BRUMI1968

I was using Dr. H - but when I called and found out the yellow colored face moisturizer (I foget the name) had wheat germ oil, I quit. They said it was gluten-free, but I was not into taking chances.

I switched to My Chelle, which I like. (I like Dr. H. better though, to be honest).

As a sidenote...I've noticed I need face lotion less than I used to. Maybe a positive side effect of Celiac.

Laura,

Thanks. That's a really good point ... Marcia

I almost forgot, millet makes a good substitute for cracked wheat in tabuli too ... I've been cooking it just till it is no longer crunchie, but I am thinking of trying to just soak it in boiling water for 30 minutes next time ...

Would this work for felalfil I wonder, which normally has bulgar in it?

I recently added meat back to my diet after 16 years of vegetarian and two years of vegan. I tried to do raw last summer, and it went alright, but when the weather cooled down, I found it difficult. I think I added meat back out of frustration for lack of foods, especially when I decided to go grain free. I have been trying to do the Paleolithic diet for the most part, and other than the nuts, it seems to work pretty well for me.

one thing is for sure - it is hard to keep on weight going raw. I know several raw foodists who have lost tons of weight, to the point where they no longer look healthy. If you're already under weight, you might consider eating a raw meal each day, or eating all your snacks raw -- but you might want to be careful going over 60-70% raw.

Good luck!

Hi. You definitely need to read on this site and elsewhere about going gluten-free, especially since you are pregnant. There is a book called "gluten free for dummies" which is a decent place to start. There are also folks on here who have a newbie packet. You should post a post asking for it.

Good luck to you! It's going to be difficult, but it's so going to be worth it for your health in the long run.

I have spent my life bloated - but now am rarely bloated.

I would try a few things.

1. no gluten (obviously)

2. no dairy (second most important)

3. reduce sugar

I think the sugar thing ended up being the biggest reducer of my bloat, I'm assuming since I was feeding bacteria in the gut or something - yeast or something. The least bloated I have ever felt was doing a yeast-killing diet of no sugar, very few carbs, no fruit, etc. It was exhausting, but I had the flattest stomach in the universe.

Also, chew the food. I don't know about you guys, but I scarf my food and forget to chew -- this is terrible. I'm working on it.

Good luck

p.s. I've been a year gluten free and it is all so much better. now when I get bloated it is from too much sugar or too much raw garlic or something else that I know messes me up. Yahoo.

Doctors rely heavily on the Diagnostic Code book that has more to do with insurance companies than with human beings. Everyone has different symptoms; some folks have no symptoms; some folks have NO DIGESTIVE SYMPTOMS at all ... so the books that docs look at (or computer programs or whatever) that help them bill your insurance -- and their medical school training -- influence them to put symptoms in boxes and then label them. Our health does not work this way.

I had intense abdominal pain, from pent up gas and inflammation from having severe constipation for about 36 years (I'm 38). But up until recently, it was not suspected that I would have celiac because 80% of those presenting with GI symptoms have D instead of C. Also, it used to be thought you had to be thin to have Celiac, which is now no longer believed.

I asked for my test, and thankfully my doc complied and gave me the right one. I came back positive. They called and said "you are slightly celiac". That's like being slightly pregnant.

Anyway, good luck to you. I hope this is where you end up because frankly, having a disease that is cured through diet and lifestyle is AWESOME. There are lots of folks who are not so lucky -- either out there living with serious disease, or out there eating/drinking/living themselves into one.

Hi and welcome to the site. I don't know of any home remedies for being glutened - I so far have not have quick responses to being glutened, except once, and that was bizarre since C was always my problem and not D, and D I had and how.

Anyway, there is an enzyme pill called Gluteneze that might help some folks who have been glutened. It is not for taking so that you can purposefully eat gluten, though, no matter what the company might say about it.

Stick with the diet - it is worth it. There will probably always be butt heads about it. I'm 38 and a few weeks ago my Dad gave me a completely hard time to the point of calling me paranoid for not wanting to eat out at a restaurant. I can't figure out why it mattered to him that i sat there with tea and didn't get food (I ended up eating a dry baked potato--surely they couldn't inject gluten into that)...but whatever. i cried in the car on the way home. I need to figure out how to stand up for myself, especially my health. BUT I have found that the healthier our guts get, the healthier our expression gets - so it should get easier as we go along.

Take care. Your closest friends should be able to see a change in you -- feeling sick less often, brains more on top of it, etc. And then they'll be able to appreciate how you don't want to lose that just to go out to dinner. They might even learn to cook you something.

I get the exact same thing, and have been trying to figure out what triggers it. It seems to happen with less wonderful poops - very "bile" colored toilet water, less firm than I would like. But the pain itself does not move. It gets better and worse, but is there for a few days at a time.

I have been one year off the gluten. I think I've figured out that nuts cause this pain for me, though there are probably other things as well. I had this pain just a week or so ago, and am about to test fermented veggies (raw sauerkraut) to see if that was the culprit. It is gone now, and I hate to flare it up, but I don't think I was eating any nuts or nut butter. Maybe I did, though.

