Some non scale progress

Yesterday's food was nothing really interesting or different. Breakfast was hardboiled eggs and an apple, lunch was some roast chicken cubes , raw veggies and hummus and dinner was a pork stir fry over brown rice ( no sauce because I discovered my soup base that I always use for stir fry sauces has gluten in it). Exercise was a walk outside, with the amusement of watching several territorial robins battle each other. There have been some high winds, a lot oif broken branches and I suspect several nests were disturbed. Pretty run of the mill stuff. But I did notice two non scale type progress/victories that I can only attribute to going gluten free, and they are exciting to me !

First, I suddenly do not feel bloated- and I had no idea I felt that way in the first place ! As am adult female, feeling bloated happens with every cycle, but that bloating is kind of an all over bloated sort of feeling. There are days when even your hair feels bloated from that. This bloating however seems to have been strictly in my torso, from the breastbone down. I never knew I felt bloated until it simply stopped. I now have this sensation that I actually have a ribcage, spine, hipbones and they are lying under skin, muscle and fat. I have never felt this before in my life, and it feels definitely good !

Second is my feet. For a couple of years now I have had the absolutely worst, dry crusty feet on the planet !. Thick, cracking and flaking skin that would not respond to any moisturizer or lotion I tried.Over the last year my only strategy was to attack the worst of it with a pumice stone every couple of days or wind up scratching me or Bob in my sleep with these. I attributed it to going barefoot mot of the day. Yesterday I stepped on something , went to brush it off and noticed that my feet feel like actual feet ! still some dry calous skin, but tons and tons of real, actual human skin surrounding it ! Interestingly enough, extreme dry skin is also oine sign of a gluten intolerance. I thought that it would apply if your whole body had dry skin though ( I still have oily hair and skin)

So add these two to sleeping better and feeling a lot less pain in my joints. Not sure what it will do to or for my weight , as I have not stepped on the scale since Monday morning. It seems obvious that I do indeed have a problem with gluten, and no matter what the scale says tomorrow, I believe I am going to be gluten free for life.

Gluten- what is it ?

About six years ago , I learned about the positive affects a gluten free and casein free diet has had on many autistic children , but did not attempt to implement it myself for a lot of reasons. About 4 years later, after some real breakthroughs through supplements, I gave it a try , but it had minimal impact on Nick and so I dropped it. At the time I was not suspecting any connection with me, did not really notice any affects on me so moved on. I did, however, keep a lot of the information on gluten in my notes and files for future reference. Main reason I did so is because the whole idea of gluten is something that a lot of people do not understand.

What exactly is gluten ? Is gluten a starch ? No. Gluten is a protein, or a combination of two proteins called gliadin and glutenon. They combine with starches and consist of about 80 percent of the protein in wheat.You notice the affect of gluten in yeast breads when you bake because it is the substance that becomes elastic and allows the gases from the yeast to make the dough rise. Starch is a different substance, and it converts to sugar in the digestive process to provide energy to whatever ate it, plant or animal . Foods containing starch, an being gluten free is something that we just happened to be discussing at the moment in our homeschool, and a lab was in order. The presence of starch in a food can easily be identified with iodine- if the iodine turns blue, the food contains starch. The presence of gluten is not as easy to detect however. We did a simple lab experiment yesterday to uncover this starch presence. While it is no surprise that wheat crackers contain starch, it was very surprising to find the amount contained in plain, nonfat yogurt ! Milk however does contain starch because it is the result of a living organism processing sugars to create something else.

From the bottom , clockwise plain nonfat yogurt, wheat cracker, potato, apple slice,mushroom and banana

A prime example of starches and gluten being separate things would be beans, corn ,potatoes, rice and oats. All of these are free from gluten but contain starch. All are incomplete proteins as well, which is why vegetarians must take extra care to include different forms of non animal protein sources in order to get a complete balance. Oats become a problem for many because they are grown close to wheat, often in a crop rotation with wheat , harvested and produced on equipment that is also used for wheat, so unless you are using oats that are certified to be gluten free( or have a lower sensitivity to gluten) , they should be avoided.


