fruktosearm Archive • Fructopia

Gluten Free Holidays: Fructosefree Blueberry-Buckwheat-Cake With Lemon Curd

March 27, 2015 by Deniz 8 Comments

Sound familiar?

I made a cake and am super excited to treat my family members to a healthy and sugar free dessert for the holidays. Everybody gathers around the table and happily digs into piles of Easter bread, juicy carrot cakes and delicate chocolates. Lightyears seem to have passed since the last holidays. One by one, tense shoulders around the table loosen up and even my guilt-free cake receives some attention.

Right when I’m about to put on a content smile, thinking how nice it is that people finally seem to appreciate healthier alternatives instead of the usual sugar bombs, I get hit by a wave of comments again: “Your cake tastes really good, like, really healthy! A little bit like bread… Really good. I would just add a bit more sugar the next time.”

Duh! I mean that’s the whole point about fructose free cooking, right?

…

Enjoy your meal: Traveling with fructose malabsorption

September 18, 2013 by Deniz 2 Comments

Traveling is not easy, when suffering from fructose malabsorption. Of course I know that. Still, so far I haven’t starved when hopping on a plane. Usually there is the standard “chicken or pasta” choice. Most of the time I go for the chicken to eat the meat at least. When I’m lucky they serve rice with it or a salad without dressing. I peck around in those tiny serving dishes and eat whatever my body tolerates. This time however, I didn’t want to leave things up to chance. I checked the special menus offered by SWISS in advance. I wasn’t expecting to find a menu low in fructose, that would have been somewhat of a revolution. Instead I opted for a gluten-free meal for my journey from Istanbul to Berlin.

“Let us know your desired special meal when booking your flight or contact one of the SWISS agents a minimum of 24 hours prior to departure.” swiss.com

This is the moment when customer service traveling with fructose malabsorption turn into a nightmare.

Why make it easy for the customer to order his or her special needs meal by providing an online form just for this single purpose, when the whole procedure can be turned into an outright hassle for all involved. SWISS must have thought the same. I was offered the choice between calling some computer assisted hotline or filling out an email form with non-related, trivial subjects to choose from. I chose the latter. A big mistake. Apparently SWISS was not able to process their service mails during the four days prior to my flight. I asked about my special meal order at check-in. Negative. What had I expected. Hence, I relied on the “chicken or pasta”-strategy. Mistake number two. On board we got served cake and pasta, meaning an abundance and “no-way-out” supply of wheat, sugar, tomatoes and onions. Nice. Not even pecking around for the good bits was going to get me out of this one. We asked the stewardess if they had any other gluten-free snack, which she denied. But, surprisingly she offered me an apple or a banana from the crew catering. I guess I was really lucky to have her as a stewardess. I wouldn’t have been too surprised if the other crew members wouldn’t have offered me the same. This banana saved me for the rest of the journey. To make matters worse we arrived late in Zurich, didn’t have time to stop for a snack in between flights and on our connecting flight they served, yay, sandwiches. Thank you SWISS, enjoy your meal yourself.

The lesson is clear: Firstly, do not expect too much service, not even from SWISS. Secondly, don’t rely on others when it comes to food. Thirdly, I will definitely take care of my food myself for the upcoming flight back. Any recommendations for healthy, easy to carry-on food on the go?

Video Tuesday: fructose research links

June 18, 2013 by Deniz Leave a Comment

It’s been silent around here for the past three weeks. We went on a one week holiday only to return and find the city we live in has been turned upside down. Behaviors, moods, beliefs have changed. Istanbul is still as beautiful as it was, but the people living here and in the rest of the country have changed. The sheer violence that was used against peacefully demonstrating protestors shocked all of us in Turkey and many of you abroad, leaving us behind with terms bereft of meaning such as trust, freedom and democracy. Here we are, sitting in our home, approximately 800m from Taksim Square where the protests begun, reading, watching, talking, trying to understand facing many new questions. Right now it feels weird to go back to normal, working on and posting fructose friendly recipes with the pictures of people being chased down by police and fed with massive amounts of teargas still vivid in my head. So as for today, I will only share two videos with you.

The one is an ABC report on fructose in general including an interview with Robert Lustig, who also held an impressive lecture on fructose called “Sugar. The bitter truth”, a must-see for every fructose malabsorptioner.

