I just wanted to very quickly mention that Allergic Girl’s book, Adventures in Living Well with Food Allergies
Gluten Free Diet Reviews and Information for Portland Metro Area
Tag Archive for 'Health'
Page 3 of 14
I decided to get straight to the point in my title. It’s been a long while since I’ve reviewed any Trader Joe’s gluten free offerings. We were looking for something new and exciting on a recent trip to Trader Joe’s. That’s one of the cool things about them. When you’re in a Trader Joe’s, you can stop about anywhere, spend a minute or two checking out everything around you, and find something new and interesting to try. I was in the meat department, looking at chicken parts, and this particular item demanded to be tried. They’re Curry Chicken Tenders. And they have the Trader Joe’s “No Gluten Ingredients Used” mark on them.
The only instructions they include with these amounts to: “Grill them.” Here are the ingredients: Water, Curry Powder (Turmeric, White Pepper, Ginger, Mustard Powder), Garlic, Sugar, Salt, Coriander, Dessicated Coconut, Citric Acid, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cayenne Pepper, Onion Powder, Cumin, Cilantro, Sodium Lactate (for PH control). As can usually be expected with Trader Joe’s products, this all looks pretty straight-forward (except for the last ingredient) – until you notice how high on this list the salt appears.
Of course, I didn’t notice this fact until it was too late. I do a lot of complaining about the salt content in Trader Joe’s products, but these are really off the charts. A serving size of 4 oz of chicken has 850mg (!!!!) of sodium. That’s ridiculous. It’s like eating a salt lick. Really.
Which we didn’t realize until I had served up the curry chicken tenders. I served them up with some broccoli, squash, and yogurt on the side. I love curry with yogurt. Another thing that goes great with curries is dried cranberries. You should try it sometime. Unfortunately, this dish just plain did not work. Mostly because of the salt I just mentioned. We also both felt that this dish is a little heavy on the cardamom. I really love cardamom, but in a curry I don’t usually want it to be the main flavor. It wasn’t inedible. But it wasn’t something we would want to eat again. We ended up with a bunch of leftover chicken from this, sitting in the fridge.
I would love to take the credit for this amazing idea, but actually Sienna came up with it. Why not try the curried chicken in a sandwich? So here you have it. Gluten-free bread, mayonnaise, pieces of lettuce, red onion, and slices of the curried chicken tenders. This, my friends, is a good sandwich! Did I mention that the chicken comes out amazingly tender? It does. Must be like, practically brined. But we both totally recommend this for sandwiches.
We were notified that Dr. Oz was doing a segment on gluten free diets on his TV show today. Naturally, we had to tune in. Here’s the executive summary: If you’re sensitive to gluten, then you should probably stop eating it. 99% of the people who are gluten intolerant still don’t know it. However, the gluten-free diet isn’t necessarily healthy, and is not a good way to lose weight.
For the curious, you can watch the episode online here on the Dr. Oz website.
I wasn’t actually aware that anybody was touting the gluten-free diet as being great for weight loss. So that was news to me. On the show they did some product comparisons, and the basic gist of the matter was that gluten free versions of many popular foods are more caloric and contain less fiber. Of course, we ARE talking about a TV show here, so they might have just picked out the most egregious offenders, because that makes for good TV. At the same time, we’ve spent some words on this blog talking about gluten free products and health. Mostly it’s been me complaining about how most all gluten free breads are made of starch and rice flour.
I’ve said it before, and I’m sure that I’ll say it again. If I could eat wheat, I would. First off, there are some items that you can’t get gluten free. Like a good brioche, a divine sourdough, or good bagels. Second, there is a reason wheat has been cultivated and eaten by mankind for all time: It’s good for you. Whole wheat is high in protein, fiber, minerals and vitamins. It’s an aid to digestion, and has countless culinary uses.
The segment on Dr. Oz struck me as having a dual personality. On one hand, Dr. Oz kept talking about how gluten does cause inflammatory problems in people who are sensitive to it. He even went so far as to recommend that people who have inflammatory symptoms try a two week elimination diet to see if they might have a sensitivity. But then he kept bashing the diet as being unhealthy and fattening.
It was interesting to hear the list of health problems associated with gluten sensitivity. Among the items I heard mentioned were fatigue, inflammation, depression, anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, and even heart disease and cancer. Also, they mentioned that the inflammation caused by gluten can increase the insulin in your body, which can lead to weight problems, among other things.
Also interesting, there is a one week diet plan on the Dr. Oz website, here. Also, he has a couple of pages on celiac disease and gluten, here.
In the end, I did appreciate the show, although I thought that it sensationalized the subject matter in a way that may not have been very productive. It is a bit of a double-edged sword. I wouldn’t recommend a gluten-free diet to anybody who doesn’t need to be on it. BUT, for those of us who do, it’s truly life-changing. AND, just because something is gluten free, it doesn’t mean that it’s not junk food.
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