I have some news.
I hope you won’t be disappointed about the delayed schedule, but I won’t be baking bread as often as I promised this fall.
And there’s a good reason for it.
I know, I know, you’re all thinking there won’t be buns in my oven because there’s…you know…a bun in the oven.
I hope you’re not disappointed about THAT not being the case. I’ll be sure to let you know if number three blessing is on the way so you can all bring me meals when the baby is born. (I always think moms-to-be really need the meals during the first trimester, when looking at raw eggs and meat can make one run to the bathroom in horror…among other things. Don’t you think?)
Now I hope you’ll forgive my little tangent. I thought it would be fun to play a bit.
Are you having fun yet?
Okay, I know.
The news.
We’re going grain free at the Kimball house for a while.
So as much as I love the KS community and was really, really looking forward to finding the perfect whole grain bread recipe, we’re just going to have to wait. (UPDATE: The perfect whole wheat bread recipe series did begin!)
Life happens.
People get sick.
People who blog about food tend to help their sick husbands get well via food.
My husband, who will absolutely hate every second of this post, has Crohn’s Disease, an autoimmune condition of the small intestine that causes inflammation, poor absorption, pain, and bad digestion.
He was diagnosed in college, did the medication thing for a while and eventually was on steroids (not the big-muscle kind, the make-your-inflammation-stop-but-lots-of-side-effects kind). He managed to avoid most of the side effects, but just before graduating college landed in the hospital with a possible hole in his intestine.
They almost didn’t let him graduate. After donning cap and gown and receiving his diploma, the poor man had to eat jello and broth instead of celebrating with a steak and a beer. He was on a liquid diet for the surgery two days later, at which time he had 10 inches of small intestine removed.
That was eight years ago, and he’s experienced nary a symptom since.
It’s been wonderful.
When we pray at night, we often go weeks without remembering to thank God for its absence and beg for it never to return. Sometimes I am surprised that it’s still there, lurking in the darkness. When I do remember the disease, I worry and pray for my children.
You see, Crohn’s is chronic. It will always be there, even if masked. It’s also hereditary, one of those mystical diseases that no one understands completely, but there are both genetic and environmental factors.
I wonder about my children. Will the city water with fluoride and chlorine set off whatever gene they may or may not have inherited from their father? Is it chemicals in processed food? (His mother’s best dinner guests are Mr. Stouffer and Mrs. Sara Lee.) Could the way I serve them grains throw the switch one way or the other? Does my son’s tendency toward loose-goosey BMs, so different from my daughter’s occasional constipation, mean he’s got a tendency toward Crohn’s, too? Or will she be the one?
It makes my heart expand and tickle my face, crushing my lungs with the weight of the “What if?”
The Beast from the Deep
After eight years of freedom, the monster has surfaced again.
About four weeks ago, my husband starting experiencing symptoms of chronic diarrhea. Nothing fun or glamorous about that, and when you have Crohn’s, even though it didn’t feel “Crohnsy” (yes, we often make up words in our house), you worry. You wonder. You push on your stomach to see if it hurts. When it doesn’t, and the symptoms still won’t go away, you have to try to figure out what’s going on.
We still don’t know if he’s experiencing a Crohn’s flare-up, an anxiety issue, or just the result of a month of compromise eating more than usual, a fluke.
Regardless of the origin of the problem, with 80% of our immune system and as many nerve cells as the spinal cord, the gut is where we’re going to focus our efforts.
I got to hear Jordan Rubin, author of The Maker’s Diet and survivor of near-fatal Crohn’s Disease, speak last week right here in Grand Rapids. I don’t believe in coincidences.
I don’t believe it was a coincidence that Donielle and Kelly were there to support me in my questions. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that Donielle has been grain-free for two months and could lend me The Maker’s Diet and the GAPS book. (Check out her gluten/celiac series from earlier this month that started with Gluten: The Silent Cause of Infertility and went all week.) I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that I’m well acquainted through Twitter with Kat Garson who follows the SCD (specific carbohydrate) diet, often recommended for Crohn’s, as well as Stephanie Langford, who has a bunch of GAPS diet recipes on her site along with the story of her family’s experience.
