Gluten Free in Japan: Week 2 begins/Confession

I must confess I am back to "Go" as far as gluten free goes.

I'm getting a little better day by day, but I have broken code last night (and faced some consequences- tummy ache, nauseous) but not sure if it is gluten or just other preservatives and flavors. I ate a chocolate brownie and half a processed pudding cup and had an immediate stomach ache. The pudding was worse and the artificial flavor left a really bad taste in my mouth.

But I slept and feel ok, luckily, and now know that I must be more strict with the diet than before.

I just wanted something sweet and exciting! But it was fake-flavor-y and painful.

In the Rose Garden Bracelet

In the Rose Garden Cuff Bracelet by ~pixipatrin on deviantART

Just completed another netted cuff! This one came out really nice, elegant, and expensive looking, I think! I called it "In the Rose Garden"

I've started an online ETSY shop which will sell my beaded work and some craft items from Japan. I just started so I'm not sure the direction I will go with it, but I will put beaded and other creations up there as they're produced.

You can visit my etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mautio?ref=seller_info

Day 5: Gluten Free in Japan

Day 5 and I will spare you the gruesome details, but my digestion is working at 95% normal :D

The cracks in my tongue are less, which means my gut is also doing better at getting essential nutrients!

Totally calm and in charge at today's classes! Even though it's Saturday and I was at the school from 12 to 8.

Also able to down a bunch of dark chocolate today- which is rich in iron and certain polyphenols and antioxidants. Of course, it's free of most allergens EXCEPT had soy... which I may or may not be slightly allergic to. Apparently that doesn't compare to wheat or gluten.

And I feel like I have so much more free time, energy, and drive now that the stomach pain is lifted off my shoulders AND I didn't have to go to the clinic to get a stomach camera-ing done. And all I had to do was go without wheat in my food. So that's easier said than done... everything has to be cooked at home from scratch and without wheat and without certain exciting things like soy sauce. But had some pretty good no soy-sauce Korean bulgogi recently. Maybe I'll be able to have smidges of soy sauce and kim ch'i again soon...

Now that I feel good I can start putting together pictures and stories about my November-December travels with Mumsie!

Powerful New Research in Functional Medicine: Neurological Approach

This shows that the dietary choices we, our governments, our societies make... do effect us in more ways than we can name or know. How impressive that this doctor made a journey from being, in essence, in the dark on what nutrients could help her condition- to realizing that her insufficient intake of these nutrients perhaps had everything to do with her condition and that where medicine continued to fail her, freeing herself of food allergens and increasing her intake of essential nutrients largely through diet could help her recover her ability to walk and function without loosing her job and livelihood.

I feel that education in industrialized and industrializing countries is failing us by not teaching us the basics of the power of natural plants and native diets... which are truly the basics of survival, and now they are being lost and becoming just the whispers of the ghosts which came before us, all is being lost for convenience.

Thanks to mercola.com for drawing attention to this TED video. I admire Functional Medicine efforts and hope that it rises up in the place of the current medical system in the US that treats symptoms and not root causes. If only the subsidization of food would reward those trying to be proactive for their health (by healthy, unadulterated food), vs. the oversubsidization of grains, meat, and dairy, which in effect is a huge force behind the increased need for expensive and often ineffective medical treatments.

"Let food be thy medicine."

I'm now going to dedicate myself, more than ever, to getting well, saving money, and hopefully making it to naturopathic medical school or even MD, if not to get in on the exciting research that is functional medicine.

Day 4: Gluten Free in Japan

Woke up with marked less sinus pain/congestion. Still some pains in the gut but no cramps. Shortness of breath is less now too, and overall achy/tired/no drive/anxiety feeling is a little better too.

