Traveling Gluten Free or "Why Do I Feel Like I've Been Hit By a Truck?"

What am I even eating?

I admit it. I have been sleeping around a lot lately. Not THAT way! I am no party girl, (anymore). Those days are a long time gone.  Actually, I had a weekend getaway in the desert with my husband and then promptly headed to my sister's on the central coast for a little tax preparation/sister bonding, then to L.A. with hubby for one night to see the best Neil Young concert EVER.  For the most part, I
enjoy traveling, as long as it's not for too long, but I am finding it a bit challenging to stick with a Gluten Free, healthy diet. Again, I am not GF to lose weight. My weight is pretty much ideal.  The reason I don't like to eat gluten is because it makes me all puffy and sore and damages my intestines.  So I try not to eat anything with gluten in it, which is difficult when I cannot prepare my own fresh meals and when I don't know what is in the meals others are preparing for me.

Dinner is usually not a problem. A main protein with a side of veggies and a salad is perfect. I find myself eating a lot of salads when I travel.  But salad doesn't seem right for breakfast, so I eat fruit.  I can also get away with eggs, although most places don't serve organic eggs and the frozen image of beak-less chickens in cramped cages with their little feet dangling makes it almost impossible to eat non-organic eggs anymore either.  I can eat potatoes, although anything on a grill can get cross contaminated with gluten containing ingredients, like pancakes or grilled bread.  So I eat a lot stuff from the garden.

A great way to make sure you can eat a special diet when you travel is to plan ahead, which I did NOT do for the trip to the desert.  Luckily, they had reasonably priced room service and many items on the menu that seemed fairly benign.  I had eggs, potatoes and chicken sausage for breakfast, salads for lunch and, as I said, dinner is pretty easy.


When I traveled to my sisters, I made sure to let her know I was on a special diet and she was kind enough to shop for it. One of the meals she made was OFF THE CHAIN! It was spaghetti squash with organic chicken sausage in a mixed vegetable, pesto medley.  It was sooo tasty that I recommended we make a frittata out of the left over veggie/sausage mixture the next morning, which was equally as delicious.  I spent several days there and her conscientious shopping made it a successful and enjoyable visit.  Another tip I got from her was steaming veggies in the microwave using a three piece veggie steamer. This is a fast and healthy way to prepare just about any sort of vegetable.  This is what it looks like:

 I use mine all of the time and it's super convenient. After cooking, you can drain the veggies and toss them with olive oil or butter and some herbs and spices and, voila!  You have a side dish literally in minutes!

The Autoimmune Protocol Diet

As promised, today I will be looking at the AIP diet, also known as Autoimmune Protocol or Autoimmune Paleo.  But first, let's look at the word "diet", its definition, and how it will be used in this post. This is from the Oxford American Dictionary:

diet 

noun 1. The kinds of food a person, animal or community routinely eats;                               2. A special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons. 

verb 1. Restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight.

For the purpose of this post, I will be using the word "diet"  in the noun form.  Most people who follow the Autoimmune Protocol diet are doing so for long-term health enhancement and not weight loss goals, although, I was not fat, sick, (at least not symptomatic), or nearly dead when I watched the movie, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and it exposed me to the poisons contained in processed foods and the benefits of juicing. Juicing, a topic I will cover in a later post, is a great way to detox, jump-start your metabolism, emphasize and perhaps rid yourself of unhealthy eating habits, among many other benefits.  My point, if you missed it, is if someone wants to try the AIP to lose weight and they discover all of the other benefits that come along with it, who am I to argue what got them in the door, you know what I mean, jellybean? (Fun fact: Jellybeans are NOT ALLOWED on the AIP diet. ≧w≦)

There are a lot of great websites, blogs, and articles that have already been written about AIP and I am no expert, so I am going to copy what is written on the AIP Lifestyle site.
This is a very comprehensive site which includes recipes, videos, and links to other helpful sites, plus it gives a great description of AIP:

"The Autoimmune Protocol is a diet that helps heal the immune system and gut mucosa. It is applicable to any inflammatory disease.

