DCGluties.com

Today, the US Federal Drug Administration announced two (small) steps forward in its effort to define gluten free in the retail marketplace. According to the FDA’s website, the agency has reopened the comment period on the proposed gluten free standards originally introduced in 2007. It has also released and is seeking input  on a paper about the effect of gluten on the health of those living with celiac disease.

After years of waiting, I am disappointed by this announcement. I was anticipating the final word on gluten free labeling from the federal government. Instead, we were given a statement designed to buy the feds some more time under the guise of consumer feedback. 

Consumers desperately need federal standards that will eliminate confusing labels that misrepresent the possible gluten found in foods. Consider those that indicate an item prepared in a facility or on shared equipment where other gluten-containing products are found as gluten free. It is time for the FDA to establish norms in the marketplace for gluten free products as it has for other allergens. I wonder how long gluties will have to wait before we can get the straight facts at the super market. Only with this move from the government will businesses be held accountable for delivering products that keep those of us with celiac disease and other gluten-related illnesses healthy.

Post your comment when the period opens August 3 and urge the FDA to act swiftly in it’s implementation of gluten free labeling that clearly indicates which products are safe for everyone living with a gluten intolerance or allergy.

 1. Choose “Submit a Comment” from the top task bar
2. Enter the docket number FDA-2005-N-0404 in the “Keyword” space
3. Select “Search”

To submit your comments to the docket by mail, use the following address:

The Division of Dockets Management
HFA-305
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852 Include docket number FDA-2005-N-0404 on each page of your written comments.

Click Here to Tweet This!
Tags:   Celiac disease · FDA · FDA gluten-free labeling · gluten free · labeling6 Comments

Today is Tuesday. Sunday was day 21 – officially the last day. Part chronicle, part confessional, here’s the status of my adventure on the Crazy Sexy Diet.

The good: I already live gluten-free so that part’s been a cinch. Choosing vegan foods is easier – and tastier! – every day that goes by. Beans really are cool. I feel smart and sexy when I order salad and everyone else orders sandwiches. Getting black bean and guacamole tacos at the burrito joint by my office was no headache. I am staying within one pound of my happiest weight – marking a total of six pounds lost in three weeks. After a two year hiatus, I’m rocking high heels again because I just feel lighter in my step. I made a simple beef stew for the Little Guy Friday night and had no urge to taste it. Giving up coffee was tough and painful for the first three days and now I don’t miss it. I’ve rediscovered the gym and even checked out a 6 a.m. spin class. We have more time in the evenings because we’re not making such labor-intensive meals. If I eat an banana, avocado-romaine smoothie for breakfast every day for the rest of my life I will die happy. My sleep is extremely restful and my productivity at work has gone up. And, since it’s the real measure of health and wellness, I’ll go ahead and tell you I’m as regular as a Metamucil commercial star for the first time in eight years. And, perhaps what is most amazing to me as someone who has dumped entire bags of apples and good intentions in the trash, is that we only tossed one half head of cabbage during the entire three weeks.

The bad: I never found the time to do the daily meditations though I do read the Mindfulness and Psychotherapy blog on my Kindle. I haven’t been doing as much yoga as I had planned. I admit to having totally irrational cheese fantasies. I ate a piece of pumpkin that touched some yogurt. (Forgive me!) We’ve already started repeating recipes. We’ve only juiced a handful of times. Despite our neti pots and supplements, we both carried the end of a long-winter’s cold with us at least l8 of the 21-days.

The ugly: Tortilla chips. We ate some every day. I’m not sure what void they were filling but we voraciously gobbled them up far more often than we would have liked. By the middle of the cleanse, we switched to the more complex Food Should Taste Good chips and ate them with hummus and baba ganouj so I feel a little less guilty but I’m going to work on transitioning to eating carrots and peppers with dips. Also…on day 19, we broke down and had some wine. Really good red wine! It was divine but I feel like I need to speak to a priest. On Day 21 we broke out of our veganism to try some of Georgetown Cupcake’s new gluten-free lava fudge cupcakes and since then I devoured at least five more.

The bottom line: We’re still going strong. We’re committed to eating vegan about 5 days a week. Neither of us has had a bite of meat and my husband tried some cheese and found it totally unsatisfying. We’re in training for a half marathon in May. Sunday we went to the Dupont Farmer’s Market and after 21-days of eating vegan it was like going to Mecca. Finally, we were empowered veggie eaters; we knew what everything was and how to use it. And the one thing we didn’t know about – sunchokes – we bought immediately and will make in a stir fry this week. We found smoked potato and kale soups and the purveyor made sure to tell us they were vegan. Huh? Were we wearing big green Vs on our jackets? How did we get in the club? Is it a club? Definitely. And everything old is new again and we’re in it together. And we’re pretty happy about it.

