorkgirl posted same problem back in 2015 when she put red-lava rocks in pots. She's in Hawaii with tons of acidic rain that leach out iron fast from the red-lava-rock, and her leaves got reddish margin.

I got the same problem as yours when I put too much red-lava rock on top of Big Purple rose with tons of rain. Also the same problem when I put too much blackstrap molasses (with 20% iron) on Gina's rose. Too much iron is easy to reverse: removing the red-lava-rock (high in iron and magnesium).

Only red roses like Double Delight or Munstead Wood need just a bit more iron, other colors need much less iron.

Oh dear... That pot is full of the red lava rocks! They are mixed in with the soil all the way down. Oh my... I am in for a serious soil change of soil for that whole giant 70liter tub... What was I thinking putting that much lava rock in there!

Thank you so much for your advice! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment, your expertise is invaluable, Straw!

Straw - my mom had breast cancer in one breast, but chose to have the other one off too. Something to think about...genetic testing. I may do that. Going to think on that. Thanks!

Excellent advice, STraw!

rosecanadian I swear we are related...I am a serious bitter taster. My aunt used to grow lettuce and try to feed it to me in the summer...always said it was so good and sweet and crunchy, all I could taste was bitter, bitter, bitter and she kept trying different leaves, sure that I had just gotten a bad one! I did not know anyone could possibly enjoy beer (figured they were just trying to get drunk on the nasty stuff)...until I met my husband and he described what it tasted like to him....fruity, sour, with a slight tinge at the end that gives it depth...well I would drink that...but that is not how I taste beer!

One thing I read recently made me wonder about genetic testing...is that carrying a gene does not mean you will actually get the issue. For instance, I have the celiac gene...yet was actually allergic to wheat as a kid...but I am not celiac. Long talks with several Dr. and they both said that they still don't know what turns on genes (It could be emotional or trauma or disease or being exposed to toxins) and it is odd that I have the celiac gene and yet had an allergy instead.

Note: to self...go easy on the lava rocks...mine are hard to get...but I could see myself doing the same thing!

Ann: Several sites on genetic testing echo the same, like 23andme stated that my daughter has 1 of the 4 variants for late life Alzheimer's but her chance is SLIGHT, versus her higher chance of diabetes (coming from my family with 4 siblings plus Mom having diabetes).

Invitae cancer screen is more thorough than 23andme, since Invitae tests 61 genes for inherited cancer, versus 23andme tests only 2 breast cancer genes.

An excerpt from cancer.gov website: "Examples include inherited variants in PALB2 (associated with increased risks of breast and pancreatic cancers), CHEK2 (breast and colorectal cancers), BRIP1 (ovarian cancer), and RAD51C and RAD51D (ovarian cancer)."

I often spend 4+ hours researching and reading all customer reviews, even for an Amazon clock at $20. I do the same with genetic testing for my daughter. Below excerpt explains the difference between Color Geonomics and Invitae, the last sentence is written by Invitae, which explains why my niece's cancer-doc chose Invitae:

"With its $249 test to screen for 30 genes linked to eight hereditary cancers, Color Genomics Inc. has pushed to detect cancer earlier .... Color offers a much more limited cancer testing panel (30 genes to our >20,000). So far, they haven’t invested the capital required to produce a true diagnostic grade result. Their test lacks the technological advancements needed to capture difficult variants and we have certainly heard accounts of missed variants or misclassified variants."

Ann - so true!!! I used to try different alcoholic drinks...trying to fit in...I finally gave it up, everything is bitter. Any lettuce that I've ever grown has been seriously bitter...I won't even try anymore. I think that when people were evolving, tasters like us were vitally important in order to eat wild vegetables/leaves safely...because bitter means death. I actually wrote a poem about this a few years ago:

Bitter drink upon my tongue tightens my mouth and clenches my muscles.

Harkening to days when bitterness meant death.

Its black, cloaked form breathed on those who paid no heed to the malevolence of its warning.

Eat not this acerbic plant....drink not this fouled water.

