Gluten-Free Brown Cow Yogurt Coupons

I have been a fan of Brown Cow Yogurts for some time, whether for their low fat variety, Non-Fat type, or the rich and creamy aptly-named Cream-Top yogurt they produce. Their yogurts all have wonderful probiotics / live active cultures (body-friendly healthful bacteria like S. thermophilus and L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus and Bifidus) in them which are certainly good for our gluten-free diet options as well as our digestive tracts, presuming milk products are tolerable in your diet.

Brown Cow certifies most of their yogurts as Gluten-Free and includes this gluten-free statement on their website to quickly help you find which varieties are safe for Celiac Disease and gluten-intolerant people. In short, it can be summarized with the first paragraph, which states:

"Are all Brown Cow products certified gluten-free? Our Fruit & Whole Grains yogurts contain gluten, and we make our smoothies in a facility that has not yet been certified gluten-free. Otherwise, our yogurts are certified gluten-free."

Now, to the coupons! I noticed they have online "E-Coupons" available. You can currently get between 50 cents and a dollar off many of their products via the Brown Cow Coupon Page -- it asks for an Email address, then you get to choose from several coupon options to print.

The only down-side to their E-Coupons (in my opinion) is how their site makes you install a coupon-printing helper-control in your browser, and it requires Internet Explorer, which is all a bit lame quite frankly. I personally didn't care, because I just installed it into a "safe" virtual-machine I use for browsing the web, but it was still an added hassle. If you don't mind their website installing this "MeadCo ScriptX" ActiveX scripting/printing control used to print the E-coupon, then you can save some money -- you'll have to make that decision. I have to say to the Brown Cow company: please consider a user-friendlier alternative to this coupon-printing method, especially one that works with browsers other than Windows Internet-Explorer! You don't want to lose prospective buyers over technical constraints imposed on them.

Well, if the coupons are accessible and useful to you, enjoy that Gluten-Free Brown Cow Yogurt! Even if you can't get the coupons, I recommend their gluten-free products. I really like their yogurts, and tend to purchase the quart-sized containers since I eat so much yogurt. Their flavored yogurts are quite nice, and I also get the plain variety to which I add my favorite fruits and berries (and, I use it when making things like low-fat hummus too). Although I admit to liking the thicker, richer cream-top yogurt, I also like their lower-fat diet options too.

Golden KiwiFruit (kiwi)

My wife found these Golden Kiwi Fruit at the store recently, and I must say, they make a delicious gluten-free diet addition. I was never a huge fan of the standard Kiwi (the green ones), but I really like these gold kiwifruit. They have a rather sweet, less acidic taste that is definitely tropical in nature.

These particular specimens originated in New Zealand, which is second only to Italy in kiwifruit production - oddly, though native to China and declared China's "national fruit", China doesn't produce enough kiwi to appear in the top-10 producers list. With all the recalls of Chinese products and food these days, I'll admit that I feel much safer consuming Kiwi originating from New Zealand that I would if they had come from China.

I'm always glad to find new foods to mix into my gluten-free diet, and adding a new fruit to the mix is rather simple since fruit in general contains no gluten. Variety in the fruits and vegetables category will help make up for some of those wheat and gluten-containing foods that you can no longer eat. And, these make for a health diet addition too, since they are high in Fiber, Vitamin-C, and Potassium (by weight, just slightly lower potassium than a banana).

There is very little waste with kiwifruit also - especially with these golden fruit that have been cultivated to have less "hair" on the outside, so you can just wash them off and scrub loose what little bit of "hairy" coating there is and eat them whole. You can also certainly use a spoon to eat the center, leaving a very fine skin to be disposed of.

I definitely recommend these things, and if you get a chance to add them to your gluten-free diet, you will probably be happy you did. A tasty, healthy, natural treat for all of us with Celiac Disease or Gluten Intolerance - excellent!

Gluten-Free Cocoa Crispy Rice Cereal Review

I found this New Morning brand Gluten-Free Cocoa Crispy Rice this weekend at Trader Joe's here in the Cleveland, Ohio area. It was featured as a "new item" in the store, and I had no prior first hand experience with it. As is my normal behavior when venturing into the unknown with a new gluten-free product, I just purchased a single box package.

I am please to report, I really liked these crunchy, and lightly sweetened, cocoa rice crispy bits. They held up nice in milk, and were both good for snacking on plain or eating for a breakfast cereal. They seem to be less sweet than many others I have tried, and I like it this way. There are only 120 calories per 3/4-cup serving, and 10grams of sugar per serving (compare that to 14grams, or 40% more per sugar, per the same 3/4 cup serving size in Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies - which are also not gluten-free from what I can tell, since they have malt flavoring for starters). The fact that the New Morning brand (unlike many others) are made from organic brown rice and have no artificial flavors and preservatives either is a nice selling point too for me. But, first and foremost, this New Morning Cocoa Crispy Rice had a nice pleasing cocoa / chocolate flavor and a nice crunch.

I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that these were a quality product, and clearly labeled gluten-free, since as I discovered later when searching the web for that link to the cereal I provided earlier, that the New Morning brand is owned by a company called U.S. Mills, which also owns the Erewhon brand (I prefer their crispy brown rice - gluten-free variety - for marshmallow crispy treats). I actually plan to try these cocoa ones in a marshmallow treat of some sorts, though being pre-sweetened, that may be overkill. Now, perhaps with peanut-butter? hmmm.... maybe :)

I'm putting this gluten-free product on my list of ones to definitely buy again. And, you don't have to be a Celiac (Coeliac) or on a gluten-free diet to enjoy this cereal.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Recipes Summary

Just in time for Halloween, I want to recap some of the gluten-free and wheat-free pumpkin-featuring recipes that I have made available both recently and over the past year online. These gluten-free recipes include everything from main-courses to side dishes to desserts, and pumpkin provides the Celiac-safe ingredient of inspiration for each creation.

Note: the hyperlinks (blue, underscored text) within the text below links to the page(s) with the actual recipes. I didn't want to repeat the full recipe text for each of these here, since it is just a click away already.

Now, since I am definitely a fan of gluten-free desserts, especially around the Holidays when there are ample excuses to bake some extra treats, let me start with those recipes.

Dessert Recipes

Gluten-Free Pumpkin RollA perennial favorite this time of year is the Gluten-Free Pumpkin Roll recipe. This particular pumpkin roll has that flavorful pumpkin spice-cake rolled around a layer of sweetened cream cheese filling. The whole creation is dusted with a bit of powdered sugar, and served chilled. What a fantastic way to enjoy that pumpkin!

Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Pumpkin Bundt CakeHere is a quick and easy pumpkin-accent cake that will fit the season well: Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe. A nice blend of spices - clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger (and even a bit of cocoa!) - give this cake much of the same overall flavor as a pumpkin pie would enjoy. And, it is quick and simple to prepare.


Main Courses and Side-Dishes
Are pancakes a main course?

