Oily fish (omega-3)

“First: movement, rest, plant-rich food. Sacha inchi gives plant omega-3 as food.”

“Plukenetia volubilis. Also mani del monte. Seed and oil, rich in plant omega-3 (alpha-linolenic acid), sold as food. Safety: nausea common in the first week of taking the oil. Liver and kidney tests unchanged in trials. Raw-seed safety not verified, so Elijah talks about it only as sold for food.”

“Not fish and pork. Pork rose later: by 1979 about 7.9 kg per person a year, roughly 50% above the Japanese average (approximate source). "Pork boiled for hours and skimmed" is unverified.”

“The plate: mostly sweet potato and vegetables, soy, seaweed, a little grain, very little fish or meat, almost no sugar, dairy, fruit or pickles. About half the calories per gram of a typical American diet, so people felt full on fewer calories (Willcox and Willcox 2014).”

“The Spanish day, as oma lived it (lived knowledge from the family's memory, not a study): the mercado in the morning for vegetables, fish and fruit. A light desayuno. The neighbours ate their main meal, the comida, in the early afternoon, and a late, light cena. Oma kept her Dutch habit of a small lunch, and took over the siesta and the paseo wholly. The sobremesa, the hour of talk after the food. The paseo at dusk, the whole town walking.”

“Limón (lemon). In the honey, the water, on the fish, and for a cold.”

“Sheng jiang 生姜, fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale). Pungent, slightly warm. Lung, spleen, stomach. Releases the exterior and scatters cold, warms the middle and stops vomiting, warms the lung for cough, tempers the harshness of ban xia and of fish and crab. Dried ginger, gan jiang 干姜, is hot and warms the middle more deeply. At home: slices boiled with brown sugar after a chill. With jujube it harmonises many formulas of the Shang Han Lun. Caution: large supplement amounts not with blood thinners.”

“What goes in. Pork most of all, then chicken, squab, crucian carp and duck. The plants used most: tomato, radish, red dates, mung bean, goji (the most valuable), Chinese yam, lotus, fox nut (芡实, qiàn shí), Job's tears and dang shen. Chicken, pork, squab, duck or fish are paired with dang shen, goji, red dates, Chinese yam, lotus seed or fox nut. Middle-aged women boil dang gui, Rehmannia, jujube and radish "to nourish yin and tonify blood".”

“Fish. Fish is cold, so it comes with herbed rice and garlic, both hot. Never with yoghurt, the household says, two cold things together. After a cold fish meal a warm dessert such as khagineh, a sweet egg dish, can follow.”

“The kitchen. A smaller plate, slowly eaten. A warm companion after a cold meal, as Persian cooks follow a fish meal with a warm dessert. A glass of tea, cooled a little.”

“Test: hs-CRP, ESR, omega-3 index, food sensitivity panel (IgG), autoimmune markers”

“Source: wild-caught fish oil or algae oil (vegan). Triglyceride form > ethyl ester form for absorption.”