Optimum Health

If you have been following my blog, or have been to my webpage- Optimum Nutrition – you know by now that I am adamant that all humans are intolerant of gluten and cow’s milk.  After all, we are not grass grazers, cannot digest raw grains (a sure sign they do not belong in our diet, we didn’t evolve eating them) and we are not designed to nurse from cows.

The following is an excerpt from my book on Optimum Nutrition; it tells you how to make the transition to a grain and milk free diet.

Removing Dairy

Before you begin you will need to stock your kitchen. If you live alone, just clear everything out that you will no longer be using. If you have a husband and children this is a little trickier, unless you can convince them to do this with you. If your kids are under 10, this should be no problem. After all, since they don’t have jobs or cars, you are in control. Plus no child in the world will starve itself to death when there is food around, whether they like it or not! I do recommend that you explain to them that you would like them to try this for 6 weeks. I have found that kids do understand the principals when they are fully explained to them. Most people, including children, feel substantially different even after 4 or 5 days off of dairy.

If your children have frequent colds or asthma, explain to them that these conditions will clear up as they begin eating this way. If they are between the ages of 7 and 11 or so, it is best to give them a choice. Tell them you will let them decide at the end of six weeks whether to continue. The younger ones are easier, they do want the dairy and wheat in the beginning because of the cravings, but they readily accept the substitutes. A lot of times our spouses are not thrilled with the whole idea, but as they see you losing weight, feeling and looking better, having more energy and not needing the allergy medications, they will at least begin to consider it. Plus I have noticed when you tell a man that he needs to eat more fat and protein, they are generally thrilled with the idea!!  It is been my experience that most teens are willing to give it a try even solely for vanity’s sake!

Using the shopping list I have provided, (in my book, click on the link , Optimum Nutrition by Millie Barnes at the left)go to the grocery store and health food store. Use the menus in my cookbook, In The Kitchen with Millie, to make shopping list. Until all this becomes automatic, plan your meals using the six weeks of menus. You do not need to use them in the order in which I have them. They are all based on 2000 calories a day, and meet all of your nutrition needs.

Try to avoid using dried fruits or juices, except occasionally, it is better to use the whole food.  In the menus section on the disk, in week one, I have used menus that concentrate on helping you see what the substitutes are for dairy in cooking.

Your focus this week is eliminating dairy. There are a vast amount of alternative products now available. Here is a list of the choices:

Rice milk, Rice Dream Ice Cream (these are Imagine Foods Products, called Rice Dream). Rice cheeses available include Parmesan, cheddar and mozzarella. Rice sour cream and cream cheese is available also were available until last year, Galaxy Foods discontinued them.  We are all hoping they bring them back, so contact them here and give feedback. These were great products.

Rice milk a favorite of my kids, but almond milk is also readily available.  Rice milk is good for drinking, but almond milk is great for baking, because of the higher protein in it, it thickens like regular milk.

·Many people ask me if they can just use the Lactaid milk or take the pills that help them digest milk. The answer is yes, you will have an easier time digesting milk, but it won’t do away with the allergies, migraines, arthritis, colds, asthma and other problems that dairy foods cause. Studies have now linked early exposure to cow’s milk to the development of diabetes in children. It is not hard to avoid dairy anymore, the alternatives are a far cry from the soymilk we were drinking 20 years ago; they have come a long way recently in quality and taste.

Few foods cause as much gas as soy. Rice products, if you are going to use substitutes for dairy, are lower in fat, easier to digest and very rarely an allergen. Everyone uses these products in the beginning as they are trying to get away from dairy. But they are still very highly processed. They are also lacking in nutrients. I call them recreational foods!  So use them to get you past the first few weeks when you are withdrawing from glutens, but do so in moderation. Grains have opioids, morphine type derivatives, which make them highly addictive. This is the reason why we tend to crave these foods.

So what is going to happen, what is detoxing all about, you ask? The first thing you are going to experience after eating this way for a few days is that you begin to feel lighter, more energetic. After 4 or 5 days you will notice that when you wake up in the morning, you actually feel like getting up!  You will have slept better and have woken up feeling better, more rested. You will notice that your stomach is not so bloated, your skin looks better and the puffiness under your eyes is less marked. Then about 10 days to 2 weeks into eating this way, you will begin detox. You will wake up one morning with your throat feeling a little sore. Later in the day your nose will start to run. It’ll run like someone has turned on a water spigot. This will go on for a week or so, kind of coming and going. You tongue will become very coated; it will have a thick coat of white stuff on it. Your mouth will taste awful in the morning; you will wake up in the night and morning very thirsty. Sounds fun, huh? This is your first, and worst detox. The others will be milder. You will be slightly tired; will have a few aches and pains. But hang in there and stay very well hydrated. Rest when you can. Your body is getting rid of lots of the toxins you have stored over the years. You should start to see a weight loss by now, about a pound every day or so.

