Gluten Free is not healthy? Blasphemy –you must think someone has hijacked my blog, but it’s true. Just because a food is gluten free does not mean it is healthy.

Sadly, the recent popularity of “gluten free” has many thinking that if they eliminate gluten, they are on a healthy diet.  As Michael Pollan wrote last year in the New York Times Magazine, “Gluten has become the bad nutrient of the moment.”

I think it’s time for those of us in the gluten free blogoshpere to admit that villainizing one ingredient is not enough when it comes to eating well.

With all of the hype surrounding gluten free, no one mentions the dirty little secret of the Standard Gluten Free Diet. Few realize that when it comes to gluten free baked goods such as bread, snacks, and desserts, gluten free food is not as nutritious as “regular” food. That’s because gluten free goods are generally made with ingredients such as rice, corn, potatoes, sorghum, tapioca and millet, which are higher in carbohydrates and lower in protein and other nutrients than wheat flour. Sad, but true. The typical gluten free ingredients that are used in place of wheat are less nutritious than wheat itself.

The gluten free diet is a very specific requirement for very specific people –those with celiac, gluten intolerance or gluten sensitivity. People with these conditions have to eliminate gluten from their diets to make sure their body doesn’t deteriorate. Let’s remember though, that doing so doesn’t actually speak to eating the diet and consuming the foods that allow your body to thrive. Those are two separate things. Therefore, the millions of Americans jumping on the gluten free bandwagon, who believe that eliminating one ingredient is a quick fix are short changing themselves.

If you have any of the above conditions (and it’s a good idea to go to a doctor and get tested if you think you might) remove gluten from your diet.  For that matter, if something makes you feel sick, get it out of your diet! However, if you think eliminating one food gives you a free pass to eat processed gluten free goods made from rice, corn, etc., and that this will make you healthy, guess again.

The best path to wellness is a well rounded diet which includes many foods –it is far more work than simply bastardizing one ingredient, such as gluten.

What does eating healthy entail? Consuming a diverse array of nutrient dense foods every day; day after day. When I was a little girl, my Dad told me to eat the rainbow. So I’m staying away from fad diets and sticking with Dad’s advice. I have to agree with him, eating close to the earth is, and always has been, the way to go.

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I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006. At that time I knew nothing about MS and thought I was going to die very soon as I imagined the disease was terminal. My children, now in their teens, were in 1st and 2nd grade; I would lie in bed with them at night thinking that I wouldn’t live to see their high school graduation. Forget about seeing them get married and have children of their own.

Thankfully, my husband quickly dispelled me of the notion that the majority of people with MS die a premature death. Still, the diagnosis was absolutely shocking. All I could picture was the worst, that in a short amount of time I would be an invalid with my husband taking care of me. I was not happy about this picture.

Now, I’m doing better. Over New Year’s weekend my husband and I hiked Vail Mountain, a 2,000 foot vertical climb at high altitude (we reached 10,000 feet). When I was freaking out about my initial MS diagnosis I didn’t picture myself hiking up mountains with my uber-fit husband. How did I get up those mountains?

I designed this MS healing plan myself and chose action items that I felt would give me a very high return on investment (ROI). However, many of the above commitments were radical shifts to my life paradigm, I did not always embrace this change, nor was it easy for me.

As I learned through this process, rebuilding one’s health is one of the greatest challenges life presents. If you make such a choice, be forewarned that it could be very unpleasant and that you may find yourself resisting the very change you seek. This is because rebuilding health means interrupting old habits and patterns. You may not want to make the necessary commitments to, and sacrifices for, your health. For example, you might have to give up watching TV everyday in order to walk for an hour. Or, people might be angry with you for protecting your time and setting limits that serve you, not them. These types of challenges await you…along with healing.

Finally, to create the above treatment plan for my MS, I had to slow down enough to listen to myself, to my body and my emotions. I had to figure out what I really wanted, what really served me. Even though the process was unpleasant at times, I reconnected with myself and got to know myself better which became a blessing. Am I done? Not even close. The point of my healing plan is not the plan itself, it is undertaking the process of healing, which for me is the process of listening. This is something I practice every day.

For additional resources on how to deal with an MS diagnosis see:

• Natural Treatments for Multiple Sclerosis
• The Gift of Remission
• Terry Wahls video

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I received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2006. Since then, I am often asked, what is your secret? How do you stay healthy?

