Something that I increasingly find to be important is happiness.

That may seem obvious. Most people want to be happy. But the reason I’m mentioning it is because focusing on health, even when things are moving in a positive direction, can be stressful.

I’ve written about this before, as you may know.

Often when people are newly gluten free, the focus is on what they can’t eat any more. They worry about whether they’re going to react to what they’re served at a restaurant, or at a friend’s house. They think and wonder and fret about what they have to do to treat the problems that they have thanks to gluten intolerance and related things.

Some of this is necessary. There is a lot to learn when going gluten free. To be the healthiest possible, a lot may have to change in one’s diet and life. But the stress should not be ongoing and/or acute. There should be, at least, breaks during the process so you aren’t overwhelmed.

Eventually, when you have your diet and supplements, etc. “down” enough so you don’t have to mull them over often, you’ll probably feel and think differently. I certainly do. It’s a nice place to be – one of the perks of being healthier.

On this site, I do my best to give recommendations and resources to reduce the transition stress so you can get to the nicer place faster.

But now, in this post, I want to focus on (gluten free) happiness that requires very little thought and that you can try to have right now, independant of where you’re at with a gluten free diet.

What makes you happy?

How can you experience that now, or soon, and ideally regularly?

Often people think about the people in their lives that make them happy. That’s fine, but it’s good to have a “collection” of things that you can do or experience that don’t depend mostly on others, too.

If you are currently quite ill, and perhaps unable to do some of the things that you love most, then focus on what you CAN do, not what you’re missing out on right now.

Here are some of the things that make me happy that don’t require other people. I don’t need lots of energy for 2 of them, and even when I’m tired I can manage a little of #1 usually!

1. Dancing

I LOVE to dance! I don’t need anyone to dance with me, I happily dance alone, in my home, to music that I like.

I don’t do it for exercise, even though it can be an excellent workout.

I do it because I feel beyond great when I dance.

No food or supplement or drug can give that feeling to me. Only dancing.

2. Watching Good Movies from the 40s.

“Good” is a matter of taste, of course.

I’m not a fan of all 40s movies. Also, just because something won an Academy Award and/or is said to be a “classic” doesn’t mean I, or you, will like it. Some films don’t hold up thanks to big changes in culture and values. And frankly, some of them are really, really bad. If a film is so bad that it’s funny, great, but if not, no thanks. :)

Ultimately, I find both a fun snappiness and heart in many films from this era that I don’t find in other eras.

Recently I watched a film that I had never heard of before. I love that.

I had been feeling really low that day, but this film made me smile a lot. I even laughed out loud a couple of times. Perhaps it isn’t well known because as a Christmas themed film, it has been eclipsed by a very popular film from the same era (that film is It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946).

The film I watched is Holiday Affair (1949) starring Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, Wendell Corey and Gordon Gebert

Holiday Affair (1949) – A little known delightful film to check out

God is that a stupid poster. Don’t judge this film based on the poster.  In NO part of this film does Janet leigh’s character dress like that. How funny. But, she is truly lovely in this film. Very young too. This is more than 10 years before her most famous role in Psycho. If you watch it, note how small her waist is. Oh sure, women wore girdles back then, but even so, it is damned small. Beautiful.

Gordon Gebert, who plays Janet Leigh’s character’s young son, acts and sounds like a real child. This isn’t the standard stilted overly sweet or smart alecky Hollywood characterization you often see in Hollywood films of any era.

3. Art Nouveau

I’m in a bit of an Art Nouveau wave right now. I find many of the patterns and colours so beautiful.

I recently bought this ceramic trivet from The Art Nouveau Shop:

6″ square ceramic trivet from The Art Nouveau Shop on Etsy.com

Created from a photograph of an original Victorian Art Nouveau ceramic tile

Looking at my trivet, and using it with my various gluten free hot meals and drinks, makes me feel very happy. Having things that I find beautiful in my home definitely helps with my mood.

A friend is delivering a Tiffany style lamp to me soon. I’ll put a picture of it here after it arrives. I want to make sure it’s as nice as it looks in the online pictures before posting!

Note: It doesn’t have to cost much to have nice things that are to your taste, if money is a concern. For example, there is an artist I like but can’t afford. There are greeting cards of her work so I bought a nice yet inexpensive wood frame, framed one of the cards and set that out on a table.

How about you? What makes you happy? 

There are many gluten free cocoa powders that don’t have gluten as an ingredient.

But if you’re very sensitive to gluten, it’s safer to use unsweetened cocoa powder for baking and hot chocolate making that isn’t processed on or near to equipment that is also used to process gluten ingredients.

That way, you avoid the risk of cross-contamination.

Many food companies use gluten ingredients in at least some of their products, hence the risk.

Two popular, high quality, reasonably priced cocoa powders on the market that are truly gluten free as of this writing are :

1. Ghiradelli Cocoa Powder

Ghiradelli Cocoa Powder  – good price on Amazon via this link

There is a risk of cross-contamination with peanuts, soy, tree nuts and milk in Ghiradelli cocoa powder, but not gluten.

