Just Add Sweat... (and a little iodine)

Tuna salad is in this easy/lazy nori square but you can make these with just about anything.

One of the things that really bothers me about this whole "don't eat salt" thing, is that certain populations of the planet only have access to iodine via iodized salt (the Great Lakes Region [GLR] being one such area... Pretty big area, huh?). 

So after being advised to cut out salt, were you advised to replace iodine in your diet?  Were you advised that depleting iodine can affect brain function, amongst other breakdowns (e.g. ticket to a broken thyroid gland)? Were you told which foods contain iodine?

Here are some examples of iodine rich food.  You don't need much to meet your daily allowance: 

sea vegetables (makes sense since the sea is far away from the GLR)
vegetables grown near the sea
sea food: sea fish, clams,

Allergic to seafood?  This article may be helpful:

http://www.wdxcyber.com/ngen22.htm

..."Is a shellfish allergy the same as an iodine allergy

An allergy to shrimp or crab or salmon, for example, has nothing to do with allergy to iodine. A person could be allergic to both but the allergy to shrimp is due to a protein in the shrimp, not to iodine"...

(Please do click the link and read the whole article.  I don't particularly care for how they minimize the effects of "sensitivity" compared to "allergy".  Nevertheless, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.  There's a lot of really good information in there.)

But back to our regular (or irregularly scheduled article):

Here is an interesting article about seniors and how physical activity can counter the effects of cognitive decline associated with higher salt intake.  Sweating seems to allow the body to 'reset' itself and compensate for some fairly large errors humans can make re: diet.  So until you figure out where else to get your iodine from, get out there and sweat a little... or ever better... a lot.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/233201.php

..."Elderly individuals who are physically inactive and have a high sodium intake have a higher risk of cognitive decline, compared with people of the same age who are not sedentary and consume less salt, Canadian researchers reported in the journal Neurobiology of Aging"...

We've all heard about how people with high b.p. cannot process salt as efficiently as those who don't have high b.p.  Well, the difference may be in physical activity levels:

http://blog.spartanrace.com/exercise-minimizes-negative-affects-of-salt-consumption/

..."Scientists published a new study that claims daily physical exercise can help decrease the negative impact of a high-salt diet on blood pressure"...

So sweat a little.  It won't hurt... that much... really.  And eventually, you may even learn to enjoy it. :)

The Idi-Odyssey: Stage Left!

Scroll down below the stars to skip the whole parenting/acting experience and jump right into the Ugh-Dealing-With-Food-Sensitivities-In-A-Public-Forum part.

One of the parents in our homeschool group decided to get an acting class/troupe together for our kids.  It was a lot of work for her and my hat's off.  I don't think I could've done it.  I'm sure I'd have been spitting nails half way through.  It's not easy to co-ordinate classes, a show, multiple families and more PLUS she works full time.  So yup, I've got a new source of inspiration. ;)

It was a great experience for us but as with all experiences, not without its rough spots.  As usual, I'm glad we did it.  After all, nothing prepares us for life, like life experience. :)

My son can tend to stutter a bit and my daughter was hating the experience.

The instructor, who is a professional director, gave us some good information/advice and we put it to use when we were practising at home and helped to psychologically prepare the kids.

And what an invaluable experience it has been!

Here's the overview of the play:

Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, is the basis for this fun, yet educational play packed with nothing but silliness!  Set off on an entirely new journey with four students of assorted personalities — jock, nerd, cheerleader and Goth — as they experience the strangest review session led by a mysterious and strict tutor, Dr. Hamilton.  Odyssey characters come alive onstage in the wackiest of ways — the poet Homer is compared to Homer Simpson, Hermes is an air-head UPS delivery person and the Lotus Eaters are now the Lettuce Eaters!  The God of the Sea blows a fierce wind that wreaks havoc on Odysseus’s ship...  and also just plain reeks (his niece Athena gives him a few Tic Tacs for the fish breath).  This romp still stays true to the original journeys but in a comedic, contemporary way, with the students even becoming intertwined in some of the episodes.  After Odysseus’s return home, Dr. Hamilton retires for the day, leaving the students engrossed in their reading.  One thing’s for sure, this unforgettable retelling will help your students forever remember elements of this timeless classic while also evoking epic laughter! 

