I had a difficult time with my brother and was always physically fighting with him. One hot sticky summer night, while I was on the top bed of our bunk beds, my brother would not stop clearing his throat. I remember not being able to control my anger and just losing control. I climbed down off of the top bunk and punched him in the stomach, then climbed back into my bunk to wait for my parents to come and discipline me. This typifies the uncontrollable mood swings that came over me when I ate gluten.
A year after going off wheat, we switched to goat’s milk and started to avoid things made with cow’s milk, because of the stomach pains and issues that my brother and I were having. These stomach issues continued for years. My brother and I had gastrointestinal-tract tests done that required us to drink barium and water and then have X-rays taken to try and find out what was wrong with us; of course, they didn’t reveal anything. Finally, we were told that we were lactose intolerant and to avoid milk products. This was about the time I was in seventh grade.
During High School, I would self-regulate my wheat intake based on how I wanted to handle the symptoms of my “allergy” and its associated problems. If I knew a party was coming up, or a camp-out, I could base how I’d feel by how much wheat I ate. Also during high school, my mother was diagnosed with irritable-bowel syndrome.
At some time in my early twenties, I heard somewhere that my problem was most likely related to the protein in wheat, rye, and barley which is gluten. I started to realize that even the rye I was eating would cause the headaches and the mood swings; I just needed to eat it in larger quantities than wheat for it to affect me. I decided that I would stop messing with the rye and “manage” my wheat intake. I got to the point where I could identify in less than five minutes if I had anything with wheat in it. My best friend called me a hypochondriac because I was always complaining of not feeling well. I was easily depressed. My stomach problems kept me from ever thinking of drinking milk, and I rarely ate cheese or ice cream. I would have the stomach cramps even if I didn’t have milk products, and I would think I must have had milk somewhere. I also recall that I referred to wheat as “my addiction.” I would get a “high” off of eating it, and would have to continue to eat it to continue the high. When I would stop eating it, I would go through withdrawal symptoms of sorts. The cravings were intense and sometimes uncontrollable and, once I started eating it, again, I would eat it for days on end until I would feel so horrible that I would (eventually) have to stop.
How grateful I am that all of that has changed since my family embarked upon the 100% Gluten-Free Way, especially since having come to realize that my problem is gluten, not lactose, allows me to drink milk, eat ice cream, and enjoy cheese, without fearing any of them (as long as they’re GF) as I once did.
CHAPTER FOUR
Kelly’s Story
When our first son, Kelly, was born, Jonathan and I thought for sure his constant screaming after eating was a sign of chronic colic. Let me rephrase that: Everyone around Kelly for any length of time told us, “He has colic!” Since I believed that after the first three to six months, colic should no longer be a major issue for any baby, I became convinced it had to be something else, but I didn’t have a clue as to what.
Jonathan would, literally, walk Kelly all around the house every night and, sometimes, even during the day, to help my son fall asleep. Jonathan and I didn’t get much sleep, either, the first year and a half of Kelly’s life. Our son was always screaming, crying; his pain was always pitiful and obvious, at such times, in his eyes and on his face.
Until finding out about Celiac Disease, I didn’t connect the dots that put Kelly’s eating of gluten as the real cause of his screaming, crying, and hurting.
Only after I read about Celiac Disease did I notice how twenty minutes after Kelly ate something with gluten in it he would begin screaming and his tears would start to flow—as regular as clockwork.
I’d feed Kelly a bowl of cereal that had barley in it, and twenty minutes later on the dot (I timed it), he started crying and screaming. I fed him Gerber® Baby Rice Cereal (Gluten-Free), and nothing happened. That was enough for both Jonathan and me to say, “No more gluten for Kelly!”
Something else that we didn’t know until after it was too late to do anything about it (at least as far as Kelly was concerned), is that gluten is passed through breast milk. I ate a lot of gluten while pregnant with and while nursing Kelly, having had no idea that the gluten in my breast milk was what made him suffer so much pain twenty minutes after EACH AND EVERY time I nursed him.
CHAPTER FIVE
Differences in Pregnancies and Babies—With and Without Gluten
During my first pregnancy, and while breastfeeding my first born, I ate wheat and gluten—lots of it.
During my second pregnancy, and while breastfeeding my second child, I ate strictly according to the GF Way. There was all the difference in the world. Ozias’ disposition was decidedly more low-key, less hyper, and less painful than the experiences of his older brother, who had been plagued with gluten overloads.
CHAPTER SIX
Flourless Chocolate Torte
A friend of ours, whom I respectfully dubbed “Torte Man,” went to culinary arts school to become a baker. He and I often discussed my family’s GF-Way regimen; so, one day, he brought over a flourless chocolate torte made with only butter, eggs, sugar, and cream. WOW! Talk about delicious! It was rich and naturally Gluten-Free.
When Jonathan and I had our tenth wedding anniversary, Torte Man was kind enough again to make his wonderful chocolate torte. We again enjoyed every rich GF chocolate bite of it. When we shared some of it with friends, they were amazed that something so delicious could be Gluten-Free.
Every time I see Torte Man (which is fairly often), I smile, because he helped me see just how good GF food can be, and that it doesn’t have to be taste-free and/or disgusting.
(See the Recipe section for Flourless Chocolate Torte.)
CHAPTER SEVEN
Going 100% Gluten-Free in the Home
For awhile, after discovering Jonathan and Kelly’s gluten problems, I cooked two of everything: one Gluten-Free for them, one not necessarily GF for me. Then, I decided enough duplication was enough. I committed even myself to the Gluten-Free Way of life and gave away to friends all of our gluten-containing food, our gluten-contaminated plates, pots, pans, and eating utensils, replacing one and all to provide us with a 100% GF-Way environment. My family and I have tremendously benefited health-wise from that very wise decision.
WILLIAM MALTESE MOMENT #3
Yes, 100% Gluten-Free, Doggone It!
I’ve an acquaintance in the writing world, Bo Perkins, writer and editor, who was told by her doctors to go on a wheat-free, Gluten-Free diet because of her allergies. She simply ignored them.
Awhile back, though, she adopted a nine-year-old yellow Labrador dog who went into a choking fit that the vet diagnosed as—can you guess?—the result of allergies. The vet’s suggested treatment for the dog—can you guess?—a wheat-free, Gluten-Free diet.
Since the dog had so wormed his way into Bo’s heart that she couldn’t possibly do anything else but try to make his life easier, she started cooking him wheat-free and Gluten-Free food and weaning him off commercial dog foods (the latter laden with wheat and gluten). After four months, the dog was thirty-five pounds lighter and acting like a young pup—able to run farther, faster; able to learn better, faster—without nearly as many accompanying sneezes, wheezes and coughs.
Along with the dog’s improvement, Bo’s health took a marked turn toward the better, as a direct result of her having shared the wheat-free, Gluten-Free