Gluten Free - Now What?(A Journey Back to Health)

After my doctor’s appointment, my mind was made up to go all in on becoming gluten free. The first thing I did was to go through my pantry and cupboards to find out what contained gluten. In the evenings, I would research how to read labels and what food items to stay away from. I must be honest I was overwhelmed, for gluten was in a lot of things and sometimes were hidden in things such as the Carmel coloring in food items.

Once I told my family the plan to go gluten free they were happy for me, but not excited about joining me. I assured them they didn’t have to eat gluten free unless they wanted to. In the back of my mind I had a goal that whatever I would cook or bake would surprise people that it was gluten free.

The most difficult task was finding a flour blend. After trying many flours from coconut flour, almond flour and so on; I had put together a blend with white and brown rice flours, potato starch, tapioca flour. I was on my way. From there I figured out the ratio for each one flour. I was thrilled to figure out a flour blend only to find out that you should pay attention to where your rice flour blend comes from due to arsenic. The lowest levels of arsenic were found in white rice (jasmine or basmati) imported from other countries, another area with low levels were found in California. You can do a whole lot of research on this topic just by searching on the internet. The last part of the flour blend challenge was to figure out the ratio of xanthium gum per cup of the flour blend.

Another challenge I had was to remember to let people know that I was gluten free; such as a meal at a meeting or an invitation to a friend’s home for dinner. If you do not eat out much, it's easy to forget to tell others about your diet restriction when they invite you over. I also remember not wanting to put anyone out by the gluten free restriction.

One time I had a dinner meeting with some college students and staff. I thought it would be easier to eat at home prior to the meeting and just attend. I didn’t want to make extra work for the house cook. I forgot to let the cook know I would not eat with them. I am here to say she was not happy that I didn’t tell her about my diet restriction; she said I have accommodated others and would have done the same for you. The lesson I had learned is to not assume and to just let people know.

After some learning curves, I was well on my way to do what was necessary to heal my body.

#Health #People #Healing #Body #Thyroid #Life