GLUTEN-FREE

Healthy reasons to eat a rainbow of colorful fruits and vegetables

2011-05-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

According to statistics, Americans are chronically lacking in fruits and vegetables in their diet.

It's not in vein that we hear all the time that we all need different amounts of fruits and vegetables for a better health.

Each food has its own special health benefits and disease fighting profiles. They work as a team, complimenting and reinforcing each others benefits.

Most of the antioxidants benefits of fruits and vegetables come from the component that gives them their color.

Make sure your plate is full of different colors!!!

Variety is very important. I know it's easier to shop and eat the same kind of veggies and fruits that we already know. Sometimes we are afraid to experiment but at the same time we miss a lot of good stuff.
Go for a wide variety of kinds and range of colors of produce to give your body the mix of nutrients it needs.

People who eat more generous amounts of fruits and vegetables every day are likely to have reduced risk of chronic disease, including strokes, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure.

IMPORTANT: Nutrients should come primarily from foods. Foods such as fruits and vegetables contain not only the vitamins and minerals but also other naturally occurring substances that may help protect you from chronic diseases.
"We cannot put nature in a pill"

To make it fun and easy to shop and prepare a meal using all the different group of colors, I will group them by their colors.

Red fruits and vegetables are colored by natural pigments called "lycopene" or "anthocyanins".

Lycopene in tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit, for example, may help reduce risk of several types of cancer, especially prostate cancer. Lycopene in foods containing cooked tomatoes, such as spaghetti sauce, and a small amount of fat are absorbed better than lycopene from raw tomatoes.

Anthocyanins in strawberries, raspberries, red grapes and other fruits and vegetables act as powerful antioxidants that protect cells from damage. Antioxidants are linked with keeping our hearts healthy too.

Examples of the red group:

Red apples
Beets
Red cabbage
Cherries
Cranberries
Pink grapefruit
Red grapes
Red peppers
Pomegranates
Red potatoes
Radishes
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Watermelon

Next post I will share the other group colors and then, I'll share some Yummy recipes.

See you soon and don't forget to eat your fruits and vegetables!

http://www.yummybitesglutenfree.com/

MAY 2011 is a Celiac Disease Awareness Month in California

2011-02-27T14:06:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to share with all of you this information:

Celiac Disease Foundation is pleased to announce that
California State Senator Bob Huff (R), 29^th District, has introduced
State Senate Resolution #SCR 7 designating
May 2011 as Celiac Disease Awareness Month in California.
May is already recognized internationally as Celiac Awareness Month, and New York, Oregon, North Carolina and Ohio have passed their own state resolutions.
Declaring May as Celiac Awareness Month in California will help focus attention on Celiac disease by generating awareness to increase the rate of diagnosis.
Please tell Senator Huff how much we appreciate what he has done
for the California celiac community.
Send your letters or emails of thanks to the addresses below:
U.S. Mail:
Senator Bob Huff
State Capitol, Room 5097
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4029
Fax: (916) 324-0922
Email:
Senator Huff via his website:
http://cssrc.us/web/29/contact_me.aspx

PRESENTATION YOUTUB

2010-11-21T22:10:00.000-08:00

Wow!!!!

I'm so excited to share our products with you!!!

I hope you enjoy this presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvB334bf7eM

See you soon,

Be safe, be gluten-free, be happy!

DETERMINATION AND LOVE

2010-11-14T18:52:00.000-08:00

I want to share with you an article about the founder of Yummy Bites.

The story is very well written by a jornlaist Aryadne Oliveira for

Soul Brasil Magazine © • SB50 • Special Edition • http://www.soulbrasil.com/

"Love Changed her and Talent Defined the Course of her Personal & Professional
Life.

