Soft Pretzels and Doughnuts!!!

Dave and I ventured to a gluten-free food fair in Denver one Saturday last summer where we were treated to gobs of cakes, breads, crackers, and other such gluten-free goodies. One of the ideas that really sold to me was Jules Gluten-Free flour. Rather than buying a $6.00 chocolate cake mix any time I want to make a cake, why not use my grandma's chocolate cake recipe and just substitute the typical all purpose flour for gluten-free flour? Well, normally this is a no-no because you can't just throw in rice flour and expect your cake to actually have the texture of cake, but with the Jules Gluten-Free flour, you can use it in any recipe you want because it is formulated to act like regular all purpose flour!

The next weekend I started experimenting with my new (and pricey) flour after Jules e-mailed me a recipe for soft pretzels. AMAZING!  Try it here: Jules Gluten Free Soft Pretzel Recipe.

My first soft pretzel in years

Okay, so if I can use her flour for one of her recipes and make something that tastes guiltily glutenous, the next test was to see if I could use the flour for a random recipe. Somehow doughnuts came up. Back in the hay-day of eating whatever I pleased, I could easily put back a bag of powder sugar doughnuts or enjoy a Krispy Kreme or two when I was in Milwaukee. I've definitely gone without this treat since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease and I thought I should give it a try with my new flour.

I made doughnuts and doughnut holes and glazed, rather than frosted them.

I found a copy cat recipe for Krispy Kreme-style doughnuts. I cut the recipe in half (something you should always do with caution when baking) and still had enough for about two cookie sheets full of doughnuts. Check out the recipe here:  Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Copy Cat.  Just sub the Jules Gluten Free flour for the flour!  Believe it or not, I don't have doughnut cookie-cutters lying around, so I just used a wide glass and a large shot glass for the doughnut shape.  Also, make sure your yeast is not old!  I tried this at my parents' house and had no success with some yeast I found in the fridge.  This recipe is time consuming, so give yourself a few hours for the whole process while letting the pastry rise a few times.  I started at about 8:00pm and finished just before midnight with this project, so I'm sporting my PJs.  These were delicious!  My mouth is watering just thinking about them!   

Gluten Free Wedding Etiquette and "The G Free Diet" Book Review

The other night I made a pile of books that I may want to bring on vacation with me next week when I ran across "The G Free Diet" by Elisabeth Hasselbeck.  I had planned on writing this same book myself and was annoyed that some chick from The View had beat me to it and had her celebrity behind the whole thing.  I guess I was angry enough to buy the book.  Oops.  I mean, my title could kick her title's butt!  "Life after Lucky Charms" is so much more creative, right?  Anyway, the book has the approval of some Harvard MD, so I'm hoping most of it is legit, but a few comments made me wonder if she's the Jenny McCarthy or Suzanne Somers of Celiac Disease.  By that, I mean an uneducated, emotional celebrity who uses anecdotal evidence instead of science to appeal to other uneducated, emotional people who are desperate for solutions to health issues.  (For more rants on this, tune into "The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe" podcast.)

I'm half way through the book and generally, I think she should not be categorized with those other two moronic celebrities.  Her information is super helpful, seemingly based on science (she admits things are not black and white), and simplified in a way that makes it accessible to people desperate to figure things out after first being diagnosed.

There are a few things that bugged me, though.  Like, telling people to cut gluten as a way to loose weight.  I'm assuming this is just a ploy to sell more books.  There is no way in hell that anyone should be cutting gluten to loose weight.  Gluten substitutes can be filled with unhealthy starches and non-whole-grains.  If you want to loose weight, then stop eating processed food and stop eating out.  I think this is what she's getting at, though, that a side effect of going gluten-free is to be more aware of what you're eating and often results in cooking things at home from whole foods, and therefore, could result in weight loss.   

