GLUTEN FREE & WEIGHT LOSS

I am not a doctor or dietitian or a health specialist, but someone who has spent a lifetime wondering why I did not feel "right". Discovering that I was a Coeliac and also lactose and fructose intolerant has finally resolved a lot of my long-term health problems.

 

I was lucky in that I had an enlightened doctor who did not dismiss my complaints about bloating and stomach pain and joint pain and tingling in my feet, as just another neurotic woman. My weight had fluctuated wildy between dangerously thin to overweight and bloated-without an obvious reason. He conducted tests to look inside and out, and then sent me to a specilaist who introduced me to the FODMAP system.

 

If you have not heard of this, it is exceptional "food detective" work by some South Australian doctors who have isolated what substances in what foods cause problems in different people.

It is certainly daunting when they present you with your list of foods you CAN'T eat.

 

As someone who had been in hospitatlity all my life and cooked for restaurants and function centres from casual to silver service, it was a shock to learn that onion and garlic were both responsible for a lot of my synptoms, as well as the gluten."But I can't cook with out onion or garlic!" I wailed.

 

I can reassure you that, firstly you can, and secondly I have never felt better. The reason? As onion and garlic digest, sulphur is a byproduct, and I am highly alergic to sulphur. I had a severe life-threatening reaction to sulphur drugs as a child and went into anaphylactic shock. So I had been slowly poisoning my system ever since, with out knowing.

 

The important thing to remember is that gluten intolerance or Coeliac/Celiac Disease is not a "fad diet" but a life-threatening, auto-immune disease that will create health issues and on-going pain and ultimately shorten your life.

One of the symptoms, pain, burning and numbness in the feet, in my case due to sciatica, being compounded by Celiac Disease.

 

As you modify your diet and live a gluten free life, you will loose weight if you are overweight and you will regain your health and put -on weight if you are chronically thin, as your body has been starving for nutrition. Some of your symptoms will start to improve immediately, others will take time.

 

It won't happen overnight.

Just remember how many years it has taken you to be the shape you are in now.

 

Be patient!

As soon as you remove gluten from your food, your intestines will start to heal and regenerate and from first hand experience it will take about 2 years for the  internal healing process to be complete.

 

You will find that sugar cravings disappear and your body will naturally lose weight without you really trying!