When I tell people I have diagnosed food allergies to gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, cane sugar, vanilla and nutmeg, I am usually asked "WHAT'S LEFT TO EAT?" Finding safe (nonallergenic) foods can be challenging, because my allergies are often INGREDIENTS in common American foods, rather than specific foods. However, I was not diagnosed all at once with my allergies. Over a period of 3 years I learned (through Enterolab stool tests for IgA mediated allergies and ELISA blood tests for IgG mediated allergies) which foods caused my painful (and sometimes scarey) symptoms. Then I gradually learned which foods were free of my allergies. Of course, I must still obsessively read food labels, because 'safe' products often change their ingredients to add my allergens. (My first clue is often 'new, improved version'. LOL) Nevertheless, for readers of this blog who wonder what I eat, I decided to keep a meal by meal (plus snacks) food journal which describes what I eat. Rather than wait to post after a few days of entries, I will just keep editing this post to add new meal entries. Here are today's meals and times (which show a meal's 'staying power'):
9:30am Breakfast: 1/2 gluten free Seattle Brown hamburger bun (like a small English muffin) with 2T. peanut butter (fresh ground at Whole Foods with no additives), 1/2 chopped comice pear, cinnamon, 1 tall mug of hot water. (Later: a tall mug of rooibus tea w/ 1 tsp Agave.)
2pm Lunch: Ham sandwich (2 slices GF SB bread, 1 T homemade mayo (cashew base), lettuce, 2 slices tomato, 3 slices Hillshire Farms honey ham (cane sugar free), 2 baby carrots, 1/4 Gala apple, tall mug H2O.
5:15pm Snack: 2 tsp. peanut butter, 1 cup ginger tea w/ 1 tsp. Agave.
7pm Dinner: Homemade spaghetti sauce (w/ onions, garlic, zucchini, carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, shrimp) on gluten free spaghetti (small petit pan full or 1-3/4 cups); 1/4 cup Truly Decadent dairy free (coconut milk) 'Passionate Mango' frozen dessert; tall mug hot H2O.
Later: 1 tall mug ginger tea w/ stevia (1 packet)
WEDNESDAY 2/11/09
9:30am Breakfast: 1/4 c. Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Gluten Free Cereal (buckwheat, corn, brown rice and sorghum) w/ 1 T. rice bran, 1 dash cinnamon cooked in 1 c. hazelnut milk with 1/2 chopped comice pear, 1 T. almond butter, 1 tsp agave; tall mug hot H20 (Later: 1 tall mug Pau D'Arco tea w/ 1 packet stevia)
1:50pm Snack: 3/4 (9 slices) Gala apple
2:45pm Lunch: 1/2 bean guacamole wrap (homemade guacamole w/ refried black beans spread on large rice tortilla); 2 baby carrots; tall mug hot water. (Later: 1 tall mug Chai Redbush tea w/ 1 stevia)
7pm Dinner: crookneck squash, sauerkraut with apples, 1 mild Italian turkey sausage (about 2 cups altogether, previously frozen leftovers dinner), small ginger cookie, tall mug hot water
(Later: 1 tall mug ginger tea w/ stevia)
THURSDAY 2/12/09
SNACK 8am: 4 oz. apple juice
BREAKFAST 10am: 1/2 GF SB hamburger bun, 2 T. peanut butter, 1/2 chopped comice pear, cardamon, cinnamon, tall mug hot water.
(Later: tall mug Pau D'Arco tea w/ stevia)
LUNCH 2:50pm: 5 baby carrots, sandwich w/ 2 slices SB GF bread, 4 slices deli honey ham, 2 slices tomato, lettuce, homemade mayonnaise, 1/4 cameo apple, 1 bite ginger cookie, tall mug hot water. (Later: rooibus tea w/ stevia)
DINNER 7:15pm: 1-3/4 c. (petit pan full) Casserole (chicken, wild rice, red onions, kale, red pepper, carrots, garlic); 1/3 c. Truly Decadent dairy free (coconut milk base) chocolate frozen dessert; tall mug hot water.
(Later: tall mug ginger tea w/ 1 heaping tsp. agave)
OK, that's enough boring food journalling. I'm starting to repeat menus. The people who wonder what I eat never responded to this post. Only one person who questioned the amount of protein I eat (esp. for breakfast) and maybe overlooked the value of nonheme vegan protein source combinations. For that commenter and anyone else who wonders why I don't eat more .... (fill in the blank), I only weigh around 100#. I don't want to waste the earth's resources, food or $$ by eating more than I need. "Diet for a Small Planet" (which taught me about combining nonheme protein sources for complete protein) still influences my choice to eat as little as I need to satisfy physical hunger, rather than as much as I can get.
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5 comments:
Hi, Sue. That was really neat to read about what you eat. You eat a lot less protein than I do. :) That's something that jumped out at me because I know that is what is usually different from most folks about what I eat.
I like that rooibos (sp) tea, too! Do you enjoy hot water to drink? I am not sure I would... does it help your digestion? I'm just curious :)
Hi Lisa: Maybe you overlooked that I eat lots of nonheme (non meat) protein sources. Probably because my stomach lacked acid, I didn't digest meat well for many years. (As a child I frequently threw up in the middle of the night after eating high fat beef meals. So I dislike most fatty meats, but love fatty fish, which is full of omega 3s.)
When I began looking for allergy free foods, I found vegan protein sources, like beans and rice, nuts and gluten free grains, seeds and grains, beans and nuts, etc. So what may seem like low protein meals are actually vegan, more easily digested protein meals. I wasn't digesting meat well, because I didn't have enough stomach acid, until I started supplementing with HCl at every meal a little over a year ago. So initially the vegan protein sources worked better. Now that I'm able to better digest protein, I actually eat more meat. However memories (of poorly digesting meat and feeling awful) persist. So I'm slowly moving toward more meat (actually fish and chicken, rather than so much red meat). Nevertheless, I still enjoy all vegan days, because I can more easily digest fruits, vegies, beans, nuts and grains. (I take an 'excuseme' supplement to easily digest cruciferous vegies and beans.)
