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Posted 6/1/2013 7:39 PM (GMT 0)
Liz, I 'd like to share my roasted sweet potato recipe with you:

For two people purchase either 1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes with nice looking skins. Cut them up into bite size pieces and place them in a large bowl. Mix them with some extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the potatoes in a glass baking dish and bake about 25 minutes. You have to keep an eye on them to see when they're fork tender.

Sherrine, here's a Mayo Clinic website that talks about looking for the right margarine:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/butter-vs-margarine/AN00835
Posted 6/1/2013 8:05 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks, AMF. The Mayo Clinic verifies what I was saying.

I'm a perfectionist. Bet you didn't know that. devil Anyway, I've been using Parkay for 44 years. A few years ago they came out with a bunch of new margarines so one day I stood in front of the dairy case and compared labels and Parkay won! Yes, there were a few that may have been better but I have tasted a couple of them and it was like eating Crisco to me. Yuck! So I did check them out and Parkay also has no trans fats, only 1.5% saturated fats, and of course no cholesterol. I'm an avid label reader so I know what I'm putting in my body.

By the way, I use the tub margarine. There is less saturated fat in that. I will buy Parkay stick margarine if I'm having company and serving dinner rolls or if I'm baking something. I haven't baked in several years.

Sherrine
Posted 6/1/2013 10:03 PM (GMT 0)
Sherrine, I figured you were a label reader. Thanks for sharing that.

I haven't used butter or margarine for seven years in my home. I'm going to try to only eat natural.

Post Edited (almost medfree) : 6/1/2013 4:13:09 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 6/1/2013 10:05 PM (GMT 0)
Margarine is not "one molecule away from plastic" but not all margarines are created equal and historically most margarine used to be bad for you and made from cheap poor-quality partially-hydrogenated oils (which are high in trans fat). However these days you can find some healthy and tasty butter alternatives. My favorite is "Earth Balance Organic Whipped Buttery Spread". It's certified organic, vegan, lactose-free, casein-free, gluten-free, made from a blend of expeller-pressed oils (palm, soy, canola, olive), has zero trans fat and is non-GMO. I think it tastes really good.

Technically speaking Parkay margarine does have trans fat, it contains partially-hydrogenated oil, but the US allows them to say it's "trans fat free" or "0g trans fat" if it contains less that 0.5g trans fat per "serving" (in this case 1 tbsp / 12 g). [EDIT: In addition the trans fats in mono- and diglycerides don't have to be counted/labeled]. Also for those trying to avoid dairy, most of the Parkay margarines contain dairy - although I'm not sure if the "Light" one does or not. They don't publish their ingredients lists anywhere online, but personally I would look at the package and do some research on the actual ingredients as opposed to assuming it's healthy solely because the FDA allows them to claim it has "no" trans fat and "no" cholesterol ("0g cholesterol" just means it contains less than 2g per 50g). Yes it's still low in trans fat and cholesterol, I just mean that some of the ingredients might not be things you want to eat :)

I too have problems with white potatoes but not sweet potatoes. I do the same thing with them as almost medfree. Adding some herbs tastes great too. It's funny how some of us can handle potatoes and some of us can't.

Liz - Glad you found those tests worth it. I think it's probably wise to continue eating the foods leading up to the test like you did.

Post Edited (Pelagicdancer) : 6/1/2013 7:58:43 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 6/1/2013 11:02 PM (GMT 0)
almost medfree- That sounds delish! Cant wait to try it! I had sweet potato fries from burger king today as I didn't have much time for a proper lunch...so a tasty snack did the trick :)

Sherrine and Pelagicdancer - I would stay away from anything hydrogenated (fully or partially). I say this not because I read some random article about it but because I studied nutritional biochem and advanced nutrition. These hydrogenated substances are not good for our bodies.
Posted 6/2/2013 1:36 AM (GMT 0)
^Yeah, The butter-like spread I recommended (Earth Balance Organic Whipped Buttery Spread) does not contain any hydrogenated oil, partially-hydrogenated oil, interesterified oil, or preservatives or emulsifiers. None of Earth Balance's spreads do, (they also don't call them "margarine", I guess to distance themselves from margarine's bad rep).
Posted 6/2/2013 7:14 AM (GMT 0)
Being gluten free has helped me a lot. Its a very gradual decrease in pain for me, almost so slow that I didn't realize I was feeling better until I accidentally had some gluten and the original pain came back in full force. Each slip up required me to 'recover' from the pain for another week and a half to two weeks before I started feeling relief again.

