Gluten-free Cooking 'Scratch' That

When first told to take gluten out of their diet, most people feel like something you see in the cartoons. The ground beneath them is suddenly gone. They're hanging in mid-air waiting to fall. The struggle to cook gluten-free wasn't like that for me. I had already learned about dealing with a dairy-free diet and I had fell head-over-heels in love with heath food, herbs, and the vegan diet.

During the ninety's I worked in a health food store where I learned about the vegan diet. It felt so good. Veganism naturally reduces gluten, corn, and bake goods from the diet, and incorporates a larger variety of foods into the diet. Unable to stay on the diet I continued to have health issues.

So, for me, the bottom didn't fall out. It more at slowly crumbled. It started with starch. Starch, with its high pectin content, is the quickest, easiest, and seemingly best substitute for gluten. Gluten provides quite a bit of the nutrition and the strength to hold a rise in breads and cakes. Starch's lack of nutrition lead me to develop a number of my recipes free of it. Although, cakes, breads, and cookies can be made without starch, pie crusts, crackers, tortillas, and biscuits don't hold together,crisp up or roll out with it's absence.

It was after embracing starch I hit that emptiness. Potato and corn starches have larger starch molecules. The larger the molecules the better it works as a replacement for gluten. They also tend to be cheapest. Well, what do you do if you're allergic to potatoes and corn. First there is tapioca starch. It's too close to the potato family. Crossover allergy problems happen there. So, scratch that. Arrowroot starch is an excellent corn starch substitute. Turns out, it's not unusual for manufactures to cut potato starch into a batch of arrowroot, if they are a little short during bagging. Well, scratch that. Kuzu starch made from the kudzu plant costs 7USD for 3.5 ounces. Are you going to stick a cup of it in your baking? I think not! Scratch that.

With so many foods scratched from my diet, it has been an ability to cook from 'scratch' that has been the biggest help in my struggle to live with, not only a large number of allergies, but to also put together a family meal which considers other family member's allergy concerns. It helps with remembering the ingredient combinations needed to make a cake rise, or to take out out one nutritious food and replace it with another. It makes me brave enough to can my own food, so I can avoid the starch not listed on a food label, but used to make factory canning machines work smoothly without oil.

What has helped you the most in your struggle with gluten/allergy-free cooking?

This weeks highly recommended website for understanding gluten sensitivity.

The World's Ultimate Resource On: Gluten Free Diets, Gluten Free Research, Gluten Free Help, Celiac Disease, and Gluten Free Recipes. Gluten Free Society

I think I'm Returning to this blog

After my husband returned to work, it seemed as if, I would never again find the time to write. I am now taking that time, more and more. Just grabbing it and learning how to do it when others are making noise and bugging me. Well, everyone is old enough to take care of themselves while I take a couple of hours for writing fun.

A lot of events have happened in my life in the past two years. I'm, now, a grandmother of 4, 3 boys and 1 girl. I found that I am allergic to corn and that corn is in everything, worst than gluten. Ive been so busy with life and so disappointed by my health issues, I considered abandoning gluten-free blogging all together.

With billions of blogs and millions of them on the subject of gluten-free cooking, I've often defeated myself by thinking why bother. Well, I love to write and I enjoy cooking, and maybe, just maybe, my experiences can help someone out there on the web. So I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna write.

However, it's going to be about more than gluten-free. I have another blog for fan fiction and other writings, mostly Supernatural fan fiction, though. If you're interested it's The Barefoot Bard.

Celiac Disease and the Redheaded Irish

After I read internet buzz claiming the Celiac population is predominately Irish, I have been looking into my own Irish background. I come from a long line of Irish Catholics that may have been originally Celtic Scotsmen.

One theory says, because of fighting with the English, the Irish had smaller portions of land to farm on. The portions of land being too small to grow enough wheat potatoes, which they could grow enough of, became the primary food in their diet. When the potato blight hit they were forced to switch to wheat. Their bodies no longer producing the enzymes to digest gluten they developed Celiac.

The following theory is a fun idea, however very little research shows the Romans never went as far north as Ireland. The Celts were hunter gatherers. Their digestive system was not used to a heavy grain diet. When the Romans (Italians) moved north they introduce wheat, also, as they returned south to Italy they took Celtic women as wives. This accounts for the Celiac disease in the Italians.

I found the idea fascinating, Celiac disease could potentially be traced through history or heritage. While the post were made by predominately Irish and redheaded persons there were also people who were British, Dutch, German and others holding to the idea that it is the fair skinned Europeans which tend to have this disease. Then one person said that her heritage was from the west of Spain and Puerto Rico. Another individual, although she is redheaded, and has green eyes, was asked by her doctor if she was Middle eastern because the Celiac population is predominately Middle eastern.

