Table Talk

Celiaccentuate the Positive This Season

2009-12-01T09:21:00.002-07:00

by Gina Mohr-Callahan, A Fork in the Road  

There’s a song worm working my brain: “You’ve got to accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative. Don’t mess with Mr. In-Between.” Good advice, even from an inane song from the 1940s.

It’s easy to get low about the gluten-free life – especially during the holidays when everyone around you seems to be gorging on wheat-flour-laden sweets. It’s tough to decline those plattters of fancy fluted cookies and puff-pastry turbans, knowing they’re likely made with gluten-rich ingredients you can’t have.

After nearly 11 years gluten-free, I’ve spent a holiday season or two thinking “Woe is I.” I’ve murmured those desperate mantras: “The holidays will never be the same.” “Why me?” “This sucks.” And worse. But all those tragic mumblings did me no good. After they hit the ether, I still had celiac disease, still needed to pursue the gluten-free path, still couldn’t have those holiday treats everyone else was eating. So what’s a gluten-free gastronome to do?

A Dose of Positive Self-Talk
Hey baby, latch on to the affirmative and give Mr. (or Ms.) In-Between the boot. Learn to pursue the gluten-free life with gusto, and you’ll discover you can make nearly everything you once loved in your gluten-rich iteration, only you can make a healthier, gluten-free version, and no one will be the wiser. How?
Try reworking those negative brain worms to something more positive for example, replace:

“This sucks. Everyone gets to eat what they want but me.” WITH “I’m making great, healthful food choices.”
“I won’t be able to enjoy the office party this year.” WITH “I’ll bring a plate of some gluten-free treat I CAN eat.”
“People think I’m a freak, because I’m so fussy about what I eat.” WITH “Who cares what people think! I feel great on the gluten-free path!”
“This is hard. I can’t do it.” WITH “Hey, I’m a creative person. If 3 million Americans can do this, I can, too!”
“I just want to be like everyone else.” WITH “No you don’t! You want to be an original. Quit whining! As Guy Clark says: “Life is not a piece of cake.” (It’s a piece of gluten-free cake!) OK. OK. This is not that positive, but I just had to throw it in there.

Making Holiday “Lemonade”
In the realm of life challenges, going gluten-free ranks about a “3” on the 10-point difficulty scale: It’s not easy, but it’s not leukemia. It’s not a walk in the park, but it’s completely achievable. It’s not ideal, but maybe it is. It’s ideal for you. And isn’t it wonderful that something as simple as living the gluten-free life can help you feel better again?

For me, the gluten-free life has been a gift. After four years of feeling horrible, after wasting away to 89 pounds, losing my hair, agonizing with chronic headaches and miserable joint pain, I found a simple way to be well again. If this is all I have to do to be well, I’ll gladly drink the gluten-free tea, one lump please.

Accentuate the Positive
And, the gluten-free challenge comes with benefits:

It’s less inflammatory. Many healthcare practitioners are prescribing the gluten-free life for their patients – even if they don’t have celiac disease or gluten intolerance – because it’s a healthier way of living.
It’s more diverse. If you hadn’t been diagnosed with a gluten issue, you’d still be eating one kind of grain: boring wheat. Now, you get to have coconut, sorghum, millet, quinoa, tapioca, chickpeas, and dozens of other flours that make life more interesting. Hey baby, the gluten-free are exotic. More distinctive. Sexier? Believe it!
It’s a more mindful way of living. Admit it. Before you went gluten-free, you probably ate most things without even considering for a moment what was in them. Now, you know more about what you put into your body than most people. And that’s great. Don’t you feel good about that? Even a little smug?
It’s what’s best for you. The rest of the world is still wandering, lost in a dark wood, not knowing what is best for them. Your body has spoken. It’s made it abundantly clear what you need and don’t need. I’d call that a major life satori!

Have Falalalala Faith
If you’re new to the gluten-free life and still skeptical about the satori part, have a little faith. Every holiday, every year, every spring, this path gets oh-so-much easier. This dark and tangled wood gets brighter. This gluten-free life gets lighter. Look ahead. As Townes Van Zandt said: “It don’t pay to think too much on things you leave behind.”