I eat a bowl of sweet potatoes instead of noodles or rice, and brothy soups made of meat, vegetables, water, and the kombu seaweed. Did you know MSG was originally distilled from the kombu sea vegetable? Now they use soybeans and whatever slop they can boil down to produce glutamate and attach it to a sodium ion, hence the name MSG. The part that has the "umami" is the glutamate. But anyway, the kombu and a few other spices makes a tasty, almost buttery broth without butter, msg, or even soy sauce. Which I'm still waiting on getting some wheat-free tamari. Even at the health-food store the organic tamari had wheat in it. Which I thought tamari-soy-sauce was supposed to be wheat free, but whatever. I also have sides of lightly spiced meat curries made with light curry spices and coconut milk. I don't use those nasty bouillon/processsed curry cubes they sell everywhere in Japan, these are just spices and not cubes processed with a bunch of altered oils, starches, artifical flavors etc.... Which I found were hard to find in Korea and Japan, but they are available if you keep your eyes out for them or go to a health food store (which is disappointing to me in comparison to health food stores in America/Canada/the West/any other country. I guess it's still hard for most people to believe these food allergies might exist.

Maybe it sounds crazy but at least I'm feeling a little better everyday. I get so sad when someone gifts me something that looks delicious and I can't eat it ; - ; . But when my condition is under control I'll be able to handle everything again in small doses.

Day... 2 Gluten Free

Day 2 of Gluten Free Folks

:(

The epicness that occurred last month was my mother and mother-in-law's visit, a trip to Nagano, trip to Nara, and really all around business and craziness. When I think about the amount of gluten I consumed during that short period, compared to my relative abstinence from it for about 3 years or so, I ate roughly 3 years worth of gluten in 3 months. At my best in the U.S. I could eat a gluten item about once a week and have only slight ramifications: a little tired, or swollen feeling in my sinuses.

And still on Day 2 I'm feeling achy, exhausted, "tired but wired..." meaning exhaustion coupled with trouble falling asleep, sinus sludge, body aches, shortness of breath, slight stomach pain. Just need to remind myself that it is only Day 2, and there could be at least 2 weeks to a month for my body to heal from whatever reaction was set into motion by my dietary exuberance since I arrived in Japan- where I cast my doubts about gluten being bad for me to the wind and just ate it happily because that's what everyone else is doing. I hope that the same consciousness about food allergies will come to Japan (maybe almost inevitably) as it has in the U.S.

There's also the added awareness that there may be a few other sensitivities... including soy, potato/tomato, and citrus which my consumption of also increased dramatically since coming here.

Looking forward to getting farther along into elimination... I'm being so strict now Max made a soup with soy sauce in the broth and I had to refuse it. But with his rice allergy he also must avoid any soup made with say, mirin or miso, as they also contain rice.

Repressed the urge to go to the doctor. I'm kind of under the impression that there's nothing they can do for me. I just have to try this rest from known/long suspected allergens before I go looking for anything else wrong...

Gluten Free in Japan: What to Eat/What to Avoid

Gluten Free in Japan: What to Eat/What to Avoid

Special thanks to Blogger Sofia, living in Kyushuu, who provides useful information on living Gluten Free on her blog

http://from-japan-with-love.blogspot.com/2008/09/going-gluten-free-in-japan.html

Eat: (generally homemade)

-For carbohydrate/energy: potatoes, sweet potatoes, nagaimo, satsumaimo, carrot , rice if you are not sensitive to rice (my husband was a Crohn's sufferer and his sole trigger was rice! Gluten causes inflammation for his sinuses and ears though...)

-All vegetables, cooked without gluten containing products

-onigiri

-If you are certain it's 100%, you may tolerate buckwheat noodles which are sort of a grey brown color, however wheat is typically added to these

Avoid:

-Soy Sauce, and Tamari (Tamari is in theory a light soy sauce that is brewed wheat free, however my husband just went tonight and our local supermarket's version contains wheat! how do you explain wheat-containing tamari is kind of ridiculous... but whatever...)

