Why You May Need to be Grain Free! Watch & Consider

This five minute interview with Dr. Peter Osborne is worth watching. Some quick bullet points it covers:

• Typical gluten free diets include heavy amounts of corn and rice
• Proteins have been found in corn that are identical to proteins in gluten - the gluten-sensitive immune system reacts the same to these proteins, and don't heal
• Lectins, chemicals found in beans and seeds, act like gluten, creating leaky gut walls
• Leaky gut leads to more and more food allergies
• Seeds were created to produce and perpetuate life, and so they have protective chemicals to prevent extinction - when we eat these, they end up in our gut. Don't assume they don't harm you!
• Grains induce intestinal permeability and autoimmune disease
• Study published: 92% of celiacs did not recover on a "traditional gluten free diet"
• In comparison, often when a person goes grain-free, they are healed completely
• "Healthy whole grains" are promoted on commercials... but aren't healthy!
• Gluten is now tied to 190 autoimmune diseases!

My family has been 99% grain free since January (no gluten, dairy, or soy since last year), and it has worked wonders for my health and the activity of autoimmune disease in my body. PLUS, my basically healthy husband has lost 30 POUNDS (with no changes to his activity level - just food alone), has no more foot pain despite his 6-7 miles of walking on concrete floors at work each day, and more energy each day.

There is something to this, guys. Please watch and consider for yourself.

Super Easy Designer Salad

This is what I'm eating for lunch today. Currently. As in, between typing sentences I'm taking bites. Yum :)

And yes, those are SUNBEAMS shining on that plate. We are finally seeing some real signs of spring up here in the Pacific Northwest! I just sat outside for fifteen minutes enjoying a nice sun bath. My body just craves those warm rays of light and the Vitamin D that comes with them. I am happy to say that I've improved from my last post, I didn't have to get Prednisone or anything else that drastic. Unfortunately though, the other day I was exposed to gluten through cross-contamination by a well-meaning hostess, and it's been a rough week! Moving through my daily routine has been like dragging a bag full of rocks everywhere I go - ah, I forgot how icky it feels to "get glutened!"

To segue... Hence the need for a quick, easy, healthy meal like this fantastic salad :)

Salad does not have to be boring, bland tasting, or unappealing. The stuff that cafeterias peddle as "salad" - you know the kind: some chunks of sad iceberg lettuce, a few carrot shreds and a pale tomato slice - is far from the full potential of a true salad. This here stuff I'm enjoying right now is my family's go-to meal when we're tired, hungry, and running low on food. If you've got greens and a protein of any kind, you can make it in about two minutes.

Even if you have plenty of food and time, this is a great place to start for a salad worthy of a dinner party spread. My husband makes a huge, loaded salad every day for work ("designer salads" as I've started to call them) and varies the ingredients day to day, and he always comes home telling me about the drooling comments he gets from co-workers.

Have fun with it; the possibilities are nearly endless!

What you need:

• Salad greens such as organic baby spinach, spring mix, red leaf lettuce...
• Shredded/sliced meat or fish (chicken breast, turkey breast, beef roast, steak, even canned tuna or salmon or perhaps leftover halibut, tilapia...) 

AND/OR

• Sliced hard-boiled egg
• Nuts/seeds: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sliced almonds, walnut pieces, pecan pieces, dried coconut shreds...
• Dried fruit - no added sugar if possible. Raisins, cranberries, blueberries, cherries, goji berries...
• Healthy oil such as olive, walnut, avocado...
• White wine or balsamic vinegar, if you are so inclined and it doesn't bother your health

What you do:
(The ingredients I used today are in parentheses following the steps)


First, create a base by filling the bottom of your bowl or plate with greens (organic baby spinach and spring mix).


Next, toss on your shredded meat and/or egg (chicken breast).


Follow that by sprinkling on nuts and seeds, and dried fruit (raw sunflower seeds and organic seedless raisins).


Finally, drizzle oil over the salad (my new favorite: walnut oil. Not to be used with heat but perfect for salad!)

And there you have it. You'll get your dietary needs of protein, vegetable, and healthy fat fulfilled, and you can adjust the ratio of meat-greens-oils to your personal preference and needs.

Did you ever think that a delicious salad meal was so easy and versatile? I find those two traits are actually pretty common in healthy whole foods cooking, especially when you keep a good stock of the right foods on hand. (For help on that, check out my master shopping list)

If the sun is shining where you are today, get out there are enjoy it! The Vitamin D is so good for you! I think I'll get back out there and soak up some more for myself :)

"Diet" Labels, What's Up with Me, and the Bottom Line Goal: Health!

