Month: July 2013

Gluten-Free Friendly Dining Near Wrigley – Cozy Noodle

My brother and his wife live outside of Los Angeles. My parents live out east. The entire family has not visited Chicago at the same time in the summer before and we had never gone to Wrigley Field as a family before. Therefore, in honor of my father’s birthday we decided as a family to go to Wrigley Field and have the entire Wrigley experience. Part of that experience, at least in my mind, is eating before the game at one of the local restaurants. One teensy problem. My son and I cannot eat gluten or dairy and my brother and his wife are vegetarians. So did we find a place to eat? Yes we did. We had a terrific lunch at Cozy Noodle. Cozy Noodle is a block from the stadium at 3456 Sheffield (Sheffield and Cornelia). It is a very cool, fun destination type place complete with a bathroom lined in Pez dispensers. It is also a very good Thai restaurant and even without reservations we easily explained our needs and were directed to dishes we could eat and offered accommodations to make others available. We ate well. Everyone enjoyed their lunch. I cannot remember the last time I had Panang Noodles. I think it has been five years. Yet I ate them here and was not ill. There is no gluten-free menu. They make no warranties....

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Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Corn-Free Banana Pancakes

I always felt ripped off when I went to a restaurant and they offered me fruit pancakes which were just pancakes with fruit on top. I wanted fruit in the batter. So now that I make virtually all of my own pancakes I put the fruit in the pancakes and not on the pancakes. In addition, I always have bananas in my freezer because once they get a bit too ripe I peel them and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer for use in baking. And I always have bananas going bad because bananas are the snack of choice in my home. This combination leads to banana pancakes. I am sure that there is a way to make these without eggs, but I have not had good results with egg replacer so this recipe contains eggs. The issue with egg replacer is that the pancakes get very sticky and they stick to the bottom of the pan. Admittedly I have only ever used the commercial egg replacer. You may get better results with flax seeds or chia in place of eggs. I also don’t use non-stick pans and they may make a huge difference as well. Despite the eggs, these pancakes made with the recommended mix are gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, potato / nightshade-free, seed-free, soy-free, legume-free and can be made nut free by changing out the...

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Salt Consumption May Trigger Autoimmune Disease

A recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine follows up on the revelation back in March that seems to indicate that salt, any salt, not just “refined” salt but also fancy pink himalayan salt, may be triggering our rash of autoimmune diseases. Yes, its the chips, and the bread (bread can contain a spooky amount of salt) and pizza and the nuts and the take-out and the frozen dinners and anything else we eat to save time. Now there were a few limitations to the results. First of all they only showed it worked in a mouse model. Mice are a great place to start and mouse models are worthy of attention, but we are not mice. It needs further research. Second, the pathway that it interferes with is especially problematic for people with MS, type 1 diabetes, RA or psoriasis. I am not sure that these t17 helper cells are necessarily the driver for allergies and while my immunology class is pretty far in the rear view mirror, t-cell problems leading to IgA disorders like celiac disease seems a bit of a stretch. My guess from reading way too much of this stuff is that this pathway will be an important driver of certain autoimmune diseases but not necessarily all autoimmune disease. That said, is there really anyone who thinks that reducing salt intake to something...

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Gluten-Free Friendly National Deli Chain – Jason’s Deli

I got a haircut which meant that I was right near the courthouse downtown. I was there with my son, my mom and my dad and we were hungry and in need of something to eat. Yes, there is always Wildfire and Big Bowl, if you want to wait and spend $30 a person. We almost went there, but then I discovered Jason’s Deli. I am originally from New Jersey which means that I appreciate a good deli. The problem has been that I did not know of one that could accommodate me. Today, I learned that Jason’s, which is a chain, apparently could. My son, to his delight, had a roast beef with mustard, lettuce, and tomato on gluten-free bread. Now, Jason’s has a doozy of a disclaimer on anything marked gluten free because they do not have a separate kitchen and they do not want to be sued by celiacs who get sick. The disclaimer says that they do not meet celiac standards. And they probably don’t. However, if you are a regular reader you might know that I personally could be rented out to test gluten in products because even mild cross-contamination makes me look four months pregnant and totally exhausted (plus of course you do NOT want to share a bathroom with me for about two days). I finally stopped eating sushi because the cross-contamination...

