I was feeling a little bad for a couple of weeks. Not terrible, just kind of like I was fighting a little virus or something~ bit of a headache, less energy, skin looking bad, vague sense of un-well-ness. After about a week I started thinking, wait a minute, this feels like gluten! But what could it be? My diet has not varied much lately and I rarely eat out and the symptoms were persisting, telling me I was taking it in continually but it seemed in low doses because of how stealthily the bad feelings crept up. That is when I thought about the supplements I take everyday and I began to wonder when was the last time I checked to make sure those are gluten free…and let me just say as someone who used to work in the natural foods industry and as a certified herbalist I tend to take more supplements than the average human, so that’s a lot of bottles about which to keep vigilant. Sure enough, my three Whole Foods brand supplements were made in a facility that also processed wheat, etc. They weren’t made with gluten mind you, just had potential to be cross-contaminated. To be honest I was dubious these were the culprit~ am I really that sensitive? After I stopped taking them, I felt a little better the next day, and even better the day after that, and by the third day I woke up with no headache. Bingo. It is a bummer to be so sensitive although I do take those supps every day and who knows for how many months it’d been before either a. it built up in my system as a problem or b. I just had starting taking some that were indeed contaminated. It was a good reminder to keep vigilant. Now I make sure my supps have a cute little gluten-free symbol on the bottle~ these are the most common:
I’m partial to that top one…tatoo material maybe? I’m gluten-free after all. Or at least I try to be.
Category: gluten intolerance symptoms
Gluten Intolerance
A recipe for a type of pasta and cheese dish sent me to Jovial’s website where I started poking around. I haven’t tried their gluten free products yet, but I will now because I was so impressed with how they concisely explain gluten intolerance, especially how it relates to yet is different than Celiac Disease. Here is the one page information on Gluten Intolerance. Also well done are the fast facts which were found on the page about their gluten free getaway in Tuscany (which sounds like heaven btw.)
Fast facts:
| Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition triggered by the ingestion of gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Celiac disease affects 3 million Americans, but 95% are undiagnosed. There are more than 300 symptoms of celiac disease, ranging from gastrointestinal issues to migraines to joint pain. Left untreated, celiac disease can lead to other serious health conditions, such as osteoporosis, infertility and cancer. The only treatment for celiac disease is a lifelong, 100% gluten-free diet. An estimated 18 million Americans have gluten sensitivity – that means a total of 21 million Americans should be living gluten-free! In addition to obvious sources like pasta, bread and cookies, gluten can also be found in soy sauce, salad dressing, lunch meat, gravy, and a number of other foods. The one page article is seriously worth reading, even if you already know all about |
Pineapple Juice
While living in Prague my spectacular flatmate and I talked about everything under the sun, but really, the majority of the time, by a significant amount I’d say, we talked about food. Usually it was what we’d be eating if we were home right now, or in some other city, or what we ate at such and such restaurant, and what we would like to cook if only we could find the ingredients in these tiny little grocery stores. Because of that, I know far more about the frozen foods in Canada’s fine stores than any American should, and she probably will make a pilgrimage to a certain dark coffeehouse in a bad corner of Cincinnati one day. At the time we were both pescatarians in a city that is more red meat and potatoes than Texas. Needless to say, our options were limited. We lived on bread and cheese and surprise, surprise, I got horribly sick for months. At that time I was not aware of my gluten intolerance, but my natural foods background let me know it was something diet related. I started steaming broccoli for breakfast and living off Uncle Ben’s minute brown rice. And pineapple juice. Prague didn’t have much in the way of juices, but it had the best pineapple juice ever~ we drank it daily out of the same kind of box we later in the day would drink our ‘fine’ wines. The juice sections in Prague grocery stores at the time amounted to about half of an end cap. My flatmate went to Berlin over the holidays and all I remember from her trip was that the juice sections there were whole aisles, just like here. Anyway, at Trader Joe’s last night I saw they have a new pineapple juice in the cold section and I just had to try it. The ones in glass that sit on the shelf have never lived up to Prague’s standards so I have cautious hopes for this one. It isn’t organic so I won’t get it often, but in homage to my lovely friend and our days in Prague I’m going to down a glass and then throw together a sopsky’s salad, hold the fried cheese, please.
