Eric,
No androgynous gender roles and categories,meaning not artifically divided into mostly socially constructed roles and categories of "masculine" and "feminie"
wow...thats a very comprehensive list from the link u gave...
while i wouldn't say that i've avoided all of them but thank God our staple food is rice....and i've decided to just be thankful about my scan results and not think too much bout the foods that i might/ might not have taken....i'll just trust that my oncologist knows best *fingers crossed*....
besides, i'll still be monitoring my Tg levels every 3 months and if there are any cause for concern, the Tg would show it...
at the moment, both the scan and Tg levels have been ok...so i'll just rejoice in the fact that i'm cancer free and hope that it'll stay that way till the day that i die of natural causes...end of discussion on this topic for me..LOL
i'm glad that u've heard of where i'm from, which is southeast asia to be specific. You are right. We do have very rich and diverse cultures. Malaysia is one of the very few places on earth where you have 3 main races and dozens of other minorities living together in perfect harmony. No civil war, hate crimes and stuff like that. Its amazing how tolerant we are of other races, religion and cultures that Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus visit each other during their respective festive seasons and are genuinely close with one another. But of course, i'm totally avoiding the crappy parts of my country here, which i think is inappropriate to mention in a wonderful place like this.
anyway, i don't wanna go off topic again...if there is anything i can share that might help anyone, do let me know. That includes the pre RAI diet too cos i was just kidding bout it earlier....
"Agar" is a gel made from seaweed (hence why you have to avoid it pre-RAI). Here in the U.S. the most common usage of agar (or Agar-agar in Malaysia) is in petri dishes to grow cultures. Go figure.
Many sea products (shell fish, fish, seaweed, etc.) contain large amounts of iodine so they are to be avoided on the low-iodine diet. Of course the Asian diet is much higher in ocean-based products than the U.S. diet. One thing common to both diets, and something that is in MANY foods we don't realize, is soy. This is a tough one to avoid but is also on the restricted diet.
"Eric", I bet your diet restrictions would be very interesting compared to ours here in the U.S. Here's a link to some of the common restrictions for the U.S. diet. http://www.thyca.org/rai.htm#diet
One of the toughest things on the diet for me was to avoid all dairy products and I really like cheese. I'm also one of those people who is addicted to seafood. It was very tough to go without sushi, shellfish, fish (even tuna sandwiches), etc.
Boy I thought it was tough to combine the low-iodine diet and the diabetic diet, it would be even tougher if there was sea-based products in EVERYTHING.
I've worked with a few people from your part of the world: Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, etc. You have such a beautiful, rich mix of cultures in your part of the world!
For everyone else here's a pretty good overview I found on Malaysia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia
take care all!
"Eric" .
I have heard of your country,I have a book by an anthropologist David Gilmore about gender androgynous cultures and it lists yours as one.
errmm...what exactly does gender androgynous culture mean? does it mean what i think it means? that we are neither male/female? or we are both male and female?
either way, this is sad cos we are known to the outside world only through a quote by an author of a book.
but it doesn't bother me in any way...i hate this @%$#&%#@ anyway....hahaha...Merry Christmas everyone..
hmm....i'll try to answer this the best i can...
I don't know bout american jelly but the local jelly that we consume has this main ingredient that we call "agar-agar" in local language. It is like transparent plastic strips (only looks like it!!!) when purchased and is melted in warm/hot water. I think it helps to turn jelly into its solid form...i gotta ask my mum to know more bout this...
anyway, it is this "agar-agar" that i've been ask to refrain from and since i don't know how to translate it, i just say jelly....hope this answers your question...
and i think u meant to say that my Nickname sounds very American, although i think caucasian is a better word cos these type of names are not unique to Americans only. Anyway, i think its rather obvious that my name is not Eric Cartman. Eric Cartman is just one of my favourite cartoon character in South Park, the TV show. I'm Chinese from Malaysia. It would be interesting to know how many of you have heard of this country.
Eric,
what is in jelly except sugar and fruit? Your name sounds very American by the way.
i did not have eggs and butter in my list of foods to avoid although i didin't have much of those for health reasons. I didin't really have an appetite for anything when i was hypo. My jaw gets sore when i bite too much.
My list of foods to avoid was all types of seafood, seaweed, spirulina, cabbage, jelly. Perhaps asian and western diets are very different.
Venora,
there are online recipes of low fat cookies like oatmeal that are made with oil and you can use egg whites. They do call for salt and baking soda though but you can use salt without iodine but I don't know if baking soda has it in it.
Eggs and butter eric.lol
I was reading through what I wrote the other nite and I hope yall realize I was whining in fun.That was my way of getting through a rough nite.
Love Venora
why can't you have cookies? is there lots of iodine in a cookie?
Awwwwwwwwwwwwww, yeah that must be pretty painful (RAI during the holiday season). Hang in there and hopefully you won't have to do this ever again. Get some rest, that's an order, lol.
Honey - I *KNOW* exactly what you mean!!! Hang tough - your RAI is soon and you don't want to drag this out any longer. Raw, unsalted almonds cured my cravings for most sweets and (fresh) blueberries killed my chocolate cravings. Try them!!! Wine is okay on the diet too and that wonderful little bipolar pill is definitely okay!!
Hang tough and I agree with you - TRY TO AVOID RAI DURING THE HOLIDAYS!!