The fact that I challenged you just days before hearing Jordan Rubin speak to “Test Your Grains,” including perhaps going grain-free? That I tried gluten-free during Holy Week and had some coconut flour hanging around? Coincidences, none of them.
I know that God is going to take care of us, and I really can’t wait to see what He’s going to do.
Really – I can’t wait. 
The last six days have been rough on my husband.
He misses his ice cream.
We’re not only cutting out all grains, including legumes (and that one is KILLING me, as a lover of beans), but my husband is cutting dairy as well.
We need to figure out what, if any, sensitivities he has, and these are the usual culprits. We also need to heal his gut, so I made a big pot of chicken stock last night, and I’m learning about the SCD Diet, the Maker’s Diet, and the GAPS diet to try to figure out which one is the right one to embark upon.
There won’t be much bread baking in the house this fall, but we’re still going to Test Our Grains. It’s a challenge, to be sure.
In the next week, I’ll share some of the grain-free meals and grain-free snacks we’ve been having and will give you a synopsis of Jordan Rubin’s talk as well.
Tomorrow, I will give you the information you need to embark on the Test Your Grains Challenge with us. You can sign up at that post and let us know what you’ll be trying, if you’ve decided. I’ll give you the observations you should take for a baseline (what’s “normal” for you) and then will continue to observe as you change your grains.
UPDATE: more thoughts on trying an elimination diet
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For tons o’ info on wheat, gluten free and grain free, visit Donielle’s carnival, Wheatless Wednesday. You’ll also love Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.
Hi! I just wanted to tell you that my hubby also has Crohn’s. He also has had a surgery and been on meds and he did a couple of Remicaid infusions… However the most healing he has seen has been with diet. One thing in particular does him wonders… maybe you can try this if you haven’t already. GREEN SMOOTHIES! We usually use organic raw spinach or some other organic greens, a nice ripe banana, some kind of berry or berry mix usually they are frozen… today I added 1/2 grapefruit… I also add some probiotic powder, 1-2 small scoops of chia seeds, flax oil, either almond milk + water or SO Delicious coconut milk + water, I also will toss in various other fruits if I have any on hand, a couple scoops of frozen OJ concentrate… and oh yes, bee pollen from our local area in Montana. This is like a miracle drink… seriously he has done so well on this. I am trying to also cut out grains and dairy… he loves cheese though, especially on burritos. I have taken ice cream and pizza away and that has been really good. Anyways, good for you guys and I hope this helps!!! Love your blog btw!
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Oh, sorry I just wanted to add that I never buy the SO coconut milk or almond milk sweetened, I ALWAYS buy the unsweetened version, and I think this makes a big difference, limiting the sugar etc.
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Ok, last comment, sorry
I knew I was forgetting something… I really love the Daily Boost Herba-smoothie herb blend for smoothies that is sold at The Bulk Herb store. We add I teaspoon into the smoothie… and sometimes I toss in some dried elderberries and rose hips as well that I get from the same company. Here is the link to that: http://www.bulkherbstore.com/Daily-Boost-Herba-Smoothie
Sorry for bugging ya! Take care
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Katie Reply:
October 29th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Jamie,
You fit the whole kitchen sink into those smoothies! That’s awesome. I do some green smoothies, but I definitely don’t have the extras like that. We used pasteurized cheese for the first time this week, and although he did okay on raw cheese, either the store cheese or the nixtimalized corn chips made bad things happen. Time to take two steps back…
Katie
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it is super easy to make homemade coconut milk. Just take 2 c. organic (unsweetened!) shredded coconut and soak it in 4 c. water. After soaking for about 2 hrs or so, blend in powerful blender such as a Vitamix and strain the coconut meal out with a nut milk bag. You can use the coconut meal in recipes to replace flour if you don’t want to throw it out and waste it. The milk tastes delicious and make it into kefir and put in our morning green smoothies. yum!
