By: Chelsea Davidson

I have suffered from asthma and seasonal allergies since I was about three years old. Eighteen years, scattered hospitalizations, allergy shots, various medications, and a sinus surgery later, I decided that there had to be a better solution to managing these conditions. I must have been complaining about my asthma and allergies at RBA one day because at some point Kathy Kendall, our food allergy expert dietitian, suggested that eliminating gluten from my diet was something I might try to help alleviate my symptoms.

So what exactly is gluten? It’s a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. I admit that I was pretty confused by Kathy’s recommendation at first, thinking that I have never been diagnosed with any sort of gluten sensitivity and wondering how a food substance might cause asthma and seasonal allergy issues. I was also hesitant because I’m a huge fan of any and all types of bread.

About a month later I have to say that this was probably one of the best decisions I have made regarding my diet. While all my friends have been complaining about their allergies since the spring-time weather has rolled in, I have probably only sneezed a handful of times. And the real evidence came to me when I went home last weekend. I have two “non-allergenic” dogs and two cats, all of which I am allergic to. Normally when I go home I have to take a few Benadryl and use my emergency inhaler to ease an allergic reaction and help me breathe. But this past weekend I didn’t need to do any of that. It truly was amazing to spend time at home with my family, and pets, without the runny nose, itchy eyes, and asthma attack.

Going gluten free is not necessarily for everyone with asthma and seasonal allergies, because not everyone has a gluten sensitivity. Based on my own research I have gathered that for those with a sensitivity, consuming gluten can have two possible effects; the sensitivity can manifest itself in gastrointestinal issues (as seen in those with Celiac disease) or in the intensification of seasonal allergies and asthma. So my sensitivity to gluten is not what gave me asthma and allergies (that was just a few bad genes I guess) but the gluten is what makes my asthma and allergy reactions so intense.

There are some specifics that are important to know before trying a gluten free diet. Let Kathy talk you through the process to make sure it is done properly before you begin. If you think you may have a gluten sensitivity or any other food allergy issues, set up an appointment with Kathy to start alleviating your symptoms today!

By Elizabeth Haaser

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13^th! Continue reading for healthy gift tips…

From as early as I can remember, my mother has always said “Just take a teabag from the pantry and tape it to a card; that’s all I want for Mother’s Day.” However, I pride myself on coming up with creative gifts for her each year. For the woman who will never spend a dime on herself, I really enjoy getting to pamper her for a change.

With this spirit of giving comes a perfect opportunity to pick out a healthy present, and I’ve come up with 5 great options!

1. A Personalized Gym Towel Embroider a gym towel with your mother’s name- you can even include a picture of her, of the two of you, or of something that inspires her, like a quotation. Click the link to visit the website that does this!

2. iPod Armband Inspire Mom to enjoy the beautiful weather while walking or running outside with the company of her favorite songs.

3. Healthy Cookbook Why not buy your mom a cookbook filled with healthy recipe ideas you could make together? We even sell some at the RBA Greenbelt office!

4. Salad Dressing Emulsifier This gadget, from Williams-Sonoma (I LOVE that store!), allows you to mix ingredients in seconds. My mom has always made our own light Italian dressing, and this is a great way to make your own healthy versions of typically calorie-dense dressings!

5. Fruit or Organic Food Baskets Yes, this may be a little conventional, but there’s a reason for that! “The best gifts are the ones you can eat” (another gem from my mother). You can order these to be delivered to your mother’s house, and you can even find some that are specialty- all organic or gluten free, for example.

Any gifts that you recommend?

By: Sara Emden

Let’s face it, the hardest part about eating healthy is trying to plan meals and keep track of everything. With that said, I think I found the solution to this problem. “Cinch!” by Cynthia Saas, RD.  I had great success following this plan last April and almost a year later I continue to follow many aspects of this plan to date.  There are many reasons why I liked this book, but I decided to narrow it down to the top tips that I really liked and continue to follow.

The first tip that I love is Saas’ characteristic rule known as “the five puzzle pieces”. She says each meal, including snacks, should follow a 5 piece puzzle and be made up of: a produce, a whole grain, a lean protein, a plant-based fat, and seasonings.  Rather than counting calories, Cynthia Saas takes the approach of creating well-balanced meals. There are many benefits to following her rule, but I found satiety in particular, to be the ultimate benefit.  My go-to breakfast that follows this rule, for example, is a cup of Greek yogurt (lean protein), with fruit (produce), dried oats (whole grain), almond butter (plant based fat) and cinnamon (seasonings).  In addition, every recipe in her book (there are over 100 recipes!), follows this rule. I have tried a large majority of the recipes and many of them remain as my go-to recipes for lunches or dinners. My favorite one is black bean tacos with cilantro-jalapeno guacamole. She even discusses how to follow the puzzle piece rule when ordering a meal at a restaurant, as well as, snacks to eat on the go.

