Next to Trail Punt

Last night I was thrilled about my lasagna entree success. I had found gluten free lasagna noodles that were made with rice and corn flour and was giving them a try to see how they fared out. As for the dairy-free cheese, I use a brand called Daiya which, for dairy-free cheeses is the best I have come across (believe me, the rest are awful). I laughed when my dairy indulgent friend said to me that he found Daiya to be disgusting. My reply was when you can't have the real thing, this is the best of the worst and you appreciate what you can have. He laughed and agreed in response. Anyhow, the lasagna was great! A success!! Until.....

This morning I woke up sinuses stuffed, runny nose and eyes a bit itchy. I have a suspicion as to the culprit. I have been doing some recipe trials from various blogs that I like with these recipes using a different starch than what I have been using before: tapioca. I had noticed over the past few weeks that I had been arising with my right sinus stuffed and then would do a big drain and life would be grand. However I was unsure as to the why until this morning when I woke up with my sinuses stuffed. Wait a second, I had lasagna last night! Here's the tie-in: Daiya cheese is made with tapioca and/or arrowroot. Further tie that in with the observation of how much tapioca I had been using in recipes lately, I believe I have my suspect. No biggie with baking as I can substitute either arrowroot or potato starch, however it's the "cheese" that's the glitch.  I can go for months sans "cheese" however, it's when I want a pizza or lasagna that the issue arises. As the saying goes, back to the drawing board....

I have noticed that food allergies/sensitivities can show up in a variety of ways and in ways that might be passed of as something else or something in the air. With this latest bout, a friend of mine kept asking me if I had a cold because of my nose and sinus activity. Gluten sensitivity shows up as migraines and gut for me and dairy, that's an extreme gut thing as well as body shivering. Those are ways I have noticed in my own body, but there are many more. Allergies/intolerances can also reveal themselves as muscle pain, arthritic pain, emotional swings and behaviour, weakness, anaphylaxis, asthma, fatigue, and the list goes on. Regardless of how the symptom reveals itself one constant remains: the body is alerting that there is an issue at stake, and one that needs to be dealt with and healed not masked over.

So here I go with giving tapioca the boot and seeing what happens from here. Will there be times when I say "damn the consequences, give me the moment of enjoyable pleasure, and I'll deal with the fall-out later." Maybe, with gluten: no, with dairy: HELL NO! Why? It's much more work (and pain) to clean up the mess than to learn how to diverge it.
Sherri Donohue
Hot Torch, Room Full of Glass, and a Kung Fu Kwoon