Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Gluten Experiment: Part 3

Part 1--going gluten free
Part 2--eating 'normally' after the GF test

Part 3--low (glutenous) carb with a whole grain focus
So far so good. I made a batch of homemade rolls (one of my favorite things) and snacked on them quite a bit one day, and found that I felt quite unfilled and also had that lethergy and malaise, and that was what made me realize that a problem with candida (yeast/sugar) may be a more likely culprit for me than a problem with gluten.
As I work on cutting back it gets easier. The first couple of days that I avoided white flour I was craving sugar like crazy--we didn't have any cookies or anything in the house, but I realized after the fact that I went through most of a jug of fruit juice in one day. Whoops!! As I stick to it though, I am finding that I don't crave those white breads/rolls as much as I used to. I make whole wheat bread and I seem to do fine with a little of that. I didn't notice any ill effects after having a meal with pasta in it. But I'm trying to take it very easy on white/processed flours.

There is one last step, which I am slowly starting into, and that involves soaking my grains and/or taking digestive enzymes. Soaking flours helps the grain begin to break down, so that it's easier for the belly to deal with. Digestive enzymes do the same thing only on the inside rather than the outside!

3 comments:

Brandi M said...

wow, what a process! I know what it's like to eat GF... my bff and former roommate is GF, and I have a few other friends who are as well. I am having bloating issues and it's such a struggle to figure out WHAT is the cause of it. Argg! I feel your pain!

Chandelle said...

You might consider dairy, too. So many common gluten foods come with dairy - bagels with cream cheese, bread with butter, desserts, pizza, etc. You might have problems with foods like this and assume it's gluten when really it's the dairy. Dairy intolerance is far more common than gluten intolerance, so it might be worth a try. It's far easier to be dairy-free than gluten-free, and there are a bunch of different things you can do with dairy before eliminating it entirely (switching to raw, culturing it, using goat milk, trying it in different forms, etc.).

For what it's worth, after several weeks completely gluten-free, the only thing I miss is authentic sourdough bread, and then only when I make a soup that would be good with it. It helps me to stay away from fake glutenous foods. They just make me crave the real stuff. Good luck!

Katrina said...

Sounds like you're gradually figuring out what your body needs and what you need to avoid. Hopefully that's most of the battle and you'll be feeling good on a regular basis soon.

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