My computer died. It was gruesome, like a slasher movie. Or at least I was screaming like a bimbette in a slasher movie. So close enough.
Of course, if I wanted my baby fixed, that meant I had to go OUT, which I'd been avoiding for nearly a week. But I did it. I put on the gear - which still needs a ninja symbol on it, seriously - and headed out. It took all day.
And nothing happened. Just like that Monty Python skit. I had no reaction. I came home without a sore throat. I was the super-nonallergic woman.
So the next day, we went hiking, and I took off my mask and again, nothing happened. So hay fever allergies? HA! Take that, pollen! Kiss my patootie! You have no power over me! Or...something like that.
So, now we have no idea what made my body flip its lid, but whatever it was seems to have ebbed, so I'll simply count my blessings and move on.
Actually, you know what? Let me rewind to the computer-store's mall for the first little 'count my blessings' moment. I said nothing happened that day, but that's not completely accurate. Nothing BAD happened.
But a moment of true Awesome did happen.
I tried on a pair of pants.
Usually, not my favorite pastime. I don't enjoy shopping - which may have something to do with the fact that my shopping typically includes two small, loud people following me everywhere and complaining about how little they want to be there and asking if I'm done yet and, my favorite moment, telling me: I don't think you should wear that one, Mommy. It's for skinny people.
Ah, the joys of childish honesty.
But shopping at this mall? I found my little corner of heaven. I have to go for the tall sizes, since I managed to avoid the hobbit genes in my family and snuck over to the 'vikings visited our hobbit village and got busy' genes. So I went into the filthy-rich only store, gathered up my pants, headed to the dressing room, and slipped on the first pair. Medium.
And they didn't fit me. The smalls didn't fit me. The EXTRA SMALLS didn't fit me. I am now, officially, a Skinny Bitch. They give out cookies for that or something, don't they? Really tiny, skinny cookies. With no frosting. But still cookies!
Seriously - that was awesome. A total 'look look look!' moment, where you want to dance out of the dressing room and blather at random strangers. "Do you know what SIZE this is? It's extra small, baby! I am SMALLER than an extra small! Rockin'!"
And part of it's just sharing the joy, and part of it's - let's be honest - a little bit of bragging. Which is rather strange. I feel like bragging about the size of my backside - yet another thing I never realized would happen in my life. Although, perhaps that's because I never thought it would get this small (yeah, okay, so I was taking another moment to brag. It's a sickness, seriously). As though I did any work to get here?
Of course not. It wasn't very fun, but I sure as heck didn't do anything other than eat what doesn't make me die.
Most of us tend to do that, I think.
In fact, in the spirit of eating things that help keep us alive, here's a quick and dirty corn tortilla recipe for the gluten-free crowd.
GF corn tortilla and meal variations -
What you need:
corn masa
warm water
salt
What you do:
1. Put the salt and corn masa in a bowl, blend it together with a fork. If you're on a low sodium diet, omit the salt. No problem.
2. Add the warm water and mix it into a dough. The amount depends on your altitude, the humidity levels, etc... You want a heavy dough, but not too sticky, and not so dry it's crumbling. It takes a little trial and error.
3. Heat a skillet to med-high heat.
4. While skillet is heating, you roll out the tortillas. Get two sheets of wax paper. Make a ball of dough about the size of an egg. Put it on one sheet, place the other sheet over it and roll it out between the two sheets of wax paper. This will keep it together. If you don't do this, the dough tends to stick to the rolling pin. Adding corn flour to try and prevent that dries out the tortilla too much. There are also corn tortilla molds you can purchase. Of course, the cheapest method is just patting the ball of dough into a tortilla in your hand. I'm sure some can do this well, but mine are a bit thick when I try it that way. Still taste good, though.
5. Lay the tortilla in the hot, dry pan. Iron skillets and non-stick will do fine without any oil added. Stainless steel you should add a little oil or fat first. Heat the tortilla until the bottom side has some brown spots on it, and then flip over and cook until that side is done as well. If you have a thicker tortilla, you may have to flip it again a couple times.
6. Topping ideas: beans, cheese, butter, any kind of cooked meat, green chile, red peppers, portabello mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, probably some wilted greens would work, too.
Variations:
1. If it's a tiring day and you want to make it an all-in-one-meal? Add in some toppings to the dough before you cook. You'll need to pat it between your hands rather than roll it. Corn, chile, cheese, meat, bell peppers, tomatoes or tomatillos, herbs or spices, whatever works!
2. These tortillas will work just fine, once they are cooked, for making a mexican-style lasagna. Just use the tortillas instead of lasagna noodles. We usually layered it with already cooked chopped chicken, green chile, and pre-cooked chopped red peppers. We kept some of the juices to make thing moist, if we didn't use cheese. If you have fructose issues and can have corn, I think the meat with a little cheese would taste great in this.
3. The dough itself can work as a kind of pot-pie crust as well, although we've usually only used it on the bottom. We simply pressed the dough into the shape of the glass container, piled in meat and veggies, and baked it. You have to take care not to make the dough too thick, so it will still cook, but the flavor is nice.
And let me end with a quote to help with those really bad days, when everything feels like it's never going to get better:
Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying "I will try again tommorrow." (Mary Anne Radmacher)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The smell of spring is in the air...hack, cough, gasp, wheeze...
That bad day a little while back? It's kind of become the bad week. Which turned into the bad 'allergy season.'
Yup, allergy season is here, and this year, it makes my throat swell up just like my foods were. The food reactions are much worse, and much faster. The lovely doc. gave me steroids to take to tone down the reactions.
