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Carol Frilegh

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Celiac.com - Celiac Disease & Gluten-Free Diet Support Since 1995

Blog Entries posted by Carol Frilegh

  1. Carol Frilegh
    This will be my shortest blog. After a decade on The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, I am once again able to eat occasional moderate amounts of restricted sweets and starches with no apparent consequences. Since my celiac disease was never formally diagnosed, I cannot claim it is curable or was cured but it is now six weeks since I resumed eating foods I have not had in ten years as well as foods purported to be cross reactive with Latex Allergy. Ultimately...
  2. Carol Frilegh
    Do you buy lottery tickets, bet on the horses, frequent casinos, or take your vacation in LasVegas?

    Over seven decades, I've won once at roulette, once on the slots and asked someone at the racetrack to put down my two dollars on a thirty three to one shot- - - a filly with the same name as my poodle. The horse won but the friend forgot to place the wager. What was even worse, subsequently the poodle ran away and died from eating garbage. With health matters, bookmakers...
  3. Carol Frilegh
    It's been eight years since I have had Arrowroot, buckwheat, corn/maize, potato flour, rice, rice bran, rice flour, sago, tapioca, soy, soy bran, or soy flour.

    All are gluten free! Yet, all are prohibited on the diet I have been following for celiac disease management, since December 2000, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

    Why? Because they may be gluten- free but they contain starch.

    Digestion of...
  4. Carol Frilegh
    An introductory diet lasting two or three days precedes fuller implementation of The Specific Carbohydrate Diet. One of the suggested foods on the"intro diet" is a cheesecake made with dry curd cottage cheese from cow's milk; it is 73% protein and very low in fat. The mention of food like this strikes fear into the heart of a person who follows the gluten-free casein-free diet They usually arrive believing dairy consumption is a most contentious protocol. making it vital to...
  5. Carol Frilegh
    Do the eating-out holidays like Mother's and Fathers' Day strike fear into your tender tummy? You crave the warm company of other humans, a chance to escape serving and cleaning up, and a reason to dress up (or not). I just finished the Open Original Shared Link and can really relate. Despite my having developed some good dining out strategies, invitations to leave home for a meal still generate some conflict and anxiety. Breakfast is a cinch. The family likes a retro grill...
  6. Carol Frilegh
    "Sugar, Ah,Honey, Honey" is the title of the hit song of 1969 by a garage band called, "The Archies." Their lyric includes this lovely analogy, "Like the summer sunshine pour your sweetness over me."

    What a melodic way to describe my primary sweetener of choice and necessity. HONEY! Golden, clear pasteurized honey with few or no traces of bee pollen is a natural, anti oxidant and an ideal ingredient for cooking and baking as well for use as a syrup. Once accustomed to...
  7. Carol Frilegh
    Everything old is new again, at least it is in my kitchen. The neighbor passed along a lovely little George Foreman grill she had no interest in and although I can't take photos, text or place phone calls with it, the shiny little white griddle looks fine next to the juicer and food processor. It cooks a range of foods in no more than ten minutes and they are done on both sides with the juices dripping into a little tray placed at the front. Pluses: The food is juicy...
  8. Carol Frilegh
    My aunt is nearing one hundred and one. My mother-in-law lived to be one hundred and two. If my maternal grandmother were alive today, she would be one hundred and twenty. They were all great cooks without recipes.

    My mother in law always declared her secret...old hands and old pans. Her Primo, Numero Uno prize winning dish was Potato Pudding or "kugel" as it is also known. It was light and fluffy inside and had a hard crisp outer crust with magnificent crunchy corners...
  9. Carol Frilegh
    Are you anything like I was, addicted to starchy foods most of my adult life?

    I could make an entire box of Wheat Thins disappear faster than David Copperfield.

    Bars lost money when I dove into their pretzel bowls.

    My kids knew if they asked me to babysit they would have to replenish their stock of Saltines, Triscuits, Cheese Ritz and Goldfish crackers the following day. I had to say goodbye to those forever. But hope and snacks spring eternal. A door...
  10. Carol Frilegh
    Do you wear paper cuts like medals of honor, because being a Celiac means not licking glue strips on envelopes? This morning I moistened the sealer on an envelope with a wet cloth and was soon reeling and swelling like a watermelon on growth hormones just from the fumes out-gassing.

    The diet I follow does not mandate avoiding substances that are not ingested. So while toothpaste would qualify for restriction, glue and play-dough would not.

    Which is why historically...
  11. Carol Frilegh
    Rice has a reputation as a super food.

    The Specific Carbohydrate Diet excludes rice for adults. Children with weak digestive systems or Autism Spectrum Disorder should avoid rice.

    In her book "Breaking the Vicious Cycle," Elaine Gottschall quotes Juliano (1972) "Some kinds of rice contain small amounts of amylopectin starch and large amounts of amylose starch, other types contain only amylopectin starch."

    Rice is a grain which contains anti-nutrients....
  12. Carol Frilegh
    Remember DOS? It was the most commonly used operating system for the PC back in the 1980's. Since it is now as extinct as the Dodo, we can amend the acronym for our Celiac Diet in order to ask, "What is your DOS (Diet Operating System)? When my allergist and I were uncertain about what was suddenly ailing me eight years ago, I was handed a printout for a two week EXCLUSION diet. Different foods or groups of foods were to be removed from the diet, with the possibility...
  13. Carol Frilegh
    Remember that Billy Joel song, "In the Middle of the Night?" I have had a very unwelcome night visitor many times in the past few years. It is the typical dermatitis that goes hand in hand with Celiac disease, or better stated, "hand and nail," because the uncontrollable compulsion to rub and scratch cannot be contained.

