In this post, I share the ten cooking tools for MCAS. When you have Mast Cell Activation (MCAS) or a health condition that requires a special diet it helps to have some basic cooking tools to make cooking easier. You don’t need to invest a huge amount of money to have useful cooking tools, and I provide ideas for making these key purchases more economical.
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Table of Contents
Who is Betsy Leighton?
I’m a writer, blogger, and healer dedicated to helping individuals reconnect with their innate peace and wholeness by healing nervous system dysregulation. My personal experience with chronic illness called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) shapes my work, and my content offers tools to empower those with chronic illness to improve their well-being and take charge of their health.
I created the Sacred Self-Healing Method and am a trained and certified Safe and Sound Protocol provider, an author, blogger, and A Course in Miracles Teacher. I hold a Master of Divinity in Spiritual Counseling and am a trained spiritual mentor, with certificates in sound healing, aromatherapy, nutrition, and Sacred Deathcare. I offer a self-study certificate program in the Sacred Self-Healing Method, provide spiritual counseling and coaching, courses, and supported subscriptions for the Safe and Sound Protocol.
What is MCAS?
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. It can cause severe, disabling symptoms every day, including potentially fatal anaphylaxis.
The common triggers for MCAS are infections, toxic exposures including mold exposure and EMFs, trauma, concussions, and stress.
MCAS often occurs with other chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Managing MCAS is challenging because many healthcare providers are unaware of it, and diagnostic tests can be unreliable. Treatments include antihistamines and mast cell stabilizers in the form of medications and supplements, along with avoiding triggers. Check out this post on managing MCAS.
Top 10 cooking tools for MCAS
- Instant Pot or stainless steel pressure cooker – My favorite cooking tool is my Instant Pot. It is perfect for quickly poaching meat to avoid excess histamine. I also like my Instant Pot for making Lower Histamine Vegetable Broth, I use it every week to hard-cook eggs, and it’s terrific for soups and stews. The three-quart size is nice for a pot of soup; I wouldn’t go smaller than that, and the larger ones take up more room in your kitchen. A stainless steel pressure cooker does the same thing, just without the programs and timers. You can definitely get by with a pressure cooker, and I did for decades, but I do love my Instant Pot.
- High-speed blender – I love my Vitamix. I wasted a lot of money on other blenders that don’t work as well as this one. This is a spendier purchase, but so worth it. I use my Vitamix to make my daily Lower Histamine Protein Shake, Pesto, sauces, Lower Histamine Chocolate Ice Cream, and more. Vitamix does offer certified reconditioned models at a discount, and I was able to get an additional discount by calling and requesting a medical discount. I don’t see this advertised on their website, but I believe they still offer it. If you have thyroid issues, it’s also worth getting the stainless steel container to avoid plastics.
- Mason jars – Mason jars are excellent for storing portioned foods in the freezer, mixing sauces, shaking up ingredients, and even drinking out of. You can spend a lot of money on borosilicate glass storage containers, but I find the lids don’t hold up and chip more easily than mason jar lids. Mason jars are cheap, sturdy, and non-reactive. They are meant to withstand a pressure-canner and hot/cold extremes, so they are super durable. My favorite size is the wide-mouth pint (16 oz.) for most uses, but I do have quite a few of the 4 oz. size and the quart size as well. The lids don’t last forever, and you may need to replace them once a year if they start to rust. But for the money, mason jars are a great buy and so practical! Caveat – if you react to base metals like nickel or tin, you will want to get lids made of a material you don’t react to.
- Stainless steel whisks, sieve, grater, and tongs – These are handy for food prep, non-reactive, and easy to clean. Just don’t use them on your Green Pans!
- GreenPan – GreenPan is a brand of ceramic-coated pots and pans. It is ideal for those with chemical sensitivities because it is non-reactive. Green Pans are also non-stick, and so very easy to use. I do recommend hand-washing them because it helps keep the ceramic finish looking nicer for longer. But their website says they can go in the dishwasher. To make it fit a budget, you can start with just one pan, and get more as finances allow. The ten-inch fry pan works for many cooking applications.
- Glass bowls – Glass bowls are non-reactive and helpful for mixing and combining ingredients for recipes.
- Wooden spoons – For Green Pans, you need utensils that won’t damage the ceramic, and wooden spoons do the trick. Some people with MCAS react to nickel, tin, or other base metals, so wood is a nice option, especially bamboo.
