Living Without Doesn't Mean Going Without

Living without, doesn’t mean going without

For those of you with food allergies or Celiac disease it must sometimes feel like you are living without most of the time. No more dairy, wheat, gluten, eggs, sugar and the list goes on. Eggs and toast for breakfast are no longer possible and that sugary treat you usually buy yourself mid afternoon to curb your low energy is not an option anymore.

Guess what? Those days of going without are long gone. I am here to tell you there are lots of options now offered in pre packaged form or to make at home for yourself and your family.

Substitutes are foods that work in place of another food item. Foods like rice milk, almond milk, soy or hemp milk are great alternatives for dairy milk. Instead of whole wheat flour in your muffins try using rice, chickpea, millet or sorghum flour, all of which are gluten free.

On cold winter mornings try making hot quinoa or buckwheat cereal topped with nuts, seeds and dried fruit, or scramble some tofu with cut up vegetables instead of scrambled eggs. Gluten free pastas are now available in grains such as quinoa, corn and rice. Topped with your favourite pesto or tomato sauce you will never know it isn’t wheat pasta.

Trying to replace eggs in baking can be tricky. It depends what job the eggs are doing in the recipe. Are they a binder or a leavener, or are they providing moisture? Baking cookies or muffins that call for an egg can be easily substituted with flaxseed. Simply bring 1 tablespoon flaxseed in a cup of water to a boil, cool and then put in the fridge to congeal. If you are trying to replace eggs in a meringue, it’s simply not going to work unless you want to try duck or quail eggs. An egg is an egg after all.

If you are trying to lower your sugar intake, try sweetening with stevia, a plant that has been used for hundreds of years in South America as a sweetener.  Fruit works well in muffins and breads instead of white refined sugar.

A little maple syrup or honey works well to, but they are no different than white sugar, they all break down into fructose in the body. You do get some additional properties from maple syrup and honey that of course white sugar does not have. Using fruit in baked goods gives you the goodness of the fibre and vitamins in your food instead of just calories with white sugar.

Gluten Free diets are all the rage these days, but I urge you to make sure you are in fact Celiac or gluten intolerant before you deny yourself certain foods that are providing you with essential vitamins and minerals.

 Remember to always read the labels of pre- packaged foods as many are filled with unhealthy fillers. Try to get back to cooking with fresh ingredients. Perhaps dedicate a day for home baking or cooking and freezing so that you will always have healthy foods on hand for those busy nights. It will do your body good to return to what Mother Nature intended us to eat.

Submitted by- Shirley Plant, nutritionist and author of “ Finally... Food I Can Eat” a dietary guide and cookbook for people with food allergies.

www.deliciousalternatives.com

twitter @sherrecipeswww.deliciousalternatives.com

Practicing Wellness at the Heart Institute

Today was my first visit to the Ottawa Heart Institute. As I was early for my appointment, I sat in my car for a few minutes listening to an audio CD. As I watched people come and go on Ruskin Ave and in and out of the heart institute I was struck by what a busy place this was. What was going on in our world that this building had such activity? Oh now I remember, heart disease is the number one killer in Canada.

As a 46 year old woman who has struggled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and food allergies most of my life, I am lucky that I am thin and due to my allergies I eat a healthy diet filled with organic vegetables, fruits, organic meats, flax crackers, nuts, seeds and only distilled water.

With the onset of early menopause I have experienced heart palpitations, so today a trip to the Heart Institute for a 48 hour halter monitor to see if perhaps my migraine medication is causing issues with my heart or if it is only sensations due to menopause.

As I am a nutritionist and a cookbook author, I have studied in the field of nutrition and have had the great joy of learning from some top Integrative Medical Doctors in our area.

Recently I have read the Wheat Belly written by Dr. William Davis and due to being Celiac I have been off wheat and gluten for the better part of 8 years. As Dr. Davis mentions in his book, 2 slices of whole wheat bread increase our insulin more than 2 teaspoons of sugar. He also notes in his book that due to the change in our wheat over 50 years ago, most of us are unable to digest wheat and that is causes excess inflammation in our bodies.. What is heart disease? Inflammation.

When I walked into the Heart Institute I took in the scene in the front foyer. People sitting waiting for someone to pick them up, a table to the left full of some sort of sugary cake available to the public, and a Tim Hortons in the back corner where overweight patients, doctors and nurses ordered sugary baked goods and coffee to keep them going through their day. I stopped and said out loud, “ I can’ t believe there is a Tim Hortons in The Heart Institute, this is so wrong". A woman beside me laughed and I realized to myself that I had said this out loud. I wanted to scream from the rafters, what are you people doing?? Trying to kill yourselves?