The below are 5 of my favorite natural remedies. I believe these strategies may be applicable to anyone with an auto-immune disorder. If this protocol is adhered to religiously, some find improvement in as little as 3 months. For others it may take significantly longer.

These natural treatments for multiple sclerosis may not be the answer for everyone. I am not willing to argue about clinical studies to back up the effectiveness of this array of supplements, diet and off label drugs. The information I am sharing is “anecdotal evidence”–for only one person. This is what works for me.

If you’re looking for additional guidance, here are some great Functional Medicine doctors that are open minded to both conventional medical treatment and alternative strategies:

• Dr. Robert Rountree
• Dr. Pierre Brunschwig
• Dr. Frank Lipman

Lastly, I wanted to share this video featuring Terry Wahls, MD that was sent to me by an acupuncturist friend late last fall. In 2003 Dr. Wahls, was diagnosed with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and was so sick she could not even use a regular wheelchair. After removing processed foods, grains and dairy from her diet, she experienced an amazing recovery and is now able to walk, horseback ride and do many other strenuous physical activities.

I wish everyone seeking to improve their health the best of luck. I also want to point out that we are all bio-chemical individuals, so what works for me may not be best for you.

Please, make sure to listen to your own body and trust what it tells you.

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Finding the perfect Christmas gifts for friends and loved ones can be a challenge. Especially if you’ve put off your holiday shopping until now.

Because we celebrate Chanukah it seems like we have far less pressure during the holiday season –though that could simply be the mindset I undertake during the holidays when I try to block out everything I can. Feel free to call me Scrooge, as an HSP, I’m simply trying to make it through this over-stimulating time of year.

Here are some of my favorite things. I did a quick search of my home to look for simple items that add value to everyday life and help conserve time, money and environmental resources. Here you go:

What are you giving as holiday gifts this year? Do you have ideas you’d like to share? What is at the top of your gluten-free, eco-friendly wish list for the holidays?

And by the way, did you boycott Black Friday? Or did you occupy your local mall? Has anyone else noticed that Occupy Wall Street has morphed into Occupy Walmart during this holiday season? Enough with the pepper spray already people!

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Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2011!  After all of the cookies, candy and gifting, I thought it would be nice to talk about walking.  Yup, that’s right, walking.

Sounds kinda silly, doesn’t it?  Walking?  What does that have to do with recipes?  Well, for me, walking has been one of the key recipes to recovering my health.  Just a few years ago, a walk around the block was less exhilarating than exhausting.  Everything was for that matter.

Over the past few years I’ve slowly built up my stamina.  I remember being overjoyed one day when I was emptying the dishwasher and found that the process did not induce fatigue, relief surging through my veins, that I could again perform the most simple of chores without feeling tired!

The secret?  Walking.  I walked everyday.  I started out just walking for 10 minutes once per day.  Then, a few months later, I added in an additional 5 minute walk.  Three months after that, I was walking 10 minutes twice a day.  A couple of years later, I am now at the point where I can walk for more than an hour straight and feel great afterward.

Walking to me is like gardening.  I walk almost the same path everyday, taking in the changes in various trees, bushes and flowers around me.  I mentally garden my way through my neighborhood.  It’s oh so peaceful and calming and just one more way that I stay in touch with the outdoors and the seasons.

Walking is free.  Walking is healthy.  Walking is anti-inflammatory (that’s right, it ultimately decreases inflammation in the body, according to my Dad).  Walking calms my mind.  Walking allows emptiness to fill me as I move through something much bigger than myself –the world, mother nature.

So, if you’re looking for another New Year’s resolution, here’s one you just might try.  It’s free –in so many ways.  It’s walking.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?  Leave a comment and let’s have a conversation about healthy living to kick off 2011.

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When Ali at Whole Life Kitchen told me she was hosting this month’s Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten-Free: Ideas for Packing a Healthy School Lunch, I knew I would want to participate in this blogging fête.  Healthy food for children is a passion of mine.  And I’m a big fan of Naomi Devlin’s blogging carnival, Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free!

Further, I was super inspired by Ali’s lunch packing chart and printed it out a moment after I saw it –what a resource!  The chart went up on the fridge and my children were subsequently smitten as well.

The lunch that I have prepared for this blogging festival is simple and easy to make; a sandwich, fruit, veggie sticks and power bar.  I like to keep things simple as the boys are responsible for packing their vitals every day before dinner (for the following day’s lunch).  They make the grub, then I inspect the results, before the lunch is put into the fridge.

