Life, Interrupted

EatPastry Rocks!

Here’s a small San Diego, CA company that has dipped a toe into the growing sea of gluten free offerings around the country. They specialize in vegan cookie dough, sitting in the deli case at your specialty grocer, ready to scoop up and bake.

One of their offerings is gluten-free. I was tearing through the Tucson Whole Foods, looking for anything to tempt my father’s appetite. He needed calories, and as far as I was concerned, he didn’t need gluten.

I pulled the container out in the pre-dawn hours, slapped the pans into the oven, and in a short period of time had a batch of Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk cookies. And guess what?

This is a lovely cookie. Great mouth feel -- soft, chewy, flavorful. I stored them in a sealed bag on the kitchen table, ready to tempt my father, and religiously limited myself to one a day.

I got three of them, I think.

He got the rest.

They were just as soft the third day. I made them a touch smaller than recommended, and got 28 out of the container. This is actually cheaper than buying most ready-made GF cookies. You may not want to feed the horde this way, because all those great ingredients aren’t cheap, but for special occasions, and to have a tub in the fridge that you can safely eat raw? Oh, yeessss, Precious, they are rings! And for your vegan friends who don’t have to worry about gluten? Five more flavors. They have Ginger, sob!

Not available in Texas yet, alas. But check out their web site to see if anyplace near you has them!

This article is based on a one-month “test diet change” plan I concocted for a friend back in January, 2011 and posted at www.blog.bookviewcafe.com. Here’s a tweaked version for my personal blog readers.

How food, diet, and dieting affected my writing and my life. And maybe effects yours…

So, all around you people are barreling ahead with life resolutions, grand plans for diet change, exercise, social makeovers, new jobs, new spouses, new lives, for heaven’s sake – and it all makes you tired.

You’ve done pretty much ALL of this – over and over. And none of it has helped you gain energy, lose weight, find your enthusiasm or anything else that you’d like to find. Every attempt has smacked you down.

Well. On the way from recovering from an illness that most don’t recover from, I discovered something important. It gave me back my energy, my higher reasoning faculties, and finally, my creativity and writing. I am improving every single day.

What I discovered has to be shared now. I can’t wait for studies and science scattered all over the Internet to catch up to me. I could not even wait for the tests to come back – that’s how HUGE the difference is for me. Some of you – according to some estimates, perhaps as many as 42% of the US population – also need to know this now.
( Take the Challenge )
I think the question may not be: “What have you got to lose?” The question is: “What might you gain?”

You might gain a wonderful life, with only one purposeful decision.

Next time, I’ll talk about a plan of attack. There will be several levels to this plan, because if you feel pretty good, but can never find a diet that works for you, your system may just need to rest from wheat. Or you may be addicted to wheat, and it’s upsetting your stomach – so there will be a backing-off plan. Or you may fear it’s seriously damaging you, like it was me. There will be a plan for that, too.

Think about it. Think about whether this is a worthwhile, month-long experiment for you. Because next time there will be some simple homework. You are going to find out if removing one thing can give you almost everything you want.

What I want is a hopeful, healthy future. What are your goals?

So try it with me -- Let the gluten go!

(The next one will go up as soon as I get around to transferring the info.)
************************************************************************
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel is currently working on a new Alfreda book, a contemporary fantasy in the Texas Hill Country, and a few other things as well. She has three science fiction novels available in ebook on Kindle and in multiple DRM-free formats.

You can find her other formats at Book View Cafe, where her SF novels Fires Of Nuala, Hidden Fires and Fire Sanctuary are currently available for purchase. Check out her bookshelf for free samples of her books. Her personal blog is here and her web site over here.

So, I'm talking to a friend, and admitting I'm dreading the results on my lab tests, because what if it says my numbers are still through the roof? Where could it be coming from? she asked. You're not cheating.

No, I'm not cheating. I haven't even gone and had a farewell meal of Kerby Lane's sweet potato fries -- my last brush with gluten really got my attention. Not my imagination that I can't think very well for about ten days minimum. But I haven't gone through every single bag hanging around. Like where does the dried fruit come from?

I bought bags of shelled pecans and walnuts at Costco's yesterday, their brand. But on the back of the almonds, it said the dreaded: "Processed on machinery that also processes...wheat."

Gotcha.

So now, in my freezer, there are a few shelled almonds in there...laughing at me...that will probably get taken to Odd Friday, where many people can eat them with no trouble at all.

Gotta find gluten-free almonds....

On the other hand, Woodchuck Hard Cider is gluten-free. I may get to take up drinking again.

I was looking for a link to Ray Audette's book NeanderThin, a useful book for getting your head wrapped around the fact that grains (especially grains with gluten in them) may be damaging your health. His web site has what I've been looking for for years -- real pemmican! There's also beef sticks without preservatives, but those need a fridge or freezer. And there's a link on his site to US Wellness Meats, which sells Pastureland Dairy and Grassland Beef, both which look great. You can buy simply one pemmican bar to test, if you'd like, through Ray's storefront -- or a box of them, if you are a performance athlete who wants to check out 20 grams of protein per bar that is gluten free and naturally preserved with dried cherries in it. They also sell bison jerky.

The cheeses include gouda, swiss, havarti, mild and sharp cheddar -- lots of good stuff. The dairy is coming from an Amish farm in Indiana with a herd of Jersey cows. It is raw milk cheese -- not a commentary on it, just pointing that out. Sure sounds wonderful.

My writing on trying a one-month gluten-free diet to see if you're one of the 42% of Americans who may have gluten issues starts here -- Let the Gluten Go -- Testing the Waters.