I will admit that hearing "gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free" to describe baked goods doesn't exactly conjure images of rich, moist cakes or silky whipped toppings. In fact, it kind of makes me think of grainy, tasteless, crumbly concoctions that are more hippie health food than they are a treat. But my ears prick up whenever I hear "gluten-free, vegan" these days because I'm always on the lookout for something new to try. This weekend I had great success trying Corina Bakery on 6th and Fawcett in Tacoma.
A couple of weeks ago my sister, via a labor of love and a knowledge of things like tapioca flour and quinoa, created some cupcakes that were allergen free (for both of us) and that tasted great. Her husband, who has no allergies and could easily go out and buy a cupcake anywhere even agreed that they were more than edible. She even managed to prepare some kind of coconut icing that was nearly creamy - a feat, as anyone who has tried dairy free baking knows. This opened my mind to the possibility of really good, allergen-free treats. Nothing beats the gourmet cakes from places like Trophy Cupakes or Borracchini in Seattle.
Then last week I attended the type of health and wellness event where vendors gave out samples or lotions or coupons for 10$ off scented candles and acupuncture. When I walked in the first booth I saw displayed four glass cases of tiny cupcakes. The woman behind the table, tattooed and pierced, asked if I'd like to try one. I started to answer, "Oh no, I can't..." and then I read the signs. "Gluten-free/vegan." She smiled, "At our bakery, you CAN!" I ate a chocolate one and took the woman's advice, coming back later to try an orange flavored one. I took her business card and called my sister.
Corina Bakery was easy to find, just around the corner from the Grand theater in Tacoma. Though most of their baked goods can be ordered gluten-, egg-, and dairy- free, they do not make them all this way each day. Instead, they make several options for the day that are allergen-free, so even though we couldn't eat everything in the bakery, we had at least four options, which is way beyond the choices in any other bakery I know of.
The cakes looked and tasted heavenly. I ate the biggest cupcake I've ever seen; it was probably the size of my fist, and it was dense enough that it felt almost heavy. The frosting was thick, rich and creamy with just a hint of citrus flavor and a few pink sprinkles on top. My sister tried a generous slice of the orange dreamcicle cake which was moist and equally delicious. Paired with chai lattes (made with soy milk of course), what could be better on a sunny Saturday afternoon?
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Allergies in Albuquerque
The first week in March I attended a conference for bird trainers in Albuquerque, New Mexico. When I registered I knew that I was setting myself up for a challenge by attempting to travel while still an allergen-avoidance newbie. I am determined not to let my new dietary needs keep me from doing things I want to do. The problem with traveling is that often one is not in complete control of one's consumption. For instance, this conference provided breakfast, but I didn't know if that meant bagels and cream cheese (both no go's for me) or a fruit platter. Similarly, when eating out with a group, I am not comfortable announcing, "Hey, Italian food doesn't have many wheatless, cheese-less options, so we can't go to Beppo's!" It's not my style. In fact, I challenged myself to see how long I could go without anyone noticing I was eating differently at all.
So I packed a few items in my carry-on bag--two packets of oatmeal, a couple of fruit bars, some soy nuts for protein and some gummy bears. Before I left I looked at the Marriott Hotel's website to see if their restaurant provided allergen listings, which it did not. However, the site did provide links to nearby eating establishments; this allowed me to peruse their at my leisure BEFORE ending up in one of them, staring at a menu and confusing a poor waiter by insisting he go look at the lemon garlic sauce ingredient list for something called casein. It probably sounds a little OCD, but I actually memorized a short list of items I could eat at the surrounding restaurants so when I went out with people I could order without much hassle.
For short flights Delta offers a choice of pretzels, cookies, or peanuts and since I can't eat the other two, I received a total of five small bags of peanuts on this journey round-trip. I also was sure to take a lot of Benedryl for this trip because beginning about a week after I started the new diet, I began to break out like a greasy 15-year-old. I didn't have much trouble with acne as a greasy 15-year-old, so this was incredibly distressing. The doctor mentioned that occasionally other symptoms may arise as the body adjusts to changes in diet, so this could be a side-effect. I changed soaps and moisturizers three times to no avail. But then, just two days before departing for Albuquerque, my face started to itch. Around my eyes and under my chin the skin felt tight. Soon my whole face swelled, just enough so that I could tell but probably not many others could. I got some antihistamines and hoped it would just go away. I looked like I was wearing pink eyeshadow, but much of the rest of the swollen blotchiness subsided within a couple of days. Still, I had visions of my face expanding into a pressurized pink balloon on the aircraft or during the conference, so I packed a whole container of Benedryl.
I know my eating habits are by far the least interesting part of my trip, but since this blog is now mostly dedicated to my allergies, I will skip the actual interesting stuff and continue to bore you with details of how I managed not to starve. The first meal I ate in Albuquerque was at a basic American-style restaurant called Romano's Macaroni Grill, which provided excellent allergen info on its website. I ordered a side salad with vinaigrette dressing and even enjoyed some of the fresh-baked bread (because it was a wheat day!) without having to question the waiter about the ingredients in front of all the other conference attendees.
Other meals were a little trickier though, since once a catered meal was served in the hotel's banquet hall and the catering staff was not the same staff who prepared the food. They served fajitas though, which are easily converted into something edible for me. If corn tortillas aren't available I can still eat the rice, beans, guacamole and (usually) the sauteed meat and veggies.
There was one meal that I just couldn't eat though. We visited the Rio Grande Zoo on a sunny Friday and the zoo kindly catered our lunch, serving meat lasagna, veggie lasagna, garlic cheese breadsticks, and a Caesar salad doused in creamy dressing, covered in Parmesan and topped with croutons. I slipped out and ate a banana and an order of fries from the zoo's cafe around the corner. No one noticed.
On the third day, someone finally remarked that I had been ordering all my foods without cheese, so I didn't quite make it all the way through the conference masquerading as a person who is not constantly thinking about what to eat for her next meal. Almost though. And when my saint of a sister picked me up from the Seatac airport, she brought me home-made vegan, gluten-free cupcakes. They were delicious.