Yes, I LOVE hot water (from our filtered hot water dispenser in our kitchen), esp. during the winter when I'm more often cold. During the summer I like room temperature or even iced water. I'm drinking more water, now that I only drink water with meals. I don't know that it helps digestion, but something is improving my regularity. Maybe abstinence from aspartame and saccharine, maybe more water ... However I've tried drinking more water previously and not noticed this much improvement.
I started drinking rooibus tea in San Diego after a tea specialist in 'Old Town' told me the source and benefits of that tea. I forgot the benefits, but love the taste now. LOL
Oh, I should clarify that, Sue. :) The breakfast protein is the main thing I noticed. 1 or 2 TBSPs of nutbutter would never do the trick for me... (since that is up to maybe 14 grams of protein) or for a lot of SS types, even smaller ones. 'Course I'm much larger, too, and I find that I really do need about 35 grams of protein in the morning and at all meals. I get it in a shake, but a 5 oz. chicken breast would do, too. I just noticed it because that kind of stuff jumps out at me now. I used to eat breakfast like that, too (peanut butter and all fruit was something I did a lot), but it didn't work for my body. I still felt tired, sluggish, unsatisfied, etc. and then I binged or overate later and was hungry in three hours. It is good that it works well for you... I just found it interesting. It's neat to see what does work for different people.
For me, I notice my body prefers dense protein, and that beans don't work so well for me as protein (or as the only main protein in a meal; it's fine if they supplement). It is not surprising to me, in light of my eating, and journaling, etc. that I've learned a lot of folks on my program WANT to do vegetarian, for example, but their bodies don't. :) Their bodies want at least eggs, fish, chicken, cheese, cottage cheese, etc.
All of this eating protein in these amounts is also part of the reason that most SS people don't want to try RR. :) They say, well, if I have to eat more than 2 large eggs (at most 14 grams of protein), I won't do it. Even the very thin SS folks still use the body weight/6 to get their protein amounts. I know of one person on the program who weighs about 100 pounds. She says she eats 20 grams of protein per meal because she needs that much, and the range falls between .4-.6 protein per pound of body weight to produce stable brain chemistry in folks that have blood sugar, serotonin, BE issues like me. For folks around 250 lbs. or more, 42 grams at a meal is the limit. Anyhow, sorry to bore you to death...
I think that low protein is rampant among folks like me who binge or eat lots of sugar, struggle with their weight. I'd bet on it...
Lisa: Have you ever read "Diet for a Small Planet"? Do you understand what I mean by combining nonheme sources of protein? If not, foods like rice, beans, nuts have 'incomplete' protein or they don't contain ALL the amino acids necessary to qualify as a 'complete protein'. So combining 2 different incomplete protein foods, which together provide all the necessary amino acids, provide complete protein sources. Beans alone would NOT provide enough protein for me. However (in my lunch example), I combine refried beans with rice tortilla, for a complete protein source.
You're right about the weight thing. I weigh about 100#. So I need less than half the protein you need. However, also consider the amount of protein my body can actually absorb with depleted stomach acid. Low pH (high acid) plus pepsin is necessary to digest meats. I must take HCl supplements to provide enough stomach acid. So I can't digest meat as well as nonmeat (vegan)protein combinations. I suspect total ABSORBABLE protein is more important than total consumed protein in my case.
I agree that adequate protein AND fat is necessary to prevent blood sugar instability. However, I do NOT binge on sugar. I am NOT overweight and have not been overweight for over 40 years. I can easily decide to abstain from a food if I believe it's bad for my health with no tapering off, just abstinence. I think that all says my diet works for me.
However, also consider that what you read in my blog is only 3 days' of meals. After a few days of vegan or meat with vegan protein sources, I may crave more meat, fish or poultry. For example, our Valentine's day dinner will be whatever good steaks (and asparagus and potatoes) I find on my shopping trip today. Nevertheless I try to really limit red meats to mostly organic, because of all the contamination (hormones, toxins, etc.) in some red meats. I DO listen to my body and eat intuitively, rather than following a book or diet program. So my body tells me how much of various nutrients I need.
Amazingly, I suspected years ago that I needed more magnesium and vitamin B and started eating food sources and taking supplements for those nutrients. When I was diagnosed w/ CD, I learned celiacs are often have deficiencies of B & magnesium. Then when I learned I have low stomach acid, I learned inadequate stomach acid doesn't absorb B & magnesium very well. So supplementing stomach acid also helped me absorb more B & Mg.
Over the years I have learned to intuitively give my body what it needs DESPITE having undiagnosed (and misdiagnosed) CD, food allergies and all those other gut problems. If I would have been correctly diagnosed (rather than misdiagnosed with 'gastritis) years ago, I probably wouldn't have developed all the deficiencies or even suffered with disordered eating habits. (Many undiagnosed celiacs develop disordered eating habits before diagnosis.)
Hi Again Lisa; I overlooked your 2nd sentence. I NEVER have just 1 T of nutbutter for a meal (although I may stick my finger into the jar of peanut butter for a 1 tsp. snack when I'm really hungry before a meal LOL). I always have 2 heaping tablespoons of nut butter smeared on a gluten free grain muffin plus some kind of fruit. The only time I consume one T of nutbutter is in hot cereal where I also have a cup of hazelnut milk (another protein source) combined with gluten free grains for complete protein. I suspect you don't understand the concept of combining nonheme protein sources. You'll have to read (or review) 'Diet for a Small Planet' sometime.
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