Anti-Inflammatory and Gluten-Free Stuff

[helwen]

This Inflammatory Foods site is connected to a site on rheumatoid arthritis, but the information is useful even if you don't have RA.

Finding out that refined sugars can inhibit immune response was interesting, for instance. Since I have asthma and allergies (autoimmune stuff, yay!), this is pretty important. Although I try not to have too much refined sugar anyway, since the chemicals they use give me problems as it is (like, not breathing).

Bummer about dairy, although that isn't a total wash -- raw milk is okay. In fact, a friend of mine who doesn't have the enzymes or whatever for breaking down animal proteins so she's vegetarian, just discovered this year that she can have raw milk. Milk has what she needs in it, but only when raw -- the pasteurization kills the helpful stuff.

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Have tried buckwheat pancakes now, and pronounced them good :) Some folks don't care for straight buckwheat, saying the flavor is too strong. I've tried it with and without maple syrup and like it either way. I expect it's rather like how some folks like jalapenos and some don't, a matter of taste.

Buckwheat pancakes aren't quite as fluffy as wheat ones, but I thought the texture was fine.

Buckwheat Pancake Recipe

You'll likely want to buy buckwheat flour and use the above recipe, and _not_ buy buckwheat pancake mix -- the stuff we found had wheat flour blended in. We got Hodgson Mills buckwheat flour.

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We also tried an organic gluten free pancake and baking mix from Arrowhead Mills. It is the same fluffiness as regular pancakes. Slightly different taste, but milder than the buckwheat. I definitely enjoyed these and will be bringing the bag downstairs for my niece (no soy) and MIL (no wheat) to try out. For me, I'll probably stick with the buckwheat -- I just like short ingredient lists :D But it would make family gatherings more fun, for sure!

Ingredients: white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, baking powder, corn starch, sodium bicarbonate, whole grain yellow corn flour, vanilla flavor, sea salt, cinnamon

Comments

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

With that list, I'm going to have to become a breatharian. There's nothing left.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

The list of inflammatories? There are other meats than red meat (or just don't have a lot of it), there's fish, and vegetable proteins.

And there are lots of fruits and vegetables too. But I agree that eating out is pretty darn near impossible, aside from salads (with emending when ordering) and sushi.

At Country Pie Pizza, now that the weather is cooler, I sometimes ask for a wrap or grinder without the bread part. They put it in a tin, so I can even have it heated still. And they already know to not put croutons in my salads from this summer, so it wasn't a surprise for them when I asked for a hot wrap with no wrap. It's definitely a process, but I have a few places where we go semi-regularly, so I'm training the staff at these places.

I even have one thing I can get at Dunkin Donuts -- corn muffins! Their tea is black though, so I just make sure I get enough plain water to balance that out.

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

A note; I was recently informed that Agave has no regulation, and is frequently affected by gluten and other surprises.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I'm not inclined to use it, as it isn't local to me. Honey would be more my thing. But we're also growing sugar beets this year, so we may try to make our own sugar as a supplement.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's quite a list! Some of it didn't surprise me (nobody goes around telling people to eat *more* processed foods or refined sugars :-> and red meat is still very much a bogeyman in some circles), but...no Nightshade family?

Sounds like the best anti-inflammatory choice would be the Old World Medieval Peasant Diet: root vegetables, pulses, eggs, bean-flour bread, the occasional fish, raw milk when you can get it. (Of course, it'll be a bit more bland without the occasional rasher of bacon, but so it goes....)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the nightshade family was a recent discovery for me -- I have a friend who discovered this summer she can't have them, which is a real bummer. But not being in pain all the time is a good thing! I don't think it has a great affect on me, but then I don't have them often either.

Medieval Peasant, Mediterranean, and/or a lot of Asian foods would work too. Kelp/seaweed is on my to-have-foods list, so sushi is good.

But I agree, some treats once in a while of things like bacon or chocolate are a good thing too! I think one of the problems we (generic "we") have, at least in the U.S., is that "once in a while" becomes several times a week...

Oh! I had some nitrate free bacon this summer, and boy was it tasty! I highly recommend that as a treat :)

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

True, a number of Asian dishes would work. Asian without chilies would make me sad--I guess I'd have to get my heat from wasabi :-D

[hyperbard.livejournal.com]

We might both go crazy sans tomatoes... lol I know I AM at the moment! Then again I am once again off yeast, at least for a little while, so that cuts out a number of processed things, and also can't drink monster because of the caffeine/drying-out issue, so that cuts out more. (Though ASAP is when I'm starting that one again; Brain is very low-activity right now).

It's quite a list, I agree with loosecannon! For me, I both choose and need to have red meat.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I'm not eating a lot of tomatoes these days, only a few in salads, when I have those. But I used to have a lot more (pizza, pasta). Since nightshades don't seem to have much affect on me, once I find a non-wheat pasta I like, I'll probably have spaghetti or macaroni with red sauce again.

Just because the list is so large, doesn't mean everyone's going to do everything on it. I'm not about to become vegan, myself, but I also don't eat meat every day. I know at least one person whose health would be seriously compromised without red meat. I know another whose health would be seriously compromised if she ate any meat at all.

Each person is different; I don't think these foods are all going to be inflammatory to all people.

And there is a difference between Big Ag and grass-fed beef -- not being corn-fed, the omega levels are different, and not being shot chock full of antibiotics makes a difference too.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

lol -- I don't do a lot of hot foods, only some of them, and dislike wasabi. Pickled ginger on the other hand, that I like!

I think how much of nightshades one has would have to depend on one's health. For some people, any of it is too much, for sure - I know a couple of people this is true for. For me, I guess I'd have to test that somehow. I suppose the thing to do would be to go off those along with everything else on the list, and I'm having a hard enough time keeping track of just wheat. It's all over the place! :P