The Problem of Weight Gain in Adults with Celiac Disease June 20, 2008

I just came across this newsletter from the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center.  The e-newsletter, Impact, is published quarterly.

I especially enjoyed the headline article:  “The Problem of Weight Gain in Adults with Celiac Disease”.  This is an issue that may be on the minds of many people with celiac disease.  Many of us were used to eating large quantities of food and not gaining weight.  Once we begin the gluten free diet and our intestines are repaired we begin absorbing all of the food we are ingesting.  This can cause us to gain weight. 

Unfortunately, the only way to avoid this weight loss is to cut back on the calories that we take in and/or increase the amount of activity we engage in.  The problem as I see it is psychological and it may be hard to overcome.  Depending on how long you were suffering from celiac disease and were undiagnosed, you may have a hard time giving up the large quantities of food you were eating.  Also you may have an unconcious feeling that you will “starve” of you don’t eat.  I think these feelings are common and you need to find a way to change your thinking. 

Becoming more active is a good move in all cases, as long as you are physically able.  If you are eating to feed your active body you may be able to overcome some of the previous mindsets. 

Check out the newsletter for some good tips and good luck keeping your weight under control. 

Moroccan-Style Pasta May 23, 2008

I found the recipe for this very good pasta dish in the Idaho Statesman newspaper. I love to try new tastes and we were thrilled with this one. It is fairly easy to make. I would read through the recipe before starting. You need to toast the almonds, which can be done in advance, and have the chopped parsley and cilantro ready at the end of the preparations. I used canned, diced tomatoes which worked well and cuts down on the preparation time slightly. The recipe is gluten-free as long as you use GF pasta. My favorite now is Mrs. Leeper’s corn pasta. I serve it with fresh, slightly steamed spinach and GF bread.

Moroccan-Style Pasta

This is a delicious blend of the tastes of north Africa and the pasta of Italy.

Recipe adapted from Gino D’Acampo’s “Fantastico”, Kyle Books, 2008, $19.99

Start to finish: 45 minutes

Servings: 6

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced

8 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cumin

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 cup canned chickpeas (garbanzo) beans, drained

1 cup slivered almonds, toasted

12 ounces gluten-free pasta (linguine is good)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the onion and sauté until soft and lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium.

Add the tomatoes, cinnamon and cumin. Cook, uncovered and stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes break down.

Season with salt and pepper. Add the chickpeas and almonds, then cook for another 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, according to directions on package. Drain and add the pasta to the skillet.

Stir the pasta into the sauce for 1 minute, then add the pasley and cilantro and stir for another minute.

My calculations on nutrition:

Per serving (1/6 of recipe)

Calories: 538

Protein: 11 g

Carbohydrates: 67 g

Fat: 27 grams

Sweet and Sour Slaw April 9, 2008

Everyone will love this slaw.  It has a peanut sauce which is delicious.  It is a good dish to take to a potluck.  I add red bell peppers (sliced thin) and sliced green onions to make it tastier and more colorful.  Sometimes I add cooked chicken, cut up, for a main dish salad.  Use wheat-free tamari sauce in place of the soy sauce to make it gluten free.  This salad contains plenty of vitamins, fiber and protein for your active lifestyle.

 

Sweet and Sour Slaw

From Jane Brody’s “Good Food Gourmet”

6 servings

 

Preparation tips:  The dressing can be premixed and combined with the cabbage and pepper flakes several hours before serving but add the peanuts at serving time.

 

Dressing:1/3 cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar ¼ cup natural peanut butter (smooth or crunchy) 3 tablespoons brown sugar ½ tsp. salt, or to taste (optional) 1 Tbsp. Soy sauce 1 tsp. oriental sesame oil

Salad:7 to 8 cups (about 1 ¼ lb.) shredded green cabbage Red pepper flakes to taste (optional) ½ cup dry-roasted unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped

 

1. Place the dressing ingredients in a blender, and process them on low until they are well mixed.
2. About 1 hour before serving, place the dressing in a large bowl, and add the cabbage, 2 cups at a time, tossing the ingredients after each addition.  Then stir in the pepper flakes (if you are using them).  Cover the bowl, and chill the salad for 1 hour, tossing it every now and then.
3. At serving time, add the peanuts, and toss the salad once more.  Use a slotted spoon to serve the slaw.

 

Optional:  I add cut-up, cooked chicken breast and sliced red bell peppers sometimes for a full meal.

 

This is good for a pot luck, everyone loves it.

