Sunday's Plate

Last Thursday night, when I came home from work, I picked up the new copy of Yoga. It's a great magazine for people wanting a better kind of life. It's filled with articles on exercise, food, and meditation. One of the articles that really struck home was one about wheat.

Wheat is one of the things we all take for granted.
It's in many many foods, and it is very very good for you.

But for some people, eating wheat is a real liability. An inability to digest wheat can mean several symptoms of illness: chronic fatigue, migraine headaches, chronic abdominal pain, chronic sinus infections and other more disturbing problems like Celia's disease.

I notice when I eat a lot of bread made from wheat, I feel draggy. I feel like I weigh more than I do. I feel bottom heavy, sluggish, and my temperament declines. I get unusually sleepy even when I shouldn't be tired at all.

I took wheat out of my diet this past winter for a time, and I felt good. Now I generally feel good, but I felt "good!" But like all attempts to make changes, only some changes stick,and I slid back into wheat flour about as quickly as I came away from it.

As I was reading the article, I kept wondering if Mr. Terry would benefit from a "no wheat" diet. I took the article to him, and as a last ditch effort to shake the sinusitis he's had for almost a year, he agreed to stop eating wheat. Terry has never been sick a day in his life, and he's been really struggling with this for months. The sinus gig has made him chronically fatigued.

"Not so easy," he said after visiting the store on Friday and finding little food substitutes. "There is little to eat and it's all expensive," said he. Fearing he would be instantly discouraged, I told him that shopping was all about the approach, and Saturday morning I visited the store and read and read. It took about an hour.

What I read were the odd packages of flours that you look at but never buy. I bought three. Brown rice flour, potato flour and an all purpose gluten free flour all by Bob's Red Mill. I read the back label stem to stern, and these flours are not processed with wheat at all. Some other flours might not be wheat, but they are processed with wheat and are therefore not suitable for this no wheat diet.

In addition, I bought Rice Chex, fruit, veggies like always, meat, fish and dairy, and rice snacks for when I get lazy...

Now the big question was: could I sub a gluten free flour for whole wheat? The answer was in the mixing. I beat two eggs with a little sugar, baking powder and oil until light and then added milk. I added about 2/3 a cup of each flour, a cup of coconut, some walnuts and some cheesecake pudding mix just for fun. The muffins came out light. I was surprised. I thought they would have dropped like glue pods to the bottom of the stone muffin pan and then abruptly burn.

OK, I thought, I can make dessert stuff, but what about regular bread? Before I try the yeast gig, I thought I'd try a kind of pancake flat bread that Terry can wrap ham and cheese in. Using the same recipe as the muffins minus the sweet stuff, I made the batter runny and used a hot saute pan and presto bingo, the best tasting, best looking "sandwich wraps" came forth easily. Yeah!

Palettes are different, health needs are different, religious choices about food are different, as well as tastes, likes and dislikes. Luckily for me, I'll eat anything with the exception of guts or innards. And fortunately for us, food is abundant here in America, and taking advantage of that is something that is precious. Being able to choose from so many foods is a blessing that I treasure.

This time, there was no demanding health issue involved. It's just an attempt to change something in the diet to incur a change. I know, most medical people would direct a person to a pill, but I'm not a medicine person; I'm an herb person. I truly believe that what you eat has a tremendous affect on your body. So changing my diet is hopefully tantamount to changing the source of the problem. Effecting a cure of the sinus problem could be as easy as taking wheat out of Terry's diet for a time.

As far as the GS children are concerned. They will continue to get whole wheat and whole grain foods. But for a time, T and I are going to try this. I'll keep you posted...