Lisa's Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Running a gluten free kitchen is no easy task. As most of you know, I am in the kitchen a good part of my day, either preparing meals or designing new recipes, or stocking up on homemade essentials such as breads, breakfast foods and lunch snacks, as well as preparing a fresh, home-cooked meal for my family for dinner. With a baby in the house, I really need to use my time in the kitchen efficiently. Who knows if she is going to sleep for one hour or three hours in the afternoon? That is why I would not be able to live without these eight items in my kitchen. If you are looking for a Hanukkah gift for friends, family or that special someone, I would recommend these items for your kitchen. Happy Hanukkah!

1. Vitamix 5200 - We bought our Vitamix four years ago at Costco. This machine gets used in my kitchen at least two to three times a day! I use it to make baby food, fruit smoothies for breakfast, protein shakes for after school, soups for dinner, and even homemade frappuccinos. You can find these blenders online for around $450. Once you own one, you will never go back to your old blender again!
2. My Kitchen Aid - I was very skeptical when deciding whether to buy a Kitchen Aid standing mixer. My other hand mixer worked fine and my breadmaker made great breads. But with a gift certificate I decided to splurge. At Macy’s, they are around $200. I do not know what I would do without it. I make all of my baked goods in the Kitchen Aid. I like that it has a powerful blade that can really mix the ingredients well and I don’t have to stand there holding the mixer the whole time. It is great for breads in that it really kneads the dough well. It comes with different attachments, for whisking, a dough blade for breads, and an all-purpose blade for other baked goods. The cleanup is a snap. My mixer saves me a lot of time in the kitchen.
3. Griddle by Oster - I personally cannot resist a sale. So when I went shopping at Kohl’s with my 30% off coupon and noticed that they had an Oster Griddle on sale, I couldn’t pass it up. And, with my coupon, it was quite a deal from the regular price of $70. As you know, I make all our breakfast foods from scratch, and the griddle has been such a blessing to own. I whip up a double batch of pancakes or crepes and I can make 8-10 at a time on the griddle. This is much faster than in a frying pan on the stove. When we have eggs on the weekends, it is nice to have the whole griddle to customize each order… eggs with cheese; without cheese, but with veggies; with almond cheese and veggies, etc. I can even throw some hash browns and turkey bacon on as well.
4. Cuisinart Waffle Maker - Waffle making is an art. If your batter is not the right consistency, you will be spending a lot time scraping and very little time eating. That is why the Cuisinart Waffle Iron is a time saver. Again, when I whip up a double batch of waffles, I do not want to be in the kitchen all day cooking them. This waffle maker has each batch ready in a matter of minutes! And you can adjust the temperature to decide if you want them lighter or darker. I found this product at Kohl’s for only $40.
5. Aroma Rice Cooker - We eat a lot of rice in our house. I would say that we have rice at least twice a week. I used to make the biggest mess on my electric stove trying to make the perfect rice. Then my husband brought home the Aroma Rice cooker from Costco for only $35. It takes me five minutes to measure the rice and add the water, based on the chart they give you after you calculate how many servings you need. You can also cook and steam vegetables in the rice cooker. This machine also has a delay timer, so I can set up the rice in the afternoon and it will be ready for me by dinner. Now that is easy!
6. Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker - I used to believe that it was a total waste of time to make ice cream. For goodness sake, they have dedicated a whole row at the grocery store for almost any kind of ice cream imaginable. But then I became gluten free, chocolate free, soy free, partially hydrogenated oil free, and now dairy and tree nut free. You can imagine that it is pretty difficult to find an ice cream that fits our needs. But then I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow my sister-in-law’s Ice Cream maker. She bought it at McGuckin Hardware for around $30, but I have seen them at Bed, Bath and Beyond and Costco. Not only can I make any kind of ice cream and frozen yogurt treat I want, I have also learned, with one secret ingredient, to make dairy free ice cream as well that is fantastic. Again, it takes about five minutes to add the ingredients, and then you are free for 30 minutes while the machine does all the work. My only suggestion is to make sure that the freezer bin stays in the freezer for about 5 days prior to use, or the ice cream will not get hard enough.
7. Cuisinart Food Processor - I guess I did not realize what a huge fan I am of Cuisinart products. Anyway, I love my food processer as it has great chopping ability when I am not in the mood to chop. In the last 24 hours, I have used it to make baby food, Rice Carob Granola Bars (see recipe next year), and shred three blocks of Almond Cheese. Cuisinart Food Processors can be purchased at JCPenny’s for only $120. My favorite part about this product, besides the fact that I can just throw it in the dishwasher to clean, is that it comes with a cookbook for many more recipe ideas, from soups to casseroles to smoothies to breads.
8. Braun Coffee Grinder - When I got a coffee maker with a built-in coffee grinder for Mother’s Day a few years ago, I actually gave away my coffee grinder. What in the world would I need it for? Well, it turns out, in the gluten free world, lots of things! I ended up buying another one at a garage sale, but you can find them at Walmart for about $20. Not only will it grind coffee, it can grind gluten free flours that may need to be fluffed up to make the batter lighter. It is also great to grind up tortilla chips or dried bread to use in recipes that might call for bread crumbs. These can be used in meatballs, meatloaf, or as a coating for crispy chicken. I also grind oats to use in my baby food or to make gluten free oat flour for my baked goods.

