Dairy's Link to Migraines

I was watching the Extended Interviews of Forks Over Knives today when comments from Dr. Neal Barnard regarding the link between dairy and migraines, among other ailments and diseases, grabbed my attention. I've been eating almost no dairy for the past two months, and now I'm wondering if the handful of headaches I have had followed the few meals in which cheese played a part. Lists of dietary trigger foods usually emphasize aged cheeses, and some other types of dairy, such as sour cream and large quantities of yogurt. Previously, I skipped the aged cheese and kept on eating everything else. Doctors who advocate a plant based diet would recommend cutting out all dairy entirely.  Here's more information on treating migraines from Dr. Barnard's Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:  

A Natural Approach to Migraines

Trying the supplements of ginger and elemental calcium are are new treatment possibilities for me. I also like the suggestion of trying starchy food during a migraine only because that's something I've always craved during headaches, and it's good to be validated! It does look like now it's time to rethink that Sunday-night pizza. 

M & M Confession

In the interest of full disclosure, future generations may find it interesting to know that I -- far from being fully against all candy consumption by children -- believe that M & M's Minis make a most excellent reward for toddlers who are learning to use the potty. Stickers just don't get the same results as that beloved bit of chocolate. A proud child and mom are perfectly good reasons to take the shopping cart down the candy aisle. Did I mention the advantage of less laundry?

Parent Sugar Rant

Oh, the irony that within 24 hours of finishing The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick I, not only had a few headache days (storms? moment of chocolate weakness?), but I also had two germy children AGAIN. William woke us up Saturday night with illness that demanded immediate laundry attention. Anna missed a much-anticipated birthday party, Sunday School, and school on Monday. Everyone seems to be back to normal today, if the running through the house with giggles and slamming of doors was any indication, but I have to say its incredibly disheartening to try so hard to enhance my own heath and, of course, keep my children well, and to be dealing with upset tummies and coughs nearly all the time. I know, I know. It's just normal childhood illnesses, but it is very discouraging. 

When we keep seeing the same sorts of stomach upsets in the kids, I keep wondering if it's a diet problem or an allergy problem instead of the usual school germs. Of course, I know that there are viruses zipping through the school regularly. Wouldn't it be nice if I could create immunity by getting them to eat just healthy foods? Unfortunately, they are normal kids who want to live on a diet of cheese sticks, sausage, crackers, and candy. Fortunately, they do enjoy many fruits and veggies, and I don't want to deprive them of all eating pleasure by becoming the mom who forbids most foods. Seriously, though, I feel like I can't ever be the one to give them fun foods because every time we leave the house some one is offering them a sucker because they got a hair cut or walked through the grocery line or a candy-filled goodie bag because it's Earth Day, which you can only eat when you get home (i.e. in the van in front of your baby brother who didn't get one). It is impossible to feed kids well. I often become the "Ask your mom" ogre who doesn't let my kids have any food enjoyment, because I prefer to say no to many of the sweets. Why?  Kids + sugar = crazy  

As long as I'm on the sugar-food rant, isn't it amazing what you find in the simplest foods when you read the labels? When I get cereal, I get the dull stuff because it's low in sugar. I recently bought big bag of generic Cheerios, then as I was pouring it, I read the label: 

This is the most boring cereal you can buy and someone thought it needed some extra color and natural flavor. Huh? No one's getting this for the joy. I though the other ingredients were a bit unpronounceable, so I looked at the generic Wal-Mart version: 

 Well, that's an even longer list. Here's the original, brand name Cheerios:  

They get kudos for telling us what those "mixed tocopherols" are doing in the box and having more actual words my kids can read. All three packages are, in theory, the same thing. Nope. There's a reason cheaper food is cheaper food. Even good old real Cheerios puts sugar right in there at the top of the list, not as much as in most other cereals but in the top three ingredients. This is why the incessant candy culture wears on me so much. The sugar is in everything. It's taking up room in my kids' bodies where they need nutrients to fight off the germs that keep getting them sick. Let's take it down a notch. Let's enjoy the treat of special occasion cakes and cookies, but say goodbye to the every day, candy-all-the-time diets we have now. 

