Having just attended what must be the 7th party of the last 2 months, with yet another on the horizon I'm staggered by how much sugar is offered, let alone consumed, along with other foods that could affect sensitive/food intolerant kids. I'm convinced most people are blissfully unaware what the fuel they are filling their kids with is doing to their developing little bodies. Else surely they would not been filling them with such poor quality fuel, yet still expecting high performance results. I see parents getting frustrated with their childrens behaviour & lack of skill or development compared to peers yet not linking the two.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm still on a journey of discovery myself & was squarely in this camp over a year ago. Nor do I think food is the answer to everything & that environmental & hereditary factors do have a part to play. But with the little in-roads I have made on this adventure I see improvements in my own health, my childrens behaviour, skills & health to believe I am on track & do not want to go 'home'. 'Home' was a place where sugar was comfort food, it was in abundance as it was also hidden... I was addicted, I realised that when I found myself pulling up the kitchen bar stool to reach the top shelf to nibble on the cooking chocolate to get my fix. My kids were probably born addicted & I fuelled their addiction when they turned their button noses up at meat & veggies, by sweetening it with fruit! I knew that the chocolate & gluten-free biscuits I consumed were no good for them, & didn't allow chocolate until their 2nd Easters but they certainly filled their booties on packets of raisins, honey sweetened muesli bars & kids veggie yogurts. With education I realise these were all sugar in disguise. They don't have them now & they don't miss them. Their taste buds have adjusted.
At yesterdays party I provided all their food - not because of sugar as I have said "sugar is for parties only", but because we are on a failsafe journey of determining food intolerances. In doing so though I am able to provide some sugar-free replacements. They had some chicken & cream cheese sandwiches, a packet of 'french fries', a cocoa & cashew brownie, a carob cupcake with dextrose butter icing ilo birthday cake, then marshmallows & caramels to replace the lollies in the pinata. Not everyday food, save the sarnies, but safe from our perspective & awesome from my sugar-free point view. I just asked my 5yo how he felt that he had different food to everyone else - he said "a bit sad", but that he knew "it was healthier than what they were eating". So what were they eating that was so bad I had to avoid:
- First up were party pies & sausage rolls - meat of unknown source, most probably pork, so contains Amines & most likely sulphates to preserve. The pastry would most likely have antioxidants in the oils... also be vegetable/seed oil which I try to avoid. There was cheap tomato sauce in abundance so that also includes salicylates in tomatoes, lots of sugar & red artificial food colourings.
- Next on offer was fairy bread - cheap white bread, most likely containing bread preservative 281 or 282, topped with 100's & 1000's of every artificial rainbow colour there is, not to mention 99% sugar.
- Bowls of coloured jelly sweets & marshmallows were laid out for all to devour at their own pace (which for some was like lightening!).
- Bowls of crisps were also on display, these were 'Salt & Vinegar' or 'Chicken" - so artificial flavours & oils I wish to avoid.
- Then came the cake - a pink iced rainbow sponge - again colours, oils & sugar.
- Glad to say the only drink on offer to them was water.
For the adults the food selection was entirely different & served out of the party arena. Plain rice crackers, water biscuits, hummus, cream cheese dip, carrot & celery sticks. Funnily enough the majority of this was devoured by three pint-sizers who couldn't wait for the kids fayre, mine among them.
My aim is not to criticise what others choose, but I wish to enlighten them, this however I do not know how to do. I feel I am being ostracised for my kookiness with food every time I discuss it, so now I just do my venue/host calls discreetly prior, take along my food substitutes, swap it quietly & feel gratified my children aren't making a fuss & accept that this is the way it is.
I've been an avid reader of Damon Gameau's blog following the journey of That Sugar Film he's making. I was glad to see that for his last Sugar meal he chose the standard lunch/snack pack as provided to preschoolers. I hope that when this film is released the masses will watch & see that 'hidden' sugar & perceived 'healthy' food is killing us, increasing waistlines, feeding addiction & creating unhealthy habits in our children.
The food in his pack is they typical food I see being fed to kids daily. When I say daily this is a typical lunch pack for daycare, playgroup or kinder.... not even the obvious sugar that comes with weekly birthday parties, playdates & cafe pitstops. The birthday parties I accept, although there are so goddam many of them, but they are special to the individual & should be celebrated. The playdates & cafe pitstops are the killer. To keep preschoolers entertained it is nice to go to a friends house or meet at a cafe, park, or even day trip or excursion but kids don't seem to be able to go anywhere without food being part of the deal. Even if your own kids can hold out for a couple of hours normally between snacks/meals, once they see others they feign hunger & begin badgering for food. I try to be prepared & take food thats suitable with us. I do not want to miss out on socialising, so take this extra effort on board to be able to participate & offer alternatives, but do wish that our society catered for health & not death, just to make life more convenient.