What do the pills have in them, though? Did you guess corn?
Ding ding ding ding, we have a winner!
Back to the drawing board, I guess.
I am currently double bagging myself. I put on a paper mask, and a scarf over that, and I can go out of the house and drive into town. I last about 2 hours before my throat starts to burn, the flu symptoms start up, and I have to get home before my throat starts to swell.
I feel like the masked marauder. People look at me and wonder what dread disease I have, or what strange religion I belong to. Hmmm...I'm the Patron Saint of Allergy Sufferers? With my doughnut halo that doubles as a shuriken with sprinkles that snap out like blades.
Uh, yeah....one gets a bit crazy contemplating the fact that I'm nearly housebound for the next 6 weeks or so.
Or longer.
It's shocking that I feel actual fear going out of my house now, like some strange allergic agoraphobic. I can take benadryl, but I better hope to god that my throat doesn't swell up too much before the active ingredient kicks in, or I'm toast. And epipens? Well, yeah, I can use it....but it feels so...final. If I used my epipen every time my throat swelled up, I'd use it at least three to five times a day. That's insane. It would ruin my body, and my pocketbook, both.
So I just go through the day, and every time I smell something, or the wind hits my face, or I go into a new building or a new car, I'm tense. I wait to see if my throat swells up or not, and if it does, I have to try and judge. Is it going slow? Is it stopping? Is it getting worse? Is there anywhere safe I can go where it will stop?
Is this the time it goes so quick, so much that I can't breathe anymore?
I HATE that. When did the scent of good food actually become potentially deadly? It's ridiculous. Like some Castle mystery where someone figures out the super-cool way to kill someone off: by scent. You'd think, 'oooh, clever.' But you'd never think it would REALLY happen.
And you'd sure as hell never think it would happen to you.
I'm wondering, tonight, what I'm going to do this year. Can I go away for Thanksgiving this year? We go to visit the same great people every year, and I'm wondering if it's safe for me to drive there, to stay there, or if I'd be setting myself up to react and be unable to stop. What about Christmas? Vacation?
Right now, I'm feeling like a bus ran over me and then backed up, just to make sure. That was merely going out of my house for a few hours, double bagged, not even taking off the mask to get a drink of water. Indoors the entire time.
And my allergy tests? They say my reactions are miniscule. They say this should never be happening to me...so you can imagine that if I try to get any special equipment to enable me to leave the house (you know, like a gas mask, or a space suit, or my own version of cyberman-wear.), well, insurance will just jump at the chance to pay for it, I'm sure.
I'm trying to keep this in the back of my head. Push it back there, get on with life, and keep going. Invite people to my house instead of going out. What the heck else can you do? Wallow? Who wants to do that?
Whine? Well...okay, that I can do, a little bit anyway. And then it's back to shoving this down and moving on, because getting angry about this? I don't think the pollen and the dead chicken in the fridge care all that much. My body doesn't seem too inclined to listen, either. So it's time to learn Japanese some more, write a bit more than that, and review Emily Dickinson's life...you know, just in case.
Yup, allergy season is here, and this year, it makes my throat swell up just like my foods were. The food reactions are much worse, and much faster. The lovely doc. gave me steroids to take to tone down the reactions.
What do the pills have in them, though? Did you guess corn?
Ding ding ding ding, we have a winner!
Back to the drawing board, I guess.
I am currently double bagging myself. I put on a paper mask, and a scarf over that, and I can go out of the house and drive into town. I last about 2 hours before my throat starts to burn, the flu symptoms start up, and I have to get home before my throat starts to swell.
I feel like the masked marauder. People look at me and wonder what dread disease I have, or what strange religion I belong to. Hmmm...I'm the Patron Saint of Allergy Sufferers? With my doughnut halo that doubles as a shuriken with sprinkles that snap out like blades.
Uh, yeah....one gets a bit crazy contemplating the fact that I'm nearly housebound for the next 6 weeks or so.
Or longer.
It's shocking that I feel actual fear going out of my house now, like some strange allergic agoraphobic. I can take benadryl, but I better hope to god that my throat doesn't swell up too much before the active ingredient kicks in, or I'm toast. And epipens? Well, yeah, I can use it....but it feels so...final. If I used my epipen every time my throat swelled up, I'd use it at least three to five times a day. That's insane. It would ruin my body, and my pocketbook, both.
So I just go through the day, and every time I smell something, or the wind hits my face, or I go into a new building or a new car, I'm tense. I wait to see if my throat swells up or not, and if it does, I have to try and judge. Is it going slow? Is it stopping? Is it getting worse? Is there anywhere safe I can go where it will stop?
Is this the time it goes so quick, so much that I can't breathe anymore?
I HATE that. When did the scent of good food actually become potentially deadly? It's ridiculous. Like some Castle mystery where someone figures out the super-cool way to kill someone off: by scent. You'd think, 'oooh, clever.' But you'd never think it would REALLY happen.
And you'd sure as hell never think it would happen to you.
I'm wondering, tonight, what I'm going to do this year. Can I go away for Thanksgiving this year? We go to visit the same great people every year, and I'm wondering if it's safe for me to drive there, to stay there, or if I'd be setting myself up to react and be unable to stop. What about Christmas? Vacation?
Right now, I'm feeling like a bus ran over me and then backed up, just to make sure. That was merely going out of my house for a few hours, double bagged, not even taking off the mask to get a drink of water. Indoors the entire time.