Food wise yesterday it was another gluten free day with hardboiled eggs and an apple for breakfast, bean soup , veggies and hummus for lunch and hall walking for exercise . My flair had gone down enough that I could walk them safely , without falling. Yay for improvement ! Dinner was pictured above- pork chop( actually pork loin cut into a chop), roast green beans with sesame seeds and sliced almonds and a salad with romaine, dandelion, grapes and walnuts. I made an accidental discovery- if you start cooking quinoa according to the package directions , turn the heat too high, walk away and return to find the pan almost dry and add additional water to prevent it from burning, quinoa swells HUGE ! Could be a handy trick for really hungry days !

Standard quinoa grains are gluten free, but quinoa flour and flakes may not be. They are often produced on a line that produces wheat products and cross contamination can result. If your sensitivity level is high, it is best to limit your intake to standard quinoa grains alone.Quinoa is an amazing grain that is a complete protein, unlike wheat, rice or beans which are incomplete.

I will no longer be feeling my Wheaties

I think I was given a whole new reason to believe that I may indeed be gluten intolerant or sensitive - arthritis.

Let me explain. Arthritis is one of many ways the bodies immune system can go crazy. What arthritis basically is ,is the body attacking itself because it sees it's own cells as an invaider. The way the body protects cells from invadiers is to isolate the problem, attack it and then dispose of it ( "allright youse- da boys is gonna take ya out back, rough ya up and then send yas ta swim wit da fishes!") In a normal immune system this happens only with bacteria, viruses, splinters and so forth. When the immune system becomes overloaded because of a constant bombardment from a substance that does not agree with that individual body chemetry, it clicks into overdrive and basically panic ensues. At one point it becomes classified as an allergic response , a sensitivity or an intolerance. The immune sytem produces an inflammetory response, which is the way that it isolates things like bacteria. It surrounds the substance with fluids to isolate it and protect the body. The body in turn becomes inflamed ( this is a really basic explanation of what happens ). Arthritis is an inflammetory response to an invader gone wrong. PCOS is another, and there are many others. Atherosclerosis is another at a most basic level. I have had arthritis since I was 19, brought on from an injury. Or so I thought.

Yesterday afternoon we had the opportunity to get out and do some wild plant hunting. I am in search of nettles, and they can often be found in waste sort of places that are close to water. They can be picked with care and once dried or cooked they lose their sting and you are left with a very nutritious thing. I was feeling stiff in the morning , but thought nothing about it and made plans to go in the afternoon. We went, dry and sunny day ( which should be a pain free day with arthritis), but I was finding it not only painful to walk but HARD to walk. My knee was so affected that it was not bending right. As we got out into the open spaces, it was getting worse. My friend water hemlock is still in full bloom, and I am having a hard time adjusting to him this year. Walking was painful, I could not find any young nettles, so we went back home. The pain was getting really bad in my knees, and by the time we got back in out apartment and I went to take off my shoes, I fell. Putting pressure on the bad knee with the swelling was just too much for it. I only injured my pride , but it jolted something loose in my brain.

One of the articles I was reading mentioned that a gluten insensitivity can also cause an arthritic response. In the past 2 days I ate wheat at 3 meals. Perhaps this is the reason why I was having such a bad flare this day. The gluten intolerance may be responsible for my arthritis getting worse instead of better with movement, bringing about the sensitivity to the water hemlock that I have never had before as well as the PCOS. Thinking back on different life events and remembering different foods and responses, it makes sense. Gluten intolerance could have been responsible for my nonstop ear infections, tonsil problems, respiratory problems , PCOS and so much more. It just encourages me to give gluten free a try.

Still stiff this morning. I think with flares based on gluten it takes my body a day to begin showing the reaction and three days to rid it. All I can do is try tis way and see if it works. And just for the heck of it I stepped on the scale this morning to see what that had to say. Down 0.8 from Saturday. I am optimistic