Gluten Free Girls (and Guys!)

welcome Cardiors and cutMD! I try not to cheat on purpose because it makes me feel like garbage about 1 hour afterwards. I do occasionally have beer. I LOVE beer! I have had GF beer, it's ok, but not the same yet as the other stuff.

Cardio- I haven't tried red Bridge yet. I tried the New Grist. My problem is that I really like a hop hit and the New Grist doesn't have that at all.

WannabeaCullen - I know what you mean about s'mores! Yum! Seems I need 1 a year, but still need 1 regardless! I just came across a recipe for graham crackers. I was so excited to have a s'more and make a homemade pie crust that I could eat (for my favorite lo-cal summer frozen pie). Thought you might enjoy the recipe (you could freeze extra crackers too). Sorry I didn't notate which website it was from


2.5 ounces sorghum flour (that's about 1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons)
2.5 ounces brown rice flour, ground super fine, if possible (1/3 cup, plus 1 T)
2.5 ounces tapioca flour (1 tablespoon shy of 1/3 cup
2.5 ounces sweet rice flour (1/3 cup, plus 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon guar gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
3.5 ounces unsalted butter, just out of the refrigerator (7 tablespoons)
3 ounces mild-flavored honey (1/4 cup)
3 to 6 tablespoons cold water
cinnamon sugar (optional)

Combining the dry ingredients. Measure out the sorghum, brown rice, tapioca, and sweet rice flours. Put into a food processor and whirl them up. Add the cinnamon, baking powder, xanthan and guar gums, and salt. Mix until everything is well combined.

Cutting in the butter. Cut the butter into small pieces (about 1/2 tablespoon size). Add to the flours in the food processor. Pulse until the butter is incorporated into the flours. The mixture should have a coarse, sandy texture, like cornmeal.

Finishing the dough. Stir together the honey and 3 tablespoons of the water. With the food processor running, pour in the honeyed water. Let the food processor run for a few minutes, allowing the dough to form a ball. The final dough should be soft and pliable, even a bit wet. If it still has not come together entirely after a few minutes of processing, add the remaining cold water, a tablespoon at a time.

Refrigerating the dough. Put the dough in a suitable container (or wrap with plastic wrap) and put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. This will be just enough time to let you clean up the mess, put away the flours. Oh, and to...

Preheating the oven. Preheat the oven to 325°. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper. Have another piece of parchment paper, same size, ready as well.

Rolling out the graham crackers. Cut the ball of dough in half. Return the other half to the refrigerator. Put the ball of dough onto the parchment-lined sheet tray. Cover it with the other piece of parchment paper.

Carefully, roll out the dough to a rectangle about 1/2 the length of the sheet tray, or until the dough is about 1/4-inch thick. Cut the dough into 8 pieces. (You'll have ragged round pieces on the edges. Leave them on. They'll make great scraps for graham cracker crusts.) If you want the final crackers dusted with cinnamon sugar, do that here. Refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes.

Decorating and baking. Pull the sheet tray from the refrigerator. Using the tines of a fork, prick holes into the crackers in a regular pattern that looks good to you.

Bake the graham crackers until they are golden-warm brown and starting to be hard, about 15 to 20 minutes. (Turning the tray halfway through baking will help them to not bake too brown.) Allow them to cool on the sheet tray until they are cool to the touch and hardened even more, about 30 minutes.

Repeat with the second half of the dough ball.

Eat. Dunk in milk. Make s'mores. Enjoy.

Makes about 16 graham crackers (or more if you cut them in half, as we did for Little Bean's small hands)



Also as far as the doctor thing goes - make sure he is on board or find a new one. Mine didn't know much about gluten issues, but has become well educated and is ALWAYS supportive!

Hi - so glad I found this thread! It's so great to find people that are not only interested in losing weight, but also understand the importance of the quality and type of foods that go into our bodies and the effects it has on us! I'm still learning about this, but I've actively been on MFP for over 2 weeks now and things are starting to fall into place a lot easier than it has done in the past.

