My Thoughts on Gluten

I have a new doctor. I wanted to like him, I really did. I went in because my hands hurt. As a writer, hands that hurt do not exactly make writing a fun career. But as usual, the doctor pretty much dismisses why I’m there and jumps right into the weight, blood pressure, mammogram, diabetes spiel. I’m trying to explain to him my exercise program and get his sage advice. All he has for me is, “The only exercise you need is to push yourself away from the table.” I could have gotten that advice from the waitress at Denny’s. Not only was it trite, but medically irresponsible. I believe in my heart of hearts that one person can eat very little but all the wrong foods and gain weight over someone else that eats constantly but all the right foods and never has a weight issue. And since we all have different food allergies and sensitivities, what works for one may not work at all for another. I believe that weight issues are a complicated series of locks, and you just have to find all the right keys. And often weight gain has other medical causes.

Take my daughter for instance. In her mid twenties she didn’t have a weight issue until she had a birth control shot. In about 50 days she gained 35 pounds and ballooned up like a puffer fish. Once the shot wore off her weight eventually returned to normal.

Tomorrow I see the doctor again. But in the two weeks while I’ve been waiting for test results, I renewed my search for unlocking my weight problem. And I came across an article in First magazine on gluten. (First for Women, Feb. 8, 2010) The cover states 'Moset women over 25 and almost all over 40 have this food sensitivity."

Women over 40 and especially menopausal women tend to become more and more sensitive to gluten and some of the telltale signs are weight gain, bloating, sinus congestion, tiredness, joint and muscle aches, and even hair loss. I have almost every symptom on that list. So I decided that for the rest of the month, I’m cutting as much gluten out of my life as possible.

At first that seemed almost impossible. I thought I’d have to give up bread and pasta. But then I started listing all the things that are bread and pasta that don’t fall into the wheat, white flour, and gluten category. I can still eat udon (rice noodles), corn tortillas, corn bread, polenta, quinoa, buckwheat (which isn’t actually wheat at all), oatmeal and thousands of other foods. So I asked my boyfriend to read the article too because he does about 70% of the cooking. He’s willing to cater to my needs in this area. We like trying different foods anyway and this gives us chances to try new recipes and ingredients.

And believe me I’d love nothing more than to walk into my doctor’s office weighing 50 pounds less.

I’m not recommending this for anyone else at this time. This is my own personal experiment. Do you own research and consult your own experts to see if this is good choice for you.

I'll let you know how it goes for me.

 I was able to stick with this pretty much for 3 weeks in which time I lost 5 pounds. So I can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. The best part is now I have new foods in my diet, so I have cut out my gluten by at least 50%. I can choose to have corn tortillas instead of flour. I can eat a lot more rice noodles. In fact I bought rice noodles in about 4 sizes. Lucky for me I am near many International markets.

I need to make some specific 'gluten free' days to counteract the days when we go out for cheeseburgers or pizzas. Sometimes we are at events and go out with friends, so I'd rather enjoy their good company than force them to go to a restaurant with a healthier menu.

Even so , I think this gluten thing deserves more personal research. Thanks for all your helpful comments.