nisaa

I think I am now really too sensitive to eat soy sauce with wheat. I thought it wouldn't bother me that much but it did. Ugh. (ETA: I usually buy wheat-free soy sauce but I was at a Japanese restaurant and just used what they had.)

On the plus side, I had yummy gluten-free pizza with a fluffy crust at Willow Street in San Jose tonight.

svava told me about this gluten-free flour that she heard about while at Pennsic:
http://www.betterbatter.org/

I'm wondering when/if people will understand "gf" is short for gluten-free. It's a lot easier on my thumbs while texting.

Also, thanks to lifecollage and rm for posting this link to a New York Times article on Celiac's Disease:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/health/15patient.html

It's been a while but there has been wheat-free goodness I have to share:
http://www.braziliancheesebreadco.com/
Hubby brought home these little tapioca-based bacon and cheese rolls AND gluten-free pizza crusts. The cheese rolls are to die for good.

He also brought home some gluten-free baking mixes - buckwheat pancake mix (which, if you camped with me last weekend you got to taste) and some cornbread mix he used to make a savory curried pear-raisin cornbread. He got all of these yummy things at the Lake Merrit Farmer's Market in Oakland. Who knew?

Breakfast is spelt and oat honey bread made by deyo last night. Yum!

I like to celebrate the good stuff, especially when I had a chicken burger that I think was dipped in flour a few days ago because I got the tell-tale owie stomach ache that I only get from wheat.

Front page in the East Bay Express! It's all about Celiac's and going gluten-free:
http://news.eastbayexpress.com/2007-10-17/news/sliced-dread/

There's even info about a camp in Northern California for kids with Celiac's:
http://news.eastbayexpress.com/2007-10-17/news/welcome-to-celiac-camp/

Also mentioned is Mariposa Bakery in Oakland. I'm going there to try the pizza on Saturday. OMG pizza!!! I can tell you already that their triple chocolate truffle brownies are divine (I got one at Rainbow Grocery last week):
http://news.eastbayexpress.com/2007-10-17/news/opportunity-gurgles/
http://www.mariposabaking.com/

Here's an Italian lessson for you all:
farro=spelt

I had NO idea. I've eaten farro pasta before. Hubby came home last night with a box of pasta he got in North Beach. The brand is called 'Sgambaro". On the back of the package, it says:

"Spelt is one of the oldest cereals cultivated in Europe. For the Greeks and Romans, it was the main ingredient in 'Puls', a soup of boiled cereals. It was so popular that 'farina', the Italian for flour, derives from 'Farro', the Italian word for Spelt."

This brand costs $5.75 for 17.6 oz. I'll let you know how it tastes.

A year ago today, I embarked on an experiment that I only thought would last a month. I gave up wheat as both an experiment for myself, but also so I could recommend wheat-free diets to my acupuncture patients when appropriate.

The only wheat I eat now is sprouted wheat in the form of Ezekiel bread and it doesn't seem to bother me. Sometimes I can tell when I've had wheat by accident because the symptoms come back: I get mood swings, an upset stomach with cramps, bloating and acne. Sometimes I'm not as careful as I should be about checking ingredients.

Now eating wheat-free has become a way of life for me. And I think I have a much better quality of life now than I did a year ago. Now I can tell that culprit when I get acne is cow's milk (it was much worse with wheat) and I can limit that accordingly.

Most of the time, I actually eat gluten-free foods because they have become so readily available. I get excited when I see my favorite brands like Pamela's or Cherrybrook Kitchen on the shelf of my local store. And Kinnikkinnick cinnamon donuts are to die for.

Personally, I'm not concerned that I have Celiac's Disease because I don't seem to have bad reactions to other grains like barley or spelt, although I haven't been tested for it. But it's certainly made me more aware of people who do have Celiac's. I also make sure when I prescribe herbs and other products to my patients I know what the ingredients are.

Is it hard being Italian-American and wheat-free? Yes. However, there are lots of pasta alternatives out there from expensive gourmet pastas made in Italy to your basic Thai rice stick that you can find for a few bucks. I introduced my family to one rice pasta and they couldn't tell the difference. I miss pizza, but there are rice-based pizza crusts available. I can even make my own spelt crust or polenta "pizza".

The highest form of wheat-free love is when my husband makes me pancakes with some combination of rice, spelt and, more recently, sorghum flours.

I'll be honest: eating wheat-free is not easy. It takes a little more thought when going out to eat and a little more planning when going shopping and a lot of label-reading. But if you have any of the symptoms I described, or any of the symptoms described at:
http://www.celiaccentral.org/Do_I_Have_Celiac_/13/
you might want to take a closer look at your diet and talk to your doctor.