My second issue is her chapter on trying to survive, socially, with a gluten intolerance.  She says to never RSVP to a wedding and ask the bride to go out of her way to arrange a gluten free meal for you because they really just have too many other details to worry about.  Really?  Am I rude?  I've had three close friends/cousins be super-brides and order me a gluten free meal for their wedding day (Thanks girls!!!).  I'm not sure how much of a hassle it was, but it seems to me, if you're putting in an order with your caterer and you say, "I need 50 chicken dinners, 60 steaks, 10 vegetarian pastas, 20 kids plates, and 3 gluten free options," the worst your caterer can say is "No!"  In this case, I would know ahead of time to go grab pre-dinner before the sit down dinner, which is totally not a big deal, and everyone would be happy.  Then the bride wouldn't have spent Lord-knows how much money on my plate that wouldn't get eaten.  Elisabeth Hasselbeck tells us that she sits by her husband and has him eat half of his meal, then switches plates with her so she doesn't feel rude for not eating the food.  I will agree with her on one thing, though, that it's always a good idea to have back-up food in your purse.  My purse is always stocked with a gluten free granola bar and a fruit bar for low blood sugar emergencies.  

Her solution to a lot of social situations is just to eat before hand.  I used to do this, but I've discovered that it's just as easy to make something awesome yourself to bring to the party so you know there's one thing you can eat.  Sometimes this one thing is a huge hit and I have to fend off others from eating all of it so I can have some!  (I'll be sure to share these recipes with you along the way.)  I'm also lucky because most of my friends have been with me through this whole process and they know what gluten free means.  They're not afraid to say, "Keah, don't try my potato salad 'cause its way contaminated!" or "Keah, this is totally gluten free, so dig in."  I think my friends are particularly good at this because a lot of them are vegetarians and just like they wouldn't appreciate a random piece of steak in their salad, I don't appreciate contaminated food.  They are also healthy, whole food eaters, which really makes most of their food edible to me.  My family, because they live so far away and only have to deal with feeding me twice a year, usually has to ask a lot of questions before knowing if something is gluten free, which is super sweet of them to ask.  My aunt used to make me my own chipped beef spread so we didn't contaminate my favorite spread with rye bread from everyone else! 

Dear Ms. Hasselbeck,

Thanks for stealing my book idea.  I'm sorry I didn't get to it first, but I was too busy writing this thing called a Ph.D. dissertation.  Plus, no one would have published or bought my book, so it's really better that you make the money while I blog for free.

Sincerely, Dr. K. 

I'm curious, what do you think about the wedding situation?  Is it rude to ask for a gluten free meal?  How does the cake situation work with a gluten free bride or groom?

Celiac Disease

Celiac Disease details and symptoms

I left off my personal story of being diagnosed with Celiac disease (Why the gluten free diet?)  telling you I'd get into the details of the disease.  Here's the scoop.
Celieac Disease is... 

• genetic (although no one in my family wanted to get tested, so I'm it)
• chronic (for life!)
• an autoimmune disease (like Type 1 Diabetes, some Thyroid Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohn's disease, and many others, our bodies fight themselves)  If you have one autoimmune disease, you have a good chance of having or developing another.  
• a disease with one treatment:  a gluten free diet

Here's my version of what happens when I eat gluten:  If I were to swallow a piece of gluten filled pizza, it would go into my stomach where it would begin the digestion process.  It would then flow into my small intestine where the small fingers that are attached to the small intestine walls would try to absorb nutrients from my food.  These are called villi.  My body's immune system would say, "Attack!  Attack!  Attention immune system, the small intestine is being attacked by something toxic!  Fight it!"  My own body would then proceed to fight my own villi, causing them to get all messed up, retract, and make my small intestine more like a slip-and-slide than a nutrient absorber.  The next time I eat, my villi aren't there in full form to deal with the food, so it just goes right on through me.  I imagine every bite I take letting out a little "Woohoo!" as they slide freely through my digestive tract.  And it's not like these villi come back out after the gluten is gone, it takes FOREVER for them to get back to normal, it seems.  When I was first diagnosed they told me I may have to eat gluten free for a year before my villi recover.  I don't know how long it takes now that I'm somewhat healthy.  I don't ever knowingly cheat on my diet.  Never.  It's really ingrained in my mind that it isn't an option.  Cheating means horrible pain in the short term and in the long term it means I put myself at risk for a whole slew of problems, including small intestine cancer.  No thank you!  When I get stomach aches now, they'll last three days to several months before I feel normal again.  I assume that these episodes are somehow related to unknown gluten contamination.  You learn early on that this isn't something you do half way.  Gluten free has to be 100% or it doesn't work. 