The issue needed more research than what I found in internet forums. Much of my information comes from abstracts of articles found on PubMed.gov a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

In the Digestive and Liver Disease (an official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and The Italian Study of the Liver) the authors claim it's a global problem.
July 2004; 492-8
The abstract did not provide any percentages, but presented me with a new fact that this disease is a global problem.

This next article from the Turkish Journal Gastroenterology: official journal of Turkish Society of Gastroenterology said:
The prevalence of Celiac disease in the overall sample of Turkish children (1:111 or 0.9%) in this preliminary study is similar to that reported in European and Middle Eastern countries and the United States.
March 2008; 19(1): 14-21

This shows again, with the statement 'similar to that reported in European and Middle Eastern countries and the United States,' that is considered a global disease.

From Coeliac (European spelling) Society of Ireland website:
screening suggests that between 1 in 200 and 1 in 300 people of northern European extraction have Coeliac. It has been believed for a long time that Irish people have a higher than average risk of coeliac disease. Research in Northern Ireland (reported in 1998) suggests that as many as 1 in 122 individuals have coeliac disease.

Association of European Coeliac Societies website
The most important aim of the day is to make coeliac disease better known in Europe. AOECS represent more than 250000 diagnosed coeliacs from the 5 millions (1 % of the population).
In the past coeliac disease was regarded as a very rare childhood condition, but recent studies have shown that it is more common than previously thought. The incidence rate amongst the European population estimated around 1:100, in some countries (Finland, Hungary) even higher. Nowadays more adults are diagnosed than children and many of whom had no health problems during childhood, but develop symptoms only when adults.

I wanted to see a side by side study. I didn't find one, but I did find the following U.S. Information, regarding CD:

Prevalence of Celiac Disease in At-Risk and Not-At Risk Groups in the United States; A Large Multicenter Study
Given the common European ancestry of a large portion of the US population, it is likely that CD in the united States is more common than currently recognized.
See ARCH Med/VOL. 163 Feb.10, 2003 American Medical association. pg. 287

In the New England Journal of Medicine, Article Review, Medical Progress Celiac Disease:
Celiac disease occurs in nearly 1% of the population in many countries.
October 25, 2007; pg 1731; a pdf file of this article can be obtained at http://www.celiac.org

At the end of my studies I find that that Celiac disease, although genetic, is found in one percent of the world population. There isn't any correlation with having red hair, of being Irish, or being of Europeans decent as internet chatter may lead one to believe. This one percent had only one exception, the Arabic people of Saharawi, found in this following article.

Recenti Progressi in Medicina:
In the Arab people of Saharawi, the prevalence of celiac disease in children is so high (more than 5%) that this condition represents a primary health problem.
July- August 2001; 92 97-8): 446-50

I did this research back in September. The amount of information on the subject of Celiac Disease and the number of better written articles concerning the percentage of population with Celiac disease is far greater then the research I've done. This is a disease that is presently receiving a lot of attention. It is worth it for those with Celiac to do regular research in order to keep up with the changes in the worlds understand of this disease.

What I Have Been Thinking

In the 2 years since I was diagnosed with Celiac's disease and a gall bladder polyp I have been in pain so often (every other week for most of the time,) that after my last cold not only could I not kick the congestion, but my adrenals have not been able to keep up. This leaves me down, again. The frustration of wanting to be healthy and productive when I am only left with lying around either holding my stomach while it is in pain or just unable to carry on gets me emotionally down.

As I struggle with the natural occurrence of poor me, I suddenly start seeing others who are worse off then I am. Whether it is homelessness, death, war, or someone who is blind to their own hatred for others, I am faced with the reality that I have life. I still have the right and the ability to think for myself and I can continue to grow as an individual. I am always hoping that I will never stop seeing myself as both a member of society and an individual always in need of improvement, always in need of loving my neighbor. Loving others is for my own good. Loving others is for others good. Loving others despite their show of anger and hatred for me is good for the whole world.

I'm not a peace at all costs kind of person. I fail to see how not fighting, no matter what, will bring peace. When someone wanting to kill you because you are inconvenient to them, or you do not think or believe as as they do, and you do not act with physical force, when physical force is being perpetrated on you will only lead to the bullies of this world owning this world and oppressing all others.

