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Dec/Jan 2012
Features
Afraid of a Reaction
Subscribers OnlyThe experience is all too familiar. You sit down for a meal and take a bite of a supposedly safe dish. Then something starts to happen. Your chest feels tight, your breathing quickens, your lips and throat seem to tingle. Are these early signs of an allergic reaction? In that moment of anxiety, it can be difficult to know for sure.
Senior Celiacs
Four years ago, Gladys Glenn, then 66, had gall bladder surgery. In the months afterward, the retired medical secretary from Durham, North Carolina, noticed that her occasional stomach troubles—bloating and constipation—were growing worse. Glenn wasted no time getting back to her physician, but when she asked to be tested for celiac disease, the doctor shook her head. “You couldn’t have celiac disease,” she told Glenn. When results came back a week later, Glenn’s doctor was stunned and apologetic: tests were positive for celiac disease. She was soon diagnosed with both celiac disease and DH.
An Elegant Gluten-Free Holiday Affair
Decorations and presents are festive this time of year - but a table laden with beautiful food is the heart of the holidays. Celebrating the season gathered around an extraordinary meal is a meaningful gift, particularly when everyone can partake with gusto and without worry. Here’s an elegant, allergy-friendly menu filled with mouthwatering, sweet and savory flavors that’s easy to prepare. The secret to success is a bit of early preparation. The rest is a piece of cake.
Departments
Life Story
Actress Leslie Bibb
Leslie Bibb is one busy lady these days. Besides a key role in this past summer’s movie, Zookeeper, the Virginia native now stars in ABC’s new comedy-drama sitcom, Good Christian Belles. The 36-year-old actress has had a lot to smile about ever since winning a modeling contest at age 16 on The Oprah Winfrey Show. When it comes to her health, the stunning, statuesque blonde is dedicated and disciplined. Here, she discusses the changes surrounding removing gluten from her diet.
So Good
Allergy-Friendly Holiday Pies
If you’re a little pie-phobic, especially when it comes to transforming a pie into its gluten-free, dairy-free cousin, take heart. I’ve made many discoveries about pie making over the years and the biggest is that it’s not difficult. The most challenging aspect is not lack of gluten (or dairy or eggs), but lack of confidence. Confidence comes from success—and I think you’ll find that here.
Allergy-Friendly Tapas Buffet
Subscribers OnlyDo food sensitivities have you viewing the holiday buffet table from a safe distance? It’s true that standard buffets can harbor hidden ingredients and contamination risks, turning food-allergic partygoers into party poopers—or worse. These tantalizing tapas are easy to prepare and can be made several days ahead. Even better, they’re delicious and safe for those with special dietary needs—healthy choices in a season that’s notoriously full of calories, fat and sugar.
House Call
Pediatric Allergies Q & A - Peanut Allergy, Heat-lable Proteins, & Mustard Seed Allergy
My 8-year-old child is very allergic to peanuts. Is he old enough to carry an EpiPen? Dr. Leo - It depends. Some parents train their youngster from a very early age to wear a little backpack or fanny pack (to carry epinephrine) whenever he or she leaves the house. The child grows up accustomed to this idea and sees it as part of everyday life. Other parents don’t give that job to their child until they perceive he or she is old enough to handle it responsibly.
Research Roundup: Milk Allergy, Food Allergens, Celiac Disease and More!
In the new study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 65 children who had no reaction to consuming milk baked in a muffin were then gradually exposed to progressively less-heated forms of milk, such as cheese pizza. By the end of the five-year study, 47 percent of children who ate baked milk products were able to tolerate unheated milk (cold skim milk, yogurt and ice cream) versus just 22 percent of children in the comparison group. The team plans to continue its research to determine how best to apply results in a clinical setting. Researchers are also curious if a more rapid introduction of less-heated forms of baked milk would result in even faster tolerance of unheated milk and if findings could be extrapolated to egg allergy.
