Ok..I am very new to this condition,so please bear with me. I have not been tested for Soy,Eggs,Wheat, or gluten. I was on a lactose free diet for two weeks,but got sick after a week,so my GI Doc said that was not the problem. The confusion for me however, was that I thought Gluten/wheat were synonymous with one another...Wheat Gluten. I had no idea they were two separate entities/problems.
All I know is that with the myriad of products laden with Enriched Flour/wheat, when I accidentally eat something with this, it causes major abdominal cramping and rumblings for a day or two.
So Now, I have to get tested for Gluten,wheat, soy,eggs and dairy. I have been drinking Soy Silk everyday in a (shaklee) protein shake,but still don't feel 100% myself.
For eight months I thought I had IBS with constipation, but lost 65 lbs in eight months. Weight loss (I think) is more prominent in celiac than IBS, but need to hear more response from more people. Every person had his/her own metabolism and weight gain could vary,but still curious. Or maybe I lost the weight because I was afraid to eat.
So for now, I am being careful not to eat any wheat products. No Flour tortillas, and all the other goodie stuff I used to eat so often. Jim
Jim, I know that it is overwhelming at first. On my classes that I teach (I just pass on what I have learned...........I have no medical background and I am not a teacher as you will be able to tell by my typing and grammer.)
When we started this journey because mY DD was so ill, I had never heard of Celiac Disease. I was afraid to buy anything for her. I had been praying for God to show me what was wrong with my DD. She was to the point that our dr. was seriously scared that we might not find out what was wrong.
She had so many sypmtoms going on that the big D wasn't mentioned very much. The sleeping almost 24/7. crying and bruising if touched, menapause coming on at 16...........hey, we got to share hot flash stories with each other. LOL
The day that I was really seeking an answer from the Lord, the very next site that I clicked on listed the symptoms of CD. (I know this was an answer to me from the Lord because I don't even know how I got there and have never been able to find that particular site again...........like I said, I didn't even know there was anything called Celiac Disease.)
After reading the sypmtoms, I called my DH at work and he read the link. He said, get her to the dr. and talk with him. Our dr. said that it 'would not hurt' to do the diet, but he didn't think that was the main problem.
My DD who never gave us a minutes trouble was furious with us. She looked at me and said, I can't do anything and now you are going to take away my food too???? I told her we would give it a 'try' and if it didn't work, then she could have it back, but if all's it took was changing food, that wasn't much to pay for health.
Thus, our search began. I didn't know what to look for ona label other than wheat.
I didn't know that there are about 10 different words that can mean WHEAT. LOL I also didn't know about SPELT, BARLEY, RYE or MALT at that point.............so we made mistakes.........
After my DD thinking she could only eat tree bark, we found a few things........and she got to being awake more, hurting less. We could see we were starting to get our DD back. SO, in no way would I let her cheat on her diet. She found when she made a mistake, she immediantly started to run for a bathroom and feel fuzzy.
She wanted to be on the diet. I started searching online for recipes..........I bought a Bette Hagman book. While some tips are really good, I have a book that has many mistakes in the amounts of certain ingredients................one recipe, called for so much baking powder that it ripped the taste buds off of our tongues. (I am sure that she has a fine reputation and I do have some recipes that are good, but because it is so expensive to cook GF when you are first getting started, I wasn't really impressed with my failures.)
I started with forum sites and asking questions about their recipes and as I started learning about the flours you can make onyour own, I started playing with a recipe a week to learn how to make it better.
At that point, only my DD was gluten free. I was trying to keep a gluten and gluten free meal going at each meal. With me working, it was just too much!
My DH, bless him!, decided, that we were going to quit the gluten in our home and support her on her diet to cut down on my work and possibly contaminating our DD's food.
We noticed that we started feeling better. Our foggy brains were doing better. We started losing size.............I went from an almost 18 down to a 12. My DH was a 42 inch waist and he is down to a 38. No more extra large for him, he is a large size. The weird thing is that we really haven't lost that much weight, just bulk. (I guess that gluten had us so swollen that we wer miserable............I had had IBS almost my entire life. I had started menapausal symptoms at 28. I thought I had a problem with milk, but it was the bread.)
I am happy to pass on the tidbits I learned the hard way or the tidbits I have picked up from others. I remember how desperate I was to want help and learn more easily, I give to others.....(I am not looking for a pat on the back nor am I near HALO status. LOL) I just want people to know that you can eat GOOD FOOD and be satisfied.
You can have sweets that taste good and that the gluten eaters can't really tell the difference.
I will try to remember to check back here more often to make sure that your questions get answered.
I have an email account that I check from time to time
alfabetsoup@gmail.com
You can try getting me there or one of the other forums that I frequent. I try to keep my user name the same on all of the sites. LOL (the fuzzy memory hasn't gone, but I think that is due to other immune problems I have had develop in the last year.)
If you want to drink the rice milk, please note that not all are gluten free. Silk is supposed to be gluten free, but I know that some of the others are not. I really reccommend that you call each manufacturer from the store and ask before you purchase. (This is a hassle at first, but it helps you to know there are foods out there.)
Kraft items are great! They will list Wheat on the label..........if it says MODIFIED FOOD STARCH...........if they don't have (wheat) beside it, then it doesn't have wheat. (Kraft is one of the only few major companies that will list it.) I can now quickly go to the grocer store for groceries..........I reach for KRAFT and check their labels.)
You might be able to drink GOAT MILK................they sell it at our local dairy section at the grocery and super WalMart. It is as close to Human Milk as you can get. It is sweet and bakes really well.
You can also substitute Coconut milk in recipes............you will have to play with the recipe.........I found that I cut back on the fat when using coconut milk. The taste is the same, but the texture doesn't get as crisp in for example waffles, but in cakes, I didn't have a problem.
After you get a few core recipes that you have down to a science, then try to branch out with at least 1 new recipe a week. This will allow you not to waste too much of your hard earned $$. and your meal won't be a total wash. You will know instantly if you like the recipe or want to toss it or alter it a tiny bit to meet your own tastes.
(example...........I play with recipes because I know that we don't like very hot spicey foods, I cut back on the ingredients that cause that...........you might like to have flames shoot out of your mouth as you talk (LOL) so you will play and add more ingredients.)