And my allergy tests? They say my reactions are miniscule. They say this should never be happening to me...so you can imagine that if I try to get any special equipment to enable me to leave the house (you know, like a gas mask, or a space suit, or my own version of cyberman-wear.), well, insurance will just jump at the chance to pay for it, I'm sure.
I'm trying to keep this in the back of my head. Push it back there, get on with life, and keep going. Invite people to my house instead of going out. What the heck else can you do? Wallow? Who wants to do that?
Whine? Well...okay, that I can do, a little bit anyway. And then it's back to shoving this down and moving on, because getting angry about this? I don't think the pollen and the dead chicken in the fridge care all that much. My body doesn't seem too inclined to listen, either. So it's time to learn Japanese some more, write a bit more than that, and review Emily Dickinson's life...you know, just in case.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Sometimes, it's hard to be cheerful
It's been a bad few days. The type of bad that makes you just want to sit down and cry, which, frankly, I did a couple hours ago. My hubby took the kids and let me go have a bath and rest, so he gets major kudos for that one. Thank you, honey!
So, what have my last couple of days been like?
My folks came to visit a few days ago. Yesterday, we went in to town and my throat started to swell up from breathing something in the car - we're thinking coffee or potatoes, but my vote is coffee.
The stuff is evil. Seriously. Coffee shops are everywhere; they're insinuating themselves into our hearts and mind. But when we least expect it, the coffee will come alive and we'll all be eaten by their little coffee-bean mouths and turned into drooling caffeine zombies of doom. Although considering the state of my husband before he's had his morning fix, maybe the invasion has already started...
Ahem, moving on.
I'm not actually sure what I reacted to. *cough* evil coffee *cough* It could be martian allergy dust for all I know. At this point, my body is not a temple, it's a bawdy house that invites everyone in and suffers appropriately.
In any case, I took a benadryl and my very sweet, very worried father nicked in to the local drugstore to get me a little paper face mask that would hopefully keep me from reacting more.
I promptly reacted allergically to the little paper face mask. And the benadryl (Turns out, it has corn in it. Which I can't have right now. Argh.).
Lips tingly and puffy, body collapsing, and voice so hoarse I sounded like I could make a career as a male blues singer, I pretty much draped across the back seat until we got back home. It took me seconds to head to bed and whimper quietly to myself for the rest of the night while my still-very-sweet parents volunteered to watch the kids.
And then they left this morning. I missed an entire day of their two day trip. Considering we don't see them except every few months, that completely, utterly sucks. To add to the fun, because I reacted so much, most of today I felt like I had a migraine, a case of H1N1, and a stomach bug, all in one.
Why yes, I am a bit whiny right now, why do you ask?
It's okay, though; the epic body fail was ebbing by tonight. I felt hungry again, ached less, system coming back on-line, all systems go.
I didn't get to eat until I cooked for the family, but then I got to cook for myself. And that was awesome. Woo hoo, food time! No more hunger! No more headache! No more feeling like crap!
I got about five minutes of celebration before I started reacting to the food! The buffalo meat I used is from a new source, and it is ground by the store itself. I'm pretty sure I'm reacting to something in it. God, I hope so, otherwise it means that one of my few foods is now screwed.
I don't want that.
But I just wanted a few minutes of 'I feel okay' this week. One of my 'good' foods taking that away was completely demoralizing. So I retreated into the bedroom and cried like a snot-nosed kid losing their first baseball game. And then I took a bath, read a book, and took a lot of deep breaths.
Really, I still feel like crap, but I can suck it up and honestly say - Annie style - the sun'll come out tomorrow. Because I live in a freakin' desert, and so the sun darn well WILL.
Here's hoping your sun is bright and shiny tomorrow, and will give you a much better day than today.
Oh, and lest I forget, a Cooking Tip.
When making Tomato Free Meatloaf with Sweet Potatoes - use the red ones. The one I made today was with the milder, pale yellow sweet potatoes, and it was not half as good. It lacked that 'mild BBQ flavor.' Frankly, the pale ones added texture, but not much taste. Not good for much but nutrition. I'd make burgers and sweet potato fries next time, honestly. Would have tasted better.
So, what have my last couple of days been like?
My folks came to visit a few days ago. Yesterday, we went in to town and my throat started to swell up from breathing something in the car - we're thinking coffee or potatoes, but my vote is coffee.
The stuff is evil. Seriously. Coffee shops are everywhere; they're insinuating themselves into our hearts and mind. But when we least expect it, the coffee will come alive and we'll all be eaten by their little coffee-bean mouths and turned into drooling caffeine zombies of doom. Although considering the state of my husband before he's had his morning fix, maybe the invasion has already started...
Ahem, moving on.
I'm not actually sure what I reacted to. *cough* evil coffee *cough* It could be martian allergy dust for all I know. At this point, my body is not a temple, it's a bawdy house that invites everyone in and suffers appropriately.
In any case, I took a benadryl and my very sweet, very worried father nicked in to the local drugstore to get me a little paper face mask that would hopefully keep me from reacting more.
I promptly reacted allergically to the little paper face mask. And the benadryl (Turns out, it has corn in it. Which I can't have right now. Argh.).
Lips tingly and puffy, body collapsing, and voice so hoarse I sounded like I could make a career as a male blues singer, I pretty much draped across the back seat until we got back home. It took me seconds to head to bed and whimper quietly to myself for the rest of the night while my still-very-sweet parents volunteered to watch the kids.