I must say, it really is quite a good play.  I enjoyed it enormously and of course, saw it several times.  I think I blew over $100 on tickets.  No, parents don't get in free. It just wouldn't be professional. :D

The children began building their team and skills in September.  They began practising the play itself around January.  In the last two weeks, they put on six performances during the London, Ontario Fringe Festival.  No, this was no one show deal.  It was like being a real actor on a real stage performing multiple times for multiple audiences.  Cool.

My 12 year old daughter played one of the main roles, the cheerleader... and hated almost every minute of it.  There was nothing she liked about it.  The process, the social activity, the fun... None of it created the least spark of interest for her.

Still, she sucked it up and did a good-job-no-matter-what.

I'm always preaching to the kids, "No matter what you do, even if you hate it, make it the best experience for yourself that you can.  Learn EVERYTHING you can from it.  Keep in mind, once it's over, it over. 

I never think they're listening when I say that.  It must have sunk in though because she did a FABULOUS job and I'm tremendously proud of her.

The compliments were still coming in an hour after the last show. People could not believe that she hated it.   And with a main role that was on stage for the whole play, it was no mean feat to expect of a 12 year old.

"But you were so GOOD??!! How could you have hated it and still been so good?!!  How old are you? etc." is how they would respond.

So kudos to her. The confidence and skill she has built is amazing. Let's face it, it's easy to do a good job if you like something. It's really tough to do a good job... over and over... when you hate it. We're really, really proud of her!

My ten year old son loved every minute of it and is feeling very mixed now that it's over.  He loved his role, loved the process, loved everything.  He doesn't care to talk to people one-on-one but we've known he likes stage performing since he was four when he had to do a couple of solo dance performances.  He doesn't care a whit about the compliments afterward.  He generally puts up with the compliments them BUT really for him it's all about the process and the show.  Being on stage seems to feed something in him.  He, of course, can hardly wait to get back up there again.

Usually, as I said, he doesn't like talking to people after the show.  He gets very self-conscious and appears somewhat embarrassed.  However, after these shows were over, one of his favourite things was talking to strangers and telling them that he was "The Nanny". He absolutely *adored* the astonished looks on
their faces... since he's normally in army fatigues after the show.

"I'd never have known she was a BOY!" is what they would usually shriek... and then laugh madly and say, "You were AWESOME! You were one of my favourites! You were SO FUNNY!"


There was a little bit of luck involved there, as he was privileged enough to land a bit of a cameo role.

One of my favourite parts was near the end, sitting at the kitchen table rehearsing, when he said, "Mom! It's like I'm really turning into Eurycleia when we do this!"  See what I mean?  He internalized this stuff on some level... and enjoys going through the process to get there.

A couple of times, people said to me, "So this is a homeschool group, eh?" And would nod in a way that made me think... Aha... they're processing good things about homeschoolers/ing. So that was pretty cool too.

As always, there were some rough spots.  You can't put a group of humans together every week for months and not have someone's feelings get hurt.  They managed to get through it, which may have been one of the more important lessons for some of them.

      ***************************************************************************


Our biggest lessons were not to attend any social events for at least two weeks or maybe the month before a show.  We almost got glutened twice.  And to always be ready for someone to trip in with some beautiful toxic goodies for the kids to "share".  Both times were completely unforeseen.

First, we went to a party and I thought bringing cake would be enough.  But there was candy at the party too.  So my 12-year-old, as anyone with a pubescent-food-sensitive-kid knows, has hit that stage where she almost HATES being different.  And will punish her body for it when she hits those irrational moments.  Usually, those moments occur when she's psychologically unprepared to be strong about her food choices.