On a side note, the dry southwest climate seemed to actually improve my facial woes as both types of break outs finally began to subside. The acne disappearing was a big surprise and huge relief, as it has been present for over a month and was getting pretty tiresome.
I would consider my trip a consumption success, even if I ate a few more side salads than I would have liked. I didn't have to resort to my back-up plans as often as I'd feared (I didn't have to eat any of my packets of oatmeal, though I did eat the fruit bars and nuts. And I didn't have to make a trip to the Trader Joe's, the location of which I'd looked up before I left in case of emergencies). I'd enjoyed green chili stew, fajitas, and some roasted garlic hummus, among other tasty items. Traveling on a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free diet can indeed be done!
So I packed a few items in my carry-on bag--two packets of oatmeal, a couple of fruit bars, some soy nuts for protein and some gummy bears. Before I left I looked at the Marriott Hotel's website to see if their restaurant provided allergen listings, which it did not. However, the site did provide links to nearby eating establishments; this allowed me to peruse their at my leisure BEFORE ending up in one of them, staring at a menu and confusing a poor waiter by insisting he go look at the lemon garlic sauce ingredient list for something called casein. It probably sounds a little OCD, but I actually memorized a short list of items I could eat at the surrounding restaurants so when I went out with people I could order without much hassle.
For short flights Delta offers a choice of pretzels, cookies, or peanuts and since I can't eat the other two, I received a total of five small bags of peanuts on this journey round-trip. I also was sure to take a lot of Benedryl for this trip because beginning about a week after I started the new diet, I began to break out like a greasy 15-year-old. I didn't have much trouble with acne as a greasy 15-year-old, so this was incredibly distressing. The doctor mentioned that occasionally other symptoms may arise as the body adjusts to changes in diet, so this could be a side-effect. I changed soaps and moisturizers three times to no avail. But then, just two days before departing for Albuquerque, my face started to itch. Around my eyes and under my chin the skin felt tight. Soon my whole face swelled, just enough so that I could tell but probably not many others could. I got some antihistamines and hoped it would just go away. I looked like I was wearing pink eyeshadow, but much of the rest of the swollen blotchiness subsided within a couple of days. Still, I had visions of my face expanding into a pressurized pink balloon on the aircraft or during the conference, so I packed a whole container of Benedryl.
I know my eating habits are by far the least interesting part of my trip, but since this blog is now mostly dedicated to my allergies, I will skip the actual interesting stuff and continue to bore you with details of how I managed not to starve. The first meal I ate in Albuquerque was at a basic American-style restaurant called Romano's Macaroni Grill, which provided excellent allergen info on its website. I ordered a side salad with vinaigrette dressing and even enjoyed some of the fresh-baked bread (because it was a wheat day!) without having to question the waiter about the ingredients in front of all the other conference attendees.
Other meals were a little trickier though, since once a catered meal was served in the hotel's banquet hall and the catering staff was not the same staff who prepared the food. They served fajitas though, which are easily converted into something edible for me. If corn tortillas aren't available I can still eat the rice, beans, guacamole and (usually) the sauteed meat and veggies.
There was one meal that I just couldn't eat though. We visited the Rio Grande Zoo on a sunny Friday and the zoo kindly catered our lunch, serving meat lasagna, veggie lasagna, garlic cheese breadsticks, and a Caesar salad doused in creamy dressing, covered in Parmesan and topped with croutons. I slipped out and ate a banana and an order of fries from the zoo's cafe around the corner. No one noticed.
On the third day, someone finally remarked that I had been ordering all my foods without cheese, so I didn't quite make it all the way through the conference masquerading as a person who is not constantly thinking about what to eat for her next meal. Almost though. And when my saint of a sister picked me up from the Seatac airport, she brought me home-made vegan, gluten-free cupcakes. They were delicious.
On a side note, the dry southwest climate seemed to actually improve my facial woes as both types of break outs finally began to subside. The acne disappearing was a big surprise and huge relief, as it has been present for over a month and was getting pretty tiresome.
I would consider my trip a consumption success, even if I ate a few more side salads than I would have liked. I didn't have to resort to my back-up plans as often as I'd feared (I didn't have to eat any of my packets of oatmeal, though I did eat the fruit bars and nuts. And I didn't have to make a trip to the Trader Joe's, the location of which I'd looked up before I left in case of emergencies). I'd enjoyed green chili stew, fajitas, and some roasted garlic hummus, among other tasty items. Traveling on a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free diet can indeed be done!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A New Twist
I've never been much of a cook. Certainly this stems largly from my dislike of spending time in the kitchen, but it could also be that I just don't have the knack. No one has ever accused me of being domestic. But with the new dietary restrictions, it seemed like more time in the kitchen would be my fate. So I decided to approach this new challenge by attempting to make only foods I really craved, thereby rewarding myself for the effort of cooking.
The internet is invaluable to me. I sifted through dozens of vegan chocolate chip recipes, bread recipes, and cake recipes in cyberspace. I could ease into cooking by making comfort foods. Later I would work on more creative ways to use lentils or what spices to pair with garbanzo beans. Once I'd decided I wanted to make a loaf of bread and a batch of cookies, I chose the recipes based on the smallest ingredient lists and shortest preparation times. Aside from a slight error with the yeast, resulting in a somewhat denser loaf than planned, the bread was great. The texture and taste were excellent, and I even had some egg-free, dairy-free butter substitute to spread on it while it was still warm.
My second endeavor didn't go quite as smoothly. The first hiccup occurred as I gathered the ingredients from the cupboards and assembled them on the counter. Upon closer examination, the recipe called for baking powder in the ingredient list, but then called for baking SODA in the instructions themselves, and according to the comments, it was soda that I needed, not powder. Not having an especially diverse pantry or the know-how to mess with substitutions, I searched for another recipe.
