Parent Savers
Gluten-Free Parenting

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Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

[Theme Music]

TRACEY BLACK: Adult gluten intolerance has been around for many years. It’s recently become more recognized. Although, it can still be difficult; families who go gluten-free now have more options than ever before to find recipes, food and support for the gluten-free lifestyle.

I’m Tracey Black. I’m a natural living blogger and author. Today we’re talking about: “Gluten-free parenting.” This is Parent Savers.

[Intro/Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome back everybody to Parent Savers, broadcasting as always from the Birth Education Center of San Diego. Well, I think as always – well we know we broadcast from the ABC Kids Expo before.

SUNNY GAULT: We did.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s right.

SUNNY GAULT: We did.

JOHNER RIEHL: We’re here in San Diego at the Birth Education Center. Thanks to them for providing the facility. Parent Savers is your online, on the go support group for parents with infants and toddlers. I’m your host, Johner Riehl.

Thanks so much to all of you loyal listeners who join us every time a new episode is released. For those of you who continue these conversations with these on Facebook and Twitter especially. We love hearing from you guys on all of the Social Media.

Make sure to check out our Parent Saver’s App so you can listen to all of our episodes wherever you go. I’ll just show up right when a new episode is available like this one probably just did and now, you’re listening to it. So good!

SUNNY GAULT: That’s amazing how technology works like that.

JOHNER RIEHL: It is amazing. Sunny, tell us more about the amazing ways that people can get involve in our show.

SUNNY GAULT: Okay, yes. So we have a bunch of segments you guys can participate in because we want to hear from you. We want to hear your stories. We want you to be part of our show.

So for Parent Savers, there is a couple that I’ll highlight right now. We have a segment called: “Parenting Oops” where you guys can share your funny parenting stories, things that you did. They’re like: “Oops! I probably shouldn’t have done that.” That’s a fun one.

There is another one called – a brand new one I actually want to plug because I came up with this the other day. Inevitably, my five year old or my three year old would do something and I just don’t understand like what is up with that? Why do they do? What is up with that? So I’m like: “We’re coming up with a segment called – What is up with that?”

So it’s a brand new segment that we’re launching. It is just going to be those things like I said that your toddler, your infant does that you’re just: “I don’t understand it.”

JOHNER RIEHL: Literally, Whitaker what were you thinking when you threw your trash on the floor and like stepped on it and stomped into the ground. What were you thinking?

SUNNY GAULT: What is going through your mind?

JOHNER RIEHL: What is up with that?

SUNNY GAULT: What is up with that? So submit your – we’ll talk about it. We’ll be like: “I don’t know my kid does that too. What is up with that?” So if you want to submit for these segments, go to our website. You can go to the contact link on there and you can kind of type it out if you want to.

Okay, if you don’t want to type it out, you can call our voice mail which is actually the way we prefer to hear from you because that way, we can hear your voice. So call 619-866-4775 and leave us a message. We’ll play it on a future episode.

JOHNER RIEHL: Who’s not a typer? Everybody is a typer these days, right?

SUNNY GAULT: We have to be. But

JOHNER RIEHL: Maybe not a good typer, right?

SUNNY GAULT: But if Siri isn’t going to dictate what I have to say, I’m not going to do it.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s right. Everyone should put the Parent Saver’s hotline in their phone so they don’t have to type it. They can just push the button.

SUNNY GAULT: There you go.

JOHNER RIEHL: Siri, call Parent Saver’s Hotline.

SUNNY GAULT: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: Or whatever we’re calling in.

SUNNY GAULT: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: All right, thank you! There’s a ton of fun ways to participate and we love putting into segments and Sunny is right hearing voices. Sunny loves to hear it. She is. She is a little loopy right now. Anyway, you guys know me.

I’m Johner but in case this is your first time listening, I have three boys – an eight year old, a six year old and a four year old. Sunny is dying over there. I’ll introduce Sunny. You guys know Sunny. She’s our head mom at New Mommy Media.

SUNNY GAULT: My goodness! Sorry guys.

JOHNER RIEHL: Four kids – five, three and then two one year olds.

SUNNY GAULT: Two. Well, they’ll be two next week but yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: By the time this is out, the twins would be two?

SUNNY GAULT: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: Wow.

SUNNY GAULT: I know and that’s amazing.

JOHNER RIEHL: It is amazing. Then we’re joined here in the studio with Tracey Black talking about: “Gluten-free parenting.” So welcome Tracey.

