(and how to start if you need to be gf too)
Gluten is not dangerous for everyone, but it seems like daily more and more people are being diagnosed as celiac or at least gluten intolerant. My daughter and I have a gluten allergy. We don't have celiac disease, but if we had not stopped ingesting gluten, it would have become that. I will never forget the first few months of my daughter's life. She colicked almost non-stop and we were both exhausted. I ate cream of wheat for breakfast almost daily, thinking I was being so healthy. She was getting it in the breast milk. I drank a lot of colic tea which helped ease her symptoms, but poor baby! I had no idea that what I ate was causing her intestinal pain!
Oh, how I wish I had known then to check for common food allergens. But I didn't and she was twelve before my doctor discovered the allergy in both of us. However, even after the diagnosis it took me awhile to fully accept it and take steps to change our lifestyle. We went through a period of mourning for what we could no longer have. I kept cheating, thinking that once in a while wouldn't hurt. But it's not like other things. When you are allergic to something, it is poison to your system. For us, it takes about 5 days to clear our system. Five days in which we have some horrible symptoms, some of them physical like stomach cramps and bloating, and some of it mental, like inability to think clearly, make simple decisions, or learn anything new. Each of those five days, I wake up depressed, thinking “what's the use?”. I fight with my husband if he forgets to leave me alone for the duration. Nothing is rational.
But when I'm completely gluten free, ah, the blessed relief! Not only am I in my right mind (for the first time in years, really), but I have more energy and more stamina. And my home is peaceful! I don't feel a need to pick fights, my daughter is able to handle her brother's teasing without a total meltdown, it's incredible! I can finally dream for the future and take steps to make those dreams a reality.
So now that I've experienced the results of being gluten-free, I will never intentionally poison my body again. That's what gluten is to me and my daughter. It's a poison. My doctor says if I had continued to put it into my body, it would have led to complications that include serious illness and even death. Our symptoms included brain fog, stomach cramps and bloating, diarrhea, skin rash and a serious personality switch. It was not pretty! Nowadays, if I suddenly go insane and irrational, we start a scavenger hunt to find out what I ate that poisoned me. Then we hunker down for five days and wait it out. Peace and quiet and not much interaction with the family helps me get through it without being just waaay too ugly to my precious loved ones.
There are incredibly informative websites all over the internet giving you all the information you could ever need about this subject. If you've just been diagnosed, or if you suspect you may be gluten intolerant, Karina has written an excellent article to read first. Then you may want to browse the rest of her blog, since it's all excellent. You'll find that most people who blog or maintain a website related to gluten free living have many links to other people doing the same thing. So there is no end to helpful advice and recipes out there, but read Karina's article first because she has some very important points, the main one being that you shouldn't try to eat gf breads and pastas in the first two weeks of your new life. This is because your taste buds have a memory. You have to let them forget the taste of gluten, then they will be able to appreciate all the new foods you'll be introducing to your palate. After you've stuck to very basic foods for a couple of weeks, you can start branching out and trying new things. There are some fantastic mixes in the health food stores nowadays. The gluten free industry is really starting to explode. There are wonderful cook books available also. Recipes abound online. One of my favorite sites is called A Year of Slow Cooking. When I was still dealing with brain fog, it was so nice to be able to prepare delicious meals in my Crock Pot with little effort.
If you've been diagnosed as gluten intolerant in some way, be encouraged. It's normal to mourn your losses, but don't get stuck there. As soon as your system gets clear, you'll feel so much better that life and your future will once again look bright.