I found one that originally called for cocoa powder, to make chocolate cookies, but decided to leave it out and have regular chocolate chip cookies instead of double chocolate. I also saw that flax seed was included in the ingredient list, but as I had seen flax seed in a multitude of recipes ranging from soups to smoothies, I assumed it was there just for the nutrition, which is flax seed's usual purpose in these other recipes. After I had mixed all the ingredients into a gluey consistency, I read some of the comments posted after the recipe and discovered that in baking, flax seed is used in place of egg. So...I needed that. Oops.
Plowing forward regardless, I put in the first batch of dough and hoped for the best. I had tasted the dough and found it to be pretty similar to every other cookie dough I'd sampled. At worst, if the cookies were inedible, I could refrigerate the rest of the dough and eat it raw. I had even found dairy-free chocolate chips to put in, and those would be good no matter what (especially to someone with an unsatisfied sweet tooth!) After a few minutes, the cookies still looked like puddles of plasma, but they were starting to smell like cookies. They never rose though, and I ended up with very flat, strangely textured baked goods. But they tasted an awful lot like cookies, so that was good enough for me.
Originally I planned to write this entry about the foods that I've discovered I CAN eat. Not only is there a pretty good spread of dairy-free, egg-free items between Trader Joe's, Top Foods, Nature's Market, and Whole Foods, but the regular grocery stores had a few surprises as well. For instance, Teddy Grahams happen to be dairy and egg free, as do wheat thins, tortillas, some flat breads, and some frozen teriyaki bowls etc. But there's been a new development that makes me less excited about these things.
With three and a half weeks eating an egg-free, dairy-free diet behind me, I checked in with my doctor to report on my progress. I told her exactly how I was feeling and she seemed...nonplussed. Apparently, she'd expected a more drastic change, considering the drastic change in consumption. We aren't aborting the three month experiment though, since sometimes it takes longer for a body to get back on track. What she did suggest was that I use the rotation diet for gluten and wheat products. All of the items on my "hey, there are plenty of things you CAN eat!" list above contain wheat. So did the cookies and bread I baked earlier in the week.
While these items aren't completely off the table (off the table? Get it?!), I do have to eat gluten-free three days out of every four to follow the rotation diet. Since wheat is a "moderate" allergen for me, I can have it some days, as long as I give my body time to recover before eating it again--at least that was how I understood the theory. I was already getting pretty good at discerning what was and wasn't acceptable with the previous restrictions, so this news wasn't as disheartening as it could have been. But still. I have to be gluten free 75% of the time now too? As the Germans would say, "mensch" (Aw, man!)
The experiment continues.
The internet is invaluable to me. I sifted through dozens of vegan chocolate chip recipes, bread recipes, and cake recipes in cyberspace. I could ease into cooking by making comfort foods. Later I would work on more creative ways to use lentils or what spices to pair with garbanzo beans. Once I'd decided I wanted to make a loaf of bread and a batch of cookies, I chose the recipes based on the smallest ingredient lists and shortest preparation times. Aside from a slight error with the yeast, resulting in a somewhat denser loaf than planned, the bread was great. The texture and taste were excellent, and I even had some egg-free, dairy-free butter substitute to spread on it while it was still warm.
My second endeavor didn't go quite as smoothly. The first hiccup occurred as I gathered the ingredients from the cupboards and assembled them on the counter. Upon closer examination, the recipe called for baking powder in the ingredient list, but then called for baking SODA in the instructions themselves, and according to the comments, it was soda that I needed, not powder. Not having an especially diverse pantry or the know-how to mess with substitutions, I searched for another recipe.
I found one that originally called for cocoa powder, to make chocolate cookies, but decided to leave it out and have regular chocolate chip cookies instead of double chocolate. I also saw that flax seed was included in the ingredient list, but as I had seen flax seed in a multitude of recipes ranging from soups to smoothies, I assumed it was there just for the nutrition, which is flax seed's usual purpose in these other recipes. After I had mixed all the ingredients into a gluey consistency, I read some of the comments posted after the recipe and discovered that in baking, flax seed is used in place of egg. So...I needed that. Oops.
Plowing forward regardless, I put in the first batch of dough and hoped for the best. I had tasted the dough and found it to be pretty similar to every other cookie dough I'd sampled. At worst, if the cookies were inedible, I could refrigerate the rest of the dough and eat it raw. I had even found dairy-free chocolate chips to put in, and those would be good no matter what (especially to someone with an unsatisfied sweet tooth!) After a few minutes, the cookies still looked like puddles of plasma, but they were starting to smell like cookies. They never rose though, and I ended up with very flat, strangely textured baked goods. But they tasted an awful lot like cookies, so that was good enough for me.
Originally I planned to write this entry about the foods that I've discovered I CAN eat. Not only is there a pretty good spread of dairy-free, egg-free items between Trader Joe's, Top Foods, Nature's Market, and Whole Foods, but the regular grocery stores had a few surprises as well. For instance, Teddy Grahams happen to be dairy and egg free, as do wheat thins, tortillas, some flat breads, and some frozen teriyaki bowls etc. But there's been a new development that makes me less excited about these things.
With three and a half weeks eating an egg-free, dairy-free diet behind me, I checked in with my doctor to report on my progress. I told her exactly how I was feeling and she seemed...nonplussed. Apparently, she'd expected a more drastic change, considering the drastic change in consumption. We aren't aborting the three month experiment though, since sometimes it takes longer for a body to get back on track. What she did suggest was that I use the rotation diet for gluten and wheat products. All of the items on my "hey, there are plenty of things you CAN eat!" list above contain wheat. So did the cookies and bread I baked earlier in the week.
While these items aren't completely off the table (off the table? Get it?!), I do have to eat gluten-free three days out of every four to follow the rotation diet. Since wheat is a "moderate" allergen for me, I can have it some days, as long as I give my body time to recover before eating it again--at least that was how I understood the theory. I was already getting pretty good at discerning what was and wasn't acceptable with the previous restrictions, so this news wasn't as disheartening as it could have been. But still. I have to be gluten free 75% of the time now too? As the Germans would say, "mensch" (Aw, man!)
