I saw doctor after doctor and they just handed me some medicine, and then upped the dose. It still wasn't working.
Then I moved to Chicago, a big city where you can go to an integrative wellness center instead of a normal stuffy doctor's office. I love the integrative wellness center. They have doctors and nurses like normal, but they also have a massage therapist and acupuncturist on staff. The exam rooms are not numbered but labeled with names like "Serenity" and "Reflection" This was my kind of place.
One visit I once again brought up my chronic awful stomach issues. The doctor this time, unlike the many before her, did not prescribe more medicine but suggested I see their naturopathic doctor. Naturopath? What kind of hokey weirdness is this? And it's not covered by insurance? Then I'm definitely out. Mr. EWP, however, convinced me it was worth a try. The drugs were obviously not working, talking to the naturopath couldn't hurt. So I did.
And wow, did it change my life. She took a blood test to be run in some lab to test for different food allergies. But we discussed what was wrong, and how it wasn't just my stomach that was connected to a food allergy. Like my intensely itchy skin. No matter how much I moisturized (and I am a moisturizing fiend), I would wake myself up at night scratching my arms, legs, anything until it bled. Turns out, with my food allergies, my stomach was unable to absorb nutrients and was expelling them any way it could - the two ways that you would normally think of, but then also through my skin which resulted in the itching.
A few weeks later, the results were in - I had strong reactions to a host of various foods like wheat (bye bye gluten), pinto beans, and crab. And the most allergic food item - yeast. Who knew?
So while the wheat allergy puts me on a gluten-free diet, the yeast allergy puts me on a no bread ever again diet, because even gluten-free bread has yeast. It has to rise somehow, right?
Now, before you ask, I was tested and I don't have celiac's disease. This is a good thing. While eating gluten makes me feel ill to my stomach, that's about all it will do. Eating gluten for someone with celiac's can lead to a whole host of serious issues like miscarriages, liver problems, and even cancer.
While I mourned the loss of bread and I mourned the loss of cakes and cookies and all the other wonderful delights with wheat (flour) in them, the fact of the matter was, the new diet REALLY worked. I felt and still feel a million times better. It's a whole new world for me. I seriously cannot believe how long I lived I like that. Any time I get a stomach ache now (when I cheat), I feel the world is ending. And then I remember I lived like that FOR YEARS.
There a few drawbacks to my new gluten-free world: (1) many gluten-free foods taste terrible. I'll try any item that says gluten-free on it, but man I've had to spit out a few; (2) there aren't a ton of gluten free food options outside of a place like Whole Foods. We find ourselves doing our regular shopping and then doing our EWP gluten-free shopping at Whole Foods. Two grocery shopping trips is no fun. and (3) gluten-free foods cost way more. Our grocery bill has spiked quite a bit. The same Betty Crocker cake mix costs THREE times as much as its gluten-full counterpart. I'm really hoping the prices come down. And, as more people learn about gluten allergies and celiac's disease, the more products keep popping up and the prices come down.
And like with all things that I'm told I can't do, I feel the need to rebel and test the lines. So while I had my gluten-free diet and knew it worked, I was convinced a little cookie here or there wouldn't kill me. So I'd cheat. And then I'd cheat some more. And then I'd feel miserable.
This year, I'm doing it right. No more cheating. This gal is going to be better about being gluten-free (and all those other things I'm allergic to - free).
And here are some of the tools which will help me on my way:
Chex, thank God, has a few gluten-free cereals. The organicy whole foodsy gluten-free cereals tasted like cardboard. Rice Chex tastes like heaven. And is easy to stock, it's available at any grocery store. My parents always make sure to have some on hand when I come to visit, and even though I clearly won't finish an entire box in 2 days, no one will mind eating the rest because it's a normal cereal and not made with dirt.
When one person goes gluten-free in the house, it's essentially like everyone going gluten-free to some measure. Sure my husband gets all his normal cereals, but meals have to be EWP-friendly. Meats and vegetables are naturally gluten-free, and good for you in their unprocessed forms, but the grains are the killer. Rice is a staple around here, but sometimes all a gal wants is some pasta. After many trials and errors, we settled on this penne as our go to gluten-free pasta. We love it and it tastes really normal! 
And since what I have is actually just a wheat allergy, not a gluten-allergy (while most things containing gluten have it b/c of wheat and that's an easy way to weed out wheat, gluten is also found in barley and other items which I'm not allergic too. I just keep gluten-free because, why not, seems safer), food labels are my best friends. By law, food labels must say whether they contain wheat (no such law about gluten), so I always take a quick look at ingredients before buying. This contains wheat, so it's a no no.
Bob's Red Mill makes a ton of gluten-free flours. Garbanzo flour, soy flour, corn flour, quinoa flour. My go to is the gluten-free all purpose flour. It serves most of my purposes. It's pricey as far as flour goes, but oh so worth it.
I've made fun of Elisabeth Hasselbeck a time or two in my life. She's not exactly my favorite person, but man oh man, her book is wonderful. It was easy to read, extremely practical, and so informative.
Her book taught me a few tricks about sharing a kitchen with a gluten-eater, like having separate peanut butters. All his stray crumbs were getting in and contaminating the pb after he'd spread it on his gluteny, yeasty bread. And that would upset my stomach. So we now have two peanut butters, one labeled for me so we know to keep the gluten out. Too bad I don't own any normal labels, so for now it just has some mailing labels on it. Whatever, it still works.
And I've armed myself with some good cookbooks so I can get my baking and cooking on without any gluteny interference.
And the number one asset I have in my battle to stay gluten-free and healthy is my family and friends. Clearly my husband is my biggest gluten defender and has had to switch his diet around to mesh with mine, which is no easy task. I can't thank him enough. I seriously could not pull this off without him.
But then there's also my family. My mother made a copy of my list of allergens and cooks accordingly when I come over. She even invented a corn flour pancake recipe when I was over the last time, so we could still keep our Saturday pancake tradition alive. And they were delicious! And you already know about how my in-laws spoiled me with every gluten-free baking mix under the sun.
And my dear friend Kathy got me this wonderful cookbook (bakebook?) so I wouldn't have to miss out on my favorite desserts.
And many other friends have done things like buy cookies for me because they saw they were gluten-free, or call ahead to a restaurant for me to let the chef know not to put any gluten in my meal, or even just when they have me over for dinner went around the table and informed me what foods they prepared for dinner contained any gluten. This thoughtfulness really helps me keep on track, and the support does wonders for when all the food-watching makes me a little crazy.
And many other friends have done things like buy cookies for me because they saw they were gluten-free, or call ahead to a restaurant for me to let the chef know not to put any gluten in my meal, or even just when they have me over for dinner went around the table and informed me what foods they prepared for dinner contained any gluten. This thoughtfulness really helps me keep on track, and the support does wonders for when all the food-watching makes me a little crazy.
xoxo,
EWGluten-free
