Tag Archives: Gluten

GlutenAid – does it work?

Posted on June 14, 2012 | 21 comments

I got glutened last night. And it was entirely my fault (hate when that happens).

What was it this time? A double chocolatey chip frappuccino from Starbucks. I’d never gotten one before (usually I stick to the “light” mocha or coffee ones since I know they are gluten free) – but my boyfriend said it was delicious so we decided to split one. I don’t know why I didn’t think to check before I started sipping, I guess I just assumed that because all of the other ones were this one would be too. *Kicks self in the butt*

After about five sips I knew something was up (we’ll call it my glutuition) and I quickly did a Google search on my phone. Of course – the chocolate chips contain gluten.

Then I moved into damage control mode, bracing for my stomach to start churning. After about 30 minutes I was dead tired and my stomach was getting bloated – but nothing too horrible. My boyfriend, wanting to help, started looking up all kinds of “what to do if you get glutened” information and said that a lot of people take Benadryl to reduce hives/rashes (which I’ve gotten before). I’d never tried it so I figured it couldn’t hurt, and we headed to CVS to pick some up. (Check out my usual post-glutening routine here).

CVS was out of Benadryl (must be allergy season), but he spotted something else in the same aisle… Glutenaid?!

There is zero information online about this stuff, but I figured that $14 is worth doing an experiment (plus the placebo effect can be pretty powerful).  The active ingredients are: protease, DPP-IV and amylase. The usage instructions say to “Take 1 capsule with the first bite of any meal containing gluten, or when food preparation is unknown.”

Hmm…I’m skeptical. Let’s see what they say it does:

“CVS/pharmacy GlutenAid is specially formulated for individuals who feel unwell after eating wheat or grain and thus may have an intolerance to gluten. Gluten is a protein that most often is found in grains such as barley, rye, wheat, and spelt. The enzyme DPP-IV is well known for its ability to break down gluten proteins, which may reduce the onset of symptoms associated with gluten intolerance. CVS/pharmacy GlutenAid is also formulated to assist in the digestion of the carbohydrate portion of grains (such as wheat) by means of the enzyme amylase. CVS/pharmacy GlutenAid works well in conjunction with restrictive diets such as gluten free/casein free and others. This product is not intended to replace a gluten free diet for those with Celiac Disease.”

So, basically it will break down the gluten faster.

After looking into the ingredients and figuring that it couldn’t hurt me, I took one GlutenAid and three B-12 vitamins. Surprisingly, I didn’t find myself rushing to the bathroom 30 minutes – 1 hour after I had the drink like I expected to. I slept through the night with very minor symptoms.

Then this morning I woke up and it hit. Although not as bad as it has been. It seems like the GlutenAid might have actually done what it said it did, which was “reduce the onset of symptoms”.

Now, I’m in no way going to ever take this and intentionally ingest gluten. And I’m also in no way endorsing this product – all celiacs know that there is no cure and there is no way to find a loophole around a strict gluten free diet.

After this incident, and after every time I slip up and get glutened I will end up becoming super obsessively strict with my diet afterwards. But – if I do ever have a similar situation, I will take a GlutenAid again. Even if it was just the placebo effect, or if it only delayed/reduced my usual symptoms by a few hours, it certainly didn’t hurt. Next time I see my doctor I’m going to talk it over with him and see if he thinks there’s any validity to the formula.

Any one else try this stuff? Or anyone have any other home remedies after getting glutened? 

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Best grits in DC

Posted on June 1, 2012 | 2 comments

Going out to breakfast or brunch can be a challenge for celiacs. French toast, pancakes, English muffins – gluten seems to be the star of the show in most dishes. Nine times out of 10 I end up eating an omelette or some kind of eggs, which is mostly okay with me. Except for the fact that they usually come with hash browns or home fries, and I’m always skeptical of how they are made (they could be fried, put on a griddle next to the toast, come from a mix that has them coated in flour, etc.)

So when a restaurant has grits on the menu, they are always my go-to substitute. They’re creamy, cheesy, buttery, and good ole’ Southern cookin’.

These are my top three restaurants for grits that I’ve found in DC yet.

