Tag Archives: “It’s
Gluten and dairy from Cornish pasty, because it’s pie week
Can you eat pie? The chances are that if you’re a coeliac or have a wheat, dairy or celery allergy that they are totally off limits. Well no longer! You can still eat pie!
There are quite a few gluten free pastries and dairy free pastries on the market but not many that are both gluten and dairy free together. And I have made pastry before so if you love baking you can make your own pies. But what if you’re on the go and you just want to buy a pasty. I would have thought that this was just a dream but not any more.
At this year’s FreeFrom Food Awards 2017 judging I discovered the most amazing gluten and dairy free Cornish pasty.
It seemed very appropriate to share this today, especially since it’s British Pie Week!
This is not technically a pie but I think it qualifies.
Gluten, dairy and celery free Cornish Pasty
Now it’s been rather a long time since I ate a pasty and to have a REAL Cornish Pasty from Cornwall was one of those OMG moments. This pasty is amazing.
West Cornwall Pasty company Gluten and dairy free pasty
These West Cornwall Pasty pasty company pasties are freefrom wheat, dairy, soya and celery but most of all, they were packed with declious meat and vegetables and taste amazing. I need to get hold of some more of these because they were so delicious.
This was my outstanding moment from judging and there were many.
I may have eaten more of my fair share… OK I had loads. Well alright I had a whole one and some more.
I really rather enjoyed these gluten and dairy free pasties
You can find out more about the amazing West Cornwall Pasty company here in their latest blog ‘Everybody gluten and dairy free pasty shortlisted for FreeFrom Food Award 2017’.
To see all the other shortlisted products visit the FreeFrom Food Awards website.
These awards are so important for championing all the companies out there who really care about those of us with allergies and coaliac disease. These companies don’t think we should miss out or be excluded from enjoying a choice of foods and they have all gone the extra mile to experiment and create freefrom alternatives.
My taste buds may have changed over the years but I actually think many of these products would pass as the real thing and in some cases are even tastier.
I challenge you to try these pasties because you will be impressed! These are the real deal.
Let’s big up the FreeFrom Food Awards! #FFFA17
It’s Seville Orange Season
Seville oranges are oranges that are in season around January and are a taste experience that has both sweet and bitter overtones. They are not oranges for eating but do make an excellent marmalade and this is what most people in the UK use them for. They are suitable for a low FODMAP diet. I purchased mine from a local farmers market, which meant that they were reasonably good value. I have made this marmalade a couple of times now and for both I have used jam sugar developed for high pectin containing fruits. The high pectin in these oranges comes from using the pith, pips and skin of the oranges during the marmalade production. Be aware that some sources of pectin can be apple based. Whether you tolerate apple pectin depends on how much was used to make the jam and how much you eat at the time. Remember the low FODMAP diet is just that – low – not fodmap free – fodmap free would be impossible to follow! I don’t like too much of the shredded peel in my marmalade but you could use more in yours if you wish. I needed two bags of jam sugar and twelve oranges, plus 50ml of lemon juice to make the marmalade and the result was four 500g jars. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get more but I suspected that I could have added more sugar and peel to make more jam. But less sugar and more fruit has to be better – right?
Using a jam pan, the first thing to do is to wash the fruit then boil them in a little water, just to cover the fruit, till they are soft. Remove the oranges and keep the water in the pan. Once cool, cut each orange in half and juice each one then save the pith and seeds. Boiling the fruit whole has the advantage of getting more juice from the fruit and allowing you to scrape some of the pith from the peel before you chop it and add it to the marmalade. Scrape the pith off the skin and slice and chop it to your desired shred size. Add an additional 500mls of water to the pan, the orange juice, shredded peel, jam sugar and lemon juice. Using a muslin bag add the remaining pith and pips to the bag and tie the top. Add the bag to the pan. Bring the marmalade to a boil and keep a rolling boil till the marmalade reaches it’s setting point. This is likely to be more than one hour but keep a check on it. Check it’s setting point by adding a small amount of marmalade to a cold plate and it should wrinkle when pushed with a spoon. Sterilize four to five jam jars, add the marmalade and seal the lids. If they are sealed correctly the marmalade will last sealed in the jar for at least a year. Serve a small amount on gluten free or sourdough spelt bread for a low fodmap breakfast treat.
Welcome to a New Year! It’s time for New Skin!
Wow – we can’t believe it’s already 2017! We absolutely love ringing in the New Year and want to share that moment with our followers. If you had it tough last year, we’re here to remind you that the New Year not only brings good luck, but new opportunities. This month, we’re focusing on a […]
It’s an Itchy Little World
June 8 Itching for a Cure walk in New Jersey: it’s not about you
The National Eczema Association recently announced the second annual Itching for a Cure walk, which will raise awareness and funds for eczema outreach and research. It will take place June 8 on the Monmouth University campus in New Jersey–essentially greater New York City. (Last year’s walk was held in Asheville, North Carolina.)
The largest barrier for me, as an adult patient, to participating in such a walk–were one to be held in the area I live in–is embarrassment. Eczema is not a socially acceptable disease. It’s there on your skin, sometimes your face, where people can see there’s something wrong with you. And when it’s not visible, that’s a good thing. You want to hide it.