See Ghiradelli’s comprehensive list of cross contamination risks for most of their products here

2. E. Guittard Cocoa Rouge Cocoa Powder

E. Guittard Cocoa Rouge Cocoa Powder – good price for 3 on Amazon via this link

E. Guittard cocoa powder may have cross-contamination with peanuts, but that’s it, according to their website here

If you know of other good, reasonably priced cocoa powders that are truly gluten free – no chance of cross contamination – please leave a comment. They can be hard to find.

Licorice candy often contains gluten, in the form of wheat flour. Happily, there are more gluten free options now than ever before.

But damn, no manufacturer makes a gluten free version of my all-time favorite black licorice candy, licorice allsorts.

Beware: the product above contains gluten!

Given the growing interesting in gluten free foods of all kinds, where are the gluten free allsorts? Maybe it’s too hard to get the right texture without wheat flour?

I’ll be writing to manufacturers to request it, and fortunes will be made. :)

Allsorts aside, if you like the taste of black licorice, there are several gluten free options you can order online. Some of them are more “natural” than others.

For example:

#1 Zagarese 100% Organic Gluten-Free, Sugar Free Licorice

Zagarese 100% Organic Licorice comes in 4 flavors, Original (shown above), Anise , Citrus & Mint

It’s organic licorice root extract and natural flavor extracts with the flavored varieties, with no sugar or artificial sweeteners added, or anything else.

I don’t normally like the taste of black licorice naked, so to speak.

When I was a kid I loved jelly beans, but the only way I could get the black licorice flavored ones down was to chase them quickly with a small handful of the other flavors.

The reason I enjoyed licorice allsorts in my gluten days was because the fondant they contain mellows the bitter woody taste I usually dislike. And I just loved the round, sandy textured pink coconut one!

But I quite like Zagarese!

I’m older now, and therefore have matured in my tastes. Haha, probably not.

Maybe it’s because Zagarese is made with real licorice root. If you live in North America, most “licorice” candy is flavored with anise or synthetic substitutes. Anise lacks the sweetness of real licorice, so sugar must be added.

Some people are concerned about real licorice because the DGL (glycyrrhizin) in it is believed to exacerbate certain health problems in sensitive people. But most licorice from Europe (Zagarese is from Italy) is quite low in DGL, and anything put into candy tends to be deglycyrrhizinated. The licorice root in Zagarese is even lower in DGL to start with because it comes from a species (glycyrrhiza glabra) with a glycyrrhizin content of only 4% to 5%. Zagarese doesn’t have to be deglycyrrhizinated, making it a more natural product overall.

Back to the fun stuff:

The little flip top box is easy to carry in my pocket.

Each candy is very small, a wee oblong pellet. It’s great to suck on. Good if you have bad breath, too. Crunching the pellets is a bit hard on my teeth, but after they’re sucked ’til even smaller, I’ll usually bite them a little.

The pieces are SO strongly licorice, and the aftertaste (which is the same as the “during” taste) lasts a while. One box, which is close to the size displayed in the picture above, lasts me a long time.

The links on this page are to Amazon to buy a pack of 6. It’s been quite hard for me to find Zagarese in stores. Perhaps you’ll be able to find it in your local candy or health store. If you like it, you can take advantage of the deal on Amazon.

Moving on …

#2 Gimble’s Scottie Dogs All Natural Licorice

Gimble’s Scottie Dogs All Natural Licorice, 11.5 oz bags (generous!) – deal on 12 packs via Amazon

From Cybele May of Candy Blog, I learned about Gimbal’s an American company that produces candy, including black licorice, free of the 8 most common food allergens: peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, gluten, soy, fish, and shell fish.

There is no risk of cross contamination with gluten with Gimbal’s candies. That is something you face with a few of the big companies who produce both gf and gluten-full candy lines.

Scottie Dogs are made with real licorice and anise and no artificial colors. They’re sweetened with corn syrup (not high fructose corn syrup, at least!)

They are really, really, really, really, really cute . I’m quite fond of real life Scottie dogs, hence my 5 reallys. Maybe I would feel bad biting at these fine little things for that reason? :) Please read Cybele May’s review with up-close pictures of these candies here

Candy Blog is one of my favorite food review sites of all time. Thank you, Cybele, for creating it.

Yes, I do best on a Paleoish/hunter-gatherer type diet. Due to food allergies, etc. most commercial candy is risky for me. But I get SO much enjoyment from reading about it on her site, and memories of my candy eating days. Now I eat candy vicariously. :)

In her candy reviews, Cybele does her best to mention whether a candy is gluten free or not, which I appreciate.

Looking for something more Twizzler-esque?

#3 Candy Tree’s Black Gluten-Free Licorice Twists

Candy Tree’s Black Gluten-Free Licorice Twists - 12 x 2.6 oz packages from Amazon

This isn’t made with real licorice. It’s licorice flavored. Instead of the usual wheat flour found in licorice twists, it contains rice flour. Hmm, could rice flour be used to make decent licorice allsorts? It would be nice if they could be made with potato flour and be totally grain free.

