Anyone struggling to eat out or from grocery stores? any clean eaters?

[Wannabefree]

Bubblingbrooks had great ideas and remedies for such things when she was here. Maybe try doing a member search and read some of her posts. I can't get my head wrapped around all that stuff this morning to even begin to try to explain anything that would be helpful. The ACV is definately a good idea though. I have a lot of the same issues with indigestion and it helps me immensely.

My mom forgets my soy allergy. She doesn't do it on purpose, but her "wonderful non stick spray" has gotten me to the point I won't eat anything at her place She feels bad about having forgotten though, it's not that she thinks it's okay..

 

[Mickey328]

We haven't had any particular symptoms yet, but we're trying really hard to get into eating more "real" food, as we call it. Stuff that hasn't been pesticided and innoculated and hormoned and engineered. It can be done, but it's ridiculous that it costs sooooo much more! And oddly enough, I've never been fond of purchasing "organic" food. I've seen studies where the incidence of things like e coli is much higher in those foods. I suspect it's because organic farmers are trying to go too fast to make that profit and don't compost their manure properly.

We've pretty much come to the conclusion that we simply need to produce more of our own food. That way we know exactly "where it came from" and what went into growing it. We're fortunate to be able to get non-GMO grain so we use that to make the mixes to feed our chickens (kept for eggs) and rabbits (kept for meat. I'm not sure if that will be available much longer; we may end up having to pay much, much more for that type of thing. We're going to all heirloom and open-pollinated vegetables so we have the "real deal" and can save our own seeds to plant from year to year. We make our own "fertilizer" in the way of compost from all those same things, so it's "natural" as well. For pest control we stick with things like ladybugs and homemade concoctions from natural products. They don't all work as well as the chemicals, but for a "real" apple, I'll deal with the odd worm here and there

In general, we're trying to reduce the amount of "processed" food and other goods we buy. Processing tends to remove nutrients and add expense and ends up with a product that simply isn't as good for you. I read an article several years ago where the author suggested that one reason young folk, girls in particular, were going into puberty much earlier was in large part due to all the growth hormones, particularly in chicken. I'm no scientist but it makes sense to me.

We aren't finding this lifestyle change to be a difficult process; it's so much easier and faster to grab a bite out than to actually cook at home. But we're getting there, little by little.

Fortunately, I don't have any problems with dairy products, but DH is lactose intolerant. It's odd that he can eat cheese and ice cream, but even just a couple ounces of milk (enough for cereal) can really upset his system. But, he tolerates goat milk with no trouble at all. We went to the courthouse yesterday to find out about zoning, and we can't have one I'm bummed. You can get goat's milk; we're in a highly agricultural area, but it's so flippin costly! I don't want to buy a "share" for the sake of maybe a quart a week. Same with cow's milk...just the two of us couldn't use enough to make it worth the money. Oh, from time to time I'd make cheese and yogurt and all, but even so...not cost effective for us. Even to get the Silk is way pricey. For the moment, we're able to get the liter sized soy milk at the dollar store. He only really uses it for cereal so it lasts a long time. But frankly I look a bit squinty-eyed a soy products too.

Heather, I think you hit the nail on the head...it's a lifestyle, not just a hit or miss sometimes on, sometimes off thing. But it's also a process...it takes small steps to reach one's destination, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that stuff. We all have to figure out what we want to achieve, then set about planning the steps that will get us there. Most of us can't just re-do our whole way of life all at once. Our first step was to remove all the sod from our front yard and about 1/4 of it from the back...this gives us a lot more space for growing food and cuts the water bill as well, making better use of the water we do use. To us it seems wasteful to spend the water and time and effort to keep a crop growing that's pretty much useless. But the removal cost money...we had to rent a machine. But then it cost us more than we expected because when we unloaded it, it got away from us on the ramp off the truck and pulled me over flat on my side, busting my hip all to heck and back. That set back our gardening efforts immensely that year. But later on we (DH) managed to get some fruit trees put in. Of course it'll still be a year or two before the apple trees produce, but we get nice plums now...so it's an ongoing process...little steps

