Dietary Compliance – Page 2

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No matter how much planning you do in advance, you may sometimes need to zoom-in and zoom-out of a drive-through restaurant. If you’re gluten-free, this can be a challenge.

While most allergen information is online, you may not have the time to spare to examine a drive-through’s menu. If you’re in a rural state, you may not have a reliable phone connection to connect to the internet. In such cases, it can be helpful to have a text or note on your phone listing a few drive-through options.

There’s always some risk of cross-contact in fast-food restaurants and some franchises use a common fryer for fries and breaded chicken nuggets or other gluten-containing items. Nonetheless, it can be handy to know how to minimize exposure rather than go without anything.

To get you started, here are some common fast-food possibilities to include in your list:

McDonald’s – While this restaurant may always be readily available, it’s not the easiest choice if you’re gluten-free. Apple slices and coffee are the safest selections. Some coffee drinks may be okay, but they contain natural flavors that are not identified and could contain gluten. Also worth noting, the fries here contain wheat.

SONIC – There are several wheat/gluten-free items at Sonic although none are certified gluten-free. You will need to order the meat options without a bun. Gluten-free breakfast can include eggs, bacon, shredded cheddar, ham, sausage crumbles, sausage patty, sirloin steak, coffee, cold brew flavored coffees, tea, apple juice, orange juice, milk, Powerade®, fruit punch, all lemonades, limeades, slushes, and any soda. For other meals, burger patty, Jr burger patty, and Halal burger patty, grilled chicken breast, all beef hot dog, footlong hot dog, Halal dog, and Philly sirloin steak are options. These can be topped with American cheese, pickles, relish, ranch dressing, light ranch, ketchup, mayo, mustard, spicy brown mustard, cheddar cheese sauce, grilled onions, sauerkraut, sport peppers, and pickle spears. Tater tots, fries, and cheese fries do not contain wheat or gluten, but are fried in a common fryer. For dessert, try applesauce, a dish of ice cream, a hot fudge, strawberry, or caramel sundae. Top with nuts or whipped topping for an additional treat. Many shakes and blasts are gluten-free including vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, caramel, hot fudge, and fresh banana classic shakes; SONIC Blast® with M&M® Minis, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Snicker’s® bar pieces. That’s quite a selection, all things considered! And kudos to the SONIC powers that be for organizing the information into an easy to read chart!

Wendy’s – If you’re in the mood for a salad, Wendy’s is an option. Consider a Parmesan Caesar, Apple Pecan, or Taco Salad. Croutons are packaged separately. A baked potato and chili can fill out the menu. French fries do not contain gluten ingredients but are fried in a communal fryer. You can also check out the baconator fries and chili cheese fries.

Subway® – With the addition of protein bowls, now known as No Bready Bowls®, Subway is an easy location to grab salad-heavy or protein-heavy gluten-free meals. Avoid all muffins, breads, wraps, and cookies as well as soups and pizza. Load up a protein bowl with any meat other than chicken with teriyaki or meatballs with marinara. Top with any vegetable option and add any cheese or condiment other than sweet onion teriyaki sauce. When you choose a salad rather than a bowl, all dressings are gluten-free. A big thanks to Subway for also creating an easy-to-follow chart!

In-N-Out – This may be the easiest burger place for the gluten-sensitive. Any burger can be ordered protein style (wrapped in lettuce rather than a bun). And the secret menu (items not on a published menu but known to staff and regularly provided to customers) includes 2 (beef patties) x 2 (pieces of cheese), 2 x 4, 1 x 2, 2 x 1 protein style, the flying Dutchman (2 beef patties surrounding 2 pieces of cheese), and a veggie burger (all of the burger toppings without the burger). No worries about fries being coated in something problematic. You can watch the potatoes being cut into fries and placed in the fryer. All the shakes are gluten free so order vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, black and white, or Neapolitan. I’ve had a couple of so-so meals at In-N-Out, but the ease of ordering has always been superior!

Once you’ve chosen a few readily available favorites and put them in your phone, be sure to review the websites periodically to make sure ingredients remain the same, then zoom-in and zoom-out with confidence when you’re in a hurry!

I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Start Where You Can Today

When your child is diagnosed with a food intolerance, start where you can today.* I recently met someone at a boxed dinner event chowing down on everything in her box. She offered me part of her cookie. When I said, I’d love to eat it, but I’m gluten-free. She said, “I’m supposed to be too.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard this. And when it comes to children who are picky eaters already, it can be easy to ignore the risk of long-term effects and ignore the doctor’s advice.

The problem with that approach is our children could feel so much better, avoid potential chronic disease, and excel in ways we can’t imagine. I say this as someone looking back remembering how I’d puke when running track after a certain kind of breakfast. It was embarrassing to hurl in front of my classmates.

