Omg...i Might Be On To Something

[Rachel--24]

I guess I might try veal too although I always said it was somehting I woulden't eat . At this point I will eat anything that sits ok though.

Miamia

I've been eating veal and I actually like it alot. I had never had it until about a month ago.

[rinne]

Rachel, whenever you get to the link is soon enough, just take care of yourself.

I visited my first Gluten-free store today and actually saw some of the products you have all been talking about but because I am trying to avoid starch I didn't go wild. (I couldn't resist this smilie but what does it mean?) I did buy a package of Chocolate Digestive Biscuits by Glutano that are very good. I was surprised, I think I like them better than the old ones. And I got vanilla for baking and sorgum flour which I know nothing about but am curious to use. Then I came home and made up a new recipe for a Chocolate Ginger Cake with Toasted Walnuts. I am calling it Larissa's Graduation Cake because it is for her and she is graduating tomorrow. She has been having horrible digestive problems and knows that bread is a problem for her.

I took flax regularly (2 T in a glass of warm water every morning) for a couple of years but when I got sick it was like broken glass. I would do what someone else suggested, try a little and see how you do with it. I can't eat brown rice either, it just hurts too much. For a time all I could eat was white rice, cooked carrots, or other food just one small mashing away from baby food.

P.S.

Page 50 and counting, Floridian I am so glad to know that you are O.K., reading about your storm experience has been a little like watching a movie where I know the heroine will make it!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Sheesh, I didn't check this thread for 1 day, and I got several pages behind!

So for all of you with chicken problems--have you tried organic chicken? I was just wondering. I thought maybe those lovely pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones might be the problem...

[rinne]

Wow, this is the most astonishing thread and not easy to read through when company keeps dropping by. But I did it and I am so impressed by what you have created here.

The thing I'm having most trouble with is lettuce and greens...I dont think I've found any that dont cause a reaction.

Rachel, I can't eat salad either and I think it is because my digestion is just not up to the job. I tried some organic romaine lettuce and it just hurt. I miss brown rice too because it is also challenging to my digestion and in fact lots of foods that I would think of as being healthy but healthy or not are just difficult for someone who is challenged digestively.

Floridian, thanks for the PAKE recipe. I'll have to play with it a little because I can't eat sugar. Organic or not it causes me pain and inflamation. I use maple syrup for all my baking but then I am Canadian. (What does this smilie mean?) Speaking of being a Canuck and back to your question about accents, when I lived in California my oot and aboot were remarked on but other than that I generally passed for one of you. I see what you mean about this smilie, I like it too.

[dlp252]

Sheesh, I didn't check this thread for 1 day, and I got several pages behind!

So for all of you with chicken problems--have you tried organic chicken? I was just wondering. I thought maybe those lovely pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones might be the problem...

It's so easy to get behind isn't it! You may have a point with the organic chicken! I think for me that might be it, combined with the overload like Rachel suggested. When I had my worst itching, I was eating chicken nearly every day and was eating a lot of it...I also wasn't eating organic chicken--it was just from the regular grocery store. The chicken I've been eating lately is organic and I haven't been eating too much of it. So, now my next chicken challenge...eating it for a couple of days in a row, lol.

When I was seeing my old allergist, he suggested rotating my foods since I had so many allergies. He was one of those that feels that people with lots of environmental allergies also have problems with food. He said that the common foods (whatever common is for you) that you ate as a child could be responsible for creating antibodies, so his suggestion was that I eat less common foods. For instance as a child and adult I ate TONS of chicken, pasta, regular milk and beef, so about a year and a half ago I started buying less common stuff for me like buffalo, lamb, cornish game hens, ostrich, goat milk yogurt, etc. and eating them on a rotating basis. I do think that helped, but of course I didn't know about my casein or gluten intolerance so wasn't being careful about that...I knew wheat gave me problems but didn't connect the gluten thing. So, maybe having stayed away from chicken for a while, I can now eat it in small amounts.