So as she stood with the other kids around the table watching them shovel this stuff into their mouths, she suddenly grabbed one, unwrapped it and shoved it into her mouth.

Of course I ran over and told her to take it out of her mouth and about how she has responsibilities to meet with an upcoming set of performances, nevermind the upcoming trip to Canada's Wonderland for our family and our visiting guest from France.  We sweated it out for the next 48 hours waiting for gut pain or something to set in.  We got lucky.  She was fine.

Then, just before the third of the six shows began, a very nice Mom of a cast member decided to bring a 'nice surprise' for the kids.

Cupcakes.

Ugh.


First of all.  Gluten.  The potential hospitalizer.


Second of all. Sugar. The sleep disturber cum brain fart contributor.

And we *really* don't want those happening when there are no back up actors.

Let me add that there was an after-party scheduled after the last show.  One of the parents was kind enough to invite everyone to her house after the last show.  The kids knew that the treats would eventually come.  So I really hadn't expected any junk food to show up before the end of the last show.

I was completely unprepared.  And of course, so were the kids.

Back when I was competing in sports. For at least a week before the event, I made sure to eat clean.  No junk.  No nothing that wasn't absolutely healthy.  DEFINITELY not during competition.  When you've been training all year for a three day event, you just didn't screw it up by eating wrong.  So now, in adulthood, this way of thinking about 'performance periods' is second nature.  Sometimes I forget that other people don't really know how much the chemistry of this stuff can bring a body/brain down.  What can I say?  I'm an idiot.

Worse, the kids were completely unprepared psychologically.  All I could think of was the candy incident that occured recently.  A cupcake mistake, even if only one bite that was immediately spit out, would end up with a missed performance for sure due to pain.  We'd be lucky to avoid the hospital.  So of course, I was in an absolute tizzy!

I was tempted to run out and buy them some kind of equivalent junk but then thought, "What?  And possibly ruin their chance of the best performance ever because their sleep has been messed up with sugar... knowing they have three more performances to get through?

No, I thought, I want my kids to learn that when they have to be in top form, they don't fill their bodies with junk half way through.  No matter what anyone else does.

You know... that whole 'If somebody else jumps off a bridge...' scenario that all of our mothers taught us. ;D   That day I relayed the message down through the ranks to the next generation.

Luckily, one of the kids in the cast walked by.  I grabbed him and asked him to send my two out so I could talk to them.  They came.  We talked.  I gave the the bridge message. They were prepared to have to watch the other kids eat cake while they had none. Phew.

I don't think the other parents realize it, but the fourth show was not placed at risk only by the skin of our teeth.

One of the saving graces for us was that there were possibly three other kids in the cast who couldn't eat them either.  And my kids, if nothing else, will not leave anyone out to founder.  They'll stand beside them and go without, even if it's something they can have, so the other child won't have to suffer alone.  They do it quite bravely and willingly actually.  I think maybe it's because they've been left out so often that they know how crummy it feels.  And how much worse it is when you're suffering alone.  With the explanation that at least one other child would not be getting any treat, I was able to fore go plying their little bodies with some vague sugary bribe that day.

So after that, we had an extra long talk about how, whenever people gather, there's probably someone who's going to want to bring junk food into the picture, and how they're getting old enough now that they're going to have to just remember to be psychologically prepared for it to happen at any moment. (Like we haven't had this conversation 8 million times every year for the last 8 years... but that's our deal... you know...)

As usual, we talked about how people just don't get it.

And did I make a bit of a stink about it?  Sure I did.  But still, none of the other parents, I'm sure, realized that those cupcakes might have meant the loss of one, for sure, and possibly two of their cast members for at least one of the performances.

