Celiac Test Results

I DO NOT HAVE CELIAC'S DISEASE!!!!!!!! Woo hoo!

I had an endoscopy done the Friday before Easter to test for Celiac's Disease.  In order to get ready for the test I had to reintroduce gluten into my diet.  I had about two months to get ready for this test, not because that is how long you need to be eating gluten to take the test but because that was the most convenient time for me and my family to have the endoscopy.

Here's what happened after eating gluten for two months: I gained 20lbs. (I'm sure me binging on all the foods I abstained from for the past two years helped helped with the weight gain), my stomach issues returned, and I was bloated all of the time. 😖

On the day of the endoscopy I was put under for about 30 minutes and then I was able to go home once I woke up. While I was under, the doctor took a couple of biopsies to run a couple of different tests: Celiac's and food intolerances - I had no idea doctors could legitimately see what foods I'm intolerant to. The rest of the day I was pretty groggy, so I was able to nap all day. *Note: If you have children who are not school age, I suggest you get this test done on a day your spouse is able to take a day off work and take care of the kids. You are not allowed to drive for the entirety of the day and you will be sleeping, whether you want to or not.*

The results are in: I am Celiac free and my enzyme levels are higher than normal to be able to break down gluten properly. However, I am severely lactose intolerant. According to my doctor, people who can break down lactose normally are at a 7.5ish or higher. My score ...  0.2. 👎 I find this pretty hilarious since I was diagnosed lactose intolerant years ago, but now I have concrete proof I absolutely cannot tolerate any dairy without the aid of something like Lactaid.

My doctor did suggest that I stay on a gluten-free diet for the next couple of weeks to see if my bloating and stomach sensitivities will go down. I am noticing I am able to eat a small quantity of gluten without any ramifications. 👏 I'm planning on staying mostly gluten free at home, but now I don't have to go overboard about keeping gluten completely out of my diet and out of my home. This also means I'm not restricted to specific brands of body wash, lotions, lipsticks, dishwasher detergent, etc.

Breakfast cupcake -Yum!

I had a cupcake for breakfast this morning, and I feel absolutely no guilt about eating it. What!? I ate a cupcake for breakfast?! You betcha! And I even let me son have some, too.

I decided to shake things up for breakfast this morning. I am getting bored with cereal and oatmeal, and wanted to try something new. I was fortunate enough to stumble across this recipe when I was searching for a recipe to make dairy-free cream cheese.

This breakfast is both dairy-free and grain-free, so anyone with a dairy/gluten issue will be able to enjoy this tasty breakfast. However, there is coconut in it, so if you have a nut allergy, this recipe is not for you.

5 minute Breakfast Cup-cake
by Leanne Vogel
Prep Time: 2 minute
Cook Time: 3 minutes
http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6020086

Ingredients (1 serving):
3 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
2 tbsp egg whites - see note
1/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp date sugar or palm sugar (I used blonde coconut sugar)

Instructions:
Prepare a 10oz. microwave safe cup by oiling with a dab of coconut oil. Set aside. Drop all ingredients in a small bowl and mix until fully incorporated. Press mixture into prepared dish and even out with fork.

Microwave option: Place in the microwave and cook for 3minutes. You’ll know when it’s done when it rises slightly, is harder to the touch, and pulls away from the sides of the cup. Don’t bake it too long, or you’ll have a Frisbee!

Oven option: Place in an oiled oven safe dish and bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Top with sunflower butter (as the author did in the pictures), nut butters, dried fruit or seeds. (I used all-natural peanut butter.)

Note: To make the recipe vegan, substitute the egg whites for additional apple sauce. (This is what I did, and the cupcake still turned out nice and fluffy.)

*This recipe comes directly from the web site.*
**Nutrition value comes from recipe made by author, it does not reflect the changes I made to the recipe.**

Celiac Testing

I'm finally going to do it. I'm going to get tested for Celiac's disease. On March 29th, the GI doctor is going to put me under, perform an endoscopy, and take a biopsy of my upper intestines. Some time between now and then I have to get a blood sample drawn as well.

This means that for the past month, and up until I have the procedure, I need to eat gluten products. This has been very exciting for me since I can now indulge on food that was forbidden in my house for the past two years. I wish this meant my grocery bill was lower, but at least this means that grocery shopping is a little easier right now since I'm not so limited to what I can eat.

However, all of this indulging has come at a price. I'm eating more, so I'm gaining weight (I'm eating like this will be my last chance at eating gluten foods). My heartburn and acid flux is back. I'm also getting more gas pains, and my stomach is very tender. I'm also noticing a lot of bloating, too.

It's sick to say, but a part of me hopes this test comes back positive for Celiac's disease. This way I know I'm not crazy about my digestive issues and that eating a gluten-free diet really has been the best thing for me. Although, it would be nice to just be gluten sensitive and not have to be careful about having absolutely nothing with gluten around me, too.

After 28 days I'll be able to find out once and for all what is going on in my intestines.