TRACEY BLACK: Thank you very much.

JOHNER RIEHL: How many kids do you have?

TRACEY BLACK: I have three boys as well. One is going to be 11 next week, an eight year old and a four year old.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: The three boys club.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: A question from our listener from Twitter.

Blaire from Canada asks:

“What do toddlers about two years old drink besides milk and water? I’m afraid to get into the realm of juice but maybe it’s not as bad as I think.” -Blaire

FREDERICK JOHNSON: Hi. This is Doctor Frederick Johnson calling in Blaire. Juices aren’t so bad. The problem with juices they’re generally that they’re high in sugar and kids tend to get too much of them because they’re sweet. There might be a reasonable alternatives. If you want, you can make a baby a smoothie which will include things like yoghurt, fresh fruit blended up and see if your toddler would like that.

I’ll tell you why juice isn’t so bad but you probably, all you need about six to eight ounces in a day if that much. So I hope that answers all of your questions. I’ll talk to everyone later. Bye.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: So we’re talking about gluten-free parenting. So is your family gluten-free?

TRACEY BLACK: The whole family is gluten-free and I’ll talk in a little bit more in detail later. Yes, I think it makes it easier when the whole family does it.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

TRACEY BLACK: Just because otherwise, you’re sort of dividing between everybody and you’re making five different meals. It’s easier just for everyone to get on board.

JOHNER RIEHL: That does make a lot of sense for sure.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: It’s not like it’s bad for you to be gluten-free.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes. No.

JOHNER RIEHL: I think but we’ll start at the beginning.

TRACEY BLACK: Okay.

JOHNER RIEHL: So what is gluten and so pretend that I am like pretend. Right?

SUNNY GAULT: Pretend like he doesn’t know.

JOHNER RIEHL: Pretend I don’t know what gluten is.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes. Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: Hypothetically speaking, I don’t understand gluten intolerance, right?

TRACEY BLACK: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: So what is gluten and what’s gluten intolerance?

TRACEY BLACK: Yes. Okay, I will just say disclaimer on my part.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

TRACEY BLACK: I am not a health care expert or a medical practitioner. But I’ve been in this for four or five years now. Our entire family has been through it. So I will say: “We do a lot of research.” We’ve done and gone to many doctor visits.

But in the very simplest terms, gluten is basically the protein. Okay? So it’s the protein that’s in wheat, that’s in barley and rye.

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

TRACEY BLACK: So people will have an allergy or an intolerance to that. In addition, there are some people who may be able to tolerate the gluten. But perhaps the pesticides that are on the gluten – you know like when they’re producing it, either of that or it could be if the gluten has, if the wheat has been on GMO like people might have a reaction to that.

So sometimes, people will have an intolerance to gluten but it’s not through celiac. So there is definitely a difference. People who are true celiac – that is technically an auto-immune disease. What that means is: “Your body is basically sort of attacking itself.”

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

TRACEY BLACK: Just many other auto immune diseases out there – everything from Rheumatoid Arthritis, lupus. There’s also fibromyalgia. Those were all autoimmune diseases. So when they have gluten; so even though those folks who have those autoimmune issues tend to have gluten allergies as well.

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

TRACEY BLACK: So that kind of tries in mind together.

JOHNER RIEHL: So then, symptoms like so if you – even if you don’t have or either if you have celiac

TRACEY BLACK: Right.

JOHNER RIEHL: Or you don’t but if you have a gluten intolerance like what might happen?

TRACEY BLACK: Yes, a great, great question.

JOHNER RIEHL: Throw up or what happens?

TRACEY BLACK: So it can range from everything usually it’s digestive issues that becomes apparent. So it could be for an instance for me, it was my oldest. When he was younger, he was the kid that would always get the stomach flu. He would get it four, eight times a year and we would go to the pediatrician. She’s like: “Yes, some kids just get the stomach flu.” It’s like your mommy intuition saying: “No. This is not right.”

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

TRACEY BLACK: This is off. My kids are not getting it. Something is wrong. Nobody else is getting it. So things were just kind of persist. So that’s usually things that present is some kind of whether it’s IBS. They’re always getting the stomach flu. Any kind of digestive issue you know like they have constipation. They have diarrhea – everything and anything under the sun with digestion.

The other thing that I find is: “My husband actually is borderline celiac.” What presented for him was: “He was always getting sick.” Not stomach-flu sick but flu-like symptoms.