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American Cities with Gluten-Free Dining Options

You have to think that when one of our top local radio stations goes to the tagline “You are gluten-free and we are commercial free” that you are in a place with plenty of gluten free options. And you would be correct. According to the Huffington Post, Chicago is ranked fifth in the nation for gluten-free menu choices. Huffington Post reports that as much as 29% of the nation is trying to cut back on or eliminate gluten even though only 1% of us are true celiacs. At this time of year a lot of us take vacations, which are a challenge when you have food allergies. When you have food allergies, stopping for a quick bite at a roadside fast food place is out of the question. In addition you may, like me, travel often to a place like Florida, a state with no dots at all. Disney World accommodates allergies, but what if you need to go somewhere that is not at all gluten-free friendly? If you are reading this because you have other food allergies, I would like to give you a tip. Even if you can eat gluten, when you can, eat at restaurants that cater to the gluten-free community. Most of us celiacs are reactive to gluten and something else. Something else may be dairy, corn, soy, nuts etc. At a restaurant that caters...

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Gluten Free Dairy Free Carmelized Nectarine Upside Down Cake

With all the fresh nectarines and peaches available right now, I wanted to make an upside down cake. Since I am far too lazy to peel peaches, I went with nectarines which do not need to be peeled (peaches probably don’t either, but somehow I feel like they do). When I started looking at recipes to adapt I could literally feel my arteries hardening and my pancreas screaming at the recommended amount of sugar and oil for the caramel layer. Seriously, 1/2 a cup of oil and a cup of brown sugar? Ick! So I decided to see if I could make a good cake with a fraction of those amounts. And as it turns out, I can. It does not have that caramel syrup that you might expect, but it is still very sweet and nectarines carmelize well with the reduced amount of sugar. The cake is a bit tricky in that the wetness of the nectarines can make estimating the proper cooking time tricky. I would tell you that longer is likely better than shorter and that you really really need to be sure that the center is completely done before unmolding the cake. Not that I unmolded an underdone cake or anything…. I used a vanilla cake mix as a base, and I used Namaste because the mix avoids all the allergens. That said, I have...

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Does Fish Oil Really Cause Prostate Cancer?

Every so often weak science hits the news and poops up everything. A group of people who are frequently not scientists, who work someplace you never heard of, review research done by others and come to a startling and incomplete or inaccurate conclusion which gets reported, inaccurately, and with lots of misquotes. So if you are still afraid that fish oil will increase your risk of prostate cancer, I would like to help you relax. There have actually been multiple studies done at prestigious research centers and universities where they actually measured fish intake and not just blood levels of omega 3s. . When actual scientists did the research they found that fish consumption had no impact on whether or not you got prostate cancer but that if you did get prostate cancer your survival chances were much better if you ate fish. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3629172/ At McGill, which is one of the most prestigious universities in Canada, they found that fish consumption caused prostate cancer mortality to DECLINE 63%. Total incidence of cancer was not impacted. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844069 But I wouldn’t put my faith in any one study so here are a few more worth reading http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18996866 and on ALA and prostate cancer we have this one… http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23674441 and from the journal Prostate Cancer we have this one http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3488406/ and this one (the conclusion is at the end) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621295/ Conclusion –...

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Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Corn-Free 15 Minute Chicken Marsala

I had chicken marsala recipes. They were just a pain in the butt. There were mushrooms to shop for and slice. There were onions and garlic and then I needed the right milk for cooking. So I decided to try to make an easy version. These experiments did not go well. One attempt dissolved into an inedible sock flavored mass in the crock pot. Then I got inspired and this one came to me. Its so easy its kind of embarrassing. If you want something you can do with a kindergartener, or that a kindergartener can do with supervision, this is your recipe. There is no chopping, no dicing, no glass containers and no can openers. This recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, nut-free, peanut-free and egg-free. It does however contain some soy so it is not suitable for anyone needing to completely avoid soy. Ingredients 6 boneless skinless thighs 1 cup sweet marsala 16oz creamy portabello mushroom soup. I use Imagine Brand Portobello Mushroom soup which is availably widely and can be purchased by the case on Amason. It comes in a 16 oz septic pack with a screw off cap so no need for a can opener. 1 1/2 cups dried shiitakes broken up by hand into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces pepper to taste 1 tsp herbed de provence (totally optional) Rice or bread for serving Equipment...

