Gluten Intolerant - Who Me?
Well what do you know! It looks like I am allergic to or responding unfavorably to gluten or wheat when ingested at a pretty minute level. Here I thought I was just going along with this elimination diet to support my daughter. I can tell you, I have not ever even suspected I was gluten intolerant. I have eaten some form of pasta and/or bread and/or baked good every day, well, since I was born, practically. I mean, I love my carbs. I've heard before that people who are intolerant of a food usually crave it, but wow! I did not see this one coming. Also, what I did not see coming: my reaction. I didn't really have one.
It was a slow realization, and I'm not 100% positive it's actually the case. My daughter and I finished up the first phase of our elimination diet where we were restricted from eating most foods a few days before we left for a mini family vacation. I admit I did sneak a few vegan cookies that had regular flour, and ended up with a small case of diarrhea, which is exactly what happened to me during our gluten testing phase. The last day of our vacation I felt a cold coming on, and I was coughing and had diarrhea for the better part of three weeks. A nurse I went to see called it an upper respiratory infection and said it would clear itself up in about a week or 10 days.
It was somewhere around the 2nd week or a few days into it that it occurred to me that perhaps these two symptoms were not related. I was at a friends house talking with a bunch of wonderful ladies about our kids with special diets and working to fill our children with healthy foods and avoiding parabens and other toxic health hazards. My friend told me a story about her son who, as it turns out is gluten intolerant, and they figured it out because he has temper tantrums when he eats gluten. She said even one piece of taffy that likely contained a small amount of wheat was enough to upset his system - sometimes for up to a month.
I think it was the next day that it occurred to me that since we've been off the elimination diet (but still keeping to a gluten free/dairy free/soy free diet) that my daughter had been displaying more emotional issues. More complaining, more - unhappy. No large tantrums or displays, but for sure not as even tempered as she was before. I thought about it, and thought perhaps I was also less even (although I'm always such a delight, its hard to tell, really.) :)
So I started thinking, what are we eating more of now than before? We aren't eating any gluten directly. But once I started reading the packages in the pantry for chips, Trader Joe's peas, and other snacks (how quickly they returned to our pantry!), I realized these foods are made in facilities that also process wheat.
Once the idea landed on me, I thought, okay, and moved all the products that were new to another shelf in the pantry so we wouldn't accidentally eat them. My daughter was nearby when this idea hit me, so we both decided together that we had been more grumpy and we should try eliminating these foods. I didn't really think much more about it. Thank goodness the diarrhea has subsidised as soon as I stopped eating those foods. I know, TMI, but I've saved you from having to hear the story from me in person, so that has to count for something.
I'm planning to make an appointment with my daughter's Naturopath to see about getting tested and to double check whether I might have something similar to "leaky gut" like my daughter, which does cause damage to the body.
Coffee Test
I started drinking coffee this week after months of being off it. I've been staying up late and getting up early, so I thought I'd give it a try. I completely love it. For a while I'd been phasing off coffee because I thought I was reacting to the acid in it. While that may be true, I decided to test coffee because it occurred to me that maybe I was reacting all that time to the soy milk without realizing it. For sure I can tell that on coffee I'm very awake during most of the day, and I feel the energy crash in the evenings. I prefer the evenness of no coffee, but I think I'll keep it around a bit longer because I'm enjoying it. I think, however, that 1 shot instead of 2 may be better for me to start with. I've been really hungry and a bit shaky on the current dose.
No comments:
Post a Comment