Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Update on my Gluten Diet

The more research I have done and the more people I talk to, the more I am realizing that in order to get a "positive" blood test on September 23 is to have lots of gluten (or antibodies or whatever it is) in my blood. This means I have to keep up with a "normal" diet for now. So basically, the next 5 or 6 weeks is going to be in limbo for me.. I want to avoid it, but I need to eat it if I want to really know if I'm allergic (or intolerant). There is still a good chance that a blood test can come back negative and a person can still have Celiac, or gluten intolerance. After that the only way to know is to do a biopsy of the intestine. No Thanks!!

I'm not sure what I'll do after the test - If it comes back negative, I might still lay off gluten-containing foods anyway. I did notice I felt better for the two weeks I was on the diet. It was really more of an I-didn't-realize-I-felt-better-until-I-felt-bad-again feeling, but I did notice a difference.

And any excuse to bake homemade bread will work for me! For now, I'm still "avoiding bread" like the doctor suggested. There are thousands of food items that contain gluten, so cutting out the pb&j sandwich that the kids are eating doesn't make a difference to me. It just makes my brain feel better that "Whew, I avoided the gluten in that one..." You know, mental justification that makes no sense but makes you feel better nonetheless. I still ate a hamburger and a cookie for dinner.

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