We have a problem in this country with how we eat, treat disease and heal disease. AIP addresses inflammation in the gut that causes Autoimmune Disease. Autoimmune disease is a condition where the body cannot tell the difference between healthy tissue and foreign invaders and a hypersensitive reaction occurs. The body starts self-tissue attack. For months or perhaps years, this self-tissue attack can occur silently until full blown autoimmune disease develops. There are more than 80 types of “official” autoimmune disorders (and MANY more being discovered daily), but all autoimmune disease have in common is tissue self-attacking in places like the thyroid gland, brain tissue or salivary glands to name a few.

The Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet works to reduce inflammation in the intestines. Many elimination diets are not complete enough and often do not remove immune triggers that promote inflammation in the gut. AIP works to calm inflammation in the gut, and also calm inflammation in the body. And while autoimmune disease can never be cured, it can be put into remission. The AIP diet is geared toward healing the intestinal mucosa and supporting low inflammation in the body that can temper the fires of an autoimmune flare-up. First I would like to say that this is our interpretation. There is more than one interpretations of how to “follow” the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet. I call it a lifestyle because in a modified form it is how I eat and live my life. It is also how I recommend my autoimmune clients to eat in their own modified form long term as well."

So what does this diet consist of?

NOT ALLOWED

• Nuts (including nut oils like walnut and sesame seed oils)
• Seeds (including flax, chia, and culinary herb seeds like cumin and coriander)
• Beans/Legumes (this includes all beans like kidney, pinto, black as well as Soy in all its forms)
• Grains (Corn, Wheat, Millet, Buckwheat, Sorghum, Amaranth, Rye, Spelt, Teff, Kamut, Oats etc)
• Alternative sweeteners like xylitol and stevia
• Dried fruits and/or over-consumption of fructose (I recommend up to 2 pieces of fruit a day)
• Dairy Products
• All Processed Foods
• Alcohol
• Chocolate
• Eggs
• Nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, mustard seeds, all chili’s including spices)
• No vegetable oils (olive oil and coconut oil is permitted)
• Culinary herbs from seeds (mustard, cumin, coriander, fennel, cardamom, fenugreek, caraway, nutmeg, dill seed)

ALLOWED:

• Vegetables (except nightshades)
• Fruits (limit to 15-20 grams fructose/day)
• Coconut products including coconut oil, manna, creamed coconut, coconut aminos, canned coconut milk (with no additives like guar gum and carageen or bpa lined cans) shredded coconut (this list does not include coconut sugar and nectar)
• Fats: olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, lard, bacon fat, cultured ghee (certified to be free of casein and lactose)
• Fermented Foods (coconut yogurt, kombucha, water and coconut kefir, fermented vegetables)
• Bone Broth
• Grass Fed Meats, Poultry and Seafood
• Non-Seed Herbal Teas
• Green Tea
• Vinegars: Apple Cider Vinegar, Coconut vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic (that has no added sugar)
• Sweeteners: occasional and sparse use of honey and maple syrup (1 tsp/day)
• Herbs: all fresh and non-seed herbs are allowed (basil tarragon, thyme, mint, oregano, rosemary, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, savory, edible flowers)  (COPYRIGHT AIP LIFESTYLE)

There are other considerations that the author, Jessica Flannigan, discusses, including medical conditions, lab testing, supplements and so forth, so as informative as websites are, we should all remember that our bodies are our temples for the time being, so if something doesn't feel right, we should get a scan done or something. Eating well and exercising and all that is great, but if you've got a brain tumor, you might wanna get that sucker cut out!  

When Going Gluten-free Just Isn't Enough

During my research into holistic treatments for Hashimoto's, I discovered that going gluten-free simply was not enough for some people, and that they had to restrict their diets even further in order to allow their intestines and, ultimately, their immune system, to completely heal.  

The Paleo and AIP, (which stands for Autoimmune Protocol), diets address these additional concerns. So what is Paleo? What is AIP? I stumbled upon this blog that has a really great write-up on the history of Paleo that I am going to share: 

The basis of the Paleo Diet emerged from the application of evolutionary reasoning to dietary habits. In the 70s, gastroenterologist Dr. Walter L. Voegtlin published The Stone Age Diet, in which he reasoned that over the course of human evolution, humans have primarily consumed wild game, fruits and vegetables. Logically, the result was a digestive system that had evolved to accommodate such a diet. 

