Where’s the Wheat in BuckWHEAT

Mantou’s pediatrician read off the results from his 1st blood allergy test (RAST -Allergen-specific IgE antibody test). Class IV for egg whites. Class IV for walnuts. Class II for peanuts. Class II for wheat. The class levels range from a spectrum of 0, where the allergen is absent, to VI, where there is an extremely high level of allergen specific IgE. Class IV is considered Very High, and Class II is considered moderate.  Then he explained what foods I would have to avoid. “Try avoiding the whole egg, even the yolk since you can’t really separate the egg white protein from the yolk”. Ok, can do that. “Even though we only tested for walnuts, since it is a tree-nut, I would avoid eating all tree-nuts”. Oh wow, I just ate a bag of trail mix before I got here. “Peanuts – peanut butter, peanut oil”. Hmm, no more Reese’s peanut butter cups! “Wheat – this one is hard so you can try to avoid it if you can”. Oh that’s easy. Husband then intercedes, “That means no bread – it’s made from flour which is from wheat” WHAT?! I didn’t think I needed the breakdown but that was a very enlightening conversation.

I’m thankful that the ingredients have the allergen label included on the product packaging. In the first couple of months I spent a good deal of time in those grocery aisles looking over the ingredient lists. I concluded it was not worth shopping down the fresh bread aisle and I didn’t think I would ever eat pasta again. There are however special breads in the freezer section like Food for Life‘s Millet or Brown Rice bread. And there’s all kinds of wheat-free pasta – made from corn, brown rice, or quinoa! At first, it was disappointing to find wheat in everything I ate. Cheerios the cereal, the little cute O’s that little kids are always snacking on? Well that has both oats and wheat flour. I ended up giving Mantou Kix as tasty portable cereal snacks. Love my gummies but these ones vary, not all gummies have wheat listed in their ingredients – I prefer the Haribo brand. Well now did you know that buckwheat is not a wheat, they aren’t even related! We’ve had a couple of meals with buckwheat and that stuff is good. I just simmer some in a saucepan with onions and carrots, add some spice like cumin and chili pepper. Then add some pork chops or sausage to the mix. Simple, easy, and Mantou approved.