. a word of caution .

10Aug10

I’m not really the biggest fan of Tuesdays, but today ended up being a wonderful day despite almost starting off in a disastrous way (mad rhymes, yo!). See, my morning routine has been the same for so long now, that my brain pretty much switches to auto-pilot as soon as I stumble into the kitchen. Boil water. Toss in oats. Add spices. Gather up mix-ins. Assemble. Eat. Simple motions, minimal thought involved; I can basically go through the whole breakfast oat-making process thinking about ballerina llamas wearing polka dot tutus and still end up with a pretty darn good bowl of oats.

My addiction to adding pudding to oatmeal isn't really letting up... There's just something about the combination of chocolate, almond butter, banana, and firm eggy-oats that always leaves me wanting more. I've eaten this same bowl for... many, many days in a row now, and I would call it a rut, except that it's just too darn good to be classified as rut material... at least for now.

Yes, auto-pilot is a wonderful thing indeed; although, after this morning’s fiasco, I’m considering switching it back to manual again so that I can start paying a leeeeetle bit more attention to what I’m doing in the kitchen, and consequently increase my chances of avoiding disaster (because a bad breakfast IS a disaster)…

See, while someone (not naming any names… Mom) was making dinner last night, she they carelessly replaced the spices on the spice rack without putting them back in their regular spots. Thus, when my hand reached for the cinnamon shaker this morning, it grabbed the oregano instead, and since my head was up in the clouds (not necessarily thinking about llamas and tutus), I failed to notice. Dis.as.ter.

Dash, dash.

Wait a second; what’s that smell? That’s not cinnamon…

Oh, %@&*$#! It was actually my nose that came to the rescue, lugging my brain out of la-la land and shocking it into action. Now, don’t get me wrong; oregano is a wonderful spice and all, and savory dishes certainly have their time and place, but not at breakfast (no offence to those who like savory breakfasts).

Savory lunches? Sure…

Good thing autumn is on it's way, because then my cravings for warm soup won't be so out of the ordinary. Taking care to make sure I grabbed the RIGHT spices when lunch time rolled around, I made a bowl of curried-apple pumpkin soup with plenty of curry powder, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

And dinners? Definitely…

I've been experimenting with the spices that I add to my stir fries, and right now I'm hooked on the combination of garlic powder, ginger, cloves, fennel, and star anise. I've also been trying out different noodles, and I'm loving these whole wheat egg white spirals that I found a while back.

But breakfast isn’t breakfast unless it looks (and tastes!) more like this…

It may have been simple paranoia, but the only thing I could think of throughout my entire meal was "Do I detect a hint of oregano? No... Wait! Was that it? Hmm. Maybe not... THERE! No..." Before I knew it, I was all the way through my bowl, and I STILL couldn't tell if there was oregano or not...

Thankfully, I was able to react fast enough to prevent too much damage from being done. I scooped out the few spoonfuls of oats that were too far gone to be saved, added the proper spices, and plotted putting something very unpleasant in my mom’s morning tea (I didn’t). My oats were still extremely good, but I could swear that I detected a slight hint of oregano; it might have just been my mind playing tricks on me, though… In any case, take heed and pay attention to that spice rack!

. – . – . – .

In all seriousness, though, there is actually something that I’d like to caution you about. By now, I’m sure that we’re all familiar with gums (xanthan and guar; not Dentyne and Trident). They’ve been showing up on countless blogs around the blog world for quite some time now, and although I was late in jumping on the bandwagon myself, curiosity eventually lead me to give both a try.

Miracle workers. Godsends. Magical for their ability to thicken up a smoothie, and loved for their ability to help keep us fuller, longer. After my first trial, I was smitten, and the gums became a regular addition to all of my smoothies; or “soft-serves” as I began to affectionately call them.

Xanthan gum is made from little bacteria, which is why I was kind of resistant to try it from the get-go. I should've listened to my gut-feeling and avoided the stuff; it would have saved me an afternoon of excruciating pain and agony. Live and learn.

Their ability to thicken up a smoothie was a nice perk, but I’ll admit that I was probably more impressed by their ability to keep my hunger at bay for extended periods of time. What I wasn’t impressed by, however, was how they made my stomach feel… Bloated. Gassy. Crampy. Squirrely. Nothing too serious, but uncomfortable all the same. My body was sending me subtle hints that it wasn’t enjoying what I was putting in it, but I continued to ignore those hints in favor of satisfying disordered thoughts, and “filling up” in a not-so-healthy way.

Unfortunately, when subtle hints fail to do the job, the body turns to more drastic measures in order to get the message across, and yesterday, my body decided that it had had enough, and the gentle whispers it had used to try and get my attention up to that point turned into screams.

Although I love eating smoothies, I don't enjoy making them for two reasons. First, the blending process is insanely loud and obnoxious; I have to wear earplugs or I'm afraid that I might go deaf. Second, I'm not a big fan of cleaning the blender; I feel like I'm working against the clock, because as I'm busy slaving away at the sink, my smoothie is busy melting...

Enter the worst stomach pain and general feeling of malaise that I think I’ve ever experienced in my life. It was so bad, that I honestly thought I would have to take a trip to the ER; even my intense fear of doctors and hospitals wasn’t strong enough to deter me from just wanting the pain to stop. I felt like I was literally going to explode from all of the pressure in my body, and it wasn’t just in my stomach, either… I felt it in my limbs and head as well. It. was. terrifying.

The culprit? This seemingly innocent looking little guy…

It was a smoothie soft-serve no different than the ones I've had in the past. Almond milk. Strawberries. Vanilla protein powder. Gums. Ice. Kashi Honey Sunshine. Pretty normal stuff. The reaction, however, was anything BUT normal... Pain like nothing I've ever experienced, and the torturous thoughts of "Why the hell did I eat that?!" came in shortly after, only adding to my misery.

About half an hour after finishing a snack that I’d had several times before, the problems began; mildly uncomfortable at first, but gradually increasing to ER-worthy status. I’ll spare you the gory details, but I will say that it’s something I never want to experience again; and when I was finally lucid again by the end of the day (yes, it lasted almost all day), I promptly threw both of my gums into the trash to ensure that I wouldn’t get tempted by them in the future.

As it turns out, although xanthan and guar gums are generally thought to be safe, they are known to commonly cause side effects such as cramping, bloating, nausea, and diarrhea. People with IBS, narrowing of the intestines, or any other undiagnosed stomach problems are encouraged to avoid the gums due to their tendency to absorb tonnes of water and bulk up in the intestines, which could lead to severe and harmful reactions, like the one I experienced (but thankfully survived) yesterday.

Sadly, I've had to say goodbye to thick smoothies and go back to the thinner ones; but if straw-suckable smoothies will save me from the agony that spoonable ones caused me, then I'm willing to make that sacrifice... besides, they're still plenty tasty (and decently thick) when a frozen banana, vanilla protein powder, coconut milk, and ice are involved...

Truth be told, the whole ordeal could have easily been avoided had I just listened to my body and trusted my intuition instead of succumbing to disordered thoughts that revolved around a lingering fear of hunger. I thought I was past bulking up my meals and making myself sick in an attempt to keep hunger at bay, but apparently I wasn’t. Nevertheless, rest assured that I learned my lesson, and I’ll be twice as vigilant from now on to catch any more disordered behaviors that might still be hanging around.

Moral of the story? Don’t ever ignore the subtle messages you get from your body, because it will turn to more extreme ones, and those are… unpleasant, to say the least. If you’re hungry, eat food, because simply masking your hunger, besides being physically and mentally unhealthy, is usually rather uncomfortable as well.

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