Chelsea Clinton speaking during a campaign stop for her mother in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 2008. Courtesy: Wikipedia

Former First Daughter has gluten allergy; bakery not disclosed.

At her July 31 wedding, Chelsea Clinton plans to have her cake and eat it too—as long as it’s gluten-free. The daughter of Former President Bill Clinton and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is allergic to gluten, so wedding plans call for a gluten-free confection, according to AisleDash: Read More »

Copper usually receives little coverage, but this unpretentious nutrient deserves center stage.  It is time for a serious role review.

Here are two reasons: First, deficiency of this trace mineral can debilitate and threaten our lives, and second, deficiency develops with increased frequency in those of us with celiac disease, unlike the general population.

Copper plays a critical role in the formation of a variety of proteins and enzymes involved in functions that keep us alive. Consequently, many disorders caused by copper deficiency stem from failure to adequately produce or release copper proteins and enzymes. Read More »

In the summer of 2008 when the term “gluten” first entered my realm of awareness, I was enjoying a lifetime of excellent health except for the occasional cold or flu.  In the summer of 2009 I was devastated to be diagnosed with a chronic and progressive kidney disease called Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (or simply, FSGS) w/nephrotic syndrome.  Like celiac disease, FSGS is an inflammatory disease, enflaming and scarring the glomeruli, or filtering system, of the kidneys.  It was also that summer that I discovered that eliminating gluten from my diet put my disease into spontaneous, full remission, an extremely rare occurrence.  I am on no medication, and have better health than ever before.  Because of my fortune of getting my life back in short order, I want to share my experience with others so that others can be aware that eating gluten free does not only benefit those with celiac disease. 

How did I get so lucky to go from health to serious illness back to health in a short period of time? Read More »

Description

Cooking the meatloaf in a skillet rather than in the oven means your kitchen stays cool and you’ll have a rich, tasty sauce. The addition of nutrient, fiber-rich rice bran and flax take the place of breadcrumbs, keeping the meat moist and soft.

Ingredients

1 pound ground meat  (meatloaf mix of part beef, pork, and veal or beef chuck or turkey)  

1 egg

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

2 tablespoons Romano cheese or other hard cheese

1 tablespoon flaxseed meal

3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 cup leeks or onions, chopped

2 tablespoons rice bran

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 to 2 cups white mushrooms, sliced (optional)

2 tablespoons tomato sauce in 1 cup water 

4 medium potatoes with eyes removed, scrubbed and cut into 1 inch cubes

16 baby carrots halved or 4 carrots scrubbed and quartered into 16 pieces

2 tablespoons cornstarch or rice flour mixed in 1 1/2 cup water

Equipment

Large skillet with  sloping sides to allow flipping the loaf, and lid.

Process

Heat electric skillet to 250 degrees, or if using a regular skillet, use medium heat.

Into a medium bowl, add egg, parsley, salt, pepper, rice bran, flaxseed meal, leeks or onions, 3 T tomato sauce and cheese.  Mix ingredients with your hands.

Add meat, mix well with your hands (good to use thin plastic disposable gloves) and form a flat oval shape 2 inches thick.  Drizzle olive oil around center of skillet then place meat loaf in center of skillet.

Slowly brown loaf for 15 minutes.  Using a large spatula, carefully flip and brown other side 10 minutes.  Add mushrooms after turning meat, and sauté  till golden brown, stirring occasionally.  Add combined 2 T tomato sauce to 1 cup of water and add to skillet.  Add potatoes and carrots and cook til tender, about 10 minutes.

At this point you could make a non-starchy side vegetable such as broccoli, kale, green beans, or squash.  Applesauce or a salad also would go well.

Remove meatloaf and vegetables to heated platter.  Stir cornstarch mixture into pan drippings and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes.  Adjust salt and pepper to taste.  Pass the gravy. Serves 4.

When Apple Dumplings are baking, their unmistakable aroma fills the air. Much more satisfying than apple pie, everyone is sure to appreciate them.

Ingredients

• Pastry for 2 pie shells (see below)
• 6 medium tart apples (Jonathon, Pink Lady, Winesap, Granny)
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 2/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 6 tablespoons fructose or honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons butter (optional)

Ingredients for syrup

• 2 cups apple juice
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Equipment

• 13x9x2 inch glass baking dish.

Process

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Lightly grease bottom of baking dish.
2. Make the syrup: in a medium pot, mix together the apple juice, honey, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and clove.  Bring to boil, then turn down to low and cook 3 minutes.  Set aside.
3. Prepare the pastry dough, or see below for our recipe. Divide pastry into 6 balls, then chill.
4. Pare and core apples.  Mix together raisins, nuts, fructose or honey, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Evenly fill apples with this mixture and add a half teaspoon of butter. 
5. Make the dumplings.  One at a time, roll each pastry ball between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to form an 8 inch circle.  Remove the top piece of plastic and place an apple in the center of the circle.  Bring the edges of the pastry to the top of the apple to enclose it, then press to seal.   Peel away the bottom piece of plastic.  Repeat with the remaining 5 apples. Space the dumplings evenly in the baking dish and pour the syrup over each one. 
6. Bake 40 minutes or until crust is golden and syrup has lightly carmelized or thickened. 

Pie pastry from our recipe file:

• 1 1/4 cup white rice flour
• 1/4 cup GF millet four or sorghum flour
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening
• 2 large eggs, beaten

Blend dry ingredients – flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt.  With a pastry blender, mix in the shortening till it resembles coarse meal.  Lightly mix in the beaten eggs just until the dough pulls together. Makes 6 dumplings.