At the end of the week or so that you are detoxing you will begin to feel WAY better. Your energy gets very high; you no longer feel tired or have that mid-afternoon slump. You should start to want to exercise more, and you should begin to feel a big difference emotionally. Little things won’t get to you as much. When you feel better physically, you begin to heal emotionally. You will feel happier than you have in a long time. Sounds too easy, huh, too simple? I resisted this way of eating for many years when my friend Rick tried to tell me that I could get well. I know now that I was not ready emotionally.

Ok, you’ve got your kitchen stocked; you’re psyched to do this. Let me give you a few tips about how to cook these dishes. In recipes that call for you to sauté in oil, use raw butter or coconut oil, depending on the flavor you want to achieve.  In most recipes the dairy can be replaced with the rice cheese, rice milk or sour cream. So all you have to do is follow the menus in the cookbook for the first week. And start gearing up for feeling better, but also getting the products that you will need to replace the wheat products.

Removing Gluten Containing Foods

Removing dairy wasn’t so hard, was it? Actually most people find taking milk and cheese out easier than getting rid of the wheat. The idea of giving up dairy is worse than the reality. I found the craving for wheat to be harder as I was removing it from my diet. Plus, wheat is in everything. It’s in foods it doesn’t need be in!  But it is used as a binder, as filler. It’s cheap, also. But when you really start reading labels, and realize how many foods it’s in, it helps you see how much of it you are eating. In this country we average 8 to 10 servings a day! From the bagel, toast and cereal in the morning to the sandwich at lunch, the cookies as snacks, the pasta for dinner, the bread with dinner, the amount that is the canned vegetable soup, etc., etc.

It’s no wonder that more and more of us are becoming sensitive or allergic to it! The reason we are having so many people develop allergies or sensitivities to wheat is that it is not a natural food for humans. We are not grass grazers. Humans cannot digest grains without being processed and cooked. The idea of grazing in a field doesn’t sound appetizing does it? Unlike walking around mango or banana trees! The part of grains that humans can’t digest is called gluten. The gluten protein is a foreign protein in the human body. It is the part of wheat that gives it the ability to rise when combined with yeast and baked. Cows and other animals that eat grasses have multiple stomachs and very strong digestive juices that enable them to break down gluten. In our stomachs, wheat and other gluten containing grains, take approximately 4 hours to digest. They use up most of their calories for this process and do not digest completely. They leave a residue that is undigested. When these undigested proteins end up in our bloodstreams, our bodies produce antibodies to fight them, hence our allergic reaction. Remember too that at this point our body has to try to rid itself of these toxins, which uses more calories, or energy.

Another reason that we have trouble getting past the craving for grains is the fact that they contain opioids. These morphine type substances truly do relax us. We call pasta and breads “comfort foods” for a reason!

Grains also contain a substance known as phytic acid. During digestion, the body binds phytic acid with calcium, a powerful alkaline, in order to neutralize it’s acidity. Grains also contain large amounts of acid forming minerals. The body used calcium present in the bones, to neutralize the acidity in grains. Hence, we run low on calcium, which leads to osteoporosis.

So between the dairy and gluten containing foods that we eat in copious amounts every day, we use up a lot of our energy to try to break them down and rid our bodies of the mucus build up from them. Plus we then deal with symptoms from the allergic reactions. All this is using energy you could better use to go out and play, or dance or exercise!

The grains that contain gluten are wheat, oats, rye, barley, and corn. Spelt and kamut also contain high amounts of gluten, in spite of being touted as gluten free. Because a food is labeled ’wheat free’ does not mean it is gluten free. Even some foods listed as sprouted grain breads still contain wheat or other grain flours. Ezekiel Bread has ½ of one percent of gluten, but it is such a small amount that only celiac patients need to avoid it. This company also has a sprouted grains bagel.

But the bagels from Alvarado St. Bakery are labeled “sprouted grain bagels”, but if you check the ingredients you will find wheat flour listed. So be careful to read labels. You may say to yourself that it’s only a small amount here and there, but it still has an effect. Your body cannot effectively begin to get rid of the build up of toxins that these foods have caused. Plus, since they raise the antigen level in the body, it takes getting these levels down to normal before the body begins to release toxins. You cannot begin to get over the craving for these foods until they have been out of your system; this usually takes 21 days. That is how long it takes for the antigen response to drop to normal. So know that you only have to bite the bullet for a short time, use the gluten free alternatives, and you’ll be over wanting them so badly very soon.

