Musings on gluten

[mamagotcha]

So... my mother had a constellation of symptoms that eventually killed her. One of the worst things, for her, was the constant brain fog that clouded her focus (she was a nursing practitioner and had finished law school... her brain meant a LOT to her).

When she was towards the end of her life, I asked her physician if she could possibly have

Comments

[roshismomma]

Sorry I hit send before I meant to ... of course, I am all for going gluten free if it helps you without the test. But once you go GF, the test will likely not be accurate again. Just so you know that part. I don't mean to be unsupportive. Just our experience. And if you do go GF and want any guidance or recipes or whatever, I'm happy to help.

[mamagotcha]

Thank you so much... if you want to shoot me some of your favorite websites or books, I'd be so grateful!

[roshismomma]

For you, oh foodie sort of person, I think the best resource would be http://www.glutenfreegirl.com. She's awesome. I also like http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/ and http://www.elanaspantry.com.

Those are more about food. If you are concerned about how to remove cross contamination from the kitchen, or gluten related health problems, or whatnot, that's a different set of links...

[mamagotcha]

I am still baking all the bread for our family, and I've invested too much time in learning about sourdough to toss it out the window! I am also trying to notice what amounts do what things... my feeling is that I have an intolerance rather than a full-blown allergy (I don't get most of the, erm, more exciting symptoms, thankfully). I've noticed that when I eat a piece of toast or any pasta, I feel drunk and stupid for several hours afterwards. But I'm not to the point where I'm feeling like I need to avoid every jot of gluten to be healthy, so I'm not stressing over salad dressings (yet, anyway). I'm wondering if, by staying away from the E-Ticket gluten rides, there could be an unwanted side effect of actually becoming more sensitive to smaller amounts (like what happens when I'm off caffeine for a while... it just takes a little to get a buzz going).

I'll enjoy digging through those sites, and I thank you for your time and kind words!

[via_lens]

In my experience, it is dangerous to assume "oh, a little bit won't matter." In the short term it doesn't seem to matter, but the reaction is systemic and the more it builds up, the more likely you are to have worse responses. Going GF entirely is something I'm still struggling with, but I'm learning to substitute smartly and to understand that it is better to replace than to replicate -- that is, instead of going for a gluten free bread sandwich, to find a salad I like on the menu.

It is easy to make salad dressings without flour, or with non-wheat subs like quinoa flour or ground toasted rice.

Did you ever do an igG reactivity test?

[mamagotcha]

No, I haven't done that test. I started to bring it up with the doctor during the last visit, but I had to choose my battles with her... it was pulling teeth to get anything (and at the end of the visit, I found out why: "We don't usually deal with more than one issue per visit." I was supposed to make six appointments instead of write out my requests and do my research ahead of time). I STILL haven't gotten the CPAP prescription from her; we paid out-of-pocket. So... new doctor. Soon

[via_lens]

Thank you for the well wishes! I wish YOU luck in sorting this all out for yourself and feeling better.

Paleo is the new Atkins. Not in terms of quackery, but in terms of a good low carb diet that is actually sustainable and also nutritionally complete.

In my case: if I eat the inflammation triggers on a semi-regular basis (so that they accumulate but I never have the really terrible gastric distress or the headaches), I get other issues. Like the bottoms of my feet will erupt in eczema, or I'll have a severe attack of rheumatoid arthritis in my knuckles seemingly out of nowhere.

Before I cut out most wheat, eggs, and dairy, I got a headache every single time I put food in my mouth. Now I almost never get headaches because I'm not eating those things at every meal, but a bad week still results in a bad day or two.