Why Your Aches & Pains Are A Good Thing

October 2, 2015 By

 

Fresh organic eggsDo you sometimes feel like a human guinea pig?

Perhaps you’ve even experimented with different foods, in an effort to figure out what might be a trigger for you.

Let me preface this first by saying – if you have Celiac disease, or an Autoimmune condition, this is in NO WAY a license to re-introduce gluten!

Got that?

However, your dietary triggers could also be dairy, eggs, or nuts – or any number of different foods.

Let’s take a closer look at eggs for a moment.

Are eggs a regular part of your diet?

They use to be for me, too.

I often enjoyed scrambled eggs, or an omelet for breakfast.

And I absolutely LOVED making soufflé! (As fancy as that sounds, it’s not that hard. Seriously!)

At this point, however, it’s literally been years since I last ate eggs.

In recent weeks, however, I decided to re-introduce them – as a human experiment, if you will.

Using me as the guinea pig.

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What Is The Trade-Off?

January 17, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Egg & ChickLet’s say you’ve been diligently reading labels since going gluten-free, ever mindful that gluten can often be sneaky – showing up where you’d least expect it.

But did you ever stop to wonder, now that you’ve given up gluten – what not-so-great choices you might be making instead?

In other words, what is the trade-off?

For example, back when I first became gluten-free, I started eating a lot more eggs.

That’s because I was baking my own gluten-free bread, and the standard recipe called for three or four eggs per loaf.

Since eggs are gluten-free, I thought nothing of it.

Also, at least once a week, we’d have omelets for dinner – or even breakfast.

On occasion, I’d even whip up a soufflé.

(Sounds fancy, I know, but soufflés are actually pretty easy to make).

Then almond meal hit the market, and it seemed like a wonderful alternative to gluten-free flours.

Being an almond lover myself, I was ecstatic!

In a given week, I poured almond milk on my breakfast cereal and snacked on almonds by the handful.

So guess what happened?

After about a year on the gluten-free diet, I started experiencing many of the symptoms I’d had BEFORE going gluten-free.

What was that all about?

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How To Get The Support You Need

May 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Last weekend, I attended a cooking class titled “Eating Around the Top 8 Allergens”.

In case you’re not familiar, the usual list typically includes the following:

Wheat                                      Dairy

Eggs                                        Peanuts

Soy                                          Tree Nuts

Fish                                         Shellfish

Sometimes – depending on the source – you will see foods like Corn on the list, as well.

Notice how every single one of these foods – with the exception perhaps of Fish & Shellfish – is pervasive in our diets.

We’re not always aware of this, until the day we are told to no longer eat Gluten or Dairy.

Then we find out that ingredient is seemingly in everything!

So, the goal of this class – according to the description – was to “demystify food allergies and introduce us to a world  of delicious, non-allergenic foods.”

It didn’t matter whether you were recently diagnosed, or living with allergies for awhile.

I fell into the latter category, of course, and was struck by two things during the two and a half hours I spent in the classroom.

 

There are Always Fabulous New Ideas and Solutions.

Yes, even when you’re feeling down in the dumps, and possibly deprived as a result of your food restrictions – there are always new possibilities just around the corner.

As long as you are open-minded, you will not only glean new ideas, but most likely discover new foods that you may or may not have know existed.

You might even find that certain foods you disdained in the past can be quite delicious when properly prepared.

All this is to say:

 

There Is Strength in the Classroom

Misery loves company, as the saying goes.

But when you surround yourself with people who are in the same boat you are, you will be a lot less miserable.

That is why I encourage you to seek out local support groups, and even attend a class or two that is focused on dealing with food allergies.

Our local co-op even holds store tours for those on the Gluten-Free diet – so you never know what resources might be available to you in your area.

Personally, I love the synergy from being among a like-minded group of people who have similar needs.

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