The Clerk

Buying tons of produce yesterday and to throw in for good measure.....some candy bars for my boy's next hiking expedition. The cart looked like a contrast in lifestyles and when I commented jokingly about it, the clerk with a very straight face said, "I haven't eaten one of those in years." I think being a dietitian that I am supposed to have a "clean cart" every time I shop, but my reality is that we do have some junk food around the house. The thoughts of what should be in my cart each time at the store are fleeting, and I don't obsess about who sees what. Still, I have to say I was impressed by the clerk. She was nonjudgmental. I think about people that I meet in my field and some of them are so extreme about things. They come off as very perfect, judgmental and in my opinion, perfection and being judgmental of someone else's diet and lifestyle habits do not serve anyone. Better to be compassionate, educate with love and understanding and meet people where they are in life. Nudging, rather than condemning, is always the best way to move someone forward. Kim www.naturesanswertocancer.com

Is it dishonest to omit a conversation as easily as you omit the salt?

You've heard of the cookbook Deceptively Delicious, yes? The premise is simple: create healthier versions of the old standbys and get your family to consume more vegetables without them even knowing it. What can be wrong about that? So why did I feel so guilty when my son David went for seconds and then thirds after serving up this dish? He didn't even know he was consuming a completely vegan quinoa dish full of sautéed Brussel's sprouts! Whoops! I guess I neglected to tell him.....just like he neglected to tell me that he found my husband's wedding ring on a side table and threw it into the yard when he was five (found out much later).....Mom's version of payback, I suppose! www.challengecancer.com

Going for Gluten!

Well, incredible. Back to my normal diet of whole grains and I have no bloat, no stomach pain, no anything! I started back slowly last night and today enjoyed some whole grain, homemade blueberry muffins for breakfast and a Thai lunch that I KNOW contained gluten. So, I'm feeling chipper and happy and just thought I'd send out the good news! www.challengecancer.com

10 Days to Intestinal Realization

The trend is over, at least for me. I feel a little silly for jumping on board the GF train without any particular symptoms, but I thought it would be fun to see what happened. My fun so far has included pretty extreme intestinal pain, bloating at almost every meal and weight gain. To be fair, I believe primarily eating refined GF products could be the cause of some of this. But my reality is that I travel quite a bit and live with family members who love pasta! While I pride myself on not being a "quitter", I pride myself even more on honoring my body. Perhaps you are thinking, "well, she's going to dig into some pasta tonight!" Actually, I found an awesome quinoa and Brussels sprouts recipe I will be making tonight! So, while I think the extreme (for me) gluten free diet is not for me....I have decided my new goal is to take this one step in a more reasonable direction: I am going to enjoy more whole grain alternatives, while returning to my groats, buckwheat and whole grains. As I always say, "nature is about balance" and I feel great about returning to a better balance! Now....what will be new for February? Stay tuned! www.challengecancer.com

Weight a minute!

It's spaghetti night in the Dalzell household and I've had just about enough. First I realized that between the gluten free pizza last night and my quinoa spaghetti tonight I am just not getting full (that's led to late night snacking) and then my scale revealed that I have put on two pounds since being on this gluten free diet! Top that insult off with the big freshly baked French bread within sniffing distance on the dinner table and you may understand my lack of enthusiasm. My past habit of eating whole grains has been replaced with consuming refined grains (the easiest transition from regular to gluten free, but not the healthiest) - so now I'm on a mission to cook up some good, whole alternative grain recipes for this week. Wish me luck and wish my hips luck too! www.challengecancer.com