And then they left this morning. I missed an entire day of their two day trip. Considering we don't see them except every few months, that completely, utterly sucks. To add to the fun, because I reacted so much, most of today I felt like I had a migraine, a case of H1N1, and a stomach bug, all in one.
Why yes, I am a bit whiny right now, why do you ask?
It's okay, though; the epic body fail was ebbing by tonight. I felt hungry again, ached less, system coming back on-line, all systems go.
I didn't get to eat until I cooked for the family, but then I got to cook for myself. And that was awesome. Woo hoo, food time! No more hunger! No more headache! No more feeling like crap!
I got about five minutes of celebration before I started reacting to the food! The buffalo meat I used is from a new source, and it is ground by the store itself. I'm pretty sure I'm reacting to something in it. God, I hope so, otherwise it means that one of my few foods is now screwed.
I don't want that.
But I just wanted a few minutes of 'I feel okay' this week. One of my 'good' foods taking that away was completely demoralizing. So I retreated into the bedroom and cried like a snot-nosed kid losing their first baseball game. And then I took a bath, read a book, and took a lot of deep breaths.
Really, I still feel like crap, but I can suck it up and honestly say - Annie style - the sun'll come out tomorrow. Because I live in a freakin' desert, and so the sun darn well WILL.
Here's hoping your sun is bright and shiny tomorrow, and will give you a much better day than today.
Oh, and lest I forget, a Cooking Tip.
When making Tomato Free Meatloaf with Sweet Potatoes - use the red ones. The one I made today was with the milder, pale yellow sweet potatoes, and it was not half as good. It lacked that 'mild BBQ flavor.' Frankly, the pale ones added texture, but not much taste. Not good for much but nutrition. I'd make burgers and sweet potato fries next time, honestly. Would have tasted better.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Keeping abreast of food allergies in a modern world
I came across some great advice today, from Jenny Connors at cornallergens.com. The labeling laws don't help her all that much, since her allergen(corn) isn't one of the big 8. I think corn is one of the little 52, or maybe it's one of the medium-sized 112. These allergens just aren't as popular, sadly. It's the big ones that get all the press, the glory-seeking jerks. They get all the rules made about them.
Other allergens get left out in the cold.
Obviously, this makes it harder to find information on corn-derived ingredients. Because corn is sneaky. It hides in the shadows, like some superhero's nemesis. Since I suffer from the same issue with a lot of the foods I avoid (they're part of the not-quite-so-big 207), I was eager to see what Jenny had to say on finding some of the more cunning allergens.
I wouldn't mind finding the shy ones, either - they don't curse as much when they answer the door.
After reading her site, I thought she had some great advice for keeping on top of the ever-changing world of food: ideas on how to find information about ingredients. Her advice is completely adaptable to all my family's food problems.
So easy to use this with sugar cane, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.... Simple, and yet I never do that. I look up ingredients, and then my research zig-zags through the internet for nearly an hour before I find what I need.
Not like I wasn't aware that I have 'search issues.' I had a clue that I was not the most efficient researcher when a search for sugar cane sources ended with my having knowledge about factory floor rules, the pineapple trade in Hawaii, and some girl named Candy who had something to show me.
I think Jenny's method is going to work better.
Glad someone had a clue. And doing it every few months? A very, very smart idea. My natural laziness is already slowing down the research. I'm sure new information would have waned to a trickle over the following months as I focused more on cooking and less on what foods to use.
I mean, really - I know everything now, right? I am the god of food information, the guru of grains, the Grand Vizier of vegetables. I don't need to know anything else, ever... as long as the food industry stagnates into uniformity and nothing ever changes from this moment on. Please.
Sigh. I think I'm going to need to put 'hit up the internet for more info.' on the calendar next month.
Hopefully, Candy will have found someone else to show her stuff to by then.
Other allergens get left out in the cold.
Obviously, this makes it harder to find information on corn-derived ingredients. Because corn is sneaky. It hides in the shadows, like some superhero's nemesis. Since I suffer from the same issue with a lot of the foods I avoid (they're part of the not-quite-so-big 207), I was eager to see what Jenny had to say on finding some of the more cunning allergens.
I wouldn't mind finding the shy ones, either - they don't curse as much when they answer the door.
After reading her site, I thought she had some great advice for keeping on top of the ever-changing world of food: ideas on how to find information about ingredients. Her advice is completely adaptable to all my family's food problems.
I... do regular Internet keyword searches for, say, corn or corn products every few months. For example, since corn is hidden in lots of ingredients, a common search I use is corn + derived or corn + source.
So easy to use this with sugar cane, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.... Simple, and yet I never do that. I look up ingredients, and then my research zig-zags through the internet for nearly an hour before I find what I need.
Not like I wasn't aware that I have 'search issues.' I had a clue that I was not the most efficient researcher when a search for sugar cane sources ended with my having knowledge about factory floor rules, the pineapple trade in Hawaii, and some girl named Candy who had something to show me.
I think Jenny's method is going to work better.
Glad someone had a clue. And doing it every few months? A very, very smart idea. My natural laziness is already slowing down the research. I'm sure new information would have waned to a trickle over the following months as I focused more on cooking and less on what foods to use.
I mean, really - I know everything now, right? I am the god of food information, the guru of grains, the Grand Vizier of vegetables. I don't need to know anything else, ever... as long as the food industry stagnates into uniformity and nothing ever changes from this moment on. Please.
Sigh. I think I'm going to need to put 'hit up the internet for more info.' on the calendar next month.