Cutting my track career short wasn’t particularly problematic, I wasn’t that good. But I was a good swimmer who felt increasingly less motivated because I didn’t want to expose my problematic skin. This has even affected me in adult life – robbing me of the joy of being in the water as often. Yes, rash guards help, but having to do something to hide something still weighs on self-esteem and makes everything feel less care-free.

I don’t think any of us want to deliberately rob our children of the option to feel carefree. We just may not be up for the struggle we imagine it will take to get our children to change how they eat. And it can be a real struggle. I’ve seen even very young children who will refuse to eat for so long that they make themselves sick. We don’t want to make food a battlefield.

The age and personality of your child will lead you to the best approach. Observation and listening are a good first step. From that point, start where you can today and build up to the optimum diet.

So often when we get a diagnosis that requires dietary change, we feel like we’ve just been told we have to halt everything immediately and do a 180. While this is true in the case of life-threatening allergies, other conditions allow us time to get our footing and make a plan.

A simple plan can begin with serving familiar foods that naturally fit the regimen your child has been instructed to follow. This means you don’t have to alter anything immediately or announce you’re taking something away. In fact, you can eat this way for awhile before even discussing upcoming changes (depending on the age of your child).

Once you are ready to ease further into the new plan, mention to your child that they can keep eating the things like X, Y, and Z that you’ve been serving. From that point, introduce something new that’s an adaptation of a favorite or incorporates ingredients the child likes.

For example, if your child loves chocolate and needs to be gluten-free, begin the switch-over with chocolate cake, brownies, muffins, chocolate-chip cookies or pancakes. The goal is to ease into the restrictions by providing foods that feel good but are adherent to prescribed restrictions.

A diabetic child who enjoys chocolate might like strawberries dipped in lightly sweetened dark chocolate, hot chocolate lightly sweetened with honey, a brownie made with almond flour, or chocolate hummus on celery sticks.

You can incorporate your child’s best motivators – stickers, a treat, money, time alone with mom or dad, a movie, a trip to the park, a bug or dinosaur hunt – as incentives for trying new things. I just don’t like to begin with, or wholly rely on, incentives because it feels too much like bribery and as though I’m not confident the new foods I’m offering taste good.

That’s not the impression I want to create, and I’d like the changes to feel like an organic extension of what the kids already enjoy. But I’ll be the first to say, if it works, it works. You know your child better than I do.

Another consideration when making dietary changes is the altering of routine. Routines can be comforting. That includes meal times, locations, and menus. When there’s a way, I like to keep as much as possible the same until everyone is comfortable with the changes.

At my house, lunch and dinner are both variable, so I start by slowly introducing new foods into one of those meals before moving on to the other two. This lessens the shock of change.

Once everyone is feeling comfortable, it can be fun to have a contest among siblings to see who is the bravest and will try the most new things. If you’re worried no one will participate, imagine what would happen if you put a new kind of packaged sugary snack in front of them. You’d probably get at least one taker, right?

Even if they don’t end up liking the new snack, they’re willing to try it because they’ve had a good experience with something similar before. Building slowly to this point with new foods will build the same kind of foundation for comfort in trying new things at home.

It can be hard to stick to a plan, so committing in advance to a certain length of time for implementation may be helpful. Once you embark, you may discover that the timetable can be accelerated or may need to slow down. But don’t overwhelm yourself with the big picture at first.

Getting started is the key. Instead of worrying too much about what you’ll do tomorrow, start where you can today.

A Fine Line

Truthfully, I’d rather write about a fine wine than a fine line, but I need a new wine experience first and most of us walk a fine line or two every day. So here we are.

Any attempt to find balance means not veering too far either direction from the intention we set, goal we hope to accomplish, or plan we agree to follow. This is especially true when it comes to healthy habits.

Some lines can be wider than others.

Most of us have been taught we need to work out 3 or more days a week for a minimum of 150 minutes total to gain the health benefits of working out. A recently published study shows that schedule doesn’t need to be so rigid. Working out 150 minutes in one or two sessions is just as effective as breaking up and spreading out the workouts.

That doesn’t mean elite athletes would gain the same performance enhancement from such a change in schedule. Their line may be much narrower.

People with a history of documented heart disease may need to follow a more restrictive diet than someone who is generally healthy and has heart disease in their family. For the generally healthy, regular workouts and a Mediterranean diet that includes chili peppers at least 4 times a week may be sufficient to reduce the risk of possible cardiovascular events.

Those with allergies to shellfish risk anaphylaxis if they do not strictly avoid shellfish. Those with histamine intolerance may suffer allergylike symptoms if they eat shellfish, but without an accompanying allergy, they do not risk anaphylaxis.

Allergies and intolerances are both best treated by avoidance. But the risks may not be equal. This means finding the healthiest line can be complicated and confusing. And a healthcare system that focuses on time management at the expense of patient communication exacerbates the problem.

How do you know what line to toe?