The Biological Basis of the Paleo Diet-Voegtlin pointed to biological features designed for consuming meat such as canines, molars and incisors, as well as stark differences between the human digestive system and those of herbivorous species. Humans have small stomachs, negligible digestive bacteria, acid heavy digestive processes, a highly developed gall-bladder, and quick digestion times. These are all consistent with carnivorous diets and quite different from digestive systems adapted to herbaceous diets, Voegtlin argued.
His conclusion was that humans were better adapted to a pre-agricultural, more carnivorous diet. This was an obvious deduction from evolutionary logic, in his view. After all, agriculture emerged only about 10,000 years ago, while the human digestive system has evolved over several millennia on a radically different diet. 

The Agricultural Revolution-Benefits of the Paleo Diet
The agricultural revolution occurred when humans discovered that cooking otherwise inedible plants could make them fit for human consumption—most importantly grains, beans and potatoes, which contain toxins in their raw state that render them inedible. There were major advantages to this discovery as these foods were calorically dense, could be stored for long periods, and were easy to propagate.  Farming quickly became a ubiquitous practice that made it possible to transition from hunter-gatherer societies to more populous agricultural civilizations. However, our digestive systems have not yet had time to thoroughly adapt to this diet, potentially causing health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and chronic inflammatory diseases. 

The Modern Paleo Diet-Contemporary dietitians have since elaborated on Voegtlin’s “Stone Age Diet,” and helped make it practicable in the context of the supermarket. Founded on the basic macronutrient composition that Voegtlin proposed (namely a high ratio of protein to fat and carbohydrates), the modern Paleo Diet has become increasingly popular, offering a dietary regime that could help address a number of health issues. (Courtesy of SmartDiner.com)

Some of the most popular Paleo advocates' websites include, The Paleo Diet, Nom Nom Paleo, Everyday Paleo, and of course, The Paleo Mom.  But the basic premise of Paleo seems to be: 


Good                             Bad
Fruits                             Dairy
Vegetables                   Grains
Lean Meats                  Processed Foods and Sugars
Seafood                        Legumes
Nuts and Seeds           Starches
Healthy Fats                 Alcohol
                                        Soy

There is plenty of criticism of the Paleo eating plan, including this article by Scientific American, that takes issue with the Paleo claim that man's physiological evolution has not kept pace with our diet evolution. So, Paleo is, by no means, the final word on nutrition.  (Next post, I'll be taking a look at AIP. Talk about restrictions... but it is supposedly very beneficial!)

The truth is, there is no one size fits all when it comes to ones diet, so I take a trial and error approach for myself. I mean, it's only food, right? If I eat something that seems like it doesn't agree with me, I limit or eliminate it.  If I eat something that seems to give me a boost or makes me feel satisfied with no ill-aftereffects, I add that to my list of stand-by ingredients.  We all have different chemistry and genetics, so we have to find a set of ingredients that work for us. And I am learning that it is a long and ever-evolving process.

WTF is Gluten-free and Why Should I Care?

Years ago, when I first started noticing all the gluten-free stuff popping up everywhere,  I used to think to myself, "What is all this over-priced, gluten-free crap and what do all these pasty, sad, annoying people have against gluten, anyway? Eat a bear claw and quit whining already!" (Seriously, that is what I really thought). I really had no clue at all.  I have since learned that a lot of people, including myself, have sort of an allergy to gluten, which causes their immune system to turn on their own bodies. 

In her book, Root Cause, Izabella Wentz writes, "Certain proteins may induce an immune system response. The most well-described is the gluten intolerance seen in celiac disease. Gluten is a protein found in wheat that causes intestinal damage and thus destroys the intestine's ability to absorb nutrients in people with gluten intolerance. " Researchers have discovered that many autoimmune diseases are aggravated by gluten and that symptoms and damage to the body can be reduced by cutting gluten out of ones diet.

So what does gluten-free really mean? Gluten is not confined to wheat.  It turns out that gluten can also be found in other grains like barley, as well as ingredients processed in the same facilities as wheat. This is called cross-contamination and is one reason why people who are sensitive to gluten need to make sure the stuff they eat is truly gluten-free.  The gluten-free label is kind of a promise from the manufacturer that their production facility is not contaminated with gluten, kind of like an organic label is a promise that the product doesn't have pesticides or other inorganic ingredients. But, similar to organic foods, a gluten-free label is not always a guarantee that the product is gluten-free.

