Sunday, February 8, 2009

Happy food!

When I have time, I love to read random labels in the hopes of finding something SCD-legal. Here are some of my recent discoveries!

Whole Foods 365 brand olives: I don't know why I never looked before. Wait, yes I do. See, my husband does not understand inspirational food shopping. He has a list, he buys what's on the list, and he gets out of the store before he catches on fire. So when I come home with anything other than what's on the list, he raises his eyebrows at me in skeptical ways. :P

So! On one of the times that I was NOT with my darling husband, I went poking around and found these olives. The black ones are $1.49 a can; the green ones are $1.99 per can. Ferrous gluconate is illegal, and it's the most common offender -- it's in practically all black olives.

One caveat: Whole Foods does not include shared equipment information on their private label products (as 365 is). So if you are concerned about cross contamination (such as a severe gluten sensitivity, for example), you may need to steer clear of these products. Many SCDers don't have to go to this level, but some do.

Ralph's spicy brown mustard: To be fair, I've come across a number of legal mustard brands; Eden is a brand sold through the Digestive Wellness site, for example.

Ralph's is a chain that is part of the Kroger family of food companies, so this same mustard may be packaged under different store brand names. Ingredients: distilled vinegar, water, mustard seed, salt, turmeric. It's one of the 'cleanest' ingredient listings I've ever seen with very little possibility of illegals.

I think I am most amused that in TEENY little type it has "no artificial flavors" and "sugar free" on the bottle. It's almost as if they're ashamed of it. Ha! But I adore brown mustard. I think I ate half the bottle in the first two days!

Zorba pepperoncini: I found these at Whole Foods, once again. They're the first legal pepperoncini I've come across. In Italian, pepperoncini is plural, so no need to add the 's' on the end. Yes, I am a grammar nerd.

The ingredients are peppers, water, vinegar, and salt. Beautiful. No yellow number 5! They're also listed as sulfite-free, for those of you sensitive to sulfites. Hooray!

I wish I could mention a brand of pickles here, but so far I've come up empty. I was told that Trader Joe's carried a legal pickle, but I was unable to find it at my local Trader Joe's. So I'm going to take a brave foray into pickle-making very soon, and of course I'll let you all know how it goes. :)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your site! Please keep the posts and recipes coming!

Anonymous said...

Have you tried Annie's organic horseradish mustard? Uses apple cider vinegar instead of distilled white ( which is corn based)

Have you tried Real Pickles brand pickles, kraut, gingered carrots, dilly beans?
Also, Hawthorne Valley makes same...all
safe, "real" pickles- in the refrigerated section. If they are shelf stable, they aren't safe

Unknown said...

I noticed that Annie's organic horseradish mustard lists garlic powder. Since subingredients do not have to be listed (per FDA requirements), there may be some sort of starch added to make the powder free-flowing. So I can't consider that legal without a letter from the manufacturer.

I'll have to check more refrigerated pickle brands -- I think you're right, that I'll never find a legal shelf-stable brand. Thanks! :)

Susan

Anonymous said...

Hi Susan
Thank you so much for answering my questions. I have another one: hope you don't mind.
What's the deciding factor to move onto the next stage of the diet? I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. I did post my question on the egroup, but didn't get an answer.
I'm hoping you can help me with this one.
I also read that you can introduce the yogurt one month into the diet, but was advised to wait three months on the egroup (?)
I recenly found Welch's grape juice here in the UK..and was over the moon, saves me having to juice apples for juice as apple cider isn't sold over here..
Thank you so so much in advance.
Maria

Unknown said...

Hi Maria!

Moving on through the stages is an individual thing. Once you've tried all the foods in a particular stage that you want to try (and you seem to be OK with them), then you can move on to the next stage, trying one food at a time again.

The reason people often wait three months to introduce the yogurt is because of die off, which occurs in a lot of people. In the early stages, you might be suffering from die off already just due to following the SCD, so adding the yogurt can be too much. This is also why it's recommended that you STOP supplements and vitamins during the early part of the diet. Your body first needs to adjust to a new way of eating, and so you might not be able to tell what's affecting you and what isn't.

If you are doing OK and are considering starting the yogurt, keep this in mind -- the yogurt is loaded with probiotics. So what you want to test for is two things -- a reaction to the probiotics, and/or a reaction to the goat dairy. If you haven't already tested goat dairy (like with legal goat cheddar for example), I recommend baking the yogurt into a cheesecake and trying it that way first. Test small amounts over several days, increasing as you go. There's a cheesecake recipe in BTVC. I gave my son a tablespoon of cheesecake to start, then upped it to 3-4 tablespoons until I was confident he was OK with it.

If all goes well with that test, then go ahead and start with 1/8 teaspoon of yogurt and watch for a reaction. My son definitely reacted strongly to the probiotics.

I hope that helps! Thanks for stopping by. And I'm so glad you found the Welch's! :)

Susan

Anonymous said...

HI Susan,
I contacted Annie's about the garlic powder. Two of my children have a severe corn allergy, so we have to be VERY careful about anti clumping/caking agents etc. They assured me that the garlic powder they use is strictly dried organic garlic, with no anti caking agents etc.
We've been using it for over two years now with no reactions from my corn allergy kids, so I'd say it might be worth challenging it.
Have you seen the condiment recipes in Nourishing Traditions? There are others on www.healingnaturallybybee.com too.
There are many SCD safe recipes there as well.
Do you have a contact link to email you directly, off the blog board?
We've been on a version of the SCD-
Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride's diet-
for almost a year now. I'd love to talk directly to you.
Tina

Unknown said...

Hi Tina,

Well, I just posted a link to my e-mail in my profile. And I redesigned the blog somewhat. There's more to be done, but I got that part out of the way. E-mail away! :)

I keep meaning to acquire the GAPS book. I have to do the Interlibrary Loan thing I think. Bleh. :)

Susan

Vittoria said...

I am thrilled to have found you! Trader Joe's has canned tuna, salmon and crab that are legal. Packed in REAL water, not soy broth.

Unknown said...

Hi Vittoria!

Thanks for the tip. I really do have to try to get to Trader Joe's more often. Hmm.

Susan :)

Anonymous said...

On what are you basing your claim that ferrous gluconate is illegal? I cannot find it listed on the website, and I saw another person saying it was OK.

Thanks!

Unknown said...

The information I got on ferrous gluconate was through the Pecanbread listserv. I see that it is not listed anywhere on the site so perhaps it's changed? Not sure.

Unknown said...

Whole Foods also has no soy tuna. Yay!