don't listen to celebrities

Dear Miley,

Celiac disease is not an allergy. It’s an autoimmune disease. You’re not a doctor, why are you recommended a gluten-free diet? I read an article from someone from the Mayo Clinic immediately after Miley posted on twitter recommending that everyone try a gluten-free diet because it does great things for your skin and energy level. Mayo Clinic does not support Miley’s statement…imagine that!

I, also, do not have gluten disease. I have allergies. Allergies are a particularly immune response where your body attacks a ‘normal’ protein as foreign. So when those flowers start budding and flowering and shedding pollen everywhere? Your body is attacking the pollen you inhale and the immune response causes swelling and inflammation in the nose, which is why you get runny noses and itchy eyes. So what’s going on with me is that my body is attacking these innocuous foods I eat and trying to eliminate them, generating my lovely symptoms.

Celiac disease however is not generated in this way. In celiac disease, your body generates an autoantibody called ‘anti-gliadin’ with gliadin being a component of gluten. When you ingest gluten and you have anti-gliadin present, it attacks the gluten and the immune system is drawn in and creates an inflammatory response which ends up with intestinal damage. This intestinal damage leads to a lot of the signs and symptoms of celiac disease—diarrhea with fat malabsorption, thus malnutrition. This can lead to osteoporosis, anemia, and other bleeding disorders. There are other things associated with celiac disease but they’re seen with undiagnosed celiac disease usually.

So while both ‘diseases’ involve the immune system, it’s via different mechanisms. I don’t have any damage to my intestine because of protein attack like I would if I had celiac. That’s probably as generally as I can make it. Also, celiac disease has clear genetic links.

One thing that is 100% true for both conditions: malnutrition is a highly likely possibility. Especially when you have extensive dietary limitations, like I do. It’s possible to get by. It’s annoying if you have to eliminate all gluten, but possible, particularly in this day and age with a growing amount of gluten-free products on the market. I have a lovely gluten-free cookbook converting lots of common recipes to gluten-free. I would NEVER recommend that anyone follow my diet. EVER. Yeast makes my diet incredibly limited. While I would recommend a lot of the benefits that I do get—eliminating processed foods, red meat, eating more vegetables and some fruits…you can do that without eliminating a lot of the things I have to do.  I have to cope with vitamin deficiencies on a daily basis, and probably will have to start getting blood tests to check some of these things. I will not, however, have to worry about my cholesterol or triglycerides!

So listen to the Mayo Clinic people--don't follow extreme diets! (Which in medical opinion includes some of the popular diets--Atkins, South Beach, etc)

Don't listen to Miley. Did she even graduate high school? ;)

Cooking Disasters!

So I made crepes this morning. It had great potential and I was so impressed with how easy I found this recipe to follow, even with converting it from gluten-free to not, and I made a few changes while attempting it to make it suit my tastes. And...then I sat down and took a bite...mmmmmmmm no.


How often does this happen to everyone else? It doesn't happen to me all that often, but I've noticed it's happening more often, correlating with the new recipes I've been trying. Goes with the turf, I suppose.


1) Amanda and I tried a chickpeas and corn recipe:


Corn and Chickpea patties
2 t olive oil
1 1/2 c fresh corn kernels
1 c chopped onion
1 t fresh thyme, minced
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 c fresh breadcrumbs
3 T cornmeal
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ground red pepper
cooking spray


Heat 1 t oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add corn, onion, thyme; saute 2 minutes. Place mixture with chickpeas, breadcrumbs, 2 T cornmeal, salt, and red pepper in a food processors. Pulse 2 times or until combined and chunky. (This was the beginning of the trouble!) Divide mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping into patties; dredge in 1 T cornmeal. Heat 1 t oil in a skillet coated with cooking spray over medium high heat. Add patties, cook 5 minutes. Carefully turn patties over, cook 5 minutes or until golden.


Definitely not a success! I'm working on modifying it towards more of a meatloaf configuration, no food processing and that worked better. Still trying though.


2) Angel food cake: did you know it went in a special pan? Which I definitely don't have. But no worries, the box says you can make them in cupcakes or a loaf pan. I started with the cupcakes and switched after I pan to the loaf pan. The loaf pan was more of a success than the cupcakes, but something wasn't quite right. Obviously, I should just stick with the special pan. Or not make angel food cake anymore. :)


Plus I've never made angel food cake before and I didn't realize that it bubbles and froths while you're mixing it, like a science project. Reminded me of making volcanoes. Anyyyyyyyway...


3) Crepes. I'm not really sure what went wrong here, probably a conversion from gluten free to gluten recipe, but I'll have to keep trying. Either way, while I was eating what I could salvage from it, I was thinking about how often this happens to real people. And trained people, like chefs and cooks. I mean, if I screw up, usually it's cause I didn't follow directions. But what about the people who have to come up with the directions? I guess that's what they go to college for, and that's why I'm here and not there. I'm not going to be brilliant at this, just moderately good and tinkering, and it's totally in my genes. My mom and both my grandmothers are GREAT cooks, so somehow it's working out for me...my parents bemoaned my taking music classes instead of home ec, but I guess I can excel at both!


Maybe next time I'll share some success stories. :) I took pictures of one the other day because I had the feeling that it turned out well, and it did!

BREAD!

Before I get started, I wanted you all to know that I just cracked myself up because I just had an image of Marie Antoinette saying "Let them eat cake" (which I KNOW she didn't say but still) pop into my head which was totally incongruous. Onwards...