Truth be told, the longer I follow this "Paleo" way of eating, the more I think about my blog, recipes, and life being stuck with a label. And that bugs me. I don't want to be labelled or stuck in a box - by myself or by anyone else. As my profile says, I am on a journey to reclaim my health by eating the foods I'm truly meant to eat. Whatever label popular culture may choose for how I eat, my simple aim remains: to cook and eat real, nourishing, healing food. I think the tendency to need to label everything is a sign of our society's food insecurities and the confusion surrounding what is truly good for us. For instance, as children, most of my generation was taught, "MILK- It does a body good," and these days whole wheat breads and pastas are touted as full of nutritious wonders and the key to a flat belly.
But I bet you know at least one person in your world who has discovered that they are gluten intolerant, or feeling better not eating dairy, or encountered some other food lightbulb experience, and this puts the FDA guidelines - that tendency to push a "one size fits all" diet on every American - to suspicion.


Personally, I tend to go to extremes with things, specifically when I hear about diets that have 'cured' people of their autoimmune disease. I get so excited! About the possibility of being well without medications, and empowered by the information and personal stories of recovery. But (after living and learning a bit) I recognize that extremism is not a healthy way of living. For one thing, it puts the entire burden of failure or success solely on your own shoulders when you are your own coach and critic. Especially with dietary changes, I am learning that everything is not black and white. I am learning that we have to listen to our bodies and consider that we each have our own unique sets of genetic material wired just so, to make us who we are. So what works for your BFF/trainer/blogging idol may not work for you. And... that is okay.

Wouldn't it be easier if I could just follow a black and white plan straight from the pages of a book? Heck yes, and I daily wish that would work for me! (For the record, I'd choose this book or this book.) I believe that food changes alone work for many people, to bring about needed weight loss, relief of joint pain, slow aging, recover energy, and so on. There are testimonies like that all over the net. But throw the factors of a leaky gut, autoimmune disease, food intolerances and chronically damaged and inflamed tissue into the mix (yeah, that's me), and it becomes quite a large Clydesdale horse of a different color...


I am very passionate about making dietary changes before turning to drug treatments that have potential adverse consequences. So when I see someone struggling with disease, I usually think, "I wonder if they've tried changing their diet... if they've tried 'going Paleo'... if they've tried..." This is because changing my own diet has helped me - specifically eliminating gluten, dairy, eggs and soy because my body is intolerant to them, and recently grains and legumes as well, because I have learned by trial and error that my guts do immensely better without them. Once I read about the damage that grains, legumes and dairy do to your guts, it was easy for me to let them go. This is the main reason our family has "gone Paleo." The two special people I live with have great health, and we want it to stay that way!  :)


On the other end of that, however, I have still not reclaimed my health. I am still waiting to find my own personal "perfect diet." I would like to say that kicking the SAD (Standard American Diet) to the curb has cured my Ulcerative Colitis and other junk. But it has not [yet...?]. In fact, this week has been so tough that I'm considering calling my GI doc and giving Prednisone another try if he thinks it will help. Because feeling like garbage is no way to live, and there are times when modern medicine needs to embraced as a gift of modern life, just like cell phones and the internet. [About the internet: Where would all of us blogging about special diets and diseases be without it?! Much more isolated and hopeless, I propose.] I really like my new GI doctor and it wouldn't be a negative experience to go see him. I'm trying to teach myself that even if I don't want to go on new meds, if something changes in my condition I should keep my doctors filled in on how I'm doing and at least see what my options are.


I'm also re-reading Breaking the Vicious Cycle and trying to muster the drive to re-try the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). I tried it  two years ago, and it helped to some degree. I stopped it before I knew that I was intolerant to dairy and eggs, so odds are it will go much better this time around, knowing that! I don't ever choose drugs first off; I always try to find another route.

Speaking of helping ourselves by making lifestyle and dietary changes, I came across this piece today, by Kurt Harris MD. I highly suggest you read it! I love his gentle but encouraging suggestion for his twelve steps: "Go as far down the list as you can in whatever time frame you can manage. The further along the list you stop, the healthier you are likely to be. Earlier steps, in my clinical experience, will give more bang for the buck."
Personally I am working on the very first step - SLEEP. Easier said than done for anyone, whether you've got a new baby at home or just love a busy life or get stuck on your to-do list so much that sleep takes a back seat!