Here’s my favorite lunch menu (I have another one that was recently published by Parents Magazine.)

In freebie news, I am giving away a copy of Ali’s book, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, which I highly recommend.  Ali is a personal chef, author and formerly owned a personal chef business.  Her gluten free recipes are wholesome and delicious.  To win a copy of her book, leave a comment below letting us all know what your favorite lunch was as a child.

Update: this giveaway is now over and the winner was Alejandra!

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For me, diet is a four letter word, I doubt you’ll find it very often on this website.  I don’t spend a lot of time discussing gluten free around here either.  That’s because I take it as a given that the food I eat will be gluten free, that’s just part of my life at this point, though it wasn’t always this way.

Lately, a number of people have asked me to share the story of my celiac diagnosis and personal transition to a gluten free eating plan and lifestyle.  So here it is.

I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 1998 during my pregnancy (not uncommon since pregnancy is considered an immune event and celiac is an auto-immune disorder) with my older son.  I was 30 years old and sick as a dog –I could barely get out of bed –no exaggeration.  Things were very, very bad.  My father suggested that I get tested for celiac disease.  My mother had been sick for most of her adult life with various odd symptoms and had been recently diagnosed.  I was tested and low and behold, yes, I had celiac disease.

Unlike the usual process, where it can take people as many as 9 years and numerous doctors to get a diagnosis and find out what’s going on, my diagnosis came only a few months after the onset of acute symptoms.  In that way, I was very lucky.  However, when I look back, I had been having classic symptoms of celiac disease and malabsorption for most of my life.

What were these symptoms?  I was chronically anemic and whenever I was under stress would get angular chelitis, which is when the corners of your mouth crack and get a little rash.  This is also a symptom of nutritional deficiency.  So, maybe my diagnosis wasn’t so quick after all.  I had to get to the point of being severely ill and bedridden to finally get the diagnosis.  Still, I think I was lucky to get it so quickly once that did happen.

As many of you know, celiac disease is a genetic disorder –it runs in families and it has hit my family quite hard.  Not only do my mother and I have celiac, my sister and older son have it as well.  Incidentally, my mother-in-law also has celiac.  So, as you can imagine, the work that I do in creating gluten free recipes is very personal for me.

Anyway, when I received my diagnosis I was tremendously relieved.  I finally knew what was going on with my body.  I had already had a 3 year training in Ayurveda which included yoga asana, herbs and food, so I was fairly comfortable in the kitchen.  That doesn’t mean I could actually make tasty food –my husband disliked my Ayurvedic fare with a passion!  He was not a big fan of kichidi, or kichari, as some refer to it.

Of course after the diagnosis I went completely gluten free.  As I mentioned, the diagnosis wasn’t a big deal for me.  I cooked very simple gluten free foods –vegetables, quite a lot of grains and some proteins.  A few months later, I spent a lot of my time making baby food too, once my son finished nursing around a year old.

When that same son turned 3, I started to notice some digestive and behavioral issues in him.  I fed him a gluten free diet during the week; however, during the weekends, he went to birthday parties, and the food served at those parties was pizza and cake (gluten galore).  Let’s just say that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were full of tantrums and mal-digestion.

I asked my son’s fabulous pediatrician (Mark Nesselson, he’s still in practice in NYC), to test my son for celiac and the test came back positive.

This diagnosis had quite an impact on me.

I wanted my son to grow up with all of the delicious treats that I had had in my childhood.  So, I made it my mission to turn all of my favorite recipes into gluten free classics.  For myself, all I really cared about was getting healthy.  For my son, this was a social issue and one that I did not want to color his childhood and experience of food.  Of course it did, though hopefully not in a bad way.

This site and my book, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, are the result of my passion for providing my son with delicious gluten free food.  It’s been quite a journey and one that has really had a positive impact on my family.

It took a long time though, to heal my gut and my son’s as well.  Like some of you out there, the standard gluten free diet didn’t really do much for my son or myself.  Probably a lot of you are here for that exact reason.  Regular, plain old gluten free doesn’t always work.  There can be other food allergies (such as dairy) and issues of chronic malabsorption.

My search for better health lead me to research, lots of research, and my son and I ended up on the introductory phase of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.  We stayed on that (the intro phase) for about a year.