-All packaged food. It's impossible to know the origin or process involved in creating "artificial" ingredients

-Sauces (which generally will have soy sauce or MSG ingredients)

-Yakisoba Noodles, Udon Noodles, Ramen noodles

Eating out in Japan:

Avoid: Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, All Noodles and probably all fast foods, Crepes, Udon, Yakisoba

Seek: Sashimi, Sushi, onigiri, simple grilled fish (at my local mall instead of the food court I go to the supermarket deli and eat fish that's grilled without discernible sauce such as soy sauce, and grab some steamed vegetables, pain in the butt I can't just go and chow down happily, or am an inconvenience to a group)

HOPE: if your symptoms stabilize on the gluten free diet, depending on severity, it is possible to cheat once a month, or with certain foods, weekly or even daily. Just bear the initial waiting period of going gluten free until symptoms stabilize. I saw improvement in the on a diet that was reduced gluten and not 100% gluten free.

CHARACTERS TO KNOW:

麦・むぎ　　mugi wheat -- I think this basically includes all wheat products which may contain gluten, make sure the ingredients on anything packaged don't contain this

醤油・しょうゆ　shouyu soy sauce

化学調味料無添加　かがくちょうみりょうむてんか　kagakuchoumiryou mutenka Without Artificial Additives

味の素　あじのもと ajinomoto MSG

Good luck on your journey!

Shopping for those in Japan:

Wheat/Gluten Free Tamari: http://store.alishan.jp/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23_70&products_id=123

Western Import Shop (Items generally avaliable within 5-7 days in Japan): http://www.fbcusa.com/cs/index.php

____

last updated: 12/12/2011

Under the Weather... beginning of trying Gluten Free in Japan

In the West they really spell it right out for ya...

I've only seen one section which was a single rack in a supermarket (not even a portion of an aisle) remotely announcing itself as friendly-food for food allergy sufferers

So I'm not getting much done... been kind of under the weather off and on. Stomach and sinus issues, and symptoms which in my experience and research all point to food allergy: that is stomach issues, sinus issues, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms. All were somewhat under control when I was much stricter with my diet... maybe 1 or 2 servings of gluten containing foods a week in America (say, a whole wheat hamburger bun) to... I don't even want to know how much gluten has entered my diet since I came to Japan.

Apparently there's just not much discussion of food allergies in Japan, except for the few for which it's a matter of life or death. And it's getting there for me... stomach cramps nightly (which resolve... I was experiencing a weekend without pain until today... ate some instant noodles and some cookies and BAM, a few hours later now and I'm just dealing with a swollen feeling in my sinuses)

I don't know if its just because so much food seems to revolve around cash crops and commodity foods: soy, rice, and wheat. Noodles abound, and so many staple foods (and peoples favorites) just as they do in the west.... are FULL OF GLUTEN.

The most popular and prevalent foods in my neighborhood: PASTA PASTA PASTA (a nightmare... I recall having an aversion to spaghetti when my father made it for me as a child, and the bloating that would follow eating out at an Italian restaurant) My neighborhood is rather famous for its bakeries and pasta. Or if you don't want pasta you could have a big bowl of wheat-noodles "udon", or occasionally I've been making takoyaki, or octopus dumplings, at home) which is grilled flower with octopus in it. Or Okonomiyaki, which is also grilled flour. All is delicious but the food allergy symptoms begin almost instantly after eating these items... a swollen feeling in my ears and achiness and post-nasal drip the next day.

And for about 2 months (about a month into giving up on my strict avoidance of gluten) some intense stomach distress began. My most painful nights I recall are (1) day I ate udon (2) day I ate a cream puff and a piece of cake (3) made a mistake and ate another cream-puff. While Japanese sweets, pleasingly, are not as extremely sweet as their western (American) counterparts, they do also increasingly contain lovely altered sugar substitutes like sorbitol which are also irritating to the stomach.

As bummed out as I am, I'm also hopeful that today will be a turning point. I'm going to try to go gluten free in Japan. Which, I can tell you, is not as easy as America. Most people will probably look at you in confusion, suspecting the reality that there is such a thing as sensitivity to wheat. I've only seen one food section in a store advertised as one that's food-allergy friendly. I haven't seen any food with a giant "I'm Gluten Free!" label like they have entire aisles dedicated to back home... And one health food store, which I was disappointed looked exactly like the other health food market. But I'm going to be persistent and write about this new "project" of mine in Japan. These will be under the title "Gluten Free in Japan" in hopes I can help people living in Japan with gluten allergies, as well as those pondering travel to Japan who have gluten allergies.

