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. I haven't talked much about my weight loss journey, but since it's the season of over-indulgence, I thought I'd share. I was always on the heavy side and decided a couple of years ago that I wanted to be thinner. It was a warm day in late April in 2009, my shorts from the year before were too tight, and my family had joined a neighborhood pool that was set to open in 6-weeks' time. I finally felt like I had had enough and I was ready to do the work to change things.
Like everyone, I had barriers to eating better and exercising more. I have been a vegetarian for a long time, but I was eating lots of cheese and milk and ice cream, so my main approach was to cut out full-fat dairy, cut out snacking, reduce portion size, and start walking. I decided that walking could be sustainable, and that I probably wouldn't be able to keep up with something strenuous or unpleasant. I work full-time, and the only time I had to walk was very early in the morning, while my partner and two kids were still asleep. After a few days of walking and dieting, I felt like I was starving and went on-line looking for motivation to stick with it. I found a great site called PEERtrainer, which has a lot of great articles about changing one's approach to eating (not just about dieting). I got exposed to and began following the Eat to Live approach put forth by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Eat to Live is heavy into high nutrient foods, especially green leafies, and low in animal products and refined carbs like breads. There is no calorie counting; you can eat all the fruits and vegetables and legumes that you want. I also joined some small on-line groups and teams through PEERtrainer, began logging my meals and exercise, and generally found accountability and support. I lost 30 pounds in 6 months, getting down to my goal weight of 125. Through one of my groups I learned about a website call "Couch to 5K" and decided to give running a try, since I felt like the long walks early in the morning were taking too long, and maybe I could get the same or more benefit if I went faster. Lo and behold, I found I actually LIKED it! I'm still doing it, running 3.75 miles 5 days a week, sometimes longer or more often, so I guess it's pretty sustainable. I also joined a VERY inexpensive gym -- $10 a month -- so that when the weather is too cold or yucky, I can do a circuit workout or treadmill there. And my other other back-up for days that I can't run and can't get myself to the gym are workouts at home. We have the Wii, so I do Wii Fit Plus or EA Sports Active workouts OR I do workouts that are in the On Demand section of our cable subscription. Some days I do really hard ones, like Jillian Michaels. Other days I do much gentler ones, like the walking series by Leslie Sansone. I try not to let myself off the exercise hook very often. It's so much easier for me to stick to the routine than to go day-by-day. I got the celiac diagnosis a year ago and have gained back 12 pounds. Part of it is likely a function of a healed gut. The other part is that I'm eating more refined carbs. I think it's the psychology of deprivation. Since I can't eat most of the refined carbs in the world, when one crosses my path that I CAN eat, I have a hard time saying no. The good news is that Eat to Live is VERY compatible with a GF diet. I also slacked off on the frequency and intensity of my workouts. I just need to get refocused on why I want to be thinner and return to doing what works. In some ways it's a hard time of year, since there are so many temptations. But in some ways it's easier for me because I know the temptations are everywhere and I can have my healthy eating plan ready to implement when temptation crosses my path. I hope you'll check out the links above for extra ideas and motivation. I couldn't have lost the original 30 without them, and groups like this one and the ones I mentioned will be key to my re-losing the 12. Oh, and none of them cost me any money. They all do seem to have something to sell, but I used nothing but free content at the websites and got books from the library. (I did buy the EA Sports active for wii, but my kids use it too!) Jenn and I had a great lunch at El Rey on Wednesday. It's a Steven Starr restaurant. I was afraid it would be all crowded but it wasn't. It looked like a retro diner and it had a pretty interesting menu. Lots of gluten-free things. I ordered a spicy mushroom soup and fried eggs over tortilla chips smothered in green chile. It was not my healthiest lunch choice, especially taking into account the volume of chips and salsa I ate in addition to my lunch order. But, it was tasty, and I chaulk it all up to research for GF dining near my workplace.
I went to see the nutritionist yesterday. The experience was less than satisfying. First of all, I hate it when I tell people I'm vegetarian and they continue to talk about meat. For example, she noted that I should be sure to tell wait staff at restaurants to please ask the kitchen to prepare my bunless hamburger on a part of the grill that has been used to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Sure, it's solid advice, and I can extend that to "don't let them fix my eggs where they make french toast and pancakes," but still. It just makes me think she wasn't really listening to me.
Her answers to my questions: Do I need to be really worried about cross-contamination with utensils? No, just wash them well. (I still have doubts because so much of what I have read says to take great care in this area.) What about supplements? Take a good multivitamin and take extra calcium and vitamin D. What about B vitamins? Oh, just make sure that they are in your multivitamin. (In my opinion, I get enough calcium from leafy greens and vitamin D from the sun, at least right now, but that I have no visible source of B vitamins.) Recommendation for a brand of supplements that are GF? Oh, just research it on-line. What about foods the TJ's foods that say that they are made with care but that they make no promises? Whole Foods has a better selection. Anything you recommend? There's a really great cereal. Ammar... something in a big green bag. Really tasty. We got it at Whole Foods for my father. Any other advice? Breakfasts out are hard. You should take your own box of gluten-free cold cereal when you travel. In the venn diagram of my vegetarian-GF-booze-free chocolate-free eat-to-live diet, I think I will have to become my own expert. So, Corn Chex, a cereal I ate occasionally as a kid, is gluten free. It's really great that there is a 100% normal, familiar processed food product that is unselfconsciously gluten-free. I bought a box a few days ago. My younger son and I ate it all in about two days. We bought a new box. I've had four bowls since then.
I worked hard in 2009 to lose 30 pounds. I have mostly kept it off through conscious eating (heavy on greens and beans, a la Eat to Live and Joel Fuhrman) and regular exercise. Gluten replacement foods are mostly devoid of nutritional value, and I don't need a lot. In fact, my health and weight management goals would suggest that I should drop them all together. So what's with the lure of the Corn Chex? They are pretty tasty, especially with vanilla almond milk. Maybe they can be the ticket to the satisfying desserty food I crave. Note to self: Research Corn Chex desserty recipes and figure out a strategy for portion control. |
Archives
January 2024
|