Artificial what?

What can better be better than fresh donuts in the morning?  Donuts made with pronounceable every day ingredients.  Yep!  Real food.

Now sugar is the only food group that I completely have to avoid.  From 9+ down to 1 -- praise God! -- I call that success.  However, this is America and sugar is in practically everything.  It's pretty sad that I can't eat at some places because their menu is literally 99% sugar.  Seriously, does pizza crust need sugar?  Grilled chicken in a salad? Come on!

There is an awesome picturebook put out by Candlewick press entitled: How did That Get in My Lunchbox?  This book helps illustrate what is used and how bread, cookies, and apple juice is created from the very beginning (such as growing wheat or picking an apple) to being displayed on the shelves for public consumption.  The sad part is that this book was created because most (urban) kids don't know that true food does not magically appear at a grocery store.  As a matter of fact, they think unpronounceable ingredients is the way food has always been consumed.

Feeling gross yet?  Apparently there was an ending "We like sweets a lot, but they make your insides rot.  So, remember it's your body And the only one you've got."  Personally I like this latter ending better.  From this video, it's hard to decipher whether they are pro or con "modern technology food."

Ode to Cheez-Its

Ode to Cheez-Its (which will soon turn into Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies, as there is less unnecessary ingredients)

Orange squares transfer
salt crystals to my tongue. 
A zesty crunch to the 
taste of melted cheese 
throughout my mouth, spreading to
my whole being.
Dear Cheez-Its, your 
wheat does not turn my stomach or head, your 
dairy does not swell my throat. 
I can enjoy you now,
every square your red box gives.

Happpeeee!  My wheat reaction used to cause an itching of the hand upon a mere touch, and one fragment would send my body into attack.  Now, two years later, it's almost gone!  Only very few reactions remain after eating six or so servings of wheat.  Miracle?  Yes, thanks to skilled doctors and the grace of God!  The severe reaction I had had led me to believe that I would never get wheat back.   It's also a milestone in that wheat was the first established allergy, and now I'm leaving more and more behind.    Next battle is bringing down those genetically pre-determined ones...

System Crash

This past week my supplements were changed.  Why?  Well in one word: grass.  Turns out, even though the allergy to trees is gone, I am still reactive to grass.  The odd thing is that it wasn’t really attacking my sinuses that much.  It was attacking the gut, in turn, releasing too many toxins into the body and disrupting the steady incline of health that was happening.  And, in that instability something kept giving me wicked cramps. Could not for the life of me figure out the trigger.  Eventually I was able to link it to chocolate.  For reasons unknown, the grass aggravation led my body to dislike chocolate – which is one of the harder foods to digest.

Yes, I can’t have chocolate for at least three more weeks.  Really, at this point, taking away a small food group isn’t that bad.  Even though it is chocolate, and yes I keep stopping myself from counting down the days – just in case the re-introduction doesn’t go well— until I can have it again.  I will admit that it was very hard to peel myself away from the bag of chocolate chips I had just opened.  I think it took about three days to stop digging into it.  To distract myself I began experimenting with caramel (with great success).  The domino effect of chocolate was a reminder over and over to press on.  When something causes that much pain…STOP…even though it’s frustrating and becomes yet another deprivation. 

Speaking of, did you know that almost every broth has added sugar?  There is no reason for it to be there!  Yeah, let’s just say going grocery shopping during an energy crisis is like trying to pick apples, only to find that 95% of them are rotten and no good.  But you still need the apple, less you have the room, skills, and time to grow an apple tree from a bit of earth. F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N.

Anyways, the subtraction of one specific supplement completely depleted me of energy and focus. Replacing it with stress, frustration, anxiety, and a very scrambled thought process.  Hence, the crash.  Going back to the life of making it through work, eating, only then to lay down till it’s time to go to sleep is not fun – no matter how many Adventures in Odyssey, audiobooks, or movies I can catch up on all week.  Energy is a precious gift; don’t waste it!