Two questions for the gluten-free and wheat-free crowd:

1) Is there a list somewhere of hidden ingredients in makeup products that you know of?
2) What brand of cosmetics do you use?

Oh, and zohra pointed out that IKEA sells a gluten-free tart called Almondy and you can get it with or without chocolate. I got the chocolate one yesterday and it's yummy!!

This is my first Xmas without wheat. It's been really tempting to cheat over the past few weeks. I mean REALLY tempting. But I know it'll be slippery slope for me if I have 'just one cookie'.

Yesterday we went to Xmas tea at the Ye Olde King's Head and I brought some Ezekiel bread for the tea sandwiches for K and myself. I also brought some kinnikinnick lemon cranberry cookies to have in place of the scones. I mean, they're really just a delivery system for clotted cream and jam, right? I did ok. I didn't have the sausage roll or the quiche or the cake and I survived. I had more than enough to eat and my stomach didn't hurt one bit.

My loving husband is making spelt pies, including mince meat for K and I to eat tomorrow. She's sorta doing the no-wheat thing and having a friend like me around to encourage her probably helps.

So, Happy Holidays and enjoy your cake and cookies. I won't hate you for eating them in front of me. As long as I've got my peppermint bark, I'll be ok.

Last night I discovered a gluten-free brand I'd never heard of before:

http://www.kinnikinnick.com/

I got their chocolate chip cookies and bagels. While at the checkout, the woman at the register asked if I had tried their donuts. Donuts? I haven't had a donut in a very long time. She showed me where they were in the freezer section. I almost didn't get them, but hey, I'm on vacation.

The woman told me that people rave about the cinnamon sugar donuts, so I tried them. I think I warmed mine in the microwave a little too long, but it was mighty tasty. Six to a bag for $5.99 sounds steep, but if you haven't had one in a long time, they're worth it. They have that homemade donuts that go with cider consistency. Yum! Since they have no preservatives you store them in the freezer for the next time you have a craving.

The chocolate chip cookies are crunchy like regular Chips Ahoy and don't fall apart as much as Newman's Own wheat-free cookies. But they're not as good as Pamela's Kitchen chocolate chip cookies in my opinion.

I tried a bagel this morning. It was kinda dry. Even with some buttery spread on it, I had to keep putting more on it to be able to get it down, followed by gulps of tea. Maybe it would be better with jelly on it? I'll try that next. Hey, two out of three ain't bad.

The great thing about this company? They make gluten-free things that I've missed terribly. Why haven't I seen their products before? Turns out they're from Canada, eh. And I don't live close to Canada, so that's probably why I don't see their stuff on the shelves of my local health food store. But I'm going to tell my local health food store about them when I get home.

Check out the Kinnikinnick website to find out about the origin of their name and more about their products. And if you're near Lebanon, NH, you can find quite a few of their products at the Lebanon Health Food Store on Hanover Street.

Sometimes, on the way home from a date late at night, I used to stop at a donut shop and get a donut and a cup of tea to keep me awake for the drive home. I know that spelt donuts exist, but they don't have them at late night donut shops. Instead I came home tonight and had a bowl of spelt flakes with organic dried strawberries and almond milk. Not a bad alternative, just not what I wanted.

I don't know how long it's been since I gave up wheat - about three months now. Enough to stop counting. Every day it gets a little easier as I find tasty non-wheat and gluten-free things to eat. One of my teachers at school has Celiac's and is from London. She told me that they have so many more gluten-free options over there - imitations of all kinds of snack foods.

My acne is still an issue since I gave up wheat, though it's certainly much better. I just need to figure out what other foods are triggers. Probably eating greasy food while camping didn't help. I did find lots of things I could eat while camping that were wheat-free and/or gluten-free, so that's promising. And my stomach loves me a lot more.

My month of experimenting with being wheat-free is nearly over. It's no longer an experiment, but a way of life. I feel SO much better.

Today, I went to Ben and Jerry's website to research the ingredients in some of my favorite flavors. Then I went to Ben and Jerry's and got two scoops of ice cream that didn't have any wheat in them. And my stomach didn't hurt after eating ice cream. The sad part? One of my favorite flavors is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. But Phish Food and Gobfather almost made up for it. I'm not going to have ice cream more often but it's good to know that I can digest it without pain if I'm careful.

Emotionally, I'm feeling better. I've been told that I don't stay angry as long and that I'm laughing more. I can forget to take my 5HTP once in a while and I'm ok.

( Here's the hard part. And it's not about missing New York style pizza. )