Anyway, I'm going to check out a picture of the colon and stuff on the Internet and see if there's anything special right there.

I have long been sensitive to heat, as well as you, but I am virtually unable to sweat. I get stinky underarms, but rarely any wetness from sweat anywhere -- even in a sauna, which is why I can't take saunas, because I overheat and feel like I'm going to pass out.

I would say I've gotten better with heat, but less tolerant of cold. Anyway -- I would also watch WHAT you're eating. Foods have heating and cooling properties, and if you eat cooling foods when you're hot, that should help.

You might quickly check out ayurveda. It's medicine from India that is thousands of years old, and they have a lot to say about heating and cooling. They also have a lot to say about what types of exercises are good for folks. I am only supposed to do walking, swimming, yoga, pilates - that type of thing - nothing overly stimulating.

I wish I could help -- I get nauseus when I get too hot...and walking makes me have to poop, too, but I do it a lot anyway. Since I've always been on the C side, it's usually not an emergency.

I ditto on the salt thing, especially if you're sweating a lot - you need good salt, like Himalayan crystal salt. Yum.

Good luck.

I would definitely avoid dairy as well, I can't remember if you said you did. The smallest amount of dairy gives me terrible constipation and cramps in the intestines. Other causes of non-gluten intestinal pain for me are nuts - mainly walnuts. Also, eating sugar gives me abdominal pains. I think I likely get yeast build-up when I eat a lot of sugar. When I quit sugar, most carbs and most fruits, the pain goes away right away.

All of us are different I suppose, so you need to experiment with what it might be...but dairy, corn, wheat, and soy are the big allergens that get folks the most. I'd try getting rid of these first off.

Good luck. Oh yeah, garlic gave me terrible pains at first too.

Well, it's been one year gluten-free. I've certainly learned a lot in that time.

• When you're not uncomfortable all the time, life is really different (brighter, better, saner).
  
• I don't need to seek out comfort anymore, but can do things like go camping and, more importantly, can express myself better in situations where I need to express needs or power - I'm not as weak physically, and therefore not as weak in my expressions either.
  
• Sugar is bad. It makes me bloat up. It tastes really good, though...and makes black tea heavenly.
  
• Finding areas in which one can be flexible is very important - having an inflexible diet as per gluten does not mean having to become rigid in other ways. One must watch to not become too rigid.
  
• Pooping does not have to be a terror.
  
• MOST people get it and empathize enough to help you out; family members might not be most people, though. I've had to learn to stand up for myself a bit here - especially with my step-dad, who thinks I'm "paranoid". What I've not figured out in my year - why is he so pushy about it - how does it benefit him to try to make me eat at a dangerous restaurant or try an unchecked substance?
  

Anyway, there's probably more. But I'm glad I quit the gluten; I have no desire to eat it and don't even miss any of it, except the freedom of eating out without asking all sorts of ridiculous-sounding questions and then not trusting them in the end anyway. Thankfully, I'm a good cook!

I'm 38, and have back problems for as long as I can remember. I think it is due to a bad posture when I was a kid. Often girls are encouraged, in order to look cute, to jut their hips out. So that is how I've been standing for all these years, hips slightly jutted out, knees locked, etc. Any "work" I do, like walking, hiking, climbing, lifting, etc., I do with my back -- no wonder it hurts all the time.

The fix for me is, I think, Pilates excercises, and a few back exercises my amazingly good chiropractor gave me before he went into retirement. The best one:

lay on the floor with your knees bent, just like you're going to do a sit up (which you pretty much are)

inhale while on the floor

WHILE exhaling, lift your neck and shoulders up off the floor like a sit up,

BUT ADD THIS: press the base of your spine into the floor while you do it.

If you are flexing the ab muscles, you have to relax the back muscles - that is the way that muscles work.

As to whether or not gluten issues make back problems worse, I have no idea. I know that dehydration can contribute greatly to back problems, apparently many people losing symptoms by drinking lots of water. Sleeping right is another big one - those cervical pillows really helped me when I had one (I need a new one).

I can say this: do not let your back become a life long problem for you. It will get in the way of doing stuff you love. I am only now becoming able to go hiking very much. I almost always hurt myself doing yard work, and I love doing yard work. You've been an inspiration to me, I'm going to start doing the Pilates every day before lunch.

Take care. Good luck.

corn tortillas right on the grill

red potatoes, butter/oil, onions in foil in coals or on grill

omlettes

apples and peanut butter

salmon burgers/hamburgers/garden burgers

Just went camping for the first time in thirty years. It was fun, except I couldn't sleep at all. Folks say that's the first night for you, and that I'll get used to it. Hope so, because we're leaving for 10 days camping in Montana in a week or so.

I did not take threelac, but did a diet with absolutely no sugar, including fruit. It was tough. The hardest part, though, was by about the end of the first week (was aiming for three weeks, then adding back fruit), I could barely walk up my own driveway. I was physically so tired I couldn't do anything but get out of bed and move to a chair. This doesn't work in my house where my dog demands a bit more attention than that. So I had an almond shake -- so this was two weeks into it maybe. I could feel myself getting better as I swallowed.

