It's both wonderful and frustrating to have so many things to want to blog about and not having a good stretch of time to write them all up. We are getting a dog -- our first since we've had kids -- this weekend, so I'm taking a few minutes to get one thing down and I may have to let the others percolate. Just know that I HAVE to HAVE to HAVE to write up my experience at Philadelphia Chutney Co -- So good! But in the meantime, I've been thinking a lot about how I came to the decision to do my detox, which I continue to follow. The path leads back to two TED Talks presentations I watched over the past months. The first was this one with Matt Cutts: Try Something New for 30 Days. The big takeaway? If you want something badly enough, you can do anything for 30 Days. It's shorrt -- 3:27. Watch it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.html The other was this video by Dr. Terry Wahls. Longer, but really powerful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc&sns=fb She has MS and went from wheelchair-bound to complete mobility in a very short period of time through diet. Her recommended diet is not one that most people would be willing to try, but when the stakes are high enough and the will strong enough, we can do anything. After watching both videos, what other conclusion could I draw than to do a detox for 30 days? Which brings me back to the top of the entry in which I bemoan lack of time to share my bloggy wisdom and to put into this site and my gluten-free coaching endeavor the things I've decided to pursue. If I want anything badly enough, I can do anything for 30 days. Now time for me to start my next 30 days. It's going to come to pass whether I rise to the challenge or not. As a follow-up to my Nutritional Yeast Exposé, I want to report that I've been enjoying it on Beans and Greens. And scrambled eggs. And scrambled eggs with Beans and Greens. Very adventurous, I know. But it's good like this. Go easy on the salt though, the nutritional yeast adds its own sort of salty quality.
And as an aside, take 17 minutes to watch this TedX presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc&sns=fb A physician with MS has made great strides in her recovery from eating very nutrient-dense foods. B-vitamins feature heavily as a desired dietary component. Nutritional yeast has loads of B vitamins. Nuff said. I have anemia. My primary phsyician sent me to a hematologist after I religiously took iron supplements for months with no improvement. It was my hematologist who put the various pieces together and tested for celiac disease. Turns out he was right.
Enter the gf diet as of September 2010. I feel better. I have more energy.Improved GI quality of life. No more canker sores. And yet, my anemia persists. Maybe the vast quantities of dark green leafy veggies aren't enough to keep up with demand. Maybe my heavy periods are to blame. My celiac antibody tests have come back normal, and all signs indicate that my gut has healed. For the time being, I'm going in monthly for the two-hour iron transfusion process. I'd rather this not be the long-term solution. I see my celiac doc next week, so I plan to explore it more then. In the meantime, I recall that I have tested low on B12 and folate, which is completely understandable given my vegetarian and enriched bread-free life. While my anemia is of the iron deficiency type, I don't really know how it is distinguished from B12 deficiency anemia or folate deficiency anemia. These are clearly questions for my doctor. But, in the meantime, I figure it can't hurt me to try to boost my dietary sources of B vitamins and folate. Which brings me to the topic of nutritional yeast, which is rich in both plus tons of other good stuff. Seems like a virtual treasure trove of health all in a weird flakey substance. The only way I knew how to use it is to sprinkle it on popcorn. A serving of the stuff is 3 TABLESPOONS. Since I eat popcorn maybe once every 6 weeks and I would practically have to bury it in nutritional yeast, I tried adding it to my usual diet of soups and stews. I quickly learned that it has a distinct enough taste that it needs to be treated as a primary flavor, not as something I sneak into the pot. So I googled it. The big take-away there was to use it as a replacement for parmesan cheese, which I eat even less than I do popcorn. More research and ideas were necessary. The obvious place to turn was the celiac listserv, which is a huge list populated by real people with real experience. I got a number of replies, some with actual recipes, and some with links to most excellent websites by gluten-free folks who clearly spend a lot more time in the kitchen than I do. Here are some of the suggestions, recipes and links. Gravy: I got a couple of suggestions and links for gravy. I'm not much of a gravy eater, but we are in the holiday season when gravy seems to live large. Here's one recipe: Start with a rice flour roux, add similar quantity of yeast as flour, then milk (or soy or coconut milk for the vegans.) Adding a bit of onion and garlic to the fat used in the roux is good, also a