Just Because We Can, Should We?

2009-10-12T08:12:00.003-06:00

by Gina Mohr-Callahan, A Fork in the Road

Gluten-free pretzels that rival the wheatful ones. Gluten-free cake and brownie mixes right on the grocery-store baking aisle. Gluten-free cookie boxes next to the gluten-rich ones. Are we living in the future? Almost. In the last year, more than 1,000 new gluten-free foods and beverages have been introduced, and sales of gluten-free foods have grown, on average, by 28 percent during the past five years, according to the market research group Packaged Facts.

For those of us eating gluten-free, that’s great news. Compared to a decade ago, when I was diagnosed with celiac disease, life is very good. We have many more choices, and they’re now also available at mainstream markets, not just the pricey specialty health-food establishments.

But there’s always a downside, and the downside is this: Just because we now have all these packaged gluten-free foods at the ready, should we really be eating so many of them? Yes, it’s natural to sometimes feel deprived on a gluten-free diet, and it’s easy to go overboard when we discover something that we can have. But many gluten-free products contain lots of fat, sugar, salt, and white rice flour – all ingredients most of us should minimize.

One of the good things I discovered about following a gluten-free path was the need to be label-savvy. I’ve learned an enormous amount about what I put into my body, because I have to know what I’m eating to be well. I worry that that pretty little “GF” we’re now seeing on so many new gluten-free products may create a gluten-free population of overconsumers who stop reading about and asking about what’s in their food. The “I Can Have It If It’s GF” habit may be as detrimental to our health – contributing to obesity and other health problems – as gluten was.

What Should We Do?
Obviously, we all need to be well-informed consumers. A “GF” stamp does not mean abdicating responsibility for what we eat. Making smart choices is still essential. Does that mean I’ve stopped trying new gluten-free products or I won’t succumb to the call of the gluten-free siren song at the market? No, but I try to keep my head when I’m shopping, and I use a few calorie-chasing and money-saving tricks to keep me focused on healthy eating:

Shop the Outside Aisle at the Market

Fresh fruits and veggies are always gluten-free and healthy choices.
Lean, low-fat meat, poultry, and fish are great gluten-free choices without the added salt and fat of commercially processed foods.
Fresh (and organic if you can afford it) eggs, milk, and yogurt (if you tolerate dairy) are healthy gluten-free options in moderation. Now, So Delicious brand has introduced healthy coconut milk options in a carton, available in the dairy case.
Whole grains, nuts, seeds, and healthy oils are essential to ensure we’re getting enough good fats and fiber in our restricted diets. Quinoa (one of my favorites), buckwheat, flaxseeds, oats from a known GF source (and only if you’re at least one year out from initial diagnosis), walnuts, almonds, avocadoes, olive oil, and fish oils are superb choices.

Make It Yourself

Adopt the “make your own” motto. Homemade broths, sauces, salad dressings, and soups are much less expensive (and better for you) than the commercially prepared ones, and you can control the added fat and salt.
Home-blended gluten-free flours and mixes also take the “ouch” out of the wallet and keep you away from the high-calorie, big-ticket ready-made mixes on the baking aisle. It takes a little more time, but it’s worth it, and you’ll know exactly what’s in everything you eat.

Make It a Question of Balance
After spending more than a decade on the GF path, I’m thrilled there are more GF choices now than ever. But I see these off-the-shelf options as mixed blessings. Arriving at a celiac-disease diagnosis was definitely lifesaving for me. I want to use the same intelligence and resolve that led me to remain of the gluten-free path to strike a healthy balance in my life and to make the most intelligent gluten-free food choices I can. Just because we can find “GF” everywhere now, doesn’t mean those “finds” are the best gluten-free foods for us.

Making a Clean, Gluten-Free Spring “Sweep”

2009-02-24T09:59:00.005-07:00

by Gina Mohr-Callahan, A Fork in the Road

In my Galesburg, Illinois, girlhood home, a thorough spring cleaning was as much a part of the season as tulips and Midwestern mud. To our chagrin (didn’t we JUST do this last fall?), my mother started in early February, when the seeds were still tightly coiled in their woody jackets. She began with the closets, unearthing great mounds of old sweaters, jackets, hats, and socks to be “handed down” to neighbor children.

