1/20/11 Notes from Cooking Class for Children With Food Sensitivities or Autism

My boss requested that I take a cooking class entitled entitled, "Cooking for Picky Eaters and Children on Restricted Diets." So that was what I spent this evening doing.  I have no idea why she wanted me to take this class and "take notes,"  but I'm assuming it is because she wants me to cook for the kids when they come in again, or because she wants the chef's in Aspen to add these guidelines to their cooking regimen.   I was not looking forward to going because I have been feeling awful and the class was from 7pm-9pm (late for me lately) and in Glenn Mills which meant traveling in traffic.  After arriving and listening for 5 minutes to what the speaker had to say I was psyched for the rest of the class.

Annmarie Butera owns Cucina Verde, a company designed to educate parents of children with autism and the general public about eating habits that restore wellness.  Her main focus on how to achieve wellness?  Through gut health.  She basically spoke of everything I have been yammering about for the past year, but gave me even MORE  information that will be so useful to me during this trip to wellness.  I'll share a few of the topics she felt were most important.

1.  Cut down on yeast:  If you were to be tested for an overgrowth of yeast in the body the test would probably turn out positive.  We consume an insane amount of yeast in our western diets. Also, cut down on sugar which feeds yeast, and cut out all high fructose corn syrup.

2.  Fats are good!   She claims that even animal fat and saturated fat is beneficial...especially for children whose brains and bodies are developing. Our brains are 60% fat and need fat to work well.

3. Vegetable oils=Bad.  Corn, soybean,sunflower, safflower have an abundance of Omega 6 fatty acids which our diets already have an excess of.  And avoid ALL bottled salad dressings.  When these oils are processed or heated they oxidize and become rancid, and any beneficial properties are no longer present. When canola oil is heated to high temperatures it changes the omega 3 acids into free radicals. Also avoid ALL hydrogenated oils.

4. Instead use...wait for it...COCONUT OIL!  Or Palm Kernel oil.  You can cook with it but also use it as a supplement, which is what I have been doing.  Olive oil, almond avocado and macadamia oils are best used in salad dressings because a high temperature changes the oil turning it rancid. 

5. Use organic whenever possible.

6.Avoid food colorings and additives (MSG, yellow no. 5, etc)  these are excitotoxins  which affect brain function.

7. Limit flour products--even gluten free which is very starchy.  Use high protein flours to cook...she suggested COCONUT flour.  She noted that coconut flour needs a lot of eggs to bind it. 

8. Use beneficial salt like Celtic Sea Salt which is loaded with minerals and will even give you an energy burst if you take some in water when you need a pick-me-up.  White salts have been bleached so only use salts that are gray or colored.

9. Cut out sulfites and nitrates which can be found in bacon, lunch meat, hot dogs, dried fruits.

10. Eat fermented foods like live pickles or sauerkraut (unpasteurized) and Kombucha.

11. Eat cultured foods like yogurt and Kefir

12.  Bone broths (chicken/beef) are really good for the body.  The longer they simmer the better they benefit.  The knuckles in bones carry beneficial gelatin which is very good for our joints.  People with arthritis or other inflammatory diseases will benefit from this.  They will also benefit from supplementing with gelatin.

She said a variety of fats are good so she suggested using unrefined COLD PRESSED coconut oil, Ghee, Raw butter, Lard (pig fat), Tallow (cow fat)

She also said to avoid sugar if possible and use maple syrup, raw honey, sucanat, rapadura, turbinado or stevia.

EXTRA NOTES FROM CUCINA VERDE’S COOKING FOR PICKY EATERS AND CHILDREN WITH FOOD SENSITIVITIES

Speaker: Annmarie Butera Cantrell

Contact: ambutera@cucina-verde.com

215.499.8105

Annmarie began the class by saying that most of us living in America have an extreme overabundance of yeast in our diets/bodies.  That we must first balance the foods we eat with more fats and proteins before the body can begin to heal.  If you have a yeast imbalance, which she again stated that we probably do, that we must limit all the foods that feed the yeast—basically all simple carbs and all sugars or starches.   She then said that AFTER the body is brought into balance, THEN the body needs to heal.  

The 4 top ways to heal the gut:

1: FATS

2: FERMENTS

3: LIMIT SUGAR

4: BONE BROTHS

1: FATS

Annmarie states that fats are the number one nutrient for kids, but they are extremely important for everyone.  In order for the fats to benefit our bodies they must be good fats.  She explained that all vegetable fats are BAD.   The heating process oxidizes the oil turning it rancid and once ingested it creates free radicals in the body.  Olive oil is an exception to this, but she said to save olive oil for salad dressings because it shouldn’t be heated to high temperatures or it will oxidize. ALL bottled salad dressings are rancid.   Making your own dressing is the only way to avoid these toxins. 

Good FATS to cook with:

Coconut oil is the best.  It has antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties unlike any other oil.  (I have been researching coconut oil on my own and found that the MCFA’s in coconut oil help Epileptics, Autistics and Alzheimer’s patients when no pharmaceutical medicine could…I’ll send you the link if you like.)   Use refined for higher temps and no coconut flavor, or unrefined, which has a coconut flavor, for spreads and to use like butter.  Use 1 for 1 in recipes calling for vegetable oil or margarine.  Melt if using in place of vegetable oil.  

Palm Oil or Palm Kernel Oil: Also very good, is high in Vitamin A and Vitamin D.  Use when cooking meats.