1. Ted’s Bulletin

Seriously amazing cheese grits. They’re like a finer, condensed macaroni and cheese.This isn’t the most colorful plate in the world, but so delicious.

2. Vinoteca

Nice and cheesy, just how I like ’em. These come with big pieces of cheddar on top. Try them with the smoked salmon omelette.

3. Art and Soul

I only had a taste of my friend’s grits here as a part of their shrimp and grits dish at dinner, but they serve them as a side dish at brunch as well. If Art Smith can’t make a good pot of grits, then I don’t know who can.

Any places I’m missing for good grits? Or anything else you substitute for toast while eating breakfast out? 

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Eating Rice in Brooklyn

Posted on May 30, 2012 | 1 comment

Last month I attended a social media workshop in Brooklyn, which was great because even when I lived in NYC I didn’t go over the bridge very often. It doesn’t hurt that this was the view from the office the workshop was in in Dumbo.

For lunch, the restaurant Rice happened to be just a few blocks away, and I’d been wanting to try it after seeing it pop up on a few blogs.

I started with a bowl of butternut squash soup, but it was really nothing to write home about. What is something to write home about were their veggie meatballs.

It takes a lot to make tofu taste indulgent, and not like health food. But this did it. I really don’t know how they make these things. I’m guessing they put the tofu and some kind of spices in the food processor, then reform them into balls, fry them, and coat them in this delicious sweet and sour type sauce.

If I would have known better I would have gotten something other than boring brown rice. Having black rice or sticky rice would have made it all the more delicious.

Rice
Locations in Nolita and Dumbo
www.riceny.com

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Gluten and brain fog

Posted on April 19, 2012 | 6 comments

Similar to my recent post on gluten and memory loss, gluten is also linked closely to mental “brain fog”. A feeling of confusion, reduced ability to think clearly, or make quick connections. Because we can’t feel the tissue in our brains like we can feel the tissue in our guts, we don’t necessarily identify the effects of a glutening on our cognitive function. But it’s there. In fact, unexplained brain dysfunction is seen in 6 to 10 percent of patients diagnosed with celiac disease.

Sadly, I find my brain is often in a fog. Case and point: I opened my kitchen cupboard yesterday morning to get out a coffee cup and I find this scene.

Yep. That’s the half & half that I used in my coffee the morning before. I put it in the cupboard instead of the refrigerator.

This happens all the time. Not just with the half & half, but I’ve found peanut butter in the freezer. I’ve inexplicably lost one flip flop somewhere in my apartment. I’ve looked for 30 minutes for my phone before remembering that I plugged it into the charger.

It’s like I’m 90 years old – my brain just misfires and it will just do things that make no sense while caught up in the fog.

So, what causes this annoying lack of mental clarity? Gluten, of course. Among other things.

The top three gluten related causes of brain fog are:

  1. Nutrient deficiencies – especially B vitamins and zinc. Due to malabsorption of these and other vitamins/minerals, the body and brain can start not functioning properly.
  2. Milk and dairy. Studies have shown that for many celiacs, eliminating gluten isn’t enough to completely lift mental side effects from the disease. Only when dairy and gluten were eliminated did their condition improve noticeably.
  3. Sinus congestion/pressure. Gluten can cause inflammation of the sinuses, which places pressure on parts of the brain and increases histamine levels.

With the elimination of every trace of gluten, and in some cases dairy, conditions in people with brain fog have been shown to improve, especially in children. In one study, a group of children who eliminated gluten from their diet raised their grade point averages from 2.5 to 3.9!

Of course, this is just more evidence that I really need to give up dairy in my diet. It’s something I’ve tried and something I dread actually having to do, but maybe it will help me stop putting my half & half in the cupboard 🙂

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My four favorite “secret” gluten free bloggers

Posted on March 24, 2012 | 4 comments

I follow a lot of blogs – some gluten free, some healthy living, some fashion/lifestyle, and some that are a mix of all of them. I’ve found that some of the blogs that I get the most out of, or like the best, are ones that aren’t explicitly focused on gluten free living/recipes, but are “secretly” gluten free. By “secretly” I mean that they often have recipes that are gluten free or give easy substitutions to make them gluten free.