Substituting bread ingredients

I have started making bread from Pamela's Gluten-Free Bread Mix.  On Amazon.com, I can buy 3 bags of 4-lb. bread mix for a little more than $35, which equals out to less than $4/loaf.  It's a rather easy mix, when you use the listed ingredients.  However, I am not an ingredient follower and I wanted to substitute the eggs with ground flax seed and the oil with applesauce.  For two eggs I used a half cup of water with 2 tsp. of flax seeds.  I did equal measurement for the oil with the applesauce.  I decided to make the switches in ingredients because I wanted to add more fiber to my bread, and lower the calories and cholesterol content. 

I have never used an egg substitute in the past with this mix, so I was a little shocked when the bread come out almost as it would have if I had followed the listed ingredients.  The dough still rose, and the house had that lovely baked-bread smell all day.  The bread came out looking beautiful, but it also came out sticky.  The slices are a little tough to pull apart without breaking the bread.  The taste, however, is nice and sweet.  I think the applesauce helped overshadow the flax seeds, because the only way I can tell they are in there is by looking at the bread.  

The bread does toast nicely, which tells me the next time I try making the bread this way I will cook it for 80 minutes - instead of the 70 minutes that is on the directions.  The bread is also still tough enough to handle butter being spread on it without tearing.  All in all, I have to say I will try making the bread this way again, but adding a little more time to the baking process. 

Kettle Corn, Any One?

I love baking, but I find that the more I bake the more sugar I consume.  And the more sugar I consume, the bigger my belly becomes.  :-) So I came across sucanat sugar and blonde coconut sugar at my local health food store, which I, of course, bought immediately.  The blonde coconut sugar is supposed to be interchangeable with white sugar, and the sucanat sugar is supposed to be interchangeable with brown sugar.  Plus, I did a little research, and both sugars have a lower glycemic level than white sugar.  Awesome!

I was excited to get started in the kitchen and test drive these new sugars.  Last night I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies with my new sugars.  Surprise!  Surprise!  The cookies actually came out tasting great!  I had a cookie fresh out of the over, and the sucanat sugar provided a molasses taste to the cookies, which makes me believe this type of sugar would be great with ginger bread cookies.  However, when the cookies were completely cooled there was no molasses after-taste. 

So tonight I thought I would try to make kettle corn with the sucanat and blonde coconut sugars, since the cookies turned out amazingly.  I figured the popcorn would have more of a carmel taste to it, due to the color of the sugar and the nature of how the sugars melts.  Haha!  Both batches tasted like burnt popcorn.  Neither batch had the carmalized sweet taste I was expecting.  In the past I've tried using brown sugar and stevia; again, the results were horrible. 

The conclusion in this experiment is that if I'm going to be making kettle corn, I will be using real white sugar.  If anyone out there has mastered making kettle corn with alternative sugars, please let me know your secret. 

Kettle Corn Recipe:
Ingredients -
- 1/4c. oil (I use either canola or coconut oil,olive oil will leave an olive taste)
- 1/4c. sugar
- 1/2c. popcorn kernels
- 4 qt. sauce pan with lid

Directions -
- Put oil in sauce pan on medium heat and let oil heat up
- Add sugar to oil and mix until sugar is dissolved
- Add kernels to sugar/oil combination and close lid
- Wait until you hear popping and then start shaking sauce pan over heat (**Be sure to shake every 30 seconds or sooner.  This will keep popcorn from burning.**)
- Once popping starts slowing down immediately put popcorn into bowl (**Popcorn will burn if you do not take popcorn off heat right away**)

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve was a very nice, low-key evening with my family.  I had dinner with my sister at the Wild Tuna in Naperville - I didn't take my husband because he isn't a fan of sushi.  If you live in the Naperville area, I strongly suggest going to the Wild Tuna at least once.  The restaurant is South on Rt. 59, closer to Plainfied.  It's a strip-mall restaurant, but it has the best sushi I have ever tasted.  My sister and I ordered five rolls, and each one was amazing!  However, the only complaint I have is that Wild Tuna did not put in the roll description whether anything was "fried" - to be honest, I may not have been looking at the menu's description all that closely.  I ordered the B-52 roll, which was yummy, but had a breaded, crunchy taste to it.  Whoops!  I had no idea this roll wasn't gluten free.  Needless to say, my sister ate the remainder of the roll.  I ate the piece of sushi - even though I could taste the breading- because once wheat has entered my mouth I'm already in trouble.  I didn't finish the roll because I didn't want to get super sick.  I spent the rest of the night being able to breath and my stomach wasn't knotting up, so I thought I had dodged a bullet.

On New Year's morning I woke up with my right ear throbbing. At first I thought I slept on it wrong; I completely forgot about the B-52 roll.  I was irritable, sluggish and I was starting to get a sinus headache.  For anyone with allergies, I'm sure you can relate to these symptoms.  I was also pooping more than usual (I apologize for the bluntness, but unusual bowel movements is a symptom of gluten intolerance.  I promise, I will write about bowel movements in a future post.).  It wasn't until later on in the evening that I realized my body has been reacting the little amount of wheat I ingested from the B-52 roll.  At this point it was too late to go the pharmacy to get some decongestant medication.  This morning I woke up with my eyes a little sticky, my throat is scratchy, and I'm coughing.  Plus, my ear has gone from throbbing to feeling clogged, which makes me a little deaf. 