However, the emotional craving for them takes longer. We use food for so many different reasons, but the main reason we eat emotionally is for the anesthetizing effect we get from foods. When we eat heavy, have that very full belly kind of feeling . . . how often do we go out to run or exercise, dance or make love? How often do we feel very clear-headed, very emotionally open?

I had a student in one of my classes several years ago that was very much a workaholic. One night in class we had an all fruit dinner. As we were talking afterwards about how we felt, this man said to me, “Millie, I feel very light and energetic, should I go home and eat heavier in order to relax?” As it was a gorgeous, warm and moonlit night, I asked him why he didn’t go play on the beach, enjoy that energy. He grinned, said he wasn’t used to thinking that way. We all are used to thinking of dinner as relaxing, a way to wind down. But food is supposed to give us energy. We should feel very energetic after we eat, not weighed down at all; ready to go play. There are many different ways to relax that will leave us very mentally alert, meditation, yoga, reading or taking a walk. The point I’m trying to make here is that what we eat should not us make us feel lethargic. But when we eat foods that take a lot of their calories just for digestion, leave behind a residue and are an allergen then we do not get high energy nor are we left feeling very clearheaded.

I know you are sitting there thinking about all the wheat containing foods you love, pasta, bread, cookies, etc. You’ll be very surprised to find all the alternatives to these foods so easy to find. Rice pasta comes in as many shapes, almost, as the normal pastas, lasagna, spiral, macaroni, spaghetti, angel hair, rotini, large and small shells. They even make manicotti, for stuffing.

Bread and bagels that are made with sprouted grains are available. Rice crackers, puffed rice snacks, wheat free toaster pop-ups, and wheat free cookies and mixes for baking and for pancakes are available. All health food stores and many regular grocery stores now stock these items. Many of the dishes available in Thai restaurants are made with rice pasta. It is not as hard to eat this way as most people think in the beginning.  That is not to say that you should eat a lot of rice. It is gluten free, but still harder to digest than fruits and vegetables. But these products will certainly help you to get over the craving for wheat. Part of the problem with eating grains is that they are very addictive, and not just psychologically. The glutens in many grains contain 15 different opioids, morphine-like molecules. Opioids that are not produced within our bodies are called “exorphins”. Scientists label them as addictive and neurotoxic.

They cause behavioral problems, such as addictive eating patterns. As my friend Doug Graham, author of “Grain Damage”  puts it, “Want to know if you are addicted to grains? Try going one week on a starch free diet.” Some of the other symptoms we experience from ingesting starches are severe mood swings, reduced urine production, slow gastric emptying and slowed digestion. Grains are the main food we use when we want to zone-out or relax. We use them as anesthesia. They are our main “comfort food.” Grains give us that very “full belly” kind of feeling that leaves us very lethargic. Remember what we are trying to achieve is high energy. 

I have given you a lot of alternatives here, but remember that rice is a recreational food, it is very short on nutrients and causes much weight gain.  Everyone eats more of these rice products and Ezekiel bread in the beginning. They are good transitional foods.  But they are empty carbs.   Switch to thinking of dinners being being composed of salads, protein, fats, and carbs.  Most veggies are mostly carbs, but nutrient rice carbs! The deeper the color, more  flavor and nutrients.  I have sweet potatoes most nights with dinner, as well as purple, red, baking, Yukon….  because there a bazillion things you can do with potatoes; baked, mashed, potato salads, hashed browns, oven fries, home fries, frittatas, gratins, soup, sweet or white potato gnocchi’s, potato cakes, pancakes, roasted, scallops, Shepherd’s Pie, stuffed, twice baked, all healthy and wonderful.

When most people think of sweet potatoes they think of pie and baked. But they make great salads also. Here is one of my favorite, it one of the 43 potato recipes in my cookbook.

Asian Sweet Potato Salad

3 large sweet potatoes

1 t. minced garlic

1/2 t. toasted sesame oil

1 T. fresh ginger, or to taste

3 T. fresh lime juice

1 T. cumin

2 T. Dijon mustard

2 T. sweet pickle relish

1 bunch scallions, cut in thin diagonals

1 large red bell pepper, diced in 1 inch cubes

3 T. chopped cilantro

2 T. coconut oil

1)  peel potatoes, slice into large cubes, toss with coconut oil, stir in cumin, salt and pepper.  Bake at 375 degrees until potatoes are done and corners are browned slightly.

2)  combine with remaining ingredients and allow to sit about 20 minutes.

Adjust seasonings. Enjoy!