For many of us, it will take a lengthy journey of medical visits, research, trial, and error to figure that out. We hope our posts bring new insight that speeds the process. As knowledge evolves, the line you toe will evolve.

I wish that weren’t the case. I know you don’t need another job. I know the effort it takes to avoid COVID and monkeypox may already be sapping your energy.

I also know that living with less pain, inflammation, fatigue, and anxiety will go a long way toward making up for the time you invest in finding your healthiest path. The problem is staying motivated through the slogging.

Here are a few things that help me. I’m a pretty tough general with myself. And I like to feel a sense of accomplishment. But mostly, I can turn anything into an experiment that amuses me, teaches me something, or satisfies my curiosity.

Years ago, I conducted random surveys. They weren’t for anything scientific or even writing related. I was curious and I wanted to know how people would respond. For a period of time, I asked women in bars whether baldness made men less attractive. I kept the results on a ripped corner of legal pad paper folded into a pocket in my purse. There were plenty of occasions to pull out that survey and reassure some balding man he was not losing his charm.

Self-assessment can be done the same way. Record how you feel when you walk vs swim vs lift weights. Your survey questions can be constructed around whatever motivates you – do I feel stronger, skinnier, sexier, more energetic, more focused, etc. after I walk or swim? Do I feel more comfortable wearing short sleeves when I don’t eat corn (or whatever food may be giving you an itchy rash)?

Surveys may not be your thing. Perhaps challenging yourself to create new food combinations is more appealing. Or maybe finding a way to prepare your family’s favorites using no dairy without them knowing it amuses you. The point is to motivate yourself while determining the fine line that will leave you feeling your best.

Once you find the main path, updates are faster and easier. And once you feel better because of toeing the line, you may find you prefer adherence. I like feeling better!

If feeling better doesn’t feel good, there’s a whole other line to explore. But not today. I’ll leave you with that while I find some fine wine!

Top Ten Myths About a Gluten-Free Diet

Am I Missing Something

Am I getting the nutrition I need, or am I missing something? It’s a question often asked by those with food intolerance and allergies. It’s also a question parents ask themselves when the kids will only eat mac & cheese and pizza.

An easy way to temper these concerns is to add supplements to our diet. On any given day, roughly half of us make this choice. Some do it with the intent of filling in dietary gaps for overall health. Others desire to prevent diseases like heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer.

Are supplements the easy answer? I guess the answer to that is yes. Maybe a better question is whether they will accomplish what we intend.

After her Dr. Pepper phase, my mother began her day with somewhere between 15 and 20 pills – all supplements. After that, she drank a cup of hot water. Later, she might have buttered noodles, a lettuce salad topped with lemon juice, toast, and sometimes chili or pickled beets. When she continued to lose weight she couldn’t afford to lose, she began making drinks filled with protein powder.

Her diet leaned heavily on supplements to provide needed nutrition because her food intake was limited in both variety and volume. While she believed strongly in her decisions, supplements were not sufficient to support an optimum state of health.

A review of research suggests her experience is not unique. Supplements may not be as effective as we hope for preventing cancer and cardio-vascular events. And while supplementation of calcium and vitamin D can be helpful in preventing fractures to a point, in excess it can lead to harm.

So maybe the easy solution isn’t all that easy. To get the optimum benefits, you’ll need to carefully study the contents and contraindications of each supplement. Because the FDA doesn’t not have authority to review dietary supplements, this may mean you’ll have to contact manufacturers directly.

It will be prudent to read research on the interaction of dietary supplements and any prescription drugs you may take. And it will be beneficial to be up-to-date on research showing the effectiveness of supplements in many areas.

For those of us who are generally healthy but rely primarily on processed or restaurant food, it may prove to be less time consuming to make dietary changes rather than research supplements. Even if you don’t have lots of time to cook, incorporating more raw fruits and vegetables can improve vitamin and mineral intake. Choosing farm to table restaurants (make sure they are as advertised) can also improve the nutrient quality of your diet without requiring prep time.

If you are eating gluten-free, you may miss out on the vitamins and minerals used to fortify white flour products. But if you are consuming a wide variety of meat, poultry, fish, dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and allowed whole grains regularly, you may not be missing any necessary nutrients.

For those whose doctors recommend supplements, don’t be afraid to ask questions to make sure you understand why and what benefits you can expect. If you are willing to make them, feel free to ask whether dietary changes could accomplish the same result. Working with your doctor, you can be an active participant in your own health plan.

When it comes to nutrition, we all want to make sure we get what our bodies require to be healthy. Dietary supplements are a tool you may or may not need. And they may or may not be effective in prevention or improvement of the condition you hope to prevent or improve.

Dietary supplements may look like the easy answer to the question, am I missing something? But when it comes to diet and health, it’s complicated.

Maybe the Big Picture is Really Smaller Than You Think