Like many of you, I have intolerances though I haven't been officially diagnosed - my doctor (a fantastic woman who believes in trying natural and alternative approaches before going allopathic) has noticed that I am really in tune with what my body is doing and a huge part of me has been flippantly rebelling because "being mindful" all seems so melodramatic.

But the only person that really feels the effects is me, and so I'm coming to the conclusion finally that ignoring this a pretty dumb thing to keep on doing to myself. I didn't really want to have to make the connection between what I was eating and how it was affecting me - but I'm at the point where I'm sick of being affected and have to find a better way of co-existing with food so that I don't keep getting the raw end of the pointy stick.

The hard part was that it would take 6 weeks or so for it to really make such a difference that I had to do something about it - it was easy to live in my state of denial because there were no immediate and apparent side-affects like some of you guys get within an hour (with the exception of meat and eggs - projectile is disgusting).

I don't know quite how to put it, but the best I can do to describe my journey is that my body has basically been saying "eat clean & live clean". It's been quite an arduous and frustrating journey, but in 1998 I had the biggest "live clean experience" that changed everything about the way I was living, and from there it's been a discovery process without me even knowing what I was supposed to be discovering! Things were just brought to my attention that I was doing it wrong - and this is what I have been rebelling against - that I was getting it wrong. The difficulty was that I didn't know how to get it right and in reality, I didn't want to "have" to get it right - that was too much like hard work - and in truth, I didn't *want* to think about it.

For a few years I was introduced to healthier eating and while all of them sounded good in theory and had some really valid points, after trying it for a while, it all became too hard and unmanageable - contradiction between the "experts" being the hardest.

I already disliked seafood, but in June 2002 my body rejected red meat. Now don't get me wrong, in the few years prior I even *tried* to be vegetarian, but failed because every time I smelled chicken or bacon or lamb cooking, I was a slobbering mess and gobbled it all down. So 2002 was a real shock to me. Then in March 2003 my body rejected chicken - I couldn't believe it. And so if you don't eat seafood, red meat or chicken, then all that is left is .... well, nothing. So here I was, a fully fledged vegetarian! And the most surprised by it was me!

Over the past 6 years though, I have been working with my doctor to correct my hormones, get my liver working properly, clear myself of the mind-muddying and energy zapping effects of candida, and trying to shrink my ovarian cysts so as to avoid a total hysterectomy - she told me to avoid dairy, gluten, chemicals and sugar - and try as I might, I've never had the will power to do this - it was all too hard.

But since I started with MFP, things have begun falling into place and finally I'm able to live how I'm supposed to live - my doctor would be proud of me.

So, here's a run down of what I can and can't eat.

I don't eat seafood or meat of any description - if it's had a face, I can't eat it - even the thought of eating it is disgusting.

I am fine with eggs occasionally - so long as it's cooked both sides and all the way through, and providing no-one makes chicken noises, otherwise my body rejects it - but it's the easiest form of protein for me that tastes half decent and so I still try at least once a week to get some eggs in there, but it's tough and I have to force myself.

I am a singer, and I find that dairy and gluten stuff up my sinuses and throat, stopping me from reaching my 3 1/2 octaves, plus I tend to bloat with gluten as well, and that's no fun.

Sugar tends to make my mind buzz about like a blue-assed fly! The jury is still out if natural sugar in fruit is too much - I don't want it to be, but it's certainly too much for the MFP sugar goals!

Does anyone know anything about xylitol? It sounds too good to be true - it tastes great, but whether the sweet comes from cane sugar or birch tree or corn, does it really make a difference in how good it is for you?

Anyway, caffeine in all it's forms does the same thing as sugar but it keeps me awake until the wee hours of the morning as well, and then I'm just a mute zombie for the rest of the day following - Good bye Tim Tams and Cappucinos. (If you take out the dairy, sugar and caffeine from a cup of coffee, all you are left with is ....Hot Water! But don't worry, Dr Deepak tells me that Hot Water is the best thing to flush ama - which are toxins, and so I'm all for that!)

Thankfully I can tolerate rice, soy and corn, but once I settle a little more with this, I plan to cut out some of the soy - Sanitarium soy Hot Dogs and Rashers have been my saving grace for protein at the moment, although they do compromise some of my other sensitivities to a small degree and is why I want to cut them out - I just need to get more info on how to cope with them not being there and weigh up the pros and cons of each.