Healthy Dining Finder Website

I'm making a note of this website here to remind myself it exists, and if it helps all of you, so much the better: www.healthydiningfinder.com. It appeared in a recent review of a restaurant in my local paper. When I plunk in my local info, I'm honestly a little surprised at how many chain restaurants I see since they aren't my idea of healthy eating. I realize, though, that most folks are counting calories and fat grams, while I'm reading the ingredients list to see how much of it I can pronounce. I'd rather enjoy the fat in a dish of whole foods topped with nuts or avocado then wash mysterious ingredients down with a diet soda. Personal preference. That's what keeps me healthy. I haven't had a headache that couldn't be managed in weeks!

healthydiningfinder.com does have several unique restaurants listed so it certainly isn't limited to chain shops. It does give me some ideas of places to go and suggests that there are light options at the big restaurants for those who read the menus carefully.

Filling Vegan Lasgna

For tonight's dinner I made the lasagna I saw in the Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue a few days ago: "Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna." I had no idea a vegetable dish could be so heavy to lift! That should give you an idea of how substantial this meal is. I have never put so many veggies into one entree! Since this was a first attempt at making this dish, I decided to have the backup plan of a platter full of brats for the meat-eating members of the family as a just in-case. (I wasn't sure if whole-wheat noddles and sweet potatoes would really say "lasagna.") Those brats were eaten enthusiastically, but there really would not have been a need to have multiple dishes on the table. This lasagna, thanks to the cashews crumbled on top, enticed everyone, too. We had more than enough left-overs for meals to come. Jamieson declared this my best lasagna yet. Chopping all the veggies took quite a lot of time (especially since we were dyeing Easter eggs at the same time). The ingredients include onions, garlic, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, red pepper, sliced tomato, and cooked mashed sweet potato. Fortunately, there's no need to precook the noodles; smothering them in the pasta sauce gets the job done. So, this lasagna won't be a weekly meal, but it will definitely come out again for weekends or special occasions when I need a substantial and tasty dinner. Truly, no one missed having a meat filling. My headache-prone head appreciated having only simple spices -- oregano, basil, rosemary, cayenne pepper -- and no mystery seasonings in any sausage or pasta sauce to worry about. This recipe was a winner.

Pie Boss!

1649 Montgomery Rd, Aurora
(Why yes, it is just a bit west of
The Growing Place. Our saga of life without
functional GPS is a tale for anther day.) 

I love the monograms! 

Pie Boss! The quest for unique tastes continues and it has taken us back to Aurora. The pies here are of the meat pie (and vegetarian pie!) variety. Oh, the crusts! So flaky and delicious. What you are supposed to do when heading over to Pie Boss is call ahead and place an order so they can have your fresh and yummy pie ready to go. We decided to take a chance with what they had on hand since we sort of knew were were heading. What was there was super tasty. I had my heart set on the Spinach and Feta pie and I was not disappointed. Since sharing with William left me less than full, I had no choice but to try out the Spice Mixed Vegetable Pie, too. It was indeed spicy! There was some kicky curry in there! Anna offered me a bite of her Chicken and Mushroom, too. Yum! Jamieson enjoyed the Spicy chicken and the Pepper Steak. Erik loved eating the crust off everyone's pie. Next time, we will plan ahead and order the Cheeseburger Pie for the kids. Unless Pie Boss would just make a dish of crust, which is what Erik really, really wants. 

The folks running Pie Boss hail from South Africa, so add that to our culinary map of discovery. 

4/19 Update: Feeling good this morning, which mean we can add Pie Boss to my short list of restaurants that do not give me headaches. This is very good news!  

You could look up Pie Boss on your own, but I have the lovely menu in front of me so I'll help you out. The phone number is 630-898-3448. 

No Time Not To Run!

Half my brain says I don't have time to sit here and write anything. It's just a few days before Easter and I have a huge to-do list. I also didn't really want to pull myself out of bed and run this morning, either. I've learned a little something about doing both writing and running, though. Even though they seem like frivolous activities that don't really matter, it matters to me and my health. The words here clarify my thinking; they help me organize my thoughts. Getting my exercise clothes out and ready to go either the night before a morning run or before Mr. Toddler goes down for a nap helps me fight the inevitable frantic stress that just goes with daily living. When I miss a day of heart-pounding exercise, I can feel it in how I manage everything. My tone with the kids is sharper and my attitude toward getting through the tasks of the day leans toward panicky. When I write and exercise, even if it was something no one read and and the slowest run in recent memory, something has been accomplished in my day. That feels good. So there's dust in the house that never gets banished and laundry mountains that sit unfolded for an embarrassing amount of time because Mom took some Mom Time. It also means mom feels better. I think that's worth more. I never expected to crave running time, but I do now. I really do.

