My Gluten Learning Experience

After being gluten-free since the end of June 2010, I accidentally consumed a 110 gram (just under 4 ounces) piece of soy-protein by gardein that has "vital wheat gluten" listed as its third ingredient. I haven't been perfect since June, I made mistakes, especially in the beginning, but I knew after a bite or two something was wrong and stopped. This was not the case last night. Last night, I consumed the whole thing.

This is not to say that I did not feel the effects right away. When I was eating I felt stomach pain and the onset of some of my Crohn's symptoms. I was cognizant of this, but attributed it to stress. I had a ridiculous day and the stress was bound to affect me at some point. I self-diagnosed the symptoms as stress-related aftershock.

Have I ever blogged about my medical degree? I haven't? Well, that's not surprising at all because I DON'T HAVE ONE! This has not stopped me, however, from years of "figuring out" exactly what is causing my ailments and settling on whatever ridiculous diagnosis I come up with. My area of expertise - the mind/body connection -  stress causes everything, I'll feel better when this stress passes. So that was the state of my dinner last night. I was enjoying the taste, but since I had to deal with a bunch of stress for the first time since being on medical leave, I was having an uncomfortable dinner for the first time since being on medical leave. (I guess it escaped my mind that my grandmother passed away in the beginning of September and I had to organize a wake, funeral mass, and burial while housing and hosting two house guests. That wasn't stress. Why would I get sick then...).

Then I sat down to blog last night and brought the gardein box into the office so I could more appropriately describe it here. That's when I read "GLUTEN" and there was a complete paradigm shift. It was not the stress, it was not even my Crohn's disease! It is this stupid gluten!! What a relief and what a DOPE I am.

My last concern then was how long would I pay for this one infraction. I can deal with tummy gremlins (I am like an expert), but not when I have to travel using mass transit which is what I need to do today. I readied for bed considering my options and trying to figure out how to best plan my trip for the day thinking about all the places I scoped out on the route yesterday that have bathrooms (this is an unconscious habit of all people with Crohn's disease).

And then I tried to go to sleep...

But my face hurt. My face. I felt like some invisible hands had reached inside my head and just started squeezing everything hard. I had sinus pressure, then my nose started getting all congested. Now this was starting to feel like my IIH (Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension). I couldn't believe this. I had already destroyed the silly "Dr. Nicole" in my head earlier that evening, so I looked at the facts, told to me by an honest-to-goodness medical professional:  

I have a sensitivity to gluten. It causes inflammatory responses in my bowels and cause my body to create histamines like crazy. My body always thinks it is battling some allergen while I am eating gluten. 

BOOM

This incredible pressure in my head was from GLUTEN.

I know the doctor told me this. I obviously believed her, but this is so difficult for me to understand. I understand having digestive reactions to something I eat, but for it to affect my head? That just seems completely nuts.

Our bodies are fascinating objects of nature. I am in awe of all that is accomplished within them every minute of every day. It is no wonder that when things go "wrong" it should be just as awe-inspiring. I am grateful that all I have is a gluten sensitivity - last night, as I was trying to sleep while breathing through my mouth instead of my clogged up nose my mind wandered to those with Celiac disease, they would dream of only having a sensitivity! Then my mind wandered to the girl my mom used to babysit that had peanut allergies and how terrified my mother was the day she made the discovery.

My life is considerably better without gluten, but I don't think it would be threatened with it. My two diseases (Crohn's disease and IIH) were aggravated by gluten, but again, I don't think either can lead to my death.  However, I am on a quest to live the best and healthiest life that is possible in this mysterious body of mine and without question that life is one without the complications of gluten. I now wonder how different the last couple of years might have been if I was gluten-free sooner.

Something to think about:
Is there some food, food additive, chemical or otherwise that you consume on a regular basis that may be holding you back from living your best and healthiest life? Are you tired all the time? Battling the constant cold? Run-down? Overweight? Underweight? Depressed? Anxious? ... Maybe it is time to go see a nutritionist (most medical doctors don't have a lot of nutrition training, just pharmacological) to examine your food profile.