Or I, death, will plant my kiss upon your cheek.

Yeah, Ann, that's epigenetics. :) :) Really interesting stuff!

Carol: I love your poetic expression of the bitter taste. I was sensitive to the bitter taste of stale Boston lettuce, but that went away with taking nutritional yeast (older folks like me at 60 year-old are prone to B12 deficiency). Now I eat more Boston lettuce and the bitter taste doesn't bother me much.

Below site explains how zinc deficiency and 250 different medications can result in a bitter taste: "a number of medications can also alter taste, including antibiotics such as azithromycin (Zithromax) and clarithromycin (Biaxin), cholesterol-lowering drugs such as lovastatin (Mevacor) and pravastatin (Pravachol), and medications used to treat high blood pressure, such as enalapril (Vasotec) and diltiazem (Cardizem)."

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-causes-sour-taste-in-the-mouth-1742994

An excerpt from a study in Japan: "Zinc deficiency is a known cause of taste disorders. In addition, other nutrients such as iron and vitamin B-12 are also reported to affect taste perception. Zinc plays an important role in maintaining normal taste perception. Ikeda et al. reported that zinc deficiency slows the metabolic time of taste cells and can cause taste disorders."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6369110/

From Straw: I compared different genetic testing sites, and one site tested for zinc level ... didn't know that deficiency in zinc is also a genetic trait. See below excerpt: "For example, mutations in the gene coding for the intestinal transporter SLC39A4 cause the inherited disorder Acrodermatitis Enteropathica (AE), a condition caused by the inability to absorb Zn and resulting in systemic deficiency that is resolved with lifelong Zn supplementation."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5331579/

One's diet can affect one's condition despite being a carrier of a cancer gene. A friend beat lung cancer (can happen to non-smoker) .. and his daughter also beat breast cancer in her early 30 (just a tiny lump) & no need for surgery. His daughter is lactose-intolerant so she doesn't consume dairy products, which explains for a mild case of breast cancer easily fixed with chemotherapy.

In contrast, my niece shunned from meat and got her protein from dairy products .. she ended up with double-mastectomy's at 32. I posted on how milk with added hormones cause more pus and breast inflammation in cows, with high-fat dairy products (butter and cream) accumulate the most hormones, see below link:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6212123/your-new-year-goals-health-news-and-recipes#n=85

Below is a surprising news on breast cancer:

"In the North American study, researchers analyzed data from a cohort of over 50,000 women covering a period of eight years. Half of the women in the study followed a vegetarian diet, and drank soy milk, while the others consumed dairy milk. Among the participants, all of whom were cancer-free at the outset of the study, 1,057 went on to develop breast cancer.

The team were unable to establish a link between soy and breast cancer, but findings pointed towards dairy milk as the culprit. The study suggested “the drinking dairy milk daily, even in small amounts, can increase your risk of getting breast cancer by as much as 80 percent,” explained Doctor Fraser. The professor, from the School of Public Health and Medicine at Loma Linda University, added: We found that at relatively low doses of dairy milk, less than a cup a day, there was a steep rise in the risk of breast cancer. At a cup a day, we were seeing more than 50 percent increase in risk."

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1532995/cancer-risk-dairy-milk-consumption-warning

It's funny this thread has completely changed from decadent recipes to a healthy eating focus, although that is good to consider as well.

Decadent meaning stuff we're not supposed to eat, right?

So I offer my invention, Linda's Raspberry Cheesecake Pie with Almond Streusel. I made it up a couple of days ago. The next day, feeling a little guilty since I want to lose weight, I told my family, " I'm going to eat one more piece and then throw it out." They said, " Noooooo! " They really liked the textures and flavors. So we ate it.

Linda's Raspberry Cheesecake Pie with Almond Streusel

2 pks cream cheese

2 eggs

3/4 c sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 t. almond extract

2 T heavy cream

2 T flour

Soften cream cheese, then mix all together. Par-bake a pie shell for a few minutes. Pour in cheesecake mixture and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. There might be some leftover batter if you use a smallish pie shell so you can put that in a ramekin and bake with the pie.

