"Gluten Free" Trial and Error...I'M A BELIEVER!!

[Pnut]

So, I went gluten free about five or six months ago...well not really. For the most part I ate no gluten. Occasionally I would eat breaded chicken or have a small piece of desert when my dh and I would eat out. I noticed that eating a very small amount was not significant. After this change I noticed that I felt really, really good. Before, my knee/leg would have bad spasms and I could feel the inflammation.

I recently went on vacation (visited home) and almost everyday last week, I ate gluten; a slice or two of cake, a sandwich, etc. Toward the end of my trip my leg felt really inflammed and tight. By the time I got home, I could barely walk. I hadn't had that feeling in months!! I have no choice but to believe that it was the gluten that caused my flare...I'm a believer!! NO MORE GLUTEN FOR ME!! I want that good feeling back!

Without the gluten, I felt 99.999% better...I want that feeling back! I work out 5 to 6 times a week (cardio and weights)...since my flare I had to stop the workout until I feel better.
Signed,
Convinced

[marti]

Can you give an example of your daily diet... what you eat? I've wondered about this gluten free thing, but am afraid it would be expensive and yucky.

[MandaPanda2888]

Need help

I want to be like you. But don't know where to start. Being 24 and already feeling like im late middle aged is no good! I have a toddler so I figure also if I eat healthy so will my tot. It's hard for me considering I've not grown up with the best eating habits. Can you maybe point me in he right directions with this gluten free diet? Thank you.

[CasinoKathy]

Pnut- good for you!! Afew months ago I started watching my intake of gluten and couldn't or should say (wouldn't) go all the way with it. But I must admit I found what made me feel better when I cut back on it, mostly carbs- which made me feel bloated and lethargic. I still am watching what I eat, and have cut way way back on my (CHOCOLATE). However I do have a piece or 2 most day, just not a fistfull anymore!!

[Pnut]

Well Marti and Manda, the first thought was really scary because a huge portion of what we normally eat contains gluten! I just put in my head that I refuse to even look at bread.

For breakfast I almost ALWAYS eat oatmeal and two boiled eggs. When my dh and I eat together I'll have eggs, bacon, grits or diced potatoes with tomatoes and avocado slices. For lunch and snacking through the day: tuna mixed with hummus (I dip corn chips in it); fruit and veggie smoothie (frozen strawberries, pineapples, grapes, bananas) spinach or kale with an almond milk or oj base (or both) and greek yogurt. My freezer has more frozen fruit than meat! I also include a protein powder in my smoothie...GLUTEN FREE...many powders contain gluten. For dinner: seared chicken breast, meatloaf with quinoa instead of crackers/bread or salmon; baked sweet potatoe, brown rice or quinoa pasta; beans (my fav is black beans); something green...brussell sprouts, broccoli, spinach (all lightly steamed). Packaged/prepared food items are not the norm in my kitchen.

There are so many gluten free meals to put together. It can become easy if you constantly think about the benefits it can have.

I do cardio daily...cycling mostly so that I keep my legs moving. Strength training and soon I'm going to start yoga and belly dancing. My extra supplements are liquid cod liver oil (oj chaser) raw garlic and a probiotic

When I went on vacation I thought "a little here and there won't hurt"...boy was I wrong! It had been so long since I had consumed that much gluten, I guess it shocked my system! Lol! I've been off dmd's for four years. Prayer, diet and exercise are all I go on!

I don't know if I'm able to post this but I found this article very informative http://www.mypassion4health.com/arti...nsitivity.html
Hope this gets you guys off to a good start!

[moolk]

what exactly is gluten? What foods have it?

[JerryD]

Pnut,
Thanks so much for your 'gluten free' post. I can't tell you how much it means to me that you are living it. If you regularly eliminate gluten and dairy, and post your successes, I would be hugely interested. I believe in 'food as medicine'.
Deciding on what should be on the menu, is always my biggest problem. If I could get my family to join me in this, transitioning into this would be so much easier.
Thanks for going that route, I hope to be with you asap. Keep up the great work !

[MarkLavelle]

what exactly is gluten? What foods have it?

Gluten is a protein, and wheat is the #1 source for most people.

IMHO, life would not be worth living without it! (I like to make bread)

[MandaPanda2888]

Thank you!

Thank you Pnut! That was a wonderful post! Some of those things I'm already practicing I just am a big lover of red meat but have never eaten ALOT of it anyways since its not exactly good for you. Is fish a good idea? I heard protein is good?

[Pnut]

Fish is excellent...especially salmon...lots of protein! I buy red meat occassionally and when I do I try to get bison if it's not too expensive. Red meat is not bad for you, you just should eat it in moderation. Maybe twice a month is all we do. The rest is chicken (mostly breast) and salmon. We just get very creative with it.

