Gluten: The Why Not
May 4, 2011 
If you've been reading over the last couple weeks, you know that I've given up the following things: gluten, dairy, and sugar.
And coffee.
Which still makes me want to cry a little bit.
But we won't get into that.
For today I just want to tell you about why I'm giving up gluten. First, let me just start out by saying that I am nowhere near an expert on the subject of why one should or shouldn't eat gluten, but I have done my research and feel I'm making an educated decision. So I'm just going to share why, for my personal reasons, I'm cutting it out of my diet.
Capiche?
I have to tell you, I loooooove bread. Bread slathered in butter. Bread topped with garlic and cheese. Bread dipped in soup. Bread in stuffing. Bread in bread pudding. Bread. Bread. Bread. I probably love bread the most of all foods. I'm also fairly fond of noodles. And crackers. And cereal. Giving up gluten wasn't an easy decision to come to. Some days it's really hard to stop myself from whipping up this pizza and devouring the whole thing.
However, as I've mentioned, I've been feeling a variety of symptoms of simply not being well (aches, fatigue, headaches, congestion, etc...) for several years now, and I'm determined to get to the real root of what it causing these issues, rather than mask them with medication, and I figure cleaning up my diet is an excellent place to start. I did cut down on refined flours and sugars a couple years ago, and it seemed to really help with the achiness I had been feeling, so my logic is that if refined gluten may have been playing a role in that problem, perhaps I just don't tolerate gluten well in general.
From a research standpoint, I read in my book, The UltraMind Solution, the following... "A recent review paper in The New England Journal of Medicine listed fifty-five "diseases" that can be caused by eating gluten. These include many neurological and psychiatric diseases such as anxiety, depression, shizophrenia, dementia, migraines, epilepsy, and neuropathy (nerve damage). Gluten has also been linked to autism."
Sounds to me like good enough reasons to lay off the gluten.
I've been 100% completely gluten free for a few weeks now, and in the month or so preceeding that I had cut down on it quite a bit. At this point I can't say that I'm feeling 'ultra well'. Actually, I still feel pretty crummy. However, I know that the process of letting my body heal from all of the unhealthy foods and environmental exposures I've had over the years will take some time, and may actually get worse before it gets better, so I'm just trying to be patient and diligent. One difference that I have experienced for the better is that I no longer feel the blood sugar drops that I used to experience pretty frequently. I feel much more steady, in that regard, throughout the day.
Just to give you an idea of what grains I do eat, here's a quick rundown... Quinoa, millet, rice, and gluten-free oatmeal.
That's it.
Boring.
Not a slice of bread or a cracker in sight.
I'm going to try to work in more healthy whole grains, like amaranth and buckwheat, as I go along. But for now I'm keeping it simple.
Health & Wellness
Reader Comments (7)
Get Chebe' mixes for your pizza dough! It's WONDERFUL! We're a gluten-free, sugar-free family and that's what we use! I'd love to help you where I can! Let me know if there's a recipe that you need or a question I can answer :)
That is a real change. I love wheat and oatmeal. I'm not sure I would be strong enough.
I hope it does what it needs to do and gets your system cleaned out and you feeling better. Maybe I'll be inspired.
I hope you are getting sunshine and warmth!
My daughter and I have been mostly gluten free for a number of months now. Sometimes you think that there is not really any difference, but then when you cave and eat some bread, the feeling of bloating and discomfort is so obvious that you don't want to go there again.
WOW! Very brave. Mr. Blue Eyes able to stay on this diet also?
Greg - He hasn't given up gluten. Or dairy. Or sugar. But he has been eating a bit healthier, so that's a good thing!
I gotta ask...what DO you eat?
Greg - Hah! I can see this is perplexing. Once I get done with writing the posts about why I'm NOT eating gluten, dairy and sugar, I'll wrote a post about what I DO eat, okay? For now I'll just say... Lots of fruit and veggies, lean meats, and whole grains like quinoa and brown rice. I also found gluten free oatmeal, which I have for breakfast quite a bit.