How (And Why) I Wrote a Cookbook
This journey began a few years ago when I was having problems related to Interstitial Cystitis, painful bladder disease. I asked for help on one of the message boards I frequent, things were going from bad to worse and I didn’t know why.
Someone asked if I was watching my oxalates.
I had never heard of oxalates but being the researcher I am, I started reading up on them. Immediately I was intrigued by the idea that the healthy foods I had been consuming were harming me.
Oxalates are compounds/organic acid in many vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts and are known as an “anti-nutrient.” The reason for them is to give protection to plants from insects and animals.
Why? To help ensure that seeds needed for the propagation of plants aren’t digested by hungry people and animals. When birds or bears feast on blueberries, the seeds are still viable, even after being pooped back out!” source
“Oxalate can bind to minerals to form compounds, including calcium oxalate and iron oxalate. This mostly occurs in the colon, but can also take place in the kidneys and other parts of the urinary tract.” source
Since oxalates are toxins, they are poison to some people.
They are found in many nutritious foods which was surprising to me. You will find high oxalates in spinach, rhubarb, chocolate, peanuts and peanut butter, almonds and almond butter, beets, sweet potatoes, figs, raspberries, soy including soy flour, tofu, lentils, legumes.
If you are eating a vegetarian diet and consume tofu and almond flour based foods, you may want to pay attention to how you are feeling.
Since I was already gluten-free, adding another restriction to my diet was going to be a challenge.
I learned that even gluten-free flour could be high in oxalates, along with spices, seeds, and nuts. When I tell you that my diet was super high in oxalates at the time, I mean it.
I made daily smoothies with lots of fresh spinach, my favorite thing to bake was almond flour scones, I ate a sweet potato for lunch every day followed by a treat of chocolate covered almonds from Trader Joes. I loved making protein powder cookies which called for peanut butter. Between my baking and smoothies, I was consuming an overwhelming amount of oxalates.
As I kept reading and learning, I removed the high oxalate foods from my diet and saw an overall improvement.
I am really surprised that oxalates aren’t more well known because these little toxins are connected to a lot of diseases.
Oxalates can contribute to Hashimoto’s and other thyroid conditions, there is also a relationship between oxalates and celiac disease:
“…when oxalate levels in the blood become high, it can get stored all over the body where it can produce effects in any potential organ…not just the kidney. I had learned that systemic effects from oxalate could change the course of a condition in patients over years of time. For patients with celiac disease, this storage might have occurred primarily during the years before diagnosis when problems with fat digestion would have increased the percent of oxalate absorption from the diet.”
and
“Celiac disease is one of many conditions where high oxalate levels have frequently been found in patients. Some of the other conditions include bariatric surgery, cystic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease, short bowel syndrome, autism and more.” read the full article here.
A new connection that is being recognized with respect to chronic candida (and digestive imbalances, including inflammation and leaky gut) is the role of oxalates. (keep reading here)
There is tons of research about the illness-oxalate connection but you have to put on your thinking cap and dive in pretty deep.
Most doctors don’t even know what oxalates are, or are not familiar with how devastating they can be to health.
When I saw my uro-gynocologist for IC, she never brought up oxalates as a possible reason for my issues. I am forever grateful to the person who brought this to my attention!
Another article on the subject points out that low energy could be part of an oxalate issue as well as: “hidden source of headaches, urinary pain, genital irritation, joint, muscle, intestinal or eye pain.
Other common oxalate-caused symptoms may include mood conditions, anxiety, sleep problems, weakness, or burning feet. Indicators can be digestive, respiratory, or even bed wetting for children.”
If any of these symptoms apply to you, checking the oxalate levels in the foods you eat might be a good idea. You are the best advocate for your health so don’t be shy about researching and educating yourself. I’m sure as research progresses, we will see more on this subject.
If you want to keep reading, here is a great article here about oxalates.
As I began to revamp my diet, I was also fighting candida so I had to be mindful of white sugar and yeast. My head was spinning with all the foods I could NOT eat.
For many months, I worked on figuring out what I could and couldn’t/shouldn’t eat and I carried a list of high and low oxalate foods with me at the grocery store.
I enjoy making nice dinners for my family who, by the way, have none of my restrictions. How could I cook for them and make sure I could eat too?
The small things you don’t think about- spices, herbs, flour blends, bread crumbs- became issues for me as I searched for substitutions that would work in recipes. Those recipes in the Paleo and Gluten-Free cookbooks I looked at for inspiration suddenly became tests in finding creative solutions. I was looking for low oxalates plus no nuts, no white sugar, no yeast, and no soy and no gluten.
WHAT COULD I EAT?
Recipe by recipe I started to find substitutions or remade the recipes completely. When I understood what I could and couldn’t consume, I threw together meals that were low-medium oxalate.
While I had been writing fiction for many years, I never considered writing a non-fiction book…until now.
I had always loved reading recipes though, going way back to when my mother subscribed to Good Housekeeping and as a child, I’d peruse the recipe sections. Writing articles on health for my blog was something I frequently did and I seriously considered getting my certificate in holistic health coaching since wellness/health is one of my passions.
A thought started brewing…what if I created a cookbook for other people who had the same eating restrictions? Surely I wasn’t the only one with these food issues.
Could I put something together to help other people in my situation? Looking on Amazon, I noted there were TONS of cookbooks for those who are gluten-free, keto, and paleo, but not many for those who were gluten-free AND low oxalate. AND nut-free. In fact, the options for low oxalate cooking were few.
Maybe I could put something together…
Here’s where things got kind of weird and I knew I was being guided by a greater force.
For years I’d been writing books and trying to find an agent and a book deal, only to be met with rejection after rejection, but I sent ONE letter to an editor at a publishing house and she immediately responded with interest.
She asked me for a book proposal which I created and sent, within a short time she offered me a book deal.
All the pieces fell into place quickly.
During the fall months last year, I cooked and took photos every day. I had many recipe ideas, some coming to me in the middle of the night, others popped into my head as I cooked something else.
I wanted to include food people would actually want to make, recipes that were easy and called for ingredients that were familiar. Food that was affordable. Meals that could be created within forty minutes or so. One of the biggest struggles I noted was that people needed meal plans and ideas.
I cooked, I baked, I researched and double and triple checked my ingredients. I took photos and made notes. I typed up my recipes and edited my pictures and then in March 2018, I sent it all to my editor.
Its kind of corny and trite but during the whole process, I just had a feeling that I was meant to create this book, it needed to be written to help people.
I hope it does.