Now I am not trying to bad mouth Tim Hortons, as is only one of the many fast food chains out there, but why in heaven would the Heart Institute allow a fast food chain on their grounds? There is nothing healthy about anything that Tim Hortons serves. Muffins filled with sugar and fat, lattés, coffee, and doughnuts are not going to bring anyone wellness.

We have an epidemic of overweight and diabetic people in this country, really in this Hemisphere and our top doctors and Institutes see nothing wrong with coffee and doughnuts for lunch or afternoon snack?

Perhaps it is that we want to keep our doctors working and our Pharmaceutical companies rich so why not continue to feed our sick and overweight with unhealthy food?

A comment was made to me the other day that medical students have little or no education about diet. It rarely comes up in conversation when a doctor has a consult with a patient. Does this not send up a red flag in anyone’s mind?

As a nutritionist and dietary planner I have seen first hand that diet does work. Whether you are diabetic, have Chrons's disease or Autism, diet does make a difference. I have seen Autistic children who are taken off sugar, gluten and dairy, calm right down, an yet when their parents tell their doctors at CHEO they say 'oh diet has nothing to do with this'. How can smart people be so stupid? Do we not see that we have a whole generation of people who despite drinking milk, eat whole grains and sugar are very sick.

How are we to get healthier as a nation if we don’t first start with what we are putting in our mouths?

How much money is spent on someone who needs bypass surgery only so they can get into a wheelchair go down the elevator and buy a food item that is going to once again clog their arteries or send their insulin soaring so that their next visit to the hospital will be due to diabetes.

I have heard on a few occasions that hospital food is certainly not there to make anyone healthy? Why is that?

Could we start to practice prevention instead of just putting band aids on our sick?

If I pull up Tim Hortons website and check out the caloric information based on their menu, a s’more’s donut and a fruit smoothie equals 450 calories, 14 grams of fat, 52 grams of sugar. Estimating that the average 70 year old should consume 1600 calories a day and no more than 30 grams of fat, they are already at half the daily amount of fat with just 1 donut and 1 smoothie. Imagine if they were to have 2 donuts? Let’s say they have a chicken Caesar sandwich and an iced cappuccino for lunch while waiting for their cardiologist. Calories: 900, Fat:24 grams, Sugar:56grams. So in one meal at the Hospital they have almost surpassed their fat allowance and have eaten more than half their calories for the day.

Does this not seem wrong to you who practice medicine and who swore an oath the heal?

Could we not offer our sick a healthy alternative? Healthy salads and vegetable shakes made with fresh organic vegetables?

If the unhealthy food is there, people are going to eat it, it has to not be at their reach for us a population to start to change our eating habits.

It says on your website that Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Canada, but is preventable. Do you think that prevention and wellness could begin in the Institute itself, where healthy food is the norm? What if the heart institute decided to make a smart radical move and had only fresh, organic food available on its premises and preached this to its patients and workers? What if they helped all their doctors and nurses to quit smoking with hypnosis and other means and provided the basic tools to obtain wellness and maintain a healthy weight.

Please let it begin somewhere and that somewhere being the Heart Institute and Ottawa Hospital with healthier staff and healthier patients. training and teaching our next generation to eat a much healthier diet. If the demand is there it will be.

Yours truly,

Shirley Plant- Nutritionist

613 715-1310
Author of Finally...Food I Can Eat and Libre a dietary guide and cookbook for people with food allergies and dietary restrictions
www.deliciousalternatives.com

May is Celiac Awareness Month- Are you knew to going Gluten Free?

May is Celiac Awareness Month- Are you knew to going Gluten Free and wondering where to start?         

                                                                                                                                             

        Here Are Some Important Things to Remember:

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, oats, rye, kamut, spelt, couscous, triticale, and bulgur.

Grains you can have are corn quinoa, millet, amaranth, teff and rice- try to stay away from parboiled rice as brown, basmati and wild have many more nutrients in them. You can also have arrowroot, tapioca, cassava, sorghum, chickpea and almond. All these make great substitutes when baking.

Flour Alternatives

1 cup wheat flour =    1 cup millet flour

             1 cup cassava flour

3/4 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup chickpea flour or other bean flour

1 cup quinoa or amaranth flour

 1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup almond flour

For Gluten free baking you can use a combination of chickpea flour and brown rice flour. I use 1/2 and 1/2 of each.  Or I combine chickpea flour, brown rice flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, and potato starch with some baking soda. This is in descending order, in other words higher amounts of chickpea and brown rice flour than the others. This usually works well. For more information on how to substitute in baking check out my cookbook, Finally... Food I Can Eat.