Saas goes into a lot of detail about the importance of using seasoning in meals. This was one of the more “eye opening” tips for me. Who would have thought using herbs/spices, vinegar, lemon/lime juice and zest, hot peppers and tea would add so much flavor to food with very little calories.  I now try to incorporate these into every meal and snack.

She talks about the importance of portion control and how to measure food properly without measuring calories. She states that calorie counting is outdated and it is more important to eat nutrient dense food verses calorie dense food. The book has a 5 page chart broken down by each puzzle piece and the serving sizes for specific foods in each group.

The last aspect I really liked about this book, is that she emphasizes a whole food, organic food and plant-based diet.  Many recipes in the book are vegetarian or vegan. By staying away from processed food, eating whole foods and incorporating more plant-based foods into my diet, it’s allowed me to have sustainable weight loss, proper nutrition, and an increase in energy. For this reason in particular, I eat this way to date.

By: Shelley Alspaugh, RD

Vitamin and mineral deficiency has always been an interest and level of curiosity for me.  So, I have been so grateful to now offer Micronutrient Testing through Spectracell Laboratories!  All that is required is a blood draw and your levels of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, metabolites and antioxidants are evaluated for status.  The Spectracell test provides a comprehensive reflection of your intracellular nutrition status.  SpectraCell measures the presence of a nutrient within a patient’s white blood cell, we are able to reveal a person’s functional nutrient status over a much longer period of time than standard blood serum testing.  This is a very important piece of your wellness program.  Nutrition deficiencies are often under overlooked because most nutrition deficiencies are not affecting your daily life.  However, once you begin treating your nutrition deficiencies along with a healthy eating and exercise plan, most people feel so much better.  On a personal note, I found that I am deficient in Vit B12, zinc, calcium (all of which I predicted), along with deficiency in choline and oleic acid.  The oleic acid was a shocker because I eat a lot of healthy fats and take a high quality omega 3 supplement.  I have now learned that due to the choline deficiency I was not breaking down all of the fat.  I have felt so much better since 7/11 when I first I had my spectracell analysis and began treating my deficiencies through high quality supplementation.  I encourage all of my clients to do this testing because it helps guide us in our food planning and supplementation.

Our next blood draw will be on Tues. May 16 between 4-6.  Call our office to sign up or talk to your RD!

Interviewed and written by Elizabeth Haaser

One of my favorite parts about this job is working at the front desk and greeting every patient. New faces become familiar ones, conversations pick up where they left off, and I feel more and more connected to this RBA family. Sometimes though, I make connections with people I don’t even see in person; every now and then, a perspective client on the phone really reaches me, and our next successful client was such a woman.

She called looking for some direction, and I asked to hear a bit of her story. She gave me a glimpse into her emotionally-driven eating past, and I knew immediately that Bobbi was the RD she should meet with. I included a note on her folder for Bobbi, simply saying that I really liked this patient, but from there, I was unsure if I would hear from her again. She now shares more of that story with me, and describes that pairing with Bobbi as being the answer to her prayers.

Every story has a start…

“As a young girl, I ate three balanced meals a day with the largest meal at lunch.  My special reward was either chocolate cake with maple sugar icing or homemade tapioca pudding. These treats are still my favorites. The summer before the 7th grade, following a family crisis, we moved from the Midwest to the west coast.  During the long drive, alone in the back seat of the car, I was filled with sadness about leaving my home and I was anxious about where we were going. I found comfort in eating cookies the entire trip.  No one said a word since it seemed to make me happy. This led to binges and the pounds began to accumulate. After six months, my mother took me to a doctor whom I loved; he put me on a diet and I was back on track eating normally and participating in physical activities.”