Researchers say that food and identity are universal, and that the last thing an immigrant forgets is language and cuisine. True enough, proven by Elda Antonio, the entrepreneur proud
of her Brazilian way: stand up, dust it off and turn it up. Her favorite recipe? A combination of
creativity, joy and serious work representing a different perspective of a native product from
Brazil: the “pao de queijo” or cheese bread. Like any comfort food, the cheese breads should
be enjoyed in moderation, and being a natural gluten-free based food, it can be inserted into
the menu of those suffering from celiac disease – a genetic disorder that impairs the functioning
of the small intestine and absorption of nutrients. These people are intolerant to the gluten protein found in wheat, rye, oats, and barley malt – not found in the cheese-bread.
Hence, Elda’s chance in uniting the practical and tasty with healthy.
Elda studied this specific market and took the idea to her business school, where she learned
in class every detail needed to turn this idea into a great opportunity. It worked out. The company Yummy Bites Gluten-Free Products was created and the cheese bread is now being marketed in California by the natural markets and also via internet. Elda’s story was one of destiny. The entrepreneur has always had a strong personality and will power to achieve her goals. Early in her career, she got a job with the Brazilian Government - for many, a dream of professional stability. But for the young public employee, was just her first conquest. "I was always very curious. I wanted to know why and understand about everything.
I knew I had ability to create and simultaneously sought freedom. I didn’t want to be tied to
anything that I was not personally in charge of" – stated Elda. The opportunity for change came about by chance, but for good reason. In love, Elda moved to California in 1991 to "live life on the waves." From there, she began to seek her own identity and place in the new country. She suffered many setbacks during her transition, but she never give up pursuing her dreams. According to Elda, there is no way to dissociate this time of her life from where she is today, personally and in business. And so this was how she rediscovered herself in California. Elda worked as a babysitter, waitress, translator and even as a truck driver traveling throughout the United States. But her talent was cooking for friends and family which, ultimately, ended up with her having a ownership in the restaurant where she was working for.
Today, Elda runs her own company in Los Angeles offering cheese bread in different
flavors – traditional and Italian – and also glutenfree pizzas, with freshest ingredients and herbs.
She continues to work on new healthy recipes, and, step-by-step, in the expansion of her
business …always with a big smile on her face and enough energy to keep up with anything
that crosses her way in the States".

Orange County gluten-free food fair

2010-10-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

The 3rd Orange County annual gluten-free food fair happened last Friday, October 2nd in the beauty city of New Port Beach - CA.

The event was a fantastic! A wide variety of vendors with fabulous gluten-free products were there displaying their products and giving away samples.

I may say that Yummy Bites was a big hit at the fair. We received so many glowing comments about the traditional cheese bread rolls (pao-de-queijo), the garlic and herb cheese bread rolls and the mini mozzarella pizzas.

It was delightfull to see people all ages mingling around our table tasting and recommending our products to other attendants.

It's a great feeling to bring such a tasty gluten-free rolls and pizza for people that for medical reasons need to follow a special diet.

Yummy Bites put a big smile in so many faces that day!

Congratulations for the organizers that put toghether such a great event. I'm looking forward to participate again next year.

Here is the website for the Orange County Celiacs:

http://www.occeliacs.com/index.html

Yummy Bites website is: http://www.yummtbitesglutenfree.com/

7 very unsafe foods to eat

2010-09-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

Experts in fields pertaining to both food and the environment answered one simple question: “What foods do you avoid?” Their answers, published in an article entitled “7 Foods the Experts Won’t Eat” on Yahoo! When it comes to food and its affect on your health and the health of this planet, this is what they answered:

1. CANNED TOMATOES

The Expert: Fredrick vom Saal, PhD, an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri who studies bisphenol-A.
The Reason: Tin cans are lined with a resin that contains the synthetic estrogen bisphenol-A, which has been linked to health problems including heart disease, diabetes, reproductive problems, and obesity. But that’s not the biggest problem. The acid in tomatoes breaks down that bisphenol-A, leaching it into the food, and not just in insignificant amounts. According to the article, Saal comments that “you can get 50 mcg of BCA per liter out of a tomato can, and that’s a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young.” That’s why he’s not touching the stuff.

The Solution: Select glass bottles instead or even better: the real tasty fresh tomatoes.

2. CORN-FED BEEF
The Expert: Joel Salatin, co-owner of Polyface Farms and author of half a dozen books on sustainable farming.

The Reason: Cattle are naturally grass eaters… not grain eaters. In order to fatten the animals (and profit margins), farmers feed them corn and soybeans. A recent USDA-conducted study comparing corn-fed beef and grass-fed beef showing that grass-fed beef is “higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats that have been linked to heart disease.”
My personal option is do not eat meat at all. If you love your beef and cannot live without it
The Solution: Opt for grass-fed beef !

3.MICROWAVE POPCORN
The Expert: Olga Naidenko, PhD, a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group.

The Reason: It’s not the popcorn itself, but the chemically-saturated lining of the bag including a compound called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) . According to a recent study from UCLA, may be linked to infertility. Microwaving vaporizes the chemicals as they move from coating the bag to lining the popcorn. DuPont, as well as other manufacturers, have “promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then.

The Solution: Pop your own popcorn the way they did it in the olden days–in a pot.

4.Conventionally Grown (Not Organic) Potatoes
The Expert: Jeffrey Moyer, chair of the National Organic Standards Board

The Reason: Herbicides and pesticides may not be sprayed directly on root vegetables (since they’re underground), but they absorb the chemicals through the soil and water. Potatoes are considered the nation’s most popular vegetable, producing a healthy crop is essential to keep up with demand. In order to maintain their health, the scary fact is that “they’re treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they’re dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting.” Here’s the scariest thing: Moyer says that he’s talked to potato growers “who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals.”

The Solution: Another no-brainer— Only buy organic potatoes.

