gluten zero – in thriver words

Topsy Turvy Terminology or How a Zero Gluten Way of Living Can Expand Your Eating Choices

Sometimes we think of language other than slang as finite, definite, and unchanging. We give concrete weight to words while the fact is that language is fluid, ever-changing, and words mean different things to different people. At any given moment in history in a specific culture, certain words can come to hold one predominant connotation. At this point, a singular meaning for such words has consonance in the culture. These words take on greater importance and significance than other words while simultaneously losing their power to generate new thought when used in a different intended context.

The words’ multiple definitions and broad reach become lost in a singular concept and as a result, the definitions become quite limited. The process of being simultaneously limited and given elevated significance results in overuse rendering such words meaningless except when used within the bounds of the resulting limit. Words fitting this description are known as the buzzwords of our time.

The problem with buzzwords is that they don’t start out that way and we may sometimes want to use them in a broader sense, but when we do, our meaning is lost. Currently, this is the case when we use the word DIET.

Say DIET and watch how those around you cringe. The word Diet immediately connotes calorie deprivation, food elimination, sacrifice, hunger, restriction, limitation, misery, struggle, and loss. Any other words said in conjunction with diet take on the burden of the limits with which we associate it. Say GLUTEN-FREE DIET and lurking in our subconscious is the thought that we’re headed for additional deprivation. Many of us find this thought so unbearable that we’re willing to endure aching bellies, heartburn, fatigue, weakness, itchy rashes, diarrhea, constipation, anemia, swollen joints, muscle wasting, tingling hands, inflammation, irritability and depression rather than embrace such a “diet”.

Really? We’d rather be SICK than leave gluten behind just because someone said, “diet”?

Yes. Hear the word diet, and we immediately jump into our fear of deprivation. Hear the word diet, and many of us choose to remain sick and endure the resulting symptoms of continuing to damage our brain, nerves, muscles, skin, and gastrointestinal tract. Many of us prefer to increase our chances of dying sooner than the average person by up to 72%. Many of us are willing to dismiss the possibility of optimum health and to sacrifice our quality of life or our longevity rather than to pause long enough to consider that a GLUTEN-FREE DIET may not mean deprivation at all even though it contains the word diet.

Given the huge increases in gluten-sensitivity and gluten-intolerance in our population over the past 50 years, we can no longer afford to allow the misconception to continue. It is time to turn the terminology upside down and inside out so we can get past the WORDS and the fear they create.

For now, let’s leave the word diet behind and use one of its former meanings: Way of Living. When we embrace a WAY OF LIVING that includes ZERO GLUTEN(1), how limited is what can we eat?

Barring other allergies and sensitivities, the following foods can be included in a healthy zero gluten way of living: beef, pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, duck, quail, dove, pheasant, bass, crappie, trout, bream, salmon, flounder, cod, tuna, tilapia, halibut, shark, swordfish, mackerel, mahi-mahi, wahoo, sturgeon, snapper, abalone, shrimp, scallops, muscles, clams, lobster, crab, snails, broccoli, yellow squash, acorn squash, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, chayote, zucchini, carrots, asparagus, Swiss chard, lettuce, endive, eggplant, arugula, spinach, watercress, green beans, parsnips, corn, black beans, pinto beans, white beans, lima beans, fava beans, garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, green peas, sugar-snap peas, snow peas, lentils, shiitake mushrooms, portabella mushrooms, button mushrooms, peppers, artichokes, cauliflower, cucumber, celery, brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, kale, beets, turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, parsnips, radishes, rutabaga, daikon, water chestnuts, onions, garlic, sorrel, basil, parsley, cilantro, sage, rosemary, mint, savory, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, tarragon, thyme, bay leaves, ginger, avocados, tomatoes, apples, apricots, bananas, coconuts, olives, oranges, grapefruit, pears, cherries, grapes, figs, kumquats, plums, peaches, pomegranate, mangoes, lychee, passion fruit, papaya, currants, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, huckleberries, dates, nectarines, kiwi fruit, pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, lemons, limes, almonds, peanuts, cashews, walnuts, pecans, chestnuts, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chocolate, popcorn, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheddar, mozzarella, asiago, parmesan, romano, gouda, manchego, Swiss, gorgonzola, havarti, muenster, feta, queso, bleu, brie, camembert, chevre, gruyere, fontina, mascarpone, monterrey jack, ricotta, roquefort, stilton, and Yorkshire cheese.