The company produces gluten candies, too, but they claim that they carefully wash the equipment so cross contamination risks are low.

You can get a smaller amounts of this product at Gluten Free Mall.

Another handy online resource for gluten free licorice and gluten free candy is Natural Candy Store

Click on “Special Diets” at the top of the site and you’ll find the link to the listings.

Here is another excellent stress management relaxation technique from the creator of Intuition Journal

To read the first exercise I posted, please go to: Easy Relaxation Exercise

This is a brief and simple exercise. It can be seamlessly woven into your daily life.

Pay attention to what you are sensing, going through each of your senses.

Notice what you are seeing.  Take a moment to notice the colors … then the shapes … focus on a single object … then take a wider perspective … shift between open focus and focusing on one thing

Then move on to what you feel … how does your body feel … your shoulders … sense the shoulder area … roll your shoulders and relax them … notice your breathing … is it flowing or constricted … if it is constricted breathe more deeply and relax … becoming more aware of what you are touching…

And now notice what are you hearing … the sounds … perhaps birds chirping… or music playing …  or traffic… the sounds you are making … your breathing … the sounds you make as you are working … pay attention to them for a moment …

If you can taste or smell something … notice that now … notice what you smell … and what you taste … or recently tasted …

Now breathe and relax, remaining aware of your surroundings and your senses … take this awareness with you through the day …

You have paid attention to your senses.

You can do this several times a day, whenever you like. It’s a great way to be more aware. It’s a kind of waking meditation.

There is no need to go into a kind of trance or an inward meditation.

The advantage of this kind of meditation is you can use it at any time, while working, resting, or playing.

Use this meditation to increase your awareness in daily life.

Have you noticed that there are many different terms that are used to describe negative reactions to wheat and gluten grains?

It can be confusing.

Likely the confusion will continue for a while.

The reasons why wheat, gluten grains (and also grains in general) can be a serious health concern for some people continues to be debated.

Some researchers feel that the growing number of people who seem to react adversely to wheat is partly due to changes in wheat in the last ~ 30 years.

Much of the wheat consumed today has been bred to be much higher in certain proteins.

Also, genetic modifications can do a lot of things to alter food in ways that we don’t fully understand yet. The wheat of today can be very different than the wheat of 30 years ago, and different from the wheat of a century ago, etc.

Ingredients that are wheat-based are also found in more processed foods now. Thus, exposure to gluten/wheat has increased for many people over the last few decades.

Combine this with anything that may damage health, including consuming unhealthy fats (See Is Butter Healthy? , Where to Buy Coconut Oil and Macadamia Nut Oil: Better than Olive Oil? ) and it’s easy to imagine why problems with wheat may have increased in recent decades.

Some researchers believe that wheat intolerance (and wheat allergy) are actually gluten intolerance.

Although a person may react more strongly and noticeably to wheat than wheat’s relatives like spelt and kamut, all “gluten grains” including rye and barley, are believed to be the problem.

If/when this is the case, after going ‘wheat-free’ a person may find that they continue to have symptoms that resemble the problems they had formerly associated with wheat only.

The symptoms may not be as strongly felt as they were with wheat, or obvious at first, but eventually such a person will likely run into this issue if it’s truly gluten intolerance. Eliminating all of the ‘gluten grains’ is an important next step if this is the case.

Wheat was the worst for me.

I could have assumed that I just had wheat intolerance. When I realised that wheat was a problem, I had stopped eating processed foods, and I was grinding organic wheat berries to make my own flour to create my own bread  (so I couldn’t blame additives or processing for my reactions). After I dropped wheat I soon realised that I reacted to other gluten grains, including spelt and kamut, so I axed them too and finally felt a lot better. See Cure for Fibromyalgia?

What is Wheat Intolerance?

Wheat intolerance often refers to a “non-allergic” negative reaction to wheat. The symptoms of wheat intolerance are said to be less violent and immediate as they are with wheat allergy (see Wheat Allerg,y below), but definitely damaging to health. They won’t show up on the standard finger prick test and blood tests that look for allergic reactions.

Sometimes the symptoms of wheat intolerance manifest many hours or even days after eating foods or supplements that contain wheat. This makes wheat intolerance tricky to diagnose.  Also, the symptoms won’t always manifest as digestive distress. Joint pain and skin problems could be what the person experiences, for example.

If you look up “wheat intolerance symptoms” online or “gluten intolerance symptoms” you’ll find lists that are long and varied and you might feel a bit suspicious. How can one food or group of foods do so many awful things?

Wheat may not be the horror for everyone that some people say that it is, but for a growing number of people, it seems to be problematic, and fortunately there are lots of tasty, inexpensive and easy to prepare alternatives, which I cover on this site. For example, see Potatoes

Avoidance of wheat continues to be the preferred approach to deal with wheat intolerance.