By the way, today's motivational film was "The Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue." It opened my eyes to the serving size of cooking sprays -- too much oil!--  and made me really want to try the lasagna recipe he introduced. Yum! I'm going to put in a library request for "The Engine 2 Diet." Vegan food that works for Texas firefighters will probably be filling enough for anyone I need to feed.

More Curry for Kids: Meatless Cookbook Recommendation

 As we are still raving about our O Mango experience from the weekend, I decided to put a curry dish on the menu for the week. I took the reciepe from my current favorite cookbook, Peas and Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals the Whole Family Will Love by Sarah Matheny. I grabbed it from the library shelves a few weeks ago, enamored by a healthy-foods cookbook written by a mom with two little kids and filled with pictures of both the recipes and the little food testers with ingredients (and other things) smeared on the faces. I have made quite a few things from this gem recently. Last night's entree was "Curry in a Hurry." It was a delight. Chopping any veggie dish takes time, but it wins points for the number of raw vegetables the kids eat before sitting down to dinner as they walk through the kitchen. Anna, the carrot eater, delights in grabbing a whole long carrot any time she can. I'm still surprised that little William likes strips of sweet peppers, but he certainly does. Erik was going to have a carrot, too, until he changed his mind and went for an apple instead. Guess I can't complain. Jamieson walked in the door and said, "It smells great in here!" The main challenge was keeping everyone from grazing on the tofu and cashews everyone sat down. 

This meal was essentially veggies in a curry coconut-milk and spice sauce. (I don't even like coconut, but the flavor was all gentle spice and veggie -- no coconut.) It was served over brown rice and topped with the broiled tofu and cashews, the drizzled with fresh lime juice. Another kid eating surprise: William and Anna really like eating lots of brown rice. It goes over better than the white rice, which is a very good thing. I had to dash off to choir practice before eating much of the dinner, so I can also report that this reheats very well at a later time. 

Bringing the dog in from her evening "out" before bedtime, Jamieson again commented on the curry smell in the house. That's a good thing in his book. He also said there's a taste difference in cooking with curry as opposed to just sprinkling it on the food, which he often does since he likes a hotter curry than the rest of us. I could only say that this recipe called for cooking the curry in the pan till it became aromatic before returning the sauted veggies to the pan. That wasn't something we had done before but it worked well. 

                           Veggies a-cookin'                                

Curry, ready for eating complete with yummy marinaded & broiled tofu

Other recipes from this book that we have enjoyed have included bean burgers, teriyaki tofu, tempeh chili and an amazing falafe and tzatziki sauce, which topped my previous from-scratch falafel. The kids still mostly love eating the pita breads on falafel night but they have learned to enjoy the flavors of the tzatziki and tahini sauces. There are quite a few more recipes that I'm looking forward to trying, including a lot of mouthwatering desserts, as well as a follow-up cookbook by the same author. As long as the recipes or cookbooks have a tone than respects the reality of cooking for a family, I find the eating in a healthy way really is a bit of a fun adventure. Who knew?

Salsa Recommendation

Here's another product I need to be cautious about reading labels: salsa. Again, this is something that's usually filled with sugar and vague "spices." Right now I am enjoying this All American Salsa from 505 Southwestern that I happened upon at Wal-Mart. The salsa ingredients are spelled out for you below. Easy to see; easy to pronounce. No surprises. Well, those jalapenos give a bit of a kick, but that's another issue!

As an extra perk, the company is donating a portion of their profits to the Wounded Warrior Project through the end of April, so that alone seems like a reason to seek out this brand.

Easy to pronounce ingredients! 