Shrug.  What can I do?  I talk about healthy diet until I'm blue in the face.  Some people love me for it, some people hate me for it.  No cupcakes for kids is not exactly going to win me any popularity votes with most people, I know.  But then I'm not in this parenting or the health game to be popular.  I'm just there to do the job and do it right.  Anyone can tell you, I can unsell something as fast as I can sell it if someone gives me the least bit of an idea that they shouldn't be consuming it.

So lots of great skills and lessons learned.  I'd do it all again if I could.  My son would too, of course.  My daughter...  well...

She said, "The show's over."

And proceeded to take a bite out of her long-awaited gluten free cupcake. ;)

Photographic credits:  Robin Saylor (Homeschooling Mom and Photographer Extraordinaire)

Recovery Drinks

Everyone likes to talk about recovery drinks these days.  Think about what they contain though and be careful about your choices.  Some of them contain more sugar than anything else.

It is possible to make your own recovery drink but do think about your choices and research them before filling your body with them.  As always rotation gives the body breaks from ingredients that it needs breaks from.

For me, soy is reactive resulting in minor headaches and joint pain, chocolate milk is full of sugar (which depletes vitamins and minerals),  and dairy causes joint pain for me, so I don't do any of that.

Good old fashioned water is my thing and then a fresh squeezed veggie/fruit/nutmilk smoothie is my recovery drink. <3

No it's not as convenient as a ready made recovery drink... but more convenient than joint pain or a headache.

Why Isn't Fish Subsidized?

I really want to know!

In a culture that is rife with diabetes and heart disease, why is the government subsidizing things like milk and grain when fish is $8/lb???!!!

Why not subsidize fish so that people can afford healthier food?

Think Critically Before Purchase...

Today I was made aware of a blog about a boy who got symptoms from eating gluten free wheat bread.

First let me say, kudos to the parents of the blog,  for trying to keep a completely free gf house for their son!

A surprising amount of parents/family members refuse to be gf at home. I find that very frustrating, on behalf of the suffering relative, spouse or child(ren). It's always SO FABULOUS to see parents/family members who go the whole nine yards!

Unfortunately, they’re new enough to the diet to mistakenly assume that all celiacs understand what “gluten free” means.

Specialty food product manufacturers that lie make me SO angry! That man makes a bad name for anyone in the gluten free industry who is trying to build a good, reputable company.

Thankfully, as far as I know, he is the exceptional exception.

Most specialty gf business owners are extremely careful about their ingredients and their claims.

HOWEVER - and this is a big however as you can see -

I deal with people, all the time, who make the mistake of thinking that claims of "low gluten" or "low wheat" products are okay to eat.

They take the word of the health food store owner or nutritionist (and there are many) who says, "You can have spelt (Ezekiel bread, or whatever), it's low gluten." Not all of them say that... but it is still, unfortunately a common claim.

This particular “manufacturer’s” website said "wheat bread". If I've said it once, I've said it a million times... low gluten or gluten free wheat product should not exist in the realm of those who suffer gluten sensitivity. The minute you hear those words, it must cease to exist for you.

As consumers of ANY product, we MUST think critically before purchasing anything (like that diet pill that can cause heart issues, or vitamin drink that really contains almost no vitamins, or the doll that doesn't really walk like it does on t.v., etc.).

That said, I loved her blog, loved her post, loved the photo of the rash (I see it quite frequently in people who haven't isolated/eliminated all the gluten products in their homes or their own personal level of tolerance.)

I, myself, had to learn the same 'trust' lessons as she did, many times over during our first year of being gf. Even still, these years later, we get temporary lessons taught to us.

For example, two years ago, one of our recent restaurant finds (caters to allergies) served an awesome fried spring roll that they said was gluten free. Turned out, the same oil also fried gluten products. The owner wasn't being malicious. She just didn't realize that oil made the difference until she was told. She, immediately, pulled the fried rolls off of her gf list.

I've also run into celiacs/sensitives who will eat low gluten/low offensive products because they "don't get symptoms". However, they don't know how their intestines are doing... and I can often see existing symptoms that they simply refuse to acknowledge, or they minimize their possible symptoms when I point them out.