Meatless Monday #2: Success, But I Need BRAIN FOOD

I had high hopes for meatless Monday #2, and then I received notification, on Friday night, that my Monday was not going to go anywhere near the way I planned. I have to head out to Brooklyn concerning my still pending medical leave. I don't know exactly what I am in for, but any time I am on the move (and, in this case, slightly stressed out) my eating gets all screwed up. So I got up super early this morning to start planning out my day. I need:

• a method of transportation and a realistic timetable to go with it (this will be NYC mass transit, since I can not drive anymore),
• all of my medical papers gathered together just in case this office "misplaced" the copies I faxed to them
• food and hydration to get me through this whole thing since I have no idea how long it is going to last and travel one way is at least 1.5 hours (the homeward bound trip might be during rush hour, so who knows how long I'll be traveling today... just call me Frodo).

I have already lost out on another Vegan-Monday, with my breakfast, but I'll be happy to make it through this Monday meatless, gluten-free and dairy-free (I always end up with accidental gluten or dairy ingestion when I am caught out for long periods of time and starving!). So, wish me luck, here goes the run down...

Breakfast

I surprised the heck out of my husband by being up early enough to make pancakes! I have this fantastic gluten-free pancake mix from Bob's Red Mill .  I make it using one egg (this is where the vegan part of my day fell apart), my hazelnut milk and some olive oil. That's it, it is really easy. Then I have some organic maple syrup with it and I am happy. I desperately needed a happy-making breakfast day as I prepared for the day ahead.

I had to remind my husband it wasn't the weekend and bustle him along to make sure he got to work on time and give him ton of suggestions for a meatless lunch option, hoping that he would succeed in his meatless day with this first step in the right direction! As for me, well we shall see, as the day passes on...

Oh boy. This day turned out to be a doozy!Let's begin with right before lunch. I decided to go throw the wash into the dryer so it would be ready for when I was leaving. When I got down to the laundry room I discovered that I SOMEHOW closed the washing machine door without putting any clothing in it: I had done a wash of nothing! Lovely, lovely and just a sneak peek into the day before me, but I just blamed my silly brain and moved on.

Lunch

For lunch, I kept it really simple because I was cutting it close to my leaving time. I had my "cheese" sandwich again. Now, I don't want you to think that this is all I ever eat. I hadn't had one since last meatless Monday because I ran out of my rice cheese and rice bread. Last night I got more Mozzarella flavored rice cheese and a loaf of brown rice bread. I had a small helping of FOOD SHOULD TASTE GOOD "The Works" chips with some salsa and leftover potato salad. I am going to give you a pathetic recipe for this potato salad, because this is all we have. This is my mother-in-law's RIDICULOUSLY delicious potato salad (vegetarian, but not vegan) and my husband and I keep trying to make it perfectly based on the list of ingredients we are given and directions only the best cooks (not us) can make do with.

**Note: What follows should qualify only as a pseudo-recipe. I was cooking pretty late last night and did not have the time to take pictures or to attempt to finally break this dish down appropriately! Have fun with it.**

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Hard boiled eggs
• Mayo
• Italian dressing (Good Seasonings Italian or Wishbone Italian are what she has used)
• Mustard
• Salt and Pepper to taste

I pretty much put the ingredients in order of greatest proportion to least. We decided last night that we would make two - three potatoes per egg we hard boiled (I think we had 5 eggs last night). The potatoes have to be peeled, cut if necessary (if using baby red potatoes this is not necessary) and boiled, as if you are going to mash them. Slice the eggs and put the slices in a large bowl. When the potatoes are tender, drain them and mash with a masher only once (maybe twice) - you still want some large potato chunks. Add the potatoes to the bowl with the eggs. Add a small amount (1 tablespoon?) of mustard. Add Italian dressing - I pretty much drizzle it all over the stuff in the bowl (2-3 tablespoons, maybe?). Finally, add the mayo. This should be at least 3/4 cup, but probably more. Stir the salad together gently (folding with a spatula works for me) to get the mayo, mustard and Italian dressing dispersed evenly. Salt and pepper to taste. (And play with the other ingredients as well! Some day soon I will have actual measurements!) You may serve immediately or keep in the fridge and serve cold, either way it is delicious!