Ghee:  Very good cooking oil.  Highly revered in Ayurvedic cooking as a sattvic or perfectly balanced food.  Ghee is clarified butter so all the milk solids are cooked out.  People with allergies to milk can use this because it does not have casein or any milk proteins.  Grass fed/organic is best when using any animal products.  

Lard: Pig fat. Very good source of Vit. A and Vit. D if it comes from grass fed or pastured pigs.

Tallow:  Cow fat.

Raw Butter: Organic and grass fed.

Good sources of Vitamin A & D: Organ meats, Lard and Egg Yolks from Pastured eggs, (not to be confused with Pasteurized.)

Annmarie proclaims that these fats do NOT cause heart disease, but in fact work to help prevent it.

She gave us coconut fudge to sample…was not very tasty.  I have a recipe for Hemp Balls using coconut oil and butter and maple syrup which is better than the coconut fudge…not sure if kids would like it though.

I found this very interesting...she noted that red ears on a child (or adult) after eating are probably related to a food allergy and then gave a simple test for food allergies.  To see if you have a sensitivity to certain foods, rub the suspect food on your wrist at night and if you wake up with a red mark then you should cut out the food until the gut does more healing.  You can reintroduce after 3 months of healing. 

As a side note she said that as you start to heal/detox from yeast you might feel sick.  A mother from the class shared that her son threw up when he was detoxing from yeast.   (Many people used the Specific Carbohydrate diet from the Body Ecology book to detox from yeast…I might try this diet and see how it works.  If you are interested in my findings, let me know.)

While detoxing you can lessen the symptoms by taking an Epsom salt bath or adding ½ cup of apple cider vinegar  or some baking soda to a bath.  

People detoxing should eat avocados because they contain a substance that helps the body with the detox process.  Also, cilantro has the ability to keilate heavy metals from the body, so add cilantro to guacamole for a healthy snack. 

2: FERMENTS Ferments are anything that has been cultured or pickled.  Some examples are yogurt, Kombucha, water kefir, unpasteurized sauerkraut or pickled beets (raw/unpasteurized is important because the enzymes remain intact.)  Pickling in sea salt (not vinegar) can enhance vitamins in food, and makes food become rich in enzymes and good bacteria.

Braggs Apple Cider Vinager is a very good ferment (contains the “mother”) and can be used in salad dressings.  You can use some in water to relieve indigestion. 

3: LESSEN SUGAR or anything that feeds yeast.  Most of us know to cut out all high fructose corn syrup but we should also be cutting down on things like fruit juice, maple syrup, honey, carbs or anything that breaks down to sugar because sugar feeds yeast.   (My own side note: It is also really important to cut out all these things when taking antibiotics because yeast overgrowths happen when using antibiotics.  Cut the yeast’s food supply and it is less likely to grow.)

4: STOCKS/Bone Broths are VERY healing foods.  The longer the bones simmer the more nutrients become available.  The knuckles and joints are extremely healing because they contain gelatin which is very good for our joints and for anyone with inflammation in the body.   She even said to supplement with gelatin made from animals by making jello with fruit juices.  1TBS per cup of liquid. 

Side note: use Celtic sea salt to season food.  It is loaded with minerals and will even give you an energy burst when you use it.  1 tsp in a bottle of water will help you with energy.   Gray salts are the best. NEVER use white salts/sugars…they have been bleached and are mineral deficient.   Use an iodine supplement if using sea salt as your only salt.  (I use kelp drops)

Annmarie stresses that it is important to add these foods in wherever you can.  If your kids like dipping things in ketchup, pour some pickle juice into the ketchup.  Substitute bone broths when cooking things like rice that call for water.  Instead of baking chicken nuggets, fry them in ghee or coconut oil.  Just try to add wherever possible.  

Books:

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics—Autism, ADHD, Asthma, & Allergies

Breaking The Vicious Cycle—Intestinal Health Through Diet

The Body Ecology Diet

Cooking With Coconut Flour

The Kid Friendly Food Allergy Cookbook

Nourishing Traditions

Notes from the day:

Morning: Don't feel like writing.  Don't have much to say.  Home for the day.  The dog next door, a giant mastiff that weighs more than me, will not stop barking.  It's been 7 hours.  It happens whenever my neighbor leaves the house.  The dog has separation anxiety.  One time after 16  hours of barking I actually started trying to discipline the dog through the wall...yelling towards that side of the house, "NOOOOOO!!!"  In my deepest, loudest voice.  I even tried controlling him with my mind.  It didn't work.  My neighbor has tried everything.  Everything except moving to the country...sorry neighbor...I know you aren't reading this.  


 NIGHT: Tired, grumpy, terrible headache starting around 8 pm.  Stomach was just awful all last night and all through the day. Still have indigestion.  Cut out the pill supplements, still taking drops supplements.  Rested today, Nick took Luke to school, thank you my wonderful fiance, no yoga, no pranayama, meditation 10 minutes, and Abhyanga. 

Food: 
Lunch: 11:30 Blueberry muffins (gluten free King Arthur flour brand) with butter and decaf coffee. Sorry, forgot to take a picture.

Quinoa

Dinner: 5:00 Quinoa with kale, carrots and leeks.
Food at cooking class:  Coconut oil fudge with lemon zest (no sugar) Blueberry muffins made with coconut flour and stevia, Blueberry muffins made with coconut flour and honey, pickle, kombucha, pickled beets.