If you've read this far without moving on to something else, thank you! I'll wrap it up. So all the aforementioned rambling to say, I don't want to hang onto a Paleo label at the expense of reaching someone with the potential of real, nutritious food. I don't want to come across as 'another diet extremist' and scare people off. I want to keep blogging because I hope - like so many blogs I've come across in my journey - that my sharing is encouraging and helping someone out there.
But just know, whoever you are my readers, that when I say "I love eating Paleo"  it's not to belong to some superior food-obsessed clique.  I think that the heart of the Paleo/Primal/Ancestral/Nourishing Traditions food movement is to embrace life at its fullest by embracing the foods that God put on the earth and meant for us to eat. Real, whole, unprocessed, unrefined, colorful, rich, nourishing, hope-filled foods.
On that note, I am going to keep my "Paleo" label for recipes because it simplifies things for my own organization. I know that when I've labelled a recipe "Paleo," it does not have gluten, grains, dairy, casein, soy... the big ones. But it is not an exclusive or inclusive label, because there are several interpretations of what constitutes "Paleo."

Paleo for Autoimmune Disease

No new Fast Food Mondays post today friends, sorry! I had a medical procedure last Monday and it took me most of the week to recover. I think my body has reached its biopsy limit for the year; it is starting to protest!

Despite no food sharing today, I did want to share an article. I've been doing some investigating around the web to learn more about the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) (go here, scroll down to "Autoimmunity") and I came across a great article at Jo's Health Corner. Entitled "Is The Paleo Diet Beneficial For Autoimmune Diseases?" it explains how and why the Standard American Diet contributes to ill health (wheat, lectins, leaky gut...), and how the Paleo lifestyle can help any person, especially those who suffer from autoimmune disease. The Paleo AIP definitely requires another level of dedication, but it is really helping people who have limited treatment options. How encouraging to read testimonies of people going into remission from Multiple Sclerosis by cooking and eating good food!
Everyone can get something out of this article, I'm sure of it. So give it a read, and if you know someone who could use inspiration or understanding about restoring health, share it with them.

I'll catch up with you all later this week with a yummy recipe. Slow Cooker Spicy Coconut Chicken. YUM! It's my new favorite meal, and I cook it at least once a week these days. You don't want to miss it!

Thanksgiving!

I cooked an entirely gluten-free, soy-free, processed-food free, and nearly refined-sugar- and dairy-free Thanksgiving dinner. It was a blast. We spent the day together as a family, relaxed, no chores, no errands, just watching the Macy's parade, cooking and enjoying each other.

Our Menu

GF Roasted Butterball Turkey, rubbed with poultry seasoning blend and roasted in a Reynold's roasting bag with a tablespoon of rice flour
(Next year we're going to go for a local farm raised turkey and do the brine thing, but we appreciated this because it was free!)

GF Turkey Gravy - made from GF cornstarch and the turkey drippings

GF Wild rice dressing with celery, onion, poultry seasoning, veggie broth and pepper,

GF quinoa dressing with celery, onion, poultry seasoning, veggie broth and pepper

GF Sauteed French cut green beans with walnuts sauteed in GF EVOO, S & P

GF Slow roasted garnet yams cooked in the Crock Pot all day with a splash of water, and a sprinkle of GF mini marshmallows melted before serving

GF Roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and walnuts recipe from Food Network Kitchens - Hubs says this is a MUST REPEAT EVERY NIGHT dish :)

GF Cranberry Pear sauce recipe from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen - Brilliant because the pears sweeten the sauce you need almost no added sugar! I doubled it and added an organic Gala apple, and a cup of sucanat instead of coconut sugar

GF Mashed Potatoes (from GF instant potato flakes, to save time and because we had some to use up). Hubs made them with chicken stock, Silk refrigerated plain coconut milk, butter and Kosher salt. With the delicious GF turkey gravy topping them, you could hardly tell they were instant.

To drink:
Knudsen's Organic Sparkling Apple Juice and Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider

For dessert:
GF CrockPot Pumpkin Cheesecake, recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking. I substituted sucanat for the white sugar in the filling, and brown sugar for the crust.
No Picture because whenever it's out of the fridge it's being eaten - no time for photos! :)

This afternoon, Hubs and I are enjoying some of the last pieces of the cheesecake, along with decaf Rice Dream Rice Nog lattes. Don't you love autumn and Christmas season flavors?

Dinner's Ready!

For the first time in years I have been cooking a complete dinner meal consistently every evening. And I owe it to my new necessary gluten free diet!

Since we decided to go 100% gluten free in our house, we've never looked back. It's been a little over two weeks now and things are going well. I made a wonderful re-discovery at the same time we made this big decision. I rediscovered Stephanie O'Dea's A Year of Slow Cooking. It is a fantastic year-long collection of crock pot recipes, and ALL of them are gluten free! Needless to say, I've been on that website almost daily, and Hubs and I have cooked about seven different recipes so far. It's been an incredible help - I just toss some ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, put it on Low, and by dinner time it's ready! I think our favorite dish so far has been the Tandoori Chicken. I use half a can of coconut milk instead of the yogurt, and it tastes really good while also being dairy free.