Easy, Tasty Soup April 5, 2008

I made this easy, hearty soup last night.  It couldn’t be easier, just put all of the ingredients in a soup pot and cook for about 20 minutes.  It is full of protein with chicken and beans and vegetables.  I added a package of spinach which I washed and chopped just before serving the soup.  This recipe is from a good resource for sports nutrition, “Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook”. She is a registered dietitian (RD) who specializes in nutrition for exercise and health. 

Chicken & Black Bean Soup

 From Nancy Clark’s “Sports Nutrition Guidebook”

 4 chicken breasts, skinned & boned

5 cups chicken broth or water (I use 2 cups broth and 3 cups water)

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 tomatoes, chopped (I used 1 can diced tomatoes)

½ onion, chopped

3-5 cloves garlic, crushed

2-16 ounce cans black beans, rinsed & drained

1 tsp. Oregano

optional: 2-4 cups cooked pasta; 2 oz. Grated cheddar cheese; ½ cup marsala wine (I also added one package of washed and chopped spinach just before serving.)

 

• 1. In a large stock pot, place the chicken breasts, broth, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, beans and seasonings (and wine) in the water or broth. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 20 minutes or until done.
• 2. Remove the chicken pieces from the broth and set them aside to cool. Keep the broth warm over low heat. (Optional: add the cooked pasta).
• 3. Dice the chicken into small pieces. Return it to the soup and heat it through.
• 4. Garnish with grated cheese and red pepper flakes, if desired.

 

4 servings, 300 cal. Per serving.

Carb = 33 g, protein = 35 g, fat = 3 g

 

Peanut sauce adds to easy vegetarian and gluten free dinner March 17, 2008

If you are vegetarian and gluten intolerant a typical easy dinner is sauteed or steamed vegetables on top of a bed of rice.  I love to add a good peanut sauce on top of the vegetables. 

I first had this meal when I went on a bike tour with Women Tours.  Kimberly made a delicous meal for us hungry bike riders which really hit the spot.  She offered cooked, cut up chicken pieces in addition to the rice and veggies for those who wanted to eat meat.  They also had walnuts to sprinkle on top. 

I have been experimenting with peanut sauces and finally found a wonderful version which is also very easy to make.  This peanut sauce is from the cookbook “Vegetarian Planet” by Didi Emmons.  I used lite coconut milk.

I also used about 1 teaspoon fish sauce and then added enough gluten-free soy sauce to equal one tablespoon.  The result is very good, a good choice to add some taste and protein to an easy dinner.  Add some chopped walnuts on top for crunchiness and to add omega-3′s.

Got Guts 5K December 4, 2007

I received a comment from Christine:

Hi Kathy — I like your site and topics. We share a common interest in being active with Celiac Disease. I was also diagnosed with CD because anemia was disrupting my training for a marathon back in 2005. And a few years before that I was diagnosed with Osteoporosis (now improved to Osteopenia, thank goodness).

In the 2.5 years since I’ve been diagnosed, I’ve noticed an increase in awareness of Celiac Disease, particularly among athletes/runners. I don’t have data to support this, but it would be great to collect that. I’m also starting to hear from athletes who are following a GF diet because they feel and perform better when they avoid gluten. Some are diagnosed as gluten sensitive and some have just figured it out through the process of elimination.

I would like to see more research conducted on training and competing with Celiac Disease.

Sorry for such a long post — this is a hot topic with me!

Good luck with your cycling,

Christine

I thought I’d share this inspiring letter with you.  Christine is involved in the Got Guts 5K in Austin, Texas.  This race brings awareness of celiac disease.  What a great idea!  Many people discover they have CD because their performance suffers due to malnutrition that gluten intolerance causes.  So it is a good idea to have a run to get knowledge of celiac disease out to the athletes and public in general.  It would be great to see more of these runs around the country.   Thanks, Christine!

Gluten free triathlete December 2, 2007

I found some information about a triathlete who is gluten free on the celiac.com forum under the sports section. There was an article about Desiree Ficker in the October 2007 issue of Runners World magazine.

The magazine gives a sample of her diet.
Pre-workout breakfast: 2 pieces rice bread with butter or honey, banana, coffee
Post-workout breakfast: berry smoothie with soy milk
Lunch: chicken breast on spinach, tortilla chips
Snack: banana or grapefruit
Dinner: brown rice, fish or chicken, broccoli, carrots, zucchini
Dessert: vanilla soy ice cream

You can read more about Desiree at her website. She gives tips about gluten free nutrition during races and other information. It’s always good to see someone excelling physically on a gluten free diet.  She even offers to answer questions about nutrition.  Here is a blog from IronBri who discovered Desiree through his girlfriend who was having problems with gluten free nutrition with her training. 

