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Today's the Day: Blog

Recap: Nut Butters and Celiac

Posted: Monday, May 11th, 2009

Happy belated Mother's Day! I hope many of you had the opportunity to spend time with your mothers, or your children this weekend. At times, I was hoping my Mothers day could consist of some "down time", a sleep in and a hot bath. I managed to sleep in until 8am and got in a much needed workout. By mid-afternoon I had put off the bath and swapped the activity for making forts in Andie's room. In fact I think I made the best fort ever, it had different rooms in it, and different doors and entrance ways. It was awesome and it made my kids smile. I was in fact the best mom ever! A friend recently reminded me of the importance our time is to our children. It beats any new toy or gadget and I am glad I remembered that as I was about to start the bath. My only other wish list for the day was to hit a bucket of balls. Golf season has finally arrived and I had yet to take a swing of the club. I gave up on the weather and finally dressed in layers and headed to the range with my husband and Andie in tow. It felt great to hit the balls again although it was only after every 3rd or 4th shot that I was happy with the contact with the ball. Practice makes perfect-- which means I'll still be sitting around the 100 mark at the end of the season. That's OK….I hope to remain in the running for the best mom ever! I can golf when I retire and the kids are embarrassed by my presence!

Late last week I ran a segment about peanut allergies and the alternatives people can use instead of peanut butter. Teri Gentes, our natural nutrition and wellness coach gave us some suggestions on how to get the taste without the dangers of the allergies or putting those with allergies at risk.

Here is the information that Teri passed on:

 Living Health - Diet, Health, Fitness and Food Education, Coaching and Inspiration

www.terigentes.comteri@terigentes.com  613 277 5817

 

Better Nut and Seed Butters – Enjoy health essential fatty acids with natural butters.

  • Healthy essential fatty acids
  • Vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants
  • Fibre and fabulous flavour

Sunbutter

Blend equal parts of room temperature butter with cold pressed olive oil and place and store in a glass container in the fridge. It keeps perfectly spread-able as would your usual variations of margarine and taste so much better.

Options: Use Ruth’s hempseed oil or Orphee’s walnut or flaxseed oil in place of the olive oil.

Almond Butter – Vitamins E, K, B 2,3,4,5, biotin, minerals, healthy fats (80% oleic- reduces LDL, stabilizes blood sugar, energizes, and boosts immune enhancing phytochemicals and is a great source of protein and fibre).  Scoop it directly out of the Avocado or blend as indicated below and use in place of butter:

2 ripened avocados

1 tablespoon Orphee olive oil

Generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper or cayenne to taste

Mash or puree the avocado pulp,
Blend in the olive oil and season with sea salt and peppers as desired.
Use in place of butter, as a spread in sandwiches, a quick dip... 

Products:  www.higginscohn.comwww.earthbalance.com  www.sunbutter.com

Today we dealt with another food issue: May is Celiac Disease Awareness Month and so I figured it would be ideal to run a segment which focused on the disease and ways people are coping with it. Here is some information on the disease:

What is Celiac Disease?

Celiac disease (CD) is a genetic disorder. In people with CD, eating certain types of protein, called gluten, sets off an autoimmune response that causes damage to the small intestine. This, in turn, causes the small intestine to lose its ability to absorb the nutrients found in food, leading to malnutrition and a variety of other complications.

The offending protein, gluten, is found in wheat, barley, rye, and to a lesser extent, oats (WBRO). Related proteins are found in triticale, spelt, kamut. Refer to grains and flours Glossary for a more extensive list of both safe and offending grains.
 
 
Celiac Disease is:

  • a genetic, inheritable disease.
  • linked to genetically transmitted histocompatibility cell antigens (HLA DR3-DQ2, DR5/7 DQ2, and DR4-DQ8).
  • COMMON. Approximately 1 in 133 people have CD, however, only about 3% of these have been diagnosed. This means that there are over 2.1 million undiagnosed people with celiac disease in the United States.
  • characterized by damage to the mucosal lining of the small intestine which is known as villous atrophy. responsible for the malabsorption of nutrients resulting in malnutrition.
    linked to skin blisters known as dermatitis herpetiformis (DH).
  • not age-dependent. It may become active at any age.

Celiac Disease is NOT:

  • simply a food allergy.
  • an idiosyncratic reaction to food proteins (mediated by IgE).
  • typified by a rapid histamine-type reaction (such as bronchospasm, urticaria, etc.).
    http://www.csaceliacs.org/month.php

For the segment we were back at Kardish Bulk Foods & Nutrition Centre where Carey Assaf showed us a variety of new products to hit the market which are Gluten Free. It seems the options have increased by leaps and bounds from a few years ago and are available at a variety of different outlets. Kardish carries Gluten Free products at all of their locations.

For more information on Kardish please check out their website: www.kardishfoods.com

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