A Stark Contrast in Life

Yesterday I lunched on a sumptuous salmon and ancient grain meal at a country club near my home. Hmmm...you might be wondering, "why would this fancy meal be depicted in black and white? To prove a point of course! While walking with my husband Mark this morning he asked me, "well, do you feel any different being gluten free?" I was surprised to admit, yes, I did. The best way I can describe it is to say that I feel I am living in a more vibrant world. The color of the sky, the rocks, the trees are so much more vivid. My senses seem acutely alive all of a sudden. If you've had Lasik eye surgery like me, you may know what I am talking about.....the moment you open your eyes and see what was your previously dulled, blurred world is at once crystal clear. It is as if my brain fog has been lifted, but a fog that I never knew existed before. Reflecting on all of this, I wonder how much of life remains unnoticed because we walk around in a fog of busyness? Are we so gluttonous for stimuli (or wheat-packed carbs) that we neglect to savor the richness of the textures, colors and aromas around us? Wow. I wonder what week two will bring. www.naturesanswertocancer.com

Taking the Express Train to Bloat City!

It's an interesting thing when you see your teenage son do something nice for you. It's almost like you are in this surreal world and at any minute you wait for the other proverbial shoe to drop. And so it did. With my daughter and husband away for dinner, it was easy enough to tell my son David, "let's just go out to eat...I can go anywhere as long as there are some gluten free items!" "How about Panda Express?" he asked. It is one of his favorite places to eat. "Sure!" I said. Within a few minutes I was looking online at the nutrition guide to find out there was almost nothing I could eat there! I told David to go on without me and I settled in for the night with a tofu smoothie (gluten free!) and air popped popcorn. About an hour later through my office door, David plopped down a takeout container and said, "I got this for you, Mom. They told me it was all vegetarian and gluten free." Oh. Wow. For the love of it all! For a brief moment in time, the notion that if I ate this stuff I would most likely bloat up like the day I delivered this kid...was gone. I only felt love. I did regain my senses and thanked him. Then quietly submitted the container to the refrigerator. The thought of his consideration, however, still makes me glow. Now surely that is worth the ride. www.challengecancer.com

Great! Now rice poses a threat!

Last night I was happily enjoying my free range chicken taco - yes homemade thank you very much! - thinking to myself, "this gluten free way of life is doable. I can do this!" Then my thoughts switched to how I could have made this meal even better.....especially for my family. I could have added brown rice! It's gluten free after all! For some reason, I decided to do a little research about rice. Now how boring is that? And I learned something new....rice contains high levels of arsenic! That's why it's important to rinse off the rice before you cook it. And that is just the start! If you are a gluten free guy or gal, you may wish to take a look at the consumer alert report on arsenic in various grains. Quinoa keeps looking better and better! And just when I thought I had learned enough, I found a recipe for quinoa tacos! www.naturesanswertocancer.com

Gluten free is so blase

Meeting with a group of friends last night....where else but at Panera Bread (not my choice).....I informed the circle of them that I was officially "gluten free for the next 24 days". And who is counting, right? Anyway, I couldn't believe the response. Nothing. Nadda. Zip. Crickets....except for the new girl to the group who said, "oh yes, I'm gluten free, dairy free, soy free, additive free....been that way for years." And here I thought I was proud! So here are my GF lessons for day six: 1) No one is impressed. In fact, I think sometimes people can look at you like, "you pathetic little thing, no white bread. What will you do?" 2) You can find GF options almost everywhere. Before I left for dinner, I googled the menu at Panera and saw clearly marked choices....black bean soup and café salad thank you very much! 3) There is always someone who is doing something more extreme than you. You know you meet them when they ask for a bite of your dessert and then wave the bowl under their nose and say, "umm, good!" and 4) Focus on the friends, not the free part. It's always better to think about what you do have, rather than what you give up. www.naturesanswertocancer.com

Not Soy Fast!

