Delicious-Alternatives: Websites and Food Blogs Galore

Delicious-Alternatives: Websites and Food Blogs Galore: I am amazed at how many websites and blogs there are that deal with food, food preparation, allergies and especially gluten free cooking...

Websites and Food Blogs Galore

I am amazed at how many websites and blogs there are that deal with food, food preparation, allergies and especially gluten free cooking.

 I think gluten-free has taken on a whole life of its own and from what I have read, is now a million dollar industry. As I read the “ Wheat Belly” by Dr. William Davis I am becoming aware that we have done this to ourselves. Changing the structure of our wheat over 50 years ago so that it would bring in a higher yield, be resistant to bugs and feed the world we have created a wheat that humans can no longer digest. Hence, Celiac disease, gluten intolerance, IBS, and a multitude of other intestinal disorders.

Many of us are aware of the havoc that gluten wreaks on our systems as we get the full body symptoms after we digest wheat, but many others have no symptoms and are unaware of this silent and potentially deadly food we are consuming.

Cutting wheat out of your diet can seem overwhelming, but with so many websites and dedicated bloggers you will be amazed at how easy it can be.

Here are some of my favourite website/blog sites, check them out for lots of great info and tasty gluten free recipes.

Check them out

The Daily Dietribe- http://www.thedailydietribe.com/

The Stuffed Pepper- http://www.stuffed-pepper.com/

The Balanced Platter- http://balancedplatter.com/

Brittany Angell- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Real-Sustenance-Gluten-and-Dairy-Free-Recipes/149273335092266?ref=ts

The Gluten Free Homemaker- http://glutenfreehomemaker.com/

Gluten Free Find- http://www.glutenfreefind.com/

Gluten Free Frenzy- http://www.glutenfreefrenzy.com/

Daily Bites- http://www.dailybitesblog.com/

Nourished and Nurtured- http://nourishedandnurtured.blogspot.com/

Cook it Allergy Free- http://cookitallergyfree.com/

I will be writing a book review of The Wheat Belly in my next blog, stay tuned...

Hey Mom. what's for lunch?

Hey Mom, what’s for lunch?

As a dietary consultant I specialize in helping people with food allergies come up with menu ideas and recipes that meet their dietary needs.

Having food allergies as well as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome I know only too well how challenging it can be to make tasty, healthy meals.

Last week I spoke with a Mother of two children ages 8 and 10. Both children have food allergies, and are following a gluten free diet. Mom was feeling quite stuck in what to prepare them for their lunches.

Living in our North American society we are so programmed to the ‘sandwich’ and when we stray from that we find it difficult to come up with other ideas.

 When I went to school most of us would open our lunch bags to bologna, ham and chicken sandwiches, a piece of fruit and or cheese. These days not much has changed, but what I find is that most kids are picky and not really that hungry at lunchtime. They tear open their sandwich, eat the inside meat and their fruit or yogurt and are off to play in the school yard. The Wonder bread gets tossed in the garbage and so I wonder, why is the almighty sandwich so important for lunch?

If we lived in another part of the world we might go to school with a corn tortilla and an avocado for our lunch, or some rice or soba noodles with vegetables.

What came up in our conversation was that she didn’t want to send her kids to school with “weird” lunches. I don’t want the other kids to make fun of them she said. Oh boy, what have we done to get here? How have we gotten so away from nutrition and feeding our children healthy foods, to what looks right and fits in with the bullies in our school yards?

We started to talk about ideas for school lunches and what would appeal to her children. Here are some of the ideas we came up with.

I am hoping they will give you some ideas as well, but ultimately it is what your child will eat and be comfortable with taking out of their lunch box or bag.

Bean dips with cut up veggies- these are so easy to make. Take a can of navy beans, or lima beans, rinse well, put in blender with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and cilantro or parsley and a little salt. You can do the same with any canned beans or even chickpeas to make hummus. Many grocery stores are offering healthy hummus and bean dips as well, but check the ingredients.

Lettuce Wraps- Take a piece of romaine lettuce, spread allowable mayonnaise or mashed avocado, layer with nitrate free turkey or ham and roll the lettuce leaf up so that you have a sandwich roll without the bread

Gluten free tortilla wraps – There are corn wraps, rice wraps and teff wraps available at your grocery store. Some of the brand names are La Tortilla Factory and Food for Life

Tortillas filled with refried beans and daiya cheese, if you are not familiar with daiya cheese visit their website at www.daiyafoods.com

Salsas with corn chips

Gluten free crepes with a dipping sauce

Leftover homemade chicken nuggets with dipping sauce

Homemade gluten free pizza

Cabbage Rolls

Rice cakes with sunflower butter or apple butter ( nut butter unless the school is nut free)

Sweet Potato Corn Wraps- Cook sweet potatoes in oven until soft and carmalized. Scrape out filling let cool and put into wraps or on pieces of celery or sliced tomatoes

Healthy Muffins are a great quick lunch or snack idea

Tahini banana sandwich on gluten free bread

There are many gluten free sites on the internet and so many recipes that are being posted online, check it out and see what you can find to put in your healthy lunchbox today!