Right now I am perusing Laura Martin’s Green Market BakingBook: 100 Delicious Recipes for Naturally Sweet and Savory Treats by Laura Martin.  It uses maple syrup for most of its recipes, separates everything out by seasons, and seems to understand the concept of allergy/restrictive cooking. So far, I am loving this book.  I just had the best blueberry scone ever!  I especially loved the contrast between the moist bread and berries against the honey-topped glaze.  Where would we be without cooking? (And please don’t say fast food.  Nauseating hazardous disguises of food that stuff is.)

Too Amazing to Not Share

A friend's brother was diagnosed with bone cancer in December.  But he didn't do chemo.  Instead, he completely cut meat, sugar, juice, and canned foods from his diet. For 3 months he ate nothing but organic veggies, Quinoa, wild rice, as well as some flax seed oil, cottage cheese, and berries. A few days ago I received word that the cancer is completely gone!  That is amazing!  It is INCREDIBLE what natural foods will do!

Spring Fever No More!

Baby green balls sprouting from the trees.  Cherry blossom petals painting the streets.  Grassy and flowery smells of spring.  It's so great to be able to enjoy all this without my head exploding and my eyes itching.  Besides the fact that my Allersode drops are working -- basically an allergy shot for the pollen stuff without the trauma of the needles -- my body is healing itself.  Yeah spring!  Yeah no Kleenex desperation every other minute.

And, speaking of healing, I can have yeast and aspergillus again!  That brings my allergies from nine to three food groups -- sugar, wheat, and eggs.  Yes, these are still restrictive, especially not even being able to have a fraction of a gram of wheat or sugar, but the absence of six other food groups is massive.  Hallelujah!

My new cooking fascination is 100% fruit concentrate -- yep, that frozen stuff in a can you use to make juice.  Turns out it is a great sweetener like maple syrup.  I learned about it from Fruit Sweet and Sugar Free by Janice Feuer.   The cookies in it have the consistency of Chips Ahoy, seriously! They were fantastic.  The cherry pie was pretty great, too.  I did learn though, to keep the concentrate flavor in mind when baking.  Let's just say that orange concentrate in zucchini bread had a pretty interesting taste.

Hard to believe I've been sugar free for two months now.  And, I don't miss it.  Well, okay, truth be told here, I do miss it when it seems everyone else can have it.  After all, this is America where people enjoy HFCF in applesauce (blech!).  Plus the convenience factor -- I mean, making practically everything by hand is time consuming.  It is here that I have to remind myself that in hindsight being allergic to sugar is really good (wheat, too), and that I have my kitchen.

In my shoebox of a kitchen, I can make anything from lasagna to candy bars to lamb stew to donuts.  I have been blessed with the ability to cook very well.  And to be creative.  For me creativity is a must and one of my sanities.  I've meant other people on similar diets who are in a rut or struggle to use a cookbook, especially when almost every recipe requires a conversion of some kind.  How?  Personally I'm all for playing with my food. :)

Sweet Butterflies!

A few weeks ago I received my latest food test results.  No more eggs.  No more fruit and sugar together (within a five hour window, at least).  And, these will always be the case.  This test determines genetic allergies, so to speak.  Basically my body does not have the proper digestive enzymes to break down these foods, so when ingested it causes various toxic reactions.  Good news is that my other allergies should start to lessen now.  (For those of you who don’t know, I am completely off restriction for corn and dairy!)

I’ve always wondered how much sugar I would be using in my kitchen in the future.  This new change solves it…NONE!

The trick is fruit derivatives are everywhere.  The most surprising places are: citric acid, most tea bags, various food oils, some vinegars, Vitamin A Palmitate, some nuts (in the manufacturing process), most vanilla extracts, nutmeg, …  Yeah, so avoiding sugar is definitely easier (and more healthier) than avoiding fruit.  Even one half of a gram of sugar will spin internal chaos.  Trust me, I tried.  It was not fun.

So, life without sugar? The difference is astounding!  Turns out sugar (with fruit) was responsible for: inner ear pain, other gut irritations, not being able to fully comprehend things at times, difficulty concentrating, blanking out for minutes at a time, being overly tired or exhausted, being socially inept at times...   It will be frustrating at times, especially out in the world, but sugar isn’t worth the risk.  I know that Benadryl Allergy (Dye-Free) dramatically lessens my reactions, so the hope is that someday (when things calm down) I will be able to eat out without restrictions – for special occasions, of course. Yeah, I know, Benadryl is not natural, but it is fairly a benign drug and, hey, it makes a huge difference!