So, now what?  If I wait too long to treat my symptoms, it will become a sinus infection and I will need to take antibiotics to get better.  However, today I will be going to the pharmacy to pick up the generic version of Claritin-D 24-hour medication.  I will also be sucking on cough drops to help with my chest cold.  Thankfully, most cough drops state gluten free on the packaging.  Since my immune system is in overdrive, I'm going to feed my body as much fresh fruits and vegetables to help myself get better faster.  I'm also going to try to stay away from dairy, because dairy helps your body produce flem.  Outside of a piece of cake today, since yesterday was my birthday and today is when my husband was able to make me a birthday cake (He's so sweet!), I'm going to cut sugar from my diet since I find eating sweets while I'm sick only keeps me sick.  Plus, a chiropractor once told me I should drink V-8 when I'm sick, not orange juice, because bacteria grows in sugar and that will make me sick longer. 

Now for the fun news.  It's not just food you have to worry about being gluten free.  It's also your medication and beauty products.  Since I'm talking about medications today, I'll write about beauty products later.  Wait?!  What?!  I have to worry about medication being gluten free, too?!  Unfortunately, yes.  Everything that you ingest has to be gluten free.  Here is a list of the latest gluten-free medication.  You need to check this list every time you get a new medication.  Also, you need to tell your doctor and pharmacist you have gluten intolerance.  Both may be able to check your prescription is gluten free - I say "may be able" because I cannot speak with authority on this statement.

I hope you had an amazing New Year's Eve and were able to have a relaxing New Year's day. 

'Tis the Season for Cross-Contamination

I hope you enjoyed your holiday and are looking forward to the new year.  I know I enjoyed Christmas, spending time with family and eating tons of GF goodies.  This year I was in charge of Christmas dinner, and I made just about everything from scratch so I could partake in the food festivities.  I made five different batches of cookies, using Better Batter; pumpkin pie from scratch, using Better Batter for the crust; a chocolate cake and frosting from scratch, with Better Batter again; and GF stuffing, using Ener-G brown rice bread.  Not to mention the traditional ham and turkey as the meat dishes.  Along with GF gravy.  And Christmas dinner wouldn't be complete without mashed potatoes, only I laced my potatoes with cauliflower to give it a healthier twist.  **Recipes to follow at a later date.**  For the first time in awhile, I was stuffed at a holiday meal.

I made certain there was absolutely no foods containing gluten because I did not want to worry about cross contamination.  Cross contamination is when something with gluten touches a gluten-free product.  This can easily happen at a dinner table when there are two types of bread are on the table: wheat bread and GF bread.  Wheat bread can contaminate GF bread in a number of ways.  One, the wheat bread touches the GF bread.  Another, someone who touched wheat bread then hands you a plate or a piece of GF bread.  And lastly, if someone butters their wheat bread, puts the knife back into the butter container, and you butter your GF bread with the same knife and butter.  If a GF food is contaminated, it is no longer considered GF and it is no longer safe for you to eat either. 

The easiest way to rectify this situation is to only have GF foods on your table.  But that is not a situation I normally experience.  If there is only one butter on the table, and my host has been gracious enough to buy me my own rolls, I will butter my rolls first (only if the butter is new).  I will also ask the host if I can serve myself first, so I don't have to worry about the utensils in the other dishes accidentally touching any wheat foods and then contaminating the GF foods - such as the meat and vegetables.  Sounds crazy?  It is, but it's the only way I can guarantee not getting ill.  But what, it gets even more ridiculous sounding. 

If you are living by yourself, you don't ever have to worry about cross contamination occurring in your own home.  All you have to do is throw out, well, everything in your refrigerator that may have touched wheat products and starting over.  You will also have to throw out your old toaster oven and wooden cooking utensils, and buy new ones.  The same actions needs to be taken if you choose to completely ban wheat items in your home when you are sharing the food pantry with other people - this may only work if you have your own family and your spouse is on board with the decision.  This is also the cheapest route to go, too. 

However, that is not the case with me.  I share a home with my husband and my son, who
both still eat wheat products.  So now I have to buy two of everything - food related - that everyone uses - butter, jelly, peanut butter, etc.  I have to label my foods with a "Gluten Free" sticker so my family knows to either not use that particular item or to be extremely careful not to contaminate my GF food.  Instead of buying another toaster, keeping the old one for my family's bread use, I just preheat the oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit to toast my GF bread and waffles.  I'm constantly washing my hands when I'm handling my family's wheat products, so I don't accidentally contaminate my GF food or get myself by ingesting wheat crumbs.  Basically, you have to treat having Celiac's disease like a nut allergy.  Good luck and please let me know if you have any questions.