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancakes
I don't know about you, but for me, Pancakes do count as a main course on more than a few occasions. So, here is one type of Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Pancake Recipe that I enjoy on occasion. I say "one type" because I tend to regularly vary the ingredients, especially the flours that I use, on a rather ad-hoc basis. Some days I'll use some Millet flour, other days will include Sorghum, and still others the Teff and Buckwheat (which IS safe for Celiac sufferers in its pure form - it is NOT a wheat, though it sounds like it). I also have a tendency to throw a few chocolate chips into the mix and turn the whole pancake into a giant cookie of sorts :)



Pumpkin as Pasta
I recently wrote a blog about using pumpkin as a "pasta" of sorts. As such, this dish works well as both a main course or a side dish - take your pick. Quite often, it is a wonderful low-calorie and healthy feature item for my dinner. It is simple to prepare, mild in flavor (primarily taking on the flavor of whatever pasta sauce you choose), and starts using pumpkin in its most basic form, without the usual pumpkin-pie spices many are accustomed to. This recipe relies on the basic baked-pumpkin recipe.


Standard Baked Pumpkin Recipe
I wrote this gluten-free blog entry just a while back, about how to prepare a small pumpkin-pie type pumpkin as a baked pumpkin for eating as you would any other baked squash. It is quite simple to take a pumpkin, "gut it", place it in the oven, and produce a healthy and satisfying dish (or foundation for other recipes). And, speaking of a foundation for other recipes, I'll move on to another recipe which features this baked pumpkin...



Gluten-Free Pumpkin Risotto
And now, for a wonderful pumpkin-accent side dish for the season, do not forget the Gluten-Free Pumpkin Risotto Recipe. It has a mild, pleasant flavor, with just a hint of cinnamon to go along with the very subtle pumpkin undertones. It relies on the baked pumpkin recipe again, though you could probably just as easily use canned pumpkin if you choose.


Happy Halloween!
Certainly all these recipes could make for some great Gluten-Free Thanksgiving Recipes as well, so keep them close at hand for any of those leftover pumpkins you may have sitting around in a month. I know I'll be feasting on various pumpkin recipes for the next few months, as I have already cooked up quite a pile of pumpkins and have frozen their cooked pulp for later. Happy Halloween everyone, and happy pumpkin eating too!

Gluten-Free Pumpkin "Pasta"

Here is another one of the Gluten-Free Recipes I have been enjoying during the Fall, just in time for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the pumpkin harvest season in general. Pumpkins are such a wonderful, healthy gluten-free food, it is a shame to not find ways to use them more often than just the standard gluten-free desserts like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, and so forth.

What many people do not realize is how mild the taste of pumpkin on its own really is. And, so often pumpkins are only associated with the complementary flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, clove,... that we tend to forget what pumpkins taste like in their natural state.

I've recently been baking all sorts of dishes using the small "pumpkin-pie" type pumpkins. They are a squash, and they have a flavor, on their own, that is nearly as mild as what would be found in a Spaghetti Squash. The flesh is tender, low in calories, of a low glycemic index, and full of beta-carotene and natural fiber. They are quick and easy to prepare, and keep for a nice amount of time prior to cooking, and after cooking the flesh can be stored frozen indefinitely for later consumption.

So, today's "recipe" leverages my previous gluten-free recipe that I posted here: gluten-free baked pumpkin recipe. In fact, there really is not much more to be done - just prepare the baked pumpkin as described earlier, then top with your favorite pasta-sauce! I love this dish! In fact, I find it as enjoyable as any gluten-free pasta, and had I not been on a gluten-free / Celiac Disease diet, I would still work this recipe into a "normal" diet along with standard semolina pasta - it's that good.

I topped this particular batch of pumpkin "pasta" (pictured above) with my favorite pre-made bottled sauce: Gia Russo's Hot Sicilian Sauce; which, though not specifically labeled gluten-free, contains no gluten-containing ingredients in the sauce and no warnings of it being prepared in a shared facility or such. The spicy/tangy nature of this tomato sauce makes for a really flavor-packed "pasta" dish, and one that is low in calories and packed with nutrition. Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Risotto

The Fall presents plenty of opportunity to create some wonderful gluten-free recipes during the time of Halloween and Thanksgiving. One of the stars of the season is pumpkin, which happens to be in-season just at the right time for these holidays. As such, the holidays bring with them an expectation (at least for me) of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread and pumpkin roll,... but now I also see other great uses for this healthy and versatile squash.

I recently wrote a gluten-free blog entry about one such recipe, a super-healthy gluten-free baked pumpkin recipe (the blog also discussed the potential health benefits of cinnamon too if you're interested). Further extending the reach of pumpkin into other gluten-free main-course and gluten free side-dish options today is a recipe that takes the baked pumpkin from earlier and uses it as a featured ingredient in a new dish my wife created:
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Risotto.



That's a picture of the final product, sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon on top. It's not one of the better pictures I've taken, but I think it's good enough to get a feel for what to expect.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Risotto Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Risotto (uncooked)
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• ¾ Cup Vegetable Broth
• ¾ Cup Organic Whole Milk*
• 1½ Cups Water
• ¼ Teaspoon Salt (optional)
• ¼ to ½ Teaspoon Cinnamon (or to taste)
• 1 Cup (packed) Flesh from Cooked Pumpkin-Pie Pumpkin (i.e., approximately half of one small baked pumpkin-pie pumpkin)
  

*Note: Can substitute soy milk for the organic whole milk. Or, remove milk and increase vegetable broth to 1 Cup and water to 2 Cups. Risotto will not be as creamy with such substitutions.

Directions

• Begin by baking the pumpkin pie pumpkin according to my prior blog (baked pumpkin recipe) and go as far as scraping out the cooked flesh into a bowl (once baked pumpkin is cool enough to safely handle). Once pumpkin flesh is ready for use, proceed.
  

• In medium (2 Quart) sauce pan stir together Risotto and olive oil over medium-high heat. Continue to stir for approximately one minute.
• Add remaining ingredients (this includes the pumpkin) and stir. Bring to boil and then cover. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes (Check after 20 minutes. If liquid has been absorbed and a creamy sauce remains, Risotto is done - if not, stir and continue to simmer until done.
  
• Give the risotto a final stir prior to serving. Garnish (optionally) with Cinnamon as pictured.

That's the recipe, sweet and simple. It yields a risotto with a pleasant, mild accent flavor that just makes it stand out from plain risotto, as well as fit in as a perfect Halloween or Thanksgiving dinner addition. I have specifically targeted using fresh-cooked pumpkin from scratch as the pumpkin ingredient of choice. I don't know how the recipe would perform with canned pumpkin, but you could certainly try it.

Since I picked up 60 of these locally-grown pumpkin pie pumpkins (at the bargain-price of 3 for a dollar!) from farms near my parent's place here in Ohio, I've been busy cooking pumpkins quite regularly. 20 bucks worth of pumpkins filled nearly the entire trunk of my car. So, now I'm busily trying to get through 6 to 9 pumpkins a day - baking them, digging out the centers, and freezing the pumpkin flesh for future (off-season) gluten-free recipes use.

This works quite well by the way (freezing the flesh for later), as I tested it out before buying a pile of pumpkins. Simply place the cooked flesh in freezer bags or freezer containers, allow to cool to room temperature, then pre-chill in the refrigerator, and finally move them to the freezer for long-term storage. When ready to use, simply extract from the freezer, thaw the pumpkin flesh, and include in your recipes.

I have been working on additional pumpkin themed recipes, and I plan to add all these recipes to my online gluten-free recipes library as time permits (in addition to here on the Gluten Free Blog). Enjoy!