If you don’t know what that is, let’s just say that we didn’t eat sweets for quite some time, and when I say sweets, I’m talking about fruit, dessert, etc.  This was a huge challenge, though it really worked for us.  My son is now merely gluten free, which for him is fairly easy compared to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet introductory phase.

I personally am fairly Paleo, I find that works really well for my body since I cannot digest any grains whatsoever.  I’ve been grain free for more than 9 years now.

Is there a one size fits all solution when it comes to diet and healing?  I don’t think so.  I believe we are all different, in fact, completely different bio-chemical individuals.  Given that, what works for you?  Do you have a specific eating plan that you follow? Do you eat things that you know will make you feel yucky?  I do.

My biggest challenge these days is dairy.  As you can see from my Month O’ Cupcakes, I like dairy, a lot!  I know that cow dairy probably isn’t the best for me, as when I have some cheese or whipped cream, the next morning when I wake up, my right elbow hurts a bit.  That’s an allergic/addiction that I’m dealing with right now.  Nobody’s perfect!  I also find it challenging to stay on my ideal eating plan when I’m baking tons of desserts for this website or my books.  During those times (which seems like all the time) I knowingly take in more sweets than is best for my body.

So there you have it.  My perfect fare is protein and greens with a little bit of fruit –make that low glycemic fruit such as berries.  When I eat that way, I feel like a million bucks.  Although I have great discipline, I’m also like everyone else.  If it’s there, I’ll eat it –to a point, I still draw the line at many, many foods such as gluten, grains, etc.

What do you like to eat?  How did you find out you had celiac or were gluten intolerant?

I’m certainly going to go into more detail in future posts and provide specific information about how I like to eat and other tools that I have used to help heal myself.  And some of that information might work for you, and some, you might just want to toss out the window!  Take what works and leave the rest behind.  For me, all of life is simply the process of self-discovery and continual refining and adjustment.

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Recently there has been a storm of controversy surrounding agave nectar, an ingredient that I use frequently in my dessert recipes.  This controversy seems to have been kicked up by Dr. Mercola, who is generally ahead of the curve when it comes to medical and dietary information.  I didn’t say he is always right, I did say “ahead of the curve.”

People such as Dr. Mercola often promote things I heartily believe in such as the consumption of fish oils, large doses of vitamin D, sleep, aerobic and non-aerobic exercise, etc.  If you are a proponent of the alternative lifestyle, this stuff is about as controversial as baseball and apple pie.

Alas, I digress.  Back to agave.  I was somewhat surprised by the vehemence of Dr. Mercola’s article that came out against agave.  Both my husband and I read his article, several times over, in order to digest all of the information in it.  He does have some good points that I very much agree with.  However, we were both curious as to why he went on a rampage against agave. While his article also calls out honey as being worse than HFCS…

Use raw, organic honey in moderation or avoid it completely as it is 70 percent fructose

…he stops at one sentence and does not have a full polemic ranting against honey.  Kinda odd.  His article was so vicious (and full of generalizations) that we were actually a little bit suspicious (and this is a guy whose advice I generally enjoy) of his motives.

Let’s start at the beginning.

So there you have it.  Agave is just another form of sugar and sugar causes inflammation.  Back in the day, the old days, that would be, we humans didn’t have access to sugar, let alone fruit, all year long like we do now.  We had some apples in the fall, and maybe some tart blueberries in the summer (unless we lived in the tropics).

We are not designed to eat sweets all year round day in and day out.

Then there is dessert.  I like my dessert.  If you want to follow Mercola’s advice, don’t eat dessert.  Or have an apple for your dessert –and goodness gracious, don’t dare to have anything more or sweeter than one large apple the entire day.

Now don’t get me wrong.  When I am feeling weaker and need to heal, I give up agave, along with every other sweetener there is and I also give up fruit.  Entirely.  This is not easy in our sugar shocked culture.  This type of eating plan –lean protein and green vegetables has helped me through just about every healing crisis I’ve ever had.  I’ve gone without agave for months, at certain points, and fruit too.  This plan works well for me and I drink a lot of green juices when I do it.  It’s kind of my own Paleo plan.

My family however, is surrounded by a world of sugar.  Sugary cakes and cookies served to the boys at school.  Teachers who give them candy for answering a question correctly (yes, I wanted to start a protest at the school over this one).

I find that making treats sweetened with agave that use high protein almond flour (I have an entire book of those called The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook) is a fabulous compromise when it comes to the wide world of desserts.  However, Dr. Mercola does not want you to compromise.  He wants you to eat no more than one apple a day for your total fructose consumption and calls for the use of stevia “in moderation.”