The experiment continues.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Great Food Allergy Experiment: Week 3
Today is day 21 of following some dietary guidelines as a test to determine whether I will feel better after cutting out certain foods I may be allergic to. Do I feel any better? Is the diet working to resolve my health issues? Is it ridiculous to say I have no idea? I might feel better. But maybe that's because I'm paying incredibly close attnetion to what I'm eating and how much of it I'm eating. Regardless, I was advised to eliminate dairy and eggs for at least three months, so even if I'm not seeing results after three weeks, I'm not going to dive into a block of jack cheese, as tempting as that might be.
The doctor's next suggestion was to use a rotation diet, which means that the foods I CAN eat should be alternated and not eaten more than once every four days. This is more involved than eating some tortilla chips one day and then putting the bag on top of the fridge for three days. The rotation diet means that after eating some tortilla chips I would have to avoid eating ALL corn products for three days, including corn syrup and all corn by-products. Similarly if I eat wheat one day, I should avoid all wheat products for the next three days. To me, that is pure insanity. It's irksome to have to read labels so closely and think so hard about what to buy and how to construct a meal, but the added difficulty of rotating is too much. I could make an allergen-free soup and then not eat the leftovers for four days (as well as not eat any corn, beef, black beans or tomatoes, since that's what was in the soup). My compromise is to not eat too much of any one type of food, even if I am eating corn or soy more than once every four days. Variety is the spice of life, right?
I grew accustomed to thinking about each morsel I was consuming surprisingly quickly. "Can I eat this?" is the most common thought crossing my mind in a grocery store. And questions like "How much tuna have I already eaten this week?" or "What else can I make using salsa and garbanzo beans?" frequently skitter around my brain when I'm in the kitchen. But what I have not quite gotten used to is explaining to people that I have an allergy. I don't like it. I realize it's something beyond my control, but I can't shake the feeling that it's a weakness, or vulnerability and something I don't want to talk about. At the same time, it consumes so much of my brain-power that is makes sense to talk about it with friends.
When I break the news to anyone, I try to be very casual because I'm not dying, I don't go into anaphylactic shock, and it won't affect my interactions with most people most of the time. I also DO NOT want to talk about any health problems that may or may not be caused by the allergies. But inevitably when I am invited over for dinner, or to a party, someone will notice my strange eating habits. Others' reactions range from, "If I had to do that I would slit my throat" to "Oh."
Beyond this, I am incredibly annoyed when people conclude that I have lost weight because I have a food allergy. "I guess that explains how you got so thin!" I know I should not be annoyed by this. I am anyway. I have only been on this limited diet for three weeks, beginning in the middle of January. I was already thinner when I arrived back from Germany in December, and in fact already swimming in my clothes a bit as far back as October. So no, I did not lose weight from eating this way. I got thinner because I was too sick to run or rock climb or do anything else vigorous. All my muscle mass is gone. And because I knew I wasn't able to be active, I ate less. This means I got thinner. Of course, it probably is easier to remain thin if one can't eat cookies or candy or factory-produced breads, but there are plenty of ways to still overeat and under-exercise. Coconut milk, peanut butter, refried beans, cashews, and dried apricots won't do wonders for your figure either.
The next thing people tend to do when they discover I can't eat certain foods is apologize for eating those foods. I would rather no one ever know I can't eat donuts than hear things like, "I would stop in at Krispy Kreme, but I'd feel bad for you!" I don't want others to feel pressured to alter their eating patterns because of my issue. I am constantly reassuring people that it's okay to eat in front of me. Oddly I find it more cathartic to watch someone else eat something that I have a craving for than to just see the item sitting on the counter uneaten.
In the three weeks that I've been sticking to the "vegan plus meat" diet (I know, REAL vegans also would avoid honey, molasses, gelatin etc., but gimmie a break)I have been experimenting with dairy alternatives. Fortunately, I never liked cow's milk. (Why do we just call it "milk"? Shouldn't it be "cow's milk" because really milk from human should be what we just call "milk"...Right?) So as it turned out, when I tried some soy milk, I liked it much better than cow's milk anyway. Not missing out on anything there--score one for Suzanne! I also tried a couple of yogurt substitutes, one of which was made from rice protein and tasted disappointingly although not surprisingly, like rice. I do not want my yogurt to taste like rice. I tried a passable raspberry coconut milk yogurt, but the issue with this is two-fold. First, it costs a fortune--$1.79 per 6-oz container if you find it cheap (and if you can find it at all). Secondly, compared to the protein-rich, non-fat, low calorie Greek yogurt I love, coconut milk yogurt doesn't really count as healthy. It's high in saturated fat, calories, and sugar, and there's only a single gram of protein. Alas. The experiment continues.
The doctor's next suggestion was to use a rotation diet, which means that the foods I CAN eat should be alternated and not eaten more than once every four days. This is more involved than eating some tortilla chips one day and then putting the bag on top of the fridge for three days. The rotation diet means that after eating some tortilla chips I would have to avoid eating ALL corn products for three days, including corn syrup and all corn by-products. Similarly if I eat wheat one day, I should avoid all wheat products for the next three days. To me, that is pure insanity. It's irksome to have to read labels so closely and think so hard about what to buy and how to construct a meal, but the added difficulty of rotating is too much. I could make an allergen-free soup and then not eat the leftovers for four days (as well as not eat any corn, beef, black beans or tomatoes, since that's what was in the soup). My compromise is to not eat too much of any one type of food, even if I am eating corn or soy more than once every four days. Variety is the spice of life, right?
I grew accustomed to thinking about each morsel I was consuming surprisingly quickly. "Can I eat this?" is the most common thought crossing my mind in a grocery store. And questions like "How much tuna have I already eaten this week?" or "What else can I make using salsa and garbanzo beans?" frequently skitter around my brain when I'm in the kitchen. But what I have not quite gotten used to is explaining to people that I have an allergy. I don't like it. I realize it's something beyond my control, but I can't shake the feeling that it's a weakness, or vulnerability and something I don't want to talk about. At the same time, it consumes so much of my brain-power that is makes sense to talk about it with friends.