[evie]

Sheesh, I didn't check this thread for 1 day, and I got several pages behind!

So for all of you with chicken problems--have you tried organic chicken? I was just wondering. I thought maybe those lovely pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones might be the problem...

I have not had a chance to try organic chicken either, it might go down better, when I have a chance I will get one to try. seems strange so many seem to have a problem eating chicken and rice, we must have eaten them together just too many times! I hope we all get over those problems. A friend of mine was surprised & said those are such mild foods!! guess that makes no difference. I suppose i must have some gastritis yet since i get tummy ache soon after eating any fruit that is acidic even when i combine it/ a mild food. Have a good day all. evie

[jerseyangel]

Hi everyone! I was just catching up here.

Welcome Rinne Congrats on getting through the whole thread!

Hi Floridian--I was happy to hear about your dinner--that was great that you were able to finish the whole thing! The food sounded good, too--I love meatloaf I wanted to tell you that I do much better with "clean" chicken from Whole Foods. I don't buy it in the regular grocery store anymore. Hope the red potatoes are still ok for you--I don't know what I would do without potatoes! I think I eat too much of them, but I don't have a lot of variety left.

I'm off to the store--will be back on later.

[Rachel--24]

So for all of you with chicken problems--have you tried organic chicken? I was just wondering. I thought maybe those lovely pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones might be the problem...

I've been eating the clean stuff from the butcher at whole foods. I havent eaten any meat that is not organic for over a year now. I dont even buy the pre-packaged organic chicken from the regular grocery store anymore. I want stuff that is as fresh as it can be cuz I think the longer the meats been around the more it can cause problems for me. I get more of a histimine reaction from older meat or leftovers so I avoid them completely.

At this point I dont really have any of my worst symptoms anymore. I dont have any fatigue, depression, very minimal brainfog, no muscle or joint pains, no severe headaches. I just get histimine reactions from alot of foods....the reaction lasts for about an hour or two after eating. There are some foods that dont cause much of a reaction and some that can cause a worse reaction. It probably has to do with the histimine content of the food combined with the small reaction I always get regardless. Pineapple gave me a pretty big reaction (I ate alot of it). Pineapple contains alot of histimine.

Whenever I stop being a fraidy cat I'll get on my antihistime drug and maybe see some benefits. Without the histimine reactions I think I would be symptom free.

[mouse]

That is so great Rachel that all those symptoms are gone. You have certainly spent a long time figuring this out and sharing your information has been such a big help to so many others.

I cannot believe this thread. I check in several times a day just so I don't get behind.

Maybe this thread will reach 2000 replies. That would really please your Mother, Rachel.

[DingoGirl]

I am SO out of the loop on this thread, and now it's WAY too long to catch up! Can anybody summarize the basic gist for me? I can't believe how long this is, wow. I guess what I want to know is - Rachel, did you solve your corn and dairy issues?

[Rachel--24]

Rinne,

I couldn't find the link I was looking for so I'll try to explain it myself.

Gelatin is made from animal bones. The process involves boiling the bones and hooves of animals to hydrolyze (split-up) the collagen proteins into smaller proteins. This is how they create gelatin. Anything hydrolyzed contains free glutamates which is essentially MSG. The only glutamates that are not MSG and are safe to consume are the ones that are found naturally in food. They are bound as oppossed to the free glutamate that is MSG. Some foods naturally high in glutamates such as meat or tomatoes will also contain a small amount of free glutamate when cooked. The cooking process and heat always frees up some of the glutamates creating msg.....but only someone highly sensitive would react to these glutamates.

Hope that made sense.

I am SO out of the loop on this thread, and now it's WAY too long to catch up! Can anybody summarize the basic gist for me? I can't believe how long this is, wow. I guess what I want to know is - Rachel, did you solve your corn and dairy issues?

Susan,

Yeah...I cant have gluten, dairy, soy, corn and eggs.