Reading food labels for pizza night

Label reading is why it takes me forever to grocery shop, but it's so important if you value feeling well. Here's a perfect example. Almost every Sunday night, we enjoy pizza night. Jamieson makes the crust from scratch, so it's rather healthy as pizza goes. It's the sauce that needs some vigilance. To just grab any old pizza sauce equals a lot of corn syrup and the always-mysterious "natural flavor" or "spices." Who knows what that really means. So, if you aren't going to make everything from scratch, and honestly, no one really is, the wise choice is to search for the brands that have the fewest ingredients. Ideally, those ingredients should be really easy to pronounce. This Cento pizza sauce, which I found at Mariano's, is a perfect example of what I want to see on a label. This is exactly what it says: "Ingredients: Water, Tomato Concentrate, Olive Oil, Sat, Basil, Black Pepper and Garlic Powder." That's it. So if I get a headache, it could be due to a sensitivity to one of those foods -- or some unrelated factor -- but it will not have anything to do with mysterious "spices." Simple.

4/14 update: Headache free! I used to have post-pizza headaches often, so choosing the right sauce may be helping. 

Discovering O Mango: Introducing the Kids to Indian Food

 To make up for the "lost" Spring Break day of last week, a dinner out was planned for this evening. My thinking when it came to picking a restaurant was threefold:

1. I like to try new places -- let's explore!
2. I've been eating vegetarian 90% of the time lately. What can we find that offers healthy eating choices? (So often I find myself suffering from a headache the day after a dinner out. I get nervous when it comes to making a restaurant choice.)
3. The kids need their palates stretched beyond burger and fries venues.

I plopped "vegetarian" into the search box on Yelp and came up with a winner: O Mango. It's an Indian restaurant, so there was no difficulty convincing Jamieson to give it a try. Erik took a bit more selling. Thankfully, we live in an era of on-line menus. Assured that naan was a bread he would love and given a the menu to ponder on the ride there, he was content to try the Naan Sticks as his main course. (From a parenting perspective, the great thing about this restaurant is is the "kid-friendly" labels on several of the menu's dishes. They are very welcoming to those who are new to Indian food, including young eaters.) Anna was similarly pleased to dive into the Naan Quesadillas. True to form, William was just happy to eat it all: naan, chicken, samosaas, etc. We successfully went from reluctance to food happiness. In fact Erik left announcing, "I'm adding that to my list of favorite restaurants!"

 As for the adults, Jamieson thoroughly enjoyed the buffet. I had two scrumptious wraps: one hariyali and tofu, one mango-coconut aloo (potato). Their flavors and the tamarind chutney that came with the samosa were absolutely delicious. We all went home pleasantly stuffed.

 O Mango is not too far from us, just south of the Metra station on Route 59 in Aurora. We loved the food. We loved the trendy decorating. Erik is right; we will be adding this to our list of favorite restaurants.

Yum!

4/13 Update: No "morning-after we ate out headache." Who-hoo! 

Weather induced migraines

So the migraine weather forecast claims today is "beneficial weather for migraines" but the wind is blowing fiercely, storms are predicted for overnight, and I'm not the only one who was walking around with that tell-tale hand to the forehead, "this weather is killing" me look this morning. Fortunately, I got to my prescription soon enough to knock it out for the day again, but it's so frustrating when weather -- something I have no control over -- is the cause. All the more reason to keep eating well and exercising to keep the odds in my favor as much as I can.

Headache cause: too-little sleep

A headache was building as I woke up this morning, but I knew the cause. I tried to cram too much in my day yesterday and didn't get enough sleep. Five hours is never enough! Thankfully, the prescriptions that were failing me a few weeks ago are now effective again thanks to taking them only very occasionally instead of almost daily. I'm glad to have the medications for emergencies, but so happy to have found a healthier day-to-day life.

It's a beautiful Spring day, so glad I'm able to enjoy it. William and I spent much of the morning working/playing in the yard. We even at lunch outside. He kept calling it our beach. Not sure where the sand is, but it was cute. He ate apple slices, Trader Joe's 12 Grain min snack crackers (with Inulin -- not sure that's enough prebiotics to help his tummy, but he is much improved from earlier this week, and I threw that in the cart next to the probiotic yogurt when we were shopping for things that would be easy on his insides) and vanilla almond milk. I had left-over stir fry. It's good to have lunches that don't leave me feeling like I need a nap afterwards.