Wheat Allergy

Wheat allergy is often described as an immunological response to wheat. The allergy can be to any of the different proteins found in wheat and cereal grains related to wheat, such as kamut and spelt and triticale.

Symptoms vary, but they appear very quickly after ingesting wheat. Unlike intolerance, there’s a better chance that a finger prick test or blood test will identify them. Symptoms can be gastrointestinal, or respiratory (asthma), or affect the skin (hives, rashes, contact dermatitis).  They can also manifest in something that resembles hay fever: runny nose, itchy eyes. Wheat allergy is sometimes called “baker’s allergy”, and in the worst cases is very dangerous because it can lead to anaphylaxis.

As with wheat intolerance, avoidance of wheat is best, but an allergy is easier to spot because of the immediate symptoms.

Gluten Intolerance

Read I wrote about wheat intolerance and apply it to all gluten grains, not just wheat. To learn more about what foods contain gluten, see Foods Containing Gluten

Avoiding all gluten grains is a good thing to test, if you know that you react to wheat. The hard part is that you may be reacting but you don’t know it yet. Perhaps, like I once did, you’re assuming that the problems you’re having aren’t from wheat/gluten. Testing can help you figure this out, and there are ways to do it for free. Please see Gluten Intolerance Testing

When you’re in good health, stress in your life will be easier to manage.

If gluten is a problem for you, and you go gluten free, in time you may find, as I did, that your stress levels go down in general.

But healthy or not, if you’re stressed, there are quick and simple relaxation techniques that you can use.

No need to learn long and complicated forms of meditation – simply use the easy stress management relaxation technique, courtesy of Intuition Journal, below.

It may take a little bit of practice to really let go and fully relax, but by focusing on this exercise for a while instead of your worries, you’ll have a simple, gentle escape.

Let’s begin …

Read the following while you play music that you find relaxing. Have the lights turned down low.  Arrange things so you won’t be disturbed for a while.

Relaxing now…

Breathe …

Notice your breathing ….

Close your eyes briefly and just pay attention to your breathing of one full in breath, and one full out breath, then open your eyes …

Relax…

Relaxing…

Letting go of negative energy….

Breathing in relaxing positive energy….

And letting go …. breathing out any stresses… and tensions ….

With the outbreath … stress leaves your body ….

And breathing in …

In relaxing … happy  …. energy

You are bathed in a light relaxing energy…

You smile and let go …

Relaxing…

Now feel your body ….

Your feet on the ground ….

Your hips … your back … your shoulders and arms …

All much more relaxed now…

You look around …. remaining relaxed and centered ….

At peace …

Now go about your day ….

Taking that feeling of relaxation and peace with you…

Have you tried macadamia nut oil yet?

Macadamia Nut Oil

NOW brand gets great reviews. Buy it on Amazon here or iHerb here

NOTE New customer for iHerb? You can use the code AJU110 to get $5 OFF your purchase.

I’ve tried several brands of macadamia nut oil.

There is some variation in taste but, wow, mac oil is flavorful, yet mild enough to go with many different foods.

The price can be pretty reasonable, often much less than good quality extra virgin olive oil.

It’s often claimed that olive oil is the healthiest oil for humans to consume.

To be precise, it’s extra virgin olive oil that is supposed to be so healthy.

Although extra virgin olive oil has properties that may be positive for health, some of the beneficial compounds are partly (or entirely) destroyed by heat.

Therefore, to get all of the potential benefits, you need to add extra virgin olive oil to food after cooking, or to heat it minimally.

The truth is that the best extra virgin olive oil is probably neutral at best, neither particularly good or bad for health. If you like olive oil, then using a small amount of a good quality extra virgin olive oil, unheated, or minimally heated, is better than using most other vegetable oils. But there are better choices, like macadamia nut oil.

Olivado Macadamia Nut Oil - one of my favorite brands

Why Macadamia Nut Oil is Better than Olive Oil

1. Better Fatty Acids for Health + More Vitamin E to Prevent Rancidity

Macadamia nut oil is higher in ‘healthy’ monounsaturated fat than olive oil – a whopping 80% of the fat in the oil is mono compared to ~ 74% in olive. Both mac and olive oil are FAR higher in mono than canola *, which only contains ~ 58% monounsaturated fat.

Macadamia nut oil is the best plant source of palmitoleic acid, an omega-7 monounsaturated fat. This is the most prominent fatty acid in human sebum.

Palmitoleic acid has positive effects on blood lipids, without the oxidative potential of the unsaturated fatty acids, like omega-6. It also makes an effective moisturizer if you want to use the oil topically.

Mark Sisson author of The Primal Blueprint says that he shaved with macadamia nut oil to great effect. 6 drops applied to his shower-softened facial hair was all that he needed.  He also liked the way that he could see where he was going with his razor – no foam.

Okay, shaving with mac oil is a bit extravagant, but I wanted to mention it because if you don’t like the mac oil you buy for some reason, it isn’t a total waste – you can use it on your skin.

