Could it Be #Celiac?

On the 27th of June I decided I would give up wheat, on a temporary basis, after reading a book that completely blew me away... called Wheat Belly.  It discusses carb sensitivity and blood sugar spikes and carb cravings... all blamed on our modern wheat.



I was intrigued enough to give it a try.

Within several days I noticed that my morning sniffles were gone, along with the fullness that I feel in my head, that often causes little bouts of vertigo and unsteadiness.  I also notice that my stomach was flatter.

The most overwhelming, and very welcome change, was that I became free of the nearly constant carb and sugar cravings that have plagued me for this whole past year.

Taking it one step further, I thought I would try to give up grains as much as I reasonably could manage, without feeling deprived or putting myself into awkward social situations and being a PITA to my friends and family. 

I occasionally ate brown rice pasta when I cooked pasta meals for The Captain but usually just had the veggies and protein in the tomato sauce.  If we did a stir-fry, I would have the chicken and veggies, and forego the rice or noodles. I started to eat fewer rice cakes, and quinoa, and was eating only a few grain servings per week.

Then, last week, The Captain and I visited his sister and her husband in North Vancouver, and because she lives gluten-free, I decided to follow suit and copy her meals.  She does have g-f muffins and breads in the house, so I sampled, and enjoyed all of those... and our niece made a very delicious rhubarb and strawberry pie, using a g-f mix for the crust.

But, overall, I still ate fewer grains, as I had been doing and was quite happy with the way I was feeling and also that this darn edema in my left ankle was on the wain.

So... knowing I had a doc's visit scheduled for this morning, I ate wheat in 2 items yesterday, and also some rye crackers.  Today I woke up with a runny, snuffly nose, that horrid stuffiness in my head, and 2 swollen feet! 

I had a long talk with the doc about all of this, and some other symptoms, and we decided that I should test for celiac disease.  I am stunned.  It means eating wheat and gluten for a week and then having some blood drawn to see if the test is positive for celiac sprue....

And he went on to tell me that even if there is no positive result for celiac that it certainly seems there is at the least a gluten sensitivity and that I should give it up.

I will keep ya posted!