A little over 4 weeks ago I decided to eliminate gluten from my diet. I armed myself with information and recipes and set off to discover if some of the health issues I’ve been feeling have anything to do with gluten intolerance.
Here is what I experienced: My digestion did not improve. In fact, it worsened. My heartburn did not improve either. My blood sugar may have improved, but honestly, I wasn’t measuring it. None of the other minor issues took a turn for the better either.
Yesterday I decided to eat gluten and see if I would react to it in any way. I had heard that experiencing an averse reaction would be something to be expected. But I braved it anyway. I took a couple of bites of a delicious pizza slice Juan was eating (I ate the edge only). I waited. Nothing; I did not feel bad. Needless to say, I felt relief. This morning I ate a flour tortilla. A whole flour tortilla! And nothing bad happened. I have concluded I do not have a gluten intolerance (yay!)
Freeing myself of gluten did give me one advantage: It helped me realize my intolerance to dairy. So here I go, adjusting my diet all over again, eliminating milk in all forms. I just purchased my first container of almond milk. Not sure I like the idea, but I’ll do anything to improve my digestion.
I will add gluten back to my diet, but I will continue to be careful with carbs in general, reducing them enough to lose weight and lower my blood sugar levels. Also, I bought the book recommended by several friends, Trim Healthy Mama. I will review it once I read it and give it a fair try.
Like a Deer Panting for Water... 
You can also buy lactose free milk, if you don’t like almond milk. I read a great article that said that unless you had celiac disease, there was no reason to stop eating gluten. If you want to lower your sugar, cut down on carbs, and walk everyday. I buy ezequiel bread, use turbo ado sugar, or stevia, brown rice. You can eat quinoa and grains like that, but eat 1/2 cup of it instead of loading your dish.. I have lost 13 lbs doing that, without doing planned exercise. Buy vegetarian cheeses, but go easy on soy because it can affect your estrogen levels and soy is full of GMOs, unless is organic. Good luck. One thing we don’t want to mess with is our blood sugar. Low carbs and exercise is the whole formula.
Well, I definitely know people who do not have Celiac disease, and yet they react to gluten. I set out to find out if I was one of those, but thankfully I’m not. For now, I’m eliminating all dairy, with or without lactose. After a little while, I’ll try lactose free milk. I just need to identify if I’m reacting to lactose or to milk’s protein, in which case, lactose free products would not really help.
Well, thanks for the encouragement, and I’m so glad to hear you’ve lost 13 pounds!! Way to go 🙂