Wheat, Gluten and Sugar

I’m a bit too tired to think of a funny title for today so I’ll settle for the three words that encapsulate the whole.  I will tell you at a later date why I’m incredibly tired, but today is not that day.

As I wrote yesterday I have become enthralled with the whole issue of eating and in fact being, gluten free. It all started with seeing an article someone posted on facebook about a link between headaches and gluten.  I have long suffered from headaches. More often than not I would tell people how I knew it was going to be a good day because I didn’t have a headache. I’d tried numerous avenues to rid myself of the beasts but they persisted.  We also have several allergy issues in our family. In fact, I just don’t think people in their 40s should start acquiring new allergies. It’s not right and yet that is what I have done in the past year.

I picked up at the library a book by Dr. William Davis, M.D. entitled “Wheat Belly“. It has been nothing short of fascinating. We have all heard of the Glycemic Index. The Glycemic Index (or GI) is a numerical scale that is used to indicate how high any particular food raises our blood glucose, or blood sugar. The higher the GI the greater the spike in blood sugar. And the greater the spike, the harder the crash. We all know that, right? Right.

What you may not know is that 2 slices of whole wheat bread has a higher GI than 2 tablespoons of pure sugar.

Yeah, go back and read that again to be sure you read it right.  Two slices of whole wheat bread raises your blood glucose higher than that of 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Now let’s pretend you’ve just received a diagnoses of diabetes and you go to a class on how to live with the disease.  You’ll learn to limit your sugar while maintaining a “healthy” diet of  ”healthy whole wheat and whole grains.” So you commence to do just this convinced you’ll be able to control your disease with diet. Only it’s not long and you’re on insulin injections every day.

Why? Because you’re eating “healthy whole wheat and grains.” The cure is slowly killing you. You would be better off, much better off, ditching the healthy whole grains to the curb altogether. Stay off of insulin, possibly reverse your diagnoses by avoiding gluten like the plague.

But wait! It’s not just the gluten. Oh no no no no. If you were to decide to avoid all gluten you’d probably go to the store and purchase a bag of gluten free, all-purpose flour. And think you’re doing a good thing for your body. No gluten. No blood sugar spike. No hard crash. Life is good.

Not so fast, twinkle toes. In that bag of “healthy gluten free” flour you will find potato starch, rice starch and tapioca starch. Guess what they do?

If you guessed skyrocket your blood sugar like wheat bread, you’d be absolutely right.

Now the up and down blood sugar causes, guess what? Oh alright, I’ll tell you. It causes you to eat more. Oh yeah. Your blood sugar spikes at noon, crashes at 2, by 2:15 you’re too sleepy to live so you reach for a “healthy whole grain snack” to perk you up. Which causes your blood sugar to spike and crash which causes you to eat  more.

Which adds more weight. Now where do you suppose all this extra weight likes to hang out?  If you guessed in your mid-section you’d be absolutely brilliant. Not only does it love to hang out on your mid-section (can anyone say beer belly, muffin top or love handles?) it also likes to hang out on your internal organs.

from tsgood.com

No, not like church organs. Like your liver and kidneys. Yeah, those organs. The very organs you need to…oh what is the word I’m looking for??? Oh yeah, I have it…live. You could live very well without a church organ, not so well without your kidneys and liver. Oh yeah and your heart too. You have to have that.

So before you reach for that bagel, think of your innards.  They’ll thank you!

Keen-Waaaa-t?

I have had allergies for as long as I can remember. I now have year-round allergies and honestly I think we should take a large amount of stock in Kleenex because we can’t not have them in the house, van, or within easy reach.  Due in part to my allergies and in part to my family history, I’ve also been blessed to suffer through headaches, migraines in particular.

Yeah, lucky me.

A year or so ago I went to the chiropractor in hopes of alleviating my headaches. I’m not sure it was all that beneficial though because even while I was being treated I was experiencing headaches.  I’ve honestly had quite my fill of headaches, sneezing, and a constantly drippy nose. So when I saw a link someone posted on facebook about a link between headaches and gluten I was all ears…errr eyeballs.

Now one thing you need to know about me. I eat a healthy diet already. I don’t (generally) eat white sugar and flour. I don’t buy processed foods. We just don’t eat that way. The only boxed foods we have in the house is pasta. I have made my own pasta before but I’m not generally thinking far enough ahead to get that done before we need to eat.

