A Gluten-free Dietary Choice

This is a long story, yadda-yadda, probably more information than you wanted to know. I hope you find it encouraging and informative, whether it’s for yourself or someone you care about. I will write this from the perspective that I’m addressing a person who is interested in making their own diet gluten-free.

One of my favorite books to explain this right now is Autoimmune Fix by Dr. Tom O’Bryan. It’s a bit text-book like, but right up my alley. I did not choose to go gluten-free because of this one book – I have read many books, articles and information about maintaining a gluten-free Lifestyle - I chose to read this book in order to glean more information and options. It includes a really good list of gluten-containing ingredients to look for in products, a few recipe ideas, and examples of what a day of eating might look like. It may come off as a bit restrictive to just dive right into, but good ideas to try.

The idea of going gluten-free can be very intimidating at first! My suggestion is to start small. Don’t be too hard on yourself when you mess up. It’s a learning process. Just keep plugging along, and keep learning. Set yourself up for success the best that you can. To me, that means getting rid of the things from your kitchen that you know are unsafe, incorporating meal planning and prep, and having snacks available that you know are “safe.” There are A LOT of foods available to eat, mindset is what’s limiting. A new thought process takes time to develop. You have time.

My husband has psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis with frequent joint pain and gut issues. I have been diagnosed with Spinocerebellar Ataxia, which is basically a progressive brain issue that deteriorates the cerebellar portion of my brain resulting in movement and balance issues, it also affects my dexterity, sight, speech and even swallowing. I do not expect a gluten-free diet to be the panacea to what ails me at this point, but the overall improvements to my health and energy are encouraging and makes it easier to deal with this progressive illness. After about three months of our strict third attempt at going gluten-free, my husband admitted to me a great improvement to his gut health and an improvement in the painfulness of his joints overall. This was encouraging enough news for us to continue down this path.

Our first try at going gluten-free was about 18 years ago, before we were married, before we even knew very much about it. We were curious about the potential health benefits. Being as a gluten-free diet was early on when we committed to the idea for a year, there weren’t a lot of products available or resources for information and research. Even though we tried diligently, I’m sure we failed miserably. What we did learn was how to read labels, and that wheat, sugar and salt are added heavily into a lot of places unexpectedly and where they don’t need to be! We became much more aware of what we were eating and putting into our bodies, and we learned there are a lot of good options out there! We continued to use alternative flours and other alternative ingredients for many things, and have realized many of our standard dishes are gluten-free anyway. We have expanded our collection of flours, methods of baking and cooking foods, preparation of meals, as well as our tastes and recipes! We did stick it out for the year as planned. It was hard, but we learned.

After quite some time, we decided to try again; this time having a lot more information, resources and experience. We embarked on a very strict diet with restricted gluten, sugar and dairy. We were still not prepared. This was only a three week effort. It was hard and we were basically hungry a lot. We stuck it out with white knuckles, but it wasn’t where we wanted to be. So we took some time, got better prepared and did it again. This time everything went a lot better, and although we have let back in minor amounts of sugar and dairy, we have chosen to maintain a gluten-free lifestyle. We are still learning and experimenting to add new recipes, but I think it’s a lifestyle that we are very willing and able to continue!