JerryD, my husband is WONDERFUL with my change. The only way it effects him is with the quinoa pasta. Everything else is normal for him...he still eats his burgers if we go out and I put bread on the grocery list...only my diet is gluten free, not the house. Having support from family makes it fun and tolerable.

[gresh3]

It has helped me a great deal

I have been eating GF for around 2 years and I did not think I could ever do without bread and such. I asked my internist to test me for Celiac disease and he said it was to hard a test on people to just stop eating it and see what happens. So since I could not do it the right way I did just that. The main reason I did it was I had something called Sweets Syndrome which most people including docs do not know about. It is awful - you 1st develop a fever and then break out in horrible sores on your arms legs and sometimes face. Luckily my face was spared. And you feel really bad during the break out. The only thing that helped mine was steroids and I absolutely hate to do that, but always gave in as the sores got worse. There is a gout drug that helps some people but not me. I was having attacks every three months then it started being about ever 6 weeks and it is very painful. I still have scars.

Anyway I was ready to try anything and I had heard that some people develop skin problems with Celiac so I started to eat that way. It was hard at 1st but once I got in a pattern it became quite easy. I had 1 more attack of Sweets and have not had another since. I had been having these for about a year, so if just a coincidence it is a big one. There a so many more GF products on the market now. Chex has a good GF cereal that I even snack on at times. Lots of little things have been helped. I had Rosecea and it is no more. Whether it has helped the MS or not I am not sure. But there is no chance I would go off of this. Occasionally I will "cheat" and eat Pizza or a hamburger or piece of cake. But hardly ever, maybe every 8 weeks or so. If I truly knew I had Celiac disease I would
not cheat at all. But to try it out you can't do it for a few weeks and say it does not work. It takes several months to truly test it.

However, once I saw I went more than 3 months without an attack I knew it was working. Try it. If it does not work for you no big loss. I did NOT loose any weight though and I was hoping for that side effect.

Good Luck.

[mirandal1958]

PNut, I am also a believer!

I was diagnosed back in 2008 and was reading everything I could about diet and it's effect on our immune system and I decided to give it a try. I went gluten free, sugar free, reduced my caffeine, reduced my intake of cheese and milk. And while that sounds like the most awful painful diet in the world ..... I felt amazing. My symptoms really subsided, my joint pain was gone, the dizziness and vertigo was gone, the brain fog was gone.

But like with any diet or exercise program, because I was feeling good, a couple of years ago I began introducing some things back into my diet. Afterall, I was doing so well and therefore I deserved to treat myself.

Now I'm at the point where I'm back in the old routine, eating sweets (craving them), and lots of white flour. I drink coffee every day.

My symptoms are back with a vengence. So is there a connection? I honestly don't know. All I know is how my body feels and right now my body isn't very happy. I've made the decision to go back to gluten free and to remove processed sugar from my diet.

Grains are hard to give up. I love bread and I love baking bread. But there are some great products from Bobs Red Mill, some gluten free flour mixes, pancake mix, muffin mixes, etc. They are a little pricey though. I have yet to find a loaf of gluten free bread at the grocery store that's worth eating. But I've made gluten free waffles and pancakes that were absolutely wonderful and I am able to fulfill that craving for bread or something baked. There are also some websites and blogs out there that offer gluten free recipies. Gluten Free Girl is one and I think the other one is Gluten Free Goddess.

I love pasta but I've found alternatives. Instead of spagetti noodles, I'll dish up spagetti sauce over rice. It's actually really good. I've discovered other grains like quinoa and millet that I'll substitute for pasta or potatoes. My husband doesn't eat gluten free, so I'll cook up a batch of brown rice or wild rice, quinoa or millet and freeze serving size portions. Then on nights where he has something containing gluten, I can pull one of those packages out of the freezer for me. That way it isn't a lot of extra work to prepare something special for me.

Anyway, I recommend it. It may not work for everyone, but it seems to work for me. And changing your diet can't hurt. And maybe it can even help!

[Nash]

I can add my opinion to underline the fact that food is really important in MS (maybe more that drug ?).

In France we have a diet named seignelet's diet (gluten free and much more, maybe near to what you call "The best diet" ) and we saw that people feeling so much better after serveral month or one year ( i can underline for all type of MS ).

Here i found a good the link in english


=>Exclusion of cereals, with some exceptions.
=>Exclusion of dairy and dairy products.
=>Preferential consumption of raw products (more than 70% of the diet should be raw).
=>Use of virgin oils, obtained by cold pressure.
=>Priority to biologic products.
=>Frequent consumption of probiotics."



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