Super-Healthy Gluten-Free Pumpkin Recipe

Ah yes, that wonderful gluten-free squash (or gourd) that many of us love to make into Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Rolls, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Custard, and so many other delicious pumpkin-themed treats (not to mention pumpkin soup, and toasted pumpkin seeds). Pictured above is a small pumpkin of the variety usually sold as "pumpkin pie pumpkins" - which measure only between 5 and 6 inches in diameter, and weigh (while intact) about 2 pounds each (or, 1 kilogram). They have a much thinner and more tender skin than the large jack-o-lantern / Halloween carving-type pumpkins, and are very simple to work with and prepare.

Who would have guessed you could also use this incredible gluten-free vegetable for something so healthy and simple as a main-course or vegetable side-dish? And, better yet, a dish that takes nearly zero effort to prepare (certainly very little work compared to those pumpkin desserts and other recipes). The pumpkin is not just for Halloween or Thanksgiving holidays - instead, it can introduce a nice change of culinary scenery to your everyday lunch or dinner.

The Baked-Pumpkin (or Cooked/Microwaved Pumpkin) Recipe
Well, quite simply, this is about as healthy of a gluten-free food you can find. It has an incredibly low glycemic-index (or, another useful blood-sugar-impact analysis method, glycemic load), is full of essential vitamins, protein, and nutrients, plus it delivers a nice dose of your daily fiber requirements - all with a mild taste that is easily accented (as it is in pumpkin pie and other dishes). To top this off, my "recipe" is going to further attempt to positively affect your health by reducing your blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides with cinnamon, and I'll explain that effect too a bit later in this post.

Directions:

• Simply take your pumpkin-pie pumpkin and split it vertically in half (from the stem at the top, to the center point at the bottom.
• Scoop out all the seeds and loose fibers in the middle of each pumpkin half
• In an oven-safe pan or pyrex dish an inch or two deep and large enough to hold the two halves of the pumpkin, place 1/2" of warm tap water.
• Now, invert the pumpkin halves in the water (i.e., center of pumpkin facing down in pan)
• Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes - when ready, a fork or knife should easily slide through the pumpkin.
• Remove from oven.
• Carefully (remember, this pumpkin is hot!) use a spoon to scrape the fleshy inside of the pumpkin away from the very thin rind, and place this onto serving plates or into a bowl for serving.
• Suggested topping: upon serving, sprinkle a bit of cinnamon over each portion served, and perhaps a bit of granulated Splenda (or sugar / brown-sugar if you don't mind the calories or don't watch your sugar intake).
  

Nutrition:
With the baked pumpkin being so mild on its own, the slight accent of cinnamon and a sweetener should remind you just a bit of a pumpkin pie. And, when it comes to health, you can't get much better than the nutrition of cooked pumpkin (check out that link - it is a really useful nutritional analysis site), which for every half-pound of cooked / baked pumpkin yields:

• only 50 calories per 1/4 Kilogram (half-pound) serving - the entire prepared pumpkin likely won't exceed 150 calories, and it is quite filling
  
• nearly 250% of your RDA of Vitamin-A, much of that as Beta-Carotene
• nearly 3 grams of fiber
• essentially zero sodium
• roughly 20% of RDA of Vitamin-C
• a bit of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acides
• about 8% of your Iron, and 4% of your daily Calcium recommendations
• A super-low glycemic-Load of only 4 (in a range that goes up to 75 or 80)!
  

Hopefully you'll enjoy the pumpkin for both its taste and it's health benefits! I know I sure like these little pumpkins prepared as I detailed above, and I am so glad they are safe for Celiac Disease and Gluten-Free people too. I plan to experiment with a few other spice combinations, perhaps adding a bit of clove, nutmeg, ginger, etc to my dish - much like a pumpkin pie or pumpkin roll would use. I keep meaning to try this, but never get around to it, perhaps just because I enjoy the Cinnamon by itself so much. And, speaking of Cinnamon again...


Health Benefits of Cinnamon in Recipes and your Diet
If you already own my Gluten-Free Desserts recipe book, you have probably noticed that we use Cinnamon quite regularly in recipes (many times as "optional" ingredient if you don't care for cinnamon). We do this for a few reasons:

1. we love the taste of cinnamon and the accent it provides to certain recipes
2. Cinnamon can essentially be a gluten-free "flour" of sorts, as it is a powdered, ground form of the bark of a cinnamon tree with a super-high fiber-to-total-carbohydrates ratio (nearly 80% of the carbs are in the form of fiber), and a 1/4 ounce (about 1 Tablespoon) has 4 grams of dietary fiber.
   
3. and, because scientific-evidence demonstrates Cinnamon's ability to lower fasting blood-glucose levels, triglyceride levels, and cholesterol levels - which is a very nice side-effect for such a versatile and delicious ingredient. *(see NOTES below before going TOO crazy with cinnamon).
   

If, in addition to consuming Cinnamon via our dessert recipes, you find additional ways to incorporate it into your daily life elsewhere (e.g., I love adding it to my pancakes, coffee, milk, tea, and many other things), hopefully you will get the full health benefit that was demonstrated in this 2003 study entitled: Cinnamon Improves Glucose and Lipids of People With Type 2 Diabetes.


NOTES and DISCUSSION REGARDING CINNAMON:
There have been some concerns with long-term high-level dietary intake of cinnamon, though I personally wonder how much has to do with pharmaceutical companies wanting you to take their Diabetes medicines instead of using cinnamon as a first-line attempt at combating the disease. One reason I am a bit skeptical about the true presumed toxicity threat from cinnamon consumption comes from the fact that a particular cinnamon health-risk discussion paper went so far as to implicate cinnamon with pseudo-science repeatedly, pointing the finger at cinnamon for all sorts of things that can not be proven, like this:

"At least one case report points to carcinoma formation after the consumption of up to five packs of cinnamon chewing gum a day in a 24-year-old non-smoker"

The fundamental flaws in that type of statement come from 1) the incredibly small sample population - i.e., "at least one case"; and 2) the inability to rule out any other causes of the carcinoma aside from smoking - like, how about whether the gum used artificial red dyes or food colorings, like nearly all such gum does, or perhaps artificial sweeteners if applicable. This type of "proof" of cinnamon toxicity is bunk and a serious stretch to say the least. As such, it makes me question the motives behind that entire discussion paper, as the paper takes many different angles of attack on cinnamon to dissuade its use. You decide for yourself what to make of it though.

Now, on to the real science of potential cinnamon toxicity...


NOTES: Types of "Cinnamon" and Toxicity Potential Discussion
Basically, there are two primary types of Cinnamon available to consumers - the less common Ceylon Cinnamon ("true cinnamon") and the common mainstream "Cinnamon" (Cassia, or "Bastard Cinnamon") that is sold as powdered cinnamon throughout the USA. The cinnamon we all most likely use regularly is the latter type - Cassia - and is the type reported in the media and studies to have a beneficial effect on blood glucose (blood sugar), cholesterol, and triglycerides levels.

But, Cassia also contains higher levels of a toxic component called coumarin than does Ceylon Cinnamon (which contains very little - but also contains little of the chemical in Cassia that purportedly helped blood sugar and such). Cassia ("cinnamon") contains somewhere between 2 and 4 milligrams of coumarin per gram (mg/g) on average. The European Food Safety Authority has set the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) of coumarin at .1mg/Kilogram body-weight per day as being safe and of no threat to health (see here for further discussion and the .1mg/Kg/day reference).

