(no subject)

[catling42]

I've been writing a little about my experiments in not eating gluten, and how much better I feel. It is not 100%, but it is a huge difference. I had gone, in two months, from being able to pick up and ride my bike 30 miles just because I felt like it to exhausting myself completely walking the half mile downhill to the T. Twenty-four hours off gluten, and I had more energy than I'd had in a month. The epic digestive fail stopped. The constant headaches and muscle aches and flu-like feelings stopped. This is the big picture.

I did a test one day, two weeks into not eating gluten. I ate a bowl of whole wheat pasta. It took a few hours, but then I was sick for three days, fluey, no energy to get out of bed, achey, and GI issues like woah. The minor headcold I had spiked into a ridiculous, miserable thing.

Honestly, I haven't felt as good since then as I had in the two weeks leading up to the test. I hope I feel better once I kick the rest of this cold. Not eating gluten is a challenge, especially when out. At home, I'm okay. Most of the food I really like doesn't have gluten in, anyway. It is a challenge, but one I think I can rise to. I went on a gluten-free baking bender last night, and came out of it with four different kinds of treats.

About a month ago, I had an initial appointment with a naturopath, and we sent out some blood for food sensitivity (IgG and IgA) testing. After my pasta test, I was pretty sure it'd come back with gluten or wheat being high on the list of things I shouldn't eat, probably almost the only things. Today I got those results back. Glutens and whole wheat (and spelt and rye, but not barley) had moderate reactions. All dairy products and eggs, however, had high reactions.

Okay, quick quiz. What is my favourite food? What do I snack on most? What do I bring to eat at work in my teeny 15-minute break almost every day? (Ice cream/frozen yogurt, yogurt, hard boiled eggs and yogurt.) Crap. I am at a loss, here. I don't know how to deal with food, especially my favourite foods, not being my friends. Especially when I'm already on a challenging diet, doing the no gluten thing.

The naturopath recommended that I stick with the no gluten, and in two weeks take out eggs or dairy, and then I'll have a followup in another 3 weeks. I've got a supplement to take that is supposed to help heal my GI tract. But what the heck am I supposed to eat? Most of my other frequent foods came up on with low (but not *no*) reaction, so I'm supposed to be careful of many of them, too. Honestly, gluten is something I know how to deal with. I know several people who can't eat it. But... gluten AND dairy AND eggs? (And being careful of soy, almonds, peanuts, yeasts, shellfish, coffee, mushrooms, citrus fruits and asparagus.) My world has suddenly lost all flavor, and I'm hungry but can't think of a damn thing that is tasty that I can eat. (The theory is that I stay off all these things for 6-8 months and then I can start trying to reintroduce them and see how I feel.)

I know there are things. I know I'll come up with something. But man. I feel totally deprived. The gluten free treats I know at least have eggs. It's all just shocking and new, and I kind of want to cry.

Comments

[watersong73.livejournal.com]

First? :hugs:

Second?

TJ's gluten free baking mixture of "flours" and coconut milk based ice creams and yogurts - yum.

Third?
A couple specific and relevant recipes...

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/replacing-eggs-with-flax/

and this: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/dining/01mini.html

Fourth?

Blogs from people dealing with similar baking/cooking challenges and rising to it (har har).

http://iamglutenfree.blogspot.com/
http://glutenfreevegan.wordpress.com/
http://veganyumyum.com/ (this one is just awesome, but is not always gluten free)

[watersong73.livejournal.com]

And I forgot this one, too:
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

And this occasionally has things that would work, though she is neither vegan nor gluten free:
www.101cookbooks.com

L.

[jagienka]

have you checked out if there are any gluten-free vegan cookbooks, etc? from the library or whatnot.

Might have tasty recipes and would solve the dairy/eggs dilema.

[relique.livejournal.com]

Introduction: *hugs*

First off, find out exactly what kinds of tests you had done, and determine what their false positive/false negative %s are. You may wish to have some of them redone, or have additional tests done. There's a lactose test that's pretty much conclusive, as they feed you pure lactose until you have a reaction-- but since they usually only do it when they're very likely to get a reaction, it's almost always incredibly uncomfortable, so they're not routinely done. If, for the tests you got done, the false positives are high, you may not be quite as screwed as this round says.

Two: Just because you have an allergy now doesn't mean you always will. These things are fucking crazy. Once you give up gluten for a couple months (and go somewhat easy on other things), you may heal to the point where you may be able to add things back on the list. Not all at once, and not necessarily everything. Or three years down the road, you might eat something by accident, and not have a problem. Particularly since you haven't always been this bad, by giving your body some time to heal, it may get better.

Three: If eliminating SOME things on the list makes your body functional enough, you don't have to continue eliminating foods permanently just because a blood test told you to. Eliminating short term to see how your body feels without it, allow your body a break = good idea. Minimizing, finding alternatives when possible = good thing. But if just taking gluten out makes your body functional, and removing eggs makes you slightly more functional, but much less happy, it's not worth it.

Four: Don't worry about dairy so much. The only thing they can't replicate at all is cheese. Between almond, soy, rice, coconut, cashew, and god knows what else, you can rotate products enough to not overload on one of your "careful" categories. Also, double triple check that it's listed for "allergy" and not "intolerance". As in, find out what test it was and google it. If it's just intolerance, yes, give your body a break for a bit to give it the best chance to heal, but we both know that between lactaid and just not caring sometimes, it's livable-with.

Five: Blogs. Allergy related blogs are HUGE. My favorite? http://www.speedbumpkitchen.com/ She has three kids, two allergic to EVERYTHING. She was able to take the two older ones to Disney and have safe food. As in, they called ahead with what restaurants they would eat at, and received safe food every time. No issues.

Six: Not Your Average Joes has a gluten free menu. Not an "option", a MENU. Matt and I went to the one in Watertown once, and the chef noticed we had ordered our pizza sans cheese and *came out into the dining room* to find out if we wanted dessert/if we could eat any of it. We were full, but we were VERY impressed.

Seven: TJs has a whole pile of great things that lack other things. Real specific, yeah, I know. But I regularly find things that have meat that don't have cheese, including burritos and taquitos. Gluten will be harder, but at least it's all well marked.

Conclusion: *HUGS*

[patchworkkitten.livejournal.com]

My suggestion, from living with someone who has nearly identical allergies/sensitivities, is: Black bean soup, lentil soup, thai red curry, hummous/veggies, and kettle black bean chips/chili lime flavors. Check the ingredients on veggie booty (little puffed rice snacky type things). Also Namaste brand mixes for cake and other baked goods might fit the bill (unsure on how they are for yeasts). Good luck.

[mortisnightmare.livejournal.com]

Vegan baking tip: oil, milk, butter and eggs can some or all be replaced by apple sauce. And you really won't notice much, other than that it is likely to be more fluffy. Although if you're making butter cookies, the taste is likely to be not so buttery, all things considered. But still tastey.

I worked at a camp with a vegan who had discovered after becoming a vegan that he had a gluten allergy. It's workable, it just takes some creativity. Also, when going out, Asian is the easiest on this diet. They are much more likely to cook without any or all of your allergies.

I'll have my fingers crossed for you. Weird diets are sort of hell to get used to.