Enter, the Gluten Intolerance Group.  If you want to make sure a product you are interested in purchasing is "certified" gluten-free, you can go to the GFCO.org website and verify it.  What is certification, you ask? Evidently, the Gluten Intolerance Group actually tests products for their gluten content. If they test below 10 parts per million of gluten, they are certified, although most have less than that and some of the products contain no level of detectible gluten at all. 

The GFCO.org website is actually pretty cool. Take that back. It's REALLY cool.  They have a gluten free nutrition guide, they have a label reading guide, and a restaurant guide, to help find a restaurant that serves certified gluten-free meals near you.  They also have a Facebook page and links to local support groups. It's chock full of relevant and extremely useful information!

So, going gluten-free is not a fad diet. Sure, some people do follow a gluten-free regimen in order to lose weight, and it's pretty effective.  But people with autoimmune disorders follow a gluten-free diet to get healthy. Mild gluten intolerance has similar symptoms as lactose intolerance.  It's not pretty, if you get my drift. Severe gluten intolerance can be debilitating and can cause rashes, joint pain and swelling, extreme fatigue, depression, hair loss, and the list goes on and on. So, try to be kind to your gluten-free friends.  They just want to feel as good as you do. And maybe they will...  some day.

Why Organic?

Last semester at Orange Coast College, I took an Ecology class with a wonderful professor named Lisa Snyder. She also teaches Marine Sciences and, despite the fact that her class was shockingly depressing, she was a delightful instructor and just an over all neat person to meet.  A large portion of the class was spent talking about Climate Change, diminishing global fresh water supplies and mass extinction.  And the other time was spent talking about pollution. As it turns out, a great deal of that pollution, in the form of fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, hormones and antibiotics, has compromised our food supplies. (See what I mean about depressing? Seriously, bring me a rope and point me in the direction of a nice strong ceiling joist.) 

Just to give you a quick summary, large agriculture producers use a lot of chemicals that are toxic to humans and other organisms. Some examples are Chloropicrin, a widely used biocide and fungicide that, according to WebMD, "...has the potential for widespread destruction as a chemical warfare agent."  How about a little bleach, a.k.a. Sodium Hydrochlorite on those potatoes? Yeah, according the the EPA,"...residues of sodium and calcium hypochlorite may remain on certain food crops as a result of their disinfectant uses. However, these residues pose no known hazard to human health."










Conventional livestock farms, (feedlots), are nothing short of a horror show. Between the overcrowding, inhumane treatment, generous dosing of antibiotics, (to prevent disease from over crowding and unsanitary conditions), hormones, and heavy metals, (to increase the size of the "crop"), the meat, eggs, and dairy products have been known to carry salmonella, e-coli, parasites, cause breasts in babies, and contribute to the evolution of antibiotic-resistant microbes, just to scratch the service.  The waste from these factory farms is wreaking havoc on our fresh and ocean water supplies and contributing to Dead Zones and Climate Change in the form of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide emissions.  Ready to go Organic yet?  

Many holistic health advocates recommend that you buy, at minimum certified organic, grass fed beef, forest fed pork, (this is rare, and therefore many people stay away from pork), and grass fed, free range poultry. This includes dairy and eggs as well. 

Where produce is concerned, following chart can be used to choose which organic produce to splurge on, and which non-organic fruits and veggies you can buy to save a little money! It's a quick way to start, and not only make a difference in your own health, but do your part to slow down Climate Change. Bon Appetit!

ASMR and How Water Whispers Ilse Cured my Insomnia

My name is Natalie, and I am an insomniac. I remember, even when I was in my early 20's, I would spend all night, wide awake and afraid, and only with the first rays of sunlight peeking over the horizon, just barely brightening up the dark night sky, would I feel it was safe for me to finally close my eyes and drift off to sleep. And what a profound slumber it was, all 90 minutes of it before my alarm went off and jarred me into a shaky, groggy-minded and usually nauseous reality that was about to be my day.

I grew up in the time of "Helter Skelter" and the "Night Stalker," among other frights, so my vigilant instincts had other ideas of what I should be doing besides laying in a helpless and semi-conscious state so someone could hurt me. That just wasn't going to happen! No sirree Bob! Not on my watch! I was gonna stay awake so I could fight them off, or more realistically, watch the whole thing go down. Yeah! Super fun!