…some complications…

“This continued until my early 40’s when I returned to the old pattern of binge eating to alter my emotions. It allows me to escape rather than deal with pain, discomfort, loneliness, boredom, frustration or difficulty in figuring something out. I have believed for many years that sweets are my addiction just as smoking was. In the past 20 years, I would overeat to the point that I was so full and would become nauseous, and throwing up was my only means of relief. The eating helped to cover up the same emotions I had experienced earlier in life, but now I was also eating to fill vacant time. I felt disgusted because the weight kept me from enjoying activities with my children and grandchildren. I avoided having my picture taken because of the shame I felt about looking like someone who wasn’t me. I want my grandchildren to know me as my children did, 60 or 70 pounds lighter.”

… and a time of change.

“I knew that I needed to take more responsibility for my health.  I remembered a note from my primary care doctor recommending Rebecca Bitzer. I made the phone call and through divine providence and Elizabeth, Bobbi was recommended. I didn’t know what to expect from meeting Bobbi, but I hoped that she would not simply hand me a diet and tell me to follow it. During my first and subsequent meetings with Bobbi, she has guided but never pushed or judged, suggested never mandated, listened and then reconstructed our plans, challenged me with new ideas, recommended books which helped my mind understand what I was going through and allowed me to identify and eliminate my triggers, all of which meant that I didn’t have to fit into a specific box.

I spent many years in therapy, hoping it would fix me and I would stop having these eating issues. I have discovered in my experience with Bobbi that my eating and emotional issues cannot be separated. I still have a hard time turning to another activity to replace my desire for food. There are many days that make me fear returning to old habits. I have learned that each of my senses is extremely sensitive and directly tied to my emotions.”

But if we take a moment to really listen…

“I’ve found that writing in a journal helps to calm me.  I write about thoughts, feelings, what I have eaten, what I did, where I went, and how I felt.  Some days I write a lot, others not much. I have learned to let go, stop worrying, and turn it over to God. I want to feel emotion, accept it, and then make eating something separate.

I have learned to love silence, since it allows me to think creatively and explore many good things I have not thought about for years. The TV or radio has become a distraction for me, and turning them off has opened up a whole new world.

Being honest with myself and others gives me the courage to move forward and know I can do it.”

…you might just like what you hear.

“Six months ago, I would never have believed that I could find someone that knew what I was experiencing and actually had answers that felt logical.  I always have known what and how to eat; I just couldn’t seem to do it. I have a long journey ahead, but I believe in Bobbi and she helps me believe in myself.”

Note From Elizabeth: I want to thank this brave woman who shared her story with me. I believe in fate, I believe that changes can come at any stage in your story, and I believe in you. Congratulations on all your progress!

By: Christie St. Pierre

Food allergies and dietary restrictions can make meal planning difficult, whether you’re cooking for yourself or for an entire family.  The process of sifting through recipes to make sure they are safe or trying to find substitutes for ingredients that may cause an adverse reaction can be overwhelming and exhausting.  The folks at TheAllergyMenu.com understand the risk of harm for those living with food allergies and intolerances, and they provide the resources to prepare tasty, healthy meals that adhere to dietary restrictions.  Their searchable database allows you to select the type of dish you would like to prepare (e.g. breakfast, salad, main dish, etc), followed by a list of allergy types where you can select multiple allergies at once.   One of my favorite features was that the number of servings is provided for each recipe, and you can double or halve the recipe with one click.  You can also add recipes that catch your eye to My Recipes and then use the list of recipes to plan for the week using the Menu Planner.

The recipes are varied, creative, and nutritious.  I personally do not have any food allergies or intolerances, but there are nonetheless several recipes from this site that will be coming out of my kitchen in the near future!  From Moroccan Eggplant Pizza (dairy free and gluten free) to No Potato Potato Cakes (they have a secret ingredient!), I am eager to try many of these recipes.

In addition to the recipes, the site includes articles, videos, and links to other helpful resources for living and cooking with food restrictions.  TheFoodAllergyMenu.com can save a tremendous amount of time and angst and help make food preparation enjoyable once again.

BY Rebecca Bitzer

If you are in the Maryland Area and looking for a new lunch place, Bon Fresco is a must try! The food is inexpensive, healthy, and delicious and is a great alternative to fast food. All of their breads and baked goods are made from scratch and their flour is never bleached.  These make a delicious vehicle for an array of sandwiches, such as turkey, grilled vegetable, corned beef, chicken breast, and much more. They also have a great selection of salads made from mostly grains, legumes, cheese, herbs, and of course vegetables. The important thing is that every food item has no chemical or artificial additives, and everything is slow-cooked to bring out natural flavors.

Just the other day I enjoyed a turkey sandwich and lentil salad, it was a great mid-day treat.

What new lunch places have you found recently?