Check out this article on what you might or might not know about “free range”milk
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| I was very disappointed to go a few weeks ago to It’s a place that prides itself on good healthy living and advertise their array of vegan and gluten fee options on the menu. I met up with a friend from Australia who I hadn’t seen in 8 years and we went there for coffee which turned into a lunch. I deliberately went there to eat,knowing that the options would be good and I wouldn’t have to worry about contamination. I ordered the “gluten free”carrot cake. I was told by the waiter that it was definitely gluten free! They have a fridge with the ingredients written on and I checked it and all seemed perfect. There was even no soy flour in,which also makes me sick. The cake was lovely and with all our chatting we stayed on for lunch. It was only after my vegetable curry that I felt really really really full. My first thought was “oh oh”. Does anyone else get that? That is usually my first hint of gluten…I called the waiter over who assured me that there was no gluten in the vegetable curry. By this time I was in a cold sweat and had to make a run to the bathroom in the restuarant to throw up! I received no apology,just an feeble excuse that they have 2 carrots cakes,I was given the wrong one! Their attitude absolutely stunk. They begrudgingly gave us back the money for the cake,only after I insisted. What makes me the most angry is that people still see eating ”gluten free”as a fad. It’s the “in”thing to do to lose weight,or the latest fad diet! No it isn’t some of us have Celiac Disease and cannot tolerate any gluten. We will become really ill. It was only because I stayed on to have lunch,that I got ill there,else I might have only been sick,once I got home. But still the time was almost immediate. I have an allergy to gluten. Its not a choice. I will not be eating there again or buying from their shop. We need to name and shame those places that have to respect for Celiacs and those eating gluten free. If you have had an experience like this,please share it and let all of us avoid those places. We must stand up for our rights! It’s not just a little bit of contamination. I was ill for the rest of that day and the set back,meant everything I ate over the next few days,didn’t go down well.
I watched the movie Julie &Julia again on the weekend. It is such an amazing story and so inspiring. I hardly knew what a blog was the first time I saw that movie on circuit and now I have my own one. For those of you that don’t know it is the story of Julia Child the famous American cook book author and her time in Paris that led her to write her book. Running concurrently is the story of a young woman in a small apartment in Queens who decides to challenge herself to cooking all the recipes out of Julia Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”while writing a blog about it. She eventually becomes and published author herself and of course a movie is made about it staring Meryl Streep. I personally love food and love cooking. It is a complete passion for me. My mom hated cooking when I was growing up and and my love of cooking started as need to make something better for myself to eat than eggs on toast Since becoming gluten free it has been even more wonderful to cook. Not only because the I eat don’t make me sick,but also because everything I began to eat tasted better and better. I was like my sense of taste improved tenfold. Also because I was limited in what I could and couldn’t eat,I began experimenting,which I so love to do. I love trying out new ingredients,making up new recipes and trying things out on my fiancée. The only thing he has complained about is how much weight he has gained! So for me going gluten free was a huge blessing as I began to cook and love food again and I continue to do it and enjoy my passion. Ive been wanting to experiment with this one for a while now. I’m always thinking about will make good substitutes for flour and dishes made with flour. Ive always loved the silky good comfort eating feeling of eating a Cheese Soufflé. Don’t be put off thinking its a complex dish. Its actually pretty straight forward and easy to make. You just need to get the consistency right! Gluten Free Cheese Soufflé 50gr butter Oil a soufflé dish or several small ramekins. Preheat oven to 180C
Did you know Amazon has got a special 30% discount on all gluten free products for Celiac Awareness month until the end of October? I think thats awesome. Check it out now. Its the best way to get all the Gluten free things you need and they can be delivered to your door. Happy Shopping. One thing about living gluten free is not to ever feel deprived. My favourite channel on TV without a doubt in BBC Lifestyle. I love all the cooking shows on there. My best at the moment is Masterchef Australia. We are a bit behind time wise as it was filmed last year in Australia,but I am absolutely addicted to it. Whenever I watch all these shows though,I do tend to get a tiny bit jealous of things I see,especially if its something I have never had before. A part of me knows that therefore I will never be able to eat those things. On one the shows the contestants had to build a croquembouche,a tower built of these gorgeous profiteroles,choux pastry filled with cream or custard and I was very put out. I have never eaten it and now I never will. I am always positive about eating gluten free because I am so well,but occasionally I do have a craving for some divine looking pastry on the cooking channel! So here is really delicious comfort food recipe that was passed down to me by my Granny and I have adapted it to make it gluten