I've discovered alot throughout this thread....I discovered I react to MSG and sulphites as well. Those 2 additives were causing me alot of problems even when I was avoiding all the main allergens. I discovered that MSG is sprayed onto produce crops (even organic) and I was reacting to it in the fresh produce I was buying. I do my best to avoid stuff that comes from farms that use it on their crops and I'm getting better and better.

Basically I have a bad case of leaky gut. I was prescribed an antihistimine for helping to heal the gut. I get histamine reactions to almost everything I eat. The medication is suppossed to stay in the gut and stop histamine reactions from occurring so that my gut wall can heal itself. Right now it cant heal with all the constant inflammation. I'll be starting the medication sometime this week.

Maybe this thread will reach 2000 replies. That would really please your Mother, Rachel.

Armetta, the way we've been posting the past few days I dont doubt it will reach 2000. I cant miss a day of reading cuz I get behind fast.

Right now I think what would please my mom the most is if I got out of her hair for the weekend. She needs a break from me on the weekends.

I'm on vacation now so she gets a big break.

I saw a really good movie last night....it had a good message behind it. I was holding back from tears through alot of the movie though.

I saw "Click" with Adam Sandler....anyone else seen it?

Rinne congrats on making it through the entire thread!!

I saw you on here late last night when I got back from the movies so I figured you'd be all caught up soon enough.

[DingoGirl]

Rachel.

Phew, thanks for clarifying and summing it up. I"ll say it again, with all the dietary knowledge you've unfortunately had to acquire, you really could be a nutritionist or something of that sort.

MSG is really evil - I and many others I know - those without any other food intolerances - cannot eat it.

BTW, have you had any lettuces or produce from Earthbound Farms in Carmel Valley? Used to drive by their glorious fields on my way to work.

Glad you're feeling better.

[Rachel--24]

BTW, have you had any lettuces or produce from Earthbound Farms in Carmel Valley? Used to drive by their glorious fields on my way to work.

I used to eat their packaged salads all the time. Lately I havent tried anything from them except cauliflower...I'm not sure if they spray the crops with msg or not. The only one I'm "for sure" on is Grimmway Farms/Cal Organic....I react to all their produce. I'm still testing the other farms. There are things I've found to be safe but have no idea where they came from like sweet potatoes and yams I bought at one particular market. I havent ran into the same problems with fruit. I'm thinking its mainly the veggies that are sprayed. If I see any fruits that are big in size I dont buy them and I dont eat strawberries since its known that they are commonly sprayed with the growth enhancer.

[rinne]

Rachel, I think I get it, and I think you explained it very well. Thank you.

Gelatin is made from animal bones. The process involves boiling the bones and hooves of animals to hydrolyze (split-up) the collagen proteins into smaller proteins. This is how they create gelatin. Anything hydrolyzed contains free glutamates which is essentially MSG. The only glutamates that are not MSG and are safe to consume are the ones that are found naturally in food. They are bound as oppossed to the free glutamate that is MSG. Some foods naturally high in glutamates such as meat or tomatoes will also contain a small amount of free glutamate when cooked. The cooking process and heat always frees up some of the glutamates creating msg.....but only someone highly sensitive would react to these glutamates.

About 15 years ago I wrote an article about MSG for an organic newsletter and at that time the stats were that 10% of the population reacted negatively to MSG, not too long ago when I went looking again I discovered that they are now saying it affects something like 40% of the population negatively with obesity and alzheimers high up on the list of possible damaging effects. I find this very frightening when I think of my family who do not pay attention to this. I began eating organic food nearly 30 years ago and have never been able to eat highly processed food with lots of additives because it has never tasted like food to me. All I taste is the chemicals, actually I lie because purely out of curiousity I ate some micro-wave popcorn last summer, I thought that other than a chemical quality tasting only of salt and grease, it was almost like my brain went on auto-pilot and I finished the bag without enjoying it at all. Until I got ill I wasn't taking any supplements and I haven't been taking a lot but when I think that given what I know of MSG and the efforts I have made to avoid it I will never take another supplement again without serious investigation of it.