Some people are just determined to eat gluten, almost no matter what. Those of us who expect better life quality have to be careful of those people who "understand" what we need. It's unfortunate but true.

Learning to ask the right questions as we go along is part of the process.

First question: Is their gluten/wheat in it or do you touch it with any gluten/wheat based product?

Answer: Yes.
Response: Run the other direction as fast as you possibly can. ;)

From my understanding, part of the problem in the U.S. is that there are no standards for a gf claim. I could be wrong on that front though as I haven't reviewed U.S. standards for a couple of years.

Again, great blog, great parents. I'm absolutely thrilled that she's not just sitting back, letting everyone else make the same mistake.  People using false gf claims need to be prevented from continuing to put out a misleading selling line.

I'll be interested to hear about the final outcome of that event.

Every Celiac's Nightmare

Kind regards,
KimS

Crock Pot Heaven

I love crock pots!

I have a girlfriend who insists that crock pots are for old ladies. Yes, she does have one but feels incredibly self-conscious about it.

Well, if that's true, then hand me a cane and colour my hair blue... because I have TWO!

I love them so much that I almost always have both of them going, all seasons of the year, never clean and empty, and never put away... and if I could, I'd have three.

Sadly though, I have run out of crock pot counter space...

I use my pots so much that you can see that they're well-loved! The fact is, that crockpots don't have to be pretty to make your life more fabulous! Sure it's nice if they are pretty... but nice is not a prerequisite for a crock pot. In fact, one of mine has completely lost all of it's knobs but has still been going strong for the about the last four years!

I suppose if I have one complaint about them, it would be that the plastic handles installed on the newer versions, by the manufacturing companies, are not heat resistant. As a matter of fact, after having 3 new lids sent to me by one manufacturing company, only to have the lid handle crumble again, I had HAD-IT!!

I finally just went to a second-hand store, picked up one of those old aluminum pot lids (you know, the ones that everyone had in the 70s and 80s), unscrewed the big black knob and screwed it onto my existing crock pot lid. It's been good for three years now. Now, if I could only figure out how to replace the temperature select knob that fell apart... sigh... thankfully a gluten free diet means that my fingers are no where near as stiff as they used to be...

*****

One pot, I use for at least one dinner per week and then the rest of the week it holds soup broth or even full fledged soup: Basic Soup Broth Recipes

The other pot, is where we throw all of our leftovers... and I mean EVERYTHING!!

This is the easiest way I have found to keep up with homemade pet food. Pretty much everything gets thrown into this pot full of water, much like a compost bin. A couple of exceptions would be too much raisins, chocolate, onion or broccoli, mostly because the majority of this pot becomes dog food... and too much of these items are toxic to dogs.

Dinner cleanup is a cinch! The crock pots are right next to the dishwasher, so everyone just scrapes their plates off into the animal crock pot and plunks the dish into the dishwasher. Easy peasy!

Even the stuff that I strain out of my bone broth crock gets thrown into the animal crock.

Nothing is wasted and the animals are in fabulous condition since we have not had a single visit to the vet in almost 5 years (with our German Shepherd who is almost 14 years old and our Rottweiler who is about 8 years old). Since we went gluten free, the animals did too... and their health has been entirely reflective of the fact that this diet is not only better for us, but better for them too!

Before they went gluten free, we had continual smelly gas issues (okay, occasionally we still do since the rottie seems to have beef and grain issues), ear infections, and the German Shepherd's pannus had almost completely blinded him. Yes, surprisingly, on a largely grain-free diet, his pannus cleared up almost completely. What an unexpected yet wonderful side-effect to a gluten free (largely grain free) diet!

Of course never forgetting to give much of the credit to living in Crock Pot Heaven!