I hope this gives you an idea of something you can give or even ask for for Hanukkah this year. Enjoy the holiday.

Living Stomach Ache Free, Lisa Velick

Editor’s Note: Lisa is taking a well-deserved break. We are re-posting this article originally posted on March 2, 2010.

Passover takes place on the 15th day of Nissan and is one of the three major Festivals of the year, the other two being Shavu’ot and Sukkot. Passover is a Jewish celebration lasting eight days that marks the freedom of the Jews from enslavement by the Egyptians. According to the Old Testament, the Jews, led by Moses, had requested freedom from the Pharaoh of Egypt, but were denied. God sent the 10 plagues to Egypt to punish the Egyptians and convince Pharaoh to release the Jews. The last of these plagues was to kill the firstborn male in each Egyptian household. The name Passover comes from when the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Jews, because they had been forewarned, and had put lamb’s blood on their doors, so that death would spare their first born child.

I have two rituals I follow during Passover. I clean out all the chametz (bread, grains and leavened products not eaten during Passover) in the house, and for me that means wheat, rye, spelt, barely and oats…oh, Done! These are the five grains we avoid on a gluten free diet. But also, I eliminate bread from our diet, no matter what it is made out of. More importantly, I spend time reflecting on the chametz in my life, things that make ME puffy, unclear, fuzzy, full of myself, dishonest.

Passover has always been a special time of year for me. It was 5 years ago this Passover season when I reflected on what I needed to be saved from. The Jews were freed from slavery. I could relate to that slavery because five years ago, I was a slave to chocolate. It got to a point where that is all I wanted and all I ate. On February 9, 2005 I decided to go ‘chocolate-free’. This was a big step for me. It was the first of many foods I would remove from my diet, but it was by far the hardest! Through reflection during this season, I realized that chocolate was the chametz that I needed to clear out of my life; it made my life unfocused, blurry, and unmanageable. Now, as I have tackled 5 years without chocolate (and if you think it is easy, try it for 5 days women!), I feel blessed that I am Jewish, that there is a holiday every year that allows us to get rid of the puffiness in our lives and to clear our heads for the new year.

It is a tradition at our Passover Seder to eat Matzah Ball soup as the first course. Since Matzah balls are not on the Gluten Free Living plan I decided to research another alternative. I discovered these gluten free potato dumplings to put in the soup. They are delicious! This recipe is derived from “The Passover Gourmet” by Nira Rousso.

