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."
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!)
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