When your body doesn't absorb enough nutrients from your food, you can imagine there's a whole slew of consequences to the intricate balance that should exist inside your body.  For me this showed itself in common ways, diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, anemia, distension, fatigue, excessive weight loss, headaches, irritability, depression (as if dealing with hourly bathroom runs wasn't depressing enough, a lack of absorption of B12 will really make you gloomy), tingling fingers, and dizziness.  Years later I battled a case of hypothyroid and other hormonal imbalances that took about a year to regulate, but may come back to haunt me later in life.  These are all known to be related to Celiac. 

Getting Tested
So, if you THINK you have Celiac disease, that does NOT mean you should try a gluten free diet.  It DOES mean that you should have a blood test done.  Have your doc do a Celiac panel.  This will test for antibodies in your blood that indicates that your body is currently treating gluten as a toxic substance.  Folks, admit it, you wouldn't stick to this diet unless you knew for sure that it was 100% necessary.  You must get the test!  Don't self-diagnose!  You have to be actively eating gluten in order for these tests to give you proper results.  If your blood test comes back positive, then you have to get the endoscopy and small intestine biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.


Two last bad doctor stories
After several years of a gluten free diet, I went to a gastroenterologist and told him, listen, this diet is not fixing the problem!  I still feel like crap ALL the time!  He said, "Well they should have told you to go lactose free as well!"  Turns out, if my digestive tract was in recovery mode, it was in no position to be digesting lactose.  An easy switch to lactaid milk for my cereal and vanilla soymilk for my lattes made a huge difference!  Lactaid pills don't work for me, but I ingest lactose in small doses anyway and just deal with minor upper-digestive tract pains.  (Hey, I'm not giving up pizza AND ice cream, plus, WI girls need their cheese!)  Yes, distinguishing between lactose stomach aches and gluten stomach aches is just one of my many talents.

Finally, maybe two years ago I went to get an endoscopy to check out how things were going and to see if yet another new doctor (change of health insurance) could figure out why I STILL didn't feel good.  I got the results via voicemail where some nurse told me, "We tested you for this disease called Celiac, which is a blah blah blah, and you DO NOT have Celiac disease."  Of course, if I were an idiot, I would have rejoiced and gone out and ate an entire Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza for dinner.  However, because I'm educated about my health, I knew that the nurse didn't see on my chart that I DO have celiac disease, had been on a gluten free diet for 5 years, and THAT is why the test came back negative.  I called them back and confirmed this with the doctor, who didn't seemed the slightest bit concerned that his his nurse was spreading false hope by not looking at people's charts before delivering lab results to patients.  The good news was that my villi had recovered enough to test negative.  So, my current stomach aches must just be unavoidable, unless I want to search for other intolerances (soy?  corn?  more strict on the lactose?).  We'll see.

Why the gluten free diet?

Back in the day, when I was a junior in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, my body stopped digesting food properly.  I had daily (hourly) symptoms that involved running to the bathroom quite often and insanely painful stomach aches.  I went to several doctors who all told me, "It's probably just stress!" or "Are you SURE the symptoms have lasted this long?"  I lead myself to believe that I was a nutball and if several doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, then I must be fine.  I lived with intense symptoms for about a year and a half.  Eventually I lost my freshman 15, which, frankly, was just fine with me.  I wasn't able to concentrate very well, I was pretty irritable (apologies to old college friends), and I liked to sleep more than a normal person should.  I couldn't climb a few stairs without dizzy spells.  This brings back a memory of my mom sitting down with my roommate, Ann, telling her to make sure I drink lots of Gatorade so I don't pass out.

