Food Philosophy: Recipes and ramblings from a gluten-free naturopath

I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (are you getting the picture?) ZOOS!!  My husband takes me to the zoo whenever we move to a new place.  Every time I think I've surely seen all the animals out there, I go to a zoo and see, at least, a dozen new ones that I had no idea about or ever even heard of!  Last week, Kevin took me to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC, which is only about 40 minutes from our house.  It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning with temps hovering around 55 degrees...perfect for walking around and admiring all of the amazing plants, animals, reptiles, fishes, and more.... I know you're thinking that it's very strange that I'm talking about zoos on a gluten-free website, but there's a point, I promise! Animals, by instinct and for self-preservation, have very limited diets, unless they're introduced to new foods by humans.  Think about, for example, the panda bear...their diet, in the wild,  consists of 99% bamboo, with ju...

There's a new show on the Cooking Channel called, "The Food Hospital."  A British physician, surgeon, and nutritionist have teamed up together in a medical practice that focuses on changing diets in order to treat medical conditions; avoiding the use of western medicines.  What's interesting to me is that they're acting like this is a brand-new idea!  This idea of using food as a medicine was first "published" by Hippocrates in the 4th century BC and has been the basis of Naturopathy for centuries!!! Those of us who suffer from celiac disease understand very well the need to control our diets as the only medicine available to us.  There is no magic pill to take that will prevent the damage to our small intestines, and our whole bodies, every time we ingest gluten.  We must be ever vigilant in our dietary intake. What most people don't know about celiac disease (including an awful lot of doctors that I've dealt with!) is that the symptoms a...