1 – Breaded anything

Typically breaded items are a challenge because of the breading and the ingredients used to make the breading stick.  Here are some alterations you can use to make your favorite breaded item safe.

• Breading – Breadcrumbs contain gluten.  To make them safe, you can use quinoa flakes in place of the gluten or buy gluten free bread, toast it, and make your own breadcrumbs.
• Egg wash – Eggs are one of the top 8 allergens.  Use coconut milk in place of egg wash.
• Flour – Use coconut flour, almond flour, or other gluten-free flour in place of regular flour.

2 – Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Dairy is one of the top allergens.  Many mashed potato recipes call for butter, cheese, and milk or heavy cream.  Substitute coconut milk in place of dairy to make the dish creamy without the lactose!

3 – Marinaded Meats

Marinades often contain wheat (gluten), dairy, soy, MSG and other items people need or choose to avoid.  Watch out for pre-marinaded or pre-seasoned meats and fish.  Either make your own or be sure to carefully read the ingredients on the marinade bottles.

4 – Ham

Avoid buying a pre-glazed ham and do your own glazing.  This will allow you to control the ingredients and make your ham safer for everyone on your guest list.

5 – Soup

If you are making a soup without animal protein, then be sure to use a veggie stock so your soup can be enjoyed by vegetarian guests.  Also, soup bouillon often contains wheat (gluten), soy, preservatives, and MSG, so be sure to read the label before using.

6 – Gravy and Sauce

Many people use flour or corn starch to thicken sauces and gravy, which can cause challenges for people with food sensitivities.  Substitute gluten-free flour to thicken or skip the thickening step altogether.

7 – Stuffing

Use gluten-free bread (read ingredients for egg, soy, nuts, or other allergen) and veggie stock to make this traditional dish safe for vegetarians and those with aversion to gluten.  And, of course, don’t stuff your bird with it.

8 – Cooking Spray

Cooking sprays often contain soy, gluten, or other allergen.  Make your own cooking spray with a spray bottle and olive oil.  Or grease the pan with coconut oil.  (Don’t use coconut oil in the spray bottle because it will become solid at room temperature.)

9 – Sweetened Foods and Desserts

All around sugar just isn’t a good choice for many reasons and chemical sugar substitutes cause their own problems.  Try substituting coconut crystals (a low GI food), honey, or stevia (a natural plant sugar) in place of sugar cane or high fructose corn syrup.

10 – Chocolate Foods

Chocolate is dangerous for many food allergy sufferers because of dairy, soy, and favor enhancers.  Even dark chocolate often contains milk and soy.  So, be sure to read the label.  Opt for chocolate that is pure and contains at least 65% cacao and has no dairy or soy.

Cooking for the food restricted doesn’t have to be difficult.  You just need to make some minor alterations and you can open up your menu to everyone on your guest list!  Happy holidays!

Below are guidelines in choosing foods that will help enhance your sexual enjoyment.

Food that will enhance your sex life:

1. Foods that enhancing circulation and blood flow. General rule: if it’s good for your heart, then it’s good for your penis/clitoris.

• Chilis help circulation
• Fish-oil
• Fresh fruits and veggies (esp bananas and avocados)
• Garlic

2. Relaxation. Foods good for relaxing the brain – high in Vitamin B and serotonin, which relaxes. Where many men use sex as a stress releaser, women tend not to be able to enjoy sex when they are overly stressed. For women especially, amazing sex resides mostly in their minds, so treating your brain well is crucial. Foods and activities which release stress will increase sex drive for women and their enjoyment of sexual activity.

• asparagus
• almonds
• kale
• spinach
• fish
• grass-fed beef (corn-fed beef is low in vitamins)
• shellfish
• Fruits and veggies

3. Healthy Fats. Foods containing healthy fats are crucial to well functioning hormones.

• Avocados
• Coconut
• Olive Oil
• Nuts

4. Healthy Weight. Foods which help you lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. A healthy weight will help increase or keep your testosterone levels up – which enhances sex drive.