After lunch, I packed up my bag with my snacks, a bottle of water, my medicine, my letters from my doctor and set out to go get a MetroCard. It was bitter cold outside and as I stepped onto the bus stop, it started to rain. I was having very bad flashbacks of my working days out in the big city dealing with this commute all year round. Today's trip would be a little different. Today I would be dealing with a three-borough tour with transfers praying to the heavens that I could see  my way through it (part of my reason for my medical leave is impaired vision that corrective lenses can't even fix!).

I got to Manhattan with ease and the bus dropped me off literally across the street from my train station (I definitely have a guardian angel!). I took the train out of Manhattan into Brooklyn to find the dreaded Department of Education building I haven't been to in 13 years. Of course I got out of the train facing in the complete wrong direction and spent a long while walking, half-blindly, in search for the number 65. When I finally found it, I was two hours early, so I ducked into a Barnes & Noble (more about that on another posting) for about an hour. I finally gave in and went into the building an hour early, declaring, with a very goofy smile, to the gentleman in the room I was supposed to seek out, "Hi, I am extremely early for an appointment about my medical leave." He looked utterly confused and so I showed him the letter I received. He went back into the office and checked his calendar and emerged saying, "You know this is for tomorrow, right? Today is not the ninth." I just remembered my stupid washing machine from this morning and thought, "Strike two," but tried to, instead, be witty and said, "I told you I was extremely early!" *goofy smile*

I asked a bunch of nonsensical questions, felt mortified, told the guy I'd see him tomorrow and tried to get out of there as fast as possible. By the time I was back out on the street all I kept thinking was, "This is why I am on medical leave. The brain fog is still here! Do they really want someone in my condition in a classroom right now? Ug!" Anyway, I did a super-fast power walk back to the train - I was sure everyone in Brooklyn could see I had no business being among the date-knowers, the appointment-keepers, the paper-readers. I still get jumbled up with print.

Anyway, change of plans going home, no long lonely bus ride. I was taking the ferry home, so I could go meet my husband at school and he could drive us both home in time to bring Champ (our smaller dog) for his grooming appointment. There was traffic like crazy on the island, so I had to call the groomer to say we would be late for the 5 o'clock appointment - would that be ok, or should we reschedule? The receptionist said, "Are you sure you have the right number? I don't have any 5o'clocks. What's the name?" I gave her the info and, I AM NOT KIDDING YOU, she said, "Hon, you know the appointment was for four, right?" How I did not break down hysterical crying right there I don't know. STRIKE THREE.

Hello. My name is Nicole Rivera. I have Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension and it has turned my brain to goo. 

I must have sounded distressed. They said they would take Champ if we could get him there in a half-hour, so that's what my husband did while I got to work on dinner. Food. My great escape.

Dinner

 When I thought I was going to be stuck in the inquisition concerning my medical leave, I left my husband a bag of pasta and some defrosting marinara sauce so he could stay meatless for another Monday, but now that I was home I needed to salvage my day.

Meatless Monday #2 dinner - freedom from pasta!!

Our dinner was comprised of black beans and white rice, a salad with green leaf, tomatoes, celery and carrots and Gardein's "Santa Fe Good Stuff". It was really good. I have had the gardein before - it is a soy protein and pretty good, but NOW that I am reading the ingredients I see that it has GLUTEN in it. (I AM DONE TODAY - STRIKE FOUR! Now I am past crying, I can't stop laughing!!) This is funny because I was beginning to wonder about whether or not I had a sensitivity to black beans tonight because I didn't feel well right after dinner - NOW I KNOW WHY! Oh boy. Well, here is the black beans recipe from the back of the Goya black beans can that I have always used. (I didn't have a green bell pepper, so I used an orange one!)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1/4 cup chopped green peppers
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 (15 ounce) cans black beans ( undrained)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 package sazon goya ( without annato *see note)
• 1 tablespoon cooking wine or 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 cups cooked white rice

Directions

1. Heat oil in a medium sauce pan, sauté onion,green pepper, and garlic.
2. Sauté until tender@8-10 minutes.
3. Add in remaining ingredients and stir until boiling, reduce heat and simmer until sauce is reduced@ 20 minutes.
4. Serve over white rice.