A few years ago we switched to all whole wheat bread and “healthy pasta” made with Jerusalem artichoke flour. I cut out ruthlessly everything with high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, sugar, beet sugar, and all the other ingredients hidden but are sugar. I did not stop eating fruit, because I would eat naturally occurring sugar the way God made it.  If I was eating something that told you how many mgs of sugar was in the food, I read the ingredients, if the sugar came from a natural source, i.e. fruit, I ate it anyway.

But seeing the article and learning how gluten can hide and mask itself in different health issues, part of which are allergies and headaches, I decided last week that my 12-year old and I would embark on a gluten free trial period of 4 weeks.  She has had a strange rash that we aren’t able to get rid of and she has allergies too. The 10-year old and Mr. FullCup would be free to eat anything their little ol’ heart desires.

Until I read further about gluten and how it can manifest itself. Allergies and asthma. Now my 10-year old has never been diagnosed with asthma but she is on an asthma medication and has been on it since she was about a year old.  So I determined she would also join the no gluten month long adventure. Mr. FullCup did not want to be left out so he joined up too.

Then I read it takes 3-4 months to rid your body of gluten. Yay. So I increased our experiment to 6 months. Our plan is to have nothing with gluten for 6 months and then eat a little bit and see what happens. I’m thinking we’ll all die.

No, just kidding.

This is now my 5th day of being gluten free and the second day in a row I did not wake up with a headache.  I’m pleased.

Our change in diet has made my cooking, that was at best mediocre (at worst un-edible), a lot more interesting.  I’ve gotten creative a little with cooking. I’ve made tortilla-less tacos. I’ve also made quinoa.

Let me tell you something about quinoa. It stinks when you cook it. And for the most part I’m afraid to eat it. I can’t bring myself to eat food I don’t like, no matter how healthy it might be. Which makes me more than a little afraid to try new foods.

A friend is about a year ahead of me on the gluten free diet convinced me that quinoa is good. The jury is mostly still out on that. She gave me a tip yesterday, “rinse the quinoa before cooking.”

So last night I rinsed the quinoa. I lost some of it through my mesh, Pampered Chef colander, but I rinsed what I managed to keep in while rinsing and then had to pry it out to put in the pan.

After doing that I was reading the back of the package a little more, when I stumbled on this gem,

“Our quinoa is pre-washed so you can simply cook and eat, no need to presoak or rinse.”

I mixed our rinsed, rinsed and cooked quinoa with 16oz salsa and cheddar cheese and really if you eat while hot it’s not too bad.

If you’re gluten-free, and have recipes or tips for us, please! Leave them in the comments.

The Poor

I’ve been reading a lot of books about helping the poor. It’s a good thing. We are commanded in Scripture to help the poor, the widows and orphans. In my reading one question keeps coming to mind repeatedly.

Who are the poor?

Now it might sound like I’m asking the same question the rich young man asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” But trust me, I’m not. I’m not looking for loopholes. I’m not looking for ways around the command. I think we first need to define the poor so we can know how to help them.

Some think the poor are only those like this:

from http://www.lancegold.blogspot.com

Black skinned and in dire need of food. Yes, they are poor, the live every day in abject poverty. They go to bed hungry, they wake up hungry. They aren’t able to go to school because they don’t have food, school supplies and might be needed to carry a heavy workload at home. To many people, this is the poor people.

But what about people like this?

from http://www.forbes.com

Could this man be poor? He obviously isn’t lacking in financial resources. He looks like he has every thing he needs. If we look only on the surface of things though.

The poor are not only those lacking in financial resources. I contend every single person alive on planet earth are in some way, shape or form poor.  With that in mind, I believe our focus on helping the poor, meaning those living in poverty, is too narrow.

If we broaden our focus to see that all men are poor and work to help them in whatever their needs are we are fulfilling the command.

It is very easy to see the poor as only those lacking financial resources because it’s easy to throw a few dollars into a collection plate or give to an organization that works to eradicate the poor. It’s a little harder to actually get our hands dirty investing in someone else’s life. It’s not easy to get involved with those who are needy.

We are all needy. We all have the cure for someone else’s need. Those of us who love and serve Jesus have exactly what someone else needs. Are we sharing it? Are we helping the poor if we leave Jesus out of the equation?

I contend that we aren’t. If we merely help the poor and ignore the needs of those who don’t look poor around us, we aren’t really doing what Jesus commanded.  If we help but don’t share the great love of Jesus, we aren’t doing enough.

I’m not at all saying we have to be “doing” all the time. I am saying when we realize the great gift we have, that Jesus alones meets all our needs, and we don’t share Him with others we aren’t helping. We’re keeping our lamp under a bushel basket.