Meanwhile put 1 bag of frozen raspberries ( or fresh) in a pan, add 1/2 c. water and 3/4 c sugar. Bring to a boil. Mix 2 T cornstarch with 2 T water and add to raspberries, stirring till thick. Cool in fridge.

For streusel:

1/4 c melted butter

1/2 c flour

1/2 c sugar

about 3 oz sliced almonds

Toast streusel in oven at 350 in a pan for about 20 min. stirring once.

Pour cooled raspberry topping on cheesecake and refrigerate till somewhat set. Top with streusel. Yum! Could make any flavor of this. It's just about 1/2 size of a regular cheesecake. Could use any type crust or no crust. Can make it in individual ramekins...nice. Not for every day dieting.

Now we're talking, erasmus!😁

Sorry @erasmus_gw !

I think it got derailed because I posted my question in the wrong thread!

I'm glad you posted and brought things back on topic!

I think I gained a pound just from reading that recipe! raspberry cheesecake pie sounds delicious!!

Eramus: I appreciate your raspberry cheese pie very much. Your ingredients help me to solve the problems with the pumpkin-cheese cake recipe I posted at the top of this thread.

Husband & daughter complained that my cheese-topping was too runny (I miss out the 2 T. flour and 2 T. heavy cream). My original pumpkin-cheese also had streusel topping but I used pecans .. it got too crumbly and fell on the carpet, so I put that IN THE MIDDLE instead.

63-year-old husband earns the right to decadent food since he runs 6 miles per day. My decadent recipes have more fiber (I put flax meal and lots of nuts).

Invitae genetic testing is quite responsible .. I found below news from Quartz website dated back in Sept. 2017:

"Invitae announced last month it would be re-testing 50,000 saliva samples after discovering that it had accidentally given one patient a false negative in a test for Lynch syndrome. This inherited condition is caused by one of five genetic mutations, and is tied to asignificantly higher risk of developing colon cancer.

Four years ago, the FDA forced 23andme to stop its genetic testing services with concerns that its results were inaccurate. In April of this year, the FDA reversed that decision, and has since allowed the company to tell people that they have certain genetic markers—but not the risks of developing diseases from those markers. That kind of diagnosis must still happen in a doctor’s office."

Genetic test can be misleading. Below is an excerpt from CBS news: "A family member was tested for Alzheimer's and came up for higher risk ... She was tested at a university, and about two years later she went back as part of a study and they found she had a particular variant that actually protected her. So for two years she was so stressed about it ... when in fact her risk was not elevated.

Rehm described a woman who had genetic testing and wrongly was told she did not have elevated risks for breast cancer. She later developed the disease but could have had preventive surgery had the right gene analyses been done."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-accurate-are-genetic-test-results/

Well, I got very sick yesterday afternoon...guess it's a virus I caught from my husband who had it earlier in the week but it manifested differently in him. I had violent throwing up and was very toxic. Finally am getting better today. But it did make me averse to food at all especially something decadent...all I wanted was to get healthy. I have been making efforts to be healthier this past month or two ...cutting out most sugar, cut out caffeine, am walking a mile a couple times a week which for me is doing good. I was walking 1/3 of a mile but daughter pushes me to step it up. Anyway it has helped so much with muscle tone.

Winter has me cleaning out drawers and cabinets and baking cheesecake pie because I can't get outside. Well, it's just too cold for me. Getting outside is my anti-boredom cure. Amazing how my little dogs know when I feel bad. They are licky little dogs, which I don't always appreciate, but I know they were trying to take care of me. Daughter got me hot tea and a barf bowl.

Straw, I think that's very good info you added about how genetic testing can cause a lot of worry, but that lady with the variant found later that she was protected. Not everyone with a particular gene will actually come down with something. So far I have not really wanted to stress out over genes. Just make an effort re health. I know for some people it's crucial information.

Well, I can do without milk...but not butter. Butter probably causes cancer too.

