GLUTEN FREE - NEW ME

Marilyn's new project is that she decided to go gluten-free on January 21 and has found that it makes her feel better. Her gloomy mood improved (although she still gets a bit testy at times.) I suspect that is just a part of her that no diet can correct.

This week, she found a wonderful surprise. A support group made up largely of members of one of her favorite organizations, the B2B (Back to Basics) group in McDonald County. Since she knows many of the members of the new “Let's get Healthy– Plant Based Diet Support Group, it is doubly appealing. Their E-Mail address is Healthy.Support@groups.facebook.com . She has been reading the postings with great interest.

Since Marilyn is taking it a step further to exclude gluten, she has purchased several books (no surprise there). She quickly learned that each cookbook author has favorite exotic ingredients, so soon our kitchen was stocked with things like quinua, chickpea flour, Silk soy milk, arrowroot etc. This can get quite pricey as some of them are hard to find in the city, much less in rural Missouri. The group has found the Happy Herbivore book and Marilyn found the second book Everyday Happy Herbivore very helpful as it was created while the author was living on the island of St. Maartin without a lot of products available, so she created recipes for them –  things like mayo, veggie broth, etc.

This project started with the gift of Wheat Belly from David and Kim which is about the recent increase in gluten (in wheat) intolerance. Another book she found very helpful was The End of Overeating recommended by her friend, Candyce. This book by the former Surgeon General, David Kessler, offers amazing insight into the process of eating more than we really want to.

Of course, she also got the ultimate book (for her) The Gluten-Free Vegan (which is also sugar free). Surprisingly, there are still a lot of great things to eat. The last book I will mention is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Gluten-Free Vegan Cooking. This book has some great recipes, but the authors were lazy and instead of saying see page x for a needed ingredient, it says See Chapter x. This means that you have to go to the index to find the page –  an additional step that is annoying, to say the least. As Marilyn goes through the book, she is inking in the pages for future use.

Well, that is enough diet advice for one day. I find it very easy to maintain my trim form by jumping and running when I see a school bus or other threatening intruder like the mail man. Gee, it is almost time for him to come by. I had better get ready.

Lucky

Comments

[Gayla]

Hi Lucky: I posted my comment to Marilyn on her Facebook posting, but I will post it here for you too. I didn't do so well on my Gluten-Free "experiment", so I am back to eating whatever I want, a little or a lot, and I'm attempting to portion-size better. So far so good!

[.Marilyn to Connie & JEB]

Thanks for the input. I never thought about Big Lots having food items. Elizabeth Hasselbeck makes my skin crawl, but I have empathy for her illness. Good to know.

[Connie (Hanavan) Brennan]

Like her or not, talk show co-host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, has Celiac Disease and is totally gluten free. Her health has greatly improved. I think it's certainly worth a try, Marilyn.

[Jeb]

If you have a Big Lots discount department store in your area you might want to check out their grocery section for G-free stuff. On my last shopping trip there (for tea; huge veriety & cheap), I happened to notice they had a large supply of low priced gluten free products. While these types of stores don't usually have the same products at all their locations, as cheaply as these items were priced, it might be worth looking into.