This isn't going to go away!

On Saturday mornings I enjoy going to the local farmers' market and buying fresh produce. This morning I went, and as I walked by the bakery stands and the roasted corn and potato stand, it hit me: This isn't going to go away! It's not like poison oak that will clear up and be forgotten, this need to eat grain and legume free is with me forever, and it's not "just a lifestyle" change.

Last night I finished reading yet another book about this way of eating, this was called The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. It's interesting that Mark Sisson quotes Dr. Cordain in his book Primal Blueprint, and Dr. Cordain quotes Melissa Smith, who wrote Going Against the Grain. Their three books all say that humans shouldn't eat grain or legumes because of the phytates and lectins they contain. They also emphasize how grains and legumes increase our insulin production. (Then there's gluten, which they also all address as being problematic for people.)

Even though the books emphasize these things in common, they also diverge. Dairy and coffee are not allowed by Dr. Cordain, but are by Mark Sisson, for example. Almond flour is frowned upon by Dr. Cordain, but is OK with Mark Sisson.

I've come to the conclusion that it's difficult to get people to agree on everything! So, what am I doing?

I'm avoiding all grains and legumes. I decided to switch to lactose free milk, since lactose is a sugar. However, I do eat regular cottage and other cheeses. I also enjoy fat free yoghurt. (I make wonderful smoothies with yoghurt, frozen strawberries, and banana.)

I do drink several juices that are 100% juice with no added sugars of any kind, but I dilute them with the Crystal Geyser flavored waters; the taste remains, but the calories are cut in half.

I do use almond flour and almond paste when baking, and I have accumulated a number of excellent recipes for tarts, cookies, and cakes based on almond flour. (The protein level is up,and there's zero gluten.) I've learned to use agave nectar instead of sugar, which has been something I avoided for awhile (for no reason that I can think of), but which has worked perfectly in the recipes.

Adapting recipes, something I've done for years, but never with this purpose in mind, has been great. I now make a wonderful strawberry sauce that I put on the cheesecake I make, or ice cream, or tapioca pudding (which is gluten free). The original recipe had a couple more ingredients--including additional sugar--from what I now do. (Why is it that so many recipes call for so much more sugar than necessary? One can easily cut back on the sugar in many recipes and they'll still take OK.)

Perhaps my doctor will take me off medication for diabetes one day--I hope so! However, I now know that no matter what, I can't eat grains and legumes any more, but I'm also learning how to adapt recipes I've had for years to being grain free, legume free, and lower in sugar.

My next task is to put all the recipes I've collected over the years, which are "usable", and all the new recipes I've downloaded from gluten/grain free web sites, into a binder. I'm also going to organize them into sections such as desserts, main dishes, salads etc.

More later...