Gluten-free and Going Strong

Daily Invest in Your

HEALTH

God gave you only one body. Treat it well.

I have rheumatoid arthritis. If you’ve known me for longer than six years, you’ve watched the disease cripple me, and the world’s most amazing drugs “uncripple” me. I’m grateful for those drugs. I really am. But what if the RA is caused by something that is toxic to my body? What if by eliminating that thing, my immune system can heal and function normally again?

My rheumatologist might roll her eyes if she heard such notions, but she’s not the one with the disease. It’s not her liver and kidneys that are forced to cope with small-dose chemotherapy drugs I ingest on a weekly basis. My health is my responsibility, so until I know for certain my environment is NOT the cause, I’ll continue to look for an alternate treatment—all while dutifully taking my bioengineered drugs.

My latest endeavor has been to go gluten-free. My mother in-law inspired me when she went on the Medifast diet, lost 146 pounds (another post for another day!), and eliminated her fibromyalgia-type symptoms. Come to find out gluten is bad for everyone, not just people with inflammatory issues.

Today’s wheat gluten is not the same as the wheat gluten God made. What we serve in our kids’ PBandJs is a variety that’s been cross-pollinated and engineered to withstand drought and disease. At the molecular level, it’s complex, long, and too difficult for our bodies to properly digest.

It irritates the gut, causing inflammation in 80% of the population. It also perforates the gut causing “leaky gut” syndrome in which toxins seep into the body, sending the immune system into disarray. Supposedly, if you create a healthier gut, you create a healthier person.

Another reason gluten is bad? It contains opioid peptides, which is why some people crave it when it’s removed from their diet. That’s right. Donuts are addictive!

There’s a list of reasons it’s a no-no, but I’ll let you read them for yourself HERE.

I’m not trying to convince you to go gluten-free. Just explaining why I made the personal choice to do so.

Yesterday marked two months since I’ve eaten wheat, barley, or rye. Yay, me!! Corn and other simpler glutens are still on the menu. I might remove those too, but for now, this is enough. Since I’ve developed lactose intolerance, dairy might have to go too. Boo hoo!!

I’ve heard it can take up to six months for the accumulated gluten in a person’s gut to be expelled. Yup. Six months. I’m a third of the way there! And I’m not going to draw any conclusions until that time.

But I CAN say that the chronic nausea I’ve dealt with for years is all but gone. Another bonus I wasn’t expecting is that I’m now pH balanced. Woot! “They” say that if a person can remain pH balanced for several months, her body will be able to heal from diseases such as arthritis. We’ll see…

It’s all an experiment that might fall flat, but at least I’ll know whether or not gluten is the issue—or at least a contributing factor.

Going gluten-free hasn’t been all that bad either. A friend of the family gave me an alternate flour recipe that I use for all my baking. The below recipe can be used 1 for 1 in any recipe that calls for wheat flour. It’s a bit grainier, but tastes identical to baked goods made with wheat.

Here’s the recipe:

2 cups rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 tablespoon xanthum gum

1 teaspoon salt

It can be doubled or halved as needed. To save money, I buy the large bags of brown rice and use
my Vitamix to grind my own rice flour.

Food intolerances are more and more abundant, and I can’t help but wonder what’s going wrong. Are you intolerant or allergic to anything? Do you have an autoimmune disease? Have you ever wondered if a healthier gut might “fix” the problem?

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