As I sit here eating my coconut bread, slathered in butter made from grass fed cow mommies and a thin layer of locally made blueberry jelly, I wonder.....how did I not know about this way of eating sooner? I am eight days in to my wheat free life. I weigh five pounds less than when I started. I have only gone for one signifigant walk (two miles) in the past week. I bake a lot and I eat a lot. There is no logical reason I should weigh less, I think to myself, as I sip my freshly ground Love Buzz coffee with a bit of bakers cocoa and grade b maple syrup mixed in. I eat lot of yummy food, yet I am shrinking.
I want to talk about grade b maple syrup for a moment. Did you know that grade b maple syrup has antioxidants and anti-imflammatory agents? Both of which have been shown to fight cancer, diabetes and bacterial illnesses, according to a study done at the University of Rhode Island. It has a low glycemic index. Barely, I might add....but still, a low glycemic index. Be careful if you research this yourself because its tricky to find this information in a general search. Be specific or you will find information lumping together flavored maple syrup and real maple syrup, making it a medium glycemic index.
In case you don't know what that is, I will try to lay it out in plain english. How much a food highers your blood sugar level in relation to glucose, is that food's glycemic index. Whole wheat bread has a glycemic index of 72, which is high. Table sugar has a glycemic index of 59, which is medium and maple syrup has a glycemic index of 54, which is low. Anything above 70 is high, anything below 55 is low, and anything in between is medium.
Wheat free and gluten free has been fun. In the same way as when I found out that Monsanto food was poison and it was easy to stop eating, it has been easy to stop eating this thing that is so disruptive to our bodies, called modern wheat.
Eliminating wheat has been very benificial as far as my childrens' behaviour goes. My overemotional twins are now rational little human beings. Stella and Isabel got in an argument yesterday, over Isabel correcting Stella's speech. Right at the part where Stella would have normally started swinging, she imploringly explains, with wide eyes about to spill over with tears eyes, "See Isabel! This is why I hit you! Because you are making me feel like trash and I want you to feel like trash, too!"
To which Isabel responds, "I just want you to get it right and you never want to practice. I just want to help you." And then they fall together in a hug, saying they love eachother. Two minutes later, I was paparazzi snapping pics of them through the dining room window, while they sat on the swing set, arranging their painting kits. World peace has arrived in my neck of the woods. Hallelujah.
And now that you know THAT, lets talk about those brownies I made last night!! Holy heaven and hell and everything in between, they were fantastic!! I found a recipe online but of course, I changed it a bit. I didn't use raw honey as it called for and I used celtic sea salt instead of regular salt. End result: everyone's eyes glowing because they can't understand how brownies with no sugar and no wheat flour can be so delectable.
The recipe is as follows:
2/3 cup local grade b maple syrup
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract, pure and organic, WITHOUT corn syrup
3 local eggs
1 cup almond flour (I used the only one available to me at the co-op, Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour)
1/2 cup Equal Exchange Organic Baking Cocoa (I am going to try raw cacao next time!)
1/4 tsp of Bob's Red Mill Baking Soda
A little more than a 1/4 tsp of celtic sea salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and eggs until smooth. I actually added my salt at this point because its chunky and I wanted it to dissolve/disperse evenly. Then I put the almond flour, the baking cocoa and the baking soda in a sifter. I sifted half of it into the egg mixture and mixed until smooth. Then added the remaining half and finished mixing. I wish I had someone to tell me, like I am about to tell you, that the batter is going to be disturbingly thin looking. Don't worry about that. Its perfect. I then poured the batter into a buttered 8x8 glass pan and put it in the oven for twenty five minutes. Oven times may vary. I have a shitty electric oven so I have to be careful.
Next time, I will cover my wheat free and gluten free pizza.
P.S: this blog would have been up hours ago if I hadn't tried and failed to upload a cute video of the kids talking about going wheat free. I will try to get it up on facebook ;)
Instead I will leave with a picture of this amazing brownie that I fell in love with yesterday.
Peace, love and good food!!
We went gluten free and this is all just too big for a facebook status so its getting its own blog. I saw a lecture by Dr. William Davis and a lot of what he said about the effects of modern day wheat, I could directly link to symptoms within my own family. The irritability, the achiness, the lethargy, the rashes, the stomach aches. I couldn't go gluten free fast enough after hearing, (what now seemed to be), the obvious facts of the matter.
