Berglund Health & Wellness Center

Clean grains
When it comes to grains, Dr. Berglund usually recommends those such as spelt flour, rice flour, quinoa, kamut, teff, amaranth, garfava, almond flour, oat flour, and buckwheat. (Of course, you'll have to find out if you're sensitive to any of these in particular.) They tend to be less "allergenic" than the standard "white flour" found in most pantries. You can often find these flours in the organic section at your grocery store.

White flour, in fact, is a major irritant to most people. Because of the way it's processed, our bodies don't know how to handle it. Wheat has three parts to it: the germ, the bran, and the endosperm. To make white flour, the bran (the fiber) and the germ (where the nutrients are located) are removed, and what's left is the endosperm. This is then chlorine bleached to make it white, fluffy, and flavorless. Our bodies were created to recognize the wheat grain - but not an adulterated gran like white flour!

You may be thinking, "Don't worry - I eat whole wheat bread." Did you know that whole wheat bread really isn't "whole" wheat? It still has white flour in it! If you want to be sure that your bread is a true whole grain, be sure that you purchase it from the freezer aisle in the grocery store. You see, if the wheat still has the germ intact, it will spoil quickly if it isn't frozen. You know your whole wheat bread is "adulterated" if it's sitting with all the other breads in the grocery store, unfrozen. The bread we recommend is Ezekiel 4:9 bread. This is a true whole grain - and bettter yet, a sprouted grain. The majority of our patients don't have a problem with this type of bread.

Note: We don't recommend using white spelt. Once again, it's an adulterated grain. If you're going to use spelt flour, please be sure to use whole grain spelt!

Sweeteners
You know that you want to avoid white sugar, but you also know that switching from sugar to something like Splenda or another artificial sweetener is like eating TOXIC POISON! So which sweeteners ARE safe? Dr. Berglund recommends alternative sweeteners like xylitol, maltitol, sorbitol, stevia, Sucanat, Fruit Sweet, raw honey, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, pure maple syrup, and maple sugar. (As always, ask Dr. Berglund if these sweeteners are right for you!) We have a conversion chart available for you (in order to make your cooking easier), as well as additional information on all of these sweeteners.

How to shop
All of this information about what's not good for you, what you should eat, and what you react to can be overwhelming! How do you even begin grocery shopping!? Actually, the process is quite simple. We recommend shopping the perimeter of the store - produce, meats, frozen food, and organic food (if your store has an organic section). This eliminates all the processed food, which is usually located in the center aisles of the grocery store. You're also going to have to become a label reader, but don't worry - it's not that hard. If the ingredients are something that you don't recognize, it's probably a chemical, not food. Avoid that product. Happy shopping!

Other helpful links
Food sensitivity & allergy testing

Good, clean fun in the kitchen
Cooking for an allergen-free diet can seem challenging. Our staff has compiled a list of recipes (with downloadable recipe cards) to make that task easier for you. Any recipe with an asterisk indicates a recipe we have tried and liked! (If it doesn't have an asterisk, it probably just means we haven't tried it yet.) If you've got a recipe you'd like to add, email it to our front desk!