The list above contains more than 180 common items without the inclusion of rice, quinoa, tapioca, coffee, tea, and items less commonly found in the grocery store. These 180 foods can be combined into thousands and thousands of tasty, satisfying combinations.

Examine the content of your current meals. Do they regularly include 180 unique items plus thousands and thousands of combinations? If you stop including the foods containing gluten that you currently consume and instead include more of the foods listed here, will it increase or reduce your options? If you find that you will have more options, is it realistic to characterize a zero gluten way of life as restrictive, limiting, or a source of deprivation? Can you find a way to let go of the idea that eliminating gluten will limit your choices? Perhaps a week of adventure will help!

The Cooking2Thrive® One Week Adventure:

Make a one-week commitment to follow a new eating plan. To set the tone for your adventure: relax, get curious, have fun, and allow yourself to enjoy new discoveries. In this new eating plan, eliminate ALL food made from grains for the week. You can add back gluten-free grains later. For purposes of this adventure, just leave them behind for the moment. Incorporate at least one new item or new combination that you do not regularly consume from the above list each day into your meals. If you tend to get hungry often and your tummy doesn’t hurt too much, you may want to include beans and raw leafy greens to help you feel full longer. If your tummy is in distress, bananas, avocados, mushrooms, butternut squash, cheese, yogurt, and chicken are good beginning foods. You can also eat more often. Be sure to include plenty of protein.

Be playful. Experiment with new flavors. Use new recipes or make up your own. Release your creativity and remember that most fruits and vegetables can be eaten raw so don’t put too much pressure on yourself to cook. Take time to savor the depth of flavor and texture in the fresh foods you choose. Shop at the local farmer’s market or visit a different grocery store. Adding variety to the process can help you think differently.

Get the kids involved. Let them help decide which foods you’ll cook for a meal. Have theme meals like: Only Orange (serve chicken with mango salsa, mashed butternut squash or baked sweet potatoes or steamed carrots, cantaloupe or peaches or nectarines); Finger Foods (either cut everything in the shape of fingers, or serve foods that can be eaten with your fingers); European Tour (serve Polish sausage or Spanish mackerel, Italian green beans or English peas, French fries or German potato salad, Greek salad, and Swiss chocolate). Your dinner theme can be focused to support a homework assignment in fractions, geography, history, or science.

At the end of the week, recall and record the moments you enjoyed the most and the foods you found most appealing. Ask your family members about their experience. Use the most enjoyable parts as a starting point for continuing to incorporate change. If you feel you can, make a commitment to a second week of this eating plan. At the end of the second week, note whether it was easier than the first. Do you feel like a more interesting or creative cook? Are you beginning to feel more comfortable making small changes? Note any changes in how you physically feel. Use your notes to develop a plan for continuing to live without including gluten one day and one week at a time while continuing to expand your horizons and your fun factor.

Now back to the term gluten-free diet. The words may still make you cringe and recoil. That’s okay. Try the adventure. Pick your favorite moment or your favorite food from your week of adventure, write it down, and carry it with you or text it to yourself. Each time you start to think gluten-free and feel yourself pull back or resist, count to three and visualize that favorite thing. If you’re having trouble visualizing, pull up the text or pull out your note as a reminder. Perhaps you’ll remember your son’s laughter as he bit into a zucchini finger or your daughter’s excitement when she realized that two 3/4 cups = 1 1/2 cups and recognized that she had just successfully multiplied a fraction.

These moments that make your life more healthy, connected, creative, and whole are what a zero gluten way of living can offer. For me, that feels like a huge gift rather than a dreaded restriction. With practice it can begin to feel that way for you and your family as well.

Big changes are always built with small steps. When it comes to the term GLUTEN-FREE DIET, the first change has to be a shift in our understanding of the words themselves. Once we allow our minds to shift, we can become open to the possibility that our fears of deprivation are unfounded. If you are suffering from an adverse response to gluten, this shift may be one small adventure away. That small adventure can expand your horizons.

(1)The Zero Gluten or Gluten Zero concept is the brainchild of Dr. Rodney Ford. You can read more about it in his book: “Gluten: ZERO Global” available at http://drrodneyford.com/shop/books/gluten-zero-global.html

Convenience Foods – Is All Convenience Created Equal?

In our overworked, overachieving, over-busy culture, we have come to value convenience. Our gas stations offer convenience stores filled with edible packaged products just down the street from a row of drive-through restaurants that promise quick meals we can eat in the car on the way to our next deadline.