When I break the news to anyone, I try to be very casual because I'm not dying, I don't go into anaphylactic shock, and it won't affect my interactions with most people most of the time. I also DO NOT want to talk about any health problems that may or may not be caused by the allergies. But inevitably when I am invited over for dinner, or to a party, someone will notice my strange eating habits. Others' reactions range from, "If I had to do that I would slit my throat" to "Oh."
Beyond this, I am incredibly annoyed when people conclude that I have lost weight because I have a food allergy. "I guess that explains how you got so thin!" I know I should not be annoyed by this. I am anyway. I have only been on this limited diet for three weeks, beginning in the middle of January. I was already thinner when I arrived back from Germany in December, and in fact already swimming in my clothes a bit as far back as October. So no, I did not lose weight from eating this way. I got thinner because I was too sick to run or rock climb or do anything else vigorous. All my muscle mass is gone. And because I knew I wasn't able to be active, I ate less. This means I got thinner. Of course, it probably is easier to remain thin if one can't eat cookies or candy or factory-produced breads, but there are plenty of ways to still overeat and under-exercise. Coconut milk, peanut butter, refried beans, cashews, and dried apricots won't do wonders for your figure either.
The next thing people tend to do when they discover I can't eat certain foods is apologize for eating those foods. I would rather no one ever know I can't eat donuts than hear things like, "I would stop in at Krispy Kreme, but I'd feel bad for you!" I don't want others to feel pressured to alter their eating patterns because of my issue. I am constantly reassuring people that it's okay to eat in front of me. Oddly I find it more cathartic to watch someone else eat something that I have a craving for than to just see the item sitting on the counter uneaten.
In the three weeks that I've been sticking to the "vegan plus meat" diet (I know, REAL vegans also would avoid honey, molasses, gelatin etc., but gimmie a break)I have been experimenting with dairy alternatives. Fortunately, I never liked cow's milk. (Why do we just call it "milk"? Shouldn't it be "cow's milk" because really milk from human should be what we just call "milk"...Right?) So as it turned out, when I tried some soy milk, I liked it much better than cow's milk anyway. Not missing out on anything there--score one for Suzanne! I also tried a couple of yogurt substitutes, one of which was made from rice protein and tasted disappointingly although not surprisingly, like rice. I do not want my yogurt to taste like rice. I tried a passable raspberry coconut milk yogurt, but the issue with this is two-fold. First, it costs a fortune--$1.79 per 6-oz container if you find it cheap (and if you can find it at all). Secondly, compared to the protein-rich, non-fat, low calorie Greek yogurt I love, coconut milk yogurt doesn't really count as healthy. It's high in saturated fat, calories, and sugar, and there's only a single gram of protein. Alas. The experiment continues.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Food Allergies: Why I threw out a pint of half-eaten Ben and Jerry's Fro-yo Fudge Brownie dessert
Two years ago my sister discovered she had food allergies. Not just "no thanks I don't eat shellfish" allergies, or "when I eat too many walnuts I get a patch of dry skin on my forearm" allergies. My saint of a sister stopped cold turkey with eggs, dairy, and gluten, which is a wheat product found in about 3/4 of all processed and packaged foods. Having allergies is time-consuming and frustrating, turning a simple trip to the grocery store into a Mensa brain-teaser. How will I get enough protein THIS week? Is there gluten in this box of soup or not? What the hell do you eat for breakfast if you can't have milk, cereal, oatmeal, eggs, toast, yogurt or pancakes? But to get rid of blinding migranes, one will sacrifice.
When Lauren told me about her allergies and new diet I thought to myself, "Dear god, I hope that doesn't happen to me!" Then a year ago I started having health problems. Sometimes the thought that I too might be suffering from food allergy symptoms crept up and I entertained it. What if I had to stop eating wheat? Or dairy? What would be left? I hate cooking. Would I have to cook? Can one subsist solely on raw fruits and vegetables? Today a doctor presented to me the results of my food allergy test, showing that I am reacting negatively and strongly to dairy and eggs (not gluten--yet!) and needed to cut them out of my diet 100%.
The first thing I did after getting the news was accidentally consume a dairy product hidden in my low-fat blueberry granola bar. This is not going to be easy. It is even harder to follow the no dairy, no egg rule when you start realizing all of the clever places dairy and eggs can hide. I can't eat them in any form, which includes all the strange by-products at the ends of ingredient lists like lactalbumin, casein, lecithin, lysozyme, and the mysterious "binder" just to name a few of the dozens of off-limits ingredients.
I haven't purged the kitchen yet; that's the plan for tomorrow. Today I will work on finding a healthy, enjoyable dinner to convince myself that it's going to be fine. Tomorrow I will throw out the eggs, butter, yogurt, salad dressing, milk, etc. from the fridge. And the frozen yogurt. I have a beautiful lime-green container of the best frozen yogurt you will ever taste--fugde brownie with bigs chuncks of chocolate--that at 170 calories a serving almost passes for healthy. It too will see the inside of a Glad bag instead of the inside of my mouth.
Tomorrow is day one.
When Lauren told me about her allergies and new diet I thought to myself, "Dear god, I hope that doesn't happen to me!" Then a year ago I started having health problems. Sometimes the thought that I too might be suffering from food allergy symptoms crept up and I entertained it. What if I had to stop eating wheat? Or dairy? What would be left? I hate cooking. Would I have to cook? Can one subsist solely on raw fruits and vegetables? Today a doctor presented to me the results of my food allergy test, showing that I am reacting negatively and strongly to dairy and eggs (not gluten--yet!) and needed to cut them out of my diet 100%.
