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Is Gelatin considered a whole30 food? Just wondering as I'd like to make my own fruit jelly without any added sugar, as I think there are a lot of advantages to including Gelatin in my diet. I have made bone broth once and intend to do this more, but I was thinking of using packets of Gelatin to make fruit jelly with. So should I or shouldn't I eat it?

 

I have read there are various health benefits to Gelatin (this is a link to one article I've read, and the following text is from this... http://wellnessmama.com/7419/12-uses-for-gelatin/):

 

- Supports skin, hair and nail growth

- Good for joints and can help joint recovery

- Can help tighten loose skin (like the kind you get after having four babies in five years…)

- Can improve digestion since it naturally binds to water and helps food move more easily though the digestive track

- Rumoured to help improve cellulite

- Great source of dietary collagen (side note: collagen is too large to be absorbed by the skin, so those skin creams are pretty useless… get it internally and use coconut oil for lotion!)

- Source of protein (though not a spectacular one) but its specific amino acids can help build muscle.â€

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Stay focused on the bone broth. The gelatin is not a problem, but consuming fruit jelly is a problem. Even without added sugar, fruit jelly is a concentration of sugars. And jelly is an echo of a food that we want you to move beyond during a Whole30. It would be best for you to focus on other foods during your 30 days and not produce a healthier version of an old food. 

 

One of the hardest things for me to accept when I began my Whole30 journey was that vegetables were far superior to fruit and that I would do well to minimize fruit consumption. I kept reasoning that fruit was real, whole food and that anyone who pushed me to move off eating a lot of it was crazy. It took me almost a year before the message started to sink in, but I finally got it. Walking around Whole Foods Market where they post the ANDI scores of fruits and vegetables really helped. All vegetables have exponentially higher ANDI (nutrition) scores than any fruit. 

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Gelatin comes out of the bones when you make bone broth (so you don't add it as such, you use apple cider vinegar to help leach it out of the bones), you can also buy Gelatin in sheets or powder form - and this is often used to make things like jelly/mousse/panna cotta etc. But you don't need to buy this to make bone broth, you just need to get some bones from your butcher ;)

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I think I shall be making fruit jelly when I'm not doing the w30 program, as for me personally I don't really see this as such a bad option for the following reason... I am normally extremely physically active - I work as a circus artist, and I train pretty intensively, so I don't think eating some fruit is a bad thing for me, and it's not like I am not eating tons of veg as well. When I did my first w30 last month, I really struggled with a lack of energy and all my training just went out the window because I can't risk injuring myself, some of the things I do can be somewhat dangerous, I need to have enough energy so I don't fall off a piece of equipment, not something I want to do several meters off the ground or while spinning in my giant metal wheel that if I fall out of, I need to be able to react quick or risk getting whacked in the face/head/body with 15kg of metal! I also found over the last month that I have to eat a lot of starchy veg like sweet potatoes/squash on top of the leafy greens and other veg, and now I pretty much cook everything with animal fat (coconut oil is out for me as I'm allergic to coconut, although I did manage to find some avocado oil for cooking), as I found if I don't do these things then I will pass out! So I kind of think that eating fruit is not such a bad thing for me personally, if I wasn't so active then I think maybe it would be best to steer clear of fruit. Plus my diet is so restrictive as I am allergic to nuts, I always tended to avoid seeds because of the nut allergy, so not eating those either and trying to do the autoimmune protocol, so I've not been eating nightshades or eggs, so it would be nice to have some more variety, with something that isn't going to affect me medically. Plus when not on the program, if I want a treat, I'd much rather go for some jelly than gluten/soy/dairy laden things that will make most likely make me ill. I've never actually made jelly with gelatin before, so will be an experiment, but my plan was to blend some fruit (rather than juice), add some water and the gelatin, and also chuck in some whole berries - so I'll still be getting some fibre from the fruit this way, and I bet it'll taste better than the store bought jelly full of additives and sugar.

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Rebelle - Are you eating enough for your level of activity? Do you have pre & post workout meals too? Have you tried plantains? Also, since you're a first time jelly maker, some fruits have enzymes which inhibit the setting of gelatin, like pineapple and kiwi fruit. Don't forget to eat your jelly with the rest of the template :)

 

Like the idea of the herbal tea gelatin squares Lisa! It's summer here down under. I don't want any extra sugars from fruit if it's just something cool.

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What about making a jelly vegetable salad? This was something my grandmother used to make back in the 70's and I thought it was so posh having a veggie salad this way. She took plain, unflavored gelatin and would mix minced carrot, celery, fine diced peeled and seeded tomato, cucumber, radish ect, and she would put it in little jello molds (think bundt pan looking ones) and when she would serve it, she would put it on shredded lettuce and top with a dollop of mayo. Would something like that work? Just talking about it takes me back to when I was a little girl! 

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Praxisproject - I'm pretty sure I'm eating enough, I have quite large meals and to begin with it seemed like I was eating all the time that I wasn't sleeping, but just not getting energy from what I was eating (honestly I was wondering if I was eating too much and might actually put on weight) - but I'm sure that was because my body was so used to a really high carb diet, and as the weeks have progressed I have not felt the need to eat quite so much. I don't think I'm loosing weight, although I've never been one for weighing myself so actually I have no idea, although my doctor did weigh me when I first started changing my diet just to keep an eye on things, so next time I'm back to see her I will get my weight checked again as I don't actually own any scales. I really haven't been training at all lately because I just wasn't up to much before Christmas as I had no energy and don't want to injure myself, I think there is probably some element of the weather and lack of sunlight affecting my energy, and mood also. Sometimes I do suffer from fatigue as a symptom of endometriosis (around the time of my period, when my abdomen swells up and I am usually in debilitating pain) which I am suffering a bit with right now, but having said that my current pain levels are not too bad, and I'm hoping the change in diet has contributed to this and it's not just a one off freak occurrence! As soon as I get over this episode of endometriosis, I plan to start training properly again, so I might have to increase my food intake as I increase the intensity of my training to where is was before I changed my diet. I've not tried plantains, I think I have a slight fear of trying them as I really can't stomach bananas, I really don't like bananas, the flavour or texture, any time I try to eat them I feel like I'm going to be sick - so as I imagine plantains to be a less sweet version, I can't think of anything worse! Plus I try to eat local as much as possible as these definitely don't grow in the UK! Thanks for the tip about pineapple and kiwi in jelly, I had actually read that somewhere already, and I was planning on most likely using strawberries and raspberries for my first jelly attempt. I've noticed a few recipes for chewy vitamin supplements too which intrigues me, although I'd much rather be getting nutrients from fruit and veg and not adding powders and things, but my doctor is also keeping an eye on my blood for deficiencies, and actually I need to go have another blood test as the hospital managed to forget to do vitamin d test last time which was the one thing that really needed testing! 

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