That’s a little extreme for me.  So I’m choosing balance.  And no, I don’t think that agave can be compared to anti-freeze (as Mercola states).  I frankly think he’s a little over the top when it comes to most of that article.  Then again, in all movements, political, healthy food, etc. we need all the points of view and they all have a place within the movement.  So, thanks Dr. Mercola for your perspective.  I’m going to try different sweeteners out on my own body and see which ones suit me best.

Yes, agave does sometimes have a higher percentage of fructose than other sweeteners.  However, those mangoes also have more fructose than an apple.

No, I’m not going to go into how fructose is metabolized by the liver and how it can raise your triglycerides to unhealthy levels –by the way, I have my triglycerides tested twice per year and they are off the charts low.

If you don’t like agave, don’t use it.  We are all bio-chemical individuals and different things work differently for all of us.

If you don’t like seeing agave in my recipes, then find something that works for you.  And leave a comment or start a topic in the forums and let us know what, and how much you used in its place.

So now you know.  Buy good agave from a source you know.  I try to know the source of all of my food.  Maybe do a little research and find an agave company you like.  Or not.

Have a good day, and please, let’s drop the agave focus before it becomes a fetish.  There’s plenty of good stuff to eat out there, let’s focus on that.

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One of my projects this year has been getting “Operation Hen House” up and running. With the completion of our house for the hens in the side yard and the screened in chicken run attached to it, we became the proud “parents” of 5 teenage chickens. They have not yet begun to lay.

All credit for Operation Hen House, goes to the amazing Patrick, who built the house and its accompanying screened in yard and helped me with a bunch of other parts of this project. Patrick is the consummate farmer and builder and my family quickly fell in love with him. The boys helped him to paint the poles of the chicken run and he included them in a number of other (construction) aspects as well.

Having chickens is pretty cool. I feed them little scraps through the chicken wire quite often (their main feeder is in the hen house). They now follow me along the side yard whenever I walk through it hoping I will bestow scraps upon them. We now have 2 separate compost buckets in the kitchen, one for animal food (don’t forget the bunnies) and one for compost waste to go in our compost pile.

The other day as I was out in the garden pulling weeds and trimming overgrown greens, my husband came out to chat with me. “It’s like we live on a farm!” I exclaimed.

“No,” he retorted, “it’s not like we live on a farm, we DO live on a farm.”

Well, just to give you an idea of what it’s like over here….we live about a 10 minute walk from downtown Boulder in a lovely tree lined neighborhood where the houses are very close together. There is not a lot of space. The house takes up most of our yard, however, I do not let that deter me, I just squeeze in everything I can. We have kale where all the flowers used to be, chickens in the side yard and bunnies living inside with us. All of this on less than 1/10th of an acre.

Stay tuned for more gardening, composting, chicken rearing urban farm fun! In the meantime, head on over to Nourishing Days and their blog carnival Food Roots to see what others are sharing in regards to where their food comes from.

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I’ve spent quite a bit of time lately on Facebook and Twitter talking about the various aspects of my home.  This includes tidbits ranging from chickens to children and everything in between.  I’ll start with children, and my two favorite subjects in the entire world –my sons.

Last night the boys and I had breakfast for dinner.  Each of us made our own omelet.  Eggs are a great place to start when it comes to cooking with children.

I’ve had the boys in the kitchen since they were babies and put them to work at an early age.  My older son used to use his pudgy little 2 year old fingers to pick tiny leaves off thyme stems for me; my younger son has been cracking eggs since he was 3.

Each of the boys has their own special knife which they use for chopping, and I have spent quite a bit of time with each one showing them how to properly hold and use a knife –knife safety is of utmost importance for both children and adults.

Last night my younger son made an omelet with onions, kale and cheddar cheese, while my older son opted to make a “sweet” omelet.  It is so much fun to watch the boys cook and move around the kitchens with them.  After all these years they are kinda pros!

In addition to enjoying spending time with them doing something I love, it is wonderful to watch them take so much pride in their cooking.  They concentrate, are careful and manage to have fun in the process.

Many of my above thoughts about cooking with children are due to a recent interview I had with a lovely site called cafemom.com.  I am very happy to be the subject of the site’s “In the Kitchen With…” feature.  If you have a moment hop on over and take a look.  There are quite a few pictures of my kitchen and garden.

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