The first thing I did after getting the news was accidentally consume a dairy product hidden in my low-fat blueberry granola bar. This is not going to be easy. It is even harder to follow the no dairy, no egg rule when you start realizing all of the clever places dairy and eggs can hide. I can't eat them in any form, which includes all the strange by-products at the ends of ingredient lists like lactalbumin, casein, lecithin, lysozyme, and the mysterious "binder" just to name a few of the dozens of off-limits ingredients.
I haven't purged the kitchen yet; that's the plan for tomorrow. Today I will work on finding a healthy, enjoyable dinner to convince myself that it's going to be fine. Tomorrow I will throw out the eggs, butter, yogurt, salad dressing, milk, etc. from the fridge. And the frozen yogurt. I have a beautiful lime-green container of the best frozen yogurt you will ever taste--fugde brownie with bigs chuncks of chocolate--that at 170 calories a serving almost passes for healthy. It too will see the inside of a Glad bag instead of the inside of my mouth.
Tomorrow is day one.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
All the homey cliches you can think of
I couldn't think of a title for this post that wasn't a cliche. Home sweet home, home is where the heart is, there's no place like home, etc. I suppose the reason these sayings are so widely used is because they ring true for so many people. When I was getting ready to leave Germany, my explanation for returning to the U.S. was that while I liked Germany and enjoyed my stay, it just wasn't home. It was the truth, but to my own ears it sounded a little lame and I was surprised at how many people replied, "I would feel just the same."
The anticipation of returning to the Northwest was so great that I hardly felt sad about leaving my animals, my kindergarteners, or the zookeepers. Even the thought of leaving Shannon and Diana, my fellow English-speakers and closest companions was overshadowed by the sheer joy of coming home. I had a few last hurrahs in Magdeburg, visited the Christmas market, attended a couple of going-away parties, and generally acted sorry to be leaving. The parents, zookeepers, teachers and children all did seem genuinely sorry I wasn't coming back after the holidays this year. I tried to explain my departure to the animals also, but I don't think it had much of an impact.
On my last day in Magdeburg, I went to my usual Sunday morning cafe to eat my usual pastry, drink my usual hot chocolate and do my usual crossword puzzles. My apartment was quite bare by this time and I busied myself organizing my digital pictures for much of the remainder of the day before stopping in to say goodbye to Shannon and our project manager, Kristin, one more time.
I awoke a bundle of nerves the morning of my flight. After a few last minute chores, I still had enough time to venture into the early December darkness to buy a snack for the trip from the bakery. I lugged my backpack, laptop, and two suitcases down four flights of stairs to the shuttle that waited to take me to Berlin. I bumbled through the airport and breathed a sigh of relief when my checked bags both weighed in a three kilograms under the maximum weight (a 100 Euro charge is added for going over!) Now all I had to do was wait. And I did.
I spent my last ten euros on stocking stuffers for Jared (small, light ones that fit in my backpack of course) and started to get antsy. There was no plane at our gate yet, and the flight was scheduled to leave in an hour. Another traveller claimed he had taken this same flight from Berlin to New York twelve times before and he'd never missed a connecting flight. This was somewhat reassuring, but my original layover was only an hour and fifty-five minutes, so any delay would be too close for comfort. At 11:50, when our plane should have been taking off, it was just pulling up to the gate. I gave up the thought of making my connecting flight to Seattle and focused on worrying about how long I would be stuck in New York waiting for the next one.
We took to the air an hour and a half late, but the pilot assured us we would be making up at least an hour in the air. To me, this begs the question if you can make the trip in eight hours, why schedule it for nine and a half? But I assume that it is more fuel efficient to fly more slowly, but what do I know?
I sat in the last row and tried to prepare myself for the possibility of being stranded at John F. Kennedy airport for twenty-four hours as I had been in Frankfurt the year before. I watched a movie called Four Christmases on the plane's big screen and then as we approached time to land, I asked a flight attendant about my chances of catching the 5:10 flight to Seattle. "Oh, you'll make it no problem!" she smiled. I didn't.
Sitting in the last row of the plane means you are the last passenger off of the plane, which puts you as the last to go through passport control and collect your bags. I tried not to jump from one foot to the other while I silently willed lines to move faster. Ridiculously, I waddled with all of my baggage to the Delta counter and stood in line yet again. A baggage assistant asked, "where to?" and when I said, "Seattle" he shook his head, "forget about it." Somewhere between dispair and sarcasm, I answered, "well, thanks." But he was right and the doors closed for my flight to Seattle just as I reached the counter. I was imagining having to stay in New York for days and was trying to put on a brave face about it when the woman behind the desk handed me a boarding pass for a flight leaving in two hours. I could have hugged her.
When I went through security, now convinced I was on the final leg of my journey home, the woman who took my passport looked like I had felt a few minutes before. "Tough time of year to work at the airport, huh?" I said. "Yeah," she agreed, perking up a little, "it really is."
I called Jared from a pay phone with American quarters I had stowed in my backpack for just such an occasion and gave him the information to meet my new flight. Now I could relax. The fact that I was finally on America soil began to sink in. The conversations around me were being conducted in rapid, slangy, native English. The airport TVs, always turned up obnoxiously, reported American news and there wasn't even a hint of a British accent. After an unusually comfortable seven-hour flight (thanks to an empty seat beside me) we landed in Seattle.
In the two weeks since I've been back, I've taken part in many activities that remind me I'm home. I've seen Mt. Rainier in the distance on a clear day; I've sat in rush hour traffic southbound on the valley freeway. I have ordered an elaborate coffee drink at 6am, and seen the horrendous parking lot at Southcenter the week before Christmas. (Does anyone remember to call it "Westfield"?) I have shopped at Trader Joe's and have seen a red-tailed hawk perched on a telephone pole, watching for small prey.
More importantly though, I have seen my family, none of whom were able to visit me during my stay in Germany. I have baked cookies, gone out to dinner, shopped, and exchanged presents, hugs and stories with them. In fact, I would continue to prattle on about the culture shock of returning to the U.S. but I am going to go spend more time with my family right now. And really, for me family can make a place home. So here I am.