They have a pleasing aroma, brown color, and a hearty bite. Buckwheat is famously healthy, strengthening blood vessels and supplying essential vitamins and minerals. Note: buckwheat is not a grain or a member of the wheat family. Rather, it is the seed of a vegetable and belonging to the rhubarb family. Early settlers named these nourishing, native seeds ‘buckwheat’ because they could be used like wheat when ground into flour.

Ingredients

• 1 cup GF buckwheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
• 1 scant teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon fructose
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of milk or substitute, such as rice milk or soy milk
• 3 tablespoons oil (safflower, corn, olive, canola)
• 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Equipment

• A medium bowl.
• 1 griddle or large, metal skillet.  Unless it’s non-stick, your griddle or skillet should be rubbed with a small piece of paper towel dipped in cooking oil when the pan is warming, but not yet hot.  This procedure removes any film that would cause the pancakes to stick.

Process

1. Preheat the griddle or skillet to 375 if electric, otherwise on medium high heat. Grease lightly with oil. Pan is ready when a small drop of water sizzles and disappears almost immediately.
2. Mix dry ingredients together.  Mix eggs, milk and oil then add to the dry ingredients and mix.
3. Pour 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake onto hot surface.
4. Cook about 1 1/2 minutes or until the edges are cooked and bubbles form on the pancake surface. Flip, and cook the other side another 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with maple syrup, honey or fruit spread.
Freezes up to 2 months.
Microwave 20 seconds each to reheat or place in a toaster oven.

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2010) — Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have identified the three protein fragments that make gluten — the main protein in wheat, rye and barley — toxic to people with coeliac disease.

Professor Bob Anderson from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, has identified the three protein fragments that make gluten -- the main protein in wheat, rye and barley -- toxic to people with celiac disease. (Credit: Czesia Markiewicz, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute)

Their discovery opens the way for a new generation of diagnostics, treatments, prevention strategies and food tests for the millions of people worldwide with coeliac disease.

When people with coeliac disease eat products containing gluten their body’s immune response is switched on and the lining of the small intestine is damaged, hampering their ability to absorb nutrients. The disease is currently treated by permanently removing gluten from the patient’s diet.

Dr Bob Anderson, head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s coeliac disease research laboratory, said it had been 60 years since gluten was discovered to be the environmental cause of coeliac disease.

“In the years since, the holy grail in coeliac disease research has been to identify the toxic peptide components of gluten; and that’s what we’ve done,” Dr Anderson said.

The research, done in collaboration with Dr Jason Tye-Din, Dr James Dromey, Dr Stuart Mannering, Dr Jessica Stewart and Dr Tim Beissbarth from the institute as well as Professor Jamie Rossjohn at Monash University and Professor Jim McCluskey at the University of Melbourne, is published in the journalScience Translational Medicine.

Dr. Bob Anderson & John Libonati at an NFCA-sponsored event April 30, 2009 in Philadelphia, USA where Dr. Anderson described his research and vaccine.

The study was started by Professor Anderson nine years ago and has involved researchers in Australia and the UK as well as more than 200 coeliac disease patients.

The patients, recruited through the Coeliac Society of Victoria and the Coeliac Clinic at John Radcliffe Hospital, UK, ate bread, rye muffins or boiled barley. Six days later, blood samples were taken to measure the strength of the patients’ immune responses to 2700 different gluten fragments. The responses identified 90 fragments as causing some level of immune reaction, but three gluten fragments (peptides) were revealed as being particularly toxic.

“These three components account for the majority of the immune response to gluten that is observed in people with coeliac disease,” Dr Anderson said. Read More »

Colon cancer starts with colon polyps. Polyps are growths in the inner lining of your colon walls. They are formed when the inner lining is irritated or attacked by fecal matter toxins. When you have colon polyps, you dramatically increase your risk of getting colon cancer.

To prevent getting colon cancer you need to prevent getting polyps. If you have polyps then you need to prevent them from becoming cancerous.

Here are some ideas that you can use in preventing colon cancer whether you have or do not have polyps. Read More »

As baby boomers segue from child-rearing to retirement, they find themselves bombarded by the media with information about osteoporosis. It makes sense, considering that more than 44 million American men and women age 50 and older have osteoporosis or its precursor, osteopenia. So between news articles about calcium and vitamin D, Sally Field promoting the drug Boniva on TV commercials and the now-ubiquitous term “weight-bearing exercise,” we are all hearing a great deal about this epidemic.

Yet controversy abounds, with new findings questioning the benefits of calcium as well as the risks versus benefits of osteoporosis medications. The conflicting information is enough to overwhelm even the most media-savvy consumer. But the one continuously advocated method of addressing the condition is exercise. Not only does exercise help to maintain and build strong bones, but it can improve balance and reflexes and thereby prevent falls, the most dangerous threat to those with fragile bones. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, 60 percent of those who fracture a hip still cannot walk independently a year later. Clearly, the goal should be to stay strong, agile and upright. Read More »

Larabars are simple, quick bars that are great to grab for any on-the-go lifestyle.  Larabars are made from unsweetened fruit, nuts and spices.  It doesn’t get any simpler than that.  They are gluten-free, vegan, kosher and non-gmo. 

This spring Larabar introduced 4 new flavors to their line: Carrot Cake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Chocolate Chip Brownie.  The ingredients in each are as follows: Read More »