Random thought: I wonder why so many food manufacturers use things like aspartame-based sugars – they taste horrible and have now proven to cause nerve damage and degeneration.  I feel like a poster child for 100% Maple Syrup.  So good with a few health benefits!  And I always have a large jug in the fridge.  So, now that I already know how to bake without sugar – yes, even sweet things — it’s just a matter of perfecting the art.  And, on days when I do have sugar I will have to plan very carefully and make my sugar date well worth it :o).

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

--

Animal Crackers! 

(Personally I would like to have a zoo, but my butterflies and little flowers will do for now.)

•2 cups flour (add 2 teaspoons of xantham gum if gluten free)

•1 teaspoon salt

•2.5 teaspoons baking powder

•½ cup unsalted butter

•½ cup maple syrup

•1 egg (or 1 tablespoon flaxmeal and 2 tablespoons hot water, let stand for 5 minutes)

•1 teaspoon vanilla (I use a sugar and alcohol free vanilla powder)

•¼ whole unhomogenized milk (or preferred dairy beverage)

•[For chocolate add ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder to dry ingredients.  Mine tasted like dark chocolate, so adjust the maple syrup accordingly for a lighter taste if desired.]

Blend with whisk all dry ingredients in one large bowl.  In another bowl (or sauce pan), combine maple syrup and melted butter.  (If maple syrup and butter refuse to blend, an electric whisk is a wonderful thing!) Now combine the rest of the wet ingredients in with the butter mixture.  Whisk until well blended.  Scrape bowl of liquid ingredients into the dry.  Mix well with spatula.  Roll into ball and then cover with plastic wrap.  Chill dough for one hour. 

Roll out dough onto desired work surface.  You’ll want the thickness to be 1/8 (crispier) to 1/4 (chewier, but they don’t last as long) of an inch.  Cut out with desired cookie cutters (the smaller the better).  Fit shapes flatly onto baking sheet.  Bake for 10-15 minutes at 375˚F.  For the dual look, place a small ball of chocolate dough next to the vanilla before rolling.

Enjoy!  

(And, just sayin’, they go great with chocolate homemade chocolate pudding.)

Cracker recipe altered from Moose Racks, Bear Tracks, and Other Alaska KidSnacks 

In Which We Say Good-Bye to the Flu

Last week I noticed muscle aches deeply embedded within my back and neck.  And, they weren’t those I slept wrong kind of aches.  It was the flu setting up camp.  But, no worries here.  On my last appointment I asked my ND what to do on the onset of the flu.  Besides avoid sugar, naturally, the answer is drink immune tea generously. 

What is immune tea?  Well, you take 1-2+ gloves crushed garlic and place it into the infuser -- that’s basically a tea bag for you non-tea folks.  After the kettle begins to whistle, pour water into your favorite mug and seep infuser for about 5 minutes at least.  I usually ended up leaving the infuser in the water the whole time.  Add a small amount of lemon, and a small bit of honey if necessary.

I drank this immune tea, and another medicinal tea that lessens inflammation, constantly for three days.  I could feel a bit of tug-o-war in my body as the battle ensued, garlic vs flu.  Muscles tried to keep on aching, there were moments of stomach unstableness, headaches that weren’t food affiliated coming on….  Garlic won!  I was definitely more tired than usual, but I was able to go on as normal.  And now, there is no trace of the icky flu within me. :)  No needles necessary.  Nothing pharmaceutical based.  (Though I did take a few dosages of Zyflamed (natural remedy for aches and inflammation) to help with the body’s natural tendency to inflame itself during such illness.)

Garlic is amazing stuff!  It is one of the most powerful natural sources of antioxidants out there and is helpful in preventing a wide array of medical maladies.

Eat up!

Sorry, no new recipes right now.  However, I have found it very useful to store fruits and vegetables -- when they are already cut up and awaiting their culinary fate – in a small bit of water and closed container.  Their freshness expanded to a week as opposed to a few days.  No shriveled greens or rotting reds or soggy yellows.  Still crisp, bright, and full of flavor!  Just watch out for that extra water they tend to absorb…whoa!