5. FARMED SALMON

The Expert: David Carpenter, MD, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany and publisher of a major study in the journal Science on contamination in fish.

The Reason: When salmon is crammed into pens, fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers (obviously an unnatural environment for the up-stream swimmers), they’re levels of healthy vitamin D lowers as the contaminants increases. Those contaminants include carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides (like DDT). DDT has been linked to both diabetes and obesity, quoting Carpenter in saying that “You can only safely eat one of these salmon dinners every 5 months without increasing your risk of cancer… It’s that bad.”

The Solution: Avoid farmed salmon. Select wild-caught Alaskan salmon. But make sure the packaging reads “wild.” If it just says “fresh Atlantic,” “it’s farmed.”

6. Milk Produced with Artificial Hormones
The Expert: Rick North, project director of the Campaign for Safe Food at the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility and former CEO of the Oregon division of the American Cancer Society.

The Reason: Cows today are fed growth hormones like rBGH and rBST to increase milk production. Problem is: while they may be making more milk, they are also increasing their chances of udder infections (which can lead to pus in the milk). More than that, high levels of IGF-1 from the rBGH may play a role in the development of breast, prostate, and colon cancers… which is why North says that “it’s banned in most industrialized countries.”

The Solution: Read the labels and be sure that your milk doesn’t contain rBGH or rBST and that it is labeled organic or “produced without artificial hormones

7. CONVENTIONAL APPLES
The Expert: Mark Kastel, former executive for agribusiness and co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, a farm-policy research group that supports organic foods.

The Reason: Apples are the recipient of the most pesticides of all Fall fruits. Chemical producers swear that the residue is not harmful for human consumption, but the Yahoo! Article goes on to quote Kastel in saying that “Farm workers have higher rates of many cancers.”

The Solution: Buy organic apples where available or at least thoroughly wash and peel apples before eating them.

Yummt Bites only uses safe ingrediets!

www.yummybitesglutenfree.com

GF APPETIZERS

2010-09-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

Appetizers are finger foods usually served prior to a meal or in between meal times. They are also called hors d'oeuvres, antipasti or starters.
Because appetizers are frequently served at large parties, I normally avoid the commom allergies foods like peanuts, for exemple.

I'm tired myself to see the same-old veggies and dip or chips and salsa. I always like to bring something new, different, new flavor, imaginative...something my guests haven't seen before.
It's so rewarding to delight my friends and put a smile on their faces when I introduce them a delicious new food.

The Yummy Bites cheese bread rolls regular flavor or garlic and herbs flavor (famouse Brazilian pao-de-queijo) and the mini mozzarella pizza will make you and your guests smile. You'll get great reviews and on top of that they are gluten-free!!

Give me a call or e-mail me if you consider a mouth-watering appetizers for your next party, meeting, brunch, hollyday, simple dinner or a chic event, weding reception, birthday parties, wine tasting, etc.
I will be happy to assist you with.

e-mail: elda@yummybitesglutenfree.com
http://www.yummybitesglutenfree.com/

What do you miss the most since going GF ?

2010-08-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has to follow a gluten-free diet knows that sometimes it's the little extras they miss the most. It's the confort foods, the small indulgences.
Adopting a gf life style can be difficult and challenging and overwhelming since gluten can be found in such unlikely products as: soy sauce, myonnaise, chicken broth, salad dressing, lipstick, medicine just to mention a few.

Here is a list of foods that a celiacs miss the most:

birthday cake
pizza
cookies
beer
breads
pasta
flour tortilla (burritos, tacos, quesadillas, etc)
cheesburguers (all sandwiches with a bun)
cinnamon rolls
cakes
pies
appetizers

Feel free to comment what you think you would miss if you could no longer have wheat, oats, rye or barley or if you are already following a gluten-free diet.

Soon I am going to start posting delicious recipes and announcing exciting new products.

"Our mission is to bring to every one’s table gluten-free baked products that are absolutely delicious for the whole family. If we meet our goal, this is our success."

LIST OF STORES THAT CARRY OUR GF PRODUCTS

2010-08-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to continuously keep adding more reail stores to sale Yummy Bites gluten-free products.