I think what I like so much about these blogs is that, while I love reading about Celiac Disease and the gluten free community, sometimes it can get to be too much (or too depressing). These blogs are just fun, plus they all have easy and healthy recipes to boot!

These are four of my favorites!

1. Clean Eating Chelsea
Not only is Chelsea totally hilarious, but she’s gluten free! I’m always getting ideas from her on new ways to make my morning oatmeal, and totally appreciate that her recipes are made with whole foods and are heavy on the veggies!

Must make recipe = the perfect bowl of oatmeal. This is basically exactly how I make my oats in the morning, except I let them soak overnight and then microwave them in the morning. Chelsea gave me the idea to put jam in my oats, which revolutionized my breakfast – a spoonful of sugar-free raspberry jam in oatmeal makes the whole thing burst with raspberry flavor!

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2. Chocolate Covered Katie
Katie somehow is always coming up with ingenious recipes and healthy twists on classic desserts. While most of her recipes are very close to being gluten free from the start, if they aren’t then she always makes sure to put in instructions on how to substitute ingredients to make them gluten free. Awesome!

Must make recipe = chocolate chip cookie dough dip! I use gluten free oats in mine and it’s one of my favorite healthy indulgences.

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3. The Wannabe Chef
I love this guy. He has tons of simple recipes for quinoa, tempeh (one of my staples), and is notorious for delicious brownies.

Must make recipe = banana pancakes! With only five ingredients these are as simple as can be (because I don’t know about you, but early in the morning the last thing I want to do is measure out 7 different kinds of flour).

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4. Dashing Dish
Katie’s blog has a ton of creative recipes. While they aren’t all gluten free, she’s great about putting substitutes in – not to mention pumping up her recipes with protein and keeping them low in sugar! Any girl who can actually come up with a recipe for “chocolate protein frosting” is a miracle-worker in my book!

Must make recipe = rich chocolate cake with chocolate protein frosting. (You should also check out her strawberry protein pancake roll ups)

source

Thanks to Chelsea, Katie, Katie, and Evan for all of your great recipes!

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Celiac side efects: anxiety

Posted on February 5, 2012 | 1 comment

There are hundreds of symptoms and side effects of Celiac disease, and each person who’s diagnosed seems to be affected by a different cocktail of them. Even once you start following a gluten free diet, there are still plenty of lingering side effects that may come and go, be triggered by accidentally ingesting gluten, or just be an ever-present thing you have to deal with (worst case scenario).

One of the side effects that doesn’t get as much attention is anxiety. A German study showed that female adults following a gluten free diet for celiac disease show higher levels of anxiety than do members of the general population. These are women on a gluten free diet, not undiagnosed.

Since our physical well being and the effectiveness of our digestive system is so important to our mental well being, it makes sense that gluten can cause all kinds of issues in your head as well as your tummy (like the link to eating disorders and depression).

I’ve been known to have really high anxiety in certain situations – top on the list is when I’m hungry and know that I won’t be anywhere with food in the next few hours (like at the beach, in a movie, waiting for a table at a restaurant, etc.).

Over the last couple of years I’ve been much less anxious and generally calmer about managing my Celiac’s, which I can attribute to a few things:

  1. I’ve gotten better at packing a snack for myself though, even when I’m sure I won’t need it. Just having it in my purse helps reduce the anxiety. And I’ve gotten over thinking that other people will think I’m weird/a pig for eating at random times. So what if our dinner reservation is in 30 minutes? I’m hungry now. Plus I won’t be able to eat the bread basket, so I’ll be eating at least 30 minutes later than everyone else anyway.
  2. Making sure I get a ton of vitamins, minerals, and nutritious food every day. Your body thanks you when you eat well and your mind follows.
  3. This might be cheesy, but yoga has been a lifesaver for me. It’s a time to clear your mind, concentrate on yourself, and relieve stress. I go to yoga at least once a week, and it works wonders.
  4. For immediate relief from anxiety, running is my cure. Running or cleaning. I like to put on some really obnoxious rap music, sprint as long as I can, and then when I feel like my heart is going to explode, stop and walk it out. Sometimes I’ll even do a little Rocky-style punching in the air…if no one’s around to catch me.
  5. Keeping Celiac in perspective; it’s not cancer, it’s not MS, it’s Celiac disease. Sure, it’s not curable, and it’s a total bitch to deal with, but it’s not the end of the world. I’m strong and I can handle it.