But fortunately I love veges - I'm not really into cooking and I don't do left-overs very well at all (Deepak Chopra reckons there's no prana left in left-overs and so that's the only thing I can come up with as to why I don't particularly like left-overs and really have to force myself to eat them). But http://wwwJoyfulBelly.com has certainly helped with great veg ideas that are all natural and tasty and can fit in with anyone's sensitivities - and my family love it when I motivate myself to cook from this site.

So my challenge is to keep it healthy, without having to do too much cooking, keeping it convenient, and without having to have a bachelors degree in nutrition to stay alive and upright.

The past 2 weeks has been easier for me thanks to the great support of MFP, and I'm happy with my progress so far - I've a long way to go, but at least I'm on the right track - can't wait to lose the weight I'm supposed to have off and then go back to the doctor to get the all clear. And I'm sooooo glad that I have found this thread!

Well, that's me "unplugged" - it's been a long update, but I hope to know more of all of you on this site as time progresses. If anyone has any comments and suggestions that might help, then please let me know and I'll take it under advisement.

Wishing you all the best on this journey and I hope to make your acquaintance soon.

Until Next Time,

Kind Regards,

Joy.
:flowerforyou:

Wow Joy! that's an amazing story! Mine is actually pretty similar, except that my body doesn't reject meat. It rejects wheat, corn and soy. Just to be aware, soy acts like an estrogen in our systems and messes with the thyroid. If you start noticing other issues, maybe check into that???

joyelizabeth - Soy hasn't been a problem for you? Just curious - with the cysts (which I have had some big ones), I was curious as most soy is genetically 'modified' these days and it can act like estrogen. As far as sweeteners - you need to try Stevia. I use it in my hot green tea each day and love it. It has a low glycemic index and comes from a root. Just be sure to get the alcohol free one.

Your protein intake must be low - how do you do with beans? Are you able to tolerate them? Also - have you tried the "Just Whites" dehydrated egg whites for some protein. I use Just Whites in my morning shakes at times instead of a soy or whey protein. It is smooth, flavorless and has 3g of protein in 10 calories.

:flowerforyou:

YAY! I'm so excited this group was brought up today! I can't wait to sit and read everybody's stories!

JoyElizabeth, if you start slow and gradually increase eggs and beans, those burps should go away. It's just your body adjusting to the digestion. I used to have the same problem, now I can eat a huge bowl of beans fearlessly

Off topic: Crunchy maple surprise is the best cereal ever - gluten free or otherwise. Soooo good, low sugar, and organic, too. If you are gluten free but not low carb you gotta try it, y'all

Hi Julie:

I think the difference you are seeing is that few of us here have celiac disease, but many of us are gluten intolerant. While the average celiac loses weight due to malabsorption and abdominal discomfort, many gluten intolerant people undergo water retention and bloating, as well as possible insulin aberrancies that makes them gain weight. That's why you often see one group gain and the other lose.

I think your metabolism is shot as you say. If you are not lifting weights, start doing something like Jillian Michaels's 30 day shred. Also, read these articles. They are written for the figure athlete group but the same principles apply:

http://figureathlete.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/diet_and_nutrition/the_metabolism_repair_plan
http://www.burnthefat.com/slow-metabolism-problems.html

I guess I will also throw in the obligatory, "get your thyroid checked"

Hope that helps :flowerforyou:

I'm not allergic to anything I know of, but I find that most of the gluten free products I buy taste great. I picked up some quinoa since it's a complete protein and can be used in place of rice and couscous. This stuff is great and I'm really sad I never knew about this wonderful grain sooner. I liked it so much, I bought Crunchmaster Crackers that has quinoa in it and ordered quinoa pasta off of Amazon. I've always preferred the taste of whole grains over whole wheat and I'm glad the food industry has noticed that there is a big market for gluten free products. Another food I wish I'd known about earlier is Almond Milk. I know it's new to the mass market but I know it's been around for a long time.