So again, it’s wife intuition going off like something is wrong. I know something is wrong and this was happening about the same time. So it’s just sort of maybe you’re immune system is not performing as well as it should. You’re getting more sick than normal.

Other times, people feel chronic fatigue. They might also have like unexplained pain. Why do I have pain? I’m not working out hard. I didn’t run a marathon. I don’t know what’s going on. So things that I think you know are sort of coming up from presenting but you can’t sort of pin-point what is going on.

It could be a sign of a gluten intolerance or some other kind of food allergy.

JOHNER RIEHL: Well, I think was interesting that you were saying is: “It’s not necessarily the protein and the gluten; it could be what’s being done to them like the pesticides too.”

TRACEY BLACK: Yes like how it’s being produced or how once the manufacturer gets it and they’re sort of whatever they’re doing to the gluten or to the wheat you know to then produce the foods that you’re eating. Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: So it seems like this is one of those questions like: “It seems like it’s kind of more common now.” But it is also that could be because more people just kind of were aware of it and recognizing it right?

TRACEY BLACK: Yes. I think it’s actually a little bit of both. I think the food that we eat now is completely different than the food that we were raised on or that our grandparents were raised on.

Our grandparents were raised on completely different food supply. That is you know a product of the GMOs, the pesticides, sort of mass quantities of food and it’s the type of foods that we eat now too. We are sort of a generation that’s eating a lot more processed foods than any other generation ever has before.

The other thing that I did when I say is: “Our food supply is very different than other countries.” You know for instance, I’m just trying to think like a box of cereal. For here, it might have artificial colors, preservatives and all of these other things. But that same box of cereal in Europe will have a completely different ingredient list.

So I sort of like to educate people about that. But you know, know what’s in your food supply because all of these things maybe it’s not just one thing. Maybe it’s many things that are affecting your digestion.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes. Do food companies doing that like to extend their food supply or make it cheaper to produce I would imagine?

TRACEY BLACK: Yes and it’s partially the laws are different too. If you go to Europe, many countries there don’t have GMO Foods or they are against artificial colors. So they use natural dyes in their foods whereas here of course, this is not a political discussion but food lobbyist and food companies together boom were the ones to feeling the prone to that.

But what I will say is: “I do feel there’s sort of a shift because more people are becoming aware of their food and the ingredients that are in their food.” So people are voting with their dollars. I think as you say: “People are becoming more aware of the gluten.”

I think more people are opting for gluten-free foods and for healthier options, for organic food because they don’t want to have the GMOs. So I think we’re going to see a bigger shift going in that direction.

JOHNER RIEHL: Is there anything that gluten does provide that if people go gluten-free that aren’t gluten intolerant that they’re missing out or something?

TRACEY BLACK: Actually, that is a great question. So that is true. Again, I’m not the expert but there are vitamins and minerals. There are nutrients in gluten that are very beneficial to you. So there is one option that some people can tolerate and it’s called: “The Einkorn.” Einkorn E-I-N-K-O-R-N, it’s Einkorn Wheat.

It’s an ancient wheat and the food producers who actually produce that type of wheat. It’s a completely different grain. So for instance, it hasn’t gone to the GMO Process, I believe it has 14 chromosomes which are body can produce, which our body can digest.

The modern wheat, the wheat that has gone through all of the changes has something like I don’t know 36 or 48 chromosomes. So it’s completely different. So the Einkorn Wheat is the most ancient. This is the wheat that people had been eating for hundreds and thousands of years. So that is available and that’s now becoming more popular.

So once or twice a week, we actually do cook with Einkorn Wheat and it’s a little bit different wheat you know? But and so you have to sort of play accordingly to it in how you bake and cook with it.

But it’s great. So you can still get your vitamins and minerals that way. Now people who are a true celiac may or may not be able to tolerate it. So I say talk to your doctor.

Experiment on your own but it is an option for people who maybe gluten intolerant but not celiac.

JOHNER RIEHL: I got it.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: That is very interesting. Thank you.

SUNNY GAULT: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: So what are the differences being a gluten-free family? What’s different about the way your family eats than how someone who’s not gluten-free?

TRACEY BLACK: Yes. You know what honestly? People ask me this all the time. I love it because here’s the thing: “We have so many food choices and sometimes it’s overwhelming.” You go to a restaurant and you just turning the pages of the menu. You’re just like overwhelmed. There are so many food choices.

