Dr. Wakefield’s work has been discredited over the past several years, and ten of the eleven doctors who were involved in the study have removed their names from it. The Sunday Times reports that Dr. Wakefield “changed and misreported results” in his research, according to “confidential” medical documents and interviews with witnesses.

Dr. Wakefield’s study was published in February 1998 in The Lancet medical journal, causing widespread concern among parents that the MMR vaccine—for measles, mumps, and rubella—was linked to autism. According to The Sunday Times, the impact of the article was “extraordinary,” with vaccination rates decreasing from 92% to less than 80%, while “herd immunity” from measles occurs when 95% of the population has been vaccinated.

After a British journalist, Brian Deer, published the results of his investigation calling Wakefield’s study an “elaborate fraud,” Wakefield denied these allegations as false in an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Wakefield continues to stand by his findings, saying that the results have been replicated in studies in five other countries and that Deer has received financial support from a pharmaceutical company. Check out the link below to see the interview yourself.

CNN Video Clip

Tina Turbin

www.DannyTheDragon.com

b.a.

The easiest way to avoid or reduce your exposure to chemical coloring is simply to avoid a lot of processed food.  Check your gluten-free labels always.

FD&C on a label means the FDA allows the dyes to be used in food, drugs and cosmetics.  Sometimes you’ll see FDA Red 40 or FD&C Red 40, so these are just 2 ways the labeling is used.

The FDA allows nine synthetic color additives to this date despite consumer advocacy groups showing mass evidence of the 2 dyes; Red 40 and Yellow 6 linked to hyperactivity, hence attention disorders.

Also, the term artificial colors means “dyes from plants and minerals”, not a synthetic source.  Two of these are caramel (used in cola) and annatto extract from a tropical seed and used in some cheeses to make the color desired.

Click here to read Part 1 on how chemical food dyes are linked to hyperactivity.

Tina Turbin
www.TinaTurbin.com

Chemical dyes are in all types of foods and despite evidence of some of them wreaking havoc; the FDA has allowed them to remain on the “safe list”.

Manufacturers like to use them due to their capabilities to enhance foods, gums etc.  The results are vivid, consistent and very appealing.

The FDA monitors the production of nine synthetic color additives they consider safe.  Consumer advocacy groups have linked two of these dyes, Red 40 and Yellow 6, to hyperactivity in many children.

It is said that sometime in late 2010 the European Union will require any product containing these dyes to be labeled as such “May have an adverse effect on activity or attention in children”.  Some companies in Britain have already phased them out.

Tina Turbin
www.TinaTurbin.com

There seems to be a number of sites on travel.  Karen reached out to me to share a bit about her travel site and here is her story as well:

Tina,

I launched a website almost exactly two years ago to address this specific challenge: traveling safely on a gluten-free diet. My son, who was diagnosed with Celiac before he was even two years old, is now almost seven. We had taken a Caribbean vacation and had realized there wasn’t really any place to share our feedback with other Celiacs looking to plan safe and fun vacations with gluten-free family members…and few places to go to GET feedback when in the initial planning stages of a trip.

Two years ago I launched my own gluten free website to help people find restaurants, grocery stores, hotels/resorts, and cruise ships around the world that accommodate gluten-free diets. It is a review-based site, with dining and travel reviews submitted by people all over the country — and the world. We have over 800 reviews, and they are organized geographically to make it easy to access the ones most relevant to you. In fact, we just added new and improved search technology to allow users to narrow their search down to the city/town or zip code level — and map the results.

We also have a section of our site called Gluten Free Restaurant Menus ( http://www.glutenfreetravelsite.com/restaurants ) dedicated to listing some of the best national and regional chain restaurants with gluten-free menus (with direct links to those menus).

So all told, our site helps users find thousands of great places to safely dine gluten-free around the world. I hope you’ll find it useful Tina!
Karen Broussard
http://www.glutenfreetravelsite.com

Below is a little teaser of a recipe from a soon to be released book, Gluten Free Cookies by Luane Kohnke. You will have an opportunity to read the review of many tested recipes we will be doing out of her book over the next two months. So check back soon!