Erasmus - that cheesecake sounds delicious...especially with the streusel on top!! Oh, I'm sorry that you are ill. It sounds pretty nasty! Good for you for trying to exercise more!!

Yes, high fat dairy products UP the risk of BOTH BREAST AND PROSTATE cancers, as noted on breast cancer websites. I posted plenty on the strong link between breast cancer and dairy products in organic rose forum, but I did not realize that dairy also UP prostate cancer in men.

Starting in 2020, there's a shortage of imported products, so I could not get ORGANIC Kerrygold butter without hormones (imported from Ireland), and I could not get RAW and fresh Nutiva coconut fat (imported from southeast Asia) ... so we bought huge blocks of butter from Sam's club and eat more frozen pizza loaded with cheese. Also instead of coconut fat, I use gobs of full-fat sour cream for my baked goods.

The result? Last year I got painful breast cysts for the first time in my 60-year-life but that went away after I cut out butter & cheese to lose weight (down to 115 lb. this year). Husband's prostate test also went UP. An excerpt from below link:

"Dairy products, calcium, and prostate cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. Results: Thirty-two studies were included. Intakes of total dairy products were associated with increased total prostate cancer risk. Total calcium and dairy calcium intakes, but not nondairy calcium or supplemental calcium intakes, were also positively associated with total prostate cancer risk. Supplemental calcium was associated with increased risk of fatal prostate cancer."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25527754/

Consider that in 1993, the United States FDA approved bovine growth hormone bST to increase milk production, despite FDA's conclusion that this hormone increases mastitis (swelling of breast and pus) in cows. Farmers have to increase the use of antibiotics to treat mastitis.

It's shocking the amount of progesterone and estrogen in high-fat dairy products such as butter, cream, and cheese, see below:

The concentrations (ng/ml or ng/g) of progesterone, estrogens in milk and milk products.

Progesterone in milk: 9.8, in cream: 48.6, in butter: 141, in yogurt: 13.3 in Gouda Cheese: 44.2

Estreone in milk: 0.13, in cream: 0.26, in butter: 1.47, in yogurt: 0.16, in Gouda cheese: 0.17

High fat dairy products contain the HIGHEST AMOUNT of hormones compared to other foods, including soy and flax. Before 2021 I did not have breast cysts in my entire life, including the years in which I used 3 cups of soy or flax milk per day.

Neither my Mom nor my 8 older sisters have breast cancer (one sis. got tested by Invitae). So instead of spending $250 for genetic testing of cancer gene, I spend that money on a good coconut fat, or ORGANIC dairy products without added hormones. See below link for the amount of hormones in foods:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2397847320936281

I understand that breast cancer is extremely common. A woman's chance of getting it are 1 in 400. But if you belong to a subgroup of Ashkenazi Jews (who for centuries were a very isolated population in Eastern Europe) chances are 1 in 40, because they lack a certain protective element to their genetic makeup that many other populations have (and are thus also susceptible to other cancers as well, including ovarian, pancreatic, and melanoma, among others, the ovarian being the most dangerous).

. Of course as an individual, even if you have the risky profile, your chances of getting it are still less than of not getting it, though of course you can pass it on.

I had the test and I do not carry the risky profile.

The good news it that great strides have been made just in the last five years in treating stage one and stage 2 breast cancers. The prognosis is excellent, and in many cases, no chemotherapy is needed. So regular mammograms are good.

Monarda: Thank you for mentioning about Ashkenazi Jews as an isolated population with more inherited traits. In a melting pot like America, where my daughter has more diverse genetic backgrounds, genetic testing may not be accurate due to blending of genetic pools. My daughter has Asian, American Indian, Hispanic, Swedish, and Belgium genetics.