5. Heightened Senses. Foods that heighten the senses will help heighten your sexual experience. Great sex comes from pleasure centers in the brain, which are enhanced through smell, taste, touch, feel, and sight. You can help trigger all five senses with meals that are filled with vibrant colors, exciting flavors and spices, multiple textures, potent fragrances, and a wonderful crunch! Use these wonderful items nature created to do what they were meant to do: make your dining experience wonderful by stimulating your senses, and you will help kick start your evening….

6. Eat mindfully. Take your time and be aware of the food experience you are having. Really see the colors of your food. Feel it on your lips and tongue. Notice the sound it makes when you chew. Take a deep cleansing breath before you begin and notice all the aromas of the food and spices. And, especially…taste your food. So many of us rush through meals. We eat them while driving from one event to another or standing over the kitchen. By taking the time to enjoy the experience, you will be more likely to absorb the nutrients in the food and heighten your senses at the same time. Being able to take these extra few moments to enjoy yourself when nourishing yourself actually plays into your ability to enjoy your experience with your partner, as well.

Food that will diminish your sex life:

1. Sugar spikes. Foods that cause your sugars and or energy to spike and fall:

• Alcohol (1/2-1 glass of red wine1-2 times a week)
• Caffeine
• Dairy
• Heavy starches
• Sweets – Foods that are high in sugar are bad for the brain.

2. Depressing foods. Foods which cause or enhance feelings of depression as well as birth control or pharmaceuticals which treat depression tend to hurt our chances of having great sex.

• Sugar
• Processed foods
• Fried foods
• Foods containing MSG and preservatives
• Foods containing gluten

3. Foods which cause swelling and bloating

• Dairy
• Gluten
• Sugar
• Processed
• Fried foods

Essentially, the healthier you are in body, mind, and soul the more amazing your sex life will be. Everyone deserves to have a wonderful and healthy sex life!

For more info on how food can enhance your sex life, check out Nourish events at www.YogaFoodSex.com

communicating with your body

If your body is making noises (rumbling, grumbling, bubbling, gas, burping, etc.) or otherwise presenting with negative signs it’s trying to tell you something.   The following 7 items will help you learn to communicate better with your body.

1. Burping, gas, and stomach noises. If these are regular occurrences for you, then your body is telling you that it’s having difficulty digesting.  This means you have a food intolerance, food allergy, and/or your digestive system is compromised.  Simply taking gas reducing medication or chewing on Rolaids isn’t a solution.  It’s only a way to temporarily mask the symptoms and doesn’t get to the root of the issue.

2. Heartburn and stomach pain. Pain isn’t a good thing, especially if it happens regularly.  It’s a sign something is wrong.  Very wrong.  Your body is trying to tell you that it’s not happy.  You are most likely feeding it all the wrong things and it’s begging you to stop.  It may also be a sign of food intolerance or gut damage.

3. Sluggishness or feelings of energy loss. Needing extra boosts of energy throughout the day from coffee, “energy drinks,” or other forms of adrenal boosters are a sign that your body isn’t happy.  It’s not a natural thing, no matter what the advertisements want us to believe.   This could be from an overuse of caffeine, a lack of restful sleep, food allergies, adrenal gland fatigue, and/or a diet of foods that aren’t what your body needs.

4. Blemished, rough, dry, flaky, or other skin problem. When in distress, your body will physically show it through it’s largest organ: the skin.  Creams and lotions often just mask (or make worse) the root cause of what’s making your skin seem less than perfect.  Allergies, toxic foods, hormonal imbalance, lack of the amino acid L-Lysine, and/or an unclean liver or kidneys is usually the culprit.

5. Swollen lymph nodes. If you notice swollen lymph nodes, your body is trying to fight off toxins or an infection.  Pay attention to this sign, especially if it occurs regularly.  Triggers for this could be toxins in your deodorant, perfume, food, environment or other beauty products.

6. Anger, depression, lack of motivation and/or other mood challenges. Your brain is impacted by foods, toxins, sleep, environment, and everything else your body is effected by.  You aren’t necessarily supposed to feel ecstatic every second of every day, but you shouldn’t feel mentally yucky all the time either.  Even “normal” mood swings due to PMS shouldn’t be extreme, no matter how acceptable or usual it is.