And in case anyones wondering... I'm ok with my son feeling a bit sad as I'd prefer that & he learn that its for his on good in time than being hindered by the fuel he eats & acting out accordingly, which believe me will make him feel a lot sadder in the long term if he is constantly being told off or simply in pain & discomfort.
I am finding the failsafe adventure very enlightening. So far we have discovered that after being on elimination for 3 weeks the nervous tic disappearred. It also leads to nice behaviour & any "naughtiness" is resolved with normal parenting, whereby I'm not exacerbated by kids continuing to act up & ignore me. We are also having better inner health & in the case of my son he is more confident in dealing with his own business & showing independence finally. Put us back on high Salicylates & the tic returns after 24hours & the unfavourable behaviours increase steadily. We only lasted 4 days before I pulled the pin, given the tic was the main reason we are doing Failsafe. During our holiday we maintained elimination then challenged a couple of standalone foods - hot chips, tomato sauce & ice-cream - all of which caused symptoms for him, thus will avoid for now & re-challenge properly when we've completed both Amines & Glutamates trials & determined a 'safe' Salicylate level. We're on day 6 of Amines challenge & so far so good for the kids, but I think I'm feeling effects with headaches & reflux, but as I have the tail end of a head cold need to re-challenge in time. I've been warned to watch out for the build up, so maybe when we increase amounts tomorrow as the Dietician recommended I will see issues (if any) with kids more clearly. I am hopeful they pass as it will make meals a bit easier storing & cooking-wise for meats, but also add bananas (& ice-cream made solely from it) to our current fruit list of 1. Better than that I can start using animal fats for cooking with again & some REAL homemade chips. I'm salivating over the thought of a big juicy pork chop tonight.... yummmmm.
It was sugar awareness that led us down the Failsafe path & I do see the foods intrinsically linked (even though Failsafe still says its ok to have sugar) because in general to me sugar comes pre-made & packaged thereby it has all the other nasties like additives & chemicals with it. By avoiding packaged foods & returning to a more wholesome & fresh diet we are eating better & benefiting from it. This no-one can deny, even those most adverse to my kookiness.
Got home from our weeks holiday to discover a power outage which meant 2 thawed fridge/freezers... & failure to record my soaps! The latter I can catch up on via internet. The former was more frustrating as lost so much food & in particular some of my baking. So its been all systems go in my kitchen again getting back to baking... & basics... been on Failsafe Elimination for 10 days trying to clear out some of the holiday food challenges... & subsequent symptoms.
Now the travel & birthdays are well & truly over, I'm baking with a vengeance. So following this Failsafe Elimination since we returned from holidays means thats there been a lot of back to basics cooking, & with birthdays over the convenience go-to's which included sugar are O-U-T OUT! For the first couple of weeks of Failsafe I relented a little on the sugar for the kids so I could grab a couple of packet items to help time-wise. Now those are off limits & they are back to dextrose & RMS only added sweeteners. The limited access to those two commodities in the UK left me a little rusty as I was hesitant to bake anything than my trusty oat bars or shortbread whilst there, but since back in Australia & even when away in Port Douglas I used RMS to make Oat Bars & Anzacs. I have also adapted an old veggie muffin recipe & a cheesecake to be Failsafe, plus made some cup cakes for party replacements. I've also experimented with natural food colourings for the birthday cake, & made it sugar-free.
I finally received my copy of Friendly Food so I'll be adapting by trial & error some sugar-free versions of any sweet dishes in there too.
I'm happy to see that Sweet Poison is now available in a UK version, which should mean on future visits glucose only sweeteners should be more readily available, well if the great British public take note of what David Gillespie has to say & stores come on board as they have in Australia.
Here is my Oat Bar recipe I'd like to share with you :
2 cups Rolled Oats
1 cup GF SR Flour
1/2 tsp Guar Gum
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Poppy Seeds
2 tsp Psyllium Husk
60g Butter (Unsalted)
2 tbsp Rice Malt Syrup
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Mix together dry ingredients (except bicarb). In a pan melt butter, add RMS, bring to boil, turn off, add bicarb, mix well till fizzes up. Quickly add foam to to dry ingredients & mix well. Spread into a buttered baking tray. Press flat. Bake for 15min at 150C.
Score when remove from the oven into bars. Leave in tray until cooled, then snap & store. I find they last a couple of days in the cupboard or much longer if I freeze & the kids have no complaints eating them cold!
