new "recipes" for family and life
Susan Weissman is the author of FEEDING EDEN, a new memoir publishing this March with Sterling Publishing.
Susan was a middle-school English teacher before turning to writing full-time. She writes for The Huffington Post, Allergic Living, and various sites on the topic of allergies and parenting.
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Haunted By Food
Last week, in Psychology Today, I wrote about an unforgettable evening when I should have administered an Epipen to Eden -- but I did not. That notion may seem strange or even careless but after reading my piece, Raise An Allergic Child And You May Be Haunted By Food, then again, it may not.
The Gestalt of Gluten Free
Ah the ironies of the Gluten Free diet "prescription." In 2009, in a post Gluten Minded I described my own coming to terms with the gluten free diet. And since then there has been much investigative reporting on the purpose and misconceptions of the Gluten Free diet.
This month in The Gluten-Free Quandary in Foodbusinessnews.net the article points out:
"... even the Food and Drug Administration states on its web site there is no nutritional advantage for those without celiac disease to go gluten-free and it is not meant to be a diet craze... 'Consumers are looking for ways to be healthier and gravitating to whatever they see … but it’s not always driven from a dietitian or a medical perspective'..."
And the article continues to describe the many disadvantages of adopting such a dietary restriction if, indeed it isn't necessary. It seems there is a chicken and egg mentality at play: Consumers may be incorrectly demanding these products, food giants are responding to what they perceive as a lucrative market, and interestedly, grain companies are not "properly educating consumers through effective advertising messaging may clear up consumer misunderstandings...this worked well with educating consumers that high-fructose corn syrup is just as safe as regular sugar, and now consumer concerns about HFCS have been greatly reduced."
Eden, who isn't allergic to gluten, has a cousin who has a gluten intolerance. His mother and I often discuss the difficulties of finding palatable "free-of" products to serve as conveniences and short cuts for parents managing restricted diets. And I'm ever-grateful for any new improvement or addition to the speciality products that address Eden's food allergies. Obviously food companies do provide a tremendous service for consumers with medical needs. But when I serve people my allergen-free home baked goods, I tell the whole truth: "This isn't low fat," I might clarify to a dieter..."I used a cup of olive oil..." Or, "It's dairy-free but rice milk has a lot of sugar!" Why shouldn't our food manufacturers be equally forthright and rely on their real consumer groups instead of creating this gluten free gestalt?
A Short Summary of Serendipity
Parents never know when a little serendipity will enrich their families. As my husband points out in my favorite of his blog posts Small Things (his blog tagline is: Maximizing the serendipity around you) it's so important to be open to the small experiences of life. And I would add that in doing so, parents often find we reach our larger goals and dreams.
For example, last August I needed a website designer. So I emailed my friend Susan Danzinger of the Daily Lit (a fabulous tool for free e-reading for Busy Parents.) Susan suggested that I speak her friend Debbie Stier at Perfect Score Project, a site I've since followed with avid attention. (What parent doesn't wonder if it's truly possible to get a perfect score on the SAT's? ) And as a former teacher, Debbie's personal quest for the perfect SAT score fascinated me. So I began reading about why Debbie found Kahn Academy SAT training more helpful than some of the older, classic SAT preparatory institutes.
A few months later, when my daughter began preparing to take the ISEE exam she confronted some areas of math she needed to review. And in order to help her, so I need to do my math homework (quickly!) So I began clicking around the Kahn Academy videos. My husband and I had been familiar this site for a few years but we hadn't used it.
I was blown away by the brilliant simplicity of Kahn math videos. So often, I’ve wanted to help my children with their math but just needed a quick review for myself. Kahn Academy has provides that and it offers the snippets of other content parents often need to help their children study or just to learn more about a topic of interest.
Now we have one more Learning Tool in our home that could lead us to other places. (I'm considering learning more about Black Holes.) By opening ourselves to these smaller experiences, to the serendipity of various interactions, my family will travel and grow without leaving our home.