When we want a full meal at home, we grab a frozen entrée and pop it in the microwave for five minutes. If we’re worried about health, it’s easy to read the nutritional information on the label for reassurance that we are on the right path. In fact, the label may contain familiar platitudes: Fat-Free; No Added Sugar; No Trans Fats; Low-Carb; High-Fiber. Attractively packaged and ready to consume, processed foods have become a family meal mainstay.

Convenience isn’t a bad thing per se. Incorporating convenient food allows us to move faster, do more, and increase accomplishment. As a culture, we value accomplishment so much that most of us keep adding duties and activities to our family lives so that we have more and more opportunity to achieve it. In the process, we have come to view all convenience as inherently good. We give no thought to the possibility that there is any other way to view it.

As the health of our nation declines, it is time to ask: Is all convenience created equal?

When I say “convenience food”, what is your first thought? Perhaps it’s a frozen waffle, a protein bar, or your favorite drive-through French fry. Most likely it comes in a brightly colored cellophane package or paperboard box. It is much less likely that you immediately visualize an apple, a banana, a bowlful of fresh cherries, a chunk of Manchego cheese, some raw carrots, or a handful of raw cashews, but are these fresh items any less convenient to consume? Are they any less tasty than their processed counterparts?

It is true that fruit, a chunk of cheese, or a few loose nuts may require a few minutes of time to clean or package for transport to your office. Does such preparation take more time than you would spend in a drive-through line? Does it take more time than you would spend walking to a vending machine? Must a carry home meal on a busy night be from a fast-food drive through? Why do we restrict our view of convenience foods to prepackaged, processed choices?

Advertising supports our belief, although false, that without processed foods we’ll be missing the essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber with which they are “fortified”. Package design entices with words like rich, creamy, crunchy, nutritious, and delicious. Many of our favorite convenience foods are filled with sugar, carbohydrates or high fructose corn syrup that makes us crave more sugar and carbohydrates. Some are filled with salt that can trigger craving as well. Perhaps the reason most significant reason we grab packaged food is habit.

As studies continue to show a direct correlation between our diet and an increasing number of chronic diseases, choosing convenient, fresh, unprocessed food even when we’re in a hurry may be the most important positive health choice we can make. Fresh convenience foods are low in sodium, usually have no added sugar, no trans fats, and are often low-carb and high-fiber. Fresh foods do not require stabilizers like starches and gums, flavor enhancing chemicals to make them taste fresh after a long shelf life, plus they are full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Sometimes the hardest thing to shift is our thinking. We just can’t imagine how we will feed ourselves and our families without our “habit” foods. Perhaps it will help to see what a busy day without prepackaged or typical “fast” food might look like! Let’s take a look at some options!

For breakfast you might choose:

1)Plain Greek yogurt drizzled with honey, 10-12 raw almonds, and 1/4 cup of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or golden raisins.

2)An apple, half a banana, some cheese and a boiled egg.

3)Left-over steak or grilled chicken, a grapefruit, an orange, or some grapes.

Your morning snack could include:

1)Slices of red bell pepper, yellow squash, or zucchini with store-bought hummus and a pear.

2)Dried dates stuffed with a raw pecan half and a slice of smoked Gouda cheese.

3)Celery sticks filled with all natural sugar-free peanut butter topped with raisins.

Lunch at your desk is a great time for leftovers. If you don’t have any on hand and need to grab something quick, try these options:

1)Fill half an avocado with tuna from a pouch and some cottage cheese. Eat it with baby carrots and tomato slices.

2)Run by your local home-cooking buffet and fill a to go container with grilled chicken breast, broccoli and carrots, or green beans and squash or black-eyed peas and turnip greens.

3)Pick up a container of smoked meat from a barbecue restaurant. Without the sauce, the meat can become part of many entrées. It’s great in a salad over lettuce or maché. Eat it with traditional barbeque sides from the restaurant, or substitute your favorite raw vegetable or fruit.

Instead of processed salad dressing or vegetable dip, mix 2 tbsp sour cream and add Penzey’s Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle to taste for dip. For dressing thin the mixture with 1 tbsp yogurt or 1 tsp of milk.

If you need an afternoon snack, grab some:

1)Trail mix made with raw seeds, nuts, and fruit with no added sugar, salt, or fats.

2)Eat some of the smoke meat you saved from lunch with dried apricots, mango, or cantaloupe. Just make sure there’s no sugar added. Dried fruit is incredibly sweet all on it’s own.

3)Plain yogurt with half a banana and some honey if you like the added sweetness.