Okay, it's day 5 in my journey to the land of no gluten and I have made a decision. Thirty days and I'm refocusing my energies! I'm blessed that I do not have celiac disease, so I can make the choice to return to gluten if I want. It is too early to determine where I will end up, but tonight's dinner took me by surprise. I made stir fry, and checked the label on the soy sauce....wheat....had to go to the store to buy tamari. Got home, and saw that the stirfry sauce I use contains.....wheat....urgh! Decided I didn't need the stirfry sauce anyway. Started adding my special Chinese spices, red pepper chili sauce and then the hoison sauce......wheat! Wow. And here I thought Chinese food was served with rice! I made it through dinner with just the tamari sauce but this experience really helped me to see that I can't be a zero tolerance kind of girl, at least not when it comes to gluten. But, for now, I continue solidly on my 30 days gluten free. I did read an interesting article on how naturally fermented soy sauces are considered gluten free but also learned that the chemically fermented soy sauces have other health issues associated with them. I think it's time for Mexican food. www.challengecancer.com

Having cake and eating it too

You read the title and thought I bailed already, huh? Oh, don't freak out! I haven't given up yet! Yesterday I pulled out my gluten free pancake mix and with some skepticism, whipped up a small batch of pancakes for myself. I added fresh blueberries and diced walnuts. The Hodgson Mill's brand already contained flaxseed, so I didn't add any more. I just knew I'd be left FLAT....after all, the pictures of the pancakes on the box looked pretty sad. But, to my surprise, I had awesome, thick, hearty pancakes. They tasted really good! You know what I'm noticing when I eat gluten free prepared foods? I get full faster and don't eat as much. This is interesting to me because I know that commercially prepared gluten free foods contain refined alternative grains, so sometimes there isn't that much fiber to them. Perhaps when I combine the foods with fresh fruits and veggies, I get the necessary fiber to complete the satiation factor? The refinement of alternative grains is a concern for me, I think whole grains are the best! Last night for dinner, I tried quinoa pasta and I cooked it slightly al dente - again, it was perfect! Delicious. Not sticky (I did add a teaspoon of olive oil to the water). Here's a side by side photo of both spaghettis (one regular for my non-adventurous family and one for me, gluten free!). Can you tell which is which? www.naturesanswertocancer.com

Kids vs. Carbs

She looked up at me with those big blue eyes and with a semi-dramatic voice, my 15 year old daughter Kat began to tell me how much she wanted a chocolate chip bagel from Panera. She hadn't been feeling well and was all balled up in a sea of blankets on the couch. What mother could say "no" to a request like that?! To be honest the last thing I wanted was to go into a bread store and smell those cinnamon rolls and freshly baked multigrain baguettes...but off I went. And to my surprise, I walked in, smelled the aroma and eyed the rolls and..... Nothing. Nope! Not a thing! My resolve strong, I ordered my daughter her bagels and waved goodbye to all that gluten! It wasn't much later in the day that I realized in my busyness that I missed my ritual afternoon tea (some caffeine) and I had this amazing level of energy! Was it from not having gluten? I mean, it's only been a few days? Guess I will find out down the road. And my daughter, by the way, loved her bagel and her Mom. www.challengecancer.com

Panic in the Grocery Store

It started out innocent enough. I had just finished visiting a friend to help her set up a Tower Garden and one thing led to another....and one hour led to another....and by the time I stopped at the grocery store to stock up for my first "gluten free" weekend, I was famished. Cardinal sin #1 - going to the grocery store hungry Cardinal sin #2 - quickly strolling by the bread rack justifying to yourself that you might find some gluten free bread (there wasn't any). I quickly moved to the center of the store and that's where it happened. This registered dietitian, trained in all things food.....started to panic! What was I going to eat? How was I going to explain to my teens that, oh by the way, tonight is an official "everyone is on their own for dinner" night. Come on, don't judge....you never have one of those? So I did what any self-respecting, panic-attacked person would do: I started looking for the GF label on the packages--automatic self-help. I picked up a few things before I started noticing the outrageous prices on these special-marked packages. So I turned to the mainstays: beans, quinoa and other dry goods. Now my weekend will be busy figuring out how to make these staples taste good while I am stirring up a pot of spaghetti for my husband. And then, relief beyond belief! I found it! A sweet treat that would quell my hunger and get me back to my sensibilities. I snapped up a bag of quinoa snacks....tore open the top and took a munch. Crunch. Coconutty. And beautifully gluten free! Waiting in line to purchase my goods (and the half consumed Keenwa Krunch) I exclaimed outloud how good it was. The lady in front of me said, "what is that?" I read the label with enthusiasm, "It's coconut cranberry cashew quinoa clusters!" I started to laugh. I thought only the processed "bad" foods had ingredient labels that were difficult to pronounce!