For us, it’s sort of like: “Okay we know exactly what we can eat.” It does take a little bit of time because I would say: “The foods that are most pervasive in terms of gluten, so gluten has hidden in a lot of foods typically through dressings, marinades, soy sauce.”

JOHNER RIEHL: Really?

TRACEY BLACK: It has wheat gluten in it. Soy sauce is the base of most of the barbecue sauces – Worcestershire like everything you can possibly think of. It’s in there. So typically whom you go out to eat, my husband orders a steak – we sort of ask the waiter like a 101 questions. How is it made? Where is it? What sauce do you use? So you can really, even if something isn’t gluten-free on the menu, you can still talk to the wait staff. Honestly, we go to the same restaurants over-and-over who cater to us.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes, who are knowledgeable.

TRACEY BLACK: Who are knowledgeable

JOHNER RIEHL: And know those answers and a lot more restaurants these days are

TRACEY BLACK: They do.

JOHNER RIEHL: Are totally prepared for those questions too.

TRACEY BLACK: It’s really in their best interest because they’re going to be getting those same families over-and-over.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

TRACEY BLACK: You know I’ll tell you. A steak tastes delicious if you cook it in ghee or butter. It is the best thing. You don’t need a sauce on it. So we do things like that where we sort of like dissect the meal. More of like: “Okay, not this but can you do this?” They typically are very, very accommodating to us.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice. That’s great. So would you say that though that’s probably, what are some other challenges that you do face in restaurants? So you find restaurants that you can go to?

TRACEY BLACK: We do. I usually look up the menus ahead of time. So that’s one tip that you can do. Look at the restaurant ahead of time. I’ll tell you where I was before this. I was at a birthday party, a kid’s birthday party. So of the parents that I know who just going gluten-free. My gosh! What do I do? So what I say: “Talk to the host family ahead of time and find out what they’re going to be serving.”

I am of the opinion that I don’t think it’s the host family’s obligation to provide food for my kids because we can’t eat it. What I try to tell my children is: “You know what? We can bring our own food or I’ll take you to in-and-out like we do it. You can go an in-and-out burger but protein style like I will take you out to something.”

But you know what? It’s not their obligation to serve us food that we can eat. So I try to teach that to my kids. They’re very open to it. Especially because they know what they’re going to eat in an in-and-out burger whenever it is after that, right? So they’re like: “Sure. No problem.” It’s sort of finding out ahead of time. But you know, the host family might have foods that are – maybe they’ve got someone gluten-free in their family. So I try to talk to the host family ahead of time.

The other challenge that we have especially at birthday parties is the birthday cake. Again, I trained my kids even my four-year-old like they know. They’re like: “Can we eat it?” I’m like: “No. It’s got gluten. You know what? Mom will take you out for ice cream afterwards.”

They’re fine as long as I’ve got alternatives or sometimes we’ll even bring our own food or our own cupcakes or whatever it is.

JOHNER RIEHL: So even though it’s becoming more common. I’m not going to even say it. If I was planning a party for us or if we were doing something, it’s not necessarily in the psyche at to: “Do we have gluten-free?” It’s not that common that people. But maybe it’s happening more?

TRACEY BLACK: It is happening more and I think if the birthday party that we are at today, it’s a close friend of ours. So she knows we’re gluten-free. So she did accommodate for us.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s nice.

TRACEY BLACK: But at the same time I think as a gluten-free family, be prepared. Don’t put the illness on the other family. I think you need to be prepared and talk to your kids. If anything because we are a bit more of a natural family – for me, I actually like it because you know rather than to sort of have the cake with the artificial junk in it, I’m like: “We’re sorry we can’t have it but we’ll go home and we’ll have like a coconut ice cream or something.”

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

TRACEY BLACK: In our way

JOHNER RIEHL: You feel better about it.

TRACEY BLACK: I do. So it’s sort of helps us to sort of like limit some of the junk that sort of out there. For me, I see it as a positive. My kids are pretty well-trained too. My 11 year old will sort of look at the box and go: “Yes, we can’t have this today.” He’ll put it down. But you’re saying other challenges? Or other difficulties? Certainly at school for kids and so, here’s a great tip. So you’ll often have birthday parties that come through. So parents will bring cupcakes or other treats. So at the beginning of the school year, what I do is: “I get a bunch of gluten-free snacks.”

You know typically things that have a longer shelf life and I’ll break it into school and I leave a bag with the teacher and I say: “Whenever there’s a party or something going on and there’s gluten being served, please give these to my kids instead.”

