It started out as a New Year detox, to flush my bloated body
of the toxins that had built up over Christmas and years of neglect.
I'd received a new smoothie maker for Christmas and decided to give
up my indulgent white toast for breakfast in favour of an immune-boosting 5-fruit smoothie. Yes, 5-a-day all in one yummy drink that lasts all morning. Wonders never cease.
But once I’d been off toast for a few days, I decided to avoid
bread altogether. It made me feel bloated and always craving more. I’d read somewhere that bread is pretty bad for the gut and a bread-break can give you loads of energy and help to shift the flab. I certainly needed
that.
I was suffering exhaustion throughout December, totally burnt out by life
with three sprites, and I was already taking medication for an underactive
thyroid, yet I still had no energy to do anything.
Even when I stripped back on going anywhere, and started
saying ‘no’ to things, I still didn’t get my vavavoom back.
A week after giving up bread, I felt very different. Great,
in fact. I was startin to wake up in the morning without the constant fog. I started to
feel I was rested after sleep (not still shattered even after 8 hours!)
- I no longer became lethargic after eating.
- My sinuses (a 20 year burden of all kinds of allergies) improved
vastly. My itchy forehead and temples (that I often found myself clawing at)
disappeared.
- An eye twitch that would bother me at times vanished.
- My eyes and face lost their puffiness.
- My (mild) asthma disappeared.
- My tingling in my hands and feet (I have carpal tunnel
syndrome as well) is improving.
- What else? Well the bloating started to go down. My energy
returned. I found I no longer needed medication for underactive thyroid, so I
stopped taking them about a month ago.
It’s been a very interesting learning curve over the last
month. I’ve been trying to consciously avoid wheat as much as possible – which
is hard, because it’s in almost everything. I’ve had to start reading labels on
packaging. I’ve had to start making food from scratch using non-processed
ingredients. I’ve had to exercise great willpower when going to a pizza
restaurant with friends to avoid one of my favourite foods, pizza. It was like
torture but shockingly I did it. I opted for the gluten-free/wheat-free pasta
instead and my world didn’t come to an end.
The upshot is, for the first time in years I feel good in my
body. Not exhausted, not itchy, not bloated. I've realised that those symptons were not normal, even though I'd got used to them.
I've realised that I might no longer
have to take daily antihistamines, a steroid nasal spray and thyroid pills for
the rest of my life.
I’ve realised that my ‘allergy’ which I thought
was severe allergic rhinitis has actually developed into wheat intolerance, and
possibly a form of gluten intolerance.
I know that GLUTEN and WHEAT are two very different things,
but I’m still learning, and I’m still trying to find, via a process of
elimination and reintroduction, what exactly sets off my allergies and negative
body responses.
From what I gather, some people – especially those with allergies
and asthma – can be sensitive to gluten and wheat but don’t necessarily have celiac
disease. These people may feel better on a diet with less gluten and less
wheat. At age 41, I’ve suddenly discovered that I do feel better
without it, and I might fall into this category.
The few times I’ve had wheat and gluten since my ‘elimination’ at
the start of January, I’ve had a really itchy sinuses (forehead & nose) and
belly straight away and I’ve felt a noticeable slump in energy.
And so begins a new journey of discovery. Last night I
ordered food online because I didn’t have time to spend hours in Tesco reading
labels. Tesco has 90 products in the 'free from' range, which are wheat and
gluten-free – and they’re about twice as expensive as normal food.
Will I bother getting tested, or is it best to just monitor
foods and my reactions, and tailor my diet to meet immune system responses
better?
From what I gather, testing (blood and skin-prick) for wheat
and gluten allergies isn’t that simple, or accurate, and the full blown test
for Coeliac disease involves a biopsy of the stomach lining.
The research I’ve carried out recently of the connection
between my allergy symptoms and wheat has really opened my eyes, yet it’s never
been suggested to me to be tested for this by a medical professional, even though I have
a regular prescription for a steroid nasal spray. There are loads of first
person stories on the internet with the same results, saying that because the
immune system can be weakened by wheat and gluten, we can be so much more easily attacked by every day allergens.
Articles related to wheat and allergies/Asthma
The big stunning piece of information I’ve discovered since going
wheat-free is that the wheat commonly used in today’s products is so pumped full
of nasties that our bodes can't handle it anymore.
I’m loving the Wheat Belly Blog and tips/recipes. The man
behind Wheat Belly, heart doctor, Dr William Davis, says that wheat has been so genetically modified in the last 50 years that it’s become very bad for us: "Today's wheat has been genetically
altered to provide processed-food manufacturers the greatest yield at the
lowest cost; consequently this once benign grain has been transformed into a
nutritionally bankrupt yet ubiquitous ingredient that causes blood sugar to
spike more rapidly than eating pure table sugar and has addictive properties
that cause us to ride a rollercoaster of hunger, overeating and fatigue."
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| Dr William Davis |
He also says that cutting out wheat can lead to weight loss, improved type 2
diabetes, reduction of inflammation, allergies, rheumatoid arthritis pain, asthma,
and various skin problems.
I’m a convert. And I’m going to try to avoid it as much as
possible. After an initial big adjustment and withdrawal, I no longer crave wheat - and so far I’ve lost half a stone. How good is that?
 |
| Did I really lose this much weight in a month?! |
Some more links:
Your
Addiction to Wheat Products Is Making You Fat and Unhealthy
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