Food is Life

Food is Life

I recently watched a documentary called “Fresh” which was so inspirational to me that I had to blog about it and share some of the information.

For me this is a film that every human being on the planet must watch, so that we can one by one start to make a difference in our food industry.

We have gotten to a point in our food industry that cheaper is not better. Nature is screaming to us enough, but we are not listening. We hear on the news about outbreaks of e-coli, avian bird flu and mad cow disease, but we sit back and do nothing and continue to buy food that is grown with pesticides, herbicides and antibiotics. Is anyone listening? It’s not working.

We need to heed ecology. If we look at nature as our template then what we are doing is only going to fail and send us to the bottom of the pile, which I think is where we are. We need to respect the design of nature and practice sustainable farming, it’s the only way.

It seems that it’s all about money and how much big companies can make off of farmers, but guess what, we are getting more and more diseases in our animals and the antibiotics are not working as there are now strains that cannot be stopped with antibiotics.

We now have the science that shows that medium sized organic farms are much more profitable than big industrialized farms.

How much money would farmers save if they didn’t have to pay for antibiotics, vet bills, herbicides and pesticides? What if they let the animals out and let them graze which is what animals do best. If we look to our past and how animals lived they roamed free, they were always moving. Let us treat herbivores like herbivores and not feed dead beef to beef and chickens. Chickens have beaks and claws for a reason so why does industry cut them off? Is it because they keep hundreds of thousands of chickens in dark airless barns, on top of each other feeding on grains and dead beef filled with herbicides and antibiotics?

Cows are not meant to eat dead cows or grains, they are meant to graze and eat grass. Chickens are meant to graze behind the cattle pecking at their poop and removing bugs and digesting the rest, only to poop back into the ground to fertilize the grass so that the next rotation of cows can graze. Nature is a circle of life and we have interrupted this circle and bread disease instead.

If we want to feed the world don’t use industrialized agriculture. Take away all the pesticides, herbicides, expensive machinery and make farming sustainable.

Seventy percent of the grain that is grown in North America is grown for animal feed, not human consumption. Let’s farm grass instead of grains. If we take care of the grass it will take care of our animals and in turn take care of all of us by feeding us healthy animals who are rich in omega 3’s and vitamins, not riddled with disease. No wonder cancer is rampant in our society and our soils so depleted.

If we practiced sustainable farming all the negatives in agriculture would come to a screeching halt. Let us use technology and innovation with our wisdom to create a healthy world that will feed everyone.

Industrialized agriculture has made our food cheaper but at what cost? We’ve diminished our food nutritionally. The more you process food the less nutritious it is. Cheap food is an illusion people, there is no such thing. The real cost of the food is somewhere, be it environmental, health or other costs to us.

We are subsidizing the wrong foods like corn syrup and wheat. What about produce? Why is it that poor people can feed their family with Kraft Dinner but not healthy produce? This is so wrong.

Can we change the food system so that all food is affordable to all? Recreating food that is natural is empowering.

Make the decision to buy only healthy, sustainable food from organic farmers and stop this ticking time bomb on our plates.

To watch this inspirational documentary visit http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/26/fresh-video-documentary.aspx?e_cid=20120226_SNL_Art_1

Delicious Food

Once again we made the trip over to Gatineau for a delicious lunch at La Belle Verte, a raw vegan restaurant. It is right in the middle of Gatineau on Eddy st
We hadn't been in awhile so it was a nice treat.
Even though I wanted to start with dessert I didn't
I ordered the raw quiche and my hubby started off with the hot soup ( yes I know not raw) I think they have adapted their menu a bit so to entice others to try raw. Then he had the pizza. Once again we were delighted with the service, the freshness of the food and the taste. I ordered a raw pizza to take home and I had it today for my lunch.
It was delish. I am not sure what the topping is, something with cashews and the inside is olive tepenade avocado and sun dried tomato and spinach. All on top of this great tasting flax cracker crust. It melts in your mouth.

Then the ultimate chocolate died and gone to heaven tart. Yum, yum, double yum!

If you are in the area try it. You might even bump into a friend, we did. such a small world.. Love it.