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Ranking the best gluten free beers

Posted on January 23, 2012 | 4 comments

While I’m obsessing over gluten free beer, I figured I might as well make it into a popularity contest and rank my favorites.

If I was presented with the following beers and asked to vote them off of the gluten free island, Survivor style, this is how I would do it.

Beers ranked best to worst:

The best:
1. Brunehaut Blonde Ale
2. Brunehaut Amber Ale
3. Estrella Damm Daura
4. New Planet Tread Lightly Ale
5. New Planet Off Grid Pale Ale

Good, but not my first choice:
6. Green’s Discover Amber
7. Green’s Dubbel Dark
8. Redbridge
9. St. Peter’s

Beers I won’t even drink
10. Bard’s Tale
11. New Planet 3R Raspberry Ale
12. New Grist

Beers I haven’t tried/aren’t released yet:
Dogfish Head’s Tweason’ale (to be released later this month)
Hambleton Ales Gluten Free Ale and Lager
Beljica Brewing

Any ones I’m missing? Agree/Disagree?

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My gluten free pitfall: Chick-Fil-A Shakes

Posted on July 27, 2011 | 1 comment

This morning I saw this video about gluten free pitfalls, and it got me thinking about when I may set myself up for a pitfall of my own.  Usually I am very careful about reading labels, talking to waitresses, and avoiding cross contamination.  But, I admit, there are times when I am not as careful as I should be.

For example, last weekend after my tubing adventure, the whole crew headed to Chick fil-A.  I was a-okay with that because I had packed a bunch of snacks, and knew that I could eat Chick fil-A’s waffle fries because I remembered seeing them before on their list of gluten free items.  Which is really all a girl can ask for 🙂

Small fry for me!

But then I got ahead of myself.  I saw milkshakes on the menu, and impulse ordered one without knowing for sure that it was gluten free.  I know, shame on me.  But since McDonald’s soft serve, Wendy’s Frosty, and most other milkshakes are fine, I just went with it.

But by the time I made it home, I knew that I had eaten gluten.  The catch with Chick fil-A’s milkshakes (according to this post on Gluten Free is Life) are that they make their cookies and cream variety on the same machine (or maybe it comes out of the same spout?  not sure).   So, there’s a high possibility for cross contamination, which I happened to be so lucky to experience right when I got home from the trip.  Not an awful reaction, just my mouth was numb and upset stomach.  But, if I would have just asked them to clean the machine thoroughly before making my shake, it most likely could have been avoided.

So, my bad.

This experience made me think through other times when I wasn’t as careful as I should have been to avoid gluten.  Like:

1.  Group dipping – when I’m at a party or with a group of people, I don’t always feel comfortable asking every person there not to dip their pita bread in the hummus, and instead use the knife to put some on their plate.  So, usually I try to just dip my veggies or gf chips in a place that looks untouched, which isn’t exactly the best strategy.

2.  No gluten free label – there are times when I review a list of ingredients, and there doesn’t appear to be anything in it that contains gluten (this is especially the case with most generic packaged foods).  If I’m really hungry, or there’s nothing else available, sometimes I’ll go for it.  But, until the FDA creates better standards for gf labeling, I should stop doing that.

3.  Mean server – when I’m eating out, if the server seems mean, rushed, or just generally unpleasant, I won’t be as careful as I am when I have a more accommodating server.  Sure, I try to win all of them over with my charming personality, but if they just aren’t having it then sometimes I’ll just kind of cross my fingers and hope that everything turns out okay.  Or I’ll end up having a dry salad because I’m too timid to make them check what’s in their dressings.

So, after this latest Chick fil-A pitfall, I’m going to pledge to myself to work on these three things.

Are there any gluten free pitfalls that you’ve come across?

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The Celiac Kid!