- Sheet pan – A sheet pan is key for making roasted vegetables and for tray-bake recipes. You can either get a stainless steel sheet pan, which is non-reactive or purchase one in a material like aluminum and then line it with baking paper or a Silpat. Here is a pretty basic option.
- Muffin tin – A muffin tin usually comes with six or twelve depressions for baking muffin batter. For this tool, you don’t need to invest in the highest-quality pan material, since you can use muffin liners. So, look for a nice quality muffin pan at a used goods store, or purchase one from Aldi. Aldi’s offerings change weekly, so it sometimes takes a while to find what you need. But Aldi has nice lines of both silicone and enameled baking pans. IKEA also sells inexpensive muffin pans.
- Silicone lids – As I discuss in this post, silicone is non-reactive, so it is an excellent material for cooking. You can use them for baking, braising, frying, and microwaving covered dishes. I like this set of silicone lids; they are pretty inexpensive and cover a variety of pot and pan sizes.
The bucket theory
The bucket theory simplifies understanding symptom reactions with MCAS. Imagine your body as an empty bucket you don’t want to overflow. Reactions to various stimuli fill the histamine bucket at different rates, forming the total histamine level (how full your bucket is). More histamine means more symptoms. By managing triggers, reducing exposures, and taking medications and supplements, you can control your bucket’s level.
Know your typical symptom progression
Understanding your symptom progression during a flare is key to developing your rescue plan. This post discusses how to recognize symptom progression so you can be prepared to address them.
Get my free ebook, symptom log, and meal plan!
Want a tool to easily track your symptoms?
Check out these circadian health tools!
I’m an affiliate with Bon Charge, a company that makes tools for circadian health, and you can receive 15% off your order with my coupon code BETSYL.
Bon Charge offers tools such as yellow– and red-tone blue-blocking glasses, red light therapy devices, PEMF mats, infrared saunas, and EMF-blocking products.
Sign up for the SSP!
I’ve found the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) to be the most helpful bottom-up healing strategy if your nervous system has been overloaded with toxic exposures, including mold or non-native EMFs, chronic infections, concussions, stress, or trauma. The SSP is a passive listening therapy that helps heal nervous system dysregulation. Many people with MCAS and other chronic conditions have nervous system dysregulation stemming from infections, toxic exposures, concussions, and trauma. The SSP is an easy-to-use app that lets you listen to specially filtered music for 30 minutes each day as part of a 5-hour cycle. Studies show the SSP has a profound effect on mental health and chronic conditions. Here’s a short podcast describing the Safe and Sound Protocol.
You can sign up for the SSP here!
Heal your mind!
While the SSP is a bottom-up, somatic therapy for healing the nervous system, the Sacred Self-Healing Method I offer is a top-down nervous system-healing modality that focuses on cognition, attention, perception, and emotion, using the mind’s higher functions. The SSP and the Sacred Self-Healing Method complement each other and together produce lasting results. Here’s a short podcast on my self-healing practice.
I provide one-on-one in-person and remote chronic illness and caregiver coaching, as well as Sacred Self-Healing Sessions based on the Sacred Self-Healing Method, a proven, novel co-creative healing modality detailed in my Books.
Order my books!
Here’s a short podcast highlighting my five books.
My latest book, Living In The Light: Healing with Forgiveness, Sound, and Light, is all about the tools that have been most helpful for me to heal: forgiveness, sound, through nervous system retraining using the Safe and Sound Protocol, and light, through entraining my circadian rhythm with the energy of the sun. Living In The Light is available here!
Rocks and Roots chronicles my solo backpacking journey on the Superior Hiking Trail and my efforts to overcome nervous system dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome symptoms to complete the 328-mile hike successfully.
The Sacred Self-Healing Method ebook is available here and in most ebook retailers!
The Sacred Self-Healing Workbook is available for purchase here!
Betsy’s first book, Sacred Self-Healing: Finding Peace Through Forgiveness, is available here
Companion Recordings
The companion audio recordings of chants, guided meditations, and sound healing demonstrations that accompany the Sacred Self-Healing Method are available for free on my YouTube channel here
What do you think?
I’d love to have your reply below!
Disclaimer
The preceding material does not constitute medical advice. This information is for information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cure, or treatment.