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Katie Reply:
October 30th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Trishia,
That’s awesome! I found a recipe for similar recently but hadn’t tried it yet. That would so much less expensive than the canned stuff, and no BPA or additives. Nice! I wonder if a weak blender does any good. ?
Do you dehydrate the leftover meal to use as flour, or just put it in a recipe mushy?
Thanks!
Katie
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Trishia Reply:
October 30th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
well, i don’t have a dehydrator so I just store the leftover meal in the frige and put it in as is. when i strain out the milk i can usually get most of the moisture out because it strains really easily. you can try a regular blender… but you may have to do 1/2 batch at a time. and when using the meal up in recipes, i don’t substitute all the nut or grain flour…just some of it and you don’t even know the coconut is there! you could also just use the meal in any recipe that calls for regular ol’ unsweetened coconut.
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I am reading that you are not having bread. I am on the SCD diet and I make bread with almond flour. It is wonderful. I can make all kinds of things—rye bread, cinnamon raisin, zucchini, banana, on and on. Have you tried the recipes?????
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Katie Reply:
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:11 am
Sheryl,
Katie
No, I haven’t tried grain-free bread as of yet, mostly because I’m hoping we can get back to grains pretty quickly here and didn’t want to learn something new that I wouldn’t have to continue using. I also don’t have a way to make homemade almond flour. If we need to do it, it’s good to know it is possible and yummy to make grain-free reads, so thank you!
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Merry Jo Reply:
November 10th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I’ve heard you can make your own almond flour by using blanched almonds and grinding them in a coffee grinder. (Just don’t grind them too long or you’ll end up with almond butter!
) I just made a “legal” apple pie the other day using almond flour for the crust and it was so good! I’ve also made biscuits for my hubby. I’m using a couple cookbooks: “Grain Free Gourmet” and “Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet” that have helped me tremendously. I just purchased 5 lbs of almond flour on amazon for about $36, which is a good deal (much better than $12/lb at our health food store). It gives me enough to play around with. 
Oh, and I also have a recipe for coconut flour bread, but my hubby REALLY didn’t like that. Now, I somehow have to use up 6 lbs of coconut flour…
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Katie Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Merry Jo,
Does he like coconut at all? I’ve had some amazing successes with it in muffins, and pancakes, even brownies. Try the recipes on Tropical Traditions. I listed some here: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/09/28/a-grain-free-life-menu-ideas-to-keep-it-simple/
Gotta use that up!
Katie
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Merry Jo Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Thanks so much! I’ll have to check it out. He really doesn’t like coconut usually, but it’s because of the texture, not the taste. The recipe for bread I used had so much butter and eggs in it, it was just overkill. I’ll have to check those recipes out. He really likes the almond flour, though!
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A Grain-Free Dinner (& What's On Your Plate?) // Nov 10, 2010 at 8:56 am
[...] plates have changed an awful lot in the past few weeks as we embarked on a grain-free lifestyle. I never thought we’d survive without the bread, rice, pasta, oatmeal, around which we generally [...]
Hi, I don’t know if this has been said or not (I don’t have time to read 80 comments
), but we are following the SCD, and have been since April. My hubby has also had digestive issues, although thankfully it isn’t Crohn’s. You said your husband is cutting out all dairy, but he could probably have homemade yogurt. We allow ours to ferment for 24 hrs, which allows the bacteria time to break down all the lactose in the milk. Really easy and so yummy!
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Katie Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Thank you, that was the first thing we introduced, and it went great!
Katie
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hi! i know this post is from 6 months ago, but i wanted to encourage you in this effort. my dad has had Crohn’s for 25+ years, and his doctor (who has lots of Crohn’s patients) says he’s the healthiest of his patients. my mom puts a lot of effort into diet and he followed SCD for almost 5 years and got so much better! i hope your husband is doing better, too.
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Katie Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Emily,
Katie
I really appreciate that! We’re again looking at the gluten issue, so GAPS or SCD might be in our real future sometime soon depending on what we learn. It’s amazing how many people don’t understand/believe that our diets can impact diseases like Crohn’s – diseases of the GUT of all things! Thank you for the encouragement!
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