Gluten, how I loathe thee.

[katespace]

So I think I mentioned in passing something about gluten. If I didn't, then, well, you'll hear all about it below.

Comments

[kesara]

You can have gluten intolerance without having celiac disease, and the blood test for celiac is notorious for coming back with false negatives. I have similar problems that spring up from time to time, dermatitis herpetiformis (the skin disease complication of CD), gut issues, migraines, etc, that magically resolve when I go gluten-free for a while. I've been tested for celiac several times and it's come back "negative," but that doesn't really mean much. Many people have the disease but have a naturally low antibody level. That's something weird about my immune system; my antibody and pathogen level is almost unmeasureable. So the celiac test will not come back positive because it looks for antibodies...

(hooray for having a hyperactive immune system...)

It's not great to self-diagnose, but if you've already gone to the doc and not gotten much in the way of help, the GF diet is a good place to start. I find that if I stick with a mostly GF diet I can cheat and have gluten once in a while without too much pain. Be prepared for weird things that never bothered you before to start bugging you once you give up gluten. It took me 2 years to figure out that nuts and granola were giving me migraines. But chocolate, caffeine and citrus don't. Weird.

Another side note... Most doctors, even allergists, know almost NOTHING about food allergies, food interactions, food-medicine interactions, and food intolerance. Be prepared to to a LOT of research on teh intarweb and get ready to use yourself as a guinea pig, because the doctors don't know shit. I've gone through some of this but some of the food I can eat might not react the same with you. You can eat soy for example and I can't, while I can eat citrus and you can't.... But the gluten-free pantry has great bread-machine bread mixes for yummy chewy GF bread, so you won't be deprived of bread, grilled cheese or sandwiches. Yay!!! :)

And there are a lot of brewers that brew GF beer now. You can order online and I hear there are some pretty tasty brands. Haven't tried them myself, but I should order some. So don't worry about having to live without beer. :)

Gravy is just as good made with cornstarch, and I have the BEST brown/wild rice stuffing recipe that is as good (or better) than the bread kind. Thanksgiving is just as good. And I make my pumpkin pie without crust, so it's quite tasty. Life is still worth living without gluten; you just have to find the GOOD substitutes. (stay away from quinoa! it's asstacular!)

[girliegoalie]

stay away from quinoa! it's asstacular!)

hey!

I like that stuff

[katespace]

Thanks for the info.

I don't usually self-diagnose, but in this case I noticed the pattern, got tested, and am doing an experiment to see if I was right. It's not a huge deal to eat gluten-free for a few weeks to see if it helps. Especially since I don't know when I'll get the results back. I didn't want to have my gastrointestinal tract continue to a splode until then.

Yeah, my doc also said that even if the test comes back negative, that doesn't rule out gluten intolerance.

I did just discover that reese's peanut butter cups and rolos do not have gluten. :)