Passover Dumpling Soup

Ingredients:
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled
2 T olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup potato starch
½ t salt
¼ tsp pepper
8 cups Organic Gluten Free Chicken Broth
1 cup pulled-apart chicken
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onions
2 tsp garlic
2 tsp fresh basil

Directions:
Cut potatoes into large chunks and boil in water until soft.
Drain potatoes and allow them to cool.
Once cooled, mash the potatoes with oil, eggs, salt, pepper and basil using a hand mixer.
Stir in potato starch until thoroughly combined, and refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour.
In a large pot, simmer carrots, onions, garlic and chicken in the chicken stock. Bring soup to a boil after one hour.
Take out potato mixture and using your hands, gently form 2” ball shapes of batter and submerge dumplings in the soup.
Boil for approximately 15 minutes with the dumplings. Makes about 18 dumplings.
The dumplings will float up to the surface quickly but will need several additional minutes to cook all the way through.
Serve immediately before your GF Passover meal!

Passover is celebrated in many Jewish homes by having a Seder. Seder means order, and we read the Passover story in a special order from the book called a Haggadah. Haggadah means “to tell” and we tell the story of our ancestors, and remind ourselves that we are now a free people.

One of the underlying themes of Passover is order. This order comes natural to us as spring is in the air and we prepare to do our Spring Cleaning. As we clean our garage, our shed and the back of the crawl space in the basement, we should also consider cleaning up our insides as well. Think about what you are eating that is not doing your body any good and get rid of it. You will feel clean and clear for spring. As I mentioned last week, this may take a bit of effort, but it will be worth it.

There are different parts of the Seder. During the Seder, we eat traditional and symbolic foods that remind us of the Jewish people and their adversity. One of the things that we do is to dip a spring vegetable into salt water. The vegetable is a sign of spring, or rebirth, and the salt water represent the tears of the slaves. We eat bitter herbs, to remind us of the bitterness of slavery. We eat a special mixture, called Charoset, which is made of apples, nuts, wine, and cinnamon that reminds us of the mortar from which the slaves made their bricks. We also eat Matzah. Matzah is unleavened bread, made simply from flour and water and cooked very quickly. The Matzah reminds us of when the Jews were fleeing from Pharaoh and they had to gather their belongings quickly and did not have time for their bread to rise. However, as the Jews were fleeing, Pharaoh changed his mind, and sent his army after the people to bring them back. G-d parted the Red Sea for the Jews to cross, and as soon as they were safely to the other side, the waters closed on the soldiers, drowning them all. The Jewish people were saved.

Again, the symbolism from slavery to freedom is uncanny in our journey through a gluten-free lifestyle. We were slaves to bread, to pain, to medicating and now we are free. Unfortunately, a diet of Matzah, which is made of wheat flour and water that has been cooked in under 18 minutes under the observation of a Rabbi, is not something that we can do at any cost.  To purchase gluten-free Oat Matzah, it will run you about $25 per box (here’s a link). So, I decided to make my own. And although the gluten-free Oat Matzah that I make is not ‘kosher for Passover,’ I feel that it is the best we can do without having to buy it (it’s hard to find Kosher for Passover oat flour, but potato starch and Kosher for Passover almond flour are both available). Make it in less than 18 minutes! This recipe is adopted from About.com gluten-free cooking.

Gluten Free Oat Flour Matzah

Ingredients:
2/3 cup finely ground, certified gluten free oat bran
2/3 cup potato starch
2 T almond flour
¾ t salt
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Place ½ of your oat bran in a coffee grinder and pulverize to a powder, repeat with other half.
In a large bowl whisk to combined oat bran, potato starch, almond meal and salt. Transfer to standing mixer.
Add olive oil and add water and beat for 1 minute.
Use a spatula to scrape the dough onto a cutting board sprinkled lined with an 8 inch piece of parchment paper. Knead dough to form a ball. Divide dough into 5 equal portions.
Place a dough ball in the center of the parchment paper on a cutting board and form into a disc.
Use a rolling pin to roll the dough in a circle of about 6 inches in diameter.
Use a fork or meat tenderizer to prick holes in the dough and sprinkle with more oat bran.
Cut excess parchment paper from around the dough and carefully lift the dough with the bottom sheet onto cake pan.
Bake for 8 minutes. Matzah will be lightly browned on the edges and crispy.
Repeat with each dough portion.

One of the things that I really appreciate in my life today is the Internet. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t ‘google’ something in 10 seconds flat. When I found out that I was going to have to start providing a new diet for my daughter, and eventually my family I knew I needed to ask for help.

