More Diet Tweaking

[Crystalkd]

I posted this in the coping with section but didn't get anything there. I found out last week that I don't have Celiac but am allergic to gluten. I was also told I'm aleergic to corn, one point away from being allergic to soy and also react strongly to lactose and eggs. I'm also allergic to all types of grass and mold as well as many types of trees and dogs. I also react strongly to cats. With all of that said I need to tweak the diet MORE! I've been doing real well on the gluten-free part but I've noticed that I'm more willing to cheat with the corn and the soy, lactose, and eggs. This seems to restrict my diet to almost the same things every day and I'm already getting tired of it. Any one have any ideas?

[Ridgewalker]

I posted this in the coping with section but didn't get anything there. I found out last week that I don't have Celiac but am allergic to gluten. I was also told I'm aleergic to corn, one point away from being allergic to soy and also react strongly to lactose and eggs. I'm also allergic to all types of grass and mold as well as many types of trees and dogs. I also react strongly to cats. With all of that said I need to tweak the diet MORE! I've been doing real well on the gluten-free part but I've noticed that I'm more willing to cheat with the corn and the soy, lactose, and eggs. This seems to restrict my diet to almost the same things every day and I'm already getting tired of it. Any one have any ideas?

Wow, that is a lot of restrictions! Still, there are other people here with the same restrictions, so hopefully you'll get some responses from them.

The best suggestion I'd have is to be on a constant search for new recipes. www.recipezaar.com is my favorite place to get ideas, and you can search for stuff that is "Free of..." several different allergens. I hope you like to cook!

Another suggestion, is to try some new things, to try and broaden the foods that you like. Maybe try making some dishes of different cultures... Mexican, Indian, Chinese, etc...

Have you tried using egg-replacers in recipes? I've never tried them, so I don't know how good they are. If they are decent, then you won't have to worry about finding recipes that don't call for eggs-- Even if the egg-replacer doesn't taste good plain, like for scrambled eggs, if it works in recipes, that helps.

What have you been eating that you're getting tired of? Maybe we can help think of some specific things to try.

PS- If you don't get many responses, I would post this in the "Recipes and Baking" forum.

-Sarah

[hathor]

Well, what are you eating now? Tell us that and we can suggest other things ...

There is a book entitled "Food Allergy Survival Guide." It has recipes that are free of all common allergens. It is vegan too ... so you would have to go elsewhere for meat recipes.

I can't advise about meat. But really, if you look at vegan cookbooks or recipe web sites, quite a bit of the things don't have gluten (or can be changed not to have gluten by use of gluten-free pasta, flour, a different grain, etc.). You can even find plenty of things without soy, too.

I find I am able to have a great deal of variety in my meals. Indeed, I have more recipes than I will ever be able to try.

Assuming you aren't vegetarian, there are all those meats and seafood. You may be able to handle goat's & sheep's milk products. Then there are a variety of starches you can have (potatoes, sweet potatoes, gluten-free pastas, rice, wild rice, buckwheat, millet, lentils, peas, beans, quinoa, winter squashes, to name the most common), veggies, fruits, nuts & seeds.

It is much easier to focus on the wide variety of things you CAN have, rather than what you cannot.

There are plenty of nice nondairy, nonsoy milks out there. In recipes, you can replace eggs with commercial egg replacer (such as EnerG's) or ground flax seed.

If there is any other thing you want a sub for or a particular taste you don't want to miss, mention it and we can all see what we can come up with.

[hathor]

Be sure to read my edited post. I left out some obvious starches. I guess I was making myself hungry and got distracted

[Darn210]

Well, over the weekend, I was researching for a friend who's son was just diagnosed with wheat, corn, soy and yeast allergies. He also reacted to milk and eggs but not as severly. So here is some of the info I sent her (some of these, you probably already use)

Tinkyada pasta

Rice cakes

Amaranth Crackers

Holgrain rice crackers - they have no taste - I would not eat them on their own but can be used in a recipe that calls for crackers (meatloaf?)

chebe bread/rolls - You are suppose to add egg (egg substitute for you?) and cheese of your choice (If you're only allergic to lactose, I think some cheeses are considered lactose-free). You can use them to make a pizza crust also.

Erewhon crispy brown rice cereal

Envirokidz Koala Crisp

rice wraps (from asian market to take the place of tortillas)

look at the Namaste brand of foods

Open Original Shared Link on their website, you check off what allergens you are trying to avoid, and they list everything that they carry that is safe for you. (Then go buy it wherever you want.)

Of course . . . fresh fruit, veggies and meats.

I told my friend that whenever she made anything, make two to three times as much so you have leftovers and hopefully, some freezable leftovers (rice or pasta casseroles) so that you don't have to cook so much.

[tom]

I'm wondering whether you could list some of the things you DO eat.

I can't otherwise know whether what I eat, or what I could suggest, would be new and different.

I can't have all the things u can't, except eggs are ok for me.

But I also can't have vinegar, which knocks out all condiments. And no sweeteners, dairy (casein bad for me, not so much the lactose), yeast, potato, white rice, many oils, etc.

Tonight for dinner I think I'm having my fav wrap (I eat late). Smoked salmon (cold-smoked; no sugar etc), avocado, red pepper, onion, romaine, w/ garlic hummus used as a spread. (No vinegar or citric acid or canola etc in the hummus).

It's a very tasty meal. Sometimes I use almost the same ingred for a salad, adding roasted pine nuts (mmmm!) and a dressing I make on the spot (no leftovers includes pre-made dressing) from evoo, lemon juice, garlic, sea salt, freshly-ground pepper. It's fantastic.

So, what kinds of things are you usually eating?

[Crystalkd]

I had gotten good with the gluten-free stuff but right now until I get used to the new restrictions I've been eating plainly cooked meat, rice, a veggie, fruit, plain unsalted peanuts, qunioa, ect. I really need to go the store which I'll do tomorrow. I'll get used to this just like I did gluten-free but I'm finding that gluten-free was eiasier than this. Last night I had hamburgers with a little chesse on them for flavoring since I'm not sure what condiments I can have. I had been using BBQ sauce since I don't use a lot of ketsup anyway. I was getting used to quiches before this since they were easy to make and fed me for a couple of days but now that's out. My doc wants me to bring up my good chelestrol. (It's low.) I'm eating alot ot brocoli these days to do that.