Halloween Tip: Involve Your Child's Friends in Removing UnSafe Candy

TODAY'S TIP SPONSORED BY:

If you have a food allergic child, ask his or her  friends to help you go through your child's treat bag and pull out all the non-safe treats.  Then, take out a box of safe chocolate that you have pre-ordered online or purchased at your local store and replace what was taken from yoru child's bag.  The fun part for the kids comes when you divvy up the non-safe treats and they are all able to fill their bags up a little more with the new found treasure.  A bunch gets accomplished with this process. 

1.  Your child's friends are reminded that he/she has a serious condition

2.  They also get to see that your child is not not losing out on anything 

3.  Plus, your child's friends get to reap the benefits of helping him  and that really delivers the message in a positive way. 

PLEASE NOTE: Rockford Food Allergy Network (RFAN) is not a medical organization and any information should not be relied upon as medical advice. ALWAYS discuss individual health questions, concerns and medical issues with a qualified physician."

 Other Halloween Posts

Halloween "Safe" Candy List

Fun Ideas to Keep Your Trick-or-Treater Safe This Halloween

Cash For Candy at Your Local Dentist

Halloween Tip: Dentists Trade Cash for Candy

Today's Tip Sponsored By:

Some local dentists sponsor candy buy back programs.  This can be a great use for the non-safe candy your child gets in their treat bag.  They get the money for the candy and can use it to buy something they'd really like.  Try searching online for any programs in your area.  

PLEASE NOTE: Rockford Food Allergy Network (RFAN) is not a medical organization and any information should not be relied upon as medical advice. ALWAYS discuss individual health questions, concerns and medical issues with a qualified physician."

 Other Halloween Posts

Halloween "Safe" Candy List

Fun Ideas to Keep Your Trick-or-Treater Safe This Halloween

Cucumbers. To Peel? or Not To Peel? Organic or No?

WAX

In order to preserve moisture, conventional (non-organic) and organic cucumbers could be coated with a wax.  The difference is that the organic cucumbers must be coated with non-synthetic wax, and they cannot contain any chemicals prohibited by the USDA under organic labeling laws.  Conventionally grown cukes can use synthetic waxes and may contain a number of pesticides on the skin, as well as undesirable chemicals in the wax. 

As far as wax goes, World's Healthiest Foods recommends peeling all conventional cukes and leaving the skin of organic cucumbers in tact for its nutrient quality.

PESTICIDES

English cucumbers - the long, skinny kind, tend to be unwaxed and wrapped in plastic - organic or not.  here are two organizations who have growing databases of pesticides used on cucumbers and other conventionally raised fruits and vegetables:

1.  The Environmental Working Group's Shopping List:  Conventional cucumbers are in the top 10 for high pesticide use, and is in the EWG Dirty Dozen list, designed to help shoppers quickly decide which produce should purchased with a USDA organic label.  They recommend that the cucumbers you buy be organic.

2.  What's on My Food?  a Database from the Pesticide Action Network:  35 Pesticide Residues Found by the USDA Pesticide Data Program for cucumbers.

Given this data, The Tender Palate uses organic cucumbers, and does not peel them, unless we want to for the sake of a recipe!

Chef Tip: How to Peel Ginger

People new to ginger are sometimes intimidated by it.  The truth is, peeling it is easier than it looks.  Some say that if you are steeping the ginger, and it is a young root, you don't have to peel it at all, because you strain the skin right out of the tea or dish.  We prefer peeling.   The young root with a thin skin is what you find in most grocery stores.

Wash it well, then take a spoon, (yes a spoon) and scrap the skin away. You can even get most of the knobby bits. 

Use a knife to cut the tough little knobs.  A knife cuts to deeply into the flesh and wastes the ginger, whiile a spoon gently and easily scrapes off just the skin.  Then grate, cut, mince, or throw it in the blender or processor - whatever suits your recipe.

Try this Ginger Tea with Lime.  It's a great cold and flu buster, Buster.

Cross-Reactivity Between Gluten & Quinoa

This tip is brought to you by Sheila George, MD, CA of The Center for Metabolic Wellness

Whether you consider quinoa a grain or a seed, if you are gluten sensitive you may react to quinoa as if it were gluten. When foods have similar enough amino acid sequences as that of the gliadin/gluten molecule, these foods may bind to the gliadin/gluten antibody in the body and trigger an immune response. This is known as cross-reactivity.

Other foods besides quinoa that may possibly cross-react with gluten include cow's milk, yeast, oats, coffee, sesame seeds, corn, buckwheat and tapioca. If you do not feel well or continue to have elevated gliadin antibodies despite a gluten free diet, you may want to check for additional food allergies and for the possibility that other foods are cross-reacting with the gliadin/gluten antibody. Cyrex Laboratory does comprehensive testing for gluten sensitivity and gluten cross-reactivity.

Love Quinioa?  There may be other reasons you react to it.  READ MORE ABOUT QUINOA AND GLUTEN IN OUR QUESTION FORUM!