So I think again, you as a gluten-free family can’t just assume that somebody else is going to do it. You have to take the steps and be proactive.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes. We’ve got a ton more tips and recipes to get to as well. Let’s take a quick break here and hopefully, we have some entertaining segment from one of the listeners. If not, it could have been if you would have called in to the hotline.

SUNNY GAULT: Yes, so call in.

JOHNER RIEHL: So go ahead and call in. So we’ll take a quick break and then we’ll be right back to talk about recipes, tips and more.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: Welcome back everybody. Today on Parent Savers, we’re talking about: “Gluten-free parenting” with Tracey Black. Welcome back Tracey.

TRACEY BLACK: Thank you.

JOHNER RIEHL: So before we dive in to some recipes, we were talking a little bit before about traditional versus holistic.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: Can you kind of explain what you mean by that?

TRACEY BLACK: Yes. So what I would say is: “If you are feeling like, okay. Yes, my kids having digestive issues.” Or for me, my kid was always getting the stomach flu like what’s going on? What I would say first line is to: “Talk to your doctor.” Talk to the pediatrician and see if they can get a gluten-test for your child. Typically, it’s a blood test. So but depending on what comes back. If it comes back negative, it did for us. It came back negative. So I had to seek out holistic options.

JOHNER RIEHL: This is with your oldest that you are going to

TRACEY BLACK: Yes, with my oldest. Yes. At the same time, my husband was experiencing the same thing. So he was doing the same thing like doing his doctor, his PCP. So what we did is, we sought the holistic route. We went to a holistic – my husband was seeing a rheumatologist at the time. He had a different type of lab test that is sort of more sensitive. I talk about this on my blog over at www.dontmesswithmama.com.

So if you are wanting more answers on this, I have a whole article about how to get a gluten-free allergy test at home. But basically, it’s a stool and saliva test. You have to collect stool samples for three days and that’s not fun for the whole family.

SUNNY GAULT: No.

TRACEY BLACK: Because who do you think is collecting the samples right?

SUNNY GAULT: Yes.

TRACEY BLACK: It’s always onto mom. It’s not fun. I will say that. But you know what? When we got the results back, it was showing us some really interesting information. For my husband, it showed up that he was borderline celiac. For my oldest, gluten did not come up for him; however, he did have some inflammation in his colon.

So the rheumatologist and I we were sort of working on a plan. He’s like: “Honestly, he probably would benefit from having a gluten-free diet even he’s technically not celiac.” So again, your intuition you sort of know and at the time, I remember thinking: “Is it dairy? Is it gluten?” I just had this feeling; it was some kind of an allergy, a food allergy.

Yes. So you can. If you try going through your doctor and get the test that way but know that there are options. If you feel like: “You know what? My intuition is going off and I’m sort of not getting the answers that I need.” I mean you can look up a naturopathic doctor. You can go some chiropractors will do it. We happen to had at the time sort of a more holistic-minded rheumatologist and he offered the test.

Again, I’ve got more information on my blog about how you can get the test at home.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s great. So if you’re sensing this or thinking it might be something, definitely follow your intuition; even if that first test comes back.

TRACEY BLACK: Exactly! Always follow your intuition.

JOHNER RIEHL: So recipes? What are some of the things you guys like to eat? Let’s talk about some specific things that you guys either make at home or whatever.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes, you know what? I’ll say that. If you go to your local health food store, there are so many options, great options out there. So I mean we’ll get ready made stuff sometimes. We’ll get like pizza or whatever it is. I do want to sort of put this out there because like I said, we’re more of like a holistic natural minded family.

It’s very easy to get gluten-free crap. You know you’re getting gluten-free food but it’s still crap. There are still preservatives. There are still artificial colors in it. I think you as a family, again, if the issue is digestive, putting more crap in your body is not going to solve that problem.

So if the issue is: “You need to deal with having better food then seek out better food.” So I do like to kind of put that out there.

JOHNER RIEHL: Gluten-free means gluten-free. It doesn’t mean anything else.

TRACEY BLACK: It doesn’t mean healthy.

JOHNER RIEHL: Right.

TRACEY BLACK: It does not. Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: Just because this is in a green box

SUNNY GAULT: I feel like a lot of people want to put gluten-free on stuff.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

SUNNY GAULT: When it’s like: “Of course, there was no gluten in there.” Right and the marketing

TRACEY BLACK: It’s marketing.