Looks like I'll be learning a lot as I say goodbye to gluten. www.naturesanswertocancer.com

GLUTEN: Going, Going, Gone?

Sometimes I really get irritated with this wellness community. I mean, come on.....I haven't an issue with my bowels ever! Okay, if I was being honest, once in a while things didn't flow as easily as usual, but I haven't experienced the uncomfortable and very inconvenient issues that people with irritable bowel, Crohn's disease or other gastrointestinal disorders suffer from. So why in the world would I jump on the "go without gluten" bandwagon? Call it whimsy, wanting to join in with my friends who are transforming their diets, or just plain curiousity (yes, that is primarily it). So I'm IN. This registered dietitian, holistic practitioner is finally IN. I'm ready to say goodbye to gluten for 30 days.And you know what really helped me make this decision? I went gluten free for 4 days. I really didn't notice any difference. So I celebrated my successful attempt and began to indulge in our homemade waffles from scratch on Saturday morning. B-L-O-A-T! Big time. Hmmm.....probably just needed to get my gut bearings right? Let's try it again....pasta on Sunday followed by blueberry pancakes (whole grain, from scratch, good stuff, right?) on Tuesday and B-L-O-A-T! Big time. I've read enough to know that individuals without any gut issues can be gluten "sensitive" and a key indicator of that is going off gluten then back on it and see what happens. Bloating is a potential symptom that might lead us to conclude that someone has gluten sensitivity. Could that be me? Since I am still pining for the pizza and already shedding tears at the thought of giving up white crusty French rolls at one of my favorite restaurants, I thought I needed to do this right. So here goes. For the next 30 days, my gluten is going away. I'm posting to keep me accountable and because I know I can't be the only one who is curious about what giving up gluten can really do. If you follow along, you'll get the real scoop about how easy (or not) it is to go gluten free for 30 days. Hope you'll stick around! No pun intended.

Just say NO to New Year's Resolutions?

Now here's an interesting take on wellness! I just read that Gold's Gym is promoting a nationwide campaign to encourage us not to set resolutions. After all, statistics suggest that over 88% of people who set a goal do not achieve it. Truth is, many of us simply don't even get started! And....we will wait an entire year before succumbing to the old "set a goal and achieve it this time" message. Gold's Gym logic: Not meeting a goal can leave you feeling pretty badly about yourself, so in order to preserve self-esteem, don't set a goal! I think this is stinkin' thinkin'! Without some goal, some vision, something to look forward to, to accomplish...hope dissolves. I believe our human nature is to be hopeful, and desire progression, to be better than before. Why throw all that out because we are doomed to fail? Do you suppose we fail because we set the bar too high? Or maybe we really don't have clarity about what we want to change? Or....could it be that we don't really know how to set a goal? Before scrapping your plan to set resolutions, consider answering these questions and seeking some advice on how to set clear vision for a realistic goal. This year, you might surprise yourself. This year, you just might do it!

Holiday Hoisting...a better version of hosting

I've been reflecting on a conversation I had with someone not too long ago. Let's call him Bill. Bill had a pretty good life, all in all, and there came a time when things started going wrong. He felt abandoned by his friends, family and co-workers. Bill was always quick with a smile, and equally quick with sharing his woes. Because of this free sharing practice, people in Bill's life had begun to drift away. We began discussing about individual capability for compassion and understanding for someone who is not in the same proverbial boat. I said, "isn't there a way to just pull yourself up and look for what is new and exciting here? I mean, come on, can't everyone just cut a new path in the jungle of life?" Bill's response was quick (as if he had thought about it way before this conversation ever happened), "Maybe not everyone has the capacity to make those changes. Maybe pulling up is not as easy as giving up." I got really quiet after that. In the continuum of life we have the glass-is-half-fullers and the glass-is-half-emptiers...but what about all the people in the middle of the spectrum? How do we know who belongs to which camp? Perhaps one of our roles in life, and certainly during this holiday season, is not to pretend to understand or have a solution for anyone, but rather....just to remember that most of us need to be "pulled up" now and again. How are you helping with the hoist?