My point isn't specifically about physical force. Recently, a celebrity told fans on Twitter that the Creation Museum made him angry and that anyone who believed the world is only 6,000 years old are to stop following him. This brought on accusations that he was prejudge. He said those using the word were using it wrong. He is the example of anger and hatred I am talking about. He honestly believes that he is right and that he is not displaying hatred.

I am puzzled. I am unable to see how I can reach someone, when that someone has shut me out. I fail to see how he or anyone who acts as he has will convince me that they are right. They turn their back behaving as if I do not have the right to look at the facts and decide for myself what those fact mean to me. Being passionate is one thing. Using that passion to close in your world serves only to close your mind.

Boy, You Sure Can't Eat Much

The Title of this post is what an online friend posted, once, concerning my list of things I can't eats. When one looks at the list of things I can't eat it's easy conclude. However, what the average person eats without thinking about it or reading labels on is nothing more then various combinations of the same foods.

Consider the eight most common allergies – Milk, egg, wheat, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, and soy. In packaged, convenience and fast foods these food items are widespread. If you add to that list gluten intolerance (Celiac's Disease) along with corn, these food items are pervasive. You run into them even in health food. This may cause others to think the list of what I can't eat is greater than what I can eat.

The truth is, this allergy situation is only the end of careless eating whatever is convenient- -unless you can afford to buy the expensive packaged food made just especially for people these allergies and intolerances. I am, also, allergic to the most common flours used in gluten-free baking. It means cooking with fresh foods from scratch.

Daunting, limiting, confining? Not really. I grant you, I have been raised on Grandma's cooking from scratch. I've cooked primarily from scratch for thirty years, since the discovery of my son's allergies (and because scratch cooking is cheap.) Cooking a pot of rice isn't any harder than cooking a pot of pasta. Chopping a fruit or vegetable didn't change since I have learned of my allergies and intolerances, nor has the cooking of meat, or the throwing on of a handful of nuts. It may mean a brown bag for lunch instead of a trip to a fast food place, but what is that, over feeling well for a change?

When I look at the wide variety of fresh foods available on the market and then look at the way I ate before diet change, I find far more food to eat than a sandwich, burger, or basic meat and potatoes. The most common grains in the average diet are wheat, oats, barley, corn, and rice. That's five grains with wheat being the primary source of all three meals. I personally can and do eat, rice, quinoa, teff, millet, garbanzo bean, soy, almond meal, and tapioca. That's nine grains I eat on a regular basis; nearly double the average daily habit.

I have days when I feel limited, but then, there are those days when I feel simply inspired to learn new things about new foods. It's an educational, creative, full of variety, and healthful way of life. From this way of life I find joy in what I can eat.

International French Toast Pancakes or American Gluten Free Breakfast Cakes

I have severe low blood sugar. Some people with low blood sugar can get away with three meals and three snacks, or six small meals. I need 6 meals. Add to that a long list of allergies, I'm a mom, like my Grandmother who always cooked more than the family needed, and the result is I think about food more then I would like.

Because of the allergies, and Celiac disease, I'm missing out on a lot of the traditional foods I grew up on. I'm often thinking about how to convert what I can eat into something similar. As an American with many national backgrounds, and the influence of other nationalities, I often come up with meals that have a mix of two or three traditional dishes from two or three nationalities. This one recipe is an example of just that.

It all started with a desire for French toast. I have yet to learn how to make gluten free bread that I like. Actually I have been intimidated by the thought of making GF bread and finding ways to avoid it. Never the less, I want French Toast.

While digging through a cookbook I noted that Chinese Eggs Foo Young was nothing more then, vegetables, meat, and eggs whipped up together and fried. Needing a lower fat variety I dug out my tofu cookbook. Its vegan version used tofu and tapioca flour, but basically the same thing, vegetables with a binding agent whipped up together and fried. They reminded me of Jewish Latkes/ German Potato Pancakes. So, may I introduce to you:

American GF Breakfast Cakes

Makes 8 cakes

2 cups of cooked rice

2 eggs, (the equivalent of egg replacer, or 1/2 cup of tofu)

½ tsp Cinnamon

½ tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Tbs Agave (or use any sweetener)

Toss all ingredients in a medium size bowl. Mix well. Drop about ¼ cup amounts into hot olive oil, (or fat of your choice.) Cook for a minute on each side or until medium brown.

I served mine with homemade applesauce on top but found the apples overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the cakes. The flavor of store-bought applesauce is not as strong, and therefore may make a good topping.

Eat safe, eat healthy

Edit: I previously posted this with a 1/4 cup of tofu. That was an incorrect amount. 1/4 cup of tofu equals 1 egg, so if you need two eggs you need a 1/2 cup of tofu.