In this matter, there’s a huge difference between a parent of a child with eczema and an adult patient with eczema. The mother or father of a child with eczema is not embarrassed. They are concerned and want to do everything they can to make their child better.
On top of the embarrassment factor, it seems a bit selfish, a bit like a panhandler, for an adult patient to take part in an eczema walk. Sponsor me, it seems to say, to raise money for a cure for me!
Mothers and fathers are ready to fight for their kids. They are not doing it for themselves. They will proudly take part in an eczema walk, and look you in the eye.
The absence of adult patients from Itching for a Cure is probably not a major factor. After all, eczema is predominantly a condition that children outgrow. But how might we convince adult patients, including me, to take part?
I think the key lies in altruism. It’s not about you.
Let’s face it–if you’re raising money to increase awareness of the prevalence of eczema, or how it should be properly treated, or to fund research that might lead to a pharmaceutical cure–you are not doing it for yourself. There will be no cure for eczema in your lifetime. You are doing it for other people. Your grandkids, and millions of people you will never know.
It becomes a lot less embarrassing when you’re doing it for somebody else.
And that is why if there is ever an Itching for a Cure walk in my area, I’ll be signing up. I know exactly how shitty it is to live with this condition, and how important it is that other people be spared the torment and the embarrassment. It’s not me I’ll be doing it for–it’s you!
End Eczema
It’s not in your head: gluten hurts non-celiacs too
The next time that annoying friend (or family member) snarkily comments on how your “gluten intolerance” isn’t a thing, go ahead and point them to a new study released by the Colombia University Medical Centre. Researchers there discovered that people with non-celiac wheat sensitivity have a weak intestinal barrier (I know, d’oh) and that eating gluten containing wheats and related cereals triggers a “body-wide inflammatory response”.
The Science Daily website quotes study authors Peter H. Green, MD, the Phyllis and Ivan Seidenberg as saying: “Our study shows that the symptoms reported by individuals with this condition are not imagined, as some people have suggested. It demonstrates that there is a biological basis for these symptoms in a significant number of these patients.”
Right now there’s no blood test protocol to diagnose this, so it’s hard to estimate how many suffer from non-celiac gluten or wheat sensitivity (NCWS), but it’s believed to affect about one percent of the population. Those suffering from NCWS have celiac-like gastrointestinal symptoms and also fatigue, cognitive issues like brain fog or memory loss, and mood disturbances.
I say this: not too long ago doctors believed mast cell activation (whereby too much inflammatory histamine is released by white blood cells) was very rare. Now specialists like Dr. Afrin tell us it’s closer to one in six Americans.
Authors of the aforementioned study found elevated markers of acute systemic immune activation, which they believe is caused by microbes and food components leaked from the gut into general circulation in the body.
The researchers found that NCWS patients on a wheat and gluten cereals free diet for six months “were able to normalise their levels of immune activation and intestinal cell damage markers.”
This all goes a long way to explaining why simply eliminating gluten containing grains made such a big difference to my recovery. I really only fully embraced the gluten free thing a couple of years ago. Interestingly I was really confused initially because I continued to have grain reactions. Rather than eliminating all grains at the time, I did some more digging and found all about oxalic acid.
If grains are bothering you, please check out my posts on oxalic acid in foods.
But I’m not an extremist anymore. While I do believe that modern baked products contain far too much gluten for some of us, and that grains are inflammatory, I will eat a few pieces of beautifully crusty bread while in France.
I try to live by the 10% rule. That as long as 90% of my diet is amazingly nutrient dense and full of healing antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods like those my cookbooks are made up of, then I can go nuts with the rest. Sometimes that means a creamy raw chocolate avocado cake, or a plate of wild mushrooms with garlic and herbed olive oil mopped up with a chunk of perfectly baked baguette. It’s more often a few avocados, tomatoes, spoons of mustard or cacao a week.
But it’s most definitely never, ever, a KFC or Mc Donald’s.
It’s finally here! Man Food – a high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredient filled book geared towards guys, women who love to work out, yoga like they mean it, or just load up on healing nutrients. Features my personal shopping list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods.
The Anti-cookbook and all liquid Anti-Detox Book, don’t treat any conditions, but feature a plethora of the high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients that have been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. The Anti-cookbook features a four page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods and comes in regular and Paleo.
The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes.
Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.
Take a peek at my other low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes
——- REFERENCES ——-
“Biological Explanation for Wheat Sensitivity Found.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 31 July 2016.
Afrin, Lawrence B. M.D., Kendra Neilsen Myles, Carol Schaengold, Kristi Posival, and Ingram Spark. Never Bet against Occam: Mast Cell Activation Disease and the Modern Epidemics of Chronic Illness and Medical Complexity. Bethesda, MD: Sisters Media , LLC, 2016. Print.
Armin Alaedini et al. Intestinal cell damage and systemic immune activation in individuals reporting sensitivity to wheat in the absence of coeliac disease. Gut, July 2016 DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2016-311964
“It’s the inside that counts,” says MAC, as they cover a plus size model in slap and feathers
MAC has just released its latest ad campaign on the world, showing women that they have the ability to ’empower’ themselves regardless of their shape or size. The campaign, dubbed ‘MACnificent Me,’ takes these real girls, transforms them with MAC make-up and, from what I can see, gets them to stick two fingers up at the …
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