Sushi Bad for the Heart

Ok, I admit.....I'm not a huge sushi fan.....and the news from the Journal of Risk Research doesn't make me want to sit down and order any sushi any time soon! Seems tuna sashimi has super high levels of methylmercury. This toxin increases rates of cardiovascular disease and causes poorer cognitive performance. I guess what's really sad about all of this is that we now have a scientific journal to address risks found in our food supply and environment!

Beef....what's NOT in it!

Taco Bell President Greg Creed said Tuesday in a statement that Taco Bell plans to take legal action against people making the allegations that the Taco Bell meat mixture contains binders and fillers. The lawsuit claims Taco Bell falls short of the USDA’s requirement that its filling be at least 40 percent fresh meat.

Creed said that Taco Bell buys the same brands of beef sold in supermarkets. He said the beef is simmered in a blend of seasonings.

What are the implications to cancer here? If the majority of fast food restaurants follow suit with Taco Bell, the amount of soy isoflavones in our food supply would be dramatically higher than we think. Soy isoflavones are contraindicated for women with a history of breast, uterine, ovarian and other estrogen-receptor positive cancers because the concentrated isoflavones may spur on the growth of these kinds of cancer cells.

What do to now? Limit your consumption of beef products....at even the "allowed" 40% beef in beef, you have to ask, "what makes up the other 60% of what I am eating?"

Plant based antioxidants causing cancer?

New research findings published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry point to dangerous peril for cancer patients taking plant based antioxidants. Researcher Chen, et al, found that when severely diabetic rats were fed quercetin and ferulic acid (two antioxidants found in apples, onions and other produce) appeared to have aggravated kidney cancer.

This is what the press is reporting....but here's the important facts:

* One of the side effects to poorly controlled diabetes is kidney damage
* Quercetin and ferulic acid were isolated and concentrated - any time you pull out one major ingredient in a food, it creates an inbalance in the body
* Whole foods have been proved to be effective in the fight against cancer, so I would encourage EATING whole food products and avoiding dietary supplements containing isolated

If you can't get enough fruits and veggies (9-13 servings a day) consider a whole food based concentrate. I recommend and use Juice Plus+

Kim Dalzell, PhD, RD
www.naturesanswertocancer.com

Counting Calories or Confusion?

Did you realize that your perception about the “calorie” cost of a food could determine what you end up eating?
According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers found out that
the sequence in which items are considered often influences our evaluations of these items.
In one of Dr. Chernev's studies, he found that a group of participants' impressions of how many calories a cheeseburger had depended on whether they were first shown a salad or the cheeseburger. The people who saw the cheeseburger first thought it had 570 calories, whereas the participants who first estimated the calories of the salad thought the cheeseburger had 787 calories—a 38 percent difference.

"Simply switching the order in which our respondents evaluated the two meals resulted in significant changes in their perceived calorie content," Chernev writes. Reversing the order in which the respondents considered the items also increased the overall calorie estimation from 757 to 1,097 calories.

When the foods are quite dissimilar (a "virtuous" salad versus an "indulgent" slice of cheesecake), people get even more confused about calories. Even though participants knew a fruit salad had fewer calories than a piece of cheesecake, they perceived a salad/cheeseburger sequence to have more calories than a cheesecake/cheeseburger combo.

Here’s the bottom line: If you tend to overestimate the calorie content of healthy/indulgent sequences of items, you are also likely to make healthier food choices based on that perception.

To what kind of food are you comparing your lunch choice today?

By Kim Dalzell, PhD, RD

www.naturesanswertocancer.com