So we are thinking of trying a gluten free diet. I am not sure that is the most accurate way to say that. It might be better to say a more natural food diet.
Does this sound a little hocus pocus? A little "earth mother"? In other words, not like me at all?
You are right. This is a bit of a stretch for the people who got themselves into this mess. But as Silent Sam says, "we've changed so much already, what is a little more?"
I will have to give up my beloved Coke. (audible shudders)
How did we get here? It may have been in the back of my mind for awhile but it was brought forward by a reader who suggested that I read the book Wheat Belly. The book is written by a cardiologist from Wisconsin and from the cover, you would think that he wants you to give up wheat. Turns out he wants a lot more than that. He is kind of a no carbs guy. The reviews of the book are great but I just don't see it as a long term alternative.
Then our local public broadcasting station had a show on Friday night about the Blood Sugar Solution. The show featured a doctor who, besides making up words (diabesity was a favorite) was a proponent of going gluten free and other offensive ingredients like high fructose corn syrup. One of the things I remember was that he wanted you to go through your cabinets and get rid of any canned good that had more than 5 ingredients or any ingredients that you cannot pronounce the name.
My impression of both of these physicians is that they were perhaps a bit full of themselves. They are quite sure they are genius's and are there to save the world. Yea, uh huh.
Setting that smarmy feeling aside, we think that they might have a point. Especially the second doctor. He really advocates eating fresh foods. "Your pharmacy should be at the end or your fork" was a favorite quote.
To dabble into this world, I went to the local Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck per Silent Sam). The store has quite a selection of gluten free foods. I was looking at pasta in particular. It seems that my new friend, quinoa, has several different pasta offerings. I have been using the spaghetti noodles but they have several other shapes also. I picked up a bag of gluten free pretzels. They are fine but golly, they were pricy. Also for some reason I cannot explain, I picked up two packages of gluten free cookies. This was just idiotic since we aren't eating cookies anyway. (They were okay)
Then Silent Sam checked out the pasta in our regular grocery store. Turns out the quinoa pasta was at our regular store and even more surprisingly, it was about the same price.
This is not a change we are talking about making tomorrow. We have some cleaning out to do before we will make the change. While doing a massive toss of all offending items works for the doctor, it doesn't work for us.
So what do you think of a gluten free more natural food diet? Have you tried it? Have you succeed? What was the hardest part? Any help would be gratefully accepted. Please leave notes in the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
Disclosure - I ate two yummy cookies at a church function tonight...
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried gluten free.
We laugh as when I was dx'd, the kids had grown up and left home. We were eating great - no junk, no snacks, lots and lots of veggies.
I think, whatever works for you, it's great. It can't hurt to try it.
Colleen, I am glad you had the cookies. Sometimes you need a treat! I don't think we needed two packages of treats... (they disappeared really fast - the "kids" wouldn't touch them - "ehhh, gluten free - yuck")
ReplyDeleteNot sure I can let the morning coke go. I will try.