    Here is the sequence. I awake from a sound sleep - conscious of a localized hot spot which is red and round and very visible. Quickly it becomes pimply...
  14. Carol Frilegh
    I've been rice-free for eight years and suspected rice as a problem just as I discovered I was a Celiac. However it apparently is not and in fact I show almost no sensitivity to it when compared to nuts and treated dairy, which I tolerate but occasionally react too.

    I tried two types of rice. One was a processed white rice which was combined with vegetables. It tasted like chlorine or iodine so I don't plan on that again.

    However, brown rice cakes were a limited...
  15. Carol Frilegh
    The Specific Carbohydrate Diet is efficient at keeping weight stabilized once a normal weight is attained. Take my trusty Tanita weight scale before it becomes rusty.

    I still perch on the digital Tanita weigh scale the first thing every morning--jiggling a bit from side to side to push the number lower (Despite the fact the read-out rarely changes or wanders, bad habits die hard). Seeing the same number continues to surprise because my weight fluctuated wildly from...
  16. Carol Frilegh
    Twice a year, twenty or more people on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet gather for a potluck luncheon in Southern Ontario, Canada, usually in Toronto.

    Over time, the roster of homemade food from these occasions has become classic.

    We are such a small segment of the world-wide Specific Carbohydrate Diet community, so it is flattering that our recipes rank high in popularity among those recipe sites and cookbooks that abound with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet gluten...
  17. Carol Frilegh

    Attitude Counts

    By Carol Frilegh,

    Your approach, attitude and degree of personal commitment to lifelong dietary restrictions is so important. You can make protecting your intestinal health a positive and creative experience rather than getting mired in regret or resentment over having to sacrifice certain foods. I have always viewed my diet as the glass more than half full and made every effort to maximize the appeal of permitted food. think my diet is fun and am not ashamed to say so! &#...
  18. Carol Frilegh
    We read almost daily about recalls of commercial foods which we thought were safe for a celiac disease diet. We are informed of contamination and undisclosed ingredients regularly right here at celiac.com thanks to vigilant posters. Jennifer and Destiny have both pointed out that which I have found is typical. You probably know, me as an unofficial self-designated drum beater for the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) which is probably stricter than your hated third...
  19. Carol Frilegh
    So you cheated on your celiac diet and got away with it? ( Or so you may think.) The IRS may not come after you but the BGB (bad gut bacteria) are almost certain to. The wrong foods feed unfriendly bacteria and cause them to overgrow and interfere with digestion. You say, you felt no immediate pain? The consequences may be delayed for weeks, but you are not likely to draw a "Get Out of Jail Free," card. If you have been on a healing diet like the Specific Carbohydrate Diet...
  20. Carol Frilegh
    I mentioned in a previous blog, "Outsides, Insides" that Specific Carbohydrate Diet breakfasts out are a cinch. Breakfasts at home are even better. They almost make the day begin (Like breathing out and breathing in). Starting here, starting now-- breakfast is going to be "Wow." By now you may think you have heard enough about "the most important meal of the day." You know that breakfast gives you energy, prevents low blood sugar, puts enough into your stomach to hopefully...
  21. Carol Frilegh
    The barbecue season is upon us. When pungent fumes envelope the neighborhood, although I may want a clothespin on my nose, I still crave a nice steak or burger on my plate. There was a time when the sight of a char broiled steak inflamed my senses and stirred the salivary glands, but now I just find the taste bitter. I stopped smoking thirty years ago and since contracting celiac disease and MCS am very sensitive to smokey odors. Fire regulations prohibit balcony barbecues...
  22. Carol Frilegh

    Stop Thief!

    By Carol Frilegh,

    I steal! I live a stolen life but try not to lie or cheat. This imitation of Oliver Twist includes adapting ideas from Iron Chefs, Hellish Kitchens and my favorite Canadian Chef, Laura Calder. You can Google Laura and also find her on The Canadian Food Network Website and there you can watch her "French Food at Home" videos and read her recipes. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and being a true Recipe Robin Hood, I share and don't get paid...
  23. Carol Frilegh
    Every diet has its day, its foods and even its decade!

    My pre-Celiac days with The Ladies Who Lunch, passed pleasantly for decades before celiac disease found me. In the forties we liked Danish pastry and crullers, in the fifties, ordered toasted English muffins or bagels. Next we graduated to continental croissants and Caesar salad following was the launch into an era of Muffin Madness...up to twenty variations or more, and they reached gigantic proportions. Muffins...
  24. Carol Frilegh
    What do the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and Cirque de Soleil have in common? They both require balance! It frustrates me that even doctors are under the misapprehension that the Specific Carbohydrate Diet is a No Carb or Low Carb diet. It is fairly limited in carbohydrates (grape juice, carrots, a few carbs in the dry curd cottage cheese) for the first few days.

    The Specific Carbohydrate Diet starts with a brief introductory diet that clears the decks and...
  25. Carol Frilegh
    Latest Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture endorse eating three to five servings of nuts (20 to 30 pecan halves equals one serving), seeds or legumes each day in order to maintain a healthy diet.

    Nuts are gluten free! They do not have cholesterol. While nuts and seeds tend to be very high in fat and calories, most of the fat is polyunsaturated or monounsaturated (e.g. almonds, pecans, walnuts).

    Nuts are high in vitamins and minerals and...
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