So, it was a really, really long and confusing meatless Monday. I did not achieve the prowess of vegan-ness, but I was meatless. I have been successful for 2/5 of my World Vegan Month 2010 personal challenge! I have also learned that gardein, at least the "santa fe good stuff" product, has gluten and is no longer an option for me, however, for all you gluten-lovers looking for a meat-replacement, you might want to try it out. I have another tri-borough trip tomorrow, this time for real, so hopefully my gluten infraction will not haunt me in my travels!

There are still THREE MONDAYS (click to see: meatless Monday #3: apple cinnamon quinoa breakfast & begetarian chili dinner, meatless Monday #4: black bean burgers) left in November, so it is  not too late for all of my fellow omnivore's to take up the challenge of meatless Mondays in support of the Vegans all around us! It is only one day per week, but it gives you plenty to think about.

Born to Run Superfoods

After getting an extra hour of sleep last night, over 40,000 people woke up this morning, traveled over to the Staten Island side of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to engage in the 2010 New York City Marathon. It is an amazing thing to witness, as I spent many years as a spectator and volunteer. It changes the landscape of our City as our motor-vehicles make way for the most natural form of transport - moving legs and bodies - and spectators stop to watch a parade like no other - one of sheer mobility, sheer spirit and commitment.  If you personally know a runner or are, yourself, a runner in this event, then what you are a part of is even more grandiose - New York City streets slowed down and cleared for you. Your commitment to your body, your craft and your health has contributed to this enormous New York City event. That's a pretty amazing feeling even before the run begins.

This day could not come without thoughts of my summer book creeping back into my head. The book was Born to Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Chris McDougall. I am nowhere near my running shape... yet. I downloaded the audiobook version of this book when I decided I might be strong enough to start my walking/jogging on my own each morning. It was an amazing story and it kept me motivated. I, who had gotten so weak that I could not walk, with my husband, up the block without turning back due to dizziness, low blood pressure and exhaustion (it was really pathetic) starting walking and even jogging 2 to 3 miles a day by myself. It was just so much fun to listen to and so interesting that I wanted to keep going to hear more (my rule was = only listen when you are moving!).

The truly interesting parts of this book surrounded the secret tribe of Mexicans known as the Tarahumara that seemed to figure out the "secrets" to running. Not only how to do it correctly, but how to nourish their bodies in a simple way to support it. I should note that the running often discussed in this book wasn't your typical running, it was ultra-marathon running which I can best explain to those of you unfamiliar with the phrase as "off the beaten path" running, up a huge mountain running and, oftentimes, forget your measly 26 miles, let's do a 100 miles running! The "superfoods" the tribe always had with them, in place of the energy bars and gels of our modern day runners, that not only got them through the races, but got them through the races with relative ease were pinole and chia.

Let me start with a discussion of chia, because it was the one that confused me most. I wasn't sure I was hearing correctly when the narrator of the book started discussing "chia seeds" as one of the great secrets of these running men, because every time he said "Chia" all I thought of was "Cha-cha-chia!" the jingle for the chia pet commercials!




It ends up, I wasn't wrong. These crazy seeds that I once soaked and spread on the side of some pottery in the shape of an animal was, in fact, this super-food used by the tribe. Based on an article by Mark Stibich, Ph.D. on about.com some of the health benefits of the chia seed include being excellent for hydration (this was one of the major benefits to the runners), they have a nice dose of antioxidants, omega-3s and also can reduce inflammation.

In terms of the pinole, I simply was hard-pressed to understand what this super-food was until I got to the Internet. All I was gathering from the book was that it has something to do with the corn of the region and it could be added to burritos. The benefit of pinole, as described in the book, is that it is a high source of protein and lightweight. While there still seemed to be a massive debate across the web concerning what type of corn should be used for pinole, how much it should be ground up and whether or not corn nuts could be a viable substitute - I finally fell upon a recipe that I should be able to try out that could make sense in the context of the book. The No Meat Athlete (who I think might turn into one of my go-to resources) has a post dedicated to the Tarahumara Pinole and Chia with recipes for the the two. In addition, the site has a number of follow up Chia recipes for the no meat athletes out there looking for all the boosts they can find.