I'm not ready to go home to America just because I have food allergies...

Special thanks to Blogger Sofia, living in Kyushuu, who provides useful information on living Gluten Free on her blog

http://from-japan-with-love.blogspot.com/2008/09/going-gluten-free-in-japan.html

紅茶キノコ：アメリカで「コンブチャ」という

これ、紅茶キノコのキノコだよ！

Kombucha, I miss you. :(

日本に来てからあまり「ホームシック」という気持ちにならないけど、なんか、アメリカで簡単に手に入れたものは時々、日本で、日本で手に入れることが大変難しいだ。それは有機栽培野菜とお肉、と色々なヘルスフードと「健康食べ物」と言うのお菓子だ。今はアメリカでヘルスフォードのお店がなんかブームがありますが、私はそのブームはないの感じがしています。日本で有機栽培か「自然」とパッケージに書いてあっても、材料の書いてあるところを詳しく読んだら、私の視点からあまりそんなに自然に見えないのだ。まだたくさんの科学調味料が入りすぎ感じがする。でもそれは他の話だ。

名古屋の近くに住むから、どうか輸入のお店で何かいいものを見つけれるかな。。と思って、見つけてもがっかりした。チーズは安そう、低い価値のものやアメリカのジャンクフードだけが入っている感じがした。もちろん日本の伝統的な和食はとても健康にいいんですけど、街に出かけたらそのレストランは珍しいと感じる。とてもとてもヘルシーな食事ですが、街では揚げたもの（とんかつ、からあげ）と麺だけ見つけれる。レストランで深い緑の野菜はあまりない。家で料理しないと、ヘルシーな生活はあまりできないと感じる。

多分この点は私の一つだけのホームシックになる点です。とてむ気づく。アメリカで何度も、日本のたべものや日本人の食べ方はとてもヘルシーだと聞いて、今は主人と二人アパートに住んで、オレンジーページの雑誌もインスピレーションのために読んで、まだ日本での材料を使ってどうやっておいしいものを作れるか分からない。でも、頑張っている。

今本当に買いたいのは、紅茶キノコという紅茶です。日本でこのキノコを調べたら、ブログでしか見つけれない。アメリカで好きなブランドは「GTのSYNERGY」と言う。色々な自然なフルーツピューレーを使って作った紅茶キノコだ。とてもとても飲みたくなっています。健康のために飲めばいいと言っていますか、誰でも味に慣れたら、もっと飲みたくなると思う。でもどうしよう。日本ではこの紅茶は前にブームがあったか分からないと思うけど、今は紅茶キノコか紅茶を作るためのキノコを本当に本当にかいたいです。今年韓国に住んだとき変えなかったが、作るための「キノコ」は買えた。それで、韓国でも楽しめた。どうして日本でこの紅茶楽しめないの？これから一生懸命探して行く。

いつか、カリフォルニアで作ったおいしいGT　SYNERGYのコンブチャが日本に輸入になったらうれしいな。。。誰かキノコだけでも買い方教えていただけませんか？

インコとの生活

インコとの生活

インコの世界の紹介：野生インコの生活

　人々が持っているインコのイメージは、大型で、おしゃべりコンゴウみたいのインコなのだろうか。実は、小型のインコもいる。たくさんの人の飼っているセキセイインコも本当のインコの種類である。この小型のインコも上手に話せるようになる可能性がある。インコの世界は興味深くて、この作文ではその世界を紹介したいと思っている。野生生活の説明から始めて、人間のインコを飼っている生活を説明しようと思う。

　インコは種類が多い。しかし、生物学者が分類標準を作った。その分類標準は２つある。１つ目はくちばしの形だ。インコなら、くちばしは鉤の形をしている。２つ目の分類標準は足の構成だ。インコは４つの足指がある。その４つのうち前向きのは２つあり、後ろ向きのが２つある。他には、インコは寿命が長い鳥だ。