In the photo below, you can see where the pannus (dark brown blob) has receded to the edge of the pupil. It also became less lumpy, which meant less aggravation and therefore, not more gunky tear streaks.

The pupil in this eye, (when we got him from the humane society, at approx. 6 years old at the

Once the pupil cleared, he not only stopped tripping on the children's toys but to our surprise, could run like the wind!

Apparently a veterinarian I ran into, completely by mistake, has had similar results with a younger shepherd also: please google DogtorJ (no - the "g' is not a typo) for more info. He attributes pannus to corn but in some discussion I had with him, his dog appeared to be gluten free also. This concurs with my dog's diet,which we purposefully ensured was gluten free, but inadvertently, was also corn free.
time) was almost completely covered by the pannus and he could not see toys on the living room floor.

And if I feel we don't have enough leftovers to make up a dinner for the dogs, I just add the cheapest meat I can find in the grocery store. This means that even if I have to buy some cheap meat/fish, my homemade, environmentally friendly, additive free dog food, is not only healthier but is actually more budget friendly (by a long shot!) than the big $80 brand name stuff that we used to get from our vet!

But I digress...

Every once in a while, I dump the pot contents into the bird compost pot (where we put scraps that are going out to the chickens and ducks), clean out the pot, fill it with clean water and continue on.

Honestly, though, even without having a crock pot for animals, I would still keep two pots just for us. One for completed soup that's always at the ready and one for soup broth in progress.

Here are just a few other things I've used my extra pot for in the past:

1) Reduce broth to the point that it's almost pudding-thick and added some balsamic vinegar to create meat rub or to further mix it with a bit of honey and pureed raspberries for a fabulously original salad dressing.

2) Taken frozen fruit out of the freezer, tossed it in the crock pot and let it stew down to make a fabulous topping for bread, waffles, dessert (ice cream, custard, etc.) or cake (in lieu of sugar-filled icing).

3) Keeping french fries warm (covered with a towel though so they don't go soggy).

4) Cooking rice in that can be tossed in at the beginning of the day (with soup broth, of course) that is deliciously ready by dinner time.

5) ... and so many more things!

Life is good, and warm, and healthy in Crock Pot Heaven (even with blue hair)!



For basic soup broth recipes, please see here: Soup Broth

Recovery Regimen: Enter, The Smoothie

We've been doing vitamin smoothies for a long time now.

Smoothies are great for hiding all kinds of things in. I've hidden cabbage juice in them, celery juice, carrot juice and even pureed sea vegetables.

But mostly I've used them to hide vitamins in.

At the beginning of our diet, I noticed that every time we made a mistake (which happens a fair bit to everyone for about the first year), it took about 7 to 10 days to get past it, symptomatically speaking.

I felt that we needed to set up a 'recovery regimen' for when these mistakes happened. Seven to ten days was just too long for my liking. This is where the chicken soup and epsom salt baths kicked in. The chicken soup recipe had already been developed and after reading about epsom salt baths and how they affected people with cerebral palsy, I knew it would benefit my little boy who's joints would stiffen right up, it seemed, the minute he even so much as smelled gluten.

So, about six months in to our diet, I started a therapeutic regimen of vitamins for all of us (after a LOT of research into vitamins and minerals). Now, I had already figured out that rotation was key for us, so I was pretty set against taking vitamins every day.

There were three problems:

1) I bought seven different kinds of children's vitamins, none of which contained therapeutic doses, so the children would have to take a handful to get a therapeutic dose; and there was either a disgusting amount of sugar in them (and my boy could not yet tolerate ANY refined sugar at all) or there were those fake sugars that might do funny things to your liver... And nevermind that, the children reacted negatively to ALL of them.

My husband and I found the same problem with the adult multies.

The best vitamin supplement I found was one that was in liquid form. Not only was it easier to take, but it also seemed to yield better results for each person that took it. Was it being digested better because it was ground up and dissolved in a liquid? I don't know, but in theory, it seems to make some sense. The problem was, the expense. Liquid vitamins must be the most expensive on the market.