Then she moved on to the curtains, bedspreads, walls, and even the dreaded Venetian blinds, which she washed systematically in the great claw-foot tub, then stretched out like colossal “Slinkys” on the front porch to dry in the winter sun.

This French-Canadian whirlwind left no corner untouched, and by the blessed vernal equinox (which nearly always coincided with my sister Mary Ellen’s birthday), the house sparkled, everything was put right, and the air wafted with lemon oil and Niagara starch. I’m not sure whether it’s my French-Canadian/German genes, my nesting instinct, or my need for safe/GF digs, but I find myself reprising some of my mother’s frenzied spring-cleaning behaviors. When you’re living the gluten-free life, this is especially important in the kitchen.

Keeping a Clean (Gluten-Free) Machine (Kitchen)
If you’re transitioning from eating gluten to a gluten-free/wheat-free life or if you share your kitchen with wheat eaters, here are a few tips to ensure you’re getting no residual gluten:

Buy New

Buy a new toaster. Toasters (obviously) collect crumbs, and even the cleanest machines pose a threat, unless yours is a dedicated, gluten-free machine. If you MUST share toasters, consider No Stick Toast It Bags (available through http://www.amazon.com/NoStick-Toast-Toaster-Bags-C1814X2/dp/B0012XGM92 for about $5.69 for 2.)

Buy new wooden implements, such as cutting boards, spoons, spatulas, etc. Gluten collects in the cracks of wooden implements. If you’re going to invest in new ones, plastic is best, because it reliably washes clean.

Consider replacing cookie sheets and baking pans that are hard to clean well, such as aluminum.

Go through your fridge and cupboards and throw away any item that might have been exposed to gluten or wheat. Example: Could your peanut butter or jams have tiny wheat crumbs in them? What about mustard and mayo? Other sauces?

Buy new condiments/jams and clearly label if they’re to be kept GF.

If you use Sil-Pat or other specialized baking sheets, you many want to replace them. These tend to absorb glutens from past baking and could be a source of contamination.

Consider replacing a wooden rolling pin that was used on gluten-rich dough.

Wash Well

Thoroughly clean your plastic cutting boards/plastic kitchen implements (running them through the dishwasher works great).

Thoroughly clean your cupboard/pantry shelves.

Wash your potholders.

Clean your pasta maker or bread maker thoroughly.

Thoroughly clean your electric mixer beaters/dough hooks, around the mixer housing that holds the beaters.

Educate Your Family

If you live with wheat eaters, take some time to teach them healthy, gluten-free behaviors, such as no “double dipping.” Explain how this practice of dipping in with a knife/spreading on wheat breads, then dipping back into the jar contaminates the entire jar with gluten.

Establish a GF zone in your kitchen. Here, you can be certain no gluten-rich crumbs will contaminate your food.

Identify at least one GF cutting board that’s safe for only your use.

There’s something right about spring cleaning. We need a good sweep to make a welcome place for new ideas, white sneakers (but not until Memorial Day! Midwestern rules!), T-shirts, fresh strawberries, and those new sprouts stirring in our flower beds.

Planning a Perfect Gluten-Free Holiday Feast

2008-11-24T09:07:00.010-07:00

by Gina Mohr-Callahan, A Fork in the Road

Mother is crying. Her earthen eyes sting and tear, and she dabs at them with grandma’s hankie. Mother knows it will soon be over.

Quickly, she jams another onion into the maw of the grinder screwed down tightly to the end of our kitchen table. Around-and-around she spins the grinder’s big arm. Pure onion pulp and juice dribble from the grinder, and the odor pierces the air with its pungent breath.

In the turkey-roasting pan, mother’s three-day-old bread is perfectly torn and “fluffed” as only she knows how to. The celery, the sage, the sautéed chuck roast. Everything is ready to finish her special “dressing for fowl.” Expertly, she adds everything to the bread piled high in the roaster, gently folding it over and over. Tomorrow, she’ll stuff the turkey with this magical mélange and stitch the bird closed with the skill of a surgeon.