So....bread. Do you know how many people tell me that bread is their downfall? How can no-carb diet exists? Actually, maybe they do exist because bread is so many people's downfall. I'm sure many of you share my attitude. Guess what's in every single loaf of bread in the grocery store? Yeast. I know. I read all of them. In multiple stores. I had the brilliant thought that pita bread didn't have yeast in it and my sister burst my bubble on that one by pointing out that otherwise it wouldn't have bubbles in the finished bread. Amanda made fun of me because I'm the only non-Jew to seek out matzo. Passover is like my holiday (too bad I'm not Jewish!) because of the complete elimination of yeast from the diet. Anyway, life sucks with no yeast. It's in many more things besides bread, but think about life with no sandwiches. No Subway, no Quiznos. No croutons. No White House rolls from Ukrops.


This is making me a) salivate and b) frustrated, so I'm going to get to my point: Bisquick mix doesn't have yeast in it! Hooray! It has baking soda and sodium bicarbonate for leavening. So I'm sharing with you TWO delightful recipes combining bread and cheese, another of my faves.


(from my handy Bisquick cookbook since I have great love for Bisquick in its no yeast state!)


Three Cheese Flatbread

 2 Cups bisquick.

1/2 Cup water.  

2 Tbs melted butter

1/4 Cup shredded cheddar

1/4 Cup shredded Monterey Jack  

1/4 Cup grated Parmesan

1/2 Tsp garlic powder  

Option is 1/2 tsp italian seasoning

  

Oven to 450. Bisquick + hot water until stiff dough forms.  Let stand 10 min. Dust surface with Bisquick and roll into a ball, then knead ~60 times.  On an ungreased cookie sheet, roll or pat 12 inch square.  Mix and sprinkle with other ingredients. Bake 10 to 12 min or until edges golden.

My notes: I didn't pat it all that flat, so I can attest to the fact that this totally works as a bread and not just as a flatbread. Also, I didn't have any Monterey Jack cheese, so I think I ended up using cheddar, parm, and mozzarella, which worked just fine. So as always, take what you want and add your own ideas.

And today's bonus recipe because I'm in a fabulous mood, you're all going to enjoy your Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits! (Multiple sources for this one!)

2 ½ c Bisquick baking mix

4 T cold butter (1/2 stick)

1 heaping cup grated Cheddar cheese

¾ c cold whole milk

¼ t garlic powder

Brush on top:

2 T butter, melted

½ t garlic powder

¼ t dried parsley flakes

Pinch salt

Preheat your over to 400 degrees.

Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don’t want to mix too thoroughly. There should be small chunks of butter in there that are about the size of peas. Add Cheddar cheese, milk, and ¼ t garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don’t over mix.

Drop approximately ¼ cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt 2 T butter in a small bowl in your microwave. Stir in ½ t garlic powder and the dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Use up all of the butter.

Notes: seriously, use a scoop of some sort. Or try to form balls. I didn't, I tried to just take a spoon and plop it on the cookie sheet and it worked...sort of. I got really...interestingly shaped biscuits. Didn't really matter to me, but if you're making this for company, keep that in mind.

So...when did it start?

The question I get asked the most is when did this all start. Mostly it’s from people I’ve known for a bit because this seems so sudden, which it is. To them. Less so to me, but I’ve had time to dwell on it and the ins and outs of my GI system.

To put a fine point on it, it definitely was starting in college. By graduation, I started dreading going out to lunch with my mom because I always felt nauseous and just disgusting afterwards. I thought it was from overeating and part of that may be true. When I think back to particular times, it was because I had eaten something in particular that day—one time it was the sangria, other times the breadsticks. Some of this I can only remember because I know we went to Olive Garden and I know I gorged myself on the breadsticks; the sangria event I can remember because we were actually celebrating graduation that day. I’ve thought back to some of my excruciatingly brutal hangovers, which make way more sense now—grapes and yeast are both big triggers. I had ‘food poisoning’ in college and I have to wonder if there was a component of allergy there (the official diagnosis was food poisoning, but I’ve always thought it was viral gastroenteritis cause it took me forever to get back to fighting strength, another thing which now points towards allergy).

Also, have any of you heard me say I put my glasses on as soon as I can in the morning because it gives me a headache to wear them? (Or seen me do it? Or seen me wearing my glasses at all?) Not true! The cereal I almost always had for breakfast gave me a headache instead! No headaches after breakfast anymore. I don’t know how long this has been a problem, but at least a few years.

It has clearly been a problem for the last year or so. I was miserably sick in the fall of 2010. I was diagnosed with an adenovirus, sinusitis, and viral strep (which we knew to be viral after I took my ten days of antibiotics with no relief). My mom had to come out and feed me, wash my sheets, and chivvy me into showering. She also fed me homemade chicken soup with rice. I fed myself cinnamon applesauce.  I downed apple and grade juice for the sugar. All of them comfort foods; ALL of them allergens. I missed a week of school, the most I’ve ever missed, and then spent the next week still feeling like a truck had run me over.

The interesting thing, and what prompted this, is that I had a lecture recently on “psychoneuroimmunology.” They had to tell us what that meant—the effects that your psychological state have on your neuroendocrine axis and thus your immune system. It was really interesting and it’s quite cutting edge. It goes with the studies that show CEOs with type A personalities are more likely to have heart attacks. Either way, there was a slide in the lecture showing how when you’re under stress, there’s a shift in your immune cells (Th2, in case you were wondering!) which leaves you susceptible to viral infections and boosts your ‘humoral’ immune system, which means IgE which means allergies.

Why am I saying this? Well, college was stressful, and so is medical school! So I clearly have a Th2 shift, promoting allergies and viral infections. I mention the viral infections because when I was laid that fall—it was three viral infections that did me in (have any of you noticed that you get colds more often, but have to suffer through at work or school? Colds are viruses). Now, I clearly have allergy problems too. Which came up while I was under stress…interesting, is it not? At least I think so! Obviously the stress didn’t cause them, but it’s a question I ponder a lot, if I ever had problems when I was younger. Too bad my memory is not that good!