Macadamia nut oil contains a good ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fat – a better ratio than olive oil, and very little omega- 6 overall compared to olive oil (~ 3% vs ~ 8% in olive oil) Most people get far too much omega 6 thanks to the increased use of crappy vegetable oils like corn and soy and safflower in the last few decades.

Macadamia nut oil contains more vitamin E than olive oil. This, with the low level of polyunsaturated fats it contains, makes it less prone to go rancid. The shelf life after opening is about twelve months without refrigeration.

2. More Versatile

Mildly nutty, yet intriguingly buttery, macadamia nut oil marries well with many foods. Unlike extra virgin olive oil, which has a strong flavor, macadamia nut oil is a LOT more versatile.

Devoted fans of olive oil may like the taste of the oil in different dishes, even cake, but I sure don’t, and I’m not alone.

You can use macadamia nut oil in some cake and quick bread recipes that call for oil because it’s far milder than olive. For example, it would probably work well in some of the gluten free cake recipes on the sites I mention in my post Gluten Free Cake Recipes: 7 Good Online Resources. However, if you want an unflavored cooking oil to safely bake with, I recommend that you melt some unflavored coconut oil and use that instead.

I particularly like how macadamia nut oil tastes with fish, poultry and lamb dishes, and carrots.

People love it in home made salad dressing.

Sometimes I have mixed 2 parts coconut oil and 1 part macadamia nut oil together to flavor tuna salad. Very nice.

And if you like to make your own mayonnaise, it’s a great oil to use, apparently. I haven’t tried that yet.

3. Higher Smoke Point

Smoke point is the temperature that oil burns and develops off flavors.

Macadamia nut oil smokes at ~ 450°F, compared to extra virgin olive oil’s ~4oo°F.

Also, unlike extra virgin olive oil, macadamia nut oil keeps it’s flavor at that high heat.

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Better Fat Choices: Quick Advice About Fats

Get most of your dietary fat from truly outstanding choices, namely:

* Coconut oil

There are healthy unflavored kinds if you don’t like a coconut taste. See Where to Buy Coconut Oil to learn more.

* Butter or ghee. See Is Butter Healthy?

* Fat from the meat on naturally raised grass-fed ruminants (cows, bison, sheep)

100% grass-fed is best, but if you can’t get that, then naturally raised grain finished meat is ok.

For flavor, on occasion, use the following plant oils:

* Macadamia nut oil

* Extra virgin olive oil, but ideally you should favor mac oil!

* ALERT: canola oil is junk, even the organic non-GMO stuff. It’s far too high in omega-6 and it’s closer to a frankenfood than most people realize. Toss canola oil ASAP if it’s in your home, don’t buy foods that contain it, and  inform restaurants and manufacturers that you don’t want them to use canola either.

After a few decades of the demonization of butter and other natural animal fats, butter is slowly making it’s way back into health conscious people’s diets.

To learn more about some of the absurd stuff that led to the anti-butter and dairy movement, I recommend this book:

The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid

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Butter is healthy, yes. In fact, it’s one of the better sources of dietary fat.

If you have health problems that affect digestion, it’s also one of the easier fats to digest.

Because the focus of this site is gluten free diets, digestibility is important to mention. Digestive problems are fairly common in gluten sensitive people, even if the symptoms aren’t always overt. Butter can therefore be an enjoyable part of a healing protocol. More on this later.

Lactose Intolerant?

No problem. Butter contains very little lactose.

But if you want no lactose at all, you can eat butter in the form of ghee, and cheese that is lactose free.

Ghee is butter that has been gently heated for a long time so the water in it evaporates (butter can contain up to 15% water) and the fat and wee bits of milk solids separate.

The browned milk sugars and protein portion is discarded, or used for something else (it tastes very good!). The pure fat that remains is ghee.

You can make ghee at home. Google for recipes.

I made my own ghee in the past. I even made ghee from goat butter! I like and tolerate this product far better:

Pure Indian Foods Ghee – From 100% grass fed cows. My favorite!

Pure Indian Foods Ghee is the best tasting ghee I’ve ever had. It’s slightly sweet in taste, yet strongly buttery. A little goes a long way to flavor foods. The price is actually very good, particular given the health benefits of the 100% grass fed dairy it’s made from. And the people who run the company are excellent and very nice. I had friendly email exchanges with one of them.

Ghee is also a superb fat to cook with. You can safely deep fry foods in ghee! Healthy fried foods? Yes! Because butter is a stable fat to start with, and ghee removes the portions of butter that burn easily, you can cook ghee at high temperature without burning it.

High Quality Butter

Look for the product below at your supermarket, or request that your grocer brings it in, or buy it online via the links below:

Kerry Gold Irish Butter

From 100% grass-fed cows. You can buy it here

It’s famously good, often preferred by chefs, and very healthful thanks to how the cows are fed. Kerry Gold also makes fantastic cheese, like their Dubliner Irish Cheddar.