Try it
Living Without's Favorites: How to Wow
Want to spice up the holidays? Here’s a creative, allergy-friendly way to boost taste and expand your cooking repertoire. Thai Kitchen introduces five new items for your spice cabinet: Lemongrass, Thai Bird Eye Chilies, Thai Basil, Galangal and Kaffir Lime Leaves.
Living Without's Favorites: Cozy Comfort
Dr. McDougalls’ Right Foods introduces eight gluten-free soups to keep you warm and satisfied this winter. Thick and savory, these ready-to-serve soups come in boxes you can conveniently tote to school or the office—or keep stocked in your pantry—for a complete meal in minutes. Gluten-free, dairy-free and low in calories, these vegan soups reflect Dr. John McDougall’s dietary philosophy of eating wholesome foods for a lifetime of wellness.
Living Without's Favorites: Delizioso!
If you’ve never tasted genuine, old-fashioned Italian salame, you’re in for a treat. San Francisco’s Columbus Foods uses natural aged pork, delicate seasonings and a technique handed down generations to produce artisan salame so authentic, you’ll think you’re in Italy. This Old Country-style salame has no gluten, MSG or trans fat.
Living Without's Favorites: Eat Your Veggies
The Marvelous Food Company, an enterprise launched by a San Antonio mom and dad with two food-allergic, ADHD kids, makes cookies and mini-muffins called Delicious Delights. These baked goods do not contain gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, fish, corn, yeast, artificial dyes, colors or artificial preservatives. What they do contain are fruits and vegetables—bananas, avocadoes, carrots, spinach.
Read it
Living Without's Favorite Books: Gluten-Free Makeovers
Are you missing your favorite foods? You’re in luck. Living Without food editor Beth Hillson has a new cookbook that converts family recipes into gluten-free goodness. Gluten-Free Makeovers (DaCapo Life Long) takes you on a culinary journey that’s as delicious as it is essential. Reformulating over 175 recipes that range from traditional dishes to contemporary cuisine, this cookbook gives you an understanding of what makes a recipe work.
Living Without's Favorite Books: Merry and Bright
Subscribers OnlyJust in time for the holidays, Carmel Nelson and Amra Ibrisimovic introduce The Food Allergy Cookbook, A Guide to Living with Allergies and Entertaining with Healthy, Delicious Meals (Skyhorse Publishing). The authors, who have food allergies themselves, use their personal experience to help you navigate the festivities while offering tasty recipes made without gluten, dairy, soy, corn, shellfish or nuts.
Living Without's Favorite Books: On the Light Side
Are you gluten free and need help with all the calories and fat? Here’s the answer: The Cooking Light Gluten-Free Cookbook, Simple Food Solutions for Everyday Meals (Oxmoor House). This cookbook’s 150-plus easy recipes for the gluten intolerant are lightened up a bit to help you ward off clogged arteries and unwanted weight gain. Recipes for beloved entrees (spaghetti and meatballs, oven-fried chicken, pizza, lasagna), as well as appetizers, breads, desserts and more, are presented in healthier, lower-fat versions of themselves.
Living Without's Favorite Book: Short of Time?
If you want to make something quick, good and gluten free, check out Roben Ryberg’s Gluten-Free in Five Minutes (DaCapo Life Long). Ryberg’s “rapid recipes” for breads, cakes, muffins and more are for one or two servings and are cooked in a microwave with a simple shortlist of equipment—usually a spoon, mixing bowl and straight-sided glass ramekin.
Food for Thought
Cheating in College
Celiacs need to understand that the disease has far greater consequences than an unsettled stomach. The fact is that failing to stringently adhere to a gluten-free diet destroys intestinal villi and leads to things like osteoporosis, other autoimmune diseases and cancer. These greater consequences need to be articulated to every newly diagnosed person. The same thing goes for the risks to one’s fertility. Celiacs should be told that a piece of cake every month might cost them the ability to have children. I try to explain this to my peers when I see them cheat but it needs to come from a doctor.