free! Gluten Free Macaroni Cheese: Preheat oven to 180C 2 Cups Gluten Free Pasta ( I like using Fusilli not macaroni for this dish) Make white sauce: Mix all together and place in ovenproof dish. Bake for 30 minutes Yummy and now I don’t have to think about pastry! LOL To this day, I would not have a diagnosis of Celiac Disease, if I wasn’t sent to a Haematologist because of my consistently low iron levels. I always have had low iron from when I was a young child and as I grew older, it was almost an expected retort, “oh well you are a woman,so that’s why you are iron deficient”. Even as woman,we should not just be low in iron because we have a period. Doctors need to stop dismissing woman and their problems. If only someone had dug a little deeper. Looked at my fatigue,my “IBS” and my ill health and joined the dots! Unfortunately Celiac Disease is still seen as something rare,when in fact 1 in 100 people have it. I was always really pale,really ,tired,prone to constant infections and not well. My iron was consistently low,but whenever I took iron tablets,I got really sick from them and my iron levels never improved. In fact one of the common indicators of iron deficiency anemia in a person with Celiac is refractoriness to iron replacement. This means that your serum iron levels and Ferritin (stores of iron) do not improve on iron tablets and other supplements containing iron. It stands to reason that if you cannot absorb iron from the food you are eating, you will not absorb it from your iron tablets. So it doesn’t matter how many vitamins and supplements you take, if your intestines cannot digest it and assimilate it into your body properly than you body cannot utilise it. Another reason doctors should be more vigilant in checking their patients with low iron and no response to treatment. Insist in a test for Celiac!! Celiac Disease prevents absorption of nutrients from the intestines,to the bloodstream,among these is the vital nutrient iron. Iron is a key component of haemoglobin,which carries oxygen around the body. So if there is not enough oxygen in you cells, not only will feel exhausted by also your cells cannot function optimally. Before the celiac diagnosis, when my iron levels were virtually non existent, I was even given iron intravenously by a drip of Venofer. It was the first time I felt really great and full of energy. The thing is my levels still did not improve drastically and it was at that time,my GP sent me to a haemotologist. Even once I was diagnosed with Celiac and began cutting our gluten,I still was very aware of including more iron rich foods in my diet. I had to make sure I ate a small amount of red meat daily (yes daily). I had to either eat a meat meal,or a slice of cold meat,or some biltong ( the South African delicacy of dried meat sticks). Eggs are also a rich source of iron,as are raisins,dried apricots and liver (which I unfortunately don’t like so don’t eat it) and beetroot,one of the most gorgeous veggies to eat and so easy to grow. Also check out this salad for good iron rich food. Even a year later now, my iron levels have improved dramatically,but the stores are still taking a while to build up. Don’t forget that the process of healing with Celiac Disease only begins with cutting out gluten; that is only the start of the journey. The body will take time to correct the years of damage. Do you have low iron levels or did you have them before being diagnosed with Celiac Disease? How did you get diagnosed? Was iron the clue,or was it your thyroid or you digestive problems that were the key? How much did your doctor know about it. I now tell my doctor things and what’s gluten free and whats not The heat is quite unbearable here at the moment. It has been hot and dry for months now as we all await the summer rains. There is nothing quite as magical as the first thunderstorm of the summer in Jo’burg. The heat builds up all day. The sky clouds over and in the afternoon,the thunder rumbles and the huge streaks of lightning flash across the vast expanse of sky,just before the sky opens and the huge droplets come falling to the ground and release the smell of freshness,optimism and joy. I am very sensitive to the weather and am really struggling with this dryness. Everything is dry and cracked from my skin,to the soil in my garden. The garden is desperate for water. I am watering every day now,just to keep everything alive. I love being in my garden. To me that is the best place in the world. My organic veggie garden that I started a month ago is flourishing beautifully. I can’t believe how quick it was before my lettuce was ready to pick and eat. To me there is nothing quite as wonderful as stepping out into the garden and picking my own lettuce from my own patch,that I have tended. I have been waiting to start a vegetable and herb garden for ages and it is now happening. I thought it was going to be so difficult,but it is actually so much easier than I thought. The most important thing is to have good soil and I prepared the bed for all through winter with lots and lots of compost. One of the most valuable things I got was a book By Jane Griffiths,called Jane’s Delicious Garden. Check out her page here it is full of some great growing tips. To me we are meant to get our nutrients from the food we eat,but with the commercial use of pesticides and herbicides and the genetic engineering of plants to make the more resistant to disease,the irradiation of food to make it last longer on our shelves,the depletion of our soils from no crop rotation and the length of time from ground to plate,there is virtually nothing left of nutritional value in our meals. Yet the prices of food is getting much higher. I hope