2) getting them into everyone (if it wasn't a liquid vitamin), especially the children and

3) when we didn't take the liquid vitamins, I noticed that moods (especially in the children) and energy levels (in the adults) were not as good as they were on days that we did take them.

And so I began buying individual vitamins, sitting at the table with my calculator and charting out how many doses each pill would be for each person. For the children, the easiest thing was to make up about 24 ice cube sized popsicles out of the smoothies and they'd be set for the week.

We started out taking them every day for two weeks. Then we took a week off. At the end of that first week off, I started noticing moods swinging a bit, so we did another two weeks on, one week off.

Then because I was nervous about high zinc doses, vitamin C rebound and niacin doses affecting livers, we started taking them for 4 days and then 3 days off. Then the next week we would take them every other day. I kept altering this schedule and we seemed to hit a comfortable place where moods and energy levels were fairly static.

Eventually, we ended up requiring vitamins only twice a week. And five years later, found that we only had to take them as needed (usually due to extra stresses that may arise - a few times a year in the form, usually, of gluten contamination).

I find that I still require them about three times a week, the week before my period but the children don't seem to generally require them any longer.

And so enter, the smoothie.

Now, I don't know how many people know what B vitamins taste like but bad liver with a side of rancid fries might about cover it. No... I take that back... they're actually worse than that.

And every once in a while if I felt like someone needed a big dose of vitamin C, well, that just doomed the wonderful smoothie.

And so, I did a lot of fruit gymnastics to make an edible smoothie that the children actually enjoyed. A bit of the downfall was the expense, one that we couldn't afford, and so the children would doctor up the rejects with honey, mostly... and usually extra bananas or peanut butter.

"It's disgusting." they would say.

"Well then add something so it's not disgusting. I don't care how you get it in, just so long as you get it in." I would say.... Okay, some days I wouldn't say... I would snap... I'm only human after all and feeling, on some days a little sensitive about our tight budget and my kitchen failures.

I kept noticing that they would always go for the nut butter and the honey first. So, I began to think about how to sweeten it.

Eventually, I happened upon the frozen grape and the frozen apple. I know that during regular shelf life, they're sweet... but no where near sweet enough to cover up B vitamins in a smoothie. However, once frozen, they become amazingly, strongly, almost overpoweringly sweet.

And luckily, my son eventually came to be able to tolerate orange juice much better, and so I took out the yucky C vitamins and used concentrated orange juice (unmixed).

It sure made life a lot easier once I established which vitamins were of the most benefit to us (everyone's an individual in this respect) and then found a delicious way to get them into us.

The entire soup, bath, smoothie regimen has brought our recovery time to 2 or 3 days, as opposed to the 7 to 10 we experienced before.

Sources:

Liver Damage Caused by Drugs
Niacin
Zinc
Zinc Overdose (this also refers back to how important your phils are)
Magnesium
Magnesium Overdose
Vitamin C
Vitamin C Overdose
Magnesium
Epsom Salt Baths as Cerebral Palsy Therapy

What made me write this all out, finally, today? We only go to restaurants about once or twice a year because even the restaurants that cater to gf diets are generally too risky for us.

But this last month, since we've been doing so phenomenally well for so long, we went to our favourite restaurant 3 times this past month (and were having issues - a pre-migraine and a depressive swing for me and whiny, whiny children) that made me say to my husband "It's like we've been glutened, only I can't figure out where."

Then, on the way home from Toronto, we stopped to have our favourite dish once again, only to be informed that they just realized our foods were being cross contaminated the oil in the deep fryer! Ughh!

I give them four stars for trying, and four stars for telling us as soon as they knew about it. Honestly my hat's off to anyone in the food industry who tries to cater to those of us in the gluten free world!

The bigger question is, when am I going to start trusting my instincts and our symptoms? Sigh.



Then we went back to