What does this mean? Well, if you weigh 154 pounds (70 Kilograms) for example, the acceptable TDI for you is 7 milligrams of coumarin from Cassia "Cinnamon" or other sources (70 Kilograms x .1mg/Kilogram = 7 milligrams ). So, using the upper end of coumarin-level estimates (4mg/g) in cinnamon, consuming ~2grams of Cinnamon per day at 4mg/g coumarin concentration every single day for life would put you at the TDI threshold (i.e., between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon every day).


Cinnamon Health Benefits in relation to toxicity concerns
By comparison, the health-benefits-from-cinnamon study showed substantial and significant benefit from cinnamon when consumed at between 1 and 6 grams per day (i.e., a maximum of a quarter ounce / day). And, even the lowest-dose level (1 gram/day) produced substantial reductions (in blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglycerides) in this study, with such dosing levels being well within the TDI threshold discussed above.

Though it was only one study on cinnamon's health benefits, the study appeared scientifically valid and placebo-controlled and everything, and it showed the following results (after just 40 days in the 6g/day group, and with nearly the same findings in the 1g/day group):

• Between 18-29% lower fasting glucose levels
• approximately 25% lower cholesterol levels
• approximately 25-30% lower triglyceride levels

Those are some rather impressive figures to say the least! I'm looking forward to additional, larger, follow up studies that can further validate these results. They sure look encouraging, and are substantial enough to provoke persons like myself to include cinnamon in their diet. As with any dietary alteration, it is probably best to consult with your doctor or physician to make sure you don't cause any unplanned drug-interactions and the like (especially if you are using Diabetes medications already). And, I only put this information here for you to evaluate and make personal decisions on, as I am not a doctor. You may want to read other sources like this one on Cinnamon Health Benefits for similar information and further research.

In the mean time, using a bit of cinnamon on your freshly prepared baked pumpkin, or in and on some of your favorite desserts, is certainly a delicious way to enhance your gluten-free foods while potentially improving your health along the way. Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Blog featured in Wall Street Journal Online

The Gluten-Free Blog Review in the WSJ

This week, I kept wondering why my Gluten-Free Blog traffic was 3-4 times what it was just a week earlier. My hopeful side was thinking that perhaps someone wrote a nice review of my Gluten-Free Recipes Book and caught the attention of prospective readers, but I was convinced the blog readership had to do more with the latest series of topics I posted with regard to controlling blood-sugar and controlling diabetes with exercise.

Well, thankfully David Marc Fischer over at Gluten-Free NYC set me straight and clued me in. Turns out the Wall Street Journal Online (WSJ) had recently written a Review of my Gluten-Free Blog where they were so kind to help others find this resource I have built, and provided the following summary to describe my Blog:

"The Gluten Free Blog
Gluten-Free-Blog.blogspot.com

This blog by Cleveland-based Mike Eberhart addresses the needs of those who suffer from the digestive disorder called celiac disease and others who just want to maintain a gluten-free diet. Many common foods contain gluten, so those who need to avoid it face many of the same challenges as allergy sufferers. 

There are lots of recipes here for gluten-free foods, as well as reviews of gluten-free products and frequent updates on the latest medical news. Mr. Eberhart also encourages readers to share their personal stories and information on products on the blog."

Though I don't know the author of the WSJ Online article (a Becky Bright), I surely am glad she found my blog noteworthy and took time to include it in her roundup. I was absolutely thrilled to see that I am making an impact and helping others as I intended. And, if the extra media coverage and exposure helps others locate the Gluten-Free Blog, great! I hope I can live up to reader expectations in the coming months and years and provide more great gluten-free recipes, science news, and related discussion.

Thank you Wall Street Journal!

Perhaps some day a similarly large-readership publication will review my GF desserts cookbook, since I am still sort of caught in that "you can't reach people until you reach people" phase (aka, a Catch-22), as I have chosen not to sell my book on Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles, or Borders Books (since their margin-requirements would leave me with nothing). As such, only those people who find my book directly on our website (at my Gluten-Free Desserts site or via this blog), or purchase a copy at one of the several food / diet / and nutrition product retailers around the country that inventory it, will ever have a chance to find out what they are missing. [UPDATE: in 2017, our recipes will simply be migrated onto a website of gluten-free recipes for everyone to enjoy there, for free. The printed book is long sold out.]

Now, on to other delicious topics...

UK Yeo Valley Yogurt Review

Where does time go? I have planned to review some of the wonderful Gluten-Free food items I found while in Britain a couple months ago.  In particular, I wanted to mention this wonderful Yeo Valley gluten-free organic yogurts I was eating (by the pint!) for breakfast while in the UK. It had to be the best yogurt I've ever had, which explains why I ate it nearly every day for two weeks (I luckily discovered it on only my second day in the country).

Sure, yogurts should be Gluten Free, but you just never know because of added flavorings, colorings, and the like. That's why it is so nice to have a clearly indicated "Gluten-Free" label on the package, as the Yeo Valley yogurts have. Not only is this yogurt incredibly creamy and flavorful and smooth, but it is also:

• Organic and GMO-free (no genetically modified ingredients)
• Full of bio-live cultures, including Lactobacillus, Acidophilus, and Bifidobacterium probiotics - wonderfully delicious bacteria from what I can tell!
• Gluten-Free and suitable for Celiacs / Coeliacs (of course)
• Suitable for all vegetarians, though obviously not vegan

I've included a picture of the label (above) that demonstrates how "Gluten-Free" and other important classifications are clearly indicated. Plus, you'll be able to quickly recognize the brand should you ever have the chance to purchase some. The bummer for us here in the USA is that Yeo Valley does not export, nor has any current plans to export, their fabulous yogurts - arghh!

More Diabetes and Blood-Sugar Control Methods

Here on the Gluten-Free Blog, I recently published an entry entitled "Controlling Blood-Sugar / Diabetes", that focused on the results of a recent study showing that through exercise alone, you could remarkably impact and improve your blood-glucose levels. Given the spike in readership here on the Gluten-Free Blog after posting that information, it seems I have touched on an area of interest. So, I plan to today continue the discussion about reducing blood sugar, and present a few other proven methods for significantly improving this important indicator of health.

Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid (aka Folate treatment)

Some studies have shown that Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid can improve insulin resistance, which in turn will improve blood sugar values. In one study on insulin resistance improving after folate and B12 therapy, subjects were given 500mcg B-12 and 5mg Folic Acid daily for a period of a couple months and compared to a placebo / control group. The results were quite encouraging, and the study found:

• ...prolonged folate treatment decreased not only homocysteine levels but also reduced insulin levels, improving insulin resistance in patients with metabolic syndrome.
• Insulin levels dropped by over 25% in the Folate-Treatment group.
• as a bonus: fasting glucose levels dropped, triglycerides dropped, plus a slight but significant decrease in systolic blood pressure was also demonstrated.

Note: If you suffer any B12 absorption issues, whether from Celiac Disease or Pernicious Anemia, you may wish to read another previous and popular blog I recently wrote entitled "Medical Secrets Revealed : Vitamin B12 Administration", where I discussed the efficacy of taking Vitamin B-12 sublingually (i.e., B12 dissolved under the tongue).

Calorie Restriction (CR)

I know, this proven method of improving blood sugar, pre-diabetes, and/or diabetes doesn't exactly sound "fun" as soon as you see those words calorie restriction on the page. CR is definitely something that takes a bit more work than popping some Folic-Acid/B12 pills. In fact, I'd go as far as to say this method of controlling insulin levels and blood glucose is probably going to be the most difficult (even more so than a consistent exercise program) for most people to successfully implement - myself included. I love food, especially delicious carbohydrate-rich breads, pizzas, desserts, etc., and just the thought of reducing my consumption of such treats causes anxiety.