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Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Corn-Free Vegan Frozen Lasagne

One of the challenges of living gluten and dairy free is the fact that if you want to eat it you need to cook it. If you like to cook, this is not a huge transition. If you generally use your oven for shoe storage then needing to make so many meals can seem overwhelming, which is why I am happy to find gluten-free processed foods that don’t taste like a sock or have a weird texture. So I was excited to see that Amy’s has now come out with a gluten-free dairy-free and apparently corn-free frozen single serving lasagne. Yes, single serving frozen lasagne. Pair it with a salad and you have dinner. It does contain soy and coconut oil so it is not for everyone. This should not be confused with health food, but it is not half bad. It has 7g of sugar, 14g of fat, 9g of protein and 4g of fiber. It has 700mg of sodium. It also has only 300 calories and 30% of your RDA of vitamins C and A. The ingredients are mostly all recognizable food items (rice flour, basil etc.) but include a few that some people worry about including titanium dioxide, xanthan gum, natural flavor and inactive yeast. I bought the product at Whole Foods which has a policy of not selling anything that contains true MSG, so that...

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Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Corn-Free Soy-Free Easy Chicken Fingers or Nuggets

I love the story of how Post-It notes were invented. They were shooting for superglue and ended up with something that barely stuck at all. So they thought “Hmmm now what can we do with this…” and the rest is history. Which is kind of what happened here. I was trying to make tempura batter. I failed. I ended up with something too substantial, too stuck on to the meat. Something which failed to be fragile and sparkling. I did not make tempura bites. I made chicken nuggets. I took them to a party and they were gone. This was huge for us since the only major gluten free brand of chicken nuggets or fingers coats them instead in corn which meant that for us at least chicken nuggets and chicken fingers were out of the question. Plus most of them do not taste good. Which is insane because gluten-free flours should be an improvement. Japanese chefs actually prefer rice or special low gluten flours because gluten makes fried flour chewy (think funnel cakes). So I personally think this is better than the normal chicken fingers. Its also MSG free. The following recipe is adapted from a chicken tempura recipe done by Emeril Lagasse. And when I say adapted I mean that I changed every single ingredient except for the egg and the cold water. But I got the...

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Fecal Transplant Heals Ulcerative Colitis

I am neither a doctor nor a medical researcher, but I have a pretty strong hunch about what causes genes for digestive disease to be turned on. I believe in the hygeine hypothesis. I especially believe that antibiotic use, without a concerted plan to restore the microbiome after the antibiotics are done, may well be causing this increase in autoimmune and digestive disorders. Although quality research in this area is lacking, there are what seem to be an increasing number of anecdotal stories of disease going into remission once the human microbiome is repaired. The following story was in the Op Ed or Review section of today’s New York Times. It tells the story of a man whi was very ill with and perhaps dying of ulcerative colitis who figured out how to give himself a fecal transplant, found a gluten-free donor, and then proceeded to do the transplants twice a day, then once a day until his health returned pretty much to normal. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are agonizing conditions which have proven in meta-analyses to respond frequently to a gluten-free diet. That said, they are responsive, not cured. This is one of the reasons that stories like this one are so interesting to me. Another reason I find this interesting is because my own stomach issues started right after my recovery from peritonitis due to a...

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The Upside of Food Intolerances

One of the good things about having celiac disease is the way that it compels you to make healthier choices. Since I literally cannot eat pre-made cracker and lunch meat kits, and my child cannot eat them either, there is no temptation to purchase them. We cannot eat frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…so we don’t. I can eat junk food, there is plenty of gluten-free processed food, but some of it tastes funny and its very inconvenient, so I eat less of it. Most fast food restaurants are a sea of cross contamination. So I never eat at them. Pizza is a monster hassle and I have to at least heat my own fries (although I need not make them from scratch). Since I have to read the labels on everything (found that out after poisoning my son with juice that contained barley…oh and the malt flavoring in chocolates) I read the sugar content and the ingredients list. Both can be scary.. and eye opening. So while it is easy to feel sad that you can no longer eat a burger that can be left on a shelf for three years without going bad, there is an upside….like you can no longer eat a burger that can be left on a shelf for three years without going bad. So I saw this video on Upworthy. It is from...

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