Hopefully, Candy will have found someone else to show her stuff to by then.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Fructose Malabsorption
The diet was coming along well, everyone in the family was improving (including poor Brian who was just put on special diet, too), but our bodies were not satisfied. No, our genes demanded more.
We cannot be normal; of course not. Our bodies must be unique, different, special!
Our bodies must be a pain in the ass.
Dang it, dang it, dang it. We were doing so well, really we were, and then the kids started having problems. So I got on the research train again and found another food issue to explore: Fructose malabsorption. Oh joy.
Now, this is NOT a fruit thing. Yes, fructose is in fruit, but it's also in grains and vegetables and legumes and the entire darn edible world, essentially. Except meat. Carnivores everywhere rejoice, I'm sure.
The real issue for this condition is the ratio between fructose and glucose. Higher percentage of fructose compared to glucose, higher likelihood your life is gonna suck like a hoover for the next few days. The medical sites all discuss the 'gut' symptoms of this. That's their concern.
The parents whose kids have this? The majority I've read about didn't really notice the gut symptoms at first. They all discuss the fact that fructose malabsorption made their children lose their freaking minds. It changes the children's behavior to such an extent that the parents are contemplating infanticide just to get one, drama-free moment in their day.
And why is that?
When a person doesn't digest the majority of the fructose they consume, it moves happily on down the gut, and its presence interferes with the absorption of tryptophan. Since your body needs this to make serotonin and melatonin, you'll be short on these two for a day or so after you get too much fructose. And you will feel like crap as a result.
I am right there with all the parents. I wasn't noticing any gut issues, but the mood issues were through the roof! Nearly every time my kids had a lot of fruit, or coconut, or broccoli, or agave syrup, or honey - life exploded. And then there'd be times they'd lose their minds for no reason I could figure out. It's truly hard to describe how I can tell it's not just a normal 'bad day,' but there is an intensity, and an inability to regain control, that always goes along with this.
It's like pure angst has been poured into their veins and is bleeding out the pores.
Every tiny little thing sets them off. They wake up in a foul mood and stay that way for the rest of the day. Angry outbursts, huge bouts of weeping, no frustration tolerance, ADHD-like symptoms, difficulty sleeping. And then a day or two later, and it's gone.
It was happening so often, and from so many foods, that I was tearing out my hair trying to figure it out.
But then I happened across Fructose Malabsorption (dietary, not inherited), and woah baby does it fit the bill.
Lots of the kids' outbursts correlated to foods on bad list for this condition. And to add to the likelihood of their having it, in studies, 30-40% of people with any gut symptoms test positive for this. And celiac disease and food intolerances are considered possible causes for this, although the study results on that are more correlation than causation, at the moment.
In Australia, it's on the 'automatic test for this' list when people come in with gut symptoms. And here in the States...I've never heard of this in my life. Doctors don't usually even consider it. In fact, I was just reading from a FructMal gal and there is only one lab in her entire state that will do this test.
Once again, I'm so proud of my country's medical community. It brings a tear to my eye. Literally.
So, guess what we have to add to our list of things to consider?
This Diet
So far, my kids seem like they have mild levels of fructose malabsorption, with my son reacting more than my daughter. But now that I'm aware of what has too much fructose and what doesn't, and have been attempting to adjust the diet accordingly, things have been SO much better.
I swear, I might as well become a Dietician at this rate, I have to find out so much about food and nutrition!
For anyone interested in this condition, here's a few good links:
Fructose Malabsorption Yahoo Group - This group is Australia based, but has some great resources, research, and information, especially for parents!
Fruct Mal Blogger - This gal is great. She's had this condition for years, long before the medical community had identified it, so she has a lot of information and personal experience.
We cannot be normal; of course not. Our bodies must be unique, different, special!
Our bodies must be a pain in the ass.
Dang it, dang it, dang it. We were doing so well, really we were, and then the kids started having problems. So I got on the research train again and found another food issue to explore: Fructose malabsorption. Oh joy.
Now, this is NOT a fruit thing. Yes, fructose is in fruit, but it's also in grains and vegetables and legumes and the entire darn edible world, essentially. Except meat. Carnivores everywhere rejoice, I'm sure.
The real issue for this condition is the ratio between fructose and glucose. Higher percentage of fructose compared to glucose, higher likelihood your life is gonna suck like a hoover for the next few days. The medical sites all discuss the 'gut' symptoms of this. That's their concern.
The parents whose kids have this? The majority I've read about didn't really notice the gut symptoms at first. They all discuss the fact that fructose malabsorption made their children lose their freaking minds. It changes the children's behavior to such an extent that the parents are contemplating infanticide just to get one, drama-free moment in their day.
And why is that?
When a person doesn't digest the majority of the fructose they consume, it moves happily on down the gut, and its presence interferes with the absorption of tryptophan. Since your body needs this to make serotonin and melatonin, you'll be short on these two for a day or so after you get too much fructose. And you will feel like crap as a result.
I am right there with all the parents. I wasn't noticing any gut issues, but the mood issues were through the roof! Nearly every time my kids had a lot of fruit, or coconut, or broccoli, or agave syrup, or honey - life exploded. And then there'd be times they'd lose their minds for no reason I could figure out. It's truly hard to describe how I can tell it's not just a normal 'bad day,' but there is an intensity, and an inability to regain control, that always goes along with this.
It's like pure angst has been poured into their veins and is bleeding out the pores.
Every tiny little thing sets them off. They wake up in a foul mood and stay that way for the rest of the day. Angry outbursts, huge bouts of weeping, no frustration tolerance, ADHD-like symptoms, difficulty sleeping. And then a day or two later, and it's gone.