7. Swollen stomach or inability to lose weight. If your stomach swells every time you eat or despite your best efforts with a healthy diet and exercise you are unable to lose weight, then your body is trying to tell you that there’s a problem.  You could have a food intolerance, a damaged digestive system, and/or a thyroid disorder (often triggered by a toxin, food, or gut disorder such as Celiac’s Disease.)

TRACK WHAT YOUR BODY IS SAYING:

A great way to test your body listening skills is to keep notice of how you feel and how your body is changing and responding on a regular basis.  Keeping a body communication journal is extremely helpful in identifying patterns and successes.

Here’s some of the information that will help you keep an effective body communication journal.  Write down:

• How you feel when you wake up.
• What supplements you are taking and in what dosages.
• What you eat for meals.
• How you feel after you eat.
• How you feel throughout the day.
• Note emotional and physical changes as all can be attributed to changes in your diet.
• Record your weight and fluctuations.
• Record random things you may notice like hair loss, bloating, swelling, joint pain, sneezing, headaches, or other changes.
• Note fluctuations in hormone levels, stress levels, anger, crying, or changes in menstrual cycle.

This information will help you better understand how to identify the root cause of your challenges and where to begin fixing them.

Remember, you aren’t supposed to feel sick, bloated, or sluggish after you eat and your skin, mood, and weight shouldn’t fluctuate all the time.

Listen to your body.  It’s talking to you!

Click here to view the embedded video.

It doesn’t seem fair.

And it’s hard.

Customers come into the restaurant and tell me their stories.  We compare food allergy lists.  I smile and give them hope.  They are able to eat allergy-free dishes at Nourish they haven’t been able to safely eat in years.

Many say, “Thank you so much for opening!” or “This is the only place I feel safe to eat!”

That makes me happy – thrilled!  Because I get it.  I live it.  Every freaking day.  I live the food allergy life, personally and professionally.

Now, what most of our customers don’t know is what happens when I’m not in the safe walls of Nourish.

I’ve eaten out and been glutened.  I’ve been sick for days because I ate something I shouldn’t have, but don’t know what it was or where it happened.  I’ve swelled so badly from something my body didn’t like that I looked pregnant.

I’ve had my share of meltdowns when it seemed like everything I enjoyed eating was being taken away from me and when it just felt it wasn’t going to get better.

I had to learn to be patient and in some cases I had to adjust my expectations.

Associating the food I wasn’t able to eat with the pain I had suffered for so many years was helpful in readjusting my feelings towards the foods that were bad for me.  It helped me feel better about the loss of the food so it no longer felt like something was being taken away from me.  Rather, I was gaining health and feeling good!

After looking back at the number of changes that had happened for me in the process of eliminating toxic foods for my body, rotating my foods, and adding the appropriate supplements for me I was shocked at how many things got increasingly better.  Things I didn’t even realize were wrong!

After several weeks, I noticed a lot of new hair growth on my head.  I hadn’t even realized I was losing hair!  My migraines stopped almost completely and the terrible random bloating – the kind of boating that made me look pregnant – had virtually ended.  My menstrual cycle worked its way into a regular 28-30 day cycle and I no longer suffered from the near debilitating cramping, under arm lymph node pain, and sharp lower back pain.

My skin was clear and glowing.  The horrible, painful hormonal cystic acne completely disappeared.  Dry skin was a thing of the past and my nails began growing strong and healthy.  The changes were amazing, though it took several months to see some of the results.  Some things got better almost immediately.  I’m expecting to see even more results as time continues.

That being said, I made a classic mistake during my recovery.  I fell into a pattern of eating certain foods too frequently.  In fact, I got into a pattern where I was eating peanut butter and apples every night and began substituting buckwheat flour into many items I ate several times a week.

I did it because opening a jar of peanut butter and grabbing an apple, or opening my freezer and getting a delicious muffin or waffle I had pre-made with buckwheat flour was way easier than cooking all the time.  And after working 15 hours at the restaurant making sure our customers got to eat safe meals, I didn’t always feel like bothering to cook for myself.