Thickeners

1 tbsp flour = 1 ½ tbsp arrowroot

                       ½ tsp cornstarch

                       1 tbsp tapioca flour

                       1 tbsp potato starch

Remember to tell your pharmacist that you are gluten free as many prescription drugs, supplements, toothpastes etc can contain forms of gluten.  Make sure to read labels as gluten can be hidden and is sometimes found in foods like instant coffee, spices, sausages and frozen foods.

Hidden Gluten: names to watch out for

  Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP), unless made from soy or corn

   Flour or Cereal products, unless made with pure rice flour, corn flour, potato flour, or soy flour

   Vegetable Protein unless made from soy or corn

  Malt or Malt Flavoring unless derived from corn

  Modified Starch or Modified Food Starch unless arrowroot, corn, potato, tapioca, waxy maize, or maize is used

  Vegetable Gum unless vegetable gums are carob bean gum, locust bean gum, cellulose gum, guar gum, gum arabic, gum aracia, gum tragacanth, xanthan gum, or vegetable starch

 Soy Sauce or Soy Sauce Solids unless you know they do not contain wheat .Tamari, is wheat free soy sauce

 Any of the following words on food labels usually means that a grain containing gluten has been used; stabilizer, starch, flavouring, emulsifier, hydrolyzed protein.

                                                                                                                            

         

Avocadoes the Super Fruit

Avocadoes I think are probably my most favourite food, today that is. If you had asked me 20 years ago if I liked avocadoes I would have said, “Um, I have never tasted one.”

Yes, I am one of those who was raised on meat and potatoes and a little seasonal fruit every now and then. Foods like cilantro, avocadoes, arugula, and anything else that was green was probably not high on my list, nor was served at our supper table.

Then my life became all about food allergies and what the heck was there left to eat. Guess what, avocadoes were on the Can Eat List. So I tried one, and well I just loved them. They are so smooth and creamy and I can’t imagine how I had lived without them.

 I think I first tried them in a local vegetarian restaurant where they had made them into an avocado and onion salad with lemon juice, uembushi vinegar, olive oil and salt. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Since that day I have never looked back and every time I go grocery shopping which is fairly often, I pick up at least 6 avocadoes.

My significant other was like me, and when we met a few years ago I tried to get him to eat avocadoes. He would always say “I don’t really care for them”, and” I would say,” have you ever tried them?” Now he eats more avocadoes a week than I do. His favourite way to eat them is sliced on toast or with a chicken sandwich. He also loves them with his eggs on the weekend, or on our homemade flax crackers.

My girlfriend always carries an avocado in her purse when she goes out just in case there is nothing on the menu that she can eat. She will ask the waitress to bring her some olive oil and lemon and voila she has a healthy snack.

I put sliced avocado into all my salads. Whether it is a green lettuce salad, a cabbage salad or kale salad, an avocado always makes it taste so much better.

Not only do they taste great, they are good for you. Full of healthy fats, fibre, oleic acid, which makes you feel full, and folate; so if you are pregnant add them into your diet. Avocadoes can help lower cholesterol, so why not pick up a few avocadoes at your local supermarket and add them to your menu planning.

If you enjoyed this article please share it with your friends and visit my on my Finally Food I Can Eat Facebook Page, or at www.deliciousalternatives.com
 

My favourite kitchen gadget

What is your favourite kitchen gadget?

As someone who is always cooking there are just some gadgets that I can’t live without.

Many of us are in our kitchen daily preparing meals for ourselves or family members. For me, food prep is essential as I have multiple food allergies and Celiac Disease.

Prepared foods are not an option for me and I am currently following the Paleo Diet in hopes of curing my leaky gut syndrome which I think I have had all my life.

From what I read, most illnesses especially auto immune diseases stem from the gut and the first step in healing, is to heal your gut.

Currently I am reading “Minding our Mitochondria” by Dr Terry WahIs. Having being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis her illness progressed quite quickly and she ended up in a tilt wheelchair unable to walk. A few years ago she decided to take her life into her own hands. Studying and researching how to heal her body. She found that the Paleo Diet was the answer along with certain supplements and electrical stimulation to help her muscles to heal. She is now able to walk and even ride her bike. Wow!

I have also read the PH Miracle Cure by Dr. Robert Young. He advocates that the only way to heal the gut and illness is go on a total vegetable ( greens diet) by juicing and making shakes. Along with supplements, colonic irrigation and keeping your body more alkaline you can heal your gut.