Click Here to Tweet This!
Tags:   cleanse · crazy sexy diet · dupont farmers market · food should taste good · Georgetown Cupcake · gluten free dc · sunchokes · vegan · wine · yoga12 Comments

While we may have been quiet on the blog of late, we sure have been busy behind the scenes. Between raising babies and growing babies, we found a little time to contribute to the second season of “DC Cupcakes,” set to premiere on TLC Friday, February 25.

Here’s how it goes … an e-mail comes in from a “DC Cupcakes” producer looking for advice on best practices for adding gluten free offerings to their menu. E-mails are exchanged. First between Brooke and I exclaiming our joy over the opportunity to share our wisdom with the bakers at the famed Georgetown Cupcake. Then with the producers of “DC Cupcakes” explaining the importance of thoroughly cleaning the kitchen and ensuring a dedicated cooking area for preparation of gluten free baked goods. Fast forward several weeks and we’re planning our cameo appearance on the show!

I won’t give you all of the details … you’ll have to watch for yourselves. The  gluties’ cameo is slated for the episode airing this Friday, February 25, 1o:30 p.m. EST on TLC.

And good news, after trying out gluten free cupcakes for the episode, the sisters have perfected the recipe. Rumor has it that gluten free cupcakes will be available by pre-order beginning Saturday, February 26.

DC Gluties with Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis of Georgetown Cupcake.

Click Here to Tweet This!
Tags:   cupcake · DC Cupcakes · Georgetown Cupcake · gluten free · TLC99 Comments

You know when you go on a trip and you spend hours upon hours doing research and planning and fantasizing about what you’ll do and where you’ll go and where you’ll eat? Going gluten-free, dairy-free, meat-free, booze-free, coffee-free on the Crazy Sexy Diet is kind of like that. Honest. Restricted veganism is far less drudgery than I ever imagined. It’s a lot of work, but it’s adventurous work.

Everything you thought you knew about food is new again when you are choosing not to eat meat, dairy or gluten. In the eight days we’ve been on this vegan exploration we’ve unearthed food blogs we didn’t know existed, read about restaurants we’ve never tried, discovered ingredients we’ve never had occasion to use, begun shopping in a completely different grocery store and found ourselves hunting for items (like tofu and tempeh and vegenaise) in aisles we didn’t know existed. We’ve started reading labels all over again and found egg in most of our gluten-free goodies. Either way,  it’s exciting and, if you’re looking to spice up your marriage, try a [restricted] diet — the thrill of conquering each day – together – has worked wonders on our “new parent” marriage communication lull! We’ve even added exercise to the mix – downloading a bunch of  workout apps and running a great Valentine’s 5K. There are supplements and a juicer to talk about, too, but not in this post. The start-up cost will give you a heart attack and I’d rather you focused on the food.

Everyone is asking, so here’s a list of the recipes we’ve tried. It goes without saying that you would add a HUGE green salad or other heaping, preferably raw, serving of vegetables to every meal. I would humbly like to acknowledge two of my new favorite blogs: Fresh365 and SoGood&Tasty.

• Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili - We used quinoa for the grain. For Bon Appetit, this wasn’t as good as we’d hoped. I added apple cider vinegar and cinnamon to my lunch servings and it upped the wow significantly.
• Sunshine veggie burgers with baked sweet potato fries – Sunshine veggie patties are out of this world.
• “Peanut noodles” – Blanched zucchini, broccoli, and carrot over buckwheat soba noodles which we took right from the book. This sauce on the So Good and Tasty blog is almost the exact same thing. I used the leftover on brown rice cakes the next day – delish!
• Rice pasta with homemade raw spinach basil pesto (We made this up and used nutritional yeast in place of parmesan.)
• Green Miso Soup with tofu over buckwheat soba noodles – Another great dish from the So Good and Tasty blog. The soup was slightly bland but comforting and good. The Green Sauce is so delicious and addictive. I mixed it with some noodles on its own the next day and was blissfully happy.
• Spaghetti squash with garlic paste, olive oil and cherry tomatoes – We made this up, too, and it was great.
• Chickpea fritters (falafel) — We’ve eaten these twice already (using Bob’s gluten-free all-purpose flour and corn starch in place of the wheat flour) and they are so unbelievably good, it’s hard to believe there is no egg in these spongy, tasty, rich fritters. We serve them over greens with this amazing curry dressing that is definitely going to become a mainstay in our house.
• Smoky Black Bean Tacos. We had these for our romantic Valentine’s Day dinner and used a half Tofutti, half Vegenaise mixture with adobo liquid mixed in to spoof a pretty spot-on smoky sour cream sauce. Our sprouted corn tortillas were also the best corn tortillas I’ve ever had.

