Common Ways of Eating

In spirit of promoting understanding of the ways that different people organize what they eat, I've put together a brief glossary with broad definitions of common ways of eating.  Enjoy!
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This list is by no means exhaustive, but provides broad definitions of common ways of eating.  If you are someone without dietary restrictions providing food for someone who is and you have doubts about whether or not they will eat a particular dish for any reason, ask. 

Those who avoid meat and/or animal-derived products:

• Vegetarian:  generally speaking, a person who does not eat meat or meat products (i.e. meat-based broth).  There are different sub-groups of vegetarians, however, who may consume dairy (lacto-), eggs (ovo-), fish (pescatarian), or some combination of the three (i.e. lacto-ovo-vegatarian).
• Vegan: a person who does not consume any animal products or products derived from animals (i.e. meat and meat products, dairy, eggs, etc.).

Those with suspected/confirmed food sensitivities/allergies or are following a biomedical intervention protocol for autism:

• GF:  short for "gluten-free", someone who avoids gluten, a protein found in wheat and wheat-related products.
• CF:  short for "casein-free", someone who avoids casein, a milk protein.  
• SF:  short for "soy-free", someone who avoids soy and soy products.
• Top 8:  refers to those foods responsible for most allergic reactions.  These include gluten, dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, fish, and shellfish.

Those on special diets for other concerns:

• Raw Foodist: definitions vary, but generally speaking, a person who eats mostly or only foods that have not been cooked or have been dehydrated at very low temperatures.  Some raw foodists are vegetarians or vegans, some aren't.
• Paleolithic: a person who eats only what was readily available to paleolithic age humans.  Any food that became available only when humans began practicing agriculture is out (i.e. grains, dairy, sugar, etc.), leaving only foods readily available to hunter-gatherers (i.e. meat, berries, mushrooms, etc.).
• Whole Foodist: a person who eats only food prepared from scratch from fresh ingredients. 
• Locavore:  a person who eats mostly or only food produced near where they live.  Definitions vary as to how close the food needs to be sourced to be considered "local".

Those who follow dietary restrictions for religious reasons:

• Note:  Many religious traditions do not lay down dietary restrictions per se (i.e. Christianity, Buddhism), but many practitioners have taken up certain dietary practices based on their interpretations of their religion (i.e. many Buddhists are vegetarians or vegans, some Christians do not eat meat on Fridays, etc.).  Also, not all people who practice a particular religion necessarily follow all dietary restrictions, for various reasons.  If in doubt, ask.
  
• Kosher (Judaism):  dietary restrictions laid out in the Torah.  Rules include prohibitions on kinds of meat (i.e. no pork) and the way the meat is slaughtered and prepared; not mixing meat and dairy in the same meal; and restrictions on mixing utinsels used for meat and dairy.  For more information on basic kosher rules, check out Judaism 101's entry on keeping kosher.
• Halal (Islam): dietary restrictions based on the Koran.  Rules are similar to Kosher rules in that they include prohibitions on kinds of meat (no pork) and the way the meat is slaughtered and prepared.  Other rules include prohibitions on alcohol and certain food additives.
• Hinduism:  many Hindu practitioners avoid meat and meat products to varying extents.
• For more detailed information on different religious traditions' dietary restrictions, check out Faith and Food

New Address!

The Acne-Free Foodie has changed its name and moved!  It's now The GFCFSF Acne-Free Foodie, and the new address is http://thegfcfsfacnefreefoodie.blogspot.com.  More updates coming soon!

Happy August! More re-branding thoughts

We're going into the 4th month of The Acne-Free Foodie, and I'm still looking for more ways to make this little neck of the web a bit less academic and a bit more . . . fun? Food and cooking is my anti-work. When I get frustrated with my professors, or my work, or my colleagues, or "the system" (which can and does happen), I go home and cook - even before starting this thing. Cooking is not (and has never been) work and neither should The Acne-Free Foodie be. Pictures and video would help, and I'm working on that, but I'm not much of a picture/video taker - it's not a habit . . . yet.

Furthermore, I wonder if this could be less about sane food advocacy. That's happening a lot on the web and it's important - trust me - but it doesn't help my family or my friends trying to navigate this change with me. I don't know how many times I've had to explain what I can and can't eat; where I can and can't eat; how to adapt recipes so I can eat them; finding good substitutions so I don't stick out like a sore thumb; and how awkward those conversations can be. I wonder if it wouldn't more helpful to help non-gfcfsf, sane-meat-and-poultry-only, no-artificial/processed-sweeteners folk (i.e. most people I know) navigate the gfcfsf, sane-meat-and-poultry-only, no-artificial/processed-sweeteners world from a female 20-something's perspective. It's a little different from the mom's cookbook-with-pictures-of-good-food-and-healthier-kids approach, but I'm an unmarried, 23-year-old grad student with no children. That approach isn't going to work for me.

Any thoughts?

A realization or two (or three)

So I've been trying to figure out what exactly to do with The Acne-Free Foodie to make it better (and bring more people to the site), and I'm thinking that a major restructuring of the blog is in order. Here's what I'm thinking:

1) The original purpose - to be an advocacy/food-news/cookbook blog that challenges the conventional wisdom about food-health relationships - was a bit too ambitious. I need to par this thing down to make it manageable for a music theory graduate student. The original intent may have been a good idea for someone in a food/health-related field, but maybe not for music theorist.

2) The recipes I've posted (except for the basic buckwheat) are woefully inexact. The reason for that - that's how I cook. Cooking, for me, is something creative and (in comparison to composing music) instantly gratifying. I don't have a professor "murdering my baby" when I cook - it's just me and the food. I don't have a problem taking liberties with recipes or experimenting without them because, in my other creative pursuits, I'm supposed to create my own recipes. For someone else though, that's downright intimidating.

3) This blog is all text! I'm not taking advantage of one of the things I most love about the Internet - the multimedia, hypertextual possibilities. I frequently rant about how academia has not taken advantage of all the web-based publishing's possibilities, yet I have yet to post so much as a picture on this blog. How hypocritical!

So, in summary:

1) More focused purpose
2) More detailed, exact recipes
3) More multimedia integration/hypertextuality throughout

What say you?

New Page: AFF Friendly Food Brands

My family visit gave me an idea for another page - a list of AFF-friendly food brands. So far, I have two listed, Udi's Gluten-Free Foods, and Enjoy Life! Foods, but I know about others - I just need to relocate them and post links to their online stores.

Diet, Edition #4: A New and Improved Restricted Ingredients List!

I had a request that the Restricted Ingredients list be formatted and presented in a way that's easier to read and download, and I have fulfilled that request. I have compiled all of the ingredients from the three major categories (plus other ingredients that I avoided before taking on the AFF diet) into a relatively short, printable list. Before I update the Restricted Ingredients page, I wanted to see if this works as well for you, readers, as it does for me. Also, I've been looking at ingredients too long, so if there are any typos, duplicates, or other mistakes, let me know in the comments.