The fresh bird was delivered this morning from a turkey farm in Dahinda, a little town near our Galesburg, Illinois, home. “Oh, it’s beautiful,” declares mother of the freshly dressed fowl.

To an 11-year-old girl, this behemoth bird looks nearly as big as mother. She examines it carefully for pin feathers and removes the neck and giblets from the cavity. She washes the big bird like a baby, pats it dry, and covers it with damp dishtowels and foil. Into the fridge it goes until tomorrow morning.

Then she lovingly spreads her well-worn pastry cloth on the kitchen table. It’s threadbare in places – she’s been using it for decades. Nowhere in the world does it feel more like home to me than right here in mother’s kitchen, watching her about to begin her sacred pie-making ritual.

The smells: pumpkin and cinnamon, cloves and ginger. The gear: her well-loved pastry blender, the butter-yellow flour sifter, the fluted pie plates. The dough: cold and round and yielding. And the narrative: “Now honey, see how I handle it just enough? Too much, and the crust will be tough. Watch, now, as I crimp the edges. See how I do that? Do you want to try it?”

It’s been nearly 44 years since I watched this dear scene unfold in mother’s kitchen. She passed away 10 years ago, but I still feel her right by my side – guiding me, praising me – every year as I begin my own gluten-free holiday food-preparation rituals.

Preparing a Gluten-Free Feast – It’s Different and It’s the Same
Making a big holiday meal was tough enough in my mother’s day, but making a big gluten-free holiday meal adds complexity to the feast. Many of the favorite holiday foods we’ve loved since childhood may not translate well in their gluten-free iterations. But over the years, we’ve found ways to compensate:

Make your “stuffing” outside the turkey –
Gluten-free breads tend to get really “gluey and gooey” inside the turkey. You can make wonderful gluten-free “stuffing” in a baking pan. We’ve included our favorite gluten-free cornbread stuffing, Gluten-Free Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage, Dried Fruit, and Pine Nuts, in our current featured recipes.

3 weeks before –

Make your menu as far in advance as possible (at least 3 weeks). (Choose dishes you can make in advance. Not sure what to make? Check out some of our favorite holiday dishes in our current featured recipes. They can easily be made in advance.)
Ask your guests to bring something (See our fabulous Gluten-Free Artichoke Dip in our current featured recipes.), freeing you to concentrate of the things you enjoy making most. If your guests are not sure what to bring, send them recipes to ensure they make something you can eat!
Send your gluten-unaware friends our cheat sheet to help them avoid cross contaminating with gluten in their kitchens.
Ask your gluten-eating friends to bring rolls or other gluten-rich foods you don’t want to handle. Be sure to ask them to bring these foods in their own dishes (so you’ll minimize any exposure to gluten).
Order your main dish (turkey, beef tenderloin, standing rib roast, etc.), if necessary, and specify an early pick-up date.
Order flowers, if you’re not arranging your own.
Check your china cabinet and linens. Do you have enough wine glasses, plates, silverware? The right tablecloth? Enough napkins? Wash everything, as needed. Do you need to borrow anything?
Sharpen your carving knives/cooking knives.
Buy your liquor early.
Make sure you have all the kitchen “gear” you need (roasting pans, thermometers, timers, basters, etc.)

2 weeks before –

Based on your planned menu, make your grocery lists. Divide your foods into what you can buy early and what you must get a few days before.
Scope out your serving dishes and baking dishes. Do you have enough of what you need? Borrow or buy what you don’t have.
Think about your fridge space. Will you have enough? Do you need to ask your neighbor to use some of his/her garage-fridge space? Do you need to plan for an ice-filled cooler? If it’s cold out, use your car!
Using your menu as a guide, make a timetable of what needs to be prepared and in what order? What can you make in advance and reheat in the microwave? Which items must be cooked/baked first?