I'm in Manitoba Floridian and it is a fine stormy day here, we drove out to a little French town for my niece's graduation, she attended the French school there and out of a class of 16 was the only one with English speaking parents. It was so funny, it never occurred to me that the whole event would be in French. How's the weather there?

[evie]

I read the article..."The best mayonaise in the world beacause it has MSG"

Yeah....thats its sole purpose. Anything with MSG is gonna taste good. They use low quality "cheap" ingredients in the food and load it up with MSG so it tastes good. From what I read MSG doesnt even have much of a taste to it but it affects the part of your brain that controls your appetite. It makes you *think* the food is good and it makes you *think* you want more....even though you've eaten enough. MSG is cheap but its basically a drug and well....hey...the food tastes good so we get addicted. No wonder I always ordered 2 big macs, a cheeseburger, large fries, 6 piece nuggets and a soda.

Its all making sense to me now. If it wasnt for the Graves Disease I'd probably have been overweight from eating like that everyday.

Rachel; you sure are a good detective!! I sure don't blame you for being angry, I would be too and am. As far as i know MSG is not a problem for me but I sure am going to stay away from it just in case. Have you thought of writing to your local senator & congressman about the blatant misuse of MSG. Even 1 gram is a lot for a persons body to ingest!! when I worked in school food service I used to write letters to senators, congress & even the president, if enough of us did we would got results!! this forum group could be a powerful force to change things if we all sent email messages, called or sent letters about MSG problem & maybe other subjects that would help all celiac people. Worth a thought??

I am so sorry things do not get settled down for you, am surprised you can get yourself to work and stay there, maybe meeting/ the people at x out has helped you take your mind of your problems. I have admired how you have a positive outlook..for 3 years!! We always think "better times are just around the corner". keep in mind that your own research will help so many others too. We thank you for that. evie

PS ..On the frozen food subject, I was told many months ago by a local diettician @ our hospital that frozen food bags & pkgs. had flour in them to help the food come out easily. she volunteered this idea, so when I saw the university dietitcian I asked her & she said did not know of flour being put in fr. food bags. maybe someone will know how to research this for sure.

[rinne]

I call it woman's magic, you know that synchronicity of events, thinking of someone and when you go to call the phone rings and it is them. I have heard that some First Nations People call that the long body. Anyways, I went to a favourite site and found this Open Original Shared Link which is truly scary.

I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo, and spent years working for the government.

He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow Poisoning of America. In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies.

No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates, causing rats (and humans?) to become obese; they even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats."

I recommend checking out the spofamerica link on the site.

[dlp252]

PS ..On the frozen food subject, I was told many months ago by a local diettician @ our hospital that frozen food bags & pkgs. had flour in them to help the food come out easily. she volunteered this idea, so when I saw the university dietitcian I asked her & she said did not know of flour being put in fr. food bags. maybe someone will know how to research this for sure.

Well, now, THAT's scarey, lol. I eat a lot of frozen veggies and fruit. So far I haven't had a horrible reaction, except to frozen spinach after I had done the SCD diet a few weeks...but that was more of a nauseated feeling as I was eating it...not sure what that was all about. I'm hoping it's not true. I can say that most all of the frozen stuff I buy sticks together (I DO buy organic frozen stuff), lol.

[mouse]

I had spinich at a restaurant in Las Vegas and shortly after dinner, I had to almost run to the room, just made it and threw up my very expensive dinner. I guess whatever the supplier put on it to clean it made me violently ill. I no longer order spinich in a restaurant.

[AndreaB]

Boy, I'm gone for a little over a day and I'm three pages behind. Glad it wasn't during the week or I would have been 20 pages behind!

Floridian

Yeah on the complete meal.

Rinne,

You caught up! Can you still see straight?

Rachel,

Thanks for the msg and gelatin info.

[Green12]

Yes, Mercola is against all grains. Learning about celiac I can relate to most of that, but I'll never give up my rice unless I become allergic. Don't shoot me, but I'm a creationist not an evolutionist. Just the same the bible states that man started eating meat as in animals after the flood.