　インコについての研究のおかげで、行動パターンも分かっている。野生のインコもペットインコも基本的な行動は同じだ。その行動パターンは人間と同じぐらい多く持っているが、パターンをまとめたいと思う。一般的にインコは遊び好きな鳥である。しかも、遊んでいる時と食べ物を探す時にインコは周囲に合わせて行動がある。すなわち、インコは臨機応変な鳥ということだ。

　例として、アメリカのＰＢＳでのオーストラリアにいるインコについての番組の場面が思い浮かぶ。その番組で、黒いオウム類のインコの交配の行動を見せていた。その黒いオウム類は百年生きることができる。その種類は食べれる物を探す時だけではなく、他の場合にも周囲での棒などのことを利用する。交配行動として、オウムのオスは最初に木の幹で巣を造る。それから、ドラムばちのような棒を見つけて、巣の端に立ちながら、その棒を使って、同じ端を律動的にたたいていく。メスのオウムはその音が好きなら、オスの造った巣に来る。後で、オスは棒を細かく折って、巣の中に落とす。その交配行動はよくインコの基本的な行動パターンを表しているのではないかと思う。なぜなら、インコの寿命は長いか、寿命が人間のように様々な行動が出てくるからと思う。

　このように行動パターンを見ると、インコはどんなペットになるか知ることができる。

ペットとして、インコの生活

　人間は長く鳥を飼っている。古代の中国の皇帝も、イギリスのヘンリー王もインコを飼っていた。今も世界中、インコはペットとして人気がある。それで、インコを飼っている人は普通にインコとの生活を楽しんでいる。とはいえ、どうやって楽しく、健康的なインコを飼えるかは不思議なことだ。人は大体セキセイインコのような小型インコを上手に飼っているが、他の大型インコは本質的に野生に住むことができな野生動物なので動物保護者の声も強い。ということは、人間が鳥を飼っても、その鳥はまだ野生鳥の精神があるということだ。しかし、野生生活のための技術がないので、自然で住めない。それで、インコを飼いたいと思っている人とインコをもう飼っている人に知っていた方がいい事を紹介しようと思う。

　インコを飼う時、大事なものが３つある。それはかごと餌と愛情である。かごのサイズは大切だ。美しさ以上に、インコの嬉しさについて考えることが重要だ。私の経験では箱の形のかごがいい。インコは頭の回転がいいから、毎日かごの外で遊ぶ機会がないと退屈してしまう。退屈したら、問題を起こしかねない。退屈し過ぎたインコはよく自分の毛を抜けるようになる。

　餌もインコさんの安楽な生活のために大切だ。人の普通上げている餌はシードミックスだが、シードミックスの変わりにペレットを勧める専門家が多い。それは、シードはインコの必要な栄養がそろっているわけではなくて、脂肪の多い餌はインコに健康の問題を起こす。悪性と良性の腫瘍や、癌も起こせば、腎臓の問題も起こす可能性がある。インコのためには様々な種類の食べ物の上げるのは重要だ。

　最後に、インコは生活に愛情が必要だ。飼っている鳥の生活で、インコは社交的な動物だから、飼っている人と家族の相互作用が主なことだ。野生では、インコはパーテナーと激しい絆を結ぶので、ずっと一羽で寂しく生きると、感情の問題を起こす。飼っている人が嫌になるうるさい泣くの原因として、その愛情の足りなさがあげられる。さらに、そのパートナーとの絆の結びができないとかごを出たがらなくなって、かごの中でのおもちゃを愛用するようになってしまう。

　インコ達の野生の生活と人間とかごでの生活を批評的にみると、もっとインコの心理を理解できる。インコとの生活は楽しい。インコの世界は興味深くて、インコが生活にいたら、必ず、毎日面白いことを習える。魅力的さについて考えながら、もっとこのかごでの野生動物にの責任について考えるべきだ。