The anticipation of returning to the Northwest was so great that I hardly felt sad about leaving my animals, my kindergarteners, or the zookeepers. Even the thought of leaving Shannon and Diana, my fellow English-speakers and closest companions was overshadowed by the sheer joy of coming home. I had a few last hurrahs in Magdeburg, visited the Christmas market, attended a couple of going-away parties, and generally acted sorry to be leaving. The parents, zookeepers, teachers and children all did seem genuinely sorry I wasn't coming back after the holidays this year. I tried to explain my departure to the animals also, but I don't think it had much of an impact.
On my last day in Magdeburg, I went to my usual Sunday morning cafe to eat my usual pastry, drink my usual hot chocolate and do my usual crossword puzzles. My apartment was quite bare by this time and I busied myself organizing my digital pictures for much of the remainder of the day before stopping in to say goodbye to Shannon and our project manager, Kristin, one more time.
I awoke a bundle of nerves the morning of my flight. After a few last minute chores, I still had enough time to venture into the early December darkness to buy a snack for the trip from the bakery. I lugged my backpack, laptop, and two suitcases down four flights of stairs to the shuttle that waited to take me to Berlin. I bumbled through the airport and breathed a sigh of relief when my checked bags both weighed in a three kilograms under the maximum weight (a 100 Euro charge is added for going over!) Now all I had to do was wait. And I did.
I spent my last ten euros on stocking stuffers for Jared (small, light ones that fit in my backpack of course) and started to get antsy. There was no plane at our gate yet, and the flight was scheduled to leave in an hour. Another traveller claimed he had taken this same flight from Berlin to New York twelve times before and he'd never missed a connecting flight. This was somewhat reassuring, but my original layover was only an hour and fifty-five minutes, so any delay would be too close for comfort. At 11:50, when our plane should have been taking off, it was just pulling up to the gate. I gave up the thought of making my connecting flight to Seattle and focused on worrying about how long I would be stuck in New York waiting for the next one.
We took to the air an hour and a half late, but the pilot assured us we would be making up at least an hour in the air. To me, this begs the question if you can make the trip in eight hours, why schedule it for nine and a half? But I assume that it is more fuel efficient to fly more slowly, but what do I know?
I sat in the last row and tried to prepare myself for the possibility of being stranded at John F. Kennedy airport for twenty-four hours as I had been in Frankfurt the year before. I watched a movie called Four Christmases on the plane's big screen and then as we approached time to land, I asked a flight attendant about my chances of catching the 5:10 flight to Seattle. "Oh, you'll make it no problem!" she smiled. I didn't.
Sitting in the last row of the plane means you are the last passenger off of the plane, which puts you as the last to go through passport control and collect your bags. I tried not to jump from one foot to the other while I silently willed lines to move faster. Ridiculously, I waddled with all of my baggage to the Delta counter and stood in line yet again. A baggage assistant asked, "where to?" and when I said, "Seattle" he shook his head, "forget about it." Somewhere between dispair and sarcasm, I answered, "well, thanks." But he was right and the doors closed for my flight to Seattle just as I reached the counter. I was imagining having to stay in New York for days and was trying to put on a brave face about it when the woman behind the desk handed me a boarding pass for a flight leaving in two hours. I could have hugged her.
When I went through security, now convinced I was on the final leg of my journey home, the woman who took my passport looked like I had felt a few minutes before. "Tough time of year to work at the airport, huh?" I said. "Yeah," she agreed, perking up a little, "it really is."
I called Jared from a pay phone with American quarters I had stowed in my backpack for just such an occasion and gave him the information to meet my new flight. Now I could relax. The fact that I was finally on America soil began to sink in. The conversations around me were being conducted in rapid, slangy, native English. The airport TVs, always turned up obnoxiously, reported American news and there wasn't even a hint of a British accent. After an unusually comfortable seven-hour flight (thanks to an empty seat beside me) we landed in Seattle.
In the two weeks since I've been back, I've taken part in many activities that remind me I'm home. I've seen Mt. Rainier in the distance on a clear day; I've sat in rush hour traffic southbound on the valley freeway. I have ordered an elaborate coffee drink at 6am, and seen the horrendous parking lot at Southcenter the week before Christmas. (Does anyone remember to call it "Westfield"?) I have shopped at Trader Joe's and have seen a red-tailed hawk perched on a telephone pole, watching for small prey.
More importantly though, I have seen my family, none of whom were able to visit me during my stay in Germany. I have baked cookies, gone out to dinner, shopped, and exchanged presents, hugs and stories with them. In fact, I would continue to prattle on about the culture shock of returning to the U.S. but I am going to go spend more time with my family right now. And really, for me family can make a place home. So here I am.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmaaaas...
With two weeks left before I fly home to America, I've been focused on getting all of my accounts in order and sorting through all of my belongings to decide which ones make the final cut.
I attended my final German class last week and said goodbye to the other students. At the end of class our instructor announced, "Warte Mal!" (WAIT!) and dashed into her office. She returned with tiny bottles of made-in-Magdeburg liquor, and we drank a toast to me. I told them I would write, but of course I will write in German since I don't speak Russian, Vietnamese, Hindi, or French.
Before buckling down to work for the last two weeks of my stint here, I took one more day to explore a piece of Germany with Shannon and Diana. We went to Quedlinburg, a historical city protected by UNESCO because of the survival of its original German archetecture and culture. We went to the Christmas market, drank mulled wine to keep warm and took touristy pictures of the buildings with slats criss-crossing on their exteriors. A small brauhaus (brewery) served us a meal of homemade bread and cheese (plus a ball of lard with fried onions?!), along with a pint of their special beer that left a lingering caramel taste. Despite the chilly weather (thanks for the toe-warmers, Mom!), the elegant white lights and pine trees decorating the town created a cozy atmosphere as we boarded our train back to Magdeburg.