Blueberry Banana Muffins are my favorite

So what are your favorite gluten free muffins?
Care to share?
Hope you enjoy my recipe. Please adapt to your preference of gluten or not. If you are able to eat gluten simply replace with your own wheat flour, same amount applies.
3/4 chickpea flour
3/4 brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan or guar gum
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup oil( I like to use coconut oil but you can use safflower or sunflower oil)
4 bananas mashed
1 cup blueberries
Mash bananas in a bowl
Add oil, syrup and vanilla
Add in remaining ingredients and mix well. Add blueberries last. If mix is a lite dry you can add some water. I tend to use very ripe frozen bananas that I have kept in my freezer and they yield more liquid.
Spoon into muffin tins and bake 350F
for approx 30 minutes

Is there a difference between a Food Allergy and a Food Intolerance?

Is there a difference between a Food Allergy and a Food Intolerance?

I get asked this question quite a lot actually and it is a great question.

The answer can be quite easy or quite involved; basically yes there is a big difference between the two.

Allergy refers to a response of the immune system. It involves immunological processes similar to (but not exactly the same as) those that fight and reject an agent that can cause diseases, such as a pathogenic (disease-causing) micro- organism.

Hypersensitivity is the term scientists use to describe the immunological process that results in allergy. The terms allergic reaction and hypersensitivity reaction are often used interchangeably.

Food Intolerance refers to a reaction that does not involve the immune system. It is caused by a problem in the way the body processes the food or food additive. The term food intolerance is not interchangeable with either food allergy or hypersensitivity.

Food sensitivity is a rather non- specific term that refers to a person’s reacting adversely to a food or component of the food when it is not clear whether the reaction is due to allergy or intolerance.

The term food sensitivity is therefore interchangeable with either food allergy or food intolerance, but it does not give any indication of the reason for a person’s symptoms.

Food sensitivities can affect any organ system in the body. Fatigue, anxiety, depression, insomnia, obesity, ear infections, post nasal drip, irritable bowel syndrome, diarrhea, Chrohn’s disease, high blood pressure, eczema, hives, muscle aches, headaches, migraines and asthma are some of the symptoms due to food allergy.

Allergy Types

Our immune system can produce symptoms simply as a result of our ingesting food; this is known as a food allergy. Food allergies are classified into four types:

1-      Anaphylactic

2-      Cytotoxic

3-      Antigen-antibody complexes

4-      Delayed hypersensitivity

There are two types of allergic reaction: fixed and cyclic. Fixed reactions are IgE mediated and are easily recognized. If you eat a particular food and immediately get sick or break out, you know what food is triggering the reaction, especially if it happens every time you eat that specific food. Cyclic or delayed food allergy is hard to detect. Sometimes the reaction can be delayed and symptoms appear hours or days later. It is estimated that only five percent of food allergy is immediate and ninety-five percent is delayed.

Type I Reactions

Anaphylaxis is usually IgE mediated. In this instance, the body manufactures an antibody when a foreign substance ( an antigen) gains access to the intestines, lung or skin.

An anaphylactic reaction is fixed and can vary from mild to fatal, but usually appears within minutes of ingestion of the food. It can affect respiratory tract ( bronchial obstruction, wheezing), the gastrointestinal tract ( nausea, vomiting, bloating, or diarrhea), the cardiovascular system ( hypotension and shock), and the skin ( hives). Sensitivity to the food usually persists for more than two years, even after the food is removed from the diet; therefore, the only treatment for this is elimination of the offending food.

Type II and Type III Reactions

Cytotoxic reactions (type II) involve IgE or IgM mediated responses and are cyclic in nature. IgG and IgM are antibodies that are made to defend our immune system. Unlike a fixed food allergy, a cyclic allergy is exposure dependent. Therefore, the more frequently a sensitive food is ingested, the greater the IgG reaction, which leads to increased sensitivity. Treatment for this type of allergy is to eliminate the food for six months, then reintroduce it to the diet, but not eat it every day. The reason for eliminating the food for six months is so the IgG falls to a low level. When the food is reintroduced, there will be a slight elevation of IgG, but limited exposure will keep the IgG low, therefore not producing allergic symptoms. Doctors suggest a rotation diet in which the suspected food is eaten only every four days. Infrequent exposure to this food ensures that IgG reactions will not become elevated and reactive symptoms high. Type III reactions are when antigen-antibody complexes are formed in the blood. Symptoms are not always immediate and can be delayed, therefore not always relating to food ingestion. Like type I, they are difficult to diagnose.

Type IV Reactions

These are cell mediated immune reactions, which are triggered by the interaction between actively sensitized lymphocytes and specific antigens. These types of cyclic reactions can be the most difficult  to diagnose, as the T-cell effect develops twenty-four to seventy-two hours after the ingestion of the antigen, so it is difficult to say which food is causing the reaction.

Skin tests and IgE Rast tests will not detect these, so doctors often tell people that they do not have food allergies when in fact they do.

There are many ways of testing for food allergies. Stay tuned for my next blog entry which will describe the different ways of testing for food allergies.