1 week before –

Do as much advance shopping as you can. Buy all the canned foods/staples you’ll need.
If you’re making pies, make your piecrusts and freeze them. Thaw the crusts the day before you bake them.
If you’re making your own gluten-free bread or GF cornbread (See our archives for our corn bread recipe.) for stuffing, make it in advance and freeze it.
If you’re buying GF baked goods, get them early, as many stores sell out at the holidays.

3-4 days before –

Pick up your turkey or other main-course food. (Even if the turkey says it’s “fresh,” it’s likely been frozen or been kept at “near freezing” before you get it, and it will need some time to thaw.)
Buy the remainder of your dinner supplies: fresh veggies, fruits, dairy, etc.
Decide if you’ll send leftovers home with guests and get any special equipment you’ll need: foil, plastic bags, etc. OR, ask your guests to bring a few storage containers.
Prepare dishes like cranberry sauce that can sit in the fridge a few days.

2 days before –

Make as much as you can ahead. Can you make even a portion of your dishes in advance and finish on the dinner day? I make my stuffing the day before and reheat it in the oven while we’re carving/making last-minute adjustments. (Check out our current featured recipes for ideas.)

The day before –

Buy your flowers (if you’re arranging them yourself) and arrange them. Don’t forget candles.
Set your table the evening before the dinner.
Decide on your seating chart.
Set out all your serving dishes/serving utensils. (If you don’t have enough room on your counter, put them on your dining-room chairs until you can free a space to accommodate the dishes.)

Dinner day –

Rise early!
Ensure your kitchen counters are clear and your dishwasher is empty.
Make sure there’s a place for guests to put their coats, purses, and dishes as they arrive.
Make a simple breakfast: cereal, eggs, etc.
If you’re baking pies/cheesecake, etc., fill and bake them.
Put in your main course to cook (depending on the time you choose to eat). I prefer a later afternoon/early evening holiday dinner, because it gives me more time to prep and the chance of a nap before the madness begins!
Cook your potatoes early and reheat them later, or better yet, ask a guest to bring them in a microwaveable dish.
If you’re having a lot of guests and you’re table is small, set up for a buffet-style meal – placing your serving dishes where you want them to go. Leave a place for guests’ contributions. I put a sticky note in the place where a guest dish should go.
If you’re serving gravy, make the GF roux/thickener in advance. I use our favorite brown rice flour blend for my roux.
Clean as you go! This is VERY important. It will make final clean up so much easier and ensure that you have plenty of working counter space as the dishes come out of the oven/off the stove.
If you get behind in the schedule, relax! The people you’ve invited love you! They’ll wait.

Your Cheatin’ Heart

2008-10-09T14:27:00.005-06:00

Getting beyond the reasons we cheat on the gluten-free diet

by Gina Mohr-Callahan

Food is more than nourishment. It is the fragrant embodiment of our memories: every holiday meal echoing with the laughter of loved ones, every wedding feast reverberating with the pulse of the celebrants, every pizza-and-beer FAC shared with old friends.

No matter how humble or grand the fare, food and drink are at the heart of nearly every memorable life event. We need these palpable memories. We crave them. We take in these life-sustaining bits; we imbibe these moments. And when believe we can no longer have these soul-nurturing morsels, we naturally feel deprived.

Why We Cheat
For all these reasons, it is very difficult to chastise clients when they confess that they’ve cheated on the gluten-free diet. As a person with celiac disease and a dietary counselor, I hear this all the time:

“I just wanted to feel like a normal person again.”
“A small bite [of gluten-containing food] can’t hurt that much, can it?”
“All my friends were going out for beer and burgers. I wanted to be
part of the group.”
“I didn’t want to be rude by asking: ‘What’s in that?’”

These are just a few of the many reasons we cheat. Of course, you already know what I’m going to say. You already know that cheating on the gluten-free diet IS very bad for you, and you shouldn’t do it. It’s NOT just because you may suffer for a day or two with diarrhea or some other unspeakable symptom that is unique to your experience of celiac disease or gluten intolerance.

