If you're new here, and like what you read, please subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! … could you just make it dairy-free and vegan as well?
Then the call: could you just make it dairy-free as well? Er… and vegan? Luckily, being a resourceful blogger, I knew just what to do. Deciding to leave the vegetarian, gluten free lasagne in the freezer for another time, because the cheese sauce made it a no-no to serve to those free from dairy, never mind that the egg lasagne also made it a bad dish to serve to the vegan, I nipped straight across to Karina’s Kitchen, an amazing source of inspiration and delicious food. This is the dish I’ve chosen for that select group of party people who are one or more of: dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian, vegan: a Butternut Chilli with Yeasted Quinoa Cornbread. Do I have all the ingredients? No, not quite. Missing egg-replacer and a non-dairy milk, I then hopped over to Goodness Direct, who usually deliver very quickly. Then I spotted this on the Goodness Direct blog: a recipe for gluten free, vegan doughnuts. Being vegan, they are acceptable for dairy free diets too. Hurrah! Now I just need to pick up the non-speciality ingredients, and we can all go to the party! |
Since you’re cooking gluten-free…
July 2, 2009 – 11:26 am
Gluten Free Camp in Michigan
June 19, 2009 – 1:42 pm
I’ll post her email in full, in an attempt to make up for my failure to spot it earlier, and to tell you about it. She says:
This does look like fun. If you’re interested, please contact Nicole direct – I do hope it’s not too late to apply! |
I’ve just discovered this email lurking in the swamps of my inbox… Many apologies to Nicole, who sent me the information ages ago.
Have you seen this fish finger?
June 18, 2009 – 11:35 am
Have you seen these yet? GFF Direct have a page inviting us to pre-order; they’re supposed to be available mid-June. We’ve tried fish fingers from the supermarkets (Tesco and Sainsburys) and not been particularly impressed. The children prefer homemade… But we’ll definitely try these – if we can find them. I can’t find any information about them on the Young’s website, though there’s lots of promotional material about their new packaging. This seems odd: you’d think, if you were about to provide something like this, you’d at least have a press release or something in a ‘new products’ area. So – have you seen them? |
Preventing Osteoporosis
June 12, 2009 – 9:00 am
I recently invited Linda Simon, a registered dietitian and certified personal chef, to advise us on how best to avoid osteoporosis. Linda blogs at blog.kitchentherapy.us, where she posts delicious – and healthy! – recipes and advice. Over to you, Linda… Thanks Lucy, for asking me to write about preventing osteoporosis. This is a topic important to all folks with gluten intolerance. Specific U.S. and U.K. recommendations may be different. And like nearly every topic, not everyone agrees with the consensus. But we are all people, and I think general recommendations would apply to most of us.
Prevention is the name of the game, so how can we prevent it? Follow a gluten free diet. The gut needs to heal to absorb nutrients effectively. Unhealthy villi cannot absorb bone-building nutrients. We hear about calcium all the time, and it is important. But healthy bones also require many nutrients, these range from boron to zinc. See the U.S. Surgeon Generals report for an easy to read chart on all nutrients that that are beneficial in bone health (PDF). A truly gluten free diet is the first priority, to have a healthy gut and absorb everything we need. Eat enough calcium. One to two percent of our weight is calcium, mostly in our bones. The recommendation for “enough” varies with age and sex. U.K. DRV (dietary reference value) for calcium is 450-1000 mg per day. Dairy products are the best natural source of calcium. One serving of milk or yogurt is 250 ml. They contain about 300 to 450 mg calcium. A 30 gm piece of cheese has about 150 to 250 mg calcium. Getting the recommended amount of calcium is a challenge for most people, celiac or not. And many folks with gluten intolerance are also lactose intolerant. They may tolerate low lactose dairy products like hard cheeses, yogurt and kefir. Or they may be able to use non-dairy products fortified with calcium. In the U.S., soymilk and some orange juice have added calcium. Healing the gut may cure lactose intolerance. The enzyme that digests lactose is produced at the very end of healthy villi. So healing the gut and growing longer villi may allow one to enjoy milk again. A young celiac friend says he is very proud of his new “hairy” villi. Though it will not work in every case, you might be able to drink milk after successfully following the gluten free diet long enough to heal and feel well. Canned fish, with the bones, are also excellent sources of calcium. These include salmon, sardines and anchovies. A 100gm serving averages about 200 mg of calcium. Other good natural sources of calcium are greens, such as turnip greens, collards, spinach, and kale. A 50 gm serving of cooked greens averages about 100 mg of calcium. Or you might consider calcium supplements. Some people find them constipating though. That might be helpful for some, a problem for others. Get enough vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. This is very hard to do with diet and sunlight alone. Few foods have natural vitamin D. They are limited to oily fish like herring, salmon, tuna, mackerel and eel. A 100 gm serving averages about 200 IU vitamin D. Cod liver oil is especially rich in vitamin D, 15 gm has 1350 IU. But it tastes worse than terrible. And it also contains vitamin A, so much you might overdose on it. Few of us spend enough time in the sun to meet our vitamin D needs. I think of misty gloom rather than warm sunshine in the U.K. Most people will need to take a supplement. The current U.S. recommendations are 200 to 600 IU per day, depending on your age. I could not find a U.K. DRV. But many experts believe it should be raised for adults to 1000 IU D3 per day. D3 is the active form of vitamin D. See Grassroots Health for a thorough review of current research and their recommendations. I take 1000 IU D3, most days, when I remember it. Exercise Step away from the TV and the computer and get out of the house! Walk, jog, run, dance, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. Or skip rope, jump on a trampoline, do Pilates or yoga, play soccer or tennis, skate, ski… Use those bones, get moving!! Limit alcohol, do not smoke and get rid of soft drinks. The smokes and soft drinks are contributing nothing, I will repeat, nothing to your health. Thanks Linda – good advice for all of us. |
One of the many serious complications of celiac disease and gluten intolerance is osteoporosis. In fact, diagnosis of osteoporosis early in life can be a tip off to test for celiac disease. But then it may be too late to prevent a hip fracture or broken wrist. We want to build maximum bone by during childhood and adolescence.
Allergy Alert: Tesco’s Lamb Rogan Josh
June 11, 2009 – 9:47 am
There are a couple of issues with Tesco’s own brand Rogan Josh meals. The first is that somehow, in production, pork sausage has been added. As a result, the meals now contain wheat (and soya and sulphites). The alert that I received was to let me know that there is wheat in the Rogan Josh meals; but I wonder whether they thought to alert people to the potential presence of pork? As we know, not everybody is happy to eat pork, and this might well be an issue for them. I wonder if the Food Standards Agency (FSA) issues Pork Alerts? These are the affected ready meals: Tesco Indian Meal for 2: Tikka & Lamb Rogan Josh, 1560g All date codes of the above products are affected. (All! How long did it take them to notice that they’d accidentally been adding pork sausages to a lamb rogan josh?) According to the FSA, Tesco has recalled the affected products and has contacted the relevant allergy support organisations, which will inform their at-risk members of the recall. Notices are being displayed in all stores to alert consumers. Unfortunately, I can still buy this product online at Tesco, and there’s no allergy alert associated with the product. There should be! The ingredients list doesn’t mention pork sausages, nor wheat, soya or sulphites. Perhaps they would substitute the product before delivery – but I do think that if the product has been recalled, it shouldn’t be on the site for purchase. So, if you have some of these ready meals in your fridge or freezer, don’t eat them, but take them back to Tesco for a refund. |
This came across my desk yesterday (so I hope you didn’t settle down to a nice Tesco Lamb Rogan Josh last night!)
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