Gluten Sensitivity

I’m on a journey of researching Gluten sensitivities. I don’t believe my daughter has Celiacs Disease but she has so many of the symptoms of gluten sensitivity. One on the list was unexplained anemia. Since she was 1 years old when I started her on regular foods her levels have always been 10.5 or lower. She has been tested for every blood disease and no explanation as to why she has anemia. Shes had chronic sinus infections this is another symptom. Now I have cut some of the gluten from her diet by accident. She and her sister are lactose intolerant too so I have been looking closely at labels for years. I finally found waffles without dairy and they just happen to have no gluten. The real kicker is she has her third UTI and it is severe. She was vomiting because the pain was so bad the other night. My friend emailed me and said I should check into this. We are now seeing a pediatric urologist. This is a new journey for me but I want my baby well and it would also explain when she eats certain things she starts complaining her tummy hurts all the time.

If you have children or experience with gluten sensitivity, please comment. This is a new journey for our family!

DC Cupcakes(Georgetown Cupcakes)

Okay I love this show. I have a few new favorites such as Cake Boss, and cupcake wars. I love cupcakes and watching this show I wanted to try them. TLC now has it set up where you can buy their cupcakes. It is a little pricey and I cannot believe I paid that much for 12 cupcakes but they look delicious. I also got their first season on DVD. I think it is so cool how they can make anything out of cupcakes.  I love the sister dynamic and I love supporting small businesses. Now if only cake boss would sell his cannolies or cakes online I would be in heaven!

Starbucks has a new size drink

There is a larger size drink from starbucks. It is larger than the average  human stomach. I cannot believe someone would want to super size larger than a venti.

Happy drinking everyone!

Cupcakes, Cakes and Cookies

Oh how I love cupcakes, cakes and cookies! Now they have shows called Cupcake Wars on the food network and DC Cupcakes on TLC. I also love Fabulous Cakes and the cooking challenges on FN. I can enjoy sweets without any calories or sugar. It is so neat what they can do with cakes, cookies and cupcakes. If you love baking or creating, you will love any of these shows. My 8 year old is loving these too.

Check your local listing for times and days!

Cupcake Wars

I love cupcakes! I just heard there is a show on the food network called cupcake wars. I cannot wait to check this out. I really love the next food network star. It is like watching the apprentice with a food twist. TLC has some new cooking/cake shows on as well. I love it because I can enjoy all these sweet treats with zero guilt and zero calories.

Popular Sports Drink

A friend posted this article and I was so upset. I actually switched to Vitamin waters to rid myself of sodas. I should have read the label more clearly but I thought pure sugar cane was better than HFCS. It has about as many calories and sugar as a soda. It is nothing more than sugar water packaged in a vitamin, health label.

I also was plagued with the symptoms they list. One week I had drank one to two a day and had the most horrible headaches. I hardly ever get headaches but I did not put two and two together until I read the article. I guess I should not be surprised since this is a coke product and trust me I will be reading labels much closer now. We have taken all that we had back.

New Study says 85% of kids juices and snacks have high levels of lead

My friend sent me this article about a recent study that was done on brand name juices and snacks mostly given to children. The findings are disturbing. 85% of these tested had high levels of lead. This included Gerber baby foods and organic products such as Earth’s Best and Trader Joes. Someone commented on this post that you should just buy fresh and make it yourself, but the problem is the water. It is contaminating the fruits and veggies with lead. We could have high levels in our fruits and veggies in our refrigerator and drinking water. All I know is this is very disturbing!

Organic food audit found flaws in system

As with everything else, you have to be very careful with organic foods now too. In independent audit by our local news station found inconsistencies and not enough oversight.   Here is the news story from our local TV news. We mostly buy organic cereals and granola bars not produce. I found this to be interesting though because we trust what we read on the label is true and accurate and this is not necessarily correct.

Free bagel and cream cheese from Einstein Brother’s Bagel

If you have a Face book account and you sign up as a fan for Einstein Brother’s Bagels. You can print a coupon for a free bagel and cream cheese. I do not know where their locations are but we have a few here in Georgia. I love their bagels. My favorite is the cinnamon raisin bagel with honey butter or plain cream cheese. Yummy!

Why I switched my girls to rice milk

I get emails from green health spot. Dr. Wang is a naturopathic doctor who  treats patients with chronic illnesses as well as autistic children and children with ADD/ADHD just to name a few. She wrote a post on “Is Soy Making You Fat? ” As I read the article, I began to get concerned. It is linked to such conditions as Thyroid disease and stunted growth. My girls have had soy milk since they were one. Now my girls are tall but I know for a fact that my daughter Hannah has some kind of issues with her hemoglobin that no one can figure out. She is between 9.8 and 10.5 depending on if she is sick. It should be 12-13. She used to drink a ton of soy milk until she started getting UTIs and I only allow her one cup a day. I am no wondering does this have something to do with her levels.

I know people who only ate soy and could not conceive. Soy is linked to infertility. They were told to stop consuming soy, and once they did they got pregnant.

So I had to ask myself, do I really want my daugthers drinking what I thought was a healthy alternative to milk? NO!

On my quest for a soy and milk alternative I found Rice Dream milk. It is cheaper than the soy and easier to find. My oldest cannot have anything with carrogeenan in it and most of the rice, almond and soy does. I found one that did not and now Rice Dream does not.  I can get this at Walmart for $2.32 for  a half gallon. This is going to save us money too. We were paying $2.79 for a quart of Eden Soy Milk. We went through six of those a week. I love saving money and being healthy at the same time. Also rice milk does not have a strong taste so my girls really do not notice the difference. I think they even make it in chocolate so this will thrill my youngest one!

One of the most troubling things was the

• “High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.” Dr. Wang

We try so hard to make sure they are getting enough of these things especially calcium and to think I could be giving my girls something that interferes with that absorption is very troubling to me.

I have several friends that said their doctors told them to stay away from soy and suggested almond milk. Milk is great too if you can tolerate it!

Here is Dr.Wang’s post on soy. It is a great post!