Heather, were you aware that you can make your own ACV? I bought a small bottle of the Bragg's...man that stuff is pricey! Then I got a gallon of the pasturized stuff at WalMart. I poured out a bit of it for use in salad dressings and such, then poured the Bragg's into the gallon. Leave the lid open a bit for a week or two, and keep it in a warmish place. The Bragg's will innoculate the regular stuff and voila...you have a gallon! When that gets low, you can repeat the process and in the end you've only had to buy the "good stuff" once.

 

[moolie]

Everybody's experience is different, so I'm sure you will get lots of varied advice. For myself and my family we deal with my asthma and lactose-intolerance and hubs' gall bladder issues. We eat as clean as possible, without sweating things too much. We try to grow as much as possible ourselves and otherwise eat organic and local, having got to know our producers at the farmer's market (eggs, cheese, meats, fruit & veggies we can't grow ourselves). We cook from scratch, period. We're in the midst of planning a backpacking trip with our daughters as they work on their Duke of Edinburgh Award and it's appalling how much backpacking food and how many recipes for backpacking food contain crap food. So we're having to reinvent the wheel with all of our home-dehydrated backpacking recipes in order to be able to eat properly while on the trail.

What we do: (may not be right for everyone)

We don't eat meat every day, and eat much smaller meat portions than the average person might choose--meat is more like a condiment in some of the dishes I cook. In for flavour and texture, but not the main event.

We eat lots of legumes--beans, lentils, split peas/dhal, chickpeas etc. I have a great cookbook called Spilling the Beans by Julie Van Rosendaal

We love veggies, and eat most of them raw or in salads along with grains or legumes. We also eat a lot of home-canned tomatoes in various dishes.

We bake with a variety of whole grains that we grind fresh ourselves.

We make our own yogurt, and used to make our own kefir but it severely upset my daughter's stomach so we stopped on the advice of our doctor.

There is lots of info out there about the health benefits of fermented foods, and we do eat a few, but we don't do the modern-style "rush" fermentation that uses whey--we do it old school the way my grandmothers did it. Mostly sauerkraut and pickles, but would like to try kimchi some day.

How I cope with the time stresses of getting dinner on the table for the short family dinners that we have time for with 2 teenagers constantly on the go (and we do sit down to dinner together every night) is that I freeze a lot of dishes ahead of time. I double-cook and freeze the extra meal and from time to time I do modified "once a month" cooking. I also can a lot of "convenience" foods--soups, chili, stew etc. and also meats like ground bison and chunks of chicken, bison, and pork. The canned meats make for very quick dinners--open the jar, add the meat to whatever you are cooking, heat and done!

Hope some of that helps!

 

[me&thegals]

Mickey--as a certified organic farmer myself, I can't help but address your comment. My guess is that IF e. coli is higher in organic produce, it's probably that organic uses manure at all. Conventional uses chemical fertilizers, which obviously have no e. coli. Someone properly composting would not have an e. coli issue, but obviously things happen.

Check into a CSA. I price my vegetables (fresh, heirloom, certified organic) against the grocery store, and mine are usually actually cheaper than in the store. At market, mine are often higher than the store's prices.

 

[heatherlynnky]

My biggest worry is really when we are busy or traveling. I simply cannot eat out at this point. Too many food items upset my tummy. Not sure why. Even though my gall bladder has tested fine the only thing the doctors want to do is remove it and hope it fixes something. The fact that I only have issue when i eat out or eat meat from certain sources is totally lost on them.

So like right now we are trying to plan out a longer vacation. I don't know how I will eat that entire trip. The last time I ate out i got a vegetarian pasta dish. normally I don't east pasta at all but there was little else to choose from that i felt i could eat. I cannot eat salads out at all. i really think I am super sensitive to all this bad bacteria. Now I do have to qualify all this with, I am going through some hormonal changes and changes in your digestion is considered normal. So is it all the food or is it a mix of the two issues? Who knows.