And they are nice folks, too. I had a lively and fun email exchange with one of their reps.

That said, if you can get raw butter from 100% grass fed cows from a good local dairy/farm, that may be even bettter. To find sources in your country click here

Butter is Healthy: 5 Great Benefits

1. Excellent Source of Vital Vitamins A, K, and D

Butter contains 3 of the most beneficial, crucial vitamins for health: vitamins A, K, and D. These vitamins work together – each one is needed to balance the other and benefit the body.

These vitamins are critical for eye function, protein utilization, the immune system (vitamin A helps to produce disease-fighting white blood cells  – white blood cells are essential for preventing infection), skin and bone development, blood clotting, gum health, mood and more.

Special Note: If you have Crohn’s disease, Celiac disease, gluten intolerance or any malabsorption problem:

Malabsorption can result in vitamin A and D deficiency, among other deficiencies, even if you are getting ample in your diet. An up-to-date, savvy doctor who treats these conditions will know to check A and D levels. If your doctor hasn’t, request them to see where you’re at, or find an independent lab and arrange for the tests yourself.

Butter can be a great, safe way to get vitamin A, D and K, whether you’re deficient or not.

Vitamin A Toxicity?

You shouldn’t fear getting too much vitamin A in butter or other whole foods like eggs, or even a few servings of liver a week (okay, I don’t like liver, but some people love it). Because vitamins A, D and K and other nutrients are found together in these foods to balance things, toxicity is not a concern. You would have to eat a crazy amount of these natural foods to get too much of these vitamins, or have a rare disorder of some kind that results in a bad reaction to them.

Problems with toxicity with vitamin A seem to come from taking large doses of synthetic forms of vitamin A alone (either added to foods or in supplements, or in drugs like Accutane) or “natural” forms alone, without the proper balance of vitamin D and K and other nutrients to protect the body from toxicity, as are found in foods.

3. Source of Easy to Digest, Healthful MCTs

MCT stands for medium chain triglyceride.

This special form of fat is found in only a small number of foods – foods that have been consumed by some of the healthiest groups of people for thousands of years, but far less in recent modern times, to the detriment of health sadly.

MCTs don’t require bile acids for digestion. MCTs are a good source of easily digestible energy. MCTs are often  used in the liquid formulas fed to patients that have had sections of their intestine removed and aren’t able to digest solid food.

Fats that contain MCTs, like butter, can be a good choice for people with malabsorption syndromes.

MCTs are also a source of lauric acid, which has anti-bacterial, anti-viral and antioxidant properties.

Coconut (click on this link to see my post on coconut oil) and natural dairy foods like butter are among the best sources of MCT.

4.  Natural and Not Filled with Omega-6!

Unlike new fangled fats like margarine, butter is a natural food with a long history of safe use by humans.

Butter is also low in omega-6 – a fatty acid people get far too much of in modern times thanks mostly to the use of unhealthy vegetable oils like soy oil.

5. Tastes Good

A healthy food that also tastes good? Yes, butter is exactly that. Putting a bit of butter on your food has health benefits and an incredible enjoyment factor at the same time.

Back in my gluten days, one of the worst offenders taste-wise was shortbread made with margarine instead of butter.  Vile! haha.

In sum, butter, or butter in the form of ghee is a great food for human health.  It’s full of nutrients, helps with absorption, has beneficial fats, is natural and has a long, safe, glorious history of use by humans.

One of the challenges with gluten free diets, or any “healthy” diet, is finding tasty, nutritious ways to meet carbohydrate needs.

In their natural form, potatoes are gluten free. They’re also quite high in nutrients, as you’ll see under ‘Potatoes & Health’ later in this post.

You can also buy gluten free potato flour to create gluten free baked goods.

Note: potato flour is made of dehydrated whole potatoes, while potato starch is just the starchy (carbohydrate) part of the potato. Both products can be used in gluten free baking, but they serve different functions. Don’t get confused when reading a recipe that calls for one and use the other instead; they are not interchangeable.

The gluten free potato flour below gets good reviews, and it’s a good price via Amazon, below. Click to view.

And here is gluten free potato starch from the same company, also well reviewed. Click on the image, or the link, for a good price.

Why You Should Be Careful When Buying Potato Containing Foods

Sometimes processed potato foods, like potato chips, are not gluten free, and often they contain questionable additives, unhealthy oils, etc.

Remember, if in doubt about the gluten free status of any product, contact the manufacturer directly to verify.

Your best bet, if you want to be safe, is to stick with good old plain potatoes that you buy whole, or grow yourself. The potato flour and starch mentioned above are also good choices.

Good Inexpensive Potato Tools

Below is my favorite vegetable peeler.

I’ve used many peelers over the years. This is the best by far! This one stays sharp FAR longer than more expensive options.

Best potato peeler Click to view – Nice 3 for 1 deal!

I also like the potato masher below (and low prices via the links in this post):

best potato masher

Potatoes & Health

Potatoes have many good qualities that make them both healthful and suitable for gluten free diets.