SUNNY GAULT: Yes, totally.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes. That is good to keep in mind.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes, absolutely. You know my sort of tip is like: “If there is a commercial for it, I would avoid buying it.” It sort of: “We’ll go back to whole foods right?” Go back to whole foods.

JOHNER RIEHL: That is actually a pretty funny, a good way to

TRACEY BLACK: Yes, right.

JOHNER RIEHL: If there’s enough money in that commercial

TRACEY BLACK: Right. As far as like staples, so we’ll go to the health food store. As for staples and you can grow your own food too, I mean that’s great. But sort of like in place of gluten, what you can eat instead like gluten-free starches, potatoes.

A lot of people don’t know that potatoes are gluten-free. I’m like: “Absolutely! That is gluten free.” Rice, we eat a lot of rice in our family as well. There is also quinoa.

SUNNY GAULT: I love quinoa.

TRACEY BLACK: I love quinoa too. But if you have someone in the family who you suspect has an autoimmune issue, typically quinoa is not good for them. It can kind of set off.

JOHNER RIEHL: Okay.

TRACEY BLACK: You know what you can do, so I didn’t talk about this earlier. But if you’re not getting a gluten test just yet and you’re just sort of experimenting, you can do what’s called an elimination diet. So eliminate foods. So maybe it’s gluten right? Eliminate gluten I don’t know for 30 days. See how it is. See how your digestion is, your child’s digestion. Maybe you have to do it for 60 days. But sort of test and see and you can see how that goes.

The same goes for the gluten-free grains too. So if you suspect that rice, quinoa or whatever it is might be triggering something then eliminate it. That’s kind of the whole mindset of the elimination diet.

JOHNER RIEHL: I’m fascinated about this. I feel like I heard people and I feel like people have gotten mad. I’ve heard these hipsters are going gluten-free. They’re not even gluten-free but I’m intrigued by the gluten-free diet. It’s not really a bad choice.

TRACEY BLACK: It’s not a bad thing. Like you’ve said, you know wheat and gluten can be a really good for people but it’s the wheat that we are eating now is not the same – the wheat that we have eaten even just a generation or two ago.

SUNNY GAULT: Right.

TRACEY BLACK: So I think just bringing more awareness to that. So if you want to eat wheat, that’s fine; maybe try Einkorn Wheat. But at the same time, you need to sort of listen to your body. Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: So you say that you have a lot of people ask you questions and sort of like with your blog. So if a family is saying: “You know what? I think we’re ready to make the switch by trying to go gluten-free.” What are some tips that you can give them on how to get started?

TRACEY BLACK: What I tell them is like: “Look. You need to sort of do your research and look at what’s in your pantry right now or what’s in your refrigerator right now.” Like I’ve said earlier, gluten is kind of pervasive especially in soy sauce or sort of sauces, marinades and things like that.

Gluten will have many, many different names kind of like sugar. Sugar, I just wrote an article about how sugar has 50 different names that you would never know.

SUNNY GAULT: Wow.

TRACEY BLACK: So get to know what the names are of the different types of gluten. Once you become aware of that, you can print that out. Take that to the grocery store and then start seeking out. Okay, I can do this. I can do that.

JOHNER RIEHL: What are some on the top of your head you know?

TRACEY BLACK: So soy sauce for an instance.

JOHNER RIEHL: You said like your 11 year old will look at a package.

TRACEY BLACK: He does.

JOHNER RIEHL: What’s he looking for?

TRACEY BLACK: So like I’ve said, there’s barley. There’s rye. We’re looking for other things too like MSG and things like that. If something says: “Yeast extract.” That’s a MSG which is not a gluten but that’s a whole separate thing. But we’re sort of looking for just certain things.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes.

TRACEY BLACK: But yes, I’ve got more information on my blog if you’re looking for that list. But certainly, it’s getting prepared. Knowing what you can get. But what I’ll say is: “I’m part Asian.” So we love to eat and I’m also from Hawaii. We used to eat a lot of soy sauce. But there are substitutes for it. You can get gluten-free tamari which tastes just the same.

You can get something else called: “Coconut Aminos.” It tastes exactly like soy sauce but it’s made from coconut sap. So people on the Pay Little Community love Coconut Aminos. That’s typically what they use.

But you would be really surprise what you can make even whole foods substitutes. There are for instance like pasta, right? Instead of pasta, there is rice pasta. There’s quinoa pasta. Let’s say you don’t want to do grains at all. You could do, there’s this really cool thing that’s called: “The spiralizer.” I don’t know if you guys have seen that.

