Day 11: Olive Oil

I thought about this item long and hard on Saturday...and then didn't get around to posting it. Ah well!

I don't like olives. And I much prefer corn oil for cooking. But that being said, olive oil certainly has its place, especially in Italian dishes. For me it seems to make more "taste sense". I often use it when making pizza or pasta recipes.

I am always envious of my fellow diners when I go to a nice, often Italian restaurant and they provide a basket of bread and olive oil. I've never successfully remembered to bring my own bread in advance.

Only one time did I go to a gluten-free friendly restaurant (prior to the yeast diagnosis) in New York City, that had gluten-free bread that I could use. They warmed it in the back and brought it out and felt a bit like a queen. It was heavenly.

And because I only visit NYC once every 2-3 years, I can't tell you the name of the restaurant. I wish I remembered it. Actually, I may be able to find it online (you can find everything on line these days).

[pause while katie goes searching]

No luck for sure. It could have been Sambuca (http://sambucanyc.com/), but I wouldn't swear by that. They do have a gluten-free menu and it is a nice Italian restaurant.

In searching for my gf olive oil dipping source, I found a great resource: the Celiac Handbook blog. http://www.celiachandbook.com/newyork.html It's got a great list of GF restaurant options in New York city.

SITESEEING: Rice Crust Pizza on AICR

The American Institute for Cancer Research has an intriguing recipe for pizza up on its site today: http://www.aicr.org/site/News2?abbr=pr_hf_&page=NewsArticle&id=16681&news_iv_ctrl=1088. (The AICR is, in its own words, "the cancer charity that fosters research on the relationship of nutrition, physical activity and weight management to cancer risk, interprets the scientific literature and educates the public about the results.")

I find it intriguing because the recipe doesn't use rice flour, but actual rice. Strike everything I'm allergic to and there's a chance I may have found a decent pizza crust recipe. If nothing else, this gives me hope for something to look into!

The whole article is definitely worth reading.

A Place for Allergies

I think this is where I'll keep my recipes and experiences updated. Fun!

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So above this line was my first blog post. But about two weeks into I realized that nowhere did I explain all of my allergies. It seems crazy to list them in my profile--it would take up all of the characters!

Therefore I decided to update post one to reflect my diets & allergies. Whee!

- Diagnosed Celiac Sprue in 2004
Celiac Disease or Celiac Sprue is a genetic immune disorder whereby gluten, the protein found in wheat, barely, rye, splet, kamut, and others, gets "stuck" in the wall of your small intestines. Your body then attacks the gluten and, consequently, your small intestines to destroy the horrid interloper. Of course, all it really does is destroy itself in the process.

Probably triggered in 2000 by surgery, celiac disease has been on my father's side for at least three generations. I was the first one diagnosed. They could never figure out what was wrong with my grandmother. My father is, thankfully, still with us so I was able to help make his life easier by discovering the gluten issue.

- Additional food allergies/intolerances
In the ensuing years between celiac diagnosis and last september, I slowly kept getting more food added to my avoid or only-in-teeny-tiny-bits list. This included:

• Dairy
• Legumes (yes, that's all beans and peas INCLUDING soy)
• Yeast
• Garlic with its other family members on the only-in-teeny-tiny-bits
• Cranberries & blueberries & other family members
• Anything highly acidic like citrus fruits, tomatoes, and vinegar (only-in-teeny-tiny-bits)

- Thyroid cancer diagnosis in Sept.08
I had my thyroid removed and my body went haywire. Turns out your thyroid does A LOT of things. As I was recovering, I was learning to avoid nightshades, walnuts, cottonseed oil, and other things that keep popping up that affect the thyroid meds.

And then comes Candidiasis.

It's well-nigh impossible to follow an anti-candida diet and do anything else with your life. I've been trying and will continue to try. But after making myself completely miserable, I decided that I would ween myself onto the diet at a nice slow pace. This will get me used to my new extreme limitations bit by bit.

An anti-candida diet means:

• No sugar of any kind: artificial or natural. No fructose, sucrose, sucralose, cane syrup, corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, molassas, Equal, Nutrasweet, dextrose (often used as an anti-caking agent in table salt--who knew?!?!), and anything of that ilk. Stevia is allowed. Stevia is an acquired taste. Stevia is an acquired taste I have not yet acquired.

• No fruit. This actually belongs with the bullet point above since the reason it's not allowed in the sugar.

• No vinegar. Includes all types of vinegar, such as white vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, and balsamic vinegar, and any food made with vinegage, such as mayonnaise, commercial salad dressing, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, steak sauce, BBQ sauce, shrimp sauce, soy sauce, mustard, pickles, pickled vegetables, green olives, relishes, horseradish, mincemeat, and chili sauce. Mostly this just means a lot of options to flavor food are off the table.

• No peanuts, peanut butter, pistachios, or dried herbs due to mold contamination concerns.

• No coffee (caffeinated or decaffeinated), black tea, cider, or root beer. Cider, root beer, and other fermented beverages are also typically eliminated.

• No aged, moldy and/or processed cheeses. As it is, my choice cheeses tend towards mozzarella and cheedar and that's about it so most of this category doesn't concern me. Still, for posterity: Roquefort and other aged, moldy or blue cheeses are not allowed on a typical Candida diet. Also eliminated are processed cheese such as cheese slices, Velveeta, Cheese Whiz, cream cheese, cheese snacks, and Kraft dinner.

• No processed, dried, smoked, or pickled meats including sausages, bacon, hot dogs, pastrami, bologna, sandwich meats, salami, and corned beef.

• No packaged, processed, or refined foods. This is seems so vague, but it means that canned, bottled, packaged, boxed, and other processed foods containing yeast, refined sugar, refined flour, chemicals, preservatives, or food coloring should be avoided.
  

I'm already avoiding these items, but they are also prohibited on the anti-candida diet:
Alcohol
Gluten
Yeast

There are tons of other things to avoid that I can't even remember or find online at this moment. The anti-candida blog has a good entry here for more detail: http://www.candidablog.com/get-rid-of-candida-once-and-for-all-the-diet/.

It's rough, but I'm going to push on and try to find food to eat!