Potatoes have a long history of use by humans. However, if you follow a Paleo diet, they are usually considered a no-no. Yet tubers, such as potatoes, have been eaten by healthy hunter-gatherer tribes for a long time, so even if they aren’t technically “Paleo”, they seem to be one of the safer carbohydrate sources available.

Potatoes Contain:

• complete protein – the protein content per potato, is low, but because it’s complete,  you don’t have to be concerned about eating other protein sources to get all of the essential amino acids, like you have to do with grains and legumes.
• essential minerals – potatoes contain good amounts of magnesium, copper and potassium, and thanks to their low phytic acid content, unlike grains and legumes, the minerals are well absorbed by the body.
• virtually no omega-6 – potatoes are very low in fat, and won’t add to your omega-6 or omega-3 load like some grains. But be sure to eat them with a healthy fat like coconut oil or butter. See my post: Where to Buy  Coconut Oil

Potatoes are also:

• highly digestible. When peeled and steamed or boiled, the carbohydrates and protein in potatoes is very easy to digest compared to most other gluten free starch sources.However, the skins are hard to digest.  If you have any digestive issues, fiber might be even harder for your body to process. While potato skins do have trace nutrients such as potassium, they also contain the compounds commonly found in nightshade plants, which can be allergenic for some people.  Removing the skin with a potato peeler, cooking the potatoes until very soft, then eating them with butter (or ghee) or coconut oil is advised.

• easy to prepare. You can wrap them in foil and bake them in the oven, boil them, steam them, slice them up to make french fries or potato chips – either baked or deep fried (again, use coconut oil or ghee – both are heat stable enough to deep fry with).

• low in Calories, relatively speaking, yet high in satiety when combined with a healthy fat. If you’re reducing Calories to lose weight, each medium sized potato is really very low Calorie for it’s size, around – only 25/oz, thus a medium sized potato runs about 150-200 Calories.  If you want to increase your food intake to gain weight, you can eat more of them, and/or add larger amounts of healthy fat such as butter, cream, coconut oil or high quality cheese.

What Isn’t Good About Potatoes?

• high on the glycemic index, so they can raise blood sugar excessively, BUT that doesn’t matter much if you eat them with a good amount of fat and/or protein.
• allergenic. Potatoes are in the nightshade family, along with peppers and tomatoes. Digestive problems and aching joints are common complaints from people who react to nightshades. I, sadly, get joint pain if I eat potatoes, and itchy skin too, so I must avoid them.  If you think you might be allergic to potatoes, but you’re unsure, try peeling them (a good idea even if you aren’t allergic) and cooking them until soft and eating them with coconut oil or butter. If you still seem to react to them, you can try a different variety perhaps, but it may be that you have to avoid them as I do.

Are Potatoes with Greenish Skins Poisonous?

Yes, they contain a toxic substance called solanine. The greenish hue you see in the skin simply alerts you of solatine’s presence. The green actually comes from chlorophyll.

Solanine serves an important purpose: it’s part of the plant’s defense against insects, disease, and predators. Potato leaves and stems are naturally very high in it, so don’t eat potato leaves and stems if you’re growing your own potatoes (you won’t see leaves and stems on store bought potatoes).  Solanine develops in potatoes when spuds are subjected to light, or very cold or warm temperatures. So please store your potatoes in a cool, dark place.

Why is solanine a toxin? Solanine can interfere with the body’s ability to use a chemical that aids in the transmission of impulses between cells. If you eat solanine in large enough amounts, it can cause diarrhea, vomiting, headaches, and even paralysis of the central nervous system.

However, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever ingest enough solanine to do serious damage to yourself. A healthy adult would have to eat about 4 1/2 pounds of green potatoes at once to experience any serious neurological symptoms. That said, at lower doses, they can make you sick, so definitely toss potatoes that have green eyes, sprouts, or greenish skins, particularly if you will be serving them to children or people who are not in good health.

Top Rated 6 1/2 Quart Programmable Crock-Pot

Favorite of Stephanie O’Dea (A Year of Slow Cooking)

………

Crock-Pot (TM) is a US trademarked name for “slow cooker”. In the UK, the trade mark name for the same thing is Slo-Cooker, but both Crock Pot and Slo-Cooker are used generically now.

Crockpots have been popular for decades, yet many people don’t realise how affordable, versatile, safe and easy to use they are.

On this page I provide information that will help you zero in on the best crockpot for your needs.

After you read this post look at the best selling crockpots on Amazon via this link.

I recommend buying from Amazon because prices are competitive, shipping is fast, guarantees are decent, and the user reviews can be helpful.

First, a few notes on crockpots, then on to buying tips:

A crockpot is a handy cooking device to own because crockpots:

* Simplify meal prep and creation – also, recipes are easy to find online for free, and many of them call for inexpensive ingredients that can be found in any supermarket. You can even find great how-to videos on Youtube.