So for a four day trip I would make home made eggrolls, Have all the fixings for a big taco salad, would make some bbq pulled pork and bring along some homemade rolls, maybe an egg and asparagus bake, broccolli salad or maybe egg salad?. Everything would have to be microwavable or eaten cold though unless we rented a cabin with a full kitchen. Then I would spend my vacation cooking? Kinda stinks I think I just need to give up eating all together when we travel. I could skip eating for a week I think.

 

[me&thegals]

It is a genuine possibility. I was talking with friends today who are heading into a 7-day juice fast.

 

[Emerald]

I had gall bladder symptoms for years the "I feel fine as long as I don't eat" and eating making it feel good for about an half hour and then pain/vomit/other icky symptoms requiring constant trips to the can(sorry TMI) had over 5 of the gallbladder tests. every one came back normal.. well what they don't say is that there is a 40% chance of false negatives! I didn't have stones or sludge in fact they just didn't know what caused it. finally my pain doc hooked me up with a surgeon and she did all the same tests and they still came back normal.. but she said.. "I'm sure it is your gallbladder and if you want we can yank it out and go from there" and until you have been in the pain and misery of gallbladder pain(and I tried every diet for gallbladder ever for years) I just had, had enuf and said lets do this.. I was in the hospital in two days and had them pull that thing out. Still had a few problems( and still do if I don't watch what I eat-and tummy flus wil really crank it out of shape) but the pathology came back and I found out that I had chronic gallbladder was lucky it didn't go septic and kill me and had been bad for at least 4 to 5 years! and it was probably the cause of much of my stomach problems for years before..
So trust in what your body says to you. before I had the GB pulled out I was down to eating only oatmeal and mashed potatoes and steamed veggies and even then it could cause problems.. Now I can eat quite a bit of what I want except for high fatty stuff and of course the diary stuff. I can eat hard cheeses and fermented milks but even with the acidophiles(sp) stuff I have a hard time with ice cream.
Found a way around that too.. pudding mix(I can still eat it so far) and coconut or almond milk and dumped in my ice cream maker.
Going on vacation would be hard especially if you have to make all of your own stuff and bring it..

 

[heatherlynnky]

My brother had his removed and his pain only got worse. I am pretty attached to my body parts. I figure everything has a purpose so I like to try to get everything working right. Honestly the ONLY time I have this is when I try to eat out or buy meat from the regular grocery. I can eat all the meat I want ( like large amounts if I was so inclined) and as long as its fresh from the butcher I am ok. I can eat chicken but I hate to because I know all the bad stuff is in it so I would rather just eat my own birds. Not that it causes any tummy issues but I like to know whats in my food. Beef and Pork I can only have from butcher. Its local meat, processed in their own place, sold in their store and its super fresh.

So I can have what i want as long as I cook it and I have no tummy issues at all. None. Which is fine when we are at home but how do you follow diets like the GAPS diet or paleo diet when you travel? I want to still eat clean but go on a vacation and not cook all the time. Its a quandry. I also want to improve how I am eating all together. i have made baby steps but I would like to clean things up even more. I was even considering fermenting my own food. I don't want my food to be what hinders me. It is supposed to fuel me, not hold me back.

 

[cheepo]

mickey...i am wondering if you can elaborate on what you put the brags in..??

 

[heatherlynnky]

mickey...i am wondering if you can elaborate on what you put the brags in..??

Mikey might have more ways to use it but I use it as a meat marinade ( I figure I can kill off some bad stuff). It makes great salad dressings. I think it has a better flavor for it. I also drink mine. A tablespoon full in a big glass of water. If I want something sweet i add a bit of honey to that. I put some in my apple juice too. Its barely noticable that way.