I know there are some who are steeped in a legalistic gospel based on what we do. I’m not doing that. I’m saying our love for Jesus should extend to His people and the people of this world. Out of our love for Him should naturally outpour good works for Him. Not because it’s legislated from a pulpit, or the pages of a book or even this blog.

So how about if we start praying for eyes to see the needs in others? Even if they look “rich” in our eyes. Even if they don’t look like they need anything. Maybe what they just need is someone to notice them. To befriend them. To talk to them. To pray with them.

And yes, let’s not forget those who are starving for food. But so many are starving for something.

A day in the life

English: Bear Grylls in front of an Alaska Air National Guard, 210th Rescue Squadron HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter before heading out to Spencer Glacier to film Man vs. Wild (Born Survivor). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have pulled the  plug on my facebook account for a week. I, obviously, have not given up all technology and the internet during this week, but still this is the first time I’ve had a chance to sit down and blog. I’ve been busy yet my house sure doesn’t show it.

Tuesday was my forty-something birthday. Yes, Mr. FullCup did announce to all who tuned into his radio station just what my actual age is, but I’m not spilling the beans.  It was a good day, aside from him telling the known world how old I am. (And please, if you’re reading this and know, please, DO NOT inform anyone and everyone who might not be privy to that knowledge.) I managed to get a decent run in, nothing remotely like what I was running a few years ago, but decent nonetheless. Then it was time to open gifts. From Mr. FullCup I received the final 3 seasons of I Love Lucy, from Goober, WOW Hits 2013 (which makes me wonder, if we’re only not quite three months into 2013 how do they know what the hits of 2013 will be???) and from Beanie, an 8-cup food processor.

I’ve started watching food documentaries, which can be both good and bad. Bad because I get quite irritated by the lies the food industry and our own government tell us. And we, the American people, are being so snowed!  We’re like sheep led to the slaughter. Sigh. I better move on to the good part because I’m getting irritated all over again. The good because we’ve started eating more fruits and veggies. Now we’ve always been a huge fan of fruit and some of my family (like 3/4…I’m the lone hold out) like veggies. I think they’re a bit daft but oh well.

In this vein I’ve started making fruit and veggies smoothies…with my blender. Which works okay but not at all like the food processor. I’ve added a variety of fruit. Apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, and pears. The veggies: spinach, alfalfa sprouts, celery (DON’T Add that. It’s nasty), and carrots. I’m game to try one with green pepper. I think that would be tasty.

This morning I ran 5 miles in under an hour! WAHOO!!!! A friend told me recently that I only had the illusion of speed ( I realized later I should have responded with something along the lines of “Yeah, well I’m lapping you!” but I didn’t think fast enough that time). I still think being in my mid-40s and running a 10:30 mile isn’t too shabby.

Yesterday I declared a “sun day”. Not Sunday…the first day of the week. And not Sundae the ice cream treat. But a “sun” day. We’ve not had any snow days at all, and really since we home-school we don’t usually take them. But yesterday was entirely too nice to stay inside doing school. I managed a 2.6 mile walk in the morning, cleaned out my front flower beds (which reminds me I still need to get the debris off the driveway), walked to our library, and then spent the afternoon/evening reading and watching Man Vs. Wild.

Have you seen that show? We’re big fans…except when he eats something completely disgusting. We watched an episode yesterday in which he (he=Bear Grylls) killed a skunk and ate it after he roasted it over an open fire. He said it tasted like meat rolled in dog poop. And he continued to eat it. Not me. I’d have spit it out at the first bite. I know I know. When you’re in the wild you take what you can get and and you don’t throw a fit but I think I’d rather starve.

 

Related articles

• Faith, Water, and Bear Grylls (brianwilliamsen.wordpress.com)

Oh Nuts!

I don’t know about you but I’m all about saving money. We recently clawed our way out of debt, debt we had started acquiring in the mid-90s. It was a long haul but with determination, self-discipline, no problem (at times) saying “NO!” to ourselves, persistence it paid off. Pun completely intended.

One way I started saving money was by shopping at Sams Club. Now I’m not sure if you realize this or not but I am not in any way, shape or form a fan of WalMart.  I know Sams Club and WalMart are pretty much one and the same, but I have not had near the trouble with Sams I’ve experienced at WalMart. So I shop there. Well that and the fact Costco is over an hour drive from the closest Sams which itself is 90 minutes away.

I buy most of our groceries in bulk once a month. One thing we consume a lot of is peanut butter. We all love it. I am simply amazed at how the price of peanut butter has risen. It almost isn’t less expensive to buy it at Sams Club anymore.

It’s also one of the things I miss the most about not eating white sugar. I love peanut butter. I love it with bananas, apples, toast, bread, carrots, you name it. If it can be eaten with peanut butter I probably like it.

