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Traveling with Food Allergies: homemade sugar scrub
Whew. Just got back from a whirlwind eight-day trip through China! I've never traveled on a tour before, it was good but exhausting since they packed a lot of sightseeing into a limited amount of time -- waaay more than I would have done on my own. I can see now how being a rock star traveling on the road could be so physically taxing, why they would need a personal assistant and why it would be so easy to go off the deep end! :) I am going through my pictures now and will post a few soon to share, I promise.
The most urgent thing I noticed when I got home was how much damage I did to my skin during this trip. Any time I travel my skin goes haywire since I am out of my controlled environment (hypoallergenic organic bed, HEPA filter), and I'm usually forced to eat some non FAQ-friendly food, and can't maintain my hyper-vigilance as usual. On this trip, there was also tons of environmental pollution to contend with as well. But this time when I got home my skin was so dry and damaged it was PAINFUL. It was rough from the minor rashes I got every day, dehydrated from drinking less water (I only drank bottled so was drank much less than I drink at home), and my skin felt like it was so hard and brittle (is that technically possible?) that it was going to crack -- it was painful enough to kept me from sleeping.
What to do? I was too jet-lagged to go shopping for a gluten-free, soy-free body scrub/moisturizing treatment, so looked up a recipe for a homemade sugar scrub on the internet. This recipe has only three functional ingredients available at any health food store (thank goodness for the Whole Foods down the street). If you can't find glycerine, the original recipe author used avocado oil, you could also use grapeseed oil.
I scooped some scrub onto my legs, since that was where there was the most damage (btw, I also bruise my legs every single time I travel just managing the luggage!). This was much easier to do in the bathtub vs. the shower, trust me on this! This scrub worked nicely for a first round of defense, now I just need to keep putting more good food and lots of water into my system, and use tons of lotion.
About the scrub ingredients: sugar is a natural softening agent, and vegetable-based glycerin (which is usually made from palm and/or coconut oil) is a moisturizing agent. (Although the author uses avocado oil, it's more expensive so I went with the glycerin.) The aloe or vitamin C is to promote healing. I didn't have any essential oils or colorings on hand which would have made it nicer, but this worked just fine and I'll add those to a later batch. This recipe is from Care2.com I took a bath to soften my skin, then scooped some scrub, rubbed it in to exfoliate for about 30 seconds. Then I left it on for about 3 minutes before rinsing off. My skin was smoother, softer, and more receptive to lotion -- it was no longer in defense mode! Be sure to have the ingredients handy to make this scrub when you return from traveling.
Homemade Sugar Scrub (gluten-free, soy-free)
from Care 2.com
* 50 percent white cane sugar (note that organic sucanat, while the best choice for food, doesn’t work as well for this recipe)
* 50 percent vegetable glycerin to moisten the sugar (I used avocado oil since I was out of vegetable glycerin and it proved to be a successful substitute)
* Small amounts of aloe vera gel, vitamin C crystals, or anything healing that dissolves in water
* 1 or 2 drops of essential oil if desired (Larry recommends combining orange and lavender)
* Enough ground hibiscus powder for pink color (if desired)
Combine the ingredients in a bowl. Scoop some of the scrub onto your hand and massage gently onto your skin for a minute (the scrub will actually tighten onto your skin like a masque). Leave on for 3 to 4 minutes before rinsing.
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The Food Allergy Queen is traveling to China
One of the benefits of being unemployed is that you are suddenly freed up to new opportunities -- I was recently invited to accompany my mom on a 10 day trip to four cities in China and depart this week! Once I said yes (very enthusiastically) the mad preparations began.
International travel requires planning as it is -- but the Food Allergy Queen needs a military-style deployment! Not only am I traveling to the land of rice and soy (two of my major food allergens), there will be language barriers (my Mandarin is minimal, although my mom speaks Cantonese), mystery ingredients, and my other environmental allergies to contend with. (For those with life-threatening food allergies, obviously you would have to be more selective as to where you would travel, not all countries are knowledgeable and/or accommodating about food allergies -- Europe might be a better choice than a less-developed area like Africa. And it helps to familiarize yourself with the cuisines of the country -- peanut oil is used almost universally in China, fish is a staple in Scandinavia. You get the idea.)
Also remember, China is a Communist country, so it also necessitates being overly cautious with how and what I bring. What's a Queen to do? Be uber-prepared and ready for anything!
Here's how I do it...presenting "The FAQ Travel Checklist for food allergies, chemical and environmental allergies"
1. Ordered a customized Allergy Translation card with up to 10 specific allergens in Simplified Chinese. This only took only a few minutes, I got to print as many cards as I wanted, and was only $8. You have a choice to note whether your allergies are life-threatening or not. Great deal. I've attached a screenshot of the card I ordered.
2. Kept all prescription medication in the original containers with the prescription on them.
3. Updated my prescription Epi-Pen and made a copy to keep with it in my purse (it was two years overdue. Oops).
4. Packed all my natural remedies for any possible tummy troubles: papaya enzymes for digestion after every meal, activated charcoal for upset stomach, and Digestive Advantage for IBS (free 30 day trial!) probiotics every day.