I won't shoot you Andrea I struggle a lot with these relatively new theories about paleo diets versus neolithic (grains, legumes, dairy). I support everyone doing what they think is best for themsleves 100%, but I personally have a hard time believing all of these things that grow from the earth are not meant to eaten by the human body. Just like in the 80s "no fat" craze/fad, nuts, avocadoes and coconut oil, the horror if you consumed these things! Now it's things like beans, apples, carrots, beets, and rice?

What does gelatin do in recipes anyway? I'll have to check out the new cookbooks and see if they use it.

Gelatin in baking/cooking is used as a a thickening agent.

And carageenan is bad There are some posts re this way way back in the thread several pages.

[Rachel--24]

Does anyone know if yams can help with weight like potatoes do? I dont want to lose any weight and I cant have potatoes. The only grain I was eating was rice but I want to be totally off grains for the time being. I think its helping too.

Its funny because I kept reacting to yams so I stopped eating them. There are alot of things I thought I couldnt eat because of reactions. I started buying from all different stores and I take 2 bites of something and wait a couple minutes to see how I feel. If I react I throw the rest away. If not I eat the rest and see how I feel.

Now I have a running list of stuff I can eat and more importantly where I bought it from. I also found avacados that dont bother me. I have to shop at like 4 different stores but at least I have stuff to eat now. I guess it all comes down to what the growers are putting on the crops or should I say....not putting on them.

So what do you guys think...can yams, sweet potatoes and avocado make up for losing rice and potatoes? I'm also eating squashes....like acorn squash...dont know if that has any calories though.

It took me about 3 tries to find a safe acorn squash. Yesterday I tried spaghetti squash and reacted immediately. I dont think I'll try to find a safe one of those though cuz I thought it tasted really gross. I wouldnt have eaten it even if I hadnt reacted.

[jerseyangel]

Hi Rachel Yes, I believe that sweet potatoes, yams, and winter squashes are all great substitutes for white potatoes. Avocado is a good food, I don't know if that's considered "starchy", but I also don't think it matters I've been trying to incorporate more of these foods into my diet--I just had a sweet potato with my lunch! They're better for us anyway. I still rely strongly on potatoes, but am also realizing that too much of anything is not a good idea. With the spaghetti squash--did you cook it long enough? The first time I made it, I didn't and it was too stringy (or I should say the strings were too firm)

Interesting that you feel better off grains--I do, too. I felt even better when I cut out the legumes.

[Rachel--24]

Thanks Jersey,

I've been off legumes for a long time. All the beans were bad news for me.

The spaghetti squash was just plain gross. I think it was cooked ok and the texture was fine but I just didnt like the taste at all. I've had it before...awhile back and I didnt like it then either. I wanted to throw up. If it was even half-way tasty I would still eat it cuz I want as much variety as possible but that particular squash is just not a keeper for me.

[dlp252]

Yes avocados are a good food...they have lots of good fat, so they have a nice calorie count. I have to watch my weight or I'd eat the whole darned avocado, lol.

I also kind of like sweet potatoes better than the others.

I never thought I liked squash (any of it), but lately I've been buying some frozen winter squash and I really like it a lot. I could never quite get used to the spaghetti squash and it's been many years sine I tried it. I think I tried it with a tomato meat sauce. It didn't quite cut it for me. Lately I've been thinking I wanted to try it again, but haven't seen any at Whole Foods.

[evie]

Rachel; Avocado have 300 to 500mg of fat. they are very good to help you gain weight, helped me gain a few lbs. the spaghetti squash need salt and buuter or oil you use, we like it. hope to use spaghetti sauce on it when I get so I can use it. Also sw potato and yellow winter squash are loaded/ vitamin A, carotene & etc GOOD things for you. I just may have to delete the grains eventually too but not having a problem / them yet but maybe should not eat them once in awhile to prevent problems. You sure have gone thru a lot on this search for better health. keep hanging in there with the rest of us "celiacs". evie