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Monday, July 30, 2012

Gluten and moo cows

We are heading into week 3 of an elimination diet of gluten in our house, (on top of 3 months of no dairy) and so far, so good. While I hate hate hate the idea of a cup of morning coffee sans half n half, I have resigned myself to coconut milk creamer, and the best thing that I can say about it is that it doesn't make me gag.

But, the baby is so.much.easier. in temperament when I abstain from the white stuff. If I cheat, it shows up in his diapers (sorry, but awfully true) or in his rumbling tummy approximately 90 minutes later, so after many, many hopeful spoonfuls of yogurt and one terrible iced coffee from McDonald's, I've stopped expecting a sudden miracle cure. Maybe around 6 months.

Juuuust to make life a little trickier (and dinnertime more stressful), we've also started cutting grains from our diet, starting with the big-G. Both Dave and I have underactive thyroids, and while our medication works well, I was recently reading some interesting stuff on Kris' blog that led me to believe perhaps we could be feeling even better. Especially Dave - some of the 'silent celiac' symptoms described here are him, to a T.

Now I know it's so, so obnoxious to jump on the latest dietary bandwagon, and I'm not saying any of us are true celiacs, but I have to say we feel about 1.4 million times better since we've stopped eating the stuff.

And, perhaps most importantly to my shallow self, we've both seen awesome results on the scale. Like, mind blowing results. My poor husband usually gains a bit of baby weight right along with me, and we've both been faithful to our workouts this month, but the week we cut out gluten, he lost a whopping 4 pounds in almost as many days, and I lost 5.5 in a week. I almost fell of the scale when I saw the number. And I immediately began texting all my sisters and telling them how 'I usually have to give birth to put up numbers like that.'

Nice.

But it's true! And now for a second week, we're seeing sustained results. So...what do you think, is there a hideous, wheat-bloating connection here?

*I should note that Joey does get some gluten in his diet still in the form of sprouted bread, which is probably no better than any other bread, but gives me an inflated sense of motherly accomplishment. And he is alloted, per his pediatrician, a mere 12 oz. of dairy per day to offset his sloooooow digestive tract. We bought a bit of lactose free milk over the weekend (I am sorry, this is seriously the worst and most boring post ever. EVER.) and he sucked it down like it was pure sweet nectar and then (seriously) ran around the house mooing. So I guess he does know the difference between cows and coconuts.

6 comments:

  1. For all the complaining I do to my husband about giving up gluten, I was also happy that all the baby weight that'd been clinging to me dropped off. Wheat bloating connection? I can't be sure, but I'm just glad fitting into my old clothes didn't require me to start exercising.
    Coffee without 1/2 and 1/2? Now that's scary.You know most of the flavored creamers are so artificial, they contain no dairy. Which is the lesser of two evils; corn syrup or coconut milk? ;)
    Good luck with your all your diet changes.

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  2. I agree with the benefits of going gluten-free. I also know that dairy is hard on our body too. However, I have read a lot of information about the benefits of raw milk and how it is entirely different than pasteurized. Have you considered that as an option? Depending on what State you live in - there are some states where it is illegal to sell raw milk.

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    1. I think it is illegal here, but I bet I could find it if I tried hard enough...especially around Boulder.

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  3. I don't know much about gluten sensitivities, but I was reading a book the other day by some nutritional guru, and he quoted a study that estimated that 80% of the human population have gluten sensitivities in varying degrees and .4% have full on Celiac's.

    It's not worth fighting fads if they make you feel better.

    I'm personally jumping off the cliff with all the traditional foodies.

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  4. So do you just substitute the gluten-filled foods with gluten-free alternatives (bread, pasta, cookies, crackers) or are you basically just cutting out carbs and eating proteins, fruits and veggies? My belly pouch wants to know :)

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    1. So I've looked back on our diet the past month and we actually are eating fewer carbs, but not enough to make the size difference we've seen. We still do plenty of corn tortillas, tortilla chips and rice. But yes, lots more veggies and fruits. And a decent amount of meat and fish. I just started reading this book last night called Wheat Belly, and it is super fascinating - you should definitely check it out!

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