This summer my primary goal was simply to get moving again, like a normal human being. I began fueling my body with better foods and learning about the specifics of my body's needs (no gluten or dairy), but  I did not endeavor to reach beyond that. As of late, I have begun to think again not just about foods, but of SUPER-foods, like the ones that Tarahumara were raised on. I am intrigued by this concept and I believe I ready to explore. I am going to begin with the chia, pinole and goji berries (I have heard about these WAY TOO MUCH to continue to ignore them). Once I have tried them, I will pass on my reflections about those experiences. In the meantime, it is back to healing, growing stronger and readying for my own someday NYC marathon... today I just registered for a 5K run. I better go get my chia NOW!

***Just found this most amazing link after posting that I must add on - It is pictures from the "Greatest Race the World Never Saw" discussed in McDougall's book. These are a must-see if you read the book and perhaps added intrigue for those of you who haven't!  

• Urique Canyon 47 Mile Ultra Marathon 2006

• More about the Tarahumara, by National Geographic

UPDATE (2/4/2011): Just found this TEDx Talk by Chris McDougall raising the question Are we born to run?

Film Time Friday

Since I woke up this morning not feeling so hot, I knew this was going to be a very laxidasical day. In fact, I thought I would even skip blogging, but I think I can swing a quick one in here to note, at least in short, all of the wonderful things I was exposed to today.

I decided to turn on my husband's Halo-edition XBox 360 to see if I could bust into our Netflix account. I surprised myself when I remembered how to maneuver my way through the menus and how to add movies to Instant Queue. I found a bunch of movies I wanted to see and started doing so, instantly! Of course, they were all documentaries, they were all about sustainability in one form or another and, for that reason, I have an excuse to write about all three movies I watched.

Here they are in the order I watched them:

FUEL
I started with this movie, because it was one I had wanted to see for a long time and simply never got around to. This movie addressed our addiction to oil. It was created by and narrated by the guy who drove the Veggie Van back in the nineties. He chronicled his life's work to transform our transportation using biofuels in diesel engines rather than relying on gasoline. I found this movie fascinating from beginning to end and caught myself off guard when I broke down at the first sight of the 9/11 attacks - I can usually steady my resolve through such scenes, but I think seeing the same scenes I have seen so many times from this perspective simply reopened an old wound. The Fuel website has lots of information about the film, about screenings and how you can get involved in trying to kick the oil addiction, so check it out.

The Future of Food
This was a movie I added to the Instant Queue today. I don't remember ever seeing it on the Netflix selection before (this should not be surprising to anyone who has Netflix!). This movie seemed like the prequel to one of my favs, Food, Inc. I truly enjoyed (is this the right word?) this movie. I was struck by it, all over again. Yes, I knew of Monsanto's evil doings before seeing this movie and of genetically modified foods, but the clear explanation of the process of genetically altering food is what gave me such pause. Also, to understand that the laws the farmers now have to fight are PATENT LAWS, not agricultural ones was simply staggering. Perhaps this all should have been clear to me before, but I am a math teacher by profession, with no background in law, so I simply didn't make the distinction until seeing this movie. On this website, you can actually watch the entire movie for free. If you would like you can also purchase the DVD, and check out the next project in the works "Symphony of Soil".

Food Matters
For my last film of the day, I watched "Food Matters." I picked it largely because I agree wholeheartedly with its title and was curious to see what their reasons for saying this were. The movie begins with a series of quotes and stats that focus on nutrition as our best medicine, our key to health, and missing from most medical doctor's schooling. This was the essential theme of the film and it was fascinating. From discussing the benefits of a raw food diet, eating the super foods, orthomolecular medicine - taking our vitamins (and stop being so nutty about the side effects), and the seemingly amazing results from following the Gerson technique for health - the message in this film is short and simple: food is the answer. This movie had A LOT of information to swallow all at once, so I will either be rewatching it or using the website as a reference as it looks pretty extensive. You can also watch this movie on their website, but their is a charge, you can also order the DVD there or search through the tons of information they have!

So, that's what I did with my day. To be fair each one of these films deserves their own dedicated post, but tomorrow is another day and I am sure I'll learn something new that needs to be documented! Until then, I hope these film intros whet your appetite enough to go explore at least one of them on your own (if you haven't already!).