But, it all comes down to which is more important: eating everything you want, or taking (challenging) steps to reduce your food consumption to live healthier and longer (I say "longer" here because CR is shown in various non-human mammalian studies to increase longevity; human results are expected to be the same, but our already long lifespans make studies quite difficult to implement). Harvard Medical School, just last week, published more information about how Calorie Restriction can lead to long healthy lives. CR induces a glucose-lowering and insulin-lowering response in the body, and in addition it alters the GH/IGF-1 (growth hormones) axis. The end result in studies is that by cutting calories substantially (by as much as 50-60%), huge gains in longevity (and reduced incident of age-related disease) are achieved.

The key is to restrict one's calories while not restricting one's nutrition; meaning you have to make very healthy choices about what you consume in order to get nutrient-dense calories. Essentially, this means less of the mainstream carbohydrate options (remove those refined carbs and sugars), and more of the fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean meat. Seems like that's always what a good diet, CR or not, boils down to: eating healthy and eating things in moderation.

With this plan, I could certainly still find a way to eat my favorite gluten-free cakes, cookies, biscotti, and the like, but just much less in one sitting. I'm certainly glad the cakes freeze nicely, as I have learned to cut them up and freeze pieces for future days. Desserts are nearly all bound to be high-carbohydrate items, so moderation is always recommended, whether you are on a CR diet or not, since it is just better for you overall. So, do what you must to keep your eating under control.

Resveratrol

This compound present in grapes, peanuts, and a few other fruits and veggies, has shown great promise in laboratory studies in controlling insulin and blood sugar levels. In fact, it essentially provides the benefits of CR (calorie restriction) in normal higher caloric diets. At least one pharmaceutical firm, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, is currently in clinical trials with drugs based on this compound as potential treatments for Type 2 diabetes [Update: in 2013, well after the GSK buyout of this firm, development was ongoing on new variations of this approach].

Sure sounds great to me - just eat a lot of grapes and get the effect of CR! Oh, wait,... not so fast... it isn't that simple. It takes a lot of this substance to get the desired effect; more so than you could get by eating foods that naturally contain Resveratrol. And, although there are (expensive) supplements on the market, there are lots of questions regarding the efficacy, shelf-life (due to oxidation), and required dosing levels in humans,... and in addition there is even a study entitled "high absorption but very low bioavailability of oral resveratrol" that suggests Resveratrol use in humans will be unable (even with supplementation) to get the desired effect due to how it is metabolized. So, Resveratrol one sounds like a "wait and see" item, with hopes that someone perfects a mechanism for delivery of the compound into our bodies while also making it affordable. I for one would sure like the CR-benefits while eating everything I normally like to chow on!

Some other noteworthy diabetes related items...

Recently, high-fructose corn sweetener (HFCS) has been in the news a lot for it's apparent correlation with Type II diabetes incidence. The fact is, this ingredient is in many commercially produced items these days, whether it is the pop/soda you are drinking, or the bread you are eating, or perhaps even the brand of tomato paste you put on your homemade pizza today. Search the Internet and you'll find plenty of information - like this article about sugary soda and diabetes [update: I had a link here, but over the years, the MedLinePlus article disappeared. Right now, I find that the best way to avoid this ingredient is to cook and bake my own foods, which is already commonplace for me given the gluten-free diet.

I also came across a presentation which documents that eating a high carb meal for breakfast results in an unacceptably high blood sugar swing - much higher than any other blood sugar rise seen throughout the day - even when compared to the same amount of carbohydrate eaten at a meal other than breakfast. The implication was that the body can not optimally process carbohydrates first thing in the morning, and if you are going to eat a meal higher in carbs, you should do so at lunch or dinner. Got me. But, that's what was shown.

I also have read about going to a completely low-fat vegan diet to control blood sugar. To me, that sounds like a lot of work and giving up a lot of foods I really like. In fact, I'd personally find that one easily as difficult as going on a CR (Calorie-Restricted) diet. And, this is coming from someone that was a totally meat-free vegetarian for over 7 years (I still consumed dairy and egg-products, since they are in most things I like). Even with my (prior) history of vegetarianism, I just can't imagine dropping my milk products or eggs - they come in so handy for baking (whether gluten-free baking or otherwise).

That's it for my roundup of other diabetes-control possibilities for now. I need to get back to posting some more Celiac-Disease and gluten-free specific topics in the coming days and weeks, especially some recipes and other things to coincide with the upcoming holiday events (yes, Thanksgiving and Christmas are still a bit away, but they tend to sneak up on me!)

UPDATE/NOTE: Please do not leave comments with links to your purported "cure-all" diabetes remedy-selling sites and tell me stories of how such and such supposedly did all sorts of remarkable things for someone you know. I will not let such comments through, UNLESS you can also provide links to placebo-controlled true scientific research that validates your remedy claims in an unbiased fashion. My goal is to provide people with proven ways to combat diabetes and high blood sugar, not to get their hopes up over products that make such claims with obscure, indirect, little, or no science behind them. Thanks.

Controlling Blood-Sugar / Diabetes

Exercise and Blood Sugar Impact

I was just reading the results of a new 6-month study showing the impact of exercise on blood-glucose levels, and in particular how the combination of weightlifting (i.e., resistance training) and aerobic exercise yield a rather impressive reduction in Glycosolated Hemoglobin (aka HbA1c) readings. Given recent news of near-epidemic proportions of Americans that have, or will develop, type 2 diabetes (non insulin-dependent diabetes) in their lifetimes (nearly one in three persons!), it sure seems like there needs to be an overall wakeup call issued to stress the importance of exercise and how it can prevent this insidious condition.

For those of you new to HbA1c plasma-glucose-concentration test readings, they are represented as a percentage — and in healthy persons with normal blood-sugar, the reading will be roughly between 4% and 5.9%, and readings above 6.5% (or 7% depending on source) are considered indicative of Type 2 diabetes. And, "controls" in a study are like placebos — in this study they represent sedentary individuals.

With that in mind, here are some of the details (quite impressive for just 6-months of exercise) which include:

• A 0.51 percentage point HbA1c reduction in the aerobic exercise group versus controls
• A 0.38 percentage point HbA1c reduction in the resistance training [with weights] group compared with controls
• An additional 0.46 percentage point HbA1c reduction in the combined exercise group compared with aerobic training alone
• An additional 0.59 percentage point HbA1c reduction in the combined exercise group compared with resistance training alone
• I.e., patients who did both aerobic and resistance regimens more than doubled the benefit with a drop in HbA1c of 0.9 percentage points!

So, what does .9% change in your HbA1c percentage value mean? Well, let's say you currently have a glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of 6.0 currently (i.e., essentially "pre-diabetic" status), which equates to an average blood-sugar of 120mg/dL, and you were able to drop to a 5.0% reading, you would now have an average blood-sugar of around 80 — meaning, a 1% drop in average blood-glucose from exercise could move you from being on the fringe of diabetes to being squarely within normal / healthy numbers.

