I won't get into too many details about how and why I'm now eating this way, but I'm VERY happy to delve at any point if someone asks. In short, I have a gluten intolerance which simply means I can eat gluten, but then my body has no idea what to do with it. It's kind of like putting maple syrup in a car for an oil change. My internal numbers get all wacky and it makes it almost impossible for me to be a healthy weight.
..But I guess I shouldn't assume you know what eating a gluten-free diet entails.. I didn't, until it became my new reality. To quote the ever-reliable Wikipedia: "Gluten (from Latin gluten 'glue') is a protein composite that appears in foods processed from wheat and related species, including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture." In addition to wheat flour, barley, and rye, oats, spelt, and triticale are also bad for me. When I eat gluten, I get super-fatigued, my arms get a strange discoloration to them, and sometimes I get sick to my stomach. Not to mention the unbelievable cholesterol and triglyceride count. It's crazy how someone can eat something for so many years, and not realize it's poisoning them. It took plenty of expensive doctor visits, and a ton of trial and error before I realized this sad reality.
I'd have to say the worst thing about eating gluten-free foods is the cost. I mean sure, if you want your bread and cookies to taste like hockey pucks, shopping can be pretty inexpensive.. But if you want your food to taste just like it did before this new reality, you'll need to shell out the big bucks. Example: When Scott and I were on Cape Cod this past summer, a personal-sized gluten-free Margherita pizza cost me $17.. Seventeen dollars!! A large pepperoni pie at Domino's costs half that. Most restaurants, if they even offer gluten-free pasta or pizza, will charge you extra. Now, I understand that keeping pots and utensils and cooking water separate can be tough.. but sometimes I feel like places are robbing us blind. As if it doesn't stink enough, it's easy to go broke in the process.
King Arthur has the best line of gluten-free baking products that I've come across, so far. It's such a painful irony that I moved from the very location of their distribution center to 1,000 miles away. An order was just placed to their online store for $135, courtesy of Scott and Christina Amado. And no, I won't be receiving some high-end baking apparatus, simply an assortment of GF flour, GF pancake mix, and the like. It's tough to know that regular mixes would cost half that at the local grocery store.
I hope I don't sound embittered about all of this. I'm certainly grateful that I don't have full-blown Celiac's.. which is a disease that renders it impossible for people to ingest gluten of any sort, lest they end up with horrible G.I. issues. And I know that this is a walk in the park compared to a lot of diagnoses that people receive every day. I also know that staying away from gluten can help with infertility issues and a HOST of other health problems..
I guess a silver lining to my day is finding out that a local pizza place now offers my favorite GF pizza crust. And THAT is exactly where you can find me later this evening.
love it :)
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