Well, this is not something you can ask your mom, your neighbor, your spouse or even your doctor. I need to ask people who had actually done it before, gone through it. Someone with kids, who knows what it means to have a picky eater, especially one who does NOT want to feel different.

Below is a list of my favorite websites I go to for advice. These sites have testimonials, recipes, gorgeous pictures, ideas and facts about Gluten Free living. I hope you find them as useful as I still do today. And as you turn to my Gluten-Free articles as a reference, please note that I appreciate you all for reading my articles and comments are always welcomed.

Gluten Free Websites

1. Celiac.com
2. Glutenfreemommy.com
3. Glutenfree.com
4. Glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com
5. Glutenfreemom.com
6. Livingwithout.com
7. Glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com
8. Glutenfreehomemaker.com
9. glutenfreebay.blogspot.com
10. iamglutenfree.blogspot.com

As I have said, when I first found out my little one had to cut gluten out of her diet, I had to think positive. I had to come up with a list of foods that she could eat, that she already liked and maybe did not think of as ‘gluten free’ before.  One cookbook we enjoy is “Kids’ Fun & Healthy Cookbook” by Nicola Graimes (purchased from the Scholastic Book Club). Now that we don’t eat gluten, we still follow the recipes, we just adapt them to fit out nutritional needs. I’ve included one such recipe.

I chose this recipe for three reasons. First, it is naturally gluten-free. Second, if you eat corn and rice during Passover, you could try this during the holiday. Lastly, it reminds me of planning our trip through New England, where we experienced our own Gluten-Free Chowder!

Corn Chowder

Ingredients:
½ large onion chopped
1 cup frozen sweet corn
12 baby carrots sliced
3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 T olive oil
5 cups vegetable broth
1 ¼ cups plain rice milk
1 t fresh basil
1 t salt
½ t pepper

Directions:
Boil chopped potatoes in saucepan until softened. Drain and set aside.
In medium pan, sauté onions for 7 minutes until softened.
Add corn, carrots, potatoes, and basil, salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes.
Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low.
Cover with lid and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add milk and cook for 5 more minutes.
Scoop out 3 cups of vegetables and blend in a blender until smooth.
Return to the rest of the soup and warm for an additional 5 minutes.
Serves 6.

Prune juice is made by softening prunes through steaming and then putting them through a pulper to create a watery puree. Prunes and their juice contain the natural laxative dihydrophenylisatin, which means they are a perfect food to add to your diet to keep you regular. Prunes also have a high antioxidant content. Prunes provide quick energy and they are relatively high in fiber.

Most prune orchards can be found mainly in the central valley of California. Nutritionally, one prune has only 20 calories and 5 prunes provide 290 mg of potassium and 3 grams of dietary fiber. They also provide vitamin A, calcium and iron. Prunes are also great for cooking. And in fact, I found out that you could substitute a prune puree for the oil or butter in a recipe! Just puree about 1-1/3 cups of pitted prunes with 6-tablespoons of hot water. Use half the recommended fat in a recipe, and then add half that amount of pureed prunes. You can use this puree in all baked goods.

I wanted to feature prunes this week in that it is a very popular filling for hamentashen. One can make the filling using prunes, honey and lemon juice (some people also add chopped nuts). But baked goods are not the only item in the kitchen prunes are good for. Prunes also make a great mix-in for granola and oatmeal. Prunes are also added in cooking to sweeten up a dish, such as chicken, stews and casseroles. A 3 pound bag at your local wholesale warehouse is less than $6 and has about 35 servings. That is about $0.17 a serving…how can you go wrong with that value.

Personally, I love prunes! They are soft and sweet and easy to eat. I eat two every morning before breakfast. It helps keep my hunger at bay until I get everyone else ready for school.

Here is my hamentashen recipe from last year with a recipe for a prune filling. Let me know how they turn out! Have a Happy Purim!

