I last left you with Evan's parents searching for alternatives. Western medicine was quickly showing itself to be ineffective in helping Evan with his Crohn's Disease, and they wanted to find something that would actually relieve Evan's symptoms.

Enter naturopathic medicine.

A good friend of Evan's family suggested that they try naturopathic medicine. In spite of their several doubts about whether it could be effective, Evan's mother tracked down Dr. Donovan, a naturopathic doctor whose office is in Seattle's U-District. They an appointment with him, and he reconfirmed that Evan had Crohn's disease. It was here that Evan and his family learned about the gluten free, sugar free diet.

Dr. Donovan told Evan to cut out of his diet all products containing complex sugars. So, Evan was restricted to eating fruit, beans, nuts, meat and vegetables. He could only have dairy products that had a low lactose content, which essentially eliminated everything except cheddar cheese.

Now, up until this point, Evan's parents had been feeding him foods with high amounts of calories in an effort to make him gain weight. However, because Crohn's disease had caused lesions in his intestinal tract, food molecules had been leaking into his bloodstream. After visiting Dr. Donovan, Evan had an allergy test done, and they found that Evan had built up several food allergies in addition to his new dietary restrictions outlined by Dr. Donovan. His diet was further reduced. He could no longer eat chicken (which included chicken eggs), green beans, peaches, plums, bananas and potatoes.

These new allergies forced Evan to make another radical shift in what he could and could not eat, because the things he was allergic to were the things he was eating the most. However, he and his family got very creative. Instead of buying chicken eggs, they bought duck eggs. Instead of using Bisquick to make pancakes, they began using almond flour from Trader Joe's.

Well, the story does not end there. But, I think I have written enough for now. And, I haven't forgotten that today IS Sunday, so here is another recipe for you to try!

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Ingredients:

Corn tortillas cut into triangles
Canola or other cooking oil

Directions:

To bake: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly brush tortillas with oil on both sides before cutting. Bake for 5 minutes per side and sprinkle with salt if desired. Cool and store in an airtight container.

To fry: Heat about half an inch of oil in a large skillet over high heat. Place triangles into oil and fry until they puff. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels or cooling rack. Sprinkle with salt.

The frying can be tricky with corn tortillas because they don't puff up as much as flour ones do. Leaving them in the oil for about 1.5 minutes should do the trick.

Recipe Sunday!

As the title may imply, today is Recipe Sunday! I've decided that on Sundays I will be posting gluten free recipes. Many of the recipes are for things you will recognize by name, but the ingredients will look radically different from what you've seen. Instead all-purpose flour, you'll see almond flour. Instead of sugar, you'll see honey.

So without further ado, here is the first recipe! (It's really a two for one because you can also make banana bread using this recipe)

Evan's Pumpkin Bread

2/3 cup honey
2 eggs
2/3 cup pumpkin
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cloves
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
3 cups almond flour

Cook at 310 degrees F for about an hour. You can check it by poking a knife or toothpick through the middle.

To make banana bread, eliminate the spices and add another 1/2 cup almond flour and substitute 2/3 cup pumpkin for 2 bananas and add 1/4 tsp vanilla.

You can find almond flour at Trader Joe's. If you don't have a Joe's in your area, it is also available online, or you can grind up almonds with a coffee grinder.

Just a thought.

As I sit here at my kitchen table deciding whether I to continue Evan's story at this time, he sleeps on the couch next to me. I am so blessed to have him in my life, and I truly cannot imagine what direction I'd be going without him. I admire him greatly for so many reasons.

So I'll admit, today I totally failed at the gluten free thing today. But, I figure that I shouldn't let my bread and pasta go to waste, so I decide that I'm going to try and cut things out as they disappear from my apartment. Then, when the wedding happens, I'll go cold turkey.

Anyway, rather than dwell on my lack of self-discipline when it comes to my favorite gluten filled snacks and foods, I'd like to continue to tell you Evan's story.

When Evan was in fourth grade, he was one of the smallest kids in his class, weighing only 90 pounds (Evan's parents are average in both height and weight, so this was very peculiar). His doctor attributed this to the fact that Evan simply hadn't had his growth spurt yet, like the rest of the boys. However, the next year, nothing changed. He hadn't grown or gained weight and he was as skinny as a rail. Evan and his parents visited the doctor again, where they got referred to Dr. Christie at Children's Hospital, whose specialty is gastroenterology.

Dr. Christie diagnosed Evan with Crohn's Disease almost immediately. Crohn's Disease causes inflammation of the digestive tract which makes it extremely difficult for the body to absorb nutrients. To confirm this diagnosis, Evan had to undergo a bowel biopsy. Sure enough, the biopsy was positive for Crohn's, so Evan was prescribed the steroid prednisone. This drug is designed to get the symptoms of Crohn's under control, but because of its terrible side effects, patients are put on another drug to keep symptoms down. For Evan this drug was Pentasa. For a little while it seemed as though the symptoms were under control. But, a few months later, Evan had another flare-up and had start the drug process over again with prednisone.

After two or three rounds with prednisone, paired with other maintenance drugs, like Imuran, plus a nutrient formula called Modulen IBD from Nestle, Evan and his family were getting desperate. Evan's body was still not absorbing enough nutrients, and the medications were had awful side effects which interfered with Evan's daily life. With Western medicine's only option being to try new drugs, like Remicade, he and his family began searching for another way.

Growing up, I never gave much thought to what I ate. If it tasted good, I ate it! Of course, like all good parents, mine taught be the importance of eating a balanced and healthy diet.

However, being one quarter Italian, going gluten free never crossed my mind. I mean, how could I possibly live without my pastas? Gluten free would mean cutting out fettucine alfredo, spaghetti, lasagna, tortellini, and pretty much every favorite food I have ever had. I thought all the Atkins followers were crazy!

And then, I met Evan. It wasn't love at first sight, but we became fast friends. We were working on a class project together, and after a work session with our friend Claire I asked him if he wanted to get Starbucks. He told me he would go, but he wasn't going to get anything. After another work session, we were both hungry so I suggested Italian food. He declined my suggestion, and asked if I might like Thai food instead. So he took me to Thumra Thai, a place I had never tried before (as it turned out, this was our first date. He didn't tell me he was going to pay until the check came. He can be very sneaky sometimes!). I ended up loving it!

Reader, you are probably wondering at this point what Evan has to do with being gluten free. Well, let me tell you.

Fast forward 3 years. Evan and I are engaged, and our wedding date is set for July 31, 2010. I am SO excited. He is an amazing, loving, godly man who has been an enormous blessing to me. However, this marriage means that I, after about 18 years of loving every Italian food I could lay my hands on, will be going gluten free.

Why would I do this? What could possibly drive me to make this decision? Well, Evan did. You see, reader, Evan had Crohn's Disease, a disease which as of today is incurable with Western medicine. We know very little about the disease and how people get it. Evan, however, with self-discipline, supportive parents and the realization that Western medicine just wouldn't cut it, has been able to beat Crohn's by going gluten free.

So, the purpose of this blog is keep telling you his story and our story together. We will be posting gluten free, low sugar recipes that tantalize even the gluten savvy tongue. We hope that others with Crohn's Disease might be inspired by this blog to realize that it doesn't have to end with Western medicine. You don't have to live with Crohn's.

Until next time,