Why We Shouldn’t
If you have celiac disease, you do not have an “allergy” to gluten. A simple allergy is likely to provoke an unpleasant (or sometimes life-threatening event, in the case of peanuts or bee stings) side effect, but it usually runs its course and goes away. If you have celiac disease, you have an autoimmune disorder. This is a life-long illness. It never goes away. There is currently no cure. When you ingest gluten-containing grains, you insult your immune system, the miraculous gatekeeper that recognizes what is you and what is “not you.”

Sometimes, immune systems get confused, and they inexplicably attack the bodies they’ve been charged to protect. Having celiac disease puts a “chink” in your immune-system armor. If you eat gluten-containing foods, you’re bulldozing the nutrient-absorbing villi in your small intestine and sending yourself back to healing-square one where it’s likely to take you months to get back on track.

And autoimmune disorders like to travel in groups. Having celiac disease increases your risk for other autoimmune challenges such as lupus or multiple sclerosis, just to name a few. It’s known than tiny amounts of protein, like gluten, even tinier than the head of a pin, are sufficient to fully activate the immune system. Is a little bit of gluten OK? The answer, of course, is absolutely not. Why flirt with possible disaster?

Redefining the Memory Stage
Just because we know we’re not supposed to cheat, doesn’t make us want to cheat less. We naturally long for what we can’t have. When you find yourself at this crossroads, here are some strategies you can use to help you conquer the urge to cheat:

Know thyself –
Identify the foods/drinks that you’re willing to cheat for, such as restaurant desserts, breads, pastas, pizza, or even gluten-containing beers/other liquor. Then, learn to make superb GF substitutes. Search our A Fork in the Road website for recipe ideas or search the Internet for other ideas. There are countless substitutes for gluten-containing beverages, including sorghum beers, potato vodkas, 100 percent blue agave tequilas, wines, and more.

After nearly 10 years on a GF diet, I can assure you that nearly everything can be made wonderfully gluten-free. It just takes a little time and practice. For inspiration, take a GF cooking class or buy a GF cookbook. Check out our class schedule and pantry for ideas.

Do the “avoid” dance –
Avoid situations where you feel you’ll be compelled to cheat, such as FACs, restaurants where there are no GF menus/GF options, buffets, or banquets.

Take the lead –
If you find you want to cheat so you won’t stick out in your peer group, take the lead. Grab your clipboard and whistle and orchestrate an event that fits into your dietary plan:

You choose the restaurant where you know you can eat safely.
Suggest a potluck and you bring safe GF foods to share.
Host a dinner at YOUR house and YOU pick the menu.
Try to educate your friends/family about your dietary needs.
Assemble a GF gift basket for key friends with key GF items you typically need at a meal: wheat-free soy sauce, GF salad dressing, GF crackers, etc.

Ask for what you need –
If your partner is eating gluten-containing foods in front of you, it can be very tough to stay on the straight and narrow path. If you find your partner’s eating habits are leading you astray, ask him or her to help you strengthen your resolve. Ask if he or she will join you in the gluten-free life – even for a little while, until you get your gluten-free sea legs firmly planted under you.

Remind yourself “you’re worth it” –
Temporary gratification with gluten-containing foods may feel good, momentarily, until your symptoms return, or if you’re asymptomatic, until you manifest other unpleasant signs, such as hair loss or weight loss. But in the long run, you’re only damaging yourself when you cheat. It’s important to remind yourself that the gluten-free diet is your path to wellness. You deserve the health and vitality you feel when you choose the gluten-free life.

View “gluten-free” as a lifestyle choice, not a diet –
The word “diet” has come to be synonymous with deprivation. “Diet” even sounds restrictive. I prefer to call this path the gluten-free life, because I do choose it as my personal path to wellness. I know I feel better on this path. The awareness that it’s a choice, not a restriction, is liberating, physically and mentally.

For many of us, food is our drug of choice. For me, there is nothing more satisfying than a slug of mashed potatoes with a puddle of gravy or a gooey brownie eaten over the sink at midnight when my husband and dogs are asleep, and it’s just me (in my flannel jammers) and Bobby Flay in the throes of another throw down on the Food Network. We all have our secret comforts.
If yours is food, and you have a mind to cheat – yourself – remember that we craft our own memories. Choose to make yours gluten-free.