Breakfast Sweet: Home-Grown Maple Syrup

Jamieson's syrup catching system

Yesterday's breakfast sweets were a treat. Most days I stick to a healthier routine. For some reason, I used to resist oatmeal, but now it's comforting to have the same dish every morning. It's filling and it works. I have a bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal with a scoop of ground flaxseed meal for the fiber and omega-3 hit and a drizzle of maple syrup. I just use water to make the oatmeal, but we have the blessing of fresh, wonderful maple syrup. Last winter, Jamieson tried collecting his own maple sap for the first time. This year, he added a propane burner pan system that you would expect to see if someone was about to deep fry a turkey, but it sped up the process. He was spending a long time simmering sap on our stove. It took forever, but our whole house had a great maple-syrup tinged humidity to it. Now, he can cut that time down dramatically and keep everything outside until bringing just the last bit of syrup in to finish on the stove top. No high fructose corn syrup on our breakfasts. This stuff is good. It's light, but very tasty. Now we look around at all the other trees in the neighborhood and think of the possibilities. 

William's syrup catching system

Eating healthy at church: Can it be done?

Breakfast leftovers

My name is Christine and my second breakfast was (yes, second breakfast, after the healthy first breakfast of oatmeal) a slice of berry sweetbread, a mini banana muffin, a half of doughnut, a really big slice of blueberry sweetbread, etc. Sigh.

It was my turn to bring treats to my morning Bible study class today. It was not an exercise in healthy eating. There was no time for me to bake this week, so I zipped over to Wal-Mart after the kids were tucked in last night. Wal-Mart and I have had a tumultuous relationship, but they do manage to pull off some fine baked goods. I filled the cart with an assortment of suitable coffeecake sorts of things, left it in the car for delivery to the "Early Risers" and mission accomplished. I did not buy the heavily frosted doughnuts. I did not offer the sweet rolls nor did I provide a tray of sticky buns. (Of course, those would have been welcomed enthusiastically.) I also didn't provide any fruit or granola mix or whatever else could possibly pass for a healthy breakfast in a church setting. I had just purchased an ample amount of food for my own family's meals earlier in the day and I didn't have the budget to do an entire buffet for the dear people of God. For the love all things Holy, and I do mean that reverently, how do people feed other people in a church healthfully? It is mighty impossible to attend or bring food to a church function and have it be a dish that doesn't cause one's arteries to loose just a little bit more functioning. Everyone who has spent any time in a church basement or fellowship hall knows that people gathered together in such a setting eat well -- as in there's never a shortage of food. It's not necessarily the sort of food that would make a dietitian or nutritionist smile, though. Even during Lent, when many are, in theory, cutting back -- my word! -- the sweets tables are as bountiful as ever.

All just observations, though!

"Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink..." -- Colossians 2:16

A Lenten Reflection and A Dairy Vacation

Your beverage choice is ...? 

Two Disclaimers: 

• My maternal grandfather was a dairy farmer. I believe he had just about the most honest, important job a person could have. 
• The most magical location in all of grocery shopping is the cheese aisle at Woodmans. My household is a proud owner of the Weyauwega Cheese cookbook purchased at Woodmans because we love cooking with that brand purchased at that store. So. Very. Much. 

And yet ... less milk and cheese is being consumed in our house these days and it's about to drop dramatically even more. 

Last month on a whim, I told myself I would just stop putting milk in my coffee for Lent. It was a silly, superficial thing. I've never been much for sacrificing things for Lent. It has never been a major part of my pre-Easter spiritual practices and in recent years as things religious have indeed become more important to me, it has become more important to take on things for Lent, such as Bible study and church attendance, instead of giving up something. So, no milk in the coffee was just a token thing. I have to say, though, it was surprisingly effective. What is the purpose of Lenten sacrifice? Reminder. Every time I taste the bitterness of that coffee, I remember my failed new year's resolution to give up coffee and I remember the ever so much more bitter sufferings of Jesus. Amazing how our Lord can take even the simplest things and use them for spiritual growth. 

