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Don't follow me, I am lost too
I am vegetarian, actually not, because I eat fish, so pescatarian (sic) then. I like to try new stuff though and some time ago bought some quite expensive ground cassava (manioc). Cassava is a little dangerous if it is not prepared properly, including rinsing and thorough cooking. Something I didn't discover online was that you shouldn't eat it with ginger. The shopkeeper in the neighbouring village told me that. For some reason I think that 'The Shopkeepers Wife' has more intrigue attached to it, but she is a shopkeeper. I would like to imagine her as a fount of knowledge that is rarely tapped but use of her knowledge can have significant effects. I think that recognising her as a shopkeeper limits her capabilities to merely shopkeeping. She is way more than that.
Cassava is a great thickener much as cornflower is, or potato starch. That is how I have been using it; to hold together quite dry shredded vegetables and rice or beans into a pattie which I can fry. My brother went from omnivore to vegan overnight and got very ill. Unfortunately, he was the sort that didn't experiment and preferred to go online for his ideas which he then believed and promulgated as his own. Like I say, he was very unwell from his diet and this affected his already poor mental health. I wanted to help but couldn't find any decent recipes for vegans that were nutritious and interesting. I did find a recipe for a vegan sausage but we don't always have cornflower, or better still, potato starch (which has a better taste and texture) and he with his poor vegan diet soon became allergic to the solanum family such as peppers, tomatoes and potatoes, and gluten intolerant.
However, I made the vegan sausage fifteen years ago and am still experimenting. I am getting there but I have relied quite heavily on cassava, which has its own unique 'tart green' flavour. I can hide that though.
Sometimes, I forget stuff that is quite important but wasn't at the time. I put ginger in a lot of my vegetable 'slurry-type' meals. You know, vegetable curry, ratatouille, and vegetable chilli. I batch-cook to save time but mostly money. It also makes eating at random times a crucial factor in a busy life-style. I have been experimenting with cassava as a thickener and binder for lunch-time meals and eating the thawed batch-cooked portions of vegetable slurry at tea-time. Whoops!
There are supposedly three ways to develop temporary atrial fibrillation. You might call it 'heart palpitations'. Usually, most people experience just a couple of mis-beats and then everything is fine and forgotten for perhaps years. It isn't a problem, don't worry. Temporary Atrial Fibrillation (lasting more than a few minutes to weeks - see your doctor if it lasts more than a minute) can be caused by stress, caffeine and alcohol. I get a lot of stress and can't get started in the morning with a lot of coffee, but I don't usually suffer from a heart problem. However, cassava does give me atrial fibrillation, though only until I have initially metabolised it within the first hour.
Unfortunately, I have recently taken to baking a large quantity of food that contains cassava and have eaten them as snacks throughout the next few days. Stress from having to complete assignments and caffeine for more focus has set me up to be more susceptible to the cassava. Ironically, if you have atrial fibrillation concentration is very much impaired and one tends to drink more coffee to compensate. Atrial fibrillation also makes exercise very uncomfortable because oxygen levels to the brain are negatively impacted by a misbehaving heart. Toxins build up in the body and especially on the large muscles like the thighs, and my body reacts with more atrial fibrillation. I haven't even been able to go to the shop to buy something else to eat because when I started to walk or cycle to the shop the toxins were released and I couldn't continue. I weighed up my food supply against the need to finish an assignment, and went with finishing the assignment when I could concentrate.
Happily, I have now removed the stress of completing an assignment on a subject in which I have zero interest so I can go to the shop. The last couple of days I went up and down my stairs and then lay down until the headache passed and I got my breath back, to get rid of the toxins.
Don't follow me, I am lost too.
DO NOT do what I do: Atrial Fibrillation increases the risk of a stroke by 500%
My atrial fibrillation is known by the NHS.