It was happening so often, and from so many foods, that I was tearing out my hair trying to figure it out.
But then I happened across Fructose Malabsorption (dietary, not inherited), and woah baby does it fit the bill.
Lots of the kids' outbursts correlated to foods on bad list for this condition. And to add to the likelihood of their having it, in studies, 30-40% of people with any gut symptoms test positive for this. And celiac disease and food intolerances are considered possible causes for this, although the study results on that are more correlation than causation, at the moment.
In Australia, it's on the 'automatic test for this' list when people come in with gut symptoms. And here in the States...I've never heard of this in my life. Doctors don't usually even consider it. In fact, I was just reading from a FructMal gal and there is only one lab in her entire state that will do this test.
Once again, I'm so proud of my country's medical community. It brings a tear to my eye. Literally.
So, guess what we have to add to our list of things to consider?
This Diet
So far, my kids seem like they have mild levels of fructose malabsorption, with my son reacting more than my daughter. But now that I'm aware of what has too much fructose and what doesn't, and have been attempting to adjust the diet accordingly, things have been SO much better.
I swear, I might as well become a Dietician at this rate, I have to find out so much about food and nutrition!
For anyone interested in this condition, here's a few good links:
Fructose Malabsorption Yahoo Group - This group is Australia based, but has some great resources, research, and information, especially for parents!
Fruct Mal Blogger - This gal is great. She's had this condition for years, long before the medical community had identified it, so she has a lot of information and personal experience.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Meatloaf
I am getting more energy, so I am trying new foods. Really, really odd new foods, but necessity is the mother of invention, isn't it?
And didn't that just make me sound like my Nana, eh?
So today I made...meatloaf! Not for the kids, but meatloaf for ME. Which was rather like figuring out how to make ice cream when all you can eat is milk and snow peas.
It's not pretty, but wow was it awesome to eat. This sucker is gluten free, tomato free, sugarcane free, and egg free, but I imagine the flavor is mild unless you've been on a limited diet for a while like myself.
GF, tomato free, sugarcane free, egg free Meatloaf
What you need:
2 pounds ground meat (I used buffalo)
1 large sweet potato or yam, cooked and puréed (I baked mine like a baked potato)
1/2 cup uncooked, or 1 cup cooked, whole grain (I used quinoa and amaranth)
sea salt to taste
What you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Get out a loaf pan. You can oil the bottom of it or not, your choice. I didn't bother since I have limited oil I can use.
2. Mix the meat, the salt, and the puréed sweet potato together. If you have any other seasonings you can use, this would be the time to add them in.
3. If you prefer to use uncooked whole grain, pour them into the bottom of the pan and spread them out until they evenly covers the bottom. If you prefer to used already cooked grains, mix them into the meat mixture.
4. Press the meat mixture into the pan and pop that sucker into the oven. Depending on the grains used, the size of the sweet potato, and your altitude, it can take from 45 - 70 minutes to cook. Mine was done about 50 minutes.
The texture is soft, and the flavor was like an extremely mild BBQ sauce added to the meat. Some grains go better with the meat than others. Rice does very well, quinoa does all right, but amaranth doesn't blend well, flavor-wise, with certain meats.
Rotation Diet Tip
It's not perfect, but you can use this while you are on a rotation diet, as well. I have only one meat, but two grains, so I put one grain in half the meatloaf, and one grain in the other half. Then I could eat it more than one day in a row, and it really cut down on cooking. Of course, there will be a little mixing of the food in the juices, but I was willing to cheat a bit on that.
I think it could be made so that the juices didn't mix, however, if you put a little tinfoil barrier in between the two different grains, or perhaps use two different grains and meats both and enclose each half in tinfoil and put them in the same pan together. Always nice to cook once and eat twice.
7/3/10 - An additional tip. Use the red sweet potatoes as opposed to the pale fleshed ones. The taste is much better!
And didn't that just make me sound like my Nana, eh?
So today I made...meatloaf! Not for the kids, but meatloaf for ME. Which was rather like figuring out how to make ice cream when all you can eat is milk and snow peas.
It's not pretty, but wow was it awesome to eat. This sucker is gluten free, tomato free, sugarcane free, and egg free, but I imagine the flavor is mild unless you've been on a limited diet for a while like myself.
GF, tomato free, sugarcane free, egg free Meatloaf
What you need:
2 pounds ground meat (I used buffalo)
1 large sweet potato or yam, cooked and puréed (I baked mine like a baked potato)
1/2 cup uncooked, or 1 cup cooked, whole grain (I used quinoa and amaranth)
sea salt to taste
What you do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Get out a loaf pan. You can oil the bottom of it or not, your choice. I didn't bother since I have limited oil I can use.
2. Mix the meat, the salt, and the puréed sweet potato together. If you have any other seasonings you can use, this would be the time to add them in.
3. If you prefer to use uncooked whole grain, pour them into the bottom of the pan and spread them out until they evenly covers the bottom. If you prefer to used already cooked grains, mix them into the meat mixture.
4. Press the meat mixture into the pan and pop that sucker into the oven. Depending on the grains used, the size of the sweet potato, and your altitude, it can take from 45 - 70 minutes to cook. Mine was done about 50 minutes.
The texture is soft, and the flavor was like an extremely mild BBQ sauce added to the meat. Some grains go better with the meat than others. Rice does very well, quinoa does all right, but amaranth doesn't blend well, flavor-wise, with certain meats.