Hamantaschen with Prune Filling

Ingredients:
1 cup blanched almond flour
½ cup brown rice flour
½ cup sweet rice flour
¼ cup tapioca flour
½ tsp xanthan gum
1 ½ tsp egg replacer with 2 T water
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 T grapeseed oil
3 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon water

Filling:
6 oz. pitted prunes
1 T honey
½ T lemon juice

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine almond, brown rice and sweet rice flour and salt and xanthan gum.
In a smaller bowl, combine oil, agave, vanilla and water. Add egg mixture.
Mix wet ingredients into dry. Form a dough ball with your hands.
Divide dough into 18-22 round pieces.
Chill dough in refrigerator 1 hour.
Heat prunes and enough water to cover to boiling in 2-quart saucepan; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 10 minutes; drain well. Mash prunes. Stir in remaining ingredients.
Roll out each piece of dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper ¼ – ½ inch thick, shaping into circles.
Make a light indentation with your forefinger in the center of each circle.
Drop 1 teaspoon of prune filling into the center of each circle.
Fold the dough in to create 3 sides; pinch each of the 3 corners to form a triangle shaped cookie.
Take half the cookies and bake at 350° for 12 minutes until cookies are golden brown around the edges.
Then bake the other half. Makes 18-22 cookies.

What are “whole foods” anyway? Whole foods are natural foods in their original form without processing. There are so many beautiful, aromatic, delicious, whole and nutritious foods out there that I thought I would spend more time this year talking about them.  I love cooking, and I love designing new recipes, and many of my articles each month will still feature a hot, new gluten-free topic and one of my recipes, but for some of my articles, I would really like to focus on the foods themselves.

It just hit me this week that for those of you who are trying to go gluten-free but may be overwhelmed or think it is too much time and money, buying whole foods may be a good start. Not to mention the fact that you have to buy all these elaborate ingredients for the recipes I design, which alone may end your desire to go gluten-free.

If, however, I present to you everyday foods that are fun and easy and inexpensive to buy and foods that you can find at any local grocery store, you might be willing to cut the gluten out of your diet for good and maybe, as a ‘side effect’, you might start feeling better.

Here is a preview of what is to come: Whole foods include all the fruits and vegetables you might find in the produce section of your market. The wonderful thing about fruits and vegetables are that they are chock-full of vitamins and minerals, seasonal, colorful, good raw or cooked and full of natural fiber to fill you up. There are also many dried fruits and nuts that are whole foods and good for you. Not to mention dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter and cream. Organic meats are also an excellent source of protein if you are not vegetarian, or the many varieties of beans and legumes if you are. Finally, there are many grains which are gluten-free, including rice, quinoa and buckwheat.

So I hope you will enjoy the year learning about these foods that can nourish your body without shocking your grocery bill. If you have any specific foods you want to learn about, please feel free to leave me comments after my articles. As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read my articles. I have gained so much knowledge and insight through this gluten-free journey. I hope I can convince you to take that next step into gluten-free living.

Gluten Free Vegetable Soup

I thought it would only be appropriate to start you off with a vegetable soup. What I love about vegetable soup is it can be different every time you make it. Here is one of my favorite versions of this recipe. On a cold night like tonight, it really hits the spot!

Ingredients:
4 cups vegetable broth
1- 16 oz can of diced tomatoes
16 oz can of white kidney beans
¼ cup mild salsa
1 head of cauliflower- cut into chunks
1 large zucchini- diced
1 small stalk of celery- diced
8 large baby carrots- diced
3 small white potatoes- diced
1 cup of frozen chopped spinach
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp pepper

Directions:
Place all of the ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a rapid boil for 1 hour. Simmer for 1 hour.
Add 1 cup Gluten free rice noodles. Cook until tender, about 6 minutes.
Serve warm.
Store in fridge or freezer in an air-tight container.

Some of the food we eat DOES in fact, come out of a box. Some of the food we eat does have just a bit more sugar than I would like. And I won’t even talk about our SweetTart stash we keep in our nightstand for movie nights. Oy!

But the other day, I went on a rampage. I looked at the salt content of every single product in our house. I was absolutely blown away! I also did some research on the amount of salt intake that is recommended per day.

