My Journey Towards a Gluten –Free Diet: What is Gluten-Intolerance?!

My Journey Towards a Gluten –Free Diet.

What is Gluten-Intolerance?!

The following information I found in the article Marsh Stage of Celiac Disease

From Nancy Lapid on celiacdisease.about.com. You can read more information on the website here:

Basically there are different levels of Celiac called Marsh Stages:

The stages are based on the damage found on the small intestines through a biopsy. They range from 0 (not affected by gluten)  to 4 (highly affect by gluten).

I myself did not have a test to determine if I had gluten intolerance. I was tired of feeling bad all the time. I was always tired, run down and constantly trying to find energy. My face was always broken out, and I couldn't lose weight. Furthermore  I had gas all the time! (Sorry for the TMI)

Natural New's lists the following symptoms on their article: 

Six Signs You Might Have Gluten Sensitivity and Not Know It

"(1) Obviously, there are gastrointestinal (GI), stomach, and digestive problems. These can include one or some of the following: Gas, bloating, queasiness, abdominal cramping, constipation, diarrhea, or an alternating combination of both - IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome).

(2) Headaches and/or migraines.

(3) Fibromyalgia is not a disease, it's a syndrome. Getting a medical diagnosis is bogus. You don't need to be told you have muscular and connecting tissue aches and pains. That's what fibromyalgia means. Fibro= Connective Tissue; Myo= Muscle; Algia= Pain. Thus fibromyalgia.

(4) Emotional issues involving chronic irritability and sudden, irrational mood shifts.

(5) Neurological issues, including dizziness, difficulty balancing, and peripheral neuropathy affecting nerves outside the central nervous system and resulting in pain, weakness, tingling or numbness in the extremities.

(6) Fatigue, whether chronic or almost after every meal. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is, like fibromyalgia, a syndrome, not a disease. If that's what you're diagnosed with, it means your doctor can't locate the cause of your fatigue."

Learn more on their website.

I was desperate to feel better and lose weight so I searched out an answer. The answer I found was the Virgin Diet book by J. J. Virgin. View her website here for more information.

The Virgin Diet method:

"A negative reaction to certain foods like dairy or gluten can sabotage your health by triggering inflammation and causing a host of nasty symptoms like bloating, breakouts, headaches, achy joints and—worst of all—stubborn weight gain.

On The Virgin Diet, you’ll eat plenty of anti-inflammatory, healing foods to reclaim your health and reset your metabolism, while avoiding the 7 foods that are most likely to cause food intolerance."

What I did was cut out those 7 foods (one of them being gluten). Once you have allowed your body enough time to heal, you slowly add those foods back in your diet, to see what your body reacts to. Once I started adding gluten back into my diet, I noticed how crappy gluten was making me feel. One thing I noticed was how gluten made me feel depressed! This is why I chose to cut out gluten completely from my diet. I also found a sensitivity to soy, and I try and cut that out as much as possible (which is hard because soy is in EVERYTHING!)