[Pre-Post - One of those I didn't get to finish in my busy month of August]
As party season looms for my kids (Mums group birthdays) I need to get prepped not only with some low fructose foods for my own kids functions but to take to others parties that are failsafe & replace foods that won't be suitable for Elimination or the short-term. Thankfully in one regard we are on holiday for a week during the core month, thus avoiding a birthday extravaganza for Mr4's 5th & only return a day before Miss2's 3rd... for which she is currently requesting a mermaid cake... I have to keep on my toes as this is likely to change again, last week it was a princess, the week before a fairy & last month Dora. I won't invest in any specific cake moulds just yet! If I'm prepared enough I should be able to keep it simple, bake a basic cake to freeze & decorate the day we return.
The decoration though is really just the icing on the cake so to speak! The main concern is getting the ingredients right so it doesn't contain sugar, wheat or any non-failsafe ingredients. I've begun perusing some of the Failsafe blogs for recipe ideas & hints on colouring with natural dyes. The hardest part about a cake for my son is finding something failsafe on holidays, as I'm unlikely to access access to full kitchen facilities in our apartment. I may have to forgo sugar in which case, or failsafe - I don't know which is worse at this stage?!!
A sugar high & long-term effects (plus repeating withdrawal) or irritated kids & returning symptoms??
We are going to a wedding that week also & I've already decided that I will use it as a challenge so we don't have to put in loads of food requests to the happy couple, wheat being the only one for myself & I'll avoid desert. The fall-out we'll deal with during the week.... hoping that fresh air, beach & swimming pool may assist in tiring the kids & keeping them happy.
[Retrospective post of holiday & birthday foods]
So how did we fair? We attended a couple of kids birthday parties in August whilst doing elimination. I spoke to the hosts & their venues prior with regards to their catered foods & in both cases decided none were suitable & provided my own. I made each of my kids the same special pack which was colourful & decorative. When lolly "treats" were handed out, I made sure I had suitable alternatives to switch.
For the holiday & my sons birthday we self-catered mostly & although not a holiday in some peoples eyes I enjoyed providing for my family & some reasonable behaviour & limited symptoms. We did treat the week as a bit of a "challenge" as we ate out a few evenings, including the wedding. But because the week was mostly failsafe "challenges" stood out. Those were tomato sauce, hot chips, ice-cream & more than 2 salicylates a day which all seemed to trigger unfavourable symptoms in Mr.4/5. I struggled to find a failsafe birthday cake & definitely no sugarless one was available so as he didn't ask about it I got away with it. We did allow ice-cream that night, but paid for it with a bit of irritability & sleeplessness.
Miss 2/3 was not going to let me forget about her cake though. On the eve of her birthday she did predictably specify a design change & requested Dora - "too late" was my firm response as I had already baked the 2 tiers, acquired the decoration & designed a whole party themed on mermaids!! As neither kid is showing reaction to wheat at this stage I used "normal" flour for a change, but used dextrose ilo sugar & carob for one colour section & a natural spirulina colour for the other. The latter was potentially not failsafe & decided mine would not eat that section. I used butter icing for 2 reasons: 1) it gave the rough effect I was after for rock & sea, 2) I could substitute icing sugar easily with dextrose. I used a legless Barbie for the decoration, no not drunk! I made her a mermaid tail (which could be re-used by my daughters new Barbie in play. Then just some plastic sea-creatures to keep her company. This all saved a lot of effort compared to previous years attempts with rolled icing & lollies to decorate... & a whole lot healthier! None of the kids picked it was sugar-free - all dived in for the plastic toys though, thinking they were edible (much to my sons annoyance given his generous loan of them). I did however use a blue sugar sprinkle over the top for water droplet effect, in future I'd shop ahead or try dying some dextrose or something. (I dusted this off the pieces I cut for my two).
I'm glad to say that I wasn't prepared enough to bake the cake prior to the holiday & freeze... because I would have been very disappointed as our damn power went out & both freezers were off for the week soiling a whole lot of food! Not a welcome return :(
I did however bake it a day before the party & freeze overnight, so when I iced it would be easier & the chill helped create that rugged finish as the butter icing set quickly.
All other party fayre was failsafe & only one item was sugar (a marshmallow as part of the tea-cups). I made chicken bites, teacups (dextrose shortbreads, marshmallows, carob/dextrose sprinkle), Philadelphia sandwiches, a cheese cake & provided plain kettle crisps. Simple but sufficient. My party bags have never contained sweets, except one year I put in a chocolate ladybug, so that was the easy part.