Greying Early
This radio station I was listening to the other day informed me that there is an epidemic of young women greying early, so much so that they have their own acronym: gosts~ greying overly stressed twenty- somethings. Considering my general lack of media interaction, this could very well be old news, but I was fascinated and surprised. I got my first grey hair at the ripe ol’ age of 10. My mother acted as though that was completely normal and immediately called the doctor secretly suspecting some horrible disease where I’d be aging rapidly and sharing wrinkle cream tips with her before my teenage years. The dr. allayed her fears, and actually greying early runs in my family, on my father’s side, so it was just kind of accepted and expected. Now I can look at that phenomena and it seems so obvious that I was B vitamin deficient with my meat aversion and sub-par intestines. I would venture to guess my dad’s side has a long history of gluten intolerance actually, though no one but me has ever been tested, much less diagnosed. It definitely makes me wonder if there is more than stress causing this epidemic of young twenty somethings greying early~ food allergies seem to be around every corner these days. I watched a video about lesser known gluten intolerance symptoms and it is amazing how many different ways it can manifest. No wonder drs have such a hard time diagnosing it! She didn’t mention early greying in her video, but it stands to reason if your intestines are not in optimal condition then you cannot get the necessary nutrients for all the body’s processes, which includes coloring one’s hair. (B vitamins are essential.) We know so much more now about health and nutrition, and yet it seems you really have to research for yourself to get an answer. Leaving it up to the docs just isn’t enough.
Gluten Intolerance Symptoms
Something sneaky has gluten in it. I don’t know what I was eating, but the reaction was definitely gluten related and it was rotten. More than likely it was some Halloween candy I ‘borrowed’ out of my kids’ stash; as they say, karma is a bitch. Anyway, this is exactly how it unfolds for me but everyone is different. For one thing I usually do not have an instant reaction. If I do, it is a headache, but not a stomach issues like a lot of people have. The headache will start at some point between bite and a day later. Then my skin turns into an adolescent nightmare with one or two or more(!) ‘blemishes’ as the magazines like to call them. The brain fog comes in thickly and quickly, as does the bad mood, and the fatigue is horrible. It lasts about 3 days, then it all lifts, the headache and brain fog leave bit by bit, and the skin returns to normal, the tiredness lifts and best of all the bad mood goes away and I suddenly feel so good again that I am actually really happy and energetic for a few days. Like, oh yeah, this is how normal feels and it feels good! Weeee! So that’s where I am now, on the upswing of normal, thank goodness, but it makes me nervous for the holidays~all the sharing of foods and such. That just reminded me that I did eat some unknown treat that a new Thai friend offered me and I ate it b/c trying to explain I don’t eat wheat seemed strange, like I was being offensive by not eating what she offered. (“Meat? It’s not meat.” “No, well, yes meat but I mean wheat, like the flour.” “Flower? No flower.”) Anyway, I guess it is good to have these reminders of what gluten does to me when I have those moments of, “man, I just want a slice of big, crusty French bread. Just one slice. It can’t hurt…” It does. And it isn’t worth it.
Evil Granola
Since cutting spelt out of my diet I’ve been feeling really good, both in my head and in my tummy. Then yesterday I ate some granola which seemed innocent enough, until I woke up this morning feeling awful. I recognized that feeling immediately~ as though waking up from a coma that I can’t shake, my whole body felt groggy and my eyes felt glazed over. They even looked gray-ish instead of the clear brightness of a few days ago. Damn that granola. It is somewhat a good thing though, because it reminded me of how I used to feel all the time…it is funny how quickly I forget. It is something that I imagine people without food intolerances must have a hard time understanding because even I so quickly adapt to feeling good as feeling normal. This morning I needed coffee badly, to conquer the lingering sleepy feeling and also in a futile attempt to elevate my mood. When my system is clear of gluten I still drink coffee most mornings, but sometimes I prefer black or green tea. It is interesting to experience the differences so dramatically. It makes it easier to remain diligent and reminds me to make myself some gf granola. Why do they have to add wheat into granola anyway? Because it’s cheap? Probably, actually. They can fluff out the gronala with cheap wheat instead of relying solely on the more expensive oats. Back to the kitchen.
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