Rotation Diet Tip
It's not perfect, but you can use this while you are on a rotation diet, as well. I have only one meat, but two grains, so I put one grain in half the meatloaf, and one grain in the other half. Then I could eat it more than one day in a row, and it really cut down on cooking. Of course, there will be a little mixing of the food in the juices, but I was willing to cheat a bit on that.
I think it could be made so that the juices didn't mix, however, if you put a little tinfoil barrier in between the two different grains, or perhaps use two different grains and meats both and enclose each half in tinfoil and put them in the same pan together. Always nice to cook once and eat twice.
7/3/10 - An additional tip. Use the red sweet potatoes as opposed to the pale fleshed ones. The taste is much better!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Simple Soup for Allergy Sufferers
I don't know why I never thought of this before, but I didn't. I can make soup. As in, soup that I can actually consume vs. soup the family eats but I avoid like the deadly plague that it is.
I have meat. I have a few veggies. I have water - why not make soup?
Today, I finally did it for the first time. And it is awesome. Real soup. I haven't had soup in 6 months. This is...beyond cool. Wonderful. And I think it is easily adapted for most high allergen diets.
For any other cooking-challenged, multi-allergy sufferers, here's the basic recipe idea:
Simple Soup
What you need:
A meat source - beef, chicken, buffalo, etc...
A few vegetables - if you have a veggie that can be boiled, you can stick it in a soup.
Whatever seasonings you can use - mine is salt, yee ha.
What you do:
1. Chop everything up and stick it in a big pot. Add the seasonings. Add water to cover, and then add that much again.
2. Bring to a boil and then lower this to a simmer, leaving the cover off. You want to boil this down until a broth develops with a nice flavor. Reminder: that means that whatever seasonings you add will be concentrated, so you don't want to add too much, too early.
3. Cook until it reaches the desired flavor. This is typically 1-3 hours, depending on what altitude you're at.
Points for Variety:
--I didn't mention fish or shellfish in the meat category mostly because I don't know much about them, and because so many people have allergies to them. If you used seafood, I have a feeling that you might have to put it in a little later in the process so it didn't get too rubbery/chewy by the end of the cooking. Or put it in early, scoop it out once cooked, and put it back in after the broth has concentrated, just long enough to warm it through.
--You may have to experiment with what veggies you can have, to find the right taste combination. There are definitely a few that don't work out so well, LOL. Beets, for example, will turn everything an interesting shade of bright purple-pink. Tomatoes, if you can find them, are almost always a nice addition.
-- You can add beans, hominy, or lentils to the equation as an addition, or as an alternative protein source (probably tofu, as well, although I don't know how well it would stand up). If you get dried beans or hominy, soak them in water overnight and then add them in at the beginning of cooking. The higher altitude you are, the longer it will take to cook the beans. For lentils, look up cooking time for them and add when you have that much time left. Small red lentils (like these) typically take 5-10 minutes or less to cook and make a pretty addition.
--You can add cooked grains to individual bowls just before serving. Rice and quinoa both do well in the soups I've tried, although I needed a stronger flavor to go well with the quinoa.
--Something from your local environment might be edible too! For example, I live in a desert in the SW United States. We have local trees called Palo Verde, and most people don't realize that when their seeds are still green, they can be cooked and eaten just like peas. Checking out the more exotic 'wild' foods in your area may be worth a try if you are reacting to everything under the sun, like myself
--A bit of sour, like lemon/lime juice, or vinegar, can add a little zing to your soup if you add it after you've boiled the soup down and turned off the heat.
--If you like sour and can't have citrus or vinegar, you might want to check out Amchur powder (you can find it here). It's powdered mango, used in Indian cooking, and adds a pleasant sour flavor to the food. It will need to be a cooked just a little to impart the flavor nicely. You can find it at Indian grocery stores, as well.
--Same with a bit of plain yogurt (dairy, soy, or coconut), if you can have it, added to the soup after it's in the bowls. The sour goes well with strong but darker flavors (especially lentils).
--If you are VERY limited in your diet right now but can have a few root vegetables, I recommend checking out your root vegetables fully on-line. Many of them have edible tops, if you buy the organic kind (the non-organic often have higher pesticide concentration in the greens, I understand). Carrots and beets are two good examples of those with edible tops.*
*a small percentage of people have a contact allergy to green tops of carrots. If touching the greens gives you the tingles or a rash, obviously these aren't the foods for you.
As for what soup I made? This would be the recipe for my particular diet, for those who might need something similar.
Simple Buffalo Soup
What you need:
2 pounds ground buffalo
4 carrots, scraped(or peeled) and roughly chopped
chopped carrot tops (greens) from half of 1 bunch of carrots
1 yellow sweet potato, chopped
sea salt to taste
What you do:
1. Dump all of these in a big pot. Pour in enough water to cover, and then add that much again.
2. Turn the heat on high until it reaches a boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Reminder again to not put the lid on so the water evaporates and helps with getting the broth concentrated. There'll be a bit of foam on the top of the water, usually. You can skim it or not. I don't, because I need every nutrient I can get, and I figure there's gotta be something in that I can use. It'll mix back into the soup eventually, anyway.
3. Simmer until the soup meets your taste requirements. At about 3,000 feet, it took me approximately 2 hours to cook it down so the broth tasted like soup instead of flavored water. The sweet potatoes lose a bit of their flavor, so they tasted more like regular potatoes to me, which I liked. The broth is rather rich, in my opinion, but then again, I haven't had any broth in a while, so that may be affecting my perception of it!
