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My Journey To Health
This is my story of how I found the culprit of my Asthma and Eczema and how I learned to turn a restrictive "can't eat" diet into a healthy "can eat" diet!
Autoimmune Disorders and Gluten – My Experience
I was born with severe eczema, well what my parents, and doctors, thought was eczema. It actually most likely was dermatitis herpetiformis, which is similar to eczema, but is strongly related to celiac disease (gluten intolerance). This is all caused by gluten proteins leaking through the gut, which at the age of 5 turned into asthma, which also seems to be the case since both are caused by an auto-immune response created through a leaky gut (For more on this see "The Gluten Story"). I lived with an inhaler by my side till the age of 18 when I finally made the decision to get serious about my own health. I cut out all grains (wheat, oats, barley and rye) and within a few months I didn't even need to use my inhaler when I went to the gym and ran... it really is great not having to worry if I have my inhaler with me, it really is great. My asthma was the first and major thing that disappeared when I cut out the grains, but it wasn't all. It was amazing to see how quickly my face cleared up, I used to wash my face twice a day and put on every cream in the book, but I still had terrible acne, I don't even pay that much attention to my face anymore and it stays clear. It's not magic, the grains cause the body to be under a huge amount of stress, they cause an inflammatory reaction and you're body constantly thinks it is being invaded... so there is little surprise that when I cut out all the grains it made such a big difference.
For me it made such a big difference that it is something I'm willing to do for the rest of my life. But me feeling better isn't the only benefit... with less stress on my body it can spend more time repairing and strengthening and I can prevent the long term risks that many with celiac's disease face, such as Crohn's disease. then the only question is if you can keep that diet for the rest of your life, you decide if it's worth it.
If you're looking up gluten intolerances and wondering if it is something that could clear up some of your health problems, you have nothing to loose by trying it... well maybe some pounds. It's tough, honestly, it really is, but after not having grains for a couple months your body just stops craving them, and when you do try to eat the grains again they just taste like paste. It's funny once you get out of the grains cycle to see how much people will do to keep their dough and how much of an addiction there is to this pasty nutrition free junk. Be free, be healthy, live fully.
The Gluten Free Paleolithic Diet
I think we all do better with "I can" rather that "I can't", especially when shopping for what to buy for your gluten free diet. Looking at ingredient labels, remembering the added ingredients that may or may not have gluten... Yah, as much as I love reading labels, there had to be some other way...
This is what I found...
In the course of reading book after book, I had Neanderthin by Ray Audett recommended to me, and while I'm not one to read a book about getting thin, I figured I might as well. Turns out to be the best book I've read on health in general. It talks about the diet the helped him out in some huge ways, the paleolithic diet. The idea behind the paleolithic diet is to eat everything that was created for us to eat without having to process it. Already it is a gluten-free diet! And more than that a diet that focuses on really eating the most nutrient dense foods possible.
It's all about what you can eat! Eat fruits, vegetables, meat, nuts and seeds... what a simple diet! Lots and lots of delicious salads!
Is this all I eat, no. I've taken it as a base focus on those things, and then add a few of my own. I still eat rice and different gluten-free goodies, but I always try to make sure I'm coming back to the basics. As good as all the gluten-free goodies are they really are not as nutrient dense as a fresh salad with alaskan salmon, olive oil and apple cider vinegar! --- And that's important to me