SUNNY GAULT: No.

TRACEY BLACK: So you can take zucchini spiralize it and it creates noodles. You can do the same thing with squash and things like that. So that my eight year old for an instance, I will make a zucchini noodles and put marinara sauce it and he loves it. He’ll just clear the whole bowl. I can’t make enough for him. So it’s kind of a cool way for them to get their vegetables in.
So there are really great substitutes that are like that or spaghetti squash for an instance. For you bake it in the oven for 40 minutes and you fork it, it is delicious with some butter and parmesan.

JOHNER RIEHL: Your kids will eat it too.

TRACEY BLACK: My kids love it. They love it.

JOHNER RIEHL: You know my four year old will it. It’s the six and the eight year old that I’ve had trouble convincing them.

TRACEY BLACK: Yes, but I’ll tell you something. If it’s not in your pantry, your freezer or your fridge, they will get used to it. They will eat what’s in your house. If you don’t have that, the junk food

SUNNY GAULT: If they get hungry

TRACEY BLACK: If they get hungry, I mean I say that. If they get hungry enough, they’ll eat it. Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: That’s Christina’s mom talking. I get you guys hungry and now you’ll eat whatever I cooked. But let’s say we do it like, would you say that we need to just go through our whole pantry and empty it?

TRACEY BLACK: I would.

JOHNER RIEHL: Start from scratch?

TRACEY BLACK: Yes or either that or put it off the side if you’re doing an elimination diet and you’re not sure if gluten is the culprit. Take everything out because I think it’s easier. You get in there and you’re like: “Forget it already. I’m just going to reach for this or reach for that.”

But I think if you’re trying to go through that elimination diet or do like a temporary removal of gluten, get those things out of the closet. Maybe just put it in the garage or the closet or whatever for now where you can’t see it. If it’s something in your fridge or your freezer, maybe give it to a neighbor or a mother-in-law whatever.

Then go from there. Go from there. Right, because the mother-in-law is always giving you food. So you can give it back. It’s a good excuse. Yes, if you have a gluten-free friend, maybe ask them to go grocery shopping with you. I’ve done that for a few of my friends too.

But really go to the health food store. I find that they’re pretty good about sort of marketing things that are gluten-free and are not gluten-free. Again, I prefer the health food store because I generally find that their ingredients are a little bit better than going to a regular grocery store.

But really if you’re sticking to whole foods, whole food vegetables, fruits or like I’ve said: “Squash, potatoes” those are all gluten-free.

JOHNER RIEHL: I think even regular quote-and-quote “stores” are embracing this as well.

TRACEY BLACK: They are.

JOHNER RIEHL: I think that there are sections now and different places setups. So it’s better than it used to be.

TRACEY BLACK: Way better than it used to be. You know five, 10 years ago; people could only buy things online. That’s the other thing I’ll say is: “You can find another, a lot of great stores online where you can buy and get it shipped direct to your house. You don’t have to leave your house.”

JOHNER RIEHL: Right. That’s awesome.

TRACEY BLACK: Really just experiment and as you sort of go through this, take this opportunity to just eat healthier, eat better. We say eat healthy and that sort of like such a broad term. So people think: “Okay, no sugar or don’t use butter.” Really again, I just sort of like to focus on: “How did our grandparents eat?”

They were eating bacon and butter. They were eating whole foods. They were eating things that we sort of shun for a very long time because we were focused on sugar-free and low fat to know all of those things.

What I’d like to say is: “This is a great opportunity to sort of embrace maybe sort of an ancestral type cooking.” Go back to butter – that’s so much flavor in that or I cook with lard. I tell people that. I’m like: “I save my bacon grease and I cook with it and it’s absolutely delicious.” It gives food so much more flavor.

So sometimes with foods that are gluten, they might have MSG or other sort of flavor enhancers. If you go back to basics, you’ll get it, it’s natural and it’s good for your body.

JOHNER RIEHL: Yes. So that’s a way to market gluten-free lifestyle. You need to cook and eat the bacon. Cook with bacon grease.

TRACEY BLACK: Exactly. I’m just like: “More bacon.” I mean honestly with my kids, I’m like if I told them: “Do you want waffles or bacon?” They will choose bacon any day of the week. Bacon sort of gets a bad rep but if you’re getting Pasteur-raised bacon, if you’re getting nitrate-free bacon, it can actually be good for you.