As I've started to gluten-detox, I've found that every few days I am up for challenges that require a little more energy. So there ya go!

On the Right Track!

Great news: I'm coming out of the "gluten fog!"

I'm starting to be convinced that no one needs gluten. I read some interesting theological and nutritional writing this week arguing that God never intended us to eat wheat. I'm still exploring that idea, but I do know for sure He never intended us to eat grains the way they are now -refined, processed, genetically modified and bearing no resemblance to ancient grains. I'm happy to be free of gluten in our home as a family-wide commitment, and I'm really looking forward to our first 100% GF Thanksgiving. Good things are ahead!

Health Update

I haven't blogged in a while, and felt you were all due for an update. The short story is that I've seen my hepatologist and been to the hospital a lot more than I like to lately, and I've had blood draws, an MRI, a liver ultrasound and a liver biopsy, all to tell me that the autoimmune disease I had in my old liver (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis) has returned, the bile ducts in my liver have narrowed from scarring, and there is already some liver cirrhosis (scarring in the liver tissue) present. Bummer, yes. BUT- I have way too much joy, purpose, and blessings in my life, and I'm not going anywhere!

All of this nonsense couldn't be happening at a better time. God knows what's happening, and He goes before us. The Sun Stand Still series we are going through at church is EXACTLY what my family has needed to be able to go through this season the right way. Each day and each week that passes, we learn more about audacious faith and big prayers, and I've been simply glowing with faith that my God REALLY, TRULY WILL supply ALL my needs. He is El Shaddai, the God of more than enough. And He does exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. What a treasure to know Him. People tell me I am strong, but that wouldn't carry me through this kind of challenge [for the second time in my life] without the hope of Christ. Check out this past Sunday's message (Sun Stand Still Week 5) and the previous four On Demand here! My little family gets a shout on in Week 4 - PK shared our miracle Victory story. To God be the glory!

In the meantime, life goes on. Hubs was doing a little web surfing about PSC (by the way - never do that with your medical ailments; it's bound to be more frightening than helpful!) and he came across a website from the UK. It specifically stated that PSC is now being linked with Celiac disease. Now, I won't talk about how angry I was for a day or two, thinking about how ten years ago, when I had a perfect, new, healthy, clean liver to work with, I didn't know this. The important thing is, I know better now. I've been eating mostly gluten-free (about 80-90% of the time) for a year or two. I've had my cheat days, and not obsessed over restaurant ordering. But I'm done with that. I haven't gotten support from my doctors over the past few years to look into the Celiac possibility fully and seriously. But I know better now. I have Ulcerative Colitis, PSC, arthritis, possibly fibromyalgia and most recently, MS symptoms- I'm finding that all of these are tied with Celiac and gluten intolerance. Well, that's more than enough motivation to go gluten free.


Hubs made the decision for all of us. He said, "We're going gluten free, period!" [A note to the ladies: you know you've got a good man when he leads the way on something this major for the health of you and your whole family!]

Sure, it's a bummer thinking about how for ten years, a seemingly harmless substance has been slowly tricking my body into attacking itself, and I didn't know.
The important thing is, now I do know, and I'm moving forward without looking back. I'm convinced I have Celiac, and I'm okay with that. I'm going to take on the gluten-free life, and with that life, my husband, my daughter and myself will be healthier than ever. It's going to be awesome!

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Update, December 2011:
I have a fantastic new gastroenterologist and he ran the HLA DQ2/DQ8 gene test for me. It was positive. This further confirmed the likelihood that I have Celiac. This is actually great news to us. Answers are always a good thing!

GF Lemon Cornmeal Cake

I made this delicious lemon cornmeal bundt cake for our open house two years ago, and it was very good. I found the recipe in a spring issue of Women's Day, and it fit in perfectly with the chicken taco buffet and cilantro lime rice we served. I didn't have any food allergies then (weird I know) and didn't think anything of the wheat flour, butter and eggs in it.

Well, I remembered this cake last week, tracked down the recipe, and decided to see if it could be pulled off in a gluten free version. While using Google to find the original recipe from Women's Day, I also happily stumbled upon someone's gluten free suggestion for the same recipe (she's got gorgeous pictures of the finished bundt cake there as well)!