We even went out for sushi once (miso, edamame, tofu and veggie rolls with gluten-free soy sauce we brought in my purse).  Some unexpected highlights (besides a healthier marriage) have emerged, too. When you eat a plant-based diet your cooking time goes down significantly — just chop and combine — meaning less time on your feet and in the kitchen. And with our salads, smoothies and juicing — there is was not a single vegetable morsel that went unused in our first seven days. That’s amazing, we throw out more food on a regular basis than I would like to admit!

So, eight days into this vegan cleanse, we’re feeling pretty amazing. Still recovering from persistent winter coughs but overall we both feel a clarity and a vigor that is usually tucked far, far away in February.

Click Here to Tweet This!
Tags:   200 sit-ups app · arlington · gluten free · gluten free buckwheat soba noodles · gluties · miso · Mom's organic market · sunshine burgers · tempeh · toscana grill · valentine's day · vegan · vegenaise · vegetarian · Washington DC173 Comments

When you become a parent, three things happen.

1. You can’t find time to post to your blog. Really.

2. You become hyper-aware of what’s going into your child’s body – (be it food, toys or dusty nickels from the floor).

3. You start to conceive of a legacy.

And the next thing you know, you are on a 21-day vegan adventure. Huh?

Ok, the first is just an excuse for the DC Gluties hiatus. (One of us had a baby, the other has been busy carrying one.)

The second has been eye-opening for our entire household. My time breastfeeding warrants its own blog entry, so I’ll save it for another day, but fast forward to feeding the Little Guy solid foods and hearing myself constantly asking,”Is it organic?” and “How long has that been sitting open?”  and “Is that BPA free?” and “Why is it ever ok to eat meat from a jar?” All good questions. Even for grownups.

Then, there’s the Presidential fantasy. You know the one, where you watch your kid banging the garbage can with a old magnet and you can’t help but think, “Yep, future president.” And then you flash to him as a man, a grown man, and your brain wanders through a lifetime of scenarios and eventually you’re left to consider what the environment might be like, and you feel positively sick at the thought of landfills and tainted watersheds and pea-soup smog and you want to hurl yourself in front of the next person that reaches for a Styrofoam cup. And suddenly, you find yourself leaning into this idea of a legacy. And you vow to be a model citizen of the earth and set the example by leaving the smallest footprint you could. And to have him only bear witness to you eating food that nourishes your body. And, well, to live forever.

So, the vegan thing. In December, I stumbled upon a book called the Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr. I remembered her from the TLC documentary, Crazy Sexy Cancer and, thumbing through the book, quickly realized she had distilled all of her wellness knowledge into a lifestyle book packed with testimonials from people who made great improvements with autoimmune diseases. And, suffering from an overwhelming need to reinvent myself for the new year, as well as seek ways to transition back to a drug-free Crohn’s management protocol, I bought it and read the whole thing over the holidays.

In it, a plan is laid for change and growth from the inside out beginning with reversing your genetic destiny through food and wellness practices and ending with a 21-day gluten-free, booze free, coffee-free, alkaline vegan “adventure” cleanse. In between is a good talking-to about sleep, skin care, supplements, self care, meditation, yoga, purpose, neti pots, happiness and 35 minutes of moving every day.

And so, my fearless husband agreed to do it if I did all the homework and today is day five. In short, I’m proud to report that we have no intentions of falling off the gluten-free, vegan wagon (God, it just sounds like a hippie bus). A lot of smoothies, sprouts, snot, dollars, and downward dogs later, our marriage is ten pounds lighter and I’m seeing everything through a technicolor kaleidescope. Nothing is what it used to be, meaning and learning are everywhere. We’re having a blast. It is truly an adventure. And so, for the time being, I’m going to use DCGluties.com as a way to let you know what this all feels like…Just not tonight. I need my beauty sleep.

Click Here to Tweet This!
Tags:   arlington · autoimmune · crazy sexy diet · crohns · gluten free · parent · vegan · Washington DC8 Comments