Some of the brands I use
***THIS POST IS NOT SPONSORED, all feelings expressed are my own.***
Hello and good morning to you all. I hope you are having a good day/week/month so far.
Today I want to share with you why I use the products and brands that I do, and why.
As most of you know, I developed multiple life threatening food allergies in my early 30’s. Thankfully I was at work when my reaction occurred. I had true anaphylaxis, and required IMMEDIATE care.
I had to radically change my diet and life. And re-learn how to do so many things. How many times have you read the ingredients in your hair gel? Or body cream? Or detergent to wash your clothes? Everything in my life had to be looked at, and adjusted.
In the very beginning, I followed a strict Paleo AIP diet. There was one small problem, I am highly allergic to all nuts and seeds. So I went months of eating protein, veggies and a select few fruits. Because my “green” allergies were so significant, I also had to remove foods that would cross react. No more cucumbers in my salad, or refreshing watermelon for desert. Thank you Birch tree, you’re just amazing.
Keeping to a strict protein/plant diet, I lost weight. Weight that I could not lose even when I starved myself. Look at what inflammation can do. My overall health got better, and with the guidance of my nutritionist, I was able to slowly reintroduce foods back into my diet.
Oats were one of the foods that I have been able to successfully reintroduce into my diet, and keep. Some of you may not know this, you can substitute oats for nuts in most recipes. Because I was following a Paleo-ish diet, I tried oats in place of almonds in Paleo recipes. To my great surprise and relief, they worked!
When I went back to my nutritionist and explained what I learned and what I was doing, she stopped me. “Don’t you know most oats are processed with other grains? Be careful for cross reactivity.” My world crumbled. But I was determined to find oats that would be safe for me to use. In the local supermarkets in 2013, you could only find big brand name products. Anything even “remotely” organic or gluten free, was only sold at specialty stores, for an insane amount of money. Most of the gluten free products that I found had nuts and/or seeds in them. So they were no good anyway.
I thank the Lord for my stubborness, or should we call it perserverance this time? I looked, and researched, and came across GF Harvest (Their story.) They grow their oats in dedicated fields, process on dedicated equipment, check more times than any other company I found to make sure they are still gluten free, and nut free too. I started out buying their oats, and grinding them myself to make oat flour. Now I get the oats and flour from them. Thank you @GF_Harvest!
When you follow a Paleo diet, you also do not consume cane sugar. You may see many recipes with stevia as a natural sweetener. And here we go again with those green allergies that I have. Anything made with stevia gave me the worst migraine headaches. Even worse than after an epidural.
The other sugar I came across often on Paleo sites was coconut sugar. I was staying away from coconut. Then I learned the sugar is made from the flower, not the fruit. Success!! With these 2 ingredients, I was able to create so many new things for myself. Coconut sugar is not as sweet as cane sugar, but I feel it has a much better flavor. (The one I use)
As time has gone on, and my overall health has improved, I have been able to re-introduce the coconut fruit into my diet. So many doors opened up with this discovery.
Cow dairy is also something that I have not fully re-introduced into my diet. I can occasionally eat Swiss cheese, or long aged Provolone cheese. When you are baking, butter is usually the main fat used. Thankfully I found vegan shortening, that was not made out of soy. (I use this brand.) Palm shortening, along with these other ingredients have really made it possible for me to still eat foods that I love in a safe manner.
Learning how to still eat all the things I love, just using new ingredients has really been a wonderful experience for me. It is true that at times I wanted to give up, and not care what the pizza did to me. But I never gave in, and found ways to still have delicious pizza, just with different ingredients.
I hope to give just one of you the inspiration to not give up. I promise to help you find a way to still enjoy the foods you love the most, but in a safe way for you.
Leave us a comment below, or tag us on Instagram @Anges_Table and let us know what you miss the most. Have you recreated it yet? I would love to hear and see all about it.