splash of GF tamari or amino acids enriches the flavor if you like those seasonings. Serve with steamed veggies and rice, or as gravy for tempeh. And here's a marinara sauce enhancement recipe: 1/2 cup marinara, 1 TBSP Almond Butter, 1 TBSP flax seed meal & 1 TBSP nutritional yeast. Wendy Gregory Kaho of celiacsinthehouse.com suggested sprinkling it on kale chips and she recently reviewed Jules Shepard's cookbook, Free For All, which boasts a gf quiche that uses nutritional yeast as a primary ingredient. And in addition to celiacsinthehouse.com, here are some additional recipes and great websites I'm glad I got introduced to: http://beyondriceandtofu.com/2010/04/18/recipe-review-double-bean-pasta-with-tomatoes/ http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/gluten-free-vegan-breakfast-tofu-saute-with-nutritional-yeast-8192.html Sage gravy, cauliflower gratin, dips, etc: http://toyourhealthnutrition.blogspot.com In the end, I know I need to do some experimenting. Since my usual cooking M.O. is to make a big pot of something on the weekend and eat it for a number of dinners the coming week, I need to figure out which of these suggestions or which sites would accommodate that. And I can definitely sprinkle it on kale chips, popcorn, in scrambled eggs, incorporated into dips and added to gf pasta and sauce. Over the past 10 weeks I had four transfusions of iron to bring my hemoglobin level up from paltry 9.4 to low-normal 12.3. Actually, the 4th transfusion happened on the day that my numbers came back in the 12's, so hopefully I'm holding at even better numbers. So my big question was: If I've been as strict on the GF diet as I think I have, why is my anemia still here? My hemotologist said I needed to talk to the GI people to explore it. So, between my first and second visit to the hemotologist, I talked to my care providers at Jefferson's Celiac Center and came up with a plan to do additional blood tests to see how my folate and B12 levels were doing, since I was deficient in both when I was first diagnosed and since they are absorbed in the same part of the small intestine as iron. We also decided to re-test for the antibodies that are present in active celiac disease.
I had a couple of theories about my anemia. The first was that I am extremely sensitve to gluten, and that the chance contact I get in my own home from crumbs on countertops or rinsing my veggies or beans in a clean colander that was set in a sink that had previously had pasta water in it was keeping my intestinal enteropathy going. The second was a possible issue with lectins, which are proteins found in a lot of the foods I eat, and which from what I've read can set off all the same markers as Celiac disease. The third was that all of the doctors for the last 25 years were right, and that I am anemic because I bleed every month and my celiac is a weird coincidence and that the anemia is really a blessing because it brought about my diagnosis. The fourth is that there is something else going on. My blood tests came back perfect, except for the iron. B12 and folate were normal, as were the celiac antibodies. So either something else is going on, or I'm anemic for some other reason. Sounds like a job for the hematologist. Or WebMD. Either way, I'm going to continue getting my iron levels monitored and get topped off with a transfusion before I get really low again. I've felt so much better since my iron levels have been boosted and I don't want to slip back again. Some people with Celiac I've talked to have reported a life-altering boost of energy when they went gluten-free. I felt much better in many ways, but had no such elevation. In fact, my anemia is still here and I'm signed up for iron transfusions every two weeks until I get into the normal range. Which tells me that even though I have celiac and I live a strict GF lifestyle, my anemia has got a different cause. And I'd really like to get that boost in energy that other people have gotten.
On a hunch, I've started researching lectin intolerance. My sister-in-law texted me last week about a runner she had heard about who was anemic because of a bean allergy. I little research later, and I discovered lectin. From the descriptions I read, it sounds like lectin intolerance can set off all the same antibody tests and causes blunting of villi in the small intestine, just as gluten does. Lectin is in just about everything, but especially grains (from what I can tell, gluten is a type of lectin), legumes, nuts, seeds and veggies in the nightshade family -- tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes. If lectin is part of my issue, I'm not sure how I would get enough protein and remain vegetarian. No one's got a book or a suggested diet plan for lectin intolerance, though one paper I read on it suggested borrowing heavily from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. The SCD is used primarily by people with Crohn's Disease, and it's apparently VERY helpful for that crowd. Another book to get and read in my quest for health and happiness. |
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