I posted the video of what he had to say but its an hour long and I know not everyone is the information junkie that I am. I fear you all didn't watch it and I worry. I know you like to read my shit, though, so I am going to sum it up for you.
First of all, modern wheat is not the wheat that our ancestors grew and consumed. Once again, somebody fucked with your food. After the 1960's our wheat was hybridized by some smart ass named Dr. Something Borlaug. It was done in an effort to solve world hunger. And it did for the most part. This wheat was 95% the same as the old wheat. Hidden within that five percent there was something new.
The protein in the gluten of this wheat was different. It is called gliadin. Gliadin attaches to your OPIATE RECEPTORS!! Thats right folks, you are all unwitting addicts. Instead of getting "high", the effect exacted is feeling really full and then feeling hungry again, long before you should feel hungry again. This new wheat satiates and then stimulates appetite so you eat more and more of it. Tricky stuff, huh? Pisses me off to tell you the truth.
So lets bring this in to a more personal level. Isabel gets sick around bedtime almost every night. Maya is a crabass. Stella's feet swell up and itch every time they get hot and sweaty....almost as if she is eliminating a toxin. I am an organic freak. I admit it. So what the hell is causing my family to be having all these unhealthy symptons? Thanx to my subscription to the Joe Rogan Experience, I found a video. Wheat: The UNhealthy Whole Grain by Dr. William Davis. After the first ten minutes blew my mind, I stopped it, started it over and had Russell listen with me. Really, so he could understand why we wouldn't be serving wheat in our house anymore.
I got some almond flour and some coconut flour and I went crazy in the kitchen. This was Monday morning, 6/3. So its now Thursday evening and my kids have gone through four full days of wheat free eating. What I am going to tell you next may be obvious but it surprised the hell out of me......
On Tuesday night both of the twins had diarrhea with painful stomach pains. The next morning they both complained that their bodies, especially their legs, were hurting them and had been all night. It made it hard for them to get comfortable and they both slept terribly. Stella said, "I just wanted to kick my legs to get rid of the feeling."
A touch of the flu, I wondered? Doing the dishes a bit later, it registered that I was having pain in my lower back, my shoulders and my legs. Especially my legs! They felt like they were racing. And I did indeed feel the urge to kick them in an attempt to rid myself of this very uncomfortable sensation! And then my stomach cramps and diarrhea began. Sitting on the toilet, my "holy shit, we are having withdrawal symptoms" light bulb went off in the air, to the left of my head.
It makes perfect sense really. The wheat we eat every day stimulates our opiate receptors. Removing that wheat will cause withdrawals. The girls were very emotional and crying alot. "I feel so bad inside, Mommy. What is happening to me?" They were both experiencing anxiety, nervousness, feelings of hopelessness. My kids are normally off the wall in a much happier fashion.
I say fuck you to Dr. Know-it-all Borlaug for all that.
I picked up Maya from school and ask her if she had been feeling ok and she says she is fine. No issues. I dive into telling her what has been happening with me and the twins and why I think it happened. And that I googled "wheat withdrawals" and found that it happens to everyone that eliminates wheat.....that it can last up to 5-7 days. I am rattling on about all this and Maya guiltily interrupts, "Mom, its not happening to me because I can't quit my blueberry bagel for snack every morning."
Ugh. There's a valid argument for homeschooling right there. Why do you homeschool your kid? Oh because they are giving her opiates at school. That should answer your question.
So we have completed day four. The twins are fine, physically and emotionally. I just checked on them and they are soundly sleeping. Neither of them seem to miss the wheat. There were definitely less arguments today. So behaviorally, eliminating wheat seems to be doing the trick. They were up until 9:30 tonight and there were no tears at bedtime. Thats huge. I made this lifestyle change because of physical ailments. I never thought it would cure Stella's ADHD!
She was diagnosed by the "professionals" down at the school, by the way, so whether there was any ADHD to be cured in the first place is debatable. ;)
I still have a persistent ache between my shoulder blades but haven't had the stomach pains today. I slept great during my nap earlier. I think its safe to say that we have made it through the wheat withdrawals. The kids love it because I bake new things everyday. They get to help and eat the tasty fruits of our labor. They learn without the pressure of "learning time" by reading the recipes to me and sounding out new words like almond and coconut.
I am going to to document this journey. Stay tuned.
And watch this video. I am going to read his book, "Wheat Belly" until I fall asleep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbBURnqYVzw
