Diet restrictions oh yuk oh yum

[Guest guest]

Hi everybody,

I certainly agree, diet restrictions oh yuk -- wouldn't we all rather be

free of them?

But you know, my family and I enjoy a whole long list of foods now that we

might never have tried, lots of new recipes we might never have invented --

if it hadn't been for SCD, blood type diet " avoid " lists, etc., etc., etc.!

When I feel like we need something new and interesting to eat, I look on

the blood type diet's lists of " highly beneficial " and " neutral " foods for

my daughter (and me -- we've got different blood types; my husband's is the

same as my daughter's). There are so many new foods to try!

I almost never see a recipe that I can use, so I just read other people's

recipes for inspiration and ideas. My daughter has taught me to be bold and

try combinations of foods I would never have tried pre-SCD.

She has taught me this by happily eating and enjoying most of my

" experiments " . Plus, believe it or not, she likes to watch Child

cooking videos and sometimes she'll say something like, " Let's put some

Brussels sprouts in a pan and... " inventing her own new dish based on

something she saw Child do!

If not for my daughter's special diet needs, I would never have discovered

how delicious liver can be, how wonderful chicken hearts are (tender and

chewy and so flavorful!), how tasty the steaming water from cooking beets

is, how yummy almond muffins are, how good spaghetti squash is when you're

not comparing it to spaghetti, etc., etc., etc., etc.!

Yes, there are rough spots along the road, but kids are adaptable

especially if mom and dad steer things in positive and fun directions. You

may need to leave your child at home when you go grocery shopping for a

while, but not forever. My daughter enjoys grocery shopping with me. We

pick out the biggest Brussels sprout in the world, the teensy-tiniest

Brussels sprout in the world, the funniest-looking carrot. We buy the

purple green beans, the purple carrots, the white peaches, the rainbow

chard. We admire the interesting (funny shaped, odd colored, etc.)

potatoes, sunchokes, sweet potatoes, etc. -- even though we can't eat them.

We appreciate the egg packer who carefully alternated green eggs with brown

eggs all the way down the carton! When we picked miner's lettuce in the

yard yesterday for our lunch, we put the biggest leaf and the tiniest leaf

in the frig to show Daddy when he got home.

My daughter cooks with me when she wants, too. She chops vegetables with

her own small knife (has since age 24 months and has never cut herself),

cracks eggs, mixes meatloaf (she can keep herself busy and happy for an hour

mixing meatloaf), stirs things on the stove (with mom supervising), makes

vegie juice with the juicer, grinds nuts.

There is great enjoyment and fun to be had in food and cooking even with

the restrictions we have to work within!

My husband always says, " There's always plenty to be unhappy about, and

there's always plenty to be happy about. It's your choice! " Yeah, he's

right! I know there are difficult things and unhappy feelings for us

" special needs parents " , but hey, we can find ways through the tough stuff

and enjoy cooking and eating with our families. " Enjoy " isn't a passive

verb -- it's an active one, en-joy, that means " bring joy into it " !

Ok, now I'm going to print this out and stick it up on the frig where I'll

see it on " bad days " -- to remind myself to bring joy to the kitchen every

time I cook and to the table every time we eat!

Kayla

" Gut stuff " my whole life, really bad last 20 years, SCD 2 years

Daughter Lilya almost 4 years old, mild ASD, Lyme, collagen problem, SCD 2

years