5. Packed my Imodium, just in case the items in #4 fail to work!
6. A friend reminded me about the super-polluted air quality in Beijing (totally forgot that was an issue during the Olympics)! It will be worse in the winter because a lot of Chinese heat their homes with coal! Eeek. Because I also have asthma, I went to my allergist and got a new emergency inhaler and allergy meds (Singulair).
6a. I got a personal air purifier for the plane as well as for the pollution. I've never tried one, but am giving it a try! It works by producing negative ions that help repel particulates from your face. But it produces ozone, so may not work for those sensitive to ozone. A review to come later!
7. Also for the pollution, I'm bringing my one-two punch of Ocean nasal saline and Nasalcrom, which I usually use religiously during hay fever season. I use the saline first to rinse everything out, then the Nasalcrom to put a protective coating in the nose so that you don't react to the allergens in the first place. Both are over the counter at any drugstore, about $15 total for both.
8. For both the pollution and potential exposure to H1N1 (swine flu), we are also bringing disposable face masks. Asians have been doing this since SARS broke out a few years ago so it won't look THAT weird there! Plus no one will recognize us in a sea of Chinese people anyway, ha ha.
9. Just in case we do get sick while traveling, I'm packing natural cold and flu remedies Airborne and Oscillococcinum.
10. Bringing alcohol-free hand sanitizer (don't forget that all liquids in carry-on luggage need to be 4 oz. or less!) and a roll of toilet paper and baby wipes since you never can be sure of the state of toilets in developing countries.
11. Since I also have some chemical allergies (of course), I also bring along some detergent I'm familiar with to wash out undies on long trips so that I don't have to rely on strange hotel laundry detergents. Tide makes these handy little travel packs.
12. On a side note, my stress-related IBS symptoms were almost 100% conquered by my wonderful acupuncturist, Jill Harrison. The cramping, bloating, nausea and anxiety were fixed with one treatment because I certainly didn't want travel on a rigorous tour looking for a bathroom every 10 feet! I ate gingerly the next day or so and seemed to be in good shape. I tried a trigger food (red meat) and had a little trouble, but after having some papaya enzymes was feeling pretty good. For those of you with IBS, I highly recommend trying acupuncture to alleviate symptoms. It may not totally cure you, but the relief was immense and immediate -- this after having chronic symptoms for over a month!
13. I always pack a dust-mite pillow cover and put them on my pillow in every hotel. The hard part is remembering to take them off again!
14. FAQ friendly foods going in the suitcase:
- Dried fruit and nut mix as a portable meal replacement in case I can't eat somewhere (I bring one big bag and little baggies to redistribute along the way)
- Fritos corn chips in a canister
- Dark chocolate bars for quick energy
- Peppermint tea
- Candied ginger for nausea
I'm still adding items to this list as I go along -- obviously for other humans, the list won't need to be as extensive unless you're a Queen (or King) like me. But some of these are my tried and true tips to make traveling doable, and to help cut down on allergy misery where ever you can so that you can enjoy the wonders of other parts of the world.
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Gluten-free oatmeal. Or is it?
I finally got a chance to try gluten-free oatmeal to try and add different soluble fibers back into my menu. This was from Bob's Red Mill who is usually pretty reliable with quality and accuracy. These oats have been ELISA tested. Interestingly, they had to put on a disclaimer on the package that it "Some celiacs react to even the purest of oats"...why? Because there is still SOME gluten in it! Wha? Why not call it "gluten-reduced" instead? I tried the steel cut version out, and even thought I'm not a celiac I still had a gluten reaction to it after one bowl. I guess it's sorta the same situation as decaffeinated coffee -- it's not TRULY caffeine free, there are still small amounts. *sigh*. I had hoped for better from Bob's.
I'll close with a line from The Princess Bride, "Get used to disappointment."
Has anyone else have better luck with other gluten-free oat products? Or have other celiacs been okay with this product? I'd love to make oatmeal cookies again.
Thanks for sharing.
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This just in! This post sparked a conversation with Beth, co-president for Cream Hill Estates, a producer of pure GF oats. Apparently all gluten is not the same -- here's her explanation:
The term “gluten” is a catch-all word used to describe the storage proteins found in all cereal grains, including corn, rice, wheat, barley, rye, oats, etc. These storage proteins have many similarities from one variety of grain to another, but each grain variety is also composed of other unique gluten components that distinguish it from the other grains. Wheat, barley and rye (WBR) (plus half a dozen or so other closely-related cereal grains) have similar amino acid sequences (portions of the gluten protein chain, or “peptides”) to which people with CD/DH are intolerant. Oats, and even more-so corn and rice, are more distantly related to these WBR grains and thus do not contain the offending peptides.
Here's link to the entire article for exhaustive detail about pure oats.
So what does this mean? That there is gluten in oatmeal, corn and rice, but just a different type that does not impact most celiacs. However, because the Cream Hill Estates audience is celiacs, Beth was not aware that there are people like yours truly with a true allergy (rashes, respiratory distress, mild anaphylaxis) to the other types of gluten as well. She also agreed that they could be more clear with the labelling. So the answer is: you'll have to try gf oatmeal for yourself to see if it is tolerable for your specific diet.
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