Let’s start at the beginning. Salt is a naturally occurring mineral that consists of sodium chloride. It is essential for animal life in small quantities. The salt that we ingest comes in many different forms: unrefined salt, or sea salt, refined salt or table salt and iodized salt obtained from sea water or rock deposits. An excess of salt in the diet can lead to a number of heath related issues including stroke, high blood pressure, edema, heartburn, osteoporosis, ulcers and even death.

The recommended daily intake of sodium for an average healthy, adult per day is 2,400 mg. Those with high blood pressure are recommended to limit it to 1,500 mg per day. Although that may seem like a lot, you would be surprised at how much the servings add up. I also looked at how much sodium is a good amount for a particular food. According to one article, 0-200 mg of salt in a serving of food is good. 200-400 mg of salt in a serving of food is okay. And over 400 mg of salt in a serving of food is too much and should be limited in the diet.

Wow! Never having thought of salt before as something to check in my ‘ingredient search,’ I went through my pantry and fridge and made some amazing, yet shocking discoveries. Here are the Top 10 High Sodium Content Foods in our house (a house I thought was pretty healthy):

1. Deby’s Gluten Free Bagels – 923 mg
2. Gluten Free Café Chicken Noodle Soup – 760 mg
3. Safeway Fat Free Refried Beans – 610 mg
4. Free Range Chicken Broth – 570 mg
5. Udi’s Gluten Free Bagels – 530 mg
6. Target brand chicken sausages – 530 mg
7. Lundberg Parmesan Cheese Risotto – 490 mg
8. Mrs. Leeper’s Gluten Free Cheeseburger Mac – 480 mg
9. S & W Black Beans – 480 mg
10. Kirkland Turkey Burgers – 390 mg

And then some foods actually surprised me – Top 10 Sodium Surprises:

1. Gluten Free Falafel – 240 mg
2. Glutino Gluten Free Crackers – 220 mg
3. Canned Tuna Fish in water- 180 mg
4. Kirkland Tortilla Chips – 150 mg
5. Snap Pea Crisps – 125 mg
6. Kettle Brand Potato Chips – 110 mg
7. Canyon Bakehouse Bread – 100 mg
8. Natural Peanut Butter – 100 mg
9. Kraft 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese – 85 mg
10. Corn Tortillas – 30mg

It is not at all surprising that all of the high salt foods I listed are processed foods, made in a factory and easily packaged and ready to purchase at my local super market. Who knew? I know it is difficult to prepare all of your foods for you and your family from scratch. But there is a way to avoid these high salt alternates. Here are Top 10 Healthy and Easy Tips to Lower Your Salt Intake:

1. Make your own soups using Low Sodium Broth.
2. Avoid pre-packaged boxed meals.
3. Make your own burgers using fresh meats and a little seasoning.
4. Buy low sodium tomato sauce variety.
5. Buy low sodium beans and rinse them before using, or use dry beans
6. Make brown rice or quinoa as a side dish.
7. Take salt out of your recipes…I since have.
8. Put your salt shaker away. Adding extra salt to your food does not help.
9. Start reading labels.
10. Eat more whole foods…they have no added salt!

See more on “whole foods” in next weeks article!

“Do you want a cookie, your wife isn’t around?” or “Let’s go out for a sandwich, I won’t tell Lisa.” These are things I hear often. It is a common misconception that I am a food prisoner in my home. The truth of the matter is that the last three years of gluten-free living have been good to me. It is true that I have never had an allergy test to see if there are any foods to which I am allergic, however, I am convinced that gluten is not for human consumption and I am perfectly ok not eating gluten-laden foods whether or not I am in the presence of my family.

A question that I am often asked is, “If you are not allergic to gluten, why would you eat gluten-free?” Let me tell you what I think. As a chiropractor, it is my goal to live a drug-free existence. This is also a major goal of my wife and kids. This does not just mean no ibuprofen when I have a headache or no antibiotic when I have a cold but it also means no flu shots for the cold and flu season and no statins to keep my cholesterol down.