I am not sure what the answer is. All I know is I continue to search for the right diet for me. Along the way, I use my favourite kitchen gadgets.

Is there a kitchen gadget that you would find hard to live without?

I have 2 favourite kitchen gadgets. The first is my zester. I have 3 of them and they are all a little different. Whether I am zesting an orange, a lemon or grating ginger they are tools that I use daily.

I purchased one of them at my favourite kitchen shop, another at Lee Valley Tools and the third one at my local grocery store. They range in price from $13.95.

My salad spinner is another one of my favourite things. Be it cleaning lettuce, kale, cilantro, parsley or other greens I can’t imagine how I managed without it. I paid a little more for my salad spinner, but as I said, I can’t imagine being in my kitchen without it. Considering I am trying to push my intake of veggies up to 9 cups a day I eat a lot of salads and wash a lot of greens.

So what is your favourite kitchen gadget?

p.s. I just bought an Excalibur 4 tray dehydrator and I think it is going to be my new favourite kitchen gadget, or maybe I will have to write about my new favourite kitchen appliance?

I love my kale chips and flax crackers, they are delicious!

Delicious-Alternatives: The Wheat Belly

Delicious-Alternatives: The Wheat Belly: The Wheat Belly The Wheat Belly written by Dr. William Davis is an amazing look into what wheat has done to the health of our citizens i...

The Wheat Belly

The Wheat Belly

The Wheat Belly written by Dr. William Davis is an amazing look into what wheat has done to the health of our citizens in the past 50 years.

As he states in his book, “Wheat Belly explores the proposition that the health problems of Americans, from fatigue to arthritis to gastrointestinal distress to obesity, originate with the innocent looking bran muffin or cinnamon raisin bagel that you down with your coffee every morning.”

Just think about how much wheat is in our food. Think about going to the grocery store and of all the aisles that contain wheat products. The bread aisle; white bread, whole wheat, multi grain, seven grain, rye, pumpernickel, sourdough, French bread, baguettes, bagels, flax bread, pitas, dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog buns and don’t forget the artisan bread. The bakery department with cakes, cookies and pies. The snack aisle with pretzels and crackers, followed by the baking aisle with bread crumbs, croutons, and flours. The dairy case has crescent rolls, cookies and frozen pies. Breakfast cereals, pastas and frozen foods, all contain wheat. Apart from the soap and detergent aisles and fresh produce wheat it in every product.

Bread dates back to before Christ and it always seems that to break bread with someone is a special event.

During the 19^th and 20^th centuries wheat changed little. Then in the latter part of the 20^th century what we called wheat changed. The wheat we grow today is so different from what was grown a century ago that we should be calling it by a different name.

The demand for a higher yield, decreased production costs and a longer shelf life was instrumental in the genetically changed wheat. But are we now paying for our mistakes?

Celiac disease in on the rise and one in 133 people are Celiac. Many others have an intolerance to wheat and gluten. Many people have no symptoms, but that does not mean their bodies are okay with consuming wheat. Look at the rise in cancer and diabetes. All this can be linked back to the time that we changed the type of wheat we are growing.

What really got me was Dr. Davis’s statement that, “ Did you know that eating two slices of whole wheat bread can increase blood sugar more than 2 tablespoons of pure sugar can? How can this be possible? We have grown up in the past 10 years of hearing eat more whole grains, it will do your heart good. Well maybe not. This cardiovascular doctor says that wheat is the cause of my illnesses including heart disease.

So what are we doing to our bodies?

A Neolithic breakfast would have been a meal of fish, game meat or some berries or insects.

 Today we start our day off with a carb and end it with a carb. Boxed cereal, which contains mostly cane sugar and processed wheat flour, muffins, biscuits, toast, oats, croissant, bagels, pancakes or a breakfast bar.

We then have a sandwich at lunchtime, or a bowl of soup and crackers, maybe even a doughnut at mid morning break. Dinner might consist of pasta or frozen dinner which will contain wheat. We don’t exercise enough and we wonder why diabetes and obesity is on the rise?

Foods that increase blood sugar also cause diabetes. Carbohydrates trigger insulin release from our pancreas causing visceral fat, which then causes insulin resistance and inflammation. Look at the common illnesses of our world, most are based on inflammation. Diabetics are told to cut fat, reduce saturated fat and include healthy whole grains, beans and legumes in each meal. Yikes what are they thinking, all these foods turn into sugar in the body.

Perhaps if we say goodbye to wheat, we might even say goodbye to diabetes and many other health related illnesses.

If you want a good informative read with a bit of humour thrown in, read the Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis, be informed about what you are putting into your body.