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Should Celiacs Eat Corn?

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I saw an interesting article from The Gluten Free Society named Celiac Patients React to Gluten-Free Bread.  The article claims that corn contains gluten and is just as damaging as the gluten from wheat, rye and barley and they point to some studies to back up their stance.  The studies appear to have some holes in them just from my cursory readings.

After reading it, my first thought was how much of that corn was GMO?  Organic?  Surely the body could have an immune reaction to a GMO grain and not react to the same grain in non-GMO form? [Read more…] about Should Celiacs Eat Corn?

What will you do when you get that call?

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A few days ago, my best friend got that phone call that everyone dreads.

Your daddy has had a heart attack. The doctors don’t think he’ll make it through the night.

GET. HERE. NOW.

She did what everyone would do. She grabbed enough for a road trip, threw it in the car and took off for a long drive. All she could think about was getting there as fast as possible.

On the way there, she called me to let me know what was going on. Trying to stay calm, she recounted the conversation and what details she knew. She told me later that she didn’t even think about food until she hung up the phone with me, about half-way through her drive. She was headed to a large military town, but it only has one grocery store chain and no health food stores. She has multiple food allergies and doesn’t fare well when exposed to an allergen.

Her daddy did make it through the night. She was having to go to her mom’s house do laundry and had to run by the store to buy basic necessities. She was then faced with the dilemma of having to go to the limited-selection grocery store and find safe food, figure out what to fix without having any of her recipes with her, find safe pots and pans to cook it in at her mom’s house, and keep it safe and segregated in the fridge while a trail of friends and family come through the home. It took time away from being at her daddy’s bedside and provided to be a considerable stress.

Of course, if you have a cast iron stomach and can handle fast food, pot-luck, or hospital cafeteria foods for as long as you need, you’re ok in the food department. But what about clothing? Toiletries? In a rush to get out the door, would you forget something? If you have children, would you have to suffer through their boredom and confusion while you’re going through what can arguably be considered one of the most stressful events in your life?

What would you do? You’re lucky if all of your family lives locally, you can just call a friend and have them swing by your house and drop off whatever you might need and you can run home for food and sleep. But if you have any family out of town, how can you prepare so that you don’t have to worry? Is it possible to just grab-and-go, knowing you have what you need?

You need a bug-out bag.

[Read more…] about What will you do when you get that call?

Real Food Storage- Deep Pantry Principles for Traditional Foodists

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Our Food Storage 101 article on our website was so popular, we decided to expand it into a blog series! Over the next several weeks, we will walk you through the whys and hows of food storage, whether you wish to have a week or a year of food on hand.

Why Should I Store Food?

There are many reasons why people choose to practice some form of food storage, and none of them are wrong. So many people are concerned right now. Since I began working with food storage in 2007, I have seen many reasons to choose to stock a deep pantry.

  • You wish to be prepared for a hurricane, a snow storm or an extended power outage.
  • While you might currently have a stable job, you know that unemployment is over 10% nationally, topping 15% in some areas. A recent Gallup poll showed that under-employment was at 19%. You aren’t currently dealing with unemployment, but you’re concerned it might be around the corner.
  • You’re looking to wisely invest your tax refund, knowing that currently the rising price of food is outpacing the interest rate, so the purchase of bulk food at a discounted price is a doubly wise investment of your funds.
  • You are a family facing unemployment or struggling through under-employment, or you are facing the end of your unemployment checks.
  • You don’t wish to have to purchase food on a credit card if you’re unemployed.
  • You currently know a family who is forced to choose between food and housing or food and heat due to a limited income.
  • You’re not particularly interested in food storage, but you’ve decided that buying in bulk is the best way to cut your whole-foods based budget.
  • You have food allergies, and you know that you would not be able to sustain your family between the offerings of a food bank and food stamps should something happen to your income.
  • You have food allergies, and you desperately need to bring down the grocery bill.
  • Due to being self-employed, you would not qualify for food stamps in an emergency.
  • You hate shopping and would rather shop less, or you live miles from convenient shopping locations.
  • You wish to leave the food at the food bank for those who are less fortunate than you.
  • You’ve read about the potential looming food shortages from the floods in many countries and droughts this year. Multiple countries have suffered flooding or freak snow and freezing weather in the last few months, and their effects on the price of food has been in the news.
  • You’ve met a family who sustained themselves with their food storage after a job loss or other tragedy. If you are a forum member, you know that last year we sustained ourselves for eleven months on food storage while my husband went through unemployment.
  • You see the need to not be a burden on others should an emergency occur, so that those who are less fortunate or can not prepare can utilize the food banks without you also needing to go there. This creates less of a burden on the safety nets meant to help families through a crisis.
  • You are trying to return to a more sustainable food production cycle in your own family, beginning a homestead or a hobby farm.
  • You are looking to unplug from a modern life-style.
  • You wish to save money by only purchasing fresh and in-season.