I am signed up to bring dessert to our small group tomorrow, and I think the lemon and cornmeal flavors of this cake will fit nicely with the BBQ chicken lunch our hosts are cooking. And imagine, I can have a piece with everyone else when it's time for dessert! It's the simple things that I appreciate...
We don't normally keep sugar in the house, but I had some leftover from baking gluten-free sugar cookies with a friend. I had to buy a little bit more so I could bake both a test cake for home and a cake for small group. I hate buying sugar -I'd go so far as to say it makes me feel dirty to do it! But I tell myself that ONCE IN A WHILE is okay. Now is not a good time for experimenting with stevia, maple syrup or honey to try and get the right flavor for this cake and glaze.

As with all gluten free recipes, this needed testing before I share it with gluten-indulgent friends. So this morning I halved the recipe and baked an eight inch round. I had no issues with it at all, it baked up perfectly in thirty minutes! I just tried a piece, and it's delicious! I'm sure the butter, eggs and sugar have a lot to do with that. ;) (At least it's gluten free!) It's soft, a little crumbly, tangy and sweet. The glaze hardens and makes a nice sugary crunch. A must-have for a spring or summer tea party, baby shower or BBQ. Put it in a glass cake dome or on a lovely pedestal. Perfection!

Here's the recipe for an eight inch round. Double it and proceed with care to attempt the full Bundt cake - I don't know how it would turn out in a gluten free form.

Gluten Free Lemon Cornmeal Cake
Grease an eight-inch cake pan with coconut oil and dust with rice flour.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together:
1 cup rice flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Add:
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (or less if you watch your sodium intake- I used just a sprinkle)

Whisk together well and set aside.

In the bowl of your standing mixer, beat together the following on medium speed until light and fluffy:
1 stick softened unsalted butter
Between 3/4 and 1 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon

Add 2 omega-3 organic eggs and blend together.
With mixer on low, alternately beat in dry ingredients and 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt which you have stirred smooth. Mix until batter is smooth, but do not overmix (never overmix gluten-free batters).
Batter will be thick. Scrape into prepared cake pan and smooth with spatula/spoon.

Bake for thirty minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Place pan on wire rack to cool.

After five minutes, remove cake from pan and place atop a square of parchment paper. To make the glaze, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar and juice of 1 lemon in a small bowl. Sugar won't dissolve completely. Pour/brush glaze over the hot cake until much of it is absorbed.

Let cool and rest for several hours, then enjoy! Serve in thin slices.
To keep overnight or longer, make sure cake is covered well. It tends to dry out quickly.

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Our camera is not working right now. We are hoping to be gifted a new one before Baby Girl arrives, because pictures of our newborn will be kind of a necessity! But I took a few pics with my phone, just for fun.

The cake, ready to go in the oven - the batter is quite thick as the recipe states:

Hot out of the oven before glazing:

Glazed and cooled and missing a piece (now it's missing two!):

Hmm... Gluten, Dairy, & Sclerosing Cholangitis

I am searching for articles and information that connnects sclerosing cholangitis (the disease that ruined my first liver) and gluten and dairy foods. I found Dr. Sandra Cabot's website www.liverdoctor.com and got two of her books about a year and a half ago. Her work is the first I'd ever heard of that connected diet to SC (Sclerosing Cholangitis). My liver numbers had been creeping up over time since Fall 2008, and I was interested in finding out ways that I could change my behavior and possibly help my liver. I don't get any help with that from the medical end, because they are so wary of or out of touch with nutrition and diet as treatment for digestive and hepatic diseases (well, other than avoiding alcohol, I suppose). Since my food allergy diagnosis last summer, I've been much more aware of symptoms from my reactive foods. And I really have a hunch that, although I tested negative two years ago for Celiac Disease, that in fact I do have it - I wasn't eating gluten at the time of the test, and my doctor said it did not matter. I've since found out, of course it matters! I wish I had the official diagnosis, but I don't really need any more evidence for myself. I do have a dairy allergy diagnosis, "officially." I was abstaining from it for quite some time, until I got pregnant and couldn't stomach anything but Greek Yogurt, fresh fruit, and everything bagels with cream cheese. Oh, and since we ordered the chicken nachos at our local Mexican restaurant. Oh cheese, how you entrap me...

Anyway, sometimes finding out that my hunches are more than a hunch helps me to get on track. I have found some intriguing information today, and it is motivating me to get back on board with healthier, allergen-free eating.

Here are some of the articles I found:
Gluten and Liver Disease

Sclerosing Cholangitis by Dr. Sandra Cabot

Celiac Disease in Patients with Severe Liver Disease: Gluten-Free Diet May Reverse Hepatic Failure

Gluten Sensitivity and Liver Disease

EOSINOPHILIC COLITIS AND SCLEROSING CHOLANGITIS IN A PATIENT WITH ATYPICAL CELIAC DISEASE