Start Exercising Now and Reduce your Blood Sugar Levels

It's time to make exercise a part of your life if it isn't already. If you are living on a gluten-free diet already, you have demonstrated your ability to adhere to a lifestyle change that takes work and perseverance. You obviously have the resolve to take up and maintain a healthy exercise program — in fact, this should be rather easy compared to completely removing gluten from your diet! This study achieved its results through 45-minute/day exercise, with aerobic activity performed 3 times per week and weights/resistance-training another 3 days (for the combined maximum benefit to reduced blood sugar levels). It sounds like a lot, but it sure sounds better than a future filled with the risks and complications associated with high blood sugar (including heart disease, hypertension, vision loss, kidney damage, depression, and much more).

This study on exercise and blood-sugar control is particular to persons with Type 2 diabetes. When talking about Type 1 diabetes (insulin dependent), the exercise portion of the equation gets more difficult, as it can cause substantial swings in blood sugar that can be difficult to manage. Although Type 2 diabetes is no more prevalent among persons with Celiac Disease than the normal population, Type 1 diabetes risk is strongly correlated with Coeliac / Celiac Disease (aka Gluten Allergy, Gluten enteropathy, gluten-intolerance, etc) among adolescents — the risk is extremely high in fact, and another study [which was on Medscape at the time of this writing but whose link was no longer valid] concluded that: Celiac Disease Triples the risk of Type 1 diabetes in children.

This new exercise study is fantastic information, and further validates how important an exercise regimen is to controlling blood-sugar and avoiding Type II diabetes (not to mention the other health benefits). And, whether you have Type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, or have normal blood sugar readings, everyone should consider some sort of exercise to make sure they don't allow their blood sugar to increase further over time. I do as I say, and I regularly exercise in an attempt to ensure optimal long-term health — now with even more scientific reinforcement of my actions. I'm hoping others can benefit from this as well.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake - Recipe Variation (Flax)

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake — Flaxmeal Variation

Chocolate Cake, a perennial favorite

One of my favorite gluten-free desserts is chocolate cake. I especially love a rich, dense, and moist cake, like the Chocolate Ganache Cake on page 20 of our Gluten-Free Gourmet Desserts cookbook — a recipe my wife created especially for my Birthday one year. Since then, she knows my gluten-free birthday cake request without even asking, and this year she also made this cake for her mother's birthday after experimenting with a slight variation on the original recipe.

It has always been my intent to share any such (successful) variations to our gluten-free dessert recipes with those who have purchased our book, and it has just been a matter of time to get to such things. Thankfully, I finally had some free time this morning to post the variations to the Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Recipe on our book sales site (at that link), as well as here on the Gluten-Free Blog.

The Recipe Variation : a bit healthier, thanks to Flax

Essentially, this variation just altered the ingredients equation by splitting the buttermilk component into half buttermilk and half whole-milk, while adding a ¼ Cup of Flax-meal (ground flax seed) to the mix. My wife also baked this version in a single standard 9" x 13" x 2" cake pan, whereas the original (in the gluten-free cookbook) was baked using three 9" round pans and layered with Ganache between each of the cakes. 

The results of this variation are wonderful! The cake, as expected, retains all of its richness and deep chocolate essence, while also having abundant moistness and a just-right somewhat dense texture that is so rewarding to eat. Plus, with that bit of flax meal in there, it just has to be a bit more "healthy", right? (if ever so slightly)

So, if you are planning a gluten-free birthday cake for yourself or another Celiac Disease sufferer among your family members or friends, keep this recipe in mind. Certainly you could bake it for any other event where GF cake is a must — be it a party at work, at your child's school, or wherever else a great chocolate cake would be a hit.

I have a few other variations to various dessert recipes sitting here in a queue waiting to be typed up and uploaded to the web. Some are as simple as trying out existing recipes in new formats (i.e., different sized pans), while others are drastically different ingredient experiments like dairy-free and/or sugar-free gluten-free dessert recipes.

UPDATE: here's a link to the dairy-free gluten-free chocolate ganache cake recipe now.

Now it's time to go eat some of the leftover chocolate cake.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Medical Secrets Revealed : Vitamin B12 administration

Better Vitamin B12 Absorption 

Today's Gluten-Free Blog title may sound a bit like marketing hype, eh? Well, I borrowed (or paraphrased) a headline I saw in one of these pamphlets/booklets about secrets the "medical establishment" won't let you know, after coming across an article (essentially nothing more than a sales pitch) within the pamphlet about Vitamin B-12 (Cyanocobalamin) and this supposedly top-secret method of administration.

Of course, the goal of the marketing hype, which went on for a few pages about this hidden and classified way of taking Vitamin B12, was to have you order a "special report" whereby you could learn of this undisclosed method - for only $12.95 or so. I'm going to save you all $12.95, and save you the wasted time of reading such a "report", and just disclose the supposed secret about Vitamin B12 administration, and gee, I haven't even ordered the report myself!

"Secret B12 Administration Method"

Here's the deal: take Vitamin B12 sublingually! (i.e., absorbed under the tongue) That's the supposed "secret".

This is rather common knowledge among medical professionals, though I have noticed that rarely do any doctors even mention this to people, unless they are dealing with patients that have a Vitamin B12 deficiency and/or anemia, like e.g., Pernicious Anemia, which is one of the worst manifestations of a Vitamin B-12 deficiency resulting from impaired gastrointestinal absorption. In addition, as people age, they produce less gastric juices (intrinsic factor in particular) needed to absorb Vitamin B12. Celiac Disease (i.e., Coeliac) certainly raises the risk of vitamin and mineral absorption among us gluten-free types anyhow, so I won't be surprised to learn that a few of you readers have some experience with Vitamin B12 deficiency and/or treatment.

You may hear about people getting Vitamin B12 shots, which is what makes the whole oral-absorption-path sound rather appealing. I know I surely prefer letting a vitamin dissolve under my tongue a lot more than I like to get poked with a needle!

As for efficacy as a treatment, there have been a fair number of studies comparing methods of correcting Vitamin-B12 deficiency, including standard oral dosing (swallowing a vitamin), intramuscular B12 shots, and sublingual administration. I have read quite a few medical publications on the matter, including studies like this one entitled: "Oral vitamin B12 versus intramuscular vitamin B12 for vitamin B12 deficiency.", which concludes:

The evidence derived from these limited studies suggests that 2000 mcg doses of oral vitamin B12 daily and 1000 mcg doses initially daily and thereafter weekly and then monthly may be as effective as intramuscular administration in obtaining short term haematological and neurological responses in vitamin B12 deficient patients.

Or, from this study titled "Replacement therapy for vitamin B12 deficiency: comparison between the sublingual and oral route.", which concluded:

A dose of 500 micro g[rams] of cobalamin given either sublingually or orally is effective in correcting cobalamin [B12] deficiency.

What this all means is that if you have impaired B12 absorption, you have another option as to how to potentially treat your condition. Most drugstores and corner pharmacies will carry versions of Vitamin B12 specifically tailored to sublingual ingestion, though, in my personal experience, they are more expensive than "regular" B12 tablets, and may provide little advantage for the price.

Fact is, even the "regular" B12 tablets will (typically) dissolve under your tongue in a matter of a few minutes and achieve similar results, but just lack the added flavors and colors put into the sublingual variety (apparently to improve the oral experience even though B12 has very little flavor to begin with, and dissolves readily in your mouth).

Last, B12 is considered safe and with very little side-effect possibility at even mega-doses, and if need be, I can certainly cite studies that demonstrate this.

