Can you seriously handle reading yet one more article on going gluten free? If you can then this is the only one you need to read before you make your health and life changing decision to finally cut gluten out of your diet.
When the gluten free craze first hit I was just as skeptical as the next person. I'm not the kind of person who jumps on board with any craze until I do my due diligent research and this craze had me researching like, well, craze-y. Why was bread and pasta and all that good stuff suddenly so bad for us? We grew up on that. Peanut butter and jam sandwiches in our lunch pails. Alphagetti's on weekends. Chicken noodle soup on cold days especially when we weren't feeling well. Why, now suddenly, can we not consume these products anymore? It actually made me slightly sad . These are things we grew up on and in wanting to keep traditions alive, we want to feed these to our children today.
So what's the scoop? I mean, what's the real scoop? According to WebMD, unless you have a gluten intolerance or sensitivity, cutting it out of your diet may very well be a no no. Gluten is a protein that is contained in the dangerous zones foods the experts don't want us to eat any more. Wheat, barley, rye, oats, they all contain gluten aka protein.
What the bigger problem is, however, is that most people don't even realize they are gluten intolerant or sensitive until they cut it out from their diet. That pretty much is the only way to even know if you are or not (unless you want to have an allergy testing done at your doctor's office though for some these tests can cost quite a bit). Take the gluten free test and see what happens. Go one month strictly gluten free and then add it back into your diet and see how you feel and how your body reacts. This may actually sound like some sort of sick torture but it is a guaranteed way for you to find out if you have a sensitivity to it or not. Because we've been eating it all our lives, our bodies are used to it so it adapts and you get used to the signs. They aren't signs anymore.
When you add it back into your diet if you experience any of the following symptoms, then you are gluten intolerant or, you have celiac disease. If you don't have any of these then carry on with your gluten consumption. Really, it's good for you.
1. Indigestion troubles which can include, diarrhea, bloating, gas and discomfort in general.
If you feel any of that, I'd be cutting gluten out.
2. Intense headaches and migraines.
Those are no fun for anyone so if you start getting headaches or if you already suffer from a lot of migraines and headaches, try going gluten free and see what happens.
3. Achiness and joint pain.
Do you suffer from this now? Gluten could be the culprit. Go gluten free for a month and notice any changes in your pain. Record them so you know the frequency or when you felt pain.
4. Moodiness and or crankiness. If you are a moody person lost the gluten and see how it affects your mood swings. If they change radically then you know what to do next. Get rid of gluten completely.
5. Tired all the time.
If you are always tired and feel like your energy is super low, gluten may be to blame here. Remove it from your diet and see if that fixes it. If not then you know you may have an underlying issue that should be checked immediately.
When removing gluten from your diet, keep in mind that you need to replace that lost protein with another source. If you are a vegetarian, which is also a common thing these days, then you may want to choose nut or dairy sources for protein, unless of course you cut dairy out of your diet too.
Before you know it, we'll be living off the land only.
Though we haven't gone completely gluten free here we have reduced it somewhat, especially the pasta, as there are a lot of bad carbs in that. Ah, a whole other blog post . The best thing to do is listen to your body to see what it is telling you. That will be your best indicator.
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