Check it out! 

Sportea. a caffeine-free alternative? October 21, 2007

I picked up this Sportea last week.  It is advertised as an alternative to coffee and colas.  It contains a blend of black and green teas, siberian eleuthero root, ginger, mate’, vitamin C and natural flavorings.  The company told me by email that the flavorings do not contain gluten.  The box says that these ingredients, in combination, “fight fatigue, boosts energy and builds stamina.”  The company states that the tea is 98% caffeine-free naturally:

SPORTeaâ is a “DECAF-EQUIVILENT” with less than 2% caffeine naturally occurring. MANY DECAFFEINATED PRODUCTS contain up to 3% caffeine after the decaffeination process, which conforms to the FDA regulations for “DECAF”.

I have the iced tea sized teabags.  I just put a teabag in a quart of cold water and put it in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.  There are also 2 gram single serving teabags available.

Sounds great, right?  I like the taste of the tea.  It is very slightly sweet and refreshing.  I have had 2 quarts of the tea over the last week.  I have felt energetic but I don’t know if it is the tea or not.  I like to drink it and I’ll continue to try it out.  I think it is an option you can try if you feel you need an energy boost and don’t want to drink coffee or colas with the caffeine and sweeteners that they bring with them.   

Here in the Wood River valley I found this tea at the Valley Market in Bellevue.

Review of three gluten-free bars October 18, 2007

I have recently tried 3 bars that I never tried before.  The first is the Jocalat Larabar, chocolate mint flavor.  I like chocolate mint so I was excited to try this bar.  The Larabars are made with dates and to me they all taste pretty much the same.  I couldn’t taste much chocolate mint.  I think the Larabars are nutritious and you will like them if you like dates.  I like the fact that there are only 6 ingredients in the bar:  organic dates, organic almonds, organic cocoa mass, organic cocoa powder and organic vanilla and peppermint flavor.   No chemicals which you have to wonder what they are.  I just don’t like the taste too much.  Try it and see if you like it before you write it off.  Nutrition facts:  1 bar (48g) has 190 calories, 9 g fat (42% of calories) , 5 g protein and 25 g carbs.  I found this at the Boise Co-op. 

The thinkThin Pink limited edition Peanut Butter Caramel bar is one that I found at the grocery store.  I was surprised to see a new gluten-free bar.  This bar is in support of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  This bar has too many ingredients to name, some of which you wonder about.  It says it is gluten-free but contains milk, soy and peanuts.  It is manufactured in a plant that processes peanuts, nutmeats, soy, wheat, milk and egg products.    This bar tasted OK.  It was soft with a thin chocolate coating.  It didn’t have much texture.  I probably wouldn’t buy it again but it was tasty.  Nutrition facts:  1 bar (60g) has 230 calories, 8 g. fat (30% of calories), 20 g. protein and 26 g carbs.  I found this bar at Atkinsons’ Valley Market in Bellevue, Idaho.

The Honey Stinger 20 g Protein Bar I tried was the dark chocolate coconut almond pro variety.  This was the best tasting of the three bars.  It contains some small pieces of crunchy almonds.  It has a strong honey flavor.  It is the largest bar (88 grams), almost twice as big as the Larabar.  If you ate the whole bar you’d get 390 calories, which is OK for a meal replacement but high for a snack.  I would buy this again but eat only one third of the bar for a snack.  Nutrition facts:  1 bar (88 g) has 390 calories, 20 g fat (46% of calories), 20 g protein and 36 g. carbs.  I found this at the REI in Boise.

I still like some of the other bars on this page better.  I don’t eat bars too often but sometimes they are a easy item to take with you, especially if you aren’t sure if you’ll find gluten-free food.  You should be aware of the nutrition facts while you are chosing a bar. 

Teff Polenta – Wonderful! September 30, 2007

This Teff Polenta made a delicious meal.  It smells so good while it is cooking you won’t be able to stand it.  I added some fresh parmesan cheese after it sat for the 30 minutes (to set up) and put it under the broiler to melt the cheese.  I served it with some steamed vegetables.  I would also be a good side dish with some kind of meat and is good as a leftover with veggies and pasta sauce. 

Teff is unlike some grains, it really gets thick as it cooks.  You need to watch this as it cooks as it thickens quickly once the water is absorbed. 

Easy, full of protein and iron, naturally gluten-free, low in fat and just plain wonderful, I recommend this dish if you love good food.