See excerpt from below link:

"A new study concludes that all Ashkenazi Jews can trace their ancestry to a bottleneck of just 350 individuals, dating back to between 600 and 800 years ago. Because the Ashkenazi community started out so small, and remained genetically isolated, it developed a higher load of disease-causing mutations. Even today, Ashkenazi Jews are known to be at higher risk for many diseases, including breast and ovarian cancer and Tay-Sach’s disease. Researchers analyzed the genomes of 128 Ashkenazi Jews and compared them to those of non-Jewish Europeans. They found that the Ashkenazi Jews’ genetic similarities were so acute that among Ashkenazi Jews, everyone is a 30th cousin.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ashkenazi-jews-descend-from-350-people-study-finds/

It's not cut and dry: Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that most disease-causing mutations have a low risk of actually causing disease. (But the breast cancer risk remained high.)

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/940896

Monarda - I'm glad you don't have that gene. :)

Thank you. I didn't think I did but I got cancer anyway. It was a shock but the outcome seems to be very good, so they tell me. Am in my 70s. A lot of the treatment seems to be waiting for the results of various tests/ biopsies. Didn't have to have chemotherapy.

SCAM ALERT

Besides the scam on Facebook that happened to my sister in Idaho, below are the comments from Nextdoor news feed from my Chicagoland today 1/26/22.

Just a warning to triple check any online websites selling goods to make sure they are legitimate. Don't trust Facebook or Google Ads. Manually go to the website outside social media, and then look at the Contact Us info. If it doesn't feel complete, or anything about how they want payment feels "funny", don't use them.

We ordered an appliance from KitchenAid-US (looked good but FAKE), paid via credit card, and got a FedEx tracking number. Seemed legit. It was a fraudulent site. When FedEx notified of delivery, we didn't get anything. Escalated through FedEx they informed us the tracking number was associated with a totally different name and address. Escalating through the bank, the payment went to an individual's Gmail address on PayPal, not a business.

Happened to me as well on a few purchases. Fortunately our bank and PayPal refunded us the money but one site actually charged us 3x!! Would have been out like $350. It was a fake site selling flattops at a really good price.

Lost a purchase the same way. Out $100 and I am upset. PayPal would not give me a refund. They said the seller had a tracking number. Fed Ex said the number I had did not match my address. It was a scam.

I have seen the same thing. Especially with products that are sold out everywhere. At least with a credit card you have no liability. With Zelle, PayPal, and others you could lose all your money due to weak protections. I have received counterfeit products from both amazon and eBay. Both companies were good about it and got me my money back. I no longer buy things that online when there is a high possibility of counterfeit

On Tue, Jan 25, 2022 My sister in Idaho wrote on the Stamps scam on Facebook:
I saw the ads on Facebook. Clicked on the link and went to a very legit usps looking site. I ordered the stamps and got an immediate confirmation which also looked legit. I informed a friend about the deal and he sent me the link above about the scam. I called my credit card company right away and they said they would cancel the payment!! Phew. These scammers can be very sophisticated.

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/the-post-office-is-not-selling-discount-stamps/85-458b6958-3d12-43cb-80ba-280543f6b65d

Wow!! It's hard to have to trust no one...but the world is filled with crooked people. I'm glad you were refunded.

Monarda - I'm soooo glad you have a good outcome...cancer is so scary.

I wasn't scammed, but the above people from the Nextdoor forum did, same with my sister. When my daughter started college in August 2021, we bought an over $1,000 laptop computer for her from Amazon. The next few days we received several phone calls from a heavy-accent Indian staying that someone made an illegal purchase of $40 from our Amazon (scammer hoped that I would call back to give my Amazon account info.) I ignored that scam-phone-call.

My sister, the doc. in CA, got an identical "Amazon scam" from an Indian accent over the phone.

Horrible people!

Yes, it is very sad - I never buy anything on line without using a credit card - the banks have more regulation, and will reverse the charge unless the seller can prove it is legit.

What about emails? I was getting several every week from scammers pretending to be Xfinity (major clue for many of them was that they could not spell Xfinity!). Also when I looked at their actual email accounts, they were mostly gmail free accounts for individuals. I stopped responding to anything that said Xfinity on it. For some reason I am not getting those anymore, but of course other things (my favorite is "your CC has been charged $$$$$ for _______Please call this number if you want to cancel..."

Jackie

Don't respond to any of these.