everyone that is conscious of what they put in their mouths has by now seen, Food Inc. The must see movie of the year regarding the food business. I have always been aware of food and what I eat and eating well,but since been diagnosed with Celiac and becoming so label aware,I have become even more conscious of eating well and being a conscious consumer. It is so important for our health that we look at what we are eating and become aware of additives and E’s other nasties,as well just gluten. A big proponent of this of course is Jamie Oliver,who I hold my hat off to in educating and making people aware of eating healthily and preparing their own food. His Food Revolution was both inspiring and moving for me to watch. His organic garden that inspired his Jamie at Home series is also amazing to see and his passion for cooking and for food just amazing. So that’s just my little say on food and healthy eating,subjects close to my heart. I’m off now to pick some veggies for supper. There seems to be a lot of information out there about what to eat and what not to eat for someone suffering from Fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes body wide pain and bone weary fatigue. It can often come about after a trauma,such as an accident or severe illness. For me it began when I was 12 years old. I was a very active kid, that played tennis and did ballet, swam,ran cross country, walked and played. Then I got struck with this ‘mystery illness’, where every single part of my body was in the most excruciating pain that I had ever known. I ended up on huge amounts of medication and did recover ,but was never quite the same again. I never slept well and was always sick and always in pain. I had pain in my muscles,joints,tendons and fascia almost all the time. Something was sore on a daily basis.I didn’t have to do anything to end up being in pain. I would have such bad pain in my legs at night,it was as if I had just climbed Mt Kilamanjaro,but I had just had an ordinary day,going to school. This continued through my whole childhood. I was always sick with every little infection going around,always tired,constant stomach problems and just immense frustration at being so helpless to an illness,no-one really knew anything about,never mind how to cure it. I felt very misunderstood. I tried every medication,every alternative therapy,every elimination diet but nothing really worked. My thyroid was always very under-active and I was always very anemic. It was only when I changed doctors,when I moved,that she suggested I go see a Heamotologist because she wasn’t happy with my iron levels,that my Celiac Disease was first picked up. That was last year. I was 28. I am not for one minute suggesting that every person that has Fibromyalgia has Celiac Disease,that would be naive. There are many people who have it,without having Celiac Disease. It is still a misunderstood illness. I do however see on many forums and many google searches and through lots of reading,that many people find that if they cut out gluten they feel so much better. They begin to cut it out and have a drastic response. They feel full of energy,their pain is lessened and they digestive problems all go away. My issue is that very few of these people are being tested for Celiac Disease. It is one of the most under-diagnosed illnesses of this Century! You might say to me,what difference does it make,if they are cutting out gluten anyway and feeling better from it? To me that is a huge problem. If we are to understand the origin of autoimmune diseases and find cure for Fibromyalgia,Celiac Disease, Hashimotos Disease and the myriad of other auto-immune illnesses out there,how can we do it,if we do not have clear diagnostic criteria and patients that are not fully tested? How many doctors out there test for Celiac? Did you now that you do to even have to have stomach problems to have it? There are many people who are asymptomatic. It would help us immensely to know if there is a link between Fibromyaliga and Celiac Disease, or even the effect of gluten on Fibromyaligics. Maybe when we armed with more knowledge only then can we find a cure! I still am on medication,although not as much. I still see a physio monthly and I still get headaches and I still sometimes get really tired. But I also can go to gym 3 times a week and I do Pilates weekly. My muscles are getting stronger,for the first time in my life there is improvement. I sleep very well at night. I have more energy and enthusiasm in the day and life is so much better. My stomach never worries me at all (unless I have gluten by mistake which is very rare). I am not sick all the time. I am not on antibiotics all the time. If I have a cold now,it lasts 3 days,not 3 weeks,with secondary infections. So yes there is a lot out there about what to eat diet wise. Yes eating well and healthily is important but a Celiac Diet is the key and Gluten may hold the key to research of the future. Please let me know if you have had similar experiences or what you think about the connection between Celiac Disease and Fibromyalgia. For a fantastic website on Fibromyalgia,check out Women to Women. I especially love the hormonal diagram on this page. | |||||
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. Some people eat to live and some of us live to eat! I am often thinking about food,new recipes and how to make different things in different ways. I am not a good artist but for me cooking and baking is my way of being creative. I can create something from scratch from a few ingredients and turn it into a beautiful dish that gives myself and other people pleasure. There is nothing nicer than browsing through a lovely,glossy cook book to inspire me.