The other one is a nice find by my boyfriend, illustrating the danger of processed food and what food industries made us believe to be “real” food. Watching both videos makes me actually happy once again that I had to cancel out fructose and processed foods from my diet. Enjoy!

Oatmeal muesli cookies low in fructose

May 27, 2013 by Deniz 4 Comments

It took me a while to realize that Spring in Turkey doesn’t last as long as it does in Germany. The fresh, locally grown strawberries at the fresh food markets disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared a few weeks earlier, leaving me little to no time to come up with all the nice strawberry-containing recipes I wanted to try and share with you. Which makes me a bit sad, as strawberries are one of the few fruits I can handle pretty well. But the good thing is, they will be back next year and meanwhile I will be concentrating on other seasonal fruits low in fructose. Enter, Apricots. Naturally low in fructose, an essential part in Turkish (dessert) cuisine and the perfect cast for the grand finale of my oatmeal cookie trilogy. Today, sun kissed apricots, crunchy, salty pistachios and a full-bodied cereal mix will be turned into aromatic Oatmeal-Muesli-Cookies. You could almost call it a tribute to my German-Turkish roots. ;)…

Oatmeal coconut cookies low in fructose

May 17, 2013 by Deniz 6 Comments

As I’m sitting here writing this post there is a plate of freshly baked oatmeal coconut cookies resting next to my laptop, begging to be devoured. Today it felt hard motivating myself to write. Before I sat down I quickly threw together those seven ingredients listed below, turning them into yet another batch of oatmeal coconut cookies, just to eat one of the freshly baked cookies straight out of the oven. I can‘t think of a better way to get into cookie mode. Also, when I tested this recipe a week ago I myself was a little surprised how delicious these cookies actually turned out to be. Therefore I needed some kind of reassurance that these cookies weren‘t too good to be true or rather just a stroke of luck. ;)

I found this recipe on Crash Test Mummy. It was the only recipe I found for oatmeal cookies low in fructose that looked worth giving it a try. Crash Test Mummy calls them ANZAC Cookies. Most of you native English speaking readers have probably heard this term before, but for me ANZAC didn’t ring a bell. It was only after a short search via Wikipedia that I found out what the abbreviation stands for “Australian and New Zealand Army Corps” and that this type of cookies are usually baked around the end of April to celebrate ANZAC Day and remember the fallen troops during World War I. I made those cookies because the recipe sounded delicious. Only now, when re-reading the same Wikipedia article did I notice that the same troops fought in a city called Gallipoli, which is called Çanakkale today and lies, guess what, in Turkey. I love coincidences. …

Fructose friendly cake with orange and ricotta

February 26, 2013 by Deniz Leave a Comment

Today is our 12th day here in Istanbul. Because our language course did not start yet, it still feels like being on vacation. We get up late, stroll from cafe to cafe, sit in the sun, do some sightseeing here and there while try to immerse ourselves in this fascinating culture. Since arriving in Istanbul, the only thing I actually “cooked” for myself was a salad. The rest of the time we have been going out for breakfasts, lunches and dinners (usually skipping one or the other). The food you get at restaurants (called “restoran” or “lokanta”) here is just too good and we love to discover and taste all the new dishes and flavors. And, so far I’m doing pretty well with the Turkish food. It looks like the Turkish cuisine is much easier to handle when suffering from fructose malabsorption compared to the German cuisine. I haven’t experienced extreme stomach pain or other symptoms here yet. Knock on wood.

However, after eleven days I’m starting to miss cooking and baking at home. Not because I miss pasta dishes or other foods I used to cook in Berlin, but simply for the sake of cooking. As we have yet to find a flat of our own and are still staying with good friends, who are being the best hosts ever, it probably will take a few more weeks until I pick up cooking regularly at home again.

That’s why today I’m sharing a recipe for a really nice tea cake with you, which I made two days before leaving for Istanbul. Yes, call me crazy. Don’t ask me why I made the effort to bake a cake instead of packing my bags and tidying up the flat. I guess I needed an outlet for the pre-moving stress or wanted to empty out the pantry. Who knows.

However, I’m happy I gave this fructose friendly cake with orange and ricotta a shot. It turned out to be really tasty. It was very moist and full of flavor….