We often use leftover fruit for smoothies. My favorite is a banana with pineapple and coconut smoothie that reminds me of a pina colada. My kids’ favorite is a berry smoothie with cherries. But really we use whatever fruit and juice we have around. I like to add coconut milk to make it creamy and […]

Keep Reading >>

add a comment

  • Lauren - This recipe looks delicious! Can’t wait to try it – what a great idea to freeze the leftovers.ReplyCancel

My son, who had a severe regression at 18 months because of a severe intolerance to gluten and two genes for celiac, has only gotten sick twice in the year he has been gluten free. The first time WAS A REACTION TO RICE DREAM that was labelled “contains gluten from barley protein at less that […]

Keep Reading >>

add a comment

  • Dee/reddirtramblings - If he isn’t allergic to nuts, I really like the almond milk produced by Diamond Nuts. It tastes better than Rice Dream or soy milk.~~DeeReplyCancel

  • Mae - Even though Hain CLAIMS their rice beverage product is gluten-free, it is NOT. Since I changed from So Delicious coconut milk to Hain’s Rice Dream rice milk I have had increasingly horrific pain in my upper right flank, low-grade fever, terrible fatigue, and horrible diarrhea for the last six months. My body was acting like I had been glutened. I have spent months trying to figure out what I was eating that had gluten in it. The answer was: nothing. Apparently, I was drinking it.

    Two days ago, I did a Google search for “Rice Dream rice milk gluten” and found many celiac forums and Celiac Disease experts cautioning against this brand of rice milk. Many people have written online in celiac forums about how they react badly to Rice Dream rice milk. When I started using Rice Dream rice milk, I had checked out Hain’s website to make sure that Rice Dream was gluten free before purchasing it. They said it was.

    They lie – and the FDA allows this lie.

    Hain uses a barley enzyme in the beginning process of making the milk. Hain is lying when they say on their site: “Is Rice Dream Beverage a gluten free product? Yes. Although Rice Dream Beverage is processed using a barley enzyme, the barley enzyme is discarded after use. The final beverage might contain a minute residual amount (less than .002%) of barley protein.” They state that they use it and then “throw it out.” But apparently it is still in the rice milk no matter what they say because I have reacted strongly to it. In fact, once the barley enzyme is in the rice milk, how in the world can it be separated out?

    Hain also says that any gluten that might be in their product is below the FDA threshold of 20 ppm. But the problem is that the commercial tests for gluten contamination have some difficulty detecting hordein (the type of gluten protein found in barley) when the hordein has been broken down into smaller pieces or protein fragments.

    It is also possible that there is not enough residual gluten left in the product for testing to detect (at least not with current tests), but there is plenty of gluten in Rice Dream rice milk for our bodies to detect it and be damaged by it, especially in people who tend to be very sensitive to even trace amounts of gluten.

    More and more people do not trust the Rice Dream beverage – and they do indeed react like I have reacted. In fact, I drank the Rice Dream rice milk long enough to do further damage to my duodenum. It could take months and months to get over this glutening episode.

    One would think that Hain would be more concerned about the dangers of gluten (and celiac disease) and not sell products that are made with anything that ever contained gluten. I will never buy Hain’s rice milk again or any of their products for that matter because I cannot trust them. And I will join others in spreading information all over the internet about the gluten dangers in Rice Dream rice milk.

    Please do consider what I have said and do not trust what Hain claims their rice milk to be (gluten-free) because it is not. In fact, check out the statement I just found on the Rice Dream EU website: http://www.ricedream.eu/faq#n626

    The FDA is as much to blame for my glutening as Hain is. The FDA is too lax in what they allow in gluten-free products. 20 ppm is way too high for many Celiacs like myself. Celiac Disease is serious. A teensy tiny bit will make some of us truly suffer. Printing gluten free on a product that has even a smidge of gluten can be toxic for someone like me.

    I have been off the Rice Dream for 2 days. Already the pain is subsiding and I am feeling a bit better.

    I am so angry at Hain, I could spit nails!
    ReplyCancel

I know this blog is supposed to be about what to feed your kids, but other issues keep on coming to my attention and I can’t resist blogging about them and getting the word out to other parents about the environmental dangers that seem to be everywhere. Low voltage light bulbs were sold at my […]

Keep Reading >>

add a comment

  • Johnny 5 - As someone who sells light bulbs for a living, I am less enthusiastic than most about compact fluorescent bulbs. This is due to the fact that the ones currently available contain significant amounts of mercury. If one of these bulbs should break inside of a person’s home, it could cause a challenging disposal situation. It is my belief that the technology should progress to a point at which the mercury levels are low or nonexistent before people changeover their entire homes. Another consideration is that as these bulbs burn out, they will most likely be thrown away as though they are normal rubbish and landfills will have incredibly high levels of mercury in their soil as a result.ReplyCancel

  • Krissy - Most CFLs today on the market contain less than 5mgs of mercury and there are CFL options out there that contain as little as 1.5mgs of mercury- which can hardly be called a “significant amounts of mercury” considering that many item in your home contain 100s of times more of mercury including your computer. Mercury levels in CFLs can never be “nonexistent” since mercury is a necessary component of a CFL and there is no other known element that is capable of replacing it. But CFLs actually prevent more mercury from entering the environment. According to the Union of Concerned Scientist, “a coal-fired power plant will emit about four times more mercury to keep an incandescent bulb glowing, compared with a CFL of the same light output”.ReplyCancel

When Alex had no words and was diagnosed with a “language processing disorder” at 18 months, we scoured the city to get him help. He no longer has a language delay and is now is (like most city kids quite verbal. Besides changing his diet, an important part of our intervention was a speech therapist, […]

Keep Reading >>

add a comment
T w i t t e r
F a c e b o o k