Andrea's Blog

Well, you wouldn't know it by looking outside. We've had a few really nice days, but it's expected to be in the 50s one day this week. It's almost April! What is going on? I know everybody up in the Midwest has had snow. I just keep looking out the door bewildered and checking the Weather Channel on my phone. I never know what it's going to be! Bundle-up or flip-flops, or my personal favorite, blue toes in flip-flops? We just take it day by day. 

I thought for sure that I'd make it outside for something this weekend, but it didn't happen. I did, however, make a cameo at the Gluten Free Expo at the St. Petersburg Coliseum. Grey and I showed up about an hour before it was over, wondering if they'd have some great speaker at the last minute or some new revolutionary products. There were, of course, TONS of giveaways and coupons and brochures. I did grab a few business cards from vendors and talked to a health coach while I was there. 

I must say, though, that I was disappointed. While I'm grateful that I now have free snack fodder for the boys' lunches for the next month plus, I'm not sure how healthy it all is. There's just so much processing going into gluten-free products these days. Nothing they were giving away or selling was anywhere near simple or resembling anything homemade. 

I talked to a baker about Paleo cooking. She said that the biggest problem for them was cutting out the sugar. She wanted to substitute Stevia--which in some Paleo circles is forbidden (no artificial sugars or regular sugars). Although I'm not sure what other ingredients she was going to substitute, the sugar, I think, was the least of their worries. 

In Diet and Nutrition, Dr. S has been teaching us all the pathways and extolling the dangers of grains, sugars, and indirectly, processing. We've linked all these starches, Omega 6s, and sugars to everything from heart disease to Alzheimer's. Of course that doesn't make it all so easy to give up, but the argument is getting more and more persuasive. So I have to think--just because something is gluten-free, that doesn't make it healthy. Whether it's the canola oil, the high fructose corn syrup, or the ingredient that I can only dissect with a piece of paper and a chemistry textbook, it may still be gluten-free, but it's also a science/health experiment. I know for a fact, that gluten-free can still be simple. The more ingredients, the more likely that there might be a problem, and that doesn't work for anyone. 

I'm beginning to explore the ins and outs of the Paleo diet and trying to marry it with my own sense of nutrition. I suspect I'll be more restrictive in many ways than what the standards are. I still can't see/justify eating huge amounts of bacon. Something just doesn't seem right about that. I'm not sure whether it's the huge amounts of fat, the salt, or the nitrates. Yes, I know that all of those are available nitrate-free, but last time I checked--we were all students, yes?--I also know that I will never eat beef or eggs again. I think there has got to be a way to balance nutrition and our evolutionary developments with the limbic system. Otherwise, we'll all end up eating only 35 cups of Romaine lettuce with steaks wrapped in bacon. And between you and me, none of that sounds all that appetizing. 

Last but certainly not least, I want to congratulate everyone on making it through midterms. We finally had our last one on Thursday. I'll spare you all the drama involved, but I know we are all extremely glad that that is over. I want to offer Dr. Ott my undying gratitude for being, perhaps, the coolest-headed professor I've ever come across. I must find for you, Dr, Ott, 5 million gold toilet stickers. You deserve them. (And if you want to know the story about the gold toilet stickers, you can email me). 

Everyone also deserves congratulations for making it through Mercury retrograde. Thankfully, Mercury went direct on St. Patty's Day--and not a moment too soon. I was tired of fixing everything, fighting and mediating fights, and just generally being in a funk.

Happy First Full Week of Spring to everyone and Happy Easter, Ostara and a Blessed Passover to all who celebrate.

This week's pictures are from Lake Maggiore--which is not far from my house. I was hoping to get some gators in there, but it was a bit too cloudy. If you enter through Boyd Hill and take the trails, I PROMISE you'll see some BIG gators. To my classmate Lauren, here's where you (don't) want to go. :) 

On Easter, this year, while everybody's eating their dark chocolate Paleo-friendly bunnies (I like to bite the ears off first), I'll be celebrating 15 years of being gluten-free. It's hard to believe. "Back in the day", things were a whole lot different than they are now. It seemed that few people had celiac (or were gluten-free) or knew anything about it--including the professionals. The testing was different--biopsy and IgG anti-gliadin or anti-endomysial blood tests. The pre-made food was a lot harder to find (and surprisingly less expensive) and the education of the medical community was nearly non-existent. My how things have changed! There are sensitive and specific blood tests now (tissue trans-glutaminase), everything seems to have a gluten-free label on it, and docs--especially those in our profession, seem to know more and more about the benefits of going gluten-free.

My household has been gluten-free--exclusively--for the last 5 years. It's so important that the whole house be in support of the diet. For me, it was a no-brainer. Both Grey and I are Celiac, and Forest has never purposely had gluten. All the support groups stress how important it is to avoid contamination (and NOT cheat!). In order for a product to be considered gluten-free, it has to have less than 200 ppm of gluten.

