[Sca-cooks] a few questions/requests (long)

Pixel, Goddess and Queen pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com
Sat Oct 13 17:23:47 PDT 2007


On Sat, 13 Oct 2007, terry l. ridder wrote:

[snip]
>
> giving all the broken bones and other related injuries the doctors
> are concerned about blood clots so they have me on rat poison,
> warfarin. i am amazed at all the foods which must be monitored
> when taking warfarin. basically, green vegetables, many spices,
> and several oils need to be closely monitored or removed from
> one's diet.
>
> how do members of the list prepare event meals and accommodate
> the needs of people taking medications? i realize this is a
> sensitive question because some people do not disclose that they
> are even taking any medications for privacy reasons.
>
> -- 
> terry l. ridder ><>

I haven't done a feast in years, but I can speak to the problem of dealing 
with allergies and other food-related health issues in one's meal 
planning. When various members of my family were still alive, we used to 
joke that if we were to serve only foods that everyone could eat, we'd be 
limited to white rice and water at family gatherings. The allergens? Fish, 
shellfish, garlic, tomatoes, chicken, lamb, turkey, ham/pork, corn, 
citrus, pineapple, coconut, tree nuts, peanuts, mustard, cinnamon, milk, 
soy. Also, no alcoholas an ingredient, or food coloring, most other 
spices, too much fiber, and wheat.

Some of the planning problems were off-set by the fact that although most 
of us have more than one food issue, *most* of those issues aren't 
repeated in other members of the family--for instance, my mother was 
allergic to both citrus and pork, but nobody else is. So we could serve 
citrus-glazed ham without a problem because the only person who couldn't 
eat it was Mom. We just had to remember to have something for her that she 
*could* eat.

In general, when you're dealing with a "can't have X" issue, you first 
rule out all recipes that include X as a main dish unless there's a good 
substitute. Sometimes you can substitute Y for X--the appearance of 
canola-oil margarine on the non-butter spread scene was hailed as a major 
culinary advance by well over half of my family. Other times, especially 
in the case of a traditional foodstuff, you just make it and accept that 
only half the table will be able to eat it.

Make a list of the things you can't eat. Then list what you might be able 
to substitute for those things without too much trouble, and go from 
there.

YIS,

Margaret FitzWilliam


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