Of note in both recipes: The veggies are VERY soft after all this cooking, obviously. I liked them that way, and I wanted the flavor to enter the broth, so I kept them in from the beginning.
However, if you didn't want that, I would suggest making a veggie-broth first with your own veggies (Do everything the same but omit the meat/protein source, then strain out the veggies. Mash them through a sieve to get every last drop of liquid out.). You could then use the broth, add more meat and veggies, and simply cook until they were cooked through.
Enjoy!
I have meat. I have a few veggies. I have water - why not make soup?
Today, I finally did it for the first time. And it is awesome. Real soup. I haven't had soup in 6 months. This is...beyond cool. Wonderful. And I think it is easily adapted for most high allergen diets.
For any other cooking-challenged, multi-allergy sufferers, here's the basic recipe idea:
Simple Soup
What you need:
A meat source - beef, chicken, buffalo, etc...
A few vegetables - if you have a veggie that can be boiled, you can stick it in a soup.
Whatever seasonings you can use - mine is salt, yee ha.
What you do:1. Chop everything up and stick it in a big pot. Add the seasonings. Add water to cover, and then add that much again.
2. Bring to a boil and then lower this to a simmer, leaving the cover off. You want to boil this down until a broth develops with a nice flavor. Reminder: that means that whatever seasonings you add will be concentrated, so you don't want to add too much, too early.
3. Cook until it reaches the desired flavor. This is typically 1-3 hours, depending on what altitude you're at.
Points for Variety:
--I didn't mention fish or shellfish in the meat category mostly because I don't know much about them, and because so many people have allergies to them. If you used seafood, I have a feeling that you might have to put it in a little later in the process so it didn't get too rubbery/chewy by the end of the cooking. Or put it in early, scoop it out once cooked, and put it back in after the broth has concentrated, just long enough to warm it through.
--You may have to experiment with what veggies you can have, to find the right taste combination. There are definitely a few that don't work out so well, LOL. Beets, for example, will turn everything an interesting shade of bright purple-pink. Tomatoes, if you can find them, are almost always a nice addition.
-- You can add beans, hominy, or lentils to the equation as an addition, or as an alternative protein source (probably tofu, as well, although I don't know how well it would stand up). If you get dried beans or hominy, soak them in water overnight and then add them in at the beginning of cooking. The higher altitude you are, the longer it will take to cook the beans. For lentils, look up cooking time for them and add when you have that much time left. Small red lentils (like these) typically take 5-10 minutes or less to cook and make a pretty addition.
--You can add cooked grains to individual bowls just before serving. Rice and quinoa both do well in the soups I've tried, although I needed a stronger flavor to go well with the quinoa.
--Something from your local environment might be edible too! For example, I live in a desert in the SW United States. We have local trees called Palo Verde, and most people don't realize that when their seeds are still green, they can be cooked and eaten just like peas. Checking out the more exotic 'wild' foods in your area may be worth a try if you are reacting to everything under the sun, like myself
--A bit of sour, like lemon/lime juice, or vinegar, can add a little zing to your soup if you add it after you've boiled the soup down and turned off the heat.
--If you like sour and can't have citrus or vinegar, you might want to check out Amchur powder (you can find it here). It's powdered mango, used in Indian cooking, and adds a pleasant sour flavor to the food. It will need to be a cooked just a little to impart the flavor nicely. You can find it at Indian grocery stores, as well.
--Same with a bit of plain yogurt (dairy, soy, or coconut), if you can have it, added to the soup after it's in the bowls. The sour goes well with strong but darker flavors (especially lentils).
--If you are VERY limited in your diet right now but can have a few root vegetables, I recommend checking out your root vegetables fully on-line. Many of them have edible tops, if you buy the organic kind (the non-organic often have higher pesticide concentration in the greens, I understand). Carrots and beets are two good examples of those with edible tops.*
*a small percentage of people have a contact allergy to green tops of carrots. If touching the greens gives you the tingles or a rash, obviously these aren't the foods for you.
As for what soup I made? This would be the recipe for my particular diet, for those who might need something similar.
Simple Buffalo Soup
What you need:
2 pounds ground buffalo
4 carrots, scraped(or peeled) and roughly chopped
chopped carrot tops (greens) from half of 1 bunch of carrots
1 yellow sweet potato, chopped
sea salt to taste
What you do:
1. Dump all of these in a big pot. Pour in enough water to cover, and then add that much again.
2. Turn the heat on high until it reaches a boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Reminder again to not put the lid on so the water evaporates and helps with getting the broth concentrated. There'll be a bit of foam on the top of the water, usually. You can skim it or not. I don't, because I need every nutrient I can get, and I figure there's gotta be something in that I can use. It'll mix back into the soup eventually, anyway.
3. Simmer until the soup meets your taste requirements. At about 3,000 feet, it took me approximately 2 hours to cook it down so the broth tasted like soup instead of flavored water. The sweet potatoes lose a bit of their flavor, so they tasted more like regular potatoes to me, which I liked. The broth is rather rich, in my opinion, but then again, I haven't had any broth in a while, so that may be affecting my perception of it!
Of note in both recipes: The veggies are VERY soft after all this cooking, obviously. I liked them that way, and I wanted the flavor to enter the broth, so I kept them in from the beginning.
However, if you didn't want that, I would suggest making a veggie-broth first with your own veggies (Do everything the same but omit the meat/protein source, then strain out the veggies. Mash them through a sieve to get every last drop of liquid out.). You could then use the broth, add more meat and veggies, and simply cook until they were cooked through.
Enjoy!
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