I had a series of pretty bad migraines that got me to the doctor at UW.  They told me it was stress.  A few months later I went in because my hands were starting to tingle all the time.  I got this really young doctor (intern?) who looked back at my chart and saw I had been in for other symptoms and asked me if I still had the same problems.  I told him that I most certainly did.  He sent me to get a blood test.  I don't really remember (that whole time in my life is a blur), but I must have come back for a separate appointment where he sat me down and said, "You have Celiac disease."  I was super confused and before I could start crying, he told me the treatment is not to eat wheat.  I didn't know what wheat really was.  Okay, no wheat bread, whatever!  He told me to make an appointment with my gastroenterologist for a biopsy of my small intestine (endoscopy) and to go home and read a few pamphlets on gluten free diets. This must have been November of 2003.  (Side note:  when a doctor gives you a list of things to do, why don't they write it down and let you take it with?  I was clearly verging on insanity and I'm surprised I didn't just go home and forget what he had told me.  Now, I bring a notepad and take notes at the doctor.)  Years later, I wish I knew who this intern was and could give him a big hug for being intelligent enough to do the right test! 

I went home that night and told my five roommates what was up.  We went through my shelf in the pantry and looked at the ingredients on all of the labels.  Wheat was in EVERYTHING!  I think I was left with a fruit cup, a gallon of milk, and some ice cream.  We went grocery shopping and I remember spending forever in the cereal aisle trying to find something I could eat for breakfast.  No Lucky Charms, no Cheerios, even Rice Crispies and Chex had malt flavoring.  Suddenly I could no longer involve myself in ordering in pizza or Chinese food or even drinking beer, which is exactly how everyone dreams their senior year of college in Madison will go, right?

I went home for Christmas break and my mom had managed to get me in for an appointment with my ridiculously overbooked GI doctor who had treated me in the past for acid reflux.  I hadn't seen her the entire time I was actually having Celiac symptoms because whenever I called to make an appointment, I would need to wait six months to see her, so I just never made one.  We did an endoscopy, which is a procedure where they put you out and stuff a tube down your throat to take pictures.  This time, she took a biopsy of my small intestine.  (Anyone else ever had an endoscopy?  I swear, I wake up every time, mid-procedure.)  The results confirmed the blood test, I not only had Celiac disease, but my small intestine showed very obvious damage and scarring that would take a while to recover.  She had found no neurological damage, which was good news considering my severe lack of nutrients for almost two years.  She mentioned that when I had gotten my last endoscopy several years earlier, that I showed vague signs that I may have Celiac disease, but she either never mentioned them to me or I just never took note of it.  It's also possible, I guess, that she didn't notice it at the time, but was innocently commenting on old pictures.  Imagine if the doctors in Madison had access to my medical records, or if my actual doctor wasn't too busy to see me, I could have avoided years of discomfort and permanent intestinal damage!

I finished up my senior year, graduated with my first college degree, worked all summer in a factory in Fondy, and moved to Colorado for graduate school where I knew no one.  My gluten free diet in no way made me feel any better.  The dizzy spells had stopped, but I still had severe stomach symptoms and general lethargy upon my move to Colorado and several years after that.  Today I feel more like myself, but am certainly not symptom free.  I'm no where near as sharp as I used to be, mentally, and physically, I still get occasional weeks with stomach issues and I have dealt with a slew of other health issues along the way.

I eventually educated myself on the topic and figured out this whole gluten free diet.  Life after Lucky Charms didn't have to be pure torture, and today I live happily gluten free!  I'll give you some Celiac facts in another post for those of you looking for details beyond my personal story.