Important Info

Friday, December 3, 2010

Dietary Advice Needed

I am now requesting some assistance from my readers, seeking your advice on an important matter.  A close family member is currently undergoing a very restrictive diet and I am seeking some suggestions and recommendations that will help him deal with this diet.

He may not eat any food products that contain the following: wheat, dairy, corn, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, shellfish and beef. Yes, that is quite a list!  That would be a hard list to follow for any person.  

So, I am hoping some of my readers could offer some suggestions.  Where are the best places to shop for food products meeting those restrictions?  I would prefer locations that are within a range of 15-20 miles north of Boston.  Can you recommend specific products or brands?  Today, I visited the Natural Food Exchange in Reading, and did find some foods, but am unfamiliar with the brands so don't know which tastes the best.

Do you have any suggested recipes? Are there any websites which would be good to check out? Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

10 comments:

  1. Hey Rich!
    I can offer advice as I am vegan. My wife is vegetarian and has a gluten/wheat allergy. So as you can see we are very restrictive with our diets. DM me if you or your friend need any assistance. Enjoy you weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Chris. You can email me any suggestions at ubarluther@aol.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tough list, but not uncommon these days. I would think Whole Foods would be a good place to start? Mine has specific aisles and shelves devoted to wheat-free and dairy-free. Also, was just printing out my fav cold weather recipe to make tomorrow and it could work for your family member: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000701091. It recommends eating with couscous but I've always served it unaccompanied, and I'm assuming coconut milk is okay? Both Cooking Light and Eating Well have recipe search engines that allow you to search for recipes with certain restrictions too, which might be helpful. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Should have mentioned that the recipe in the link is for a Vegetable and Chickpea Curry made in the slow cooker - I've made it several times and always love it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Indian food offers quite a few alternatives that would fit the bill. Here are a couple of suggestions. (Chick pea flour and quinoa are both great options for other recipes as well.)

    Chickpea flour "omlettes"

    http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2010/04/omelet-without-eggs.html

    Qinoa upma

    http://www.tastypalettes.com/2007/05/quinoa-upma.html

    I'll be sure to post more suggestions later but these two came to mind immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Most people who have Celiac Disease have the same issues with those items. I would start looking up recipes for Celiac Disease. That should help:
    http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenfreerecipes/Simple_Delicious_GlutenFree_Recipes.htm

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Rich,

    That list is not as restrictive as it may seem. You can do a lot with fruits, vegetables, chicken, tomatoes, rice, ...there's a lot of food choices still available.

    The problem is looking for products. That will be very difficult.

    The other commenters have offered great sites. There are so many recipe sites it will make your head spin. My site has hundreds of delicious recipes for more refined tastes that are suprisingly fast and easy.

    I personally do not eat corn or soy. Very little dairy or fish. So surviving on this diet does not seem all that bad to me. As one commenter pointed out, there are many milk substitutes that taste just fine. Probaby the biggest challenge is the wheat.

    Feel free to contact me if I can help you design some good choices.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This list is very do-able, when you think about it, leaving the entire world of plants! Most important for protein, then, would be beans & legumes.

    Here's a cookbook I adore: The Brilliant Bean, by Sally & Martin Stone (Bantom Books, 1988). It's my go-to book for so many things, like a classic black-bean soup laced with sherry; Indian yellow-lentil dal; white-bean salad with rosemary and roquefort; even entrees like braised chicken Middle Eastern style with eggplant and chick peas. Yum.

    For pure vegetarian recipes, two excellent cookbook authors are Anna Thomas and Bert Green. Again, scrumptious recipes.

    But bottom line: This person needs to learn to cook, if s/he doesn't already.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks very much for all of the advice and suggestions.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi... I read your post and I want to say that I don't have any such recipe but I am searching for such recipe. If I will get then I will tell you about it.

    ReplyDelete