The gluten-free week

This is the beginning of my gluten-free week...which will eventually lead to my gluten-free month...I hope.

So where did this decision to go gluten-free come from? Well, I have a few nagging injuries that won't go away (that's another blog entry). I've been going to physio for awhile and I've been seeing some improvements but not enough for my liking.

My friend Samara, who seems to dislike when I call her hippie-dippie-trippie but who is, suggested that I go see her osteopath. Samara has a few health issues and has told me on many occasions how seeing her osteopath has improved her overall health. She has been trying to convince me to go to the osteopath for months now. I always thought that it was too granola for me. I'm a firm believer in traditional or main-stream medicine. But main-stream medicine hadn't managed, so far, to completely heal my injuries. My pain is a daily reminder of that fact. So, finally I thought, what the heck? It couldn't hurt so why not try it?

I had my first session with Samara's and now my osteopath this morning. Maybe I'm becoming less cynical with age but it wasn't as granola-ish as I thought it would be...or maybe Samara did a good job at preparing me! Either way, he had some suggestions for me. He believes that I have an iron, vitamin B12 and vitamin D absorption problem which may be preventing my immune system from letting certain things heal. I get enough in my diet but I have trouble absorbing these nutrients because of gluten. Therefore, eating a totally gluten-free diet is ideal.

For those who don't know, gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley and soya. The grains that are recommended are oats, rice, quinoa and corn. Of all the grains with gluten, soya is by far the hardest to stay away from. Soy is in everything! For example, I love roasted nuts. If you read the label, almost all roasted nuts have soy, including those sold in health food stores. My solution: I roasted my own peanuts in 20 minutes this afternoon.

Although more expensive than eating gluten products, eating gluten-free won't be very hard for me in my home. I don't eat much bread or pasta and there are lots of alternatives (rice pasta is quite good). It's eating in a restaurant or at another person's home that might be a problem. A restaurant is easy enough: go for a salad and ask if there's any soy in the dressing. Another person's home is a little trickier. How rude would it be to go to someone's home and say: "By the way, I don't eat gluten."? This isn't an allergy. Anyway, I hope my friends will still invite me over for supper and I hope they will try to accommodate me...

On my way home from the osteopath, I stopped at the health food store in Aylmer called SOL. I bought brown rice flour, oat flour, plain pecans and peanuts, rice pasta, gluten-free cereal, bread and mac & cheese! I wasn't feeling very creative for supper so I use the gluten-free bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches and I made the gluten-free mac & cheese. Both the bread and the mac & cheese were delicious! Too bad they cost twice the price of their gluten cousins!