* Save electricity – they use very little energy to run

* Save money – the energy saving above is money saving, but also of note is that cheaper cuts of meat can be used in crockpots. Slow cooking softens connective tissue without toughening the muscle, so you can make those tough cuts meltingly tender instead of fussing with marinades, etc.

* Protect food from burning – the low temperatures used in slow cooking make it less likely that you’ll burn your food even if you cook it too long

* Are handy for singles, couples and households of all sizes

* Serve as an inexpensive replacement for several kitchen appliances. A crockpot can also serve as a rice cooker, fondue pot and even a yogurt maker!

* Improve the digestibility of certain foods, like steel cut oats and tougher cuts of meat

* Are simple to clean - having a single pot to clean paired with no burning makes clean up quite simple and allow you to take advantage of the lower price of tougher cuts of meat (crockpots are ideal for making tough meat tender)

Healthier Crock Pot?

If you aren’t sure about the non-stick coatings in crock pots, there is an interesting newer option to consider if you have concerns, thanks to a company that is producing crock pots with food safe unglazed clay inserts. Click below to read more about it:

Rice cooker/crock pot with a special food safe clay insert

Best Crockpot: Buying Tips

1. SIZE

Crockpots vary in size.

Small: 1.5-3.5 quarts. Good for 1-3 people

Small units are great for making mashed potatoes, rice, small batches of stew, small roasts, meat & rice mixtures, fondu, and yogurt. But they can also be used to make slightly larger quantities of things like steak and gravy and chicken breasts.

Medium to Large: 3.5-8 quarts. Good for 4 or more people, thus ideal for families, or anyone who prefers to make big batches of food to eat as leftovers and/or freeze for later use (good money and time saving strategy). They are also a good choice for athletes who must eat vast volumes of food a la Michael Phelps. ;)

Medium to large units can be used to cook whole chickens, large roasts and, basically, larger portions of everything that the small crockpots can handle.

ADVICE: Not sure what size is best for you? 1-1.5 quarts per person is a good guideline.  Also, it’s helpful to determine the maximum volume of food you’ll ever want to cook in your crockpot, keeping in mind that you shouldn’t fill a crockpot more than 3/4 full or you risk spillover during cooking.  To figure out volume, fill measuring cups with water and dump them into your current pots and pans to see what they hold, then add a bit to the measurement to make sure that you’ll be able to cook that amount in your crock with space to spare to avoid spillover. Because crockpot sizes are in quarts, measure on a quart by quart basis (1 quart = 4 cups = 1 litre)

2. HEAT SETTINGS

ALL crockpots will have two basic settings at least, low and high. Some will have a medium setting too.

A typical slow cooker heats food to 170°F (77°C) on low, and 190-200°F (88-93°C) on high. Some recipes that include liquid reach the boiling point around the edges while the food in the center stays gently cooked. Slow cooker settings are based on wattage, not temperature.

Low will cook food in 8-12 hrs. This is a great setting to use if you must leave for work or other activities or you want to cook something overnight.

High will cook food in 4-6 hrs. (but see the interesting option at the end of this post for the “healthier” crockpot that cuts that time in half or more!)

Keep Warm. The cheapest crockpots sometimes don’t include this feature, but it’s a valuable one. Keep Warm allows you to cook food and then keep it warm for several more hours afterward so you don’t have to rewarm anything when you’re ready to eat. I recommend that you choose a unit that has this feature.

ADVICE: Get a unit with the Keep Warm feature, even if you think you’ll never use it. It’s very handy.

3. MANUAL VS PROGRAMMABLE

Manual crockpots are the original way that crockpots were designed. They are usually cheaper than digital crockpots. They’re still on the market for good reason – they work! :) They have knobs that you turn to operate the unit. Very low tech.

Programmable crockpots can have all kinds of fancy extra features, including the ability to cook foods for a specific number of hours and then have the food kept warm for you, simply by programming in what you want.  This may be worthwhile for you depending on your needs, how long you’re away from home and want to have food cooking in the meantime, and how precise you want to get with what you’re cooking in general.

ADVICE: Manual crockpots are a good choice if you’re new to crockpot cooking. They’re very low in price, usually, and will give you a feel for slow cooking in general. Also, the more bells and whistles a crockpot has, like some of the programmable models, the more potential there is for wiring to go wonky, etc.

3.  SHAPE

Oval

Most modern crockpots are oval.

A small disadvantage of oval crockpots is that they take up a bit more room lengthwise so you may need a bit more counter space to store them compared to round (cylindrical) crockpots, below.

The advantage of oval crockpots is that foods that are more oblong, such as roasts and whole chickens, tend to fit into them better.

Round

If space is limited, or you don’t plan to cook whole chickens and roasts, then a round crockpot is a good choice. However, almost all round crockpots are only available in the smaller sizes, and thus are usually only suitable if you want to cook for 1-2 people.

With all of this in mind, have fun looking at the model options via this link

Or check the special clay insert models here

Happy Crocking! :) And please let me know what you end up getting!