In 2009, our family sustained a major hit in the form of income loss when my husband, along with 90% of his co-workers, were laid off. Three months prior, everyone in the company had taken a salary reduction in a move to delay those lay-offs. We knew it was coming, we just didn’t know the day. Thankfully, we had one year of food storage in place when the lay-off happened. [Read more…] about Real Food Storage- Deep Pantry Principles for Traditional Foodists

Review- Daiya Dairy-Free Cheese

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Recently on the Facebook CTF page, someone mentioned a new dairy-free cheese on the market that melts and strings like real cheese.  Since I’ve been working on developing a variety of pizza crusts, I decided to look into it.  [Read more…] about Review- Daiya Dairy-Free Cheese

Navigating Events with Food When You Eat Differently

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The Holidays can strike fear into anyone who feeds her family in a particular style, such as low-carb, traditional or whole foods, or has a child with food allergies or intolerances.  There are mounds of forbidden food everywhere you go.  You receive invitations to events that contain a sea of smiling faces, some thinking they know better than you what your kid needs to eat.  “Just a little taste won’t hurt!  You’re just too controlling, let them live a little!”  They sneak your child bites while an accomplice across the room ties you up in conversation.  There’s dearly loved Great Aunt Matilda who would never feed your celiac child an un-approved bite, but wants to hold her plate of gluteny-goodness in one hand while she kisses and loves on your little one in the other, not realizing the damage it could do.  You desperately don’t want to hurt her feelings, but you don’t want your little guy throwing up for days or wetting the bed for a month, either.  Then there’s those who mean no harm, but just haven’t heard the news yet or don’t realize that what they’re giving your child could make them sick.  You can’t glue your kids to your legs the whole event; they just want to go play with the other kids.  Yet you fully realize that in the room runs the gamut from people who are helpful and supportive to people who would gladly sabotage you.  It’s enough to make any mama grab their kids and run screaming from the best of events!

Then comes the reactions to the food you have brought.  No matter how beautiful or ‘normal’ the dish, people turn their noses up at it with a collective “Ewwww!”  To them, different = disgusting and their minds snap shut just as quick as their jaws when offered a bite.  Your plate is the only one who comes home barely touched beyond the servings you spooned out for you and your kids and the one serving your supportive aunt or adventurous brother-in-law took.  Your husband’s extolling your cooking abilities to the family is met with blank stares.  Many people assume because you have made something different, your food doesn’t contain sugar/flavor/spices or any other myriad of attributes or ingredients they deem ‘normal.’  I once had to tell someone at a church event that store-bought gluten-free cookies weren’t health food and they did contain white sugar, they just didn’t contain the protein that would make me sick.  He turned his nose up at my plate of store-bought cookies until he learned that they weren’t ‘nasty health food.’

To many people food equals love, and love could never hurt.  The denial or changing of food, no matter the reason, evokes a very visceral reaction in some people that comes from places you can’t even begin to fathom.  [Read more…] about Navigating Events with Food When You Eat Differently

One Hour

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If you had one hour to leave your house, knowing that when you return it might not be there, what would you take with you?

Growing up in Florida, we never had more than minor damage to our home from a hurricane, but we had multiple friends and close family who literally lost everything but what they evacuated with in Hurricane Ivan in 2004.  They came home to unsalvageable houses after the storm, when authorities finally let them back into their neighborhoods.  What little was left from the flooding was covered in mold and severely water damaged after sitting under water for days.  [Read more…] about One Hour