It definitely was harder at first not being able to eat certain things, but GF diets are so common now that a lot of restaurants cater to them. Google is your friend for on the go searches, basically pick a place and add gluten free at the end and it should come up in the first few items wether or not there is anything good. My favorite 2 things are both at Disneyland, they will actually make you a gluten free burger, bun and all, and the chef comes out to take your order and brings it to you directly. Then the in park Starbucks has gluten free muffins, OMG so good. Places like that make it easier to deal.

Even though I am still not 100 percent better, I strongly believe that diet can control a lot of issues we encounter. I seriously didn't want to even think about trying to NOT eat what I wanted, but I guess at some point you'll try anything to get the pain to stop.
Posted 6/2/2013 8:56 AM (GMT 0)
Stinky, thanks for sharing all of that. Changing my diet has definitely helped though not healed me. But it certainly can be difficult to behave.

Yesterday we had lunch with my fiance's family and his brother brought the family favorite: red beans and rice--a dish their mother was raised on in New Orleans. It has sausage and ham in it. I brought along some chicken and roasted sweet potatoes. The hardest part was passing up the red velvet cake the other family favorite. It had so much frosting. I love frosting.

What I do while passing up these yummies is pat myself on the back and tell myself that I might be inspiring someone else to watch how certain foods might affect them.

about gluten free foods at restaurants, the Olive Garden Restaurant has a gluten free menu. I've had the gluten free pasta with marinara sauce that can be served with chicken pieces in it or shrimp. It's delicious. I'm sure this trend will grow.
Posted 6/2/2013 6:53 PM (GMT 0)
Debbie and Sherrine, I recently discovered that white bread also kept me from being constipated. Other than my pregnancies I'd never had a problem with constipation before because I didn't realize that Dairy was "keeping things moving" until everything started moving too fast, too often.

After I finally made that connection and quit eating dairy entirely my body started having normal bowel movements.

I've been trying to loose weight and recently a friend and I both realized we'd hit a plateau and decided to try the "cabbage soup diet" for a week to see if that moved the number on the scale. For those who haven't fallen for this diet trick, cabbage soup is entirely vegetables. Day one you eat all the fruit and soup you want. Day two all the veggies and soup you want. Day three all the fruit and veggies and soup you want. Okay...you'd expect a normal person would be at or near diarrhea by this point...but not me. I was full of *you know what!* After the fourth day I quit the diet and soon everything was moving along normally again.

Which is good...because I live for my extra sour dough bread.

I was drinking plenty of water, because that is just about my only drink and I have dry mouth issues. I usually drink about 12 or more glasses a day.

So yeah, not everything you read fits everyone. It really helps to pay attention to your body. I agree with trying different things and giving them plenty of time. I tried giving up dairy before and after a couple of days decided "that wasn't my problem." It took a month for my body to get to normal and I had to read all labels very very carefully (Whey is added to a lot of food) in order to completely avoid dairy.

Joy
Posted 6/3/2013 6:20 AM (GMT 0)
>> Chris, margarine is not horrible and it's not one molecule away from plastic either. That's an e-rumor that started back in 2005 <<

I stand corrected :) I still wouldn't eat it though, as I already get plenty of "healthy fats" as it is, which I think taste WAY better than margarine anyway (nuts, avacados, oilive oil, etc) So if I did eat margarine, I'd have to actually cut out something that not only tastes better to me anyway, but is also, IMPO, healthier.

Peace,
Fish
Posted 6/7/2013 9:39 AM (GMT 0)
I know I'm not supposed to talk about diet... but please hear me! This is important!

I went gluten-free, which helped me, then I went to the doctor about it and he said it is MUCH more likely that I am intolerant to the fructans that frequently occur in the same foods that gluten is in. Why is this important? People who are intolerant to fructans and not gluten can have many gluten-containing grains and foods; they don't have to buy food that is labelled "gluten-free" - they just can't have too much wheat or rye. There are also fruits, vegetables, legumes and drinks that are high in fructan but contain no gluten. These too should be avoided/minimized if you are fructan intolerant.
Posted 6/7/2013 10:57 AM (GMT 0)
Jasmine, this dietary help belongs on the digestive forums. There are a lot of people over in those forums you could help.

Sherrine
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