The last one is big for me. We’ve heard for years that cholesterol is THE killer. Magazine articles and ads tell us this, television shows and ads tell us this as well. The pharmaceutical companies have spent huge sums of money making sure we get the message. However, is cholesterol the killer that they would like us to believe, are there other ways to control our cholesterol, is cholesterol really the problem when it comes to heart disease? I’m not so sure. How many of us know someone walking around, appearing to be in not so great physical shape with a cholesterol level of 250 or 300 or more? If cholesterol was the problem, should this be the case? How many of us know someone who has lived through or, perhaps, died as a result of a heart attack or has undergone bypass surgery of one or more coronary arteries, all with a cholesterol level of 150 or less? If cholesterol was the problem, should this be the case? What can explain this inconsistency? Is cholesterol really the problem? Again, I’m not so sure.

If cholesterol is not the problem, what is the problem you ask? I think the problem has more to do with inflammation than cholesterol. I think inflammation at the cellular level is the silent killer in us all. I think if you can control inflammation at the cellular level, your body will be able to keep all of your systems under control. Sure, it’s the classic chicken and egg argument, was this or that caused by inflammation or did inflammation come about as a result of this or that?  My feeling is that it is much more important to control inflammation than anything else. I think that gluten is an inflammatory agent that promotes inflammation at the cellular level. I think avoiding gluten will help you to control inflammation at the cellular level and give your body the best chance to stay healthy.

I’ve had a couple of interesting experiences in the few years since I stopped eating gluten. The first happened at the eye doctor. My eye doctor has a machine which does an Optomap Retinal Exam. This is a camera that takes a close-up, wide-view picture of your retina. The eye doctor can get a pretty good idea about the health of the patient with this scan. The year before I stopped eating gluten I had an exam and the arteries in my eyes looked ok although there were some arteries showing signs of thinning and a couple of the arteries showed white spots which I was told were most likely cholesterol build up.

The next visit was after I had stopped eating gluten for about a year and I had another Optomap exam. This time the arteries in my eyes showed no signs of thinning and all of the white spots were gone. This was pretty dramatic for me as one of the “side effects” I had hoped to see from a gluten-free diet was better control of my cholesterol levels. Can cholesterol levels be controlled by a gluten-free diet?

The second interesting experience has been happening ever since I stopped eating gluten. After 40+ years of going to the dentist and hearing about my inflamed gums, the reports of my gum health have improved at each visit. My dentist actually tells me my gums look good and not as inflamed as they have been in the past. My hygienist has actually accused me of flossing (which I have been doing)! She can’t believe the changes in my gums and neither can I.

Are these two experiences coincidence?   Maybe.  I would not claim that they are a direct and exclusive result of my gluten-free diet. Is it interesting that these coincidences came about around the same time that my diet changed to a gluten-free diet? I think it is very interesting. Do I feel good about my progress and is the gluten-free diet worth it to me? You bet.

I think the changes that I have seen are amazing and I am convinced that these changes are a direct result of my gluten-free diet. Do I miss a “normal” piece of pizza, a sandwich on a warm, soft roll, a 365®-brand vanilla sandwich cookie (Whole Foods oreo-like cookie)? Have you tried Lisa’s homemade pizza, her waffles or pancakes, her peanut butter cookies (especially with frozen yogurt on top)? I guarantee they will make you forget all about the foods you used to eat. I can tell you our family is not starving and we are not longing for “good” food. Lisa works very hard at making sure we have great food at every meal. I know it’s a lot of work for her, and it’s a commitment for all of us, but we will all tell you it’s worth it, especially when one of the coincidences I described above happens right out of the blue.

So, am I a food prisoner in my own home? Try some of Lisa’s recipes, send her a note and ask her for tips, make the commitment and put forth the extra effort. I can assure you it will be worth it in every way.  This week’s recipe you can try is Lisa’s homemade French Fries.

Homemade French Fries

Ingredients:
5 Yukon white potatoes
2 T olive oil
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic salt
2 T parmesan cheese

Directions:
Cut potatoes, long way, into thin strips, about ¼ inch diameter.
Coat potatoes in olive oil.
Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic salt and parmesan cheese.
Place in an oven at 400 degrees. Cook 1 hour, or until golden brown.
Serve plain or with ketchup! Great as a side dish.

Editor’s Note: Happy Birthday and thanks for the guest post, Doug!