Speaking on gluten-free foods...

A while back I decided to go gluten free. I kind of backed into it. I went on a trip with my son who was doing the Atkins Diet and I opted to be supportive and do it, too. Being a vegetarian, my diet was severely limited to say the least! What's left after you cut out meat, sugar and carbs?

I'm not a true vegetarian or I'd have been limited to lettuce given the selection at the restaurants around the show. I'll eat eggs and cheese and will eat a piece of ocean fish once in a blue moon. I haven't had red meat or chicken since high school. I used to be much stricter but have lightened up in the areas of eggs, milk and cheese although I opt for hormone-free, organic and similar.

After five days of eggs and veggies, I was cured of my sugar habit completely. Ditto on my carb addiction.

I was amazed at how much better I felt! I decided to stick with the diet to some degree. I'm staying sugar free. I'm persnickety sugar free. If a product has dextrose, corn syrup, or any kind of sugar at all in it, even in the 'under 2%' listing, I won't buy it. I am aware of the difference between the sugar in tomatoes, grapes, etc. and other sugars!

After a time I introduced some occasional breads back into my diet, but chose to go gluten free. I'd been doing some reading plus have a few relatives who have gone gluten free with great results, so it seemed like a good time to try it.

I like it. A lot. I feel better, I don't have those afternoon slumps, my digestive system is happy and I haven't missed all those breads, pastas and other items. I guess that's partially because my stomach may have shrunk a bit --- or maybe the foods I'm eating are filling. Process foods never seemed to satisfy, I'd always find myself peering into the refrigerator an hour or so after eating, hoping to find that magic food that would satisfy. Now I waltz through the day and don't have those cravings.

One downside to eating as strangely as I do in this fast-food, restaurant loving, processed food world is that my friends who already thought I was a strange eater are really scratching their heads when they invite me over for dinner. I try not to make an issue of my diet, I can always find something to order when I go to a restaurant.

Another downside to it all is the cost of gluten-free products. Talk about taking a hit to the old pocket book! However, given I don't eat but a minuscule amount when compared to my pre-gluten-free days, it's really not as bad as it could be.

I've also discovered there are some horrible tasting gluten-free products out on the market. Horrible even for my weird-adjusted palate.

I've found two things that I think are great.

One is made by a local baker and sold wholesale to local restaurants. It's a gluten-free hamburger bun. I first tried it at the Broadway Diner in Fayetteville, Georgia. They have excellent food, cooked to order, and bend over backwards to accommodate my requests. When I eat there, no matter what time of day, I have them toast a couple of the buns for me. I take one half home, eat the other with my meal. I limit myself to one of the bun halves a day at most. They're white instead of wheat like I normally like, but I think it's stretching it to expect both! As a special request they ordered some extras for me and I carry home some frozen buns off and on. Very nice people, excellent food, love everything about Broadway.

The other thing that I love to treat myself to is Glutino pretzels. Those things are good. Everyone in my family loves them. They're not what I'd call inexpensive so don't buy them for the snack-happy gluttons in your family! It's hard to eat a ton of them anyway, but if you're family and friends aren't going to appreciate them, save them for yourself.

I really haven't had a desire to eat any noodles, pizza or other 'normal' gluten-type items so I can't tell you which ones are good. I could tell you which ones are bad based on friends reviews, but I try to stay positive on here.

Do you have any favorite gluten free foods (not recipes, we're talking about buy-off-the-shelf type foods). I've found that most stores now carry items, and many restaurants have a selection.

Going sugar-free

It's been one week and I'm feeling great. No cravings and not tempted by the aisles of stuff in the grocery store when I shop. I know that facing my Mom's caramel cake is going to be the real test, but luckily that won't happen until the next family gathering and my mind should be acclimated totally by then.

It's not so difficult I suppose as I was sugar-free for many years before going off the wagon about seven years ago.

Why sugar free? It started years ago when I went to my dentist in North Carolina. He had a display in his waiting room showing sugar consumption growth over the years. He had a baby food jar with a teaspoon or so of sugar in it from way back when... next to it was a bigger jar, then a bag of sugar, then 2 or 3, increasing until the stack was my height and at least a couple of bags deep, a number wide. I was probably snacking on a candy bar when I saw it... well, no, I was going to the dentist so I wouldn't have been eating anything. But I certainly didn't have a problem with sugar!

It kind of stuck with me and made me curious. I picked up a few books on sugar. Statements like "if sugar were discovered today it would be banned" and "it's addictive" had me thinking more about my sugar intake. I started watching labels.

What a shocker! So many of the foods I ate had sugar in them. Things you wouldn't think needed sugar. Mayonnaise? hot dogs? spaghetti sauce? I started looking for products that didn't have sugar listed as an ingredient. Pretty soon I was completely sugar free and I felt great. I didn't have afternoon crashes or slow-downs. I slept better. I had more energy. It was enough to keep me on a sugar-free diet for many, many years.

I can still remember when I went off the wagon. Not sure why, either, but when I went, I went wholeheartedly. I ate almost a full plate of chocolate brownies, with icing no less! I was hooked. I almost got a rush...

Since then I've kind of tried off and on to go sugar-free but haven't been committed. I've lasted a day or so always using some excuse like "I don't want to toss all that good food in the freezer" or "I don't have time to cook". I'm the queen of microwave dishes these days....

But my son went carb-free to lose weight and as I was going on a long trip with him I decided to stick to the same diet. Once I got through the first few days, which was surprisingly easy, my body started remembering how good it used to feel. I decided to stick with it when I got back, especially since I'd already gone through what's usually the worst part.

Now I'm cleaning out the fridge and freezer. I've been shopping and am trying to remember all the great foods I used to eat. I'm learning to eat more veggies already! For some reason eating processed foods just takes away the enjoyment of fresh or even frozen vegetables on the plate. They're starting to have more flavor, be more satisfying.

One thing that saddens me is having to give up my Morning Star Farms products. They all have sugar in them. Talk about a surprise! I'm a vegetarian of sorts, have been since my teens. I don't eat meat or poultry. I will drink milk, eat cheese, have an occasional piece of fish so I'm not a true vegetarian by most definitions. I've enjoyed my meat subsitutes from Morning Star. No more. Next time I hit the grocery store I'll be looking at some of the other meat substitutes to see if they have sugar in them.

One thing I've learned is that saying I'll just eat a little bit of sugar on rare occasions is like saying I'll only do crack once a year. It just doesn't work like that. Why do you think they're now putting some form of sugar in almost every food? I dare you to try and fill your cart with foods that don't have sugar, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose or similar listed in the ingredients.

I'm heading to the kitchen to make breakfast. Plenty of choices ranging from cereals to oatmeal to eggs...and even pancakes with fruit on top. I haven't added fruit back into my diet yet, waiting to make sure I'm well settled into sugar-free before adding fruit.

I'll try to keep you posted on how I'm doing off and on. I suspect I'll probably drop a few pounds along the way, which won't hurt my feelings at all! -  jmd