Posted on April 12, 2011 | 1 comment

Last week I received a super fun package, containing a copy of “The Celiac Kid“, by Stephanie Skolmoski.  The cover is amazing – I wish I could have a t-shirt in this design (except with a cartoon that looked a bit more like me, and a bit less like Charlie Brown with a toupee on:) ).

Since I don’t have any kids, I was trying to put myself in the seat of my 6 year old self when I read the book.  I know that kids with Celiac’s must have a really hard time feeling “normal”, explaining their food choices to their friends, and learning about what is and is not okay for them to eat.  I can see how a book like this could be really helpful in explaining the disease to younger siblings, cousins, or classmates who have never heard of a kid who can’t eat bread.  There was obviously a lot of thought put into explaining each type of situation that a kid might find him/herself in (at school, at home, at a picnic, at a party).

I especially appreciated the pages about the mechanics of Celiac’s disease, how it destroys the villi in our intestines and makes us feel sick and lose nutrients.  I wish that I could give some of the people I meet such a simple tutorial!

I also like that the author integrated a lot of typical kid foods into the book, to show that the diet doesn’t have to be so restrictive or unusual.  However, there were a couple of things that I thought could be confusing to kids.  Like there’s a page that says “I love waffles and pancakes – gluten free, of course… So you see, there are lots of different foods I can eat.”  But, without describing that these are special waffles, made with different flour, I can see how another kid might think, “Oh great, my friend can eat waffles!  I’ll make sure to share mine with him/her next time!”

When I first saw the cover of the book, I thought it was going to be more of a fairy-tale-like story about a kid who fights off gluten-filled foods, and maybe takes a journey inside his body (ala The Magic School Bus) to defend his GI Tract from the evil gluten proteins.  Maybe he’d even have some kid of gluten-killing wand, or a sidekick of vitamins to defend himself with.  Instead, the book is more of an explanation of what it’s like to live as a kid with Celiac’s.  Which is definitely helpful, just not as exciting as I thought it would be.  Maybe I should get to writing that Celiac Fairy Tale myself!

After reading the book, I was curious how many other children’s books were out on the market about having Celiac’s, and I found this whole list on Amazon!  Who would have known that there were so many emerging resourced out there?  Hopefully this trend continues so there is plenty ready for when I have kids.

The book is only $6.50, so there’s really no good excuse for not buying it for yourself, your son/daughter, or any young Celiac you know.

Buy it!

 

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Staple: gluten free veggie burgers

Posted on March 22, 2010 | 2 comments

So, I’m not even going to attempt to do a thorough review of all of the gluten free veggie burgers out there (because there are only about three, and I only buy one).  But I wanted to introduce a staple of my diet, as it’s probably going to be included in many of my recipes/reviews.

You can find a great full review here though!

Book of Yum GF Veggie Burger Review

The problem with most vegetarian “meat” products is that they are loaded with wheat gluten.  The titans Boca Burger and Gardenburger don’t have a single lousy product that I can eat (so long vegetarian “bacon” and “sausage”).  Mostly the wheat gluten is used as a filler so the companies don’t have to put in as much expensive soy protein isolate.

That said, I still need my protein, and I don’t want to eat fish every day.  So I eat a LOT of these veggie burgers from Franklin Farms:

I use these burgers in…oh…pretty much everything.  They have 90 calories and 14 grams of protein! For any veggie protein source, that is a lot of bang for your buck.  (More nutrition facts)  Do I sound like a spokeswoman yet?  No?  Ok, how about this?  These are all the things you can do with these magical discs:

  • Crumble them up and put them: in chili, on top of pizza, in soup, on top of a salad, stuffed in a pepper, mixed with rice or quinoa, in spaghetti sauce, in tacos, or anywhere you might use ground beef.
  • Eat them whole with mustard and cheese melted on top.
  • Or mush them into balls, fry em up in a pan, and make meatballs!

Franklin Farms also has two other varieties, but I wouldn’t recommend them (but to each her own, try if you’d like).  You can find these in the refrigerated (not frozen) section of your grocery store.

Order them online here:  Food Service Direct

*only has the portabella and original burgers, but I’ll keep searching for somewhere to order the chili bean online

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