Friday, December 05, 2008
Had my meeting with the dietician today...
Strangely enough, I went to junior high with her! HA. She came out to the reception room to get me and we both did a double take. Too funny. Especially funny was that she didn't know that I was married to my hubs (who also went to junior high with us), so that gave her a surprise. HA.
Anyways. We started the session off with me asking her some general questions I had about Celiac Disease and about living gluten free.
My questions and her responses:
Q: deep fried items: only eat things fried in fresh oil?
A: I didn't ask this exactly - but she mentioned to only have fries from a dedicated fry fryer. This one is a no-brainer. Ok, many of these questions were no brainers, but I needed a professional to give me the answer...know what I mean?
Q: things like pumpkin pie: can I just eat the filing? Or is that too close?
A: No "just eating the filling" of things like pumpkin pie. Once the filling touches the crust, there is cross contamination.
Q: baking - need to be worried about baking/cooking for others with regular flour?
A: This one surprised me: she suggested maybe wearing a mask and/or gloves to bake with regular flour. I don't know if I will do this...but it is something I will certainly consider.
Q: what kitchen utensils need to be dedicated as GF?
A: Toaster, wooden spoons, cutting boards, AND baking pans. I was really surprised to hear that baking pans should be dedicated as GF. I guess hubs and I are going shopping...
Q: are there any nutrients I need to focus on getting (and how) now that my diet is limited?
A: Nutrients that may be lacking: B Vitamins. She suggested taking Centrum daily (apparently centrum is GF). She suggested that I have a "micronutrient bloodwork panel" done - I'll ask my doctor about this when I go for my physical in February.
Then she started taking my history - asking me what I eat and when, how much I work out, fun stuff like that. I brough my mom to the appointment, and my mom was shocked at the way I eat (or maybe just at how I could rattle off my "typical day" so easily, but that's what happens when you track your food and you eat the same thing most days). Then I talked about how much I worked out (but I downplayed this because I was a little embarassed).
The dietician suggested that I get more milk in during the day - she started by saying that I should be having 3 cups of milk a day. When she could see that I wasn't buying that, she told me that if I start doing a vitamin each morning, and one glass of milk (but don't necessarily take the vitamin with milk - she said to check with the pharmacist on this one), and thenincorporate some margarine, eggs, or fish into my day, I should get a more balanced day. That seemed more reasonable to me.
She seemed quite happy with my typical day overall - and I must say, I was pretty proud to be able to go through my day and have it be so healthy and balanced (and not be lying!).
She talked about how some people gain weight when they go gluten free because they don't realize how calorie dense the GF products are - I think it's a blessing that I count calories because I have been hyper aware of the calories in all of these products. I mean, one slice of GF bread is usually 120 calories - no wonder people gain weight if they don't realize that!!!
She walked me through a list of "safe", "be cautious of", and "don't eat" foods. Something new for me: I should not be eating anything with "hydrolyzed vegetable protein" or "hydrolyzed plant protein" in the ingredient list unless I check with the manufacturer and see if the product is gluten free. Umm, don't think I'll be doing that, so those two ingredients are now on my "don't eat" list! Also, she suggested that starch may not be safe, but this is contrary to what I've read elsewhere, so maybe I'll research this one a little more.
She gave me a list of places that I can shop for GF products locally, and some other useful websites and such. She did go over eating in restaurants, and how it's good that I am calling/emailing ahead, etc. She mentioned that buffets and potlucks should probably be avoided because there is a high risk of contamination (for example, if people use the same tongs in the potato salad as they did in the green salad - or if something is made at home, but they don't realize that I could get sick because they cut bread and cheese with the same knife...stuff like that). So I will just make sure to either bring my own food to these events, or eat before I go...or some other strategy.
She told me that I must be very, very careful - and that it's hard to be TOO careful. I'm quite worried that I'm going to seem like I'm just being fussy, but she reassured me that this is my HEALTH and that there are things that are just not ok (for example, I can not just pick croutons out of a salad - I must have lettuce that has never met croutons! And fun stuff like that).
It was a useful session. She encouraged me to go to some other sessions that are happening - my mom and I are going to do a gluten free cooking class at the end of January together.
So that was my meeting with the dietician. It was interesting. It made me feel better about how careful I have been with ingredients and cooking methods, and it also made me feel really proud of losing 25 pounds over the past year! Oh, another thing - when she asked how much more weight I wanted to lose, I told her that I thought I was done losing weight. This was kind of surprising to me! I may have said this because my mom was sitting beside me and she thinks I should stop trying to lose (but it's not her decision!), I may have said this because I'm so close to my 130 goal that it didn't seem worth mentioning that I wanted to lose another five pounds, or it may have been because I actually *am* good with being 135. Ha. So many options.
If you read all of this, claim your gold star - you deserve it!!