I hope everyone finds this information useful, and if so, I'll try to expose more of those supposed medical secrets that it seems some people try to sell instead of just coming right out and disclosing what the "secret" is.

I actually would like to discuss some of my own B12 experiences in more detail later - including some of the rather remarkable improvements it made to certain blood-test results (not just B12 blood-numbers either). But, that's another story, and it'll have to wait.

Note: I am not a doctor, and if you want to confirm any of the information I provided, just ask your doctor and/or do online research.

Gluten potential in "Fake Coffee"

Gluten in Fake Coffee

I was just perusing the Internet today reading some of the latest science news floating around. I came across this article entitled "Fingerprinting Fake Coffee" that got my attention at first because of the strange headline, but furthermore, upon reading, for its rather concerning content.

In a nutshell, here's what's going on:

Basically since gourmet coffee prices are hitting astronomical levels, the temptation or incentive for producers to "cheat" rises — and, in this case cheating means cutting the pure coffee (which is a naturally gluten-free product) down with other things that could surely jeopardize the Celiac-safe nature of coffee. Because certain (cheating) producers are using potentially unsafe (i.e., perhaps gluten-containing) dilution ingredients to cheat coffee consumers, the coffee may not be gluten-free after all. And, it's not like the producers are going to put anything on the ingredient list to indicate that they've jeopardized the purity of the coffee, since, after all, their entire strategy is based upon deception in hopes of increased profits.

The particular study cited above examined the widespread adulteration of Brazilian coffee, where tests showed that one brand of coffee contained 9% corn in it of all things! Sure, corn is gluten-free in it's pure form, and corn was the most common cutting-agent detected, but the following quote is what concerned me:

"Gulab Jham and colleagues point out that such adulteration of Brazilian coffee is among the most serious problems affecting coffee quality — with cereal grains, coffee twigs, and brown sugar sometimes mixed into the genuine article. Their research focuses on detecting corn, probably the most widely used adulterant."

That "cereal grains" statement really got my attention. Basically, because this entire "fake coffee" thing is about increasing profit by substituting other cheaper ingredients for coffee, it seems only likely that if wheat or other gluten-containing ingredients are cheaper than corn or coffee-twigs or what have you, that's what the perpetrators will use next, and there goes the safety of one of my favorite beverages! (and, some people are surely allergic to corn out there that expect coffee to be corn-allergy safe as well)

It's bad enough that greed drives people to dilute products and mislead consumers, but it's a whole other story when such scams could seriously impact the health and safety of unsuspecting buyers and coffee drinkers. This is something neither I, nor anyone else with gluten-intolerance or other food allergies, wants to worry about. Worse, the article made me thing about how if this type of behavior could affect coffee, it also may exist with other food products, especially anywhere that there is more money to be made through diluting an otherwise pure product -- what's next?... perhaps cocoa or chocolate will be next, or tea, or....

Let's all hope this isn't a widespread practice in the food industry!

Gluten-Free Great Britain - my experience

OK, I admit it, I've been slacking off the past couple weeks and enjoying a family vacation in the United Kingdom (England in particular). This was the first family vacation in many years, and the first ever that was more than a week long. We all decided to finally give in and take a nice long break, especially before our daughter heads off to grad-school to begin her English PhD in a couple weeks.

A key consideration for me whenever considering travel is how I can safely eat gluten-free while away from home. I didn't know what British gluten-free food availability would be compared to here in the USA, and I was a bit hesitant about making the trip because of this. Luckily, any fears of gluten-free food option shortages was without merit.

I did receive some helpful pre-trip advice from Dianne (who authors the UK Celiac and Gluten-Free blog called "Gluten Free Journey"). In addition to her wonderful blogs about eating gluten-free in the United Kingdom, she also provided some great advice regarding what to see and do in the country. She has some great restaurant reviews posted on her site too, which were quite nice when planning where to eat during a couple days of our adventure.

I also packed a couple boxes of Jigsaw Bars to make sure I had some good, safe, gluten-free snack food along to fill in any gaps between "safe" food finds, and they worked out wonderfully. Luckily, Jigsaw Health had a buy-one-get-one-free sale going (and still do actually), so I was able to really load up on these handy and healthy gluten-free bars. I went through 24 bars in 16 days, and that was just about right for filler-foods when out and about (especially when walking 5-10 miles/day in London).

The Trip
I had never been to Britain before, and quite honestly, it was nothing like I had imagined it or like others had described it to me.

One thing was exactly I as I expected: the flight. Oh my god is that a long flight. Sure, it's shorter than flying to the complete far side of the world, but at 7 hours to get there, and 8 hours back, it was a bit rough. The jet-lag going there was horrendous, as our flight departed Cleveland at around 8:30PM local time and arrived in London around 8:30AM their local time. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well (nearly zero in fact) on the flight.

So, right off the plane we picked up our rental car, and I got my first fast-track hands-on learning experience with driving on the "wrong" (i.e., Left) side of the road. That wasn't too difficult to become accustomed to actually. But, then came the infamous "roundabouts". Forget stop-signs: they don't exist in the UK from my experience (though, there are occasional "give way" signs that provide for rolling-stops of sorts). But, the roundabout replaces stop-lights and the old familiar USA "X" intersections nearly everywhere. Luckily, even with sleep-deprivation, I managed to make my way from London Gatwick airport to Winchester (our first sight-seeing stop), and on to our hotel in Portsmouth the first day...

Meeting Dianne from Gluten-Free Journey
...and, thank god, Dianne and her husband (yep, the same Dianne from that famous United Kingdom gluten-free blog) offered to meet my wife, daughter and I in Portsmouth, UK and drive us from the hotel out to dinner at Bombay Bay (Indian food - a place which she has reviewed on her web site). I can not express in words our gratitude for the attention Dianne and her husband bestowed upon up, and for saving me from an otherwise certain fate of getting lost in Portsmouth while trying to find the restaurant we were to meet at!

Dianne's husband made those (never-ending) roundabouts seem like child's play as he whisked us through the English traffic (which I was still finding daunting given my inexperience) on our way to dinner. They also took time to take the scenic-route, and showed us quite a few of the more notable landmarks and attractions in the Portsmouth, UK region en route to the restaurant.

By now, it was around 7PM and we three American tourists were running on fumes as sleep deprivation was causing some serious brain-fog, but our hosts did a wonderful job of keeping us going through thoughtful discussion and superb cuisine. Did I mention how absolutely awesome Dianne and her husband are? They are two of the nicest people you could imagine, and both are quite intelligent and great conversationalists. What a great way to get an introduction to British culture and meet a fellow gluten-free blogger from a new country!

We exchanged some "local" gluten-free specialties and gifts. Dianne introduced me to Thornton's Chocolates - in particular, clotted-cream chocolate-covered vanilla fudge, and oh my god are they good! And, they have clearly labeled gluten-free products. She also gave us some books on traditional British cuisine and the local geography and sites. What a fantastic and thoughtful thing to do! We took her some Tinkyada pasta that she had otherwise been unable to find in the UK, and some other gluten-free treats like Cinnamon-Raisin Peanut Butter from Peanut Butter & Co., which I have since heard Dianne really loves. It sure seems to me there is an opportunity for some cross export-import of some of these wonderful items between the USA and England, but that's another story altogether.