I need to do the damned thing again because I've been having a lot of bloating and have accidentally gotten into the sugar again in black tea (used to drink green tea which I don't like sugar in). This time, though, I'll go more slowly - take a month and eat some low glycemic fruits.

Take care and good luck.

Coconut Cream is just the coconut oil and fiber and sugars and all that still in tact. I mix some with agave nectar to kill my post-dinner sweet tooth.

Also helping me with quittng dairy was eating sweet potatoes, because they are "creamy". If you mix them with coconut cream or olive oil or something, and whip them around, they are quite satisfying.

This quarter I have a class called "walking" (i go to a hippy college) and once a week we go on three hour walks. Not a good scenario for finding that one needs a facility. Maybe I should've gone with accounting or something.

It takes me 45 minutes in the winter to make my brekkers -- I have to have potato or something like that to fill me up and keep me warm in the cold months. The trick for me is, then I have to do the doodles...but it's time to leave for school. ARG - I hate morning classes!

I often eat poached eggs over sauteed greens or asparagus. You could blanch some asparagus and sautee it off with some onion or garlic or something, then refer it; AND boil some eggs. Cooked bacon (gluten-free obviously and uncured) tastes good cold the next day as well. That might work for not having to cook in the a.m.

I had that before gluten-free ... now I get it from walnuts...or so I believe anyway. Even walnut butter.

If you have insurance and have not had it done, getting the ELISA (or similar type) test for food allergies really helps. Most folks with celiac can't digest dairy right away since the villi in their intestines can't produce that chemicals to break down lactose. Some folks get to add it back; some don't.

Anyway, I'd try the gluten free and dairy free, and see if you don't feel better in a week or two, or a month or two (everyone has their own pace).

'

-Sherri

You can buy frozen raw food to give to your cats that is close to the way they would eat in the wild, minus of course the killing and the fur and the whatnot. I feed my dog raw dog food, though I've started searing it on the outside to make him like it better. (He used to love it, but he demands changes in his diet...just like me!)

Raw advantage has one - though I'm not sure if it has grain in it. Others do as well. Primal Pet makes some all meat/innards/bones varieites that cats would love.

Anyway, I sure am glad I home-make my dog's food at this point. When he was a puppy, his seven siblings all got mange, and he did not. Difference? At least one was that Emmett got homemade food every day, no store-bought dog food.

Good luck.

I see that today, my idol CORMAC MCCARTHY, won the Pulitzer for his novel, "The Road". Yahoo!

Hi all. Should I be having blood work done again for celiac, to see if I am truly gluten-free? I am super strict and have gluten-free household. But I realize that perfection is likely unattainable. Anyway, it's been almost a year. Should I get tested again? And do I need to do the whole panel, or only part of it...my insurance sucks now.

Thanks.

Bone Black by bell hooks is amazing. (probably considered a memoir.) The Earth is Enough by Harry Middleton also really good. Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez is very good. (nonfiction about the arctic, but also about us and how we perceive places and spaces and the like. really good.) Solar Storms by Linda Hogan is really good. (Native American fiction, if it must be put in a box. I found it exceptional.)

Some of the best books I've ever read: Cormac McCarthy's anything, but especially the trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and ... the third one.....um ...... Cities of the Plain. Very good. Violent, however. Set at the turn of the century in Texas and Mexico. Very sparse writing. Called the Faulkner of modern times. Also, not fiction but extremely good: Michael Pollan's books: The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and I'm about to start Second Nature. Also supreme is Wendell Berry's "The Unsettling of America".

Lastly, I recently read a book called "Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce" that was exceptional, especially if you're interested in such things as Native American history. This book really sticks with me because not only was it utterly compelling the whole book through, now that it has been three or so months I still feel I learned a lot - I feel I know a lot about what happened all those years ago. Great book!

I got a book called "The Body Ecology Diet". it is pretty good; but severe. No fruit at all, etc. I ended up feeling pretty bad after a while, and losing weight. The die-off was pretty severe.

One of the things she mentions is to properly combine foods. For example, don't eat protein and starch. Too much of the sugars end up in your system undigested by you, and happily fed on by the yeast. So I only eat protein with leafy greens and nonstarchy veggies. I like salmon and salad, or steak and salad.

I'd also avoid all sweet fruits. Apples are probably lower on the glycemic index than some. Bananas are high. Cherries are alright, but they're not in season. Berries are okay I think.

Anyway, I've not had it so severely as you, and have never taken medications for it, herbal or otherwise, so can't comment there. I did swish out with tea tree oil diluted when I got mild thrush from some antibiotics last year. It took a month to get better, but it did eventually work.

Good luck to you.

-Sherri

I know right away when I've eaten something wrong because my heart starts racing. I've learned to calm down about it, but it used to freak me out, just adding to the panic of the whole thing.

I think our bodies react very quickly to foods we should not be eating. If I figure out what I just ate (like it's obvious), then I mark down not to eat that anymore.