New food: Amaranth flat bread from the Fair Food Farm Stand in Reading Terminal Market. It was different, but good, and would probably serve as a nice pita-replacer.
I went to see the nutritionist yesterday. The experience was less than satisfying. First of all, I hate it when I tell people I'm vegetarian and they continue to talk about meat. For example, she noted that I should be sure to tell wait staff at restaurants to please ask the kitchen to prepare my bunless hamburger on a part of the grill that has been used to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Sure, it's solid advice, and I can extend that to "don't let them fix my eggs where they make french toast and pancakes," but still. It just makes me think she wasn't really listening to me.
Her answers to my questions: Do I need to be really worried about cross-contamination with utensils? No, just wash them well. (I still have doubts because so much of what I have read says to take great care in this area.) What about supplements? Take a good multivitamin and take extra calcium and vitamin D. What about B vitamins? Oh, just make sure that they are in your multivitamin. (In my opinion, I get enough calcium from leafy greens and vitamin D from the sun, at least right now, but that I have no visible source of B vitamins.) Recommendation for a brand of supplements that are GF? Oh, just research it on-line. What about foods the TJ's foods that say that they are made with care but that they make no promises? Whole Foods has a better selection. Anything you recommend? There's a really great cereal. Ammar... something in a big green bag. Really tasty. We got it at Whole Foods for my father. Any other advice? Breakfasts out are hard. You should take your own box of gluten-free cold cereal when you travel. In the venn diagram of my vegetarian-GF-booze-free chocolate-free eat-to-live diet, I think I will have to become my own expert. My partner was telling me on Sunday how bad she feels for me that I won't ever again be able to just stop somewhere and pick up a bagel. I feel bad about that too. I'm realizing that it will be hard to find restaurants that are gluten-aware enough that I won't worry about cross contamination. But, as incurable diseases go, celiac is definitely WAY better than some others. I expect that I will become quite savvy at planning and packing 99% of my meals away from home, and that it will just be my new normal. Right now, I'm having a hard time being enthusiastic about that.
So I've read lots about things that would help in reducing gluten contamination in my life. Here's a random list of things that have been suggested or that have occurred to me:
G-Free Diet (a book I sat on the floor and read at Borders yesterday) Tiffin -- stainless steel lunch tote and accessories A GF designated cutting board, spatulas, spoons, etc. Maybe my own shelf in the kitchen? I do wonder about the communal kitchen towel and how the omni-present bread crumbs on the counter might infiltrate my system somehow. Gluten is very very sneaky, apparently. |
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January 2024
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