Pick up dinner on the way home:

1)30 minutes before you leave the office, order hamburger steaks or grilled chicken breasts, baked potatoes, and salad to pick up on your way home.

2)Go by the grocery and pick up a rotisserie chicken, a bag of frozen green beans or English peas. If the store has a salad bar, make a salad. If your kids have different topping preferences, put those items in a separate container to add at home. If your store doesn’t have a salad bar, grab a container of cubed fresh pineapple or one that has a mix of melons or berries. At home, mix some plain yogurt or sour cream with a bit of honey and some cinnamon to turn the fruit into a delicious fruit salad.

3)Avoid having to go to anywhere after work by buying additional smoked meat by the pound at lunch and placing it in the refrigerator at the office. If you’re competing for space there, a cooler in the car may be an option. At home, make barbecue salads or serve the meat with whatever frozen vegetables you have on hand. You don’t have to top the meat with barbecue sauce. Its smoky flavor will go with anything.

For those of you who cook on days that aren’t as busy, leftovers can make a crazy day a breeze. Frozen vegetables take only a few minutes to cook. Keeping them on hand is another way to make eating healthier easy when things get hectic. At my house, scrambled eggs are a good fallback when all other plans fail. I always have them. I can throw in some cream cheese and leftover English peas and have a tasty meal in 5 minutes. That’s less time than it takes to pick up a meal on the way home.

You may have noticed the lack of grains, breads, and crackers in these meal possibilities. Why? Because this exercise is about shifting our thinking to open our minds to healthier choices. Most of us need more vegetables, fruit, and protein every day, so recognizing that we can eat satisfying meals without relying on grain carbs can help get us out of the habit of filling ourselves with breads instead of leafy greens, berries, poultry, fish, beef, and pork. That doesn’t mean you should never ever eat gluten-free mac & cheese. It just means that it is more healthy if that’s an occasional occurrence and your habit is to reach for a grilled chicken breast and steamed asparagus.

When it comes to nutritional value, not all convenience is created equal. Next time you grocery shop, take a moment to look around the store. Look for convenient foods with as little processing and packaging as possible. Expand your horizons, eat tasty food, make healthy choices, and still get everything done on time. You can do it, and your heath depends on it.

Chatting with a Forward Thinking Pioneer – Dr. Rodney Ford

This week I had the privilege of sitting down for a chat with Dr. Rodney Ford. Dr. Ford is a paediatrician, gastroenterologist, and allergist who has been in clinical practice for over 35 years. A native of New Zealand, Dr. Ford has published numerous books on food allergy and gluten related health issues. His new book is entitled, “Gluten ZERO Global”. I’m excited to announce that our interview with Dr. Ford will be available as part of Cooking2Thrive’s interview series. Watch for more information as we approach the full launch of our website January 2013!

This wasn’t the first time I’d met Dr. Ford, but it was the first time we sat down for a conversation. I came away from our time together feeling a huge sense of appreciation for his courage to listen to the mothers of his patients and give their observations enough credence to begin to explore options that expand the boundaries of current medical protocol.

I was clear that in spite of his love for the edginess of the rock-and-roll music of the band Pink Floyd, his call to revolution regarding the elimination of gluten from everyone’s diet is not motivated by a rebellious nature as much as by true concern for improving the health of his patients. Dr. Ford recognizes that his unique combination of specialties has presented him with an opportunity to see the relationship between several pieces of the gluten puzzle that would not be available to him if he were only a gastroenterologist, only a pediatrician, or only an allergist.

What I find rare is that he recognized the learning opportunity presented by his unique point of view early in his career and had both the courage and fortitude to continually share what he was learning in his practice while being faced with opposition from the larger medical community. No matter how counter to the mainstream it has run, Dr. Ford has remained committed to his message. That is the mark of a true pioneer.

It seems only fitting that scientific studies have begun to show that Dr. Ford’s observations are supported by the data. It must feel like some sort of reward when new voices are continually added to the chorus extolling the dangers of gluten to our brains, nerves, and bellies.

As a patient, I am grateful to Dr. Ford for pushing the envelope and for being dedicated to disseminating the message that a Gluten-ZERO lifestyle is healthy. As a person, I feel inspired by Dr. Ford’s willingness to embrace his opportunity to contribute to the betterment of the world. Thank you Dr. Ford!

Cheri Thriver and Rodney Ford — Interview with Dr. Ford

To learn more, please visit the website: drrodneyford.com, and make sure to check out our interview with Dr. Ford as soon as it becomes available.