As I have been making other changes in my diet, I've been swapping my almost-daily meat and cheese sandwiches for lunch in favor of vegetable choices. Dinners that usually found me pouring on the cheese: chili or taco nights, have me now enjoying the flavors of the actual entree. At first I missed the cheese, then I discovered that I really loved the extra energy I felt from not filling up on cheese. Of course, I'm not going all-out vegan. I can eat dairy-free most days now and then happily enjoy that Weyauwega-filled pizza Jamieson usually makes for us on Sunday nights. 

I've also noticed that the less dairy I consume, the less congested I feel. I've always had a near year-round night-time congestion that defies explanation. Lately, I just don't feel so stuffy, even with Spring finally starting to appear. Jamieson has long suspected that he breathes better when he keeps his dairy consumption to a minimum, too. 

And now for the kids. My kids LOVE cheese. Love. Love. Love. Little carnivores and cheeseheads every last one. Unfortunately, we are dealing with a nasty strain of the tummy bug with the little one right now. Thankfully, his appetite is as strong as ever, but his insides are not well. I took him to see the doctor this morning and her advice was basically that it would need to run its course, but as it did, we should avoid dairy for the next week. Dairy is, apparently, rough on young tummies, especially the thickness of protein-rich Greek yogurt. Her advice was to have just a bit of Activia yogurt and use almond milk for now. Also, she encouraged mixing in a bit of probiotic powder. So, we stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home to stock up on rice and almond milk. It's chilling in the fridge. I'll be serving it to all since I have a sneaking suspicion the germs won't stop with just one dear child. Once we are past this illness (when, oh, when??!!) I'm thinking that if almond milk is easier on the tummies of the kids and kinder to the waistlines of the grownups then maybe that's a change that could become permanent. Of course, we have some taste testing to do before we make any decisions. For now, we just want to get well! 

Making changes

Headache healing:
Pharmacy or produce? 

A headache crept up on me this morning, which isn't unusual for me. The surprise is that it’s been a few weeks since I had that tell-tale, slowly creeping ache over the left eye brow. After a winter of endless, chronic migraines I am now treating the beasts more aggressively than ever before. My 2014 began with a new preventative prescription for the migraines, but it was only moderately successful. As I’m not interested in stepping up to a higher dose of pharmaceuticals unless absolutely necessary, I decided to get more assertive about pursuing my dietary migraine triggers. That has led me to where I am now: in the midst of a full-on healthy eating kick. My (now-previous) doctor surprised me by being fairly dismissive of my eagerness to aggressively find those foods that cause my headaches. Understandably, the list of potential triggers is long, different for everyone, and may change for a single person from time to time. Still, it’s disconcerting to have a fistful of paperwork from your local pharmacy, which is of limited effectiveness, and no nutrition guidance. Eating well seems like an easier approach to me, at least a potentially cheaper one. 

So, this year has also found me doing much renewed research on the causes of migraines. My dear spouse also acquired, on New Year’s Eve, a new-to-us treadmill. To entertain myself as I log the miles, I've been pulling up health documentaries on Netflix. It’s amazing how easy it is to go just a bit farther and a bit faster (and eat a lot healthier afterwards) when watching a series of movies like Hungry for Change, Forks Over Knives, Fat,Sick and Nearly Dead and BeautifulTruth. Hungry for Change, in particular, started me off in a new direction away from simply trying to prevent headaches and toward complete health. It managed that through tone: encouraging the adding healthy, unprocessed whole foods – fruits and vegetables – into the diet, instead of emphasizing a list of outlawed foods. It has been unexpectedly easy to skip the sweets as I see how much better I feel having cut out much of the processed food that has been causing me problems.

So the point of this writing here is to outline some of my observations. I don’t want to be a food nazi. I do love to eat. I will always love my carbs. Bread is the staff of life and all that. Like any family we enjoy good company while enjoying good food, often very rich, heavy food.  I’m excited about what I’m learning about healthy eating and cooking, though. My problem now is that I’m not sure how to share the things I’m discovering in a way that doesn't come across as obnoxious. How we shop, cook and eat are deeply personal decisions. I am discovering new ways to eat that make me feel amazing. My challenge is to do that and share that knowing that I'm surrounded by those who feel very strongly about the importance of red meat and pastries in their regular menus. As in all things, this is a question of balance. I need to eat well, so I feel well enough to be well enough to take care of my family. So far, I've seen positive changes. I'm willing to continue the journey.