Well, needless to say, the evening went by in a flash, and though we had time to discuss our various gluten-free experiences and living with Celiac (Coeliac per UK spelling), there is never really enough time in one evening to cover everything you'd like. We certainly learned things about the other we otherwise didn't know, including how Dianne's husband has the same camera I used to photograph the GF Desserts book, and how Dianne is quite the expert in understanding blood tests (this will be handy in my coming blogs, as I hope to collaborate a bit with her on my more science-oriented health topic discussions).

So, the evening ended and finally we enjoyed a night of much needed sleep. And, the next day began with us moving on to see all sorts of varied English landscapes, sites, attractions, buildings, and towns.

Gluten-Free in England / Great Britain
I will go into much more detail about some of the wonderful gluten-free foods, treats, restaurants, desserts, candies, drinks, and more that I found while in the UK at a later time, and for now start with a summary of the experience (in particular, how things compare to the United States).

First of all, they (the UK) have much better product labeling than we do in most cases. I spent quite a bit of time checking out products in grocery stores and specialty shops while in England, and I was utterly impressed by how clear their gluten-free labeling is (and, allergen-labeling in general). There are exceptions of course, but primarily I found it much easier to quickly determine if a product was safe for me to consume or not. I'll be posting a list of some of my favorite UK Gluten-Free products soon - I saved the labels from things so I could remember them and comment on them!

And, restaurants tend to be ahead of the United States in their awareness of Coeliac Disease and consumer limitations. In fact, we ate at a few small, single-site restaurants that presented menus clearly indicating which items were gluten-free, vegetarian, and so forth. One little street-corner French restaurant called Bistro Deja-vu in the Cumbria (Lake District) city of Kendal could set a standard for simplicity and clarity. Just check out their online menu and you'll see that nice little "gf" symbol beside everything safe. Fantastic! Sure, there were places that didn't have a clue about gluten-free living and eating, but in general, most knew what it was and didn't have a problem determining what menu items were safe and which were not.

The bottom-line regarding gluten-free eating in England: generally simple and many excellent products and restaurants are available. Stay tuned for specifics.

The British Heritage Pass
The picture at the beginning of this blog shows our Great British Heritage Passes. I highly recommend this if you plan to see some of the popular attractions. The pass gets you into 580 different and magnificent properties around the country, and can be a real money-saver compared to purchasing individual entry into different sites. And, it is definitely a time-saver as well, as you don't have to worry about having additional cash available as you stop by each site on your trip.

We created our own travel plan to make a big loop around most of the United Kingdom during our two weeks, starting near London, working Westward towards Weymouth, North through Bath to Preston and Cumbria (the Lake District National Park), Southeast through the Peak District and South into London. We stopped for most any historic building, castle, ruin, park, garden, and other attraction along the way that was on our pass, and the sights were spectacular! I'll go into more detail in future posts, including some pictures of the various regions, when I get time to organize all of the digital photos we took (over 1100 of them).

Sorry about not being very active with the Gluten-Free Blog recently because of our adventure, but I plan to redeem myself with all sorts of upcoming blogs over the coming months :)

Survey Results: Blood Tests and Urine Tests Comprehension and Interest

Survey Results: Understand Blood Tests and Urine Tests

Last week I posted a survey regarding how well everyone understands blood-test results, and how interested people would be in having me write about the details of blood-tests and other lab tests.

The results of the survey were as follows:

Survey Results: Understanding Blood and Urine Tests

It sure looks like enough people are interested in me writing about health-science topics in the future to merit attention. I'm looking forward to it, and plan to draw from my technical background a bit to explain as best I can some of the science behind test results and their pertinence to Celiac Disease and living Gluten-Free.

As time allows, I will try to spend it researching and writing a series of gluten-free blog articles in the future that address this demand for health-science topics. I want to provide proper references for all the information I'll post (i.e., I don't plan to post opinions, but rather I want to post scientific fact) wherever possible. I have started collecting online reference links I can use, and this is going to take me some time to assemble into anything coherent.

I may forget to always come back to this entry and make links to any science and medical news I post here, so please use the quick-search labels at the side of the blog.  Here are some articles that quickly emerged after this survey:

• Vitamin B12 anemia and treating B12 anemia with sublingual (under-the-tongue) vitamin B12 (vs. vitamin B12 shots)
• Diabetes and increased blood-glucose readings and how to control blood-sugar issues that may correlate with Celiac Disease
• Search this blog for more Gluten-Free / Celiac Disease Science and Medical articles.

I'm looking forward to eventually posting all sorts of useful health-science blogs and articles in the future.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.

Survey - Do you understand blood test results and the like?

Gluten-Free and Deciphering Blood Tests / Urine Tests 

I have created a couple mini-survey questions related to this gluten-free blog discussion (see the two survey questions at right [NOTE: Survey is Compete, image below shows the results]), that I'd appreciate getting your feedback on. Thank you!

Understanding Blood Test and Urine Test Results Survey

Here's what inspires these questions....

So, you have been to your doctor and you have have been provided with a printout of your latest blood test results (like a CBC), and/or urine test results (a complete metabolic panel perhaps), and so forth. Now, can you makes sense of all the various acronyms and reference-ranges and such on these reports?

Note: if you don't have a copy of your blood test results (or urine test results), I suggest always having the doctor print a copy of these test-results for your records, and I'll get into "why" a bit later.

If you are like most people, you may just take your doctor's word that "everything is fine" and not look further into the test numbers. Or, maybe you quickly scan the list of numbers/results on the report and see if any have been flagged as being outside the reference-ranges. Or, perhaps if you are the really inquisitive and/or diligent type, you always look closely at the numbers and question why the results are what they are, and even research the science behind each line-item. Finally, it is even possible that maybe you just don't care.

Well, I am interested in learning what the distribution of attitudes towards understanding lab-test results (blood, urine, etc.) is among my readers. The reason I ask, is that I am planning to eventually write a series of blog entries to discuss some of the human physiology aspects of Celiac Disease and why living Gluten-Free is so important to us, and discuss how Celiac can manifest itself on these blood tests and such (and, I don't mean on just antibody tests, but rather on things like your red blood-cell counts, corpuscular volumes, and much more). In addition, I plan to explain not just the tests, but some of the terminolgy surrounding the medical aspects of such tests - like reference ranges, differential diagnoses, contraindications, and more.

If there is sufficient interest, I'm going to begin by providing some "top-down" education about what all the test results mean, and then dive rather deep into the science behind individual tests as it may relate to things like iron-deficiency anemia, vitamin B12 anemia (even how to treat B12 anemia with sublingual vitamin B12, rather a miracle considering may be as effective as vitamin B-12 shots), controlling blood-sugar issues that may arise with Celiac Disease, and other conditions that we Celiacs are more prone to (because of nutrient absorption issues and so on).

Deciphering Blood Test Results, especially how they potentially relate to Celiac / Gluten-Free living, is an important thing to me, but I really want to understand what it means to the rest of you. So, please offer your input by voting on the two items at the right. Be honest - if you have no interest, just say so, and likewise if you find this intruiging and want to learn more, let me know.

I have also been prototyping some software to help people with simplified home blood test and lab-test result analysis, and help spot trends over time. I'm also trying to make it simple to identify correlations between multiple test results. My objective is simple: help people become more aware of what is, and is not, "normal" for them, and to identify potential problems at an early enough stage that any long-term negative effects can be averted. The software will be the last stage in my public-education and assistance series, if the demand warrants it, and if time permits me to create this.  I have competed a working sample using Google's spreadsheets and data-tables and charting components, which I can perhaps make public.

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available.