For Celiacs, even small/accidental exposures are dangerous. People might not have an overt reaction to contamination amounts, but they might still cause sub-clinical symptoms--flattened villi, malabsorption, deficiencies, and constant damage to the GALT--leading to lymphoma and GI cancers. Yikes, right?! These small amounts can remain in cooking utensils, porous cooking pans, and shared equipment. So, after a major move and shift within the family, we started over with new utensils, new pots and pans, and a completely clean house. Other than the occasional poison-carrying visitor and the cats (whose food smell reminds me of wheat bread toast), we don't even allow lickable envelopes (Did you know that glue contains wheat?).

I can't begin to say how much of a difference going gluten-free has made in my life. Besides feeling infinitely better, I've experienced a number of benefits--from clearer thinking to better skin and hair (and most importantly, a happier gut!). For Grey, the benefits were a lot more dramatic. He was born at the 95th percentile, and before being diagnosed, dropped to less than 5th percentile. Of course, that was a long time ago--and now he's bigger than I am! 

I've been asked if I'd endorse a gluten-free diet. I absolutely would. I'm not so sure that I'd endorse all the pre-packaged foods being sold on store shelves right now. Processing is pretty much always bad. But, with all the research that's coming out about lectins, gliadin, and grains, it's making more and more sense for pretty much everyone to be gluten-free. So, I'll leave all of you with this: Educate yourselves about what you CAN put into your body--and what effects it might have. If you're not doing it for yourselves, do so for your patients. Remember that not all cases are textbook (in fact most cases of Celiac aren't). If you need help, feel free to contact me. And for some other resources, check these out:

• http://www.glutenfreesociety.org 
• http://www.celiac.com

And one last thing: I'll leave you with some "crack" containing, non-Paleo, yet gluten-free yummies--just in case you're going gluten-free and missing something sweet. (Don't hate me, Dr. S.!) 

These are gluten-free, can be made egg-free and dairy-free, are vegetarian (but not vegan) and are most definitely NOT sugar-free. 

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350º F.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cane sugar (not white - turbinado or dehydrated cane is best)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg replacer (1 Tbsp. egg replacer powder with 3 Tbsp water - or sub 1 egg)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla (I make LIBERAL use of vanilla - DO NOT use imitation vanilla)

Instructions

• Mix this stuff together with the mixer.
• Add in the following:
• • 1-1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix (6 parts rice flour : 2 parts potato starch : 1 part tapioca starch) (Keep some extra just in case you need to stiffen up the dough.)
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 cup (or more) chocolate chips (I like Ghirardelli mini semi-sweets mixed with their 60% cacao)
• Bake for about 12 minutes per pan.

No baking adventure is complete without flour all over the kitchen LOL. Please do your part to continue the tradition.

Next Food Adventure: Converting gluten-free to Paleo. I accept this challenge.

Have a GREAT week everybody!

January is almost over! It's REALLY hard to believe. We're at the start of the 4th week of school and midterms are right around the corner. This Tri is screaming by.

Friday night marked the Tri Mixer. We have one every tri, usually in the first month. Some turnouts are better than others (this one was not so great). Regardless, a good time was had by all at Ferg's sports bar. There were about 15 of us, mostly representatives from the upper tris. We did see a couple from Tri 2 (thumbs up from the blog chick for showing up, kids!). It was a relatively early night, although I was there long enough to see some of my esteemed colleagues make a run at "the wobble." I'll protect their identities. Suffice it to say, it was a good show.

Round 2 went on at the Bishop in downtown St Pete. I sat that one out. I claimed "old lady" and went to sing karaoke instead (yes, I sing karaoke, and I'm not bad, either). The Tri-mixer is one of the few times when the earlier tris can meet up with the upper tris (after Tri 4, the classes are in the Annex and not in the Caruth building). I highly encourage everyone to go. Although I firmly believe, what goes on at the mixer should stay at the mixer (kinda like Vegas). It's a time to cut loose and have a good time, and of course--forget all the work that we have to (and are about to have to) do.

Nutrition Presentation

This week, and next week, I'll be focusing on my diet and nutrition presentation--polyunsaturated fats. I know, I know. It sounds SOOO exciting. But think of it this way--Omega 6s vs. Omega 3s. (Are you getting excited yet?) I haven't finished my research yet (it's hard to get much done with Moose the supercat laying on my hands/laptop), but I'm feeling like it's going to be almost entirely functional medicine oriented.

I'm totally infatuated by the anti-inflammatory/pro-inflammatory focus that Dr. S is giving us in Diet and Nutrition. It's making me rethink what I put into my body. I've always been pretty focused in that direction, given that I'm a Celiac with multiple food sensitivities already. I have to be so careful. It's somewhat reassuring that medicine/science is starting to figure out that there are other reasons why we probably shouldn't be eating grains (especially wheat). I know that I'm highly biased in that department. It's made me want to research the Paleo-oriented diet--but also Paleo as it pertains to my heritage (German-Scotch-Irish--remember I'm from the pale people). I keep wondering how I will feel if I can convert my diet over to something that I was actually meant to eat.  (Maybe it's time to find out!?!)