Published:
10/24/2011 05:10pm
Loving It
Loving It!
By Debbie Johnson
I love the way savory vegetables in rich sauces taste, with sautéed marinated chicken. I love the nutty flavor of my sprouted flatbread. I even love the simple spicy sweetness of an apple sprinkled with cinnamon. Is your mouth watering yet?
Surprise! Every bit of the food I described above is gluten-free and low-glycemic (and you can have it tonight if you are industrious; see below).
I Don’t Have to Eat That Way
The most amazing thing about all this is that I am not gluten-intolerant, and I could eat some carbohydrates, but I don’t even like pasta anymore. I eat GF/LG because I love to, because it tastes better to me than a cardboard-flavored ice-cream cone. I love the way I feel and I love the way I look. I’m younger, healthier and stronger than most people my age because I care about what I put into my body, as well as the environment, and over the years, I’ve come to enjoy the clean, crisp flavors more than I ever thought possible.
Also, I want to support the organic growers. I buy my fresh veggies and fruits from the organic farmers markets or local stores. I get excited by Bok Choy, which we don’t have here in my little town of Hot Springs, SD. Once a year, or so, I can get it in Rapid City. I’d never have believed I could get excited by vegetables!
When I travel, I become literally desperate for fresh, organic vegetables. I surprise my hosts an even myself when I answer the question, “What do you like to eat?” with “Lots of vegetables, please.”
It Didn’t Happen Overnight
It all started when I was about ten years old and discovered my passion for cooking. When I was about thirteen, my mother went on Weight Watchers® and I wanted to help her stay on her diet by cooking for her special needs. I was amazed! I loved cooking for special diets.
In college I would make my famous crepes with banana-orange sauce. It was really healthy and I wanted to show people that whole grains and simple fruit could be made to taste decadent.
Over the years, I built up a cache of healthful recipes by gradually changing ingredients to wonderful, fun and delicious treats. I tested and re-tested, tried them on friends and husband, went back to the drawing board time and again, even when they liked it. I wanted these recipes to be perfect. Why?
Was I Crazy?
No, but close. I knew that someday I would open a restaurant to serve truly healthy organic food. No sugar! But I didn’t know about the problem so many people had with wheat, and ultimately, with gluten. Then I discovered there were many common food allergies and I started attacking those as well, rooting out common allergens from my recipes and replacing them with ingredients that tasted even better.
My husband at the time made wonderful cornmeal pancakes to go with my yummy fruit sauces, but I passed out on the couch after eating them! I just knew I had a problem with sugar and complex carbs, and maybe even corn. What was I to do? I had to find a way to make high-protein pancakes. Well, actually my husband did, and I evolved the recipe, and then made dairy-free options for those who need that.
I opened the restaurant and everyone loved the food. They didn’t even miss the low-cost, high carb additions most restaurants add to make more money. The restaurant is no longer there, but my eBook, cookbook; Fun with GF/LG Food is based on it, with all my hard-won recipes, helping people from Australia to Alaska. It would have taken lifetimes to reach all of those people through a chain of these restaurants, and even then, I couldn’t possibly have helped all those in need. Now I can, with a book that is both gluten-free and low-glycemic. I followed my inner guidance to use both of these aspects in all recipes in my restaurant, and discovered that many type I Diabetics also have Celiac disease. Who knew?
The Healing Power of Gluten-Free
Many years after my divorce (was it the fact that he kept bringing home sugar?) I met a wonderful man who was on medication for a mental illness. He really