Ironic, huh?

Well, even though I knew better, I over did it with buckwheat and peanuts and had to remove them from my list of safe foods.

On a positive note, because of the diligence I had with my gut repair program, I was able to add many foods back into my diet, and dramatically reduced my reactions to foods I couldn’t.  In fact, things went so well that there was nothing on my food allergy test that was higher than a moderate reaction.  Success!

So, I confess: There are days when I want to give up and just eat a pizza – a gluten-filled, dairy-topped, would make me sick for days.  But, I’ve come so far.  I feel better than I have in years, and am seeing progress every day.

You owe it to yourself to feel healthy, too.  And you deserve to feel good.

So, do what you have to get there.  And if you need a shoulder to cry on, mine is allergy-free!

Rotation Diet Application

Many of us, when we discover food allergies or intolerance, we remove those foods from our diet and find foods that are “safe.”  Then, through convenience or comfort, we fall into a pattern of eating the safe foods over and over.

Sometimes, we’ll eat some of the exact same foods many times in the same week – even the same day.  This pattern puts us at high risk for developing new food allergies.  The best thing to do to avoid adding new allergies to the list is to rotate food on at least a four-day rotation.  This means you want to spread food out by at least four days.

For example, if you eat salmon on day one, you want to wait to eat salmon again until day five.  This allows the salmon to be completely eliminated from your system before introducing it again and therefore lowers your chance of developing an allergy to it.

One good thing about rotating food is that you can eat the same food all day, if you’d like.  So you could eat lox for breakfast, salmon sashimi at lunch, and baked salmon for dinner all in the same day.  Just don’t reintroduce it as a meal until four days later.  This approach will feel frustrating and cumbersome when you first begin rotating your food, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not difficult.  And it’s absolutely easier than having to eliminate another food or food group from your diet completely!

There’s a new iPhone app called the Rotation Diet Assistant specifically designed to help people keep track of their food when on a rotation diet.  Though the app was just released and being updated, it’s absolutely on its way to being one of my go-to apps to help me manage my rotation based, food restricted diet.  This app was designed by the same wonderful people who created the Gluten Free Registry application.  This app makes finding gluten-free friendly restaurants much easier.  I highly recommend it!

l-glutamine is helpful for repairing damage caused by Celiac's disease and food allergies

L-Glutamine is an amino acid usually absorbed though the lining of your digestive system after properly breaking down food.  For people with Celiac’s and other gut damaging problems, there is often a deficiency in one, several, or all the amino acids.

L-Glutamine is responsible for repair and healing in the body.  Extreme athletes and body builders add additional L-Glutamine into their diets to help them recover faster from their workouts.  L-Glutamine a great way to help repair the damage caused to the gut and digestive system.

Of course, the challenge comes in the fact that food sensitivity sufferers either have to eliminate the foods containing L-Glutamine from their diet or their gut isn’t effectively breaking down the food they are eating enough to be able to extract and absorb the amino acid.  And the cycle continues.  To help break that cycle, taking supplemental L-Glutamine is a natural solution to aiding in gut repair until your body is able to get the l-Glutamine it needs from food.

For more resources on L-Glutamine and gut repair click here.

Your digestive system has two essential jobs:

1) To break down the food you eat into tiny particles which can be absorbed through the cell wall that lines your intestinal tract.

2) To stay healthy and not let anything leak out of it before it’s been digested properly.

Unfortunately, when your digestive system is compromised or damaged, it is unable to break down food properly and it often allows food particles to slip through the protective lining and into your body before it should.

As food continues to sneak past the damaged protective lining, your body goes on high alert as if it’s being attacked by a toxin. This causes your body to become confused and act negatively towards foods which aren’t being broken down.

That’s why you often develop toxic reactions to foods you eat frequently, because that food has a greater chance of leaking through your damaged digestive system.

In order to stop this cycle and minimize the chance of getting additional food allergies, you must repair the damage done to the digestive system and then maintain a healthy gut program.

Learn more….

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.