Recently, I embarked on a new adventure in
cooking. I have taken my family to a Gluten/Grain Free way of
eating. The process has not been very complicated but there have been
times I have questioned my sanity. However, on a daily basis I am
reminded why I decided to take on the task of cooking this way.
My daughter for as long as I could remember, on a daily basis complained about not feeling good and her tummy hurting. I have always cooked fairly healthy meals so it never really occurred to me that it might be something she was eating that was the problem.
We went through a list of doctors, pediatricians, allergist, and GI doc. All of whom tried different medications and test, nothing fixing the problem. We even did a celiac test but it came back negative. I was seriously considering taking her to see a psychiatrist to see if it could be anxiety, she is a little high strung.
Then I began to have some issues myself. Soon to follow was a long drawn out list of test and exams. We discovered nothing conclusive, except I had put on a lot of weight, had low B-12, low vitamin D and a lot of discomfort. Then finally my Dr. thought maybe it was gallstones. We had the pictures taken and it was all clear, no stones; but she expected there was still an issue with my gallbladder and she ordered a HIDA scan. It is a test that is a very long drawn out process. You lay there for an hour and they take a picture every 30 seconds or so. Sure enough, it was not functioning correctly. They did not know what was wrong, only that something was wrong.
The next thing I knew I was headed for surgery.
It turned out that something was causing my body to completely in-case my gallbladder in scar tissue. The doctors have no clue as to what caused it... I fact that felt better was all that mattered.
Two weeks later I began having these horribly painful attacks and a few weeks after that I began having allergic reactions to things I had eaten my whole life.
Again, my doctors had no idea what was causing this. I was beginning to think I was crazy. So I started my own research. A lot of weird stuff comes up in your Google research bar when you put in, gallbladder disease, allergy attacks, severe stomach pains, but the one thing that kept popping up was celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. I did not know much about this condition but I knew enough to know that the homemade bread I had been making was probably at the root of my problem.
Basically I tried an experiment. I stopped eating anything at the time that I knew had gluten in it. And what do you know, I began to feel better. After about three months of eating gluten free I took my daughter off of what I knew had gluten in it too. And she stopped complaining about her stomach as much.
Then I started researching what all has gluten in it. I had only removed Wheat, Barley and Rye from our diet. Turns out ALL GRAINS have gluten in them. Oats, Rice, Corn, and Quinoa all have gluten in them. To say I was a bit annoyed would be an understatement. It is funny you sort of go through the 5 steps of grieving. You know, Shock & Denial, Pain & Guilt, Anger & Bargaining, Depression. But I did it. I went completely grain free.
It's not as hard to do as one might think. I no longer have to think about how long it takes to cook the rice or the pasta that goes with our meal. Or about forgetting the bread that I had baking in the oven and I no longer have to worry about that extra pot to clean up. So it's not all that bad.
What I rediscovered is that I love to cook. But it's not really the cooking I love; it’s the discovering new meals that taste good and my family enjoys that really get me going.
So how do I do it? Well that is what the rest of my blogs to follow will be about. The meals I cook and how you can go grain free too.
So stay tuned because you will love the healthy meals you can fix for your family with little to no effort.
My first new post should be up in a day or two.
So as usual, have fun in your kitchen but don't forget to check back soon for some wonderful new recipes.
Happy Cooking!
My daughter for as long as I could remember, on a daily basis complained about not feeling good and her tummy hurting. I have always cooked fairly healthy meals so it never really occurred to me that it might be something she was eating that was the problem.
We went through a list of doctors, pediatricians, allergist, and GI doc. All of whom tried different medications and test, nothing fixing the problem. We even did a celiac test but it came back negative. I was seriously considering taking her to see a psychiatrist to see if it could be anxiety, she is a little high strung.
Then I began to have some issues myself. Soon to follow was a long drawn out list of test and exams. We discovered nothing conclusive, except I had put on a lot of weight, had low B-12, low vitamin D and a lot of discomfort. Then finally my Dr. thought maybe it was gallstones. We had the pictures taken and it was all clear, no stones; but she expected there was still an issue with my gallbladder and she ordered a HIDA scan. It is a test that is a very long drawn out process. You lay there for an hour and they take a picture every 30 seconds or so. Sure enough, it was not functioning correctly. They did not know what was wrong, only that something was wrong.
The next thing I knew I was headed for surgery.
It turned out that something was causing my body to completely in-case my gallbladder in scar tissue. The doctors have no clue as to what caused it... I fact that felt better was all that mattered.
Two weeks later I began having these horribly painful attacks and a few weeks after that I began having allergic reactions to things I had eaten my whole life.
Again, my doctors had no idea what was causing this. I was beginning to think I was crazy. So I started my own research. A lot of weird stuff comes up in your Google research bar when you put in, gallbladder disease, allergy attacks, severe stomach pains, but the one thing that kept popping up was celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. I did not know much about this condition but I knew enough to know that the homemade bread I had been making was probably at the root of my problem.
Basically I tried an experiment. I stopped eating anything at the time that I knew had gluten in it. And what do you know, I began to feel better. After about three months of eating gluten free I took my daughter off of what I knew had gluten in it too. And she stopped complaining about her stomach as much.
Then I started researching what all has gluten in it. I had only removed Wheat, Barley and Rye from our diet. Turns out ALL GRAINS have gluten in them. Oats, Rice, Corn, and Quinoa all have gluten in them. To say I was a bit annoyed would be an understatement. It is funny you sort of go through the 5 steps of grieving. You know, Shock & Denial, Pain & Guilt, Anger & Bargaining, Depression. But I did it. I went completely grain free.
It's not as hard to do as one might think. I no longer have to think about how long it takes to cook the rice or the pasta that goes with our meal. Or about forgetting the bread that I had baking in the oven and I no longer have to worry about that extra pot to clean up. So it's not all that bad.
What I rediscovered is that I love to cook. But it's not really the cooking I love; it’s the discovering new meals that taste good and my family enjoys that really get me going.
So how do I do it? Well that is what the rest of my blogs to follow will be about. The meals I cook and how you can go grain free too.
So stay tuned because you will love the healthy meals you can fix for your family with little to no effort.
My first new post should be up in a day or two.
So as usual, have fun in your kitchen but don't forget to check back soon for some wonderful new recipes.
Happy Cooking!
No comments:
Post a Comment