Gluten Intolerant

When I was diagnosed with Gluten intolerance in July of 2008, and told I had to live gluten free for the rest of my life, I felt confused. I had heard about nut and seasonal allergies but wheat or gluten intolerance, never. I talked to friends and relatives no one had heard about such a thing. And, when I read about it more I found that most people who were gluten intolerant or allergic or celiac had digestive, skin or weight issues, I had none of this, even my biopsy was normal. But there was one major reason, despite my eating a well balanced diet I was severely anemic. I  had constant headaches, shortness of breath and felt tired all the time. I could not even climb my house stairs without getting breathless.My blood tests came out positive for high levels of anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (tTGA). I got my blood test done three times just to be sure.  My treating doctor advised me to get off from all things gluten if I want to live a life. I followed his advice and clearly saw the difference. But you can never imagine how much I missed comfort food for few months. I craved for a simple soft textured bread and white puffy chapati. Cutting out gluten meant eating veggies, grass fed meat, organic free run eggs, rice and corn flour. I lost weight and my friends saw this as a good sign and thought of leaving gluten for few days. It was crazy of them to think like that. They did not know gluten was not just leaving wheat but it can be hidden in many food and non food products, such as sauces, baking powder, shampoos, colors etc.

Fortunately, I had a habit of reading food labels and  always loved to cook and bake from scratch, for that reason avoiding gluten from my diet and life was not a big problem. I searched on the internet, borrowed books from library to learn about alternative flours and then my journey began to a wonderful world of gluten free food. I started eating more healthier grains like quinoa and sorghum that were nutritious and taste really good!

Update January 2012

Gluten: what you don’t know might kill you.