I had gotten it at the health food store but that seemed a little cost prohibitive since a small container cost almost what I paid for two large things of Jiff at Sams.

Enter my latest fascination with all things food related. I’ve been watching food documentaries like a freak the past few days. I’ve watched King Corn, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, Fat Head, Forks Over Knives, and Food Inc. And I’m astounded. Partly astounded over the slant of the documentaries.  Most of them have touted the evils of meat and the glories of a plant-based diet.

I say eat a balanced diet and you should be fine. By “balanced diet” I most assuredly do not mean equal amounts of white and milk chocolate. I mean eat plenty of FRESH fruits/veggies, proteins (be they from animal products or not) and fat.  Basically, people if it comes in a can DON’T eat it.

Today I traveled to the grocery store to stock up on more fresh fruits and veggies. You would not possibly believe the bounty I acquired for $50. Now I know prices are different around the nation, if not the world but listen to what I purchased, 7.5 pounds of bananas, 4 pounds of oranges, 1 pound of strawberries, 1 pint of blueberries, 4 pounds of carrots, 5.75 pounds of apples, 3 cucumbers, 2 zucchini, 2 eggplants, 3 pounds of cuties (clementines), 2 packages celery, 10 pounds gold potatoes, 8 tomatoes,  4 green peppers and one bag of fresh spinach.

Then we headed to our local health food store and purchased 1.3 pounds mixed nuts, flax seed, and 2 pounds of fresh peanuts. The peanuts were a mere $3.49 per pound.

I used about 2-2.5 cups of peanuts and ……

 

 

 

 

drum roll please……

 

 

 

 

 

made my own peanut butter!

The best part?

All that is is peanuts. No oil. No sugar. No nothing. Just peanuts.

I have heard so many people over the years tell me they “have to buy junk food because they can’t afford fruit/veggies and a more healthy diet.” I say BALONEY!  And I believe this might just prove my point.

 

Don’t you know

Last night I had a million thoughts swimming around in my head. I contemplated getting up and jotting them all down only I knew once I turned on the computer I would become instantly awake. So I stayed in bed and fell asleep instead.

All those thoughts seem to have run screaming from my head. I have nary a thought.

Other than of my poor aching head.

Allergies. Allergies are or will be the death of me.  Between the ones that affect my sinuses and the ones that affect my skin..I’m a walking allergy factory.  Spring and Autumn seem to the worst for me although I suffer all year. If the allergen isn’t outside, it’s inside.

I saw yesterday on weather.com that Alaska had snow already. And I longed to live there. This time of year I find myself longing for the first good, hard freeze and if Alaska had it already why not move there?

Then I remember 6 months of near darkness and proclaim loudly, “Not for me, thanks!” I need sunshine. It’s a good thing I live in the greatest state on the plains where we get a lot of sunshine.

 

Salsa Chicken Dance

I get tired of cooking and eating the same thing week in and week out. Tired of it, I tell you. My family is not picky eaters at all. And really except for veggies I’m not picky either. I could very happily do without meat but I need protein.

I do know there are very good alternates to meat for protein but I like easy and I don’t like to wonder if I’m getting enough protein. So we eat meat.

Yesterday I was befuddled about what to make for supper. I had made extra roast beast (thank you, Dr. Seuss!) but didn’t want just leftovers. I wanted to make something wonderful. I contemplated home-made hash-browns, eggs, sausage and possibly pancakes.

Then I hit pay dirt! Just before noon I was flipping through Kathi Lipp’s book, “The What’s for Dinner Solution” and I shrieked “EUREKA!!!”

I loaded the girls in the van for a quick run to Target for a couple of things we needed for the recipe. At home we tossed it all in the crockpot and 6  hours later we were dining in style.

Salsa Chicken!

Believe me it looked and smelled a lot better in person than it does in that picture. It’s a cinch to make, takes almost no time at all in preparation. And smells divine!! Tastes even better!

The recipe:

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts.                            32 ounces (4 cups) of you favorite salsa
1 drained can of corn.                                                      1 drained can black beans.

Put all in your slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours. 30 minutes before you plan on eating, shred the chicken.  Continue cooking for 30 minutes. Serve over rice (spanish rice would be delicious). Add some sour cream and OoOoOoOoO-LaLa! It would also be tasty rolled up (with the rice) in a tortilla. Or just eat it with your favorite taco condiments. Eaten with tortilla chips is also good!

 

(Recipe found in Kathi Lipp’s book, “The What’s For Dinner Solution”, page 146)