Gluten Update- The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
The Good
- I'm reading Elisabeth Hasselbeck's book "G Free Diet", and I really like it. I recommend it if you are going GF. She has some good and very understandable things to say, such as:
- "Celiac Disease is a digestive disorder characterized by a toxic reaction to gluten, the protein found in certain grains. Celiac disease is hereditary, meaning it's in your gene pool; chronic, meaning it won't ever go away; and autoimmune, meaning it causes the body to attack itself."
- Carrying the gene for CD does not necessarily activate the condition, it often develops after you undergo some sort of physical or emotion "trauma" that activates the condition, such as surgery, childbirth, viral infection, physical injury or severe emotional distress.
- Gluten is an all-purpose stabilizer and thickener that manufacturers and restaurants add to tons and tons of different products, which is why it's hard to eat out or even eat processed foods because the ingredient lists are often so vague and confusing.
- The only thing I don't like about her book is that she talks about GF as almost a diet aid in one chapter, which it is certainly NOT. Sure if you eat all natural, fresh ingredients and exercise portion control, you are going to be healthy/ lose weight whether or not you eat gluten. On the flip side, if you eat a bunch of GF crap (Cheetos and Reeses PB Cups are GF!!!), you will still gain weight.
- As I mentioned before, eating at home is super easy (aside from cross-contamination), as tons of foods are naturally GF, and there are tons of substitutes for things that aren't.
The Bad
- Eating out is really hard. You really can't trust restaurants or the people who work there. Even if they say it's GF, they don't get that they can't cook it on the same grill as g-full items, they can't use the same spatula, etc. as they used on g-full items, etc. (Elisabeth makes it very clear in her book that you need to really be diligent about cross-contamination, which I haven't been).
- After having some girl's nights out where I literally sat there and drank water, which is uncomfortable and embarrassing, I decided to talk to the manager at El Torito Grill prior to our baby brunch for Julie. The manager says, "oh we don't add gluten to anything". Uh, really? You don't add flour to your FLOUR tortillas? You don't add any thickeners, fillers, etc. to any of your sauces or dressings? I find that a bit hard to believe. He clearly didn't know or understand what gluten was so I gave up. I did eat that day (which I REALLY shouldn't have given the manager's lack of knowledge), and I tried to be really careful, but it made me uncomfortable, and I'm sure I glutened myself somehow.
- Because you can get seriously sick just from cross-contamination (see bullet below), I've already spent $100 buying kitchen items THAT I ALREADY OWN. Now we have to have 2 sets of many items- 1 for GF foods, 1 for foods with gluten. I'm not even close to getting everything I need, but I really don't have the space to store multiples of the same thing.
The Ugly
- I have only GAINED weight since being GF! I thought I was going to lose weight by not eating gluten, but here are the two problems with that theory: (1) When you have CD, you don't absorb nutrients so once you stop eating gluten and start absorbing your food, you can gain weight (ok, I don't think this was my problem, as I clearly had no problem gaining weight during infertility and pregnancy!); and (2) Because you feel like you are being deprived, you tend to buy EVERYTHING labeled as GF and eat unhealthy things you wouldn't have even eaten before you were diagnosed. For example, I found these delicious GF ginger cookies at Trader Joe's, which I can't stop eating...why am I buying cookies? I never bought cookies BEFORE I had CD. I also started eating more crackers and other snacky things that are labeled GF. I'm trying to control this now.
- I've read over and over that you can (and mostly likely will) become more and more sensitive to lower levels of gluten the longer you are GF. I am really starting to believe this and taking cross-contamination seriously. While we were in SB, my undereyes puffed up like I'd been stung by a bee. I don't know why, but we did eat out for every meal. On top of that, I've been getting very sick for the past 2 weeks. I will spare you the nasty details (but the bathroom & I have become very friendly), but it's gotten to the point where I am scared to eat. At all. I've had stomach and back pain (that goes from dull to excruciating at various times) 24 hours a day. I don't know if this is related to CD or if I just have some sort of bacterial infection or something (I have a GI appointment tomorrow thank goodness), but I'm really thinking I might be getting continuously glutened via cross-contamination.
Is there a middle ground somewhere? If going totally GF makes you MORE sensitive to gluten, can you go somewhat GF, minimize some of the symptoms you were experiencing, but still maintain some sort of tolerance to gluten (the occasional times you do come across it?).
ReplyDeleteP.S. We're having your version of moussaka tonight! Only thing I did differently is add a little parsley to the cottage cheese (because I do that with ricotta when I use it in lasagna). I'll let you know how it goes.
Shakeology is GF. It's a meal replacement shake that has a full days worth of vitamins and minerals. I've been following your blog for some time now and I'd love to help you out. Check out www.myshakeology.com/karimoore If you're interested I'd love to send you some samples. I can only imagine the difficulty of Celiac Disease, so if I can help, I'd be honored!
ReplyDeleteI know this might be hard if you eat out a lot, but what about trying to eat out only one meal a week and see what that does? We barely eat out anymore since Steve is a vegetarian and eats such a healthy diet. Ironically, we both lost weight when we started doing that (about two years ago). Well, except when I'm pregnant. :)
ReplyDeleteC: Oh I wish! It's a disease so it would be like a diabetic eating sugar unfortunately. How did the moussaka turn out?! Probably not nearly as good as your regular recipe!
ReplyDeleteKari: Thanks- I'll check it out!
L: We've hardly been eating out at all, but it doesn't seem to matter. No matter what I eat, I'm sick and in pain. Luckily the doc ordered b/w, a catscan and gave me a prescription for pain meds so hopefully I'll be pain-free soon!
The reason you become more sensitive to Gluten is because your body is healing. People with Celiac have severe damage to the lining of the intestine, to the point where very little of the absorptive surface area remains. As long as you remain GF, the gut heals, which increases surface area, meaning that you absorb more Gluten, resulting in a worse reaction when you do get "glutened." There is no such thing as "tolerance" to gluten for someone with Celiac. You're either GF, or you're damaging yourself and setting yourself up for serious long-term consequences.
ReplyDeleteTake it from me, it's much easier to remain GF now than it did when I was diagnosed over 30 years ago! When eating out, I ALWAYS call the restaurant beforehand and make sure everything is handled up front. It's much easier than dealing with it at the table.