I read a short story by Earnest Hemingway during my first pass through college called, "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" about an old alcoholic that would go to a bright cafe to drink, and the older waiter that served him. It always struck me as being incredibly perceptive as to the plight of the insomniac.

"The light is very good ... A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing. Now, without thinking further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, it's probably only insomnia. Many must have it."

During my bouts of insomnia, I would feel so alone,  like I was the only person who was awake in the world, (even though I knew it was daytime in China). After reading this story, I always fantasized, if there was just a clean, well-lighted place that I could go to, everything would be okay.

Well, everything IS okay, because I found the Water Whisperer Ilse! I have been sleeping through the night for the first time in I don't know how long and it's all because of videos like this one:

(Warning: Do not operate heavy machinery, a moving automobile or 

leave your hamster in his exercise ball while watching this video.)

This is another one of these things that I'm just learning about, so let me tell you what I have read. ASMR, which stands for "Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response", (or Age-specific Mortality Rate for all you actuarial fans out there), is defined as:

 A neologism for a perceptual phenomenon characterized as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp, back, or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, olfactory, and/or cognitive stimuli.

 Like a lot of alternative remedies, mainstream medicine is divided on ASMR's effectiveness because of lack of scientific evidence and difficulty in obtaining said evidence.  Some psychiatrists worry that it may become habit-forming, like a pacifier or white noise machine, and would much prefer you take Ambien and wake up to an open refrigerator and a stomach full of raw bacon.  Others feel it is a safe and effective practice akin to meditation. All I know is that I turn on Ilse and I cannot keep my eyes open, and the next thing I know, it's morning! Is she boring? Maybe. (And isn't that kind of the idea? I mean, how sleepy would you get if she ran around like the Keystone Cops, yelling at you to relax?) Do I care? Nope.  All I care about is, that after 30 years of having trouble sleeping, I have found a cure. Thank you Ilse. And, sweet dreams, my friends!

Sharin' is carin'!

Since my emersion into the Hashimoto's community, I have been overwhelmed by its helpfulness and generosity.  One person, in particular, that I have been impressed with is Stacey Robbins.  Her book, You are Not Crazy and You are Not Alone really set the stage for my journey into alternative healing.  I ordered the kindle version of the book and read most of it that same night.  The brutal honesty with which Stacey writes is surprisingly candid and refreshingly authentic, especially for being a local here in Orange County.  After reading her book, I felt like I knew her and was compelled to try out a few of her recommendations.

The first thing I did was schedule an appointment with one of her integrative medical doctors. The earliest appointment I could get was in April, so I had some down time to do other stuff. The next thing I had to do was to get a hold of a jar of the quantum infused Spirulina she wrote about. I know, right? No, I really don't know, but here's what it says on the website:

"Probably the oldest and certainly the most nutritious food on the planet, BIOLUMINA SPIRULINA provides you with the broadest spectrum, most concentrated and bioavailable nutrition that you can get from a single food. This amazing blue green algae superfood has a uniquely high phytonutrient content that includes 3 to 4 times more Phycocyanin. Along with BIOLUMINA’S other vital nutrients, this very rare, powerful antioxidant, provides the greatest radiation-protecting and immune system-enhancing benefits available to us from any food or other substance."

So, I have no idea what it does, but I had to get some.  (I'm trying everything here, folks. If it's herby and organic and infused with unicorn rainbow farts, I'm in.)  So, a quick message to Stacey on Facebook and we were meeting up at Target to make the covert exchange. I come to find out Stacey is a distributor, so I can get a fix whenever I need one.  And I will!  Everyone in my house is using it, even the dog!  It does give you a little boost after drinking it in a smoothie.  Here's an easy, customizable recipe from nutritionist Tami Broderick with whom I consulted a while back:  

1 Cup liquid (Water, Rice Milk, Coconut Water, etc.)
3/4 Cup Fruit
1 scoop protein powder (I use Warrior Blend because it's Gluten, soy, dairy free)
Fat (a few almonds, some oil, a bit of an avocado...)
2 Teaspoons (to start) of Spirulina

This is how I start every day!  It keeps me energized and feeling swell.  And the dog is not complaining either!