I used my last two vacation days on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, which of course are not holidays here in Germany. I didn't have the traditional turkey dinner, but I did treat myself to some warm, puffy dough tidbits dusted in powdered sugar from the Christmas market. In the evening I settled down with some hot chocolate to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol in German. I quickly turned on the subtitles (in German)to help me keep up with the dialogue--Gonzo and Kermit are fast talkers. Around my usual bedtime I used the fantastic technlogy of Skype to see and talk to some of my family at their Thanksgiving celebration nine hours and 5,000 miles away. I got to see my mom's husband in his sea turtle apron, my cousin in her Goodwill-chic tunic shirt, and my Uncle George's mustache up close as he tried to figure out where the webcam was. I could almost smell the yams and apples.
If you're not an avid reader, or one of my friends who has been nudging me to post my reading list, you can skip this next part. But for you who are interested, I made a list of the books I've read during my stay in Germany. I think I forgot a couple I read early on, and I left out the dry biology ones, but here goes:
Slaughter-house Five—Kurt Vonnegut
My Antonia—Willa Cather
Bridges of Madison County—Robert James Waller
Eleven Minutes—Paolo Coehlo
Ender's Game—Orson Scott Card
Love in the Time of Cholera—Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The End of the Affair—Graham Greene
I am America, and so Can You!--Stephen Colbert
Cold Mountain—Charlies Frazier
West with the Night—Beryl Markham
Broken for You—Stephanie Kallos
Consider the Lobster—David Foster Wallace
The Other Boleyn Girl—Phillipa Gregory
The Time Traveler's Wife—Audrey Niffenegger
Black Mountain Breakdown—Lee Smith
Family Linen—Lee Smith
Year of Wonders—Geraldine Brooks
The Octopus and the Orangutan—Eugene Linden
Five Miles from Outer Hope—Nicola Barker
A Crowded Marriage—Catherine Alliott
Atonement—Ian McEwan
The Ameteur Marriage—Anne Tyler
The Mouse and His Child—Russel Hoban
The Shipping News—E. Annie Proulx
The Color Purple—Alice Walker
A Farewell to Arms—Ernest Hemingway
White Oleander—Janet Fitch
Setting Free the Bears—John Irving
The Full Cupboard of Life—Alexander McCall Smith
Love, Etc—Julian Barnes
I might still have time to read another couple, considering I'll have not only the 24-hour trip back to Seattle, but I will also have at least two internet-free days in a bare apartment with nothing to do but read. Since I'll be without internet on my last weekend in Germany, it's possible that the next blog I write will be posted from my new apartment in the U.S!
I attended my final German class last week and said goodbye to the other students. At the end of class our instructor announced, "Warte Mal!" (WAIT!) and dashed into her office. She returned with tiny bottles of made-in-Magdeburg liquor, and we drank a toast to me. I told them I would write, but of course I will write in German since I don't speak Russian, Vietnamese, Hindi, or French.
Before buckling down to work for the last two weeks of my stint here, I took one more day to explore a piece of Germany with Shannon and Diana. We went to Quedlinburg, a historical city protected by UNESCO because of the survival of its original German archetecture and culture. We went to the Christmas market, drank mulled wine to keep warm and took touristy pictures of the buildings with slats criss-crossing on their exteriors. A small brauhaus (brewery) served us a meal of homemade bread and cheese (plus a ball of lard with fried onions?!), along with a pint of their special beer that left a lingering caramel taste. Despite the chilly weather (thanks for the toe-warmers, Mom!), the elegant white lights and pine trees decorating the town created a cozy atmosphere as we boarded our train back to Magdeburg.
I used my last two vacation days on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, which of course are not holidays here in Germany. I didn't have the traditional turkey dinner, but I did treat myself to some warm, puffy dough tidbits dusted in powdered sugar from the Christmas market. In the evening I settled down with some hot chocolate to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol in German. I quickly turned on the subtitles (in German)to help me keep up with the dialogue--Gonzo and Kermit are fast talkers. Around my usual bedtime I used the fantastic technlogy of Skype to see and talk to some of my family at their Thanksgiving celebration nine hours and 5,000 miles away. I got to see my mom's husband in his sea turtle apron, my cousin in her Goodwill-chic tunic shirt, and my Uncle George's mustache up close as he tried to figure out where the webcam was. I could almost smell the yams and apples.
If you're not an avid reader, or one of my friends who has been nudging me to post my reading list, you can skip this next part. But for you who are interested, I made a list of the books I've read during my stay in Germany. I think I forgot a couple I read early on, and I left out the dry biology ones, but here goes:
Slaughter-house Five—Kurt Vonnegut
My Antonia—Willa Cather
Bridges of Madison County—Robert James Waller
Eleven Minutes—Paolo Coehlo
Ender's Game—Orson Scott Card
Love in the Time of Cholera—Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The End of the Affair—Graham Greene
I am America, and so Can You!--Stephen Colbert
Cold Mountain—Charlies Frazier
West with the Night—Beryl Markham
Broken for You—Stephanie Kallos
Consider the Lobster—David Foster Wallace
The Other Boleyn Girl—Phillipa Gregory
The Time Traveler's Wife—Audrey Niffenegger
Black Mountain Breakdown—Lee Smith
Family Linen—Lee Smith
Year of Wonders—Geraldine Brooks
The Octopus and the Orangutan—Eugene Linden
Five Miles from Outer Hope—Nicola Barker
A Crowded Marriage—Catherine Alliott
Atonement—Ian McEwan
The Ameteur Marriage—Anne Tyler
The Mouse and His Child—Russel Hoban
The Shipping News—E. Annie Proulx
The Color Purple—Alice Walker
A Farewell to Arms—Ernest Hemingway
White Oleander—Janet Fitch
Setting Free the Bears—John Irving
The Full Cupboard of Life—Alexander McCall Smith
Love, Etc—Julian Barnes
I might still have time to read another couple, considering I'll have not only the 24-hour trip back to Seattle, but I will also have at least two internet-free days in a bare apartment with nothing to do but read. Since I'll be without internet on my last weekend in Germany, it's possible that the next blog I write will be posted from my new apartment in the U.S!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