So I might get push-back on that. That’s my personal opinion. I’d rather choose bacon than like a sugary bowl of cereal any day of the week.

JOHNER RIEHL: There is no better place to end that than this. Bacon approves. Exactly!

TRACEY BLACK: Bacon approved. Exactly!

JOHNER RIEHL: Well, thanks Tracey. I learned a ton here.

TRACEY BLACK: Thank you.

JOHNER RIEHL: I’m intrigued. I want to go and make some. Do you know what I want to do? I want to get a spiralizer.

SUNNY GAULT: I know.

JOHNER RIEHL: And a zucchini squash

TRACEY BLACK: Yes.

SUNNY GAULT: Yes.

JOHNER RIEHL: And I’ll cook in bacon grease.

TRACEY BLACK: It’s delicious.

SUNNY GAULT: Parmesan Cheese

TRACEY BLACK: I’ve done it. It’s delicious.

JOHNER RIEHL: Nice. Thanks everybody for listening and for joining us today. For more information and you can learn more about Tracey, visit our website at www.NewMommyMedia.com or www.ParentSavers.com. We’ll link over to Tracey’s site which once again is?

TRACEY BLACK: www.DontMessWithMama.com

JOHNER RIEHL: www.DontMessWithMama.com great! We’ll continue the conversation in a little bit with a bonus question for members of our Parent Saver’s Club. For those of you who are on board with that, stick around for that.

[Theme Music]

DAVID VIENNA: Hi Parent Savers. This is The Daddy Complex. I’m David Vienna, father of twin boys and if my experience has taught me anything about parenting is that: “I know nothing about parenting.” If you are expecting your first child, I’m sure some of us told you in passing that along with welcoming a new life into your house, you are also welcome a horde of germs.

We were told when the boys start going to preschool; they pick up colds pretty frequently. It turned out that the word “frequently” doesn’t actually convey exactly how often the child brings home illness and it’s not just colds. Sweet merciful Christ, no!

First, let me tell you this and please understand it is not an exaggeration. Your child will have a runny nose pretty much from age two to three. I don’t mean off and on. I mean a year-long runny nose, perhaps longer. Your only variables are: “How much it runs and the color of the snap.”

Second, whatever bug they picked up, you will get. There’s no avoiding it. They touch everything. They want to share your food. Your home will become a [inaudible 00:30:07-08] worst case scenario. The frequency thing I’ve mentioned? The illnesses will come on average every month sometimes more than that. I just got over with my first cold or sore throat or whatever in six weeks.

Now my wife has it and it’s knocked her out which brings me to my third and final point. These illnesses are nothing like you’ve ever experienced. Somehow the colds and stomach bugs toddlers pick up hit adult exponentially greater. When your child gets a cold, you will maybe have a restless night and a cough. When you get it, it will be captain trips an end of days style plague that will leave you whimpering for help through clogged sinuses and a ravages throat.

Of all the illnesses my boys have brought home, I only managed to avoid getting one. That’s because I locked myself in the bedroom with a week-supply of SpaghettiOs and a complete DVD collection of Spaced. Yes, you should wash your hands often. By the way, another thing they don’t tell you is that: “You’ll wash your hands so much, your skin will literally crack open and bleed. I’m not kidding.”

By the time you see your child’s needs, it’s already too late. Washing your hands at that point is just to teach them how to do it. You might also show them how to work the can opener so that they can feed you SpaghettiOs when you’re too weak to feed yourself.

Check out more of my terrible advice at www.TheDaddyComplex.com, The Huffington Post or on Twitter at @thedaddycomplex. You can also view episodes of: “Fighting with babies” my popular web series for parents at www.TheDaddyComplex.com/fwb and be sure to keep listening to Parent Savers for more fatherly tips.

[Theme Music]

JOHNER RIEHL: That wraps up our show for today. Thanks so much for joining us again on Parent Savers.
Don’t forget to check out our sister shows:
• Preggie Pals for expecting parents
• The Boob Group for moms who breastfeed
• Twin Talks, for parents of multiples
• Newbies for those going through it for the first time.

This is Parent Savers: “Empowering new parents.”

[Disclaimer]

This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

SUNNY GAULT: How would you like to have your own show on the New Mommy Media Network? We’re expanding our line up and looking for great content. If you are a business or an organization interested in learning more about our co-branded podcast, visit www.NewMommyMedia.com.

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