Enjoy and Happy Valentines Day, Tina

Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch
2 1/2 tablespoons tapioca flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons almond flour
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

Makes 48 to 60 cookies

I developed this recipe for my friend Gail.  She was diagnosed with celiac disease late in life, and really missed her sweets. She told me that these cookies reminded her of the sugar cookies her grandmother made.

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, sift together brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, baking soda,  cream of tartar, and salt. Whisk in almond flour. Set aside.

2. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar. Set mixer speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and egg. Beat until well combined, about 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Divide dough into quarters, and wrap each quarter in plastic wrap or wax paper. Chill for 1 to 2 hours, or overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment.

4. Roll dough, one quarter at a time, between sheets of wax paper, to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with heart-shaped cookie cutter, dipping cookie cutter in brown rice flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour to aid cutting.

5. Place cookies on prepared cookie sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. If dough becomes too soft to reroll easily, return it to the refrigerator or place it in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes, until it is firm enough to reroll. Sprinkle cookies with granulated sugar, demerara sugar, or gluten-free sanding sugar.

6. Bake until edges are pale golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes.

7. Transfer cookies, still on parchment, to wire racks to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Recipe taken from Gluten-Free Cookies by Luane Kohnke
(978-1-4162-0623-1; $18.95; Pub date: March 2011; Sellers Publishing; 50+ full-color photos, Hardcover)

Author Bio:

Luane Kohnke has been an accomplished gourmet cookie baker for more than 20 years. Her love for cookie baking began when she was nine years old, living on her family’s farm in Wisconsin, and she developed an interest in gluten-free baking about 15 years ago. Luane lives in New York City. For more information, visit www.luanekohnke.com.

Tina Turbin
www.TinaTurbin.com

     So what exactly are omega-3 fatty acids and what do they do? Essential omega-3 fatty acids are found in cold-water fish and fish oils. Fish oil contains docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), while some nuts (English walnuts, for example) and vegetable oils (such as canola, soybean, flaxseed, and olive oils) contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Research now supports taking DHA and EPA in the form of dietary fish or fish oil supplements for an abundance of health benefits, such as promoting heart health, reducing age-related risks, and improving your mood and the ability to handle stress. The body can’t produce it, so these essential fatty acids must be part of your daily diet.

Tina Turbin

Tina Turbin

Tina Turbin

     Eating more plant carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains, can have a significant impact on your slumber. These foods help to produce a gradual, steady rise of blood insulin, helping the entrance into the brain of the amino acid tryptophan, a neurotransmitter that helps induce sleepiness and improve mood. (This explains why a glass of warm milk before bed can help to improve sleep, as it provides a dose of tryptophan while also inducing a release of insulin.)

     It’s important to eliminate the foods and drinks that can disturb sleep. Caffeine—found in soda, coffee, some teas, and chocolate—will interfere with sleep if you ingest it within four hours of bedtime—sometimes even within six hours. Alcohol can cause drowsiness, but metabolizing the sugar can disrupt slumber and also cause body temperature to rise too much. Sugary foods eaten right before bed can also raise body temperature and leave you restless during the night.

     Diet can also indirectly affect your sleep. If you’re overweight, you’re more likely to experience sleep apnea and its symptoms of heavy snoring and interrupted breathing. Eating a lot of simple carbohydrates (sugary treats) and refined starches (white flour and white rice), which cause blood sugar to spike and fall, may cause an imbalance in the hormones that regulate metabolism, disrupting the body’s natural rhythms and thus disrupting sleep.

     It may not require a total makeover of your diet to reap the benefits of good sleep, but even some minor adjustments with these tips in mind can be helpful. The changes you make will not only improve your sleep but your overall health. There’s nothing to lose in making these changes—except your sleep troubles!

Tina Turbin

Life after mom-hood is something you’ve been looking forward to for some time now, after all. You deserve to make it as rewarding as it was raising your children!

Tina Turbin