Our Food Journey Continues Part 1

My family's quest for knowledge about how to eat and live so we can lead happier and healthier lives is constantly evolving. It feels like we are in a state of rapid change lately because we have been reading and watching documentaries about food and health on a continual basis for the last 6 months or so. We haven't quite gotten to the point where we are ready to set the cruise control for a while and just do our thing. We are getting close, but not quite. Luckily in all of our learning and forming of opinions about food, my husband and I pretty much agree. That makes mealtimes much simpler around here. And luckily our son has an adventurous spirit when it comes to food and will try many different things (most of the time, he is 2 after all). We are still eating real foods as much as possible, but we are changing our thoughts about what real foods will make it to our table and into our bodies.

My Personal Journey (or experiment on myself)

About 10 or 11 years ago I was seeing various doctors to find some answers to some stomach problems I'd had for several years. I never did find an answer and eventually gave up on test and test telling me there was nothing wrong (the usual story right?) to deal with things on my own. However, there is one thing a doctor mentioned that has recently resurfaced in my mind: I may have a wheat allergy. I honestly don't recall how the doctor came up with this. It must have been a blood test. So for about 2 or 3 weeks, with my mom's help, I went on a wheat/gluten-free diet. It was tough and I didn't feel any better so I stopped and didn't think about it again until just recently.

I still have stomach issues to this day. Nothing major, but it's gotten annoying after this long. It would be nice to feel good on a more regular basis. In all my reading I kept coming across mentions of symptoms from food allergies/sensitivities like stomach distress, low energy, anxiety, depression, skin issues among other things. I have many of those issues to some extent so how could I ignore it? That with the mention of a possible wheat allergy years ago made me start thinking that maybe I do have some food sensitivities I am not aware of and are affecting me. Heck if I can change the way I eat so I can feel better overall I'm all for it.

So that it how I decided to given the gluten-free diet a try again after all these years. I thought about it for months and decided just to go for it. The only reason it took me so long to start is because I love bread! How could I give up bread? Giving up bread (in my mind) would be harder than giving up refined sugars (which I did months ago with only a few exceptions on occasion). I have been cutting back on the amount the bread I ate for several months now, but boy did I love the 5 ingredient whole wheat bread from Bountiful Baskets. I did a few days and then we had a get together for my birthday and I ate a tortilla and some cake (even though I'd bought myself a gluten-free cake from the same bakery). Then the next day, July 7th (my actual birthday), I started up again and haven't stopped since. So that is 10 days now.

I decided that for the start of my experiment of not eating wheat/gluten I would avoid any gluten containing ingredients. I want to see if this is enough for me to feel some difference in my overall health. Perhaps if I just have a slight sensitivity it will be enough. If down the road I feel like I need to be more extreme then I will make a point to avoid food that could be cross contaminated. It seems that practically every package of anything is also made in a facility with wheat including the restaurants where I've had gluten free meals these last 10 days and the gluten-free cake. Avoiding all cross contamination would be much harder so I'm trying the easier route first.

So after 10 days am I feeling fabulous? No, not yet. I think I am feeling some good changes, but I think I need to stick to it for a while longer to really know. Plus, I need to make sure I am very knowldeable about gluten containing ingredients so I don't accidentially eat it because then I won't really see if it helps.

I just read a book called Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis that goes into detail about what wheat is, how it effects your body and how to cut out wheat from your diet. It was very interesting and informative, but Dr. Davis recommends cutting out wheat for everyone, not just people with an allergy or sensitivity. I think he has some interesting points about how wheat affects our bodies, but I will leave it up to you to decide if he is an extremist or if he has a good point.

I will post more about how my experiment in cutting wheat is changing the way we eat at home and some other interesting ways of eating we are exploring in the second part of this post. I will also include more gluten-free information in future posts.