This is a complete list of the stores that are carrying our products:

WHOLE FOODS - Pasadena
3751 East Foothil Blvd.
Pasadena - CA 91107
Phone: 626-351 5994

WHOLE FOODS - Pasadena

465 South Arroyo Parkway

Pasadena - CA 91105

Phone: 626-204 2266

WHOLE FOODS - Porter Ranch
19340 Rinaldi St.
Northridge - CA 91326
Phone: (818) 363-3933

WHOLE FOODS - Venice
225 Lincoln Blvd.
Venice - CA 90291
Phone: 310-566 9480

WHOLE FOODS - Santa Clarita
24130 Valencia Blvd.
Santa Clarita - CA 91355
Phone: 661-260 2322

WHOLE FOODS - El Segundo
760 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
El Segundo - CA 90245
Fone: 310-333-1900

SIMPLY GLUTEN FREE
2955 E. Hillcrest Drive, Suite #124
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
Phone: (805)208-1600 - (805)558-9918

VITAMIN CITY
642 W. Arrow Hwy
San Dimas - CA 91773
Phone: 909 592 5131

RAIMBOW ACRES
13208 W. Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles - CA 90066
Phone: 310-306 8330

STELLA LUCY
108 S. El Camino Real
San Clemente, CA 92672
Phone: 949-542 4631

STELLA LUCY
101 N. Indian Hill Blvd. # C1 - 102
Claremont - CA 91711
Phone: 909-626 9816

If Yummy Bites is not at the store you normally shop yet, please, tell the manager about us or let me know and I will contact the store manager.

Last but not least you can always order directly from us through this Web site -www.yummybitesglutenfree.com or by calling 818-309 7798.

More stores will be added soon!

WHAT IS GLUTEN?

2010-08-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

As I sad before, I owned and run a Brazilian restaurant in Woodland Hills, CA where I cooked delicious recipes inspired from the vibrant culture of Brazil.

Of course we had to serve the pao-de-queijo in our restaurant. The relatioship Brazilians have with it borders on obsessive. I didn't know how to make them thou. For some reason I always thought that was too much time consuming and hard to make them. My mom used to make them all the time and serve with coffee. She was native of the beautiful state of Minas Gerais place where the pao-de-queijo was originated. There was nobody in the world better than my mom to give me the recipe and teach me how to make it.

Very soon, our cheese bread rolls (pao-de-queijo) was a complete success in our restaurant! It was great and a rewarding feeling to see our American customers popping them in their mouth one after another. There is something special about this little breads. They are very different from the majority of cheese breads. You have to try them to understand what I'm talking about.

One of our customers asked me: Is this cheese bread gluten-free? Well, I had no clue what gluten was. I never heard that word before. The lady didn't tell me much about gluten. She just told me that she was celiac and she couldn't eat anything with wheat, barley or rye.
Since "pao-de-queijo" is made entirely with tapioca starch, they are naturally and completely gluten-free.

At the end of the day, as soon as I got home from the restaurant I run to the computer to research and learn more about gluten. Here is what I found:

Gluten, in its most simplest definition, is a kind of protein that tends to exist in wheat, oat, rye and barley. Eating foods containing gluten causes damage to the small intestine in people primarily suffering from celiac or gluten intolerance. However, the diet can also help those with:

Autism
ADHD
Fibromyalgia
Dermatitis Herpetiformis

This is how I started my jorney on producing delicious GF products.

I hope my blog helpes answer the question - "What is Gluten" - and explain why some people need to avoid it.

Brazilian "pao-de-queijo" history

2009-06-06T14:15:00.000-07:00

Cheese Bread Rolls is the popular Brazilian "pao-de-queijo"

First, let me tell you a little bit of history:

In Portuguese, pão- de- queijo literally means cheese bread. However, in its first days, "pão- de-queijo" had no cheese in it. Everything started back in the 1600’s when slaves in the State of Minas Gerais were making manioc flour for the rich farmland owners. They used to harvest manioc (yucca root), peel them off, finely grate and soak them in a big wood bowl (called gamela) filled with plenty of water. So they washed and drained this grated manioc, then spread it on tiled floor outdoors to dry.

After taking the manioc flour out of the "gamelas", the slaves managed to scrape the white manioc starch (called polvilho) that remained at the bottom of the gamelas, make small balls and bake them. These balls had neither cheese nor milk in it, just plain polvilho. More than 200 years latter, cattle farms became widespread in Brazil and slaves (that were being freed by that time) gained access to better foods such as milk and cheese. So they began to add milk and ultimately cheese when preparing those balls, and voilà, pão de queijo was created. Later this “recipe” spread among the rest of the population, and pão- de -queijo became popular in Minas Gerais. During the slavery times in Brazil, the Africans incorporated old traditions they brought from Africa with the culture they developed in the new country Brazil.
Their culture blended in the Brazilian culture and we, Brazilians are very proud of it.

A Minas Gerais State tradition, pão- de -queijo gradually became a national favorite. It's usually eaten as an appetizer, snack or as a dinner roll.

If you plan a trip to Brazil, pao- de- queijo, is often on the list of “you haven’t experienced Brazil unless you’ve tried them.

Now, you are able to try them right here in the USA. I'm very proud to introduce this delicious treat to you.

Oh, and before I forget. Pao-de-queijo is delicious and it happens to be gluten-free!

You are welcome to visit our website: http://www.yummybitesglutenfree.com/