29-12-2008 - Gluten - to eat it or leave it

My mood while writing this blog: relaxed with a slightly rumbly tumbly

i was thinking a lot about why I was so sick before xmas, and why I still feel sick now and I have come up with a possible reason that is very tenuous but it does make sense in a weird sort of way.

I could be more gluten intolerant/coeliac than I thought I was. it runs in my family and most of us have it to some extent some worse than others. I have always gotten away with eating a bit of it but lately I am beginning to wonder if my gluten days are over.

before I was pregnant with Jonathan I was eating very little gluten and very little dairy as I was trying to eat healthily and also just felt better when those items were low on my intake list. then when I got pregnant I became very ill and one of the only things I could keep down in the early days was bread. so as my pregnancy went on I ate more and more bread and I was soooo sick.

after we lost jonathan and I had healed I didn't feel sick anymore but I was just so tired all the time. and now 4 months after losing jonathan I am starting to feel sick again and I am still tired especially after I eat.

I did some research and it is possible to miscarry because of a gluten intolerance because your intestines stop taking in nutrients. they get so damaged that the foods you eat or vitamins you take don't have any nutritional value because your body cannot absorb them. not until you stop eating gluten that is and then once you have stopped and your intestines have healed then your body will start sucking in the nutrients again. so its time to get testing!

today I will do the shopping the way the rest of my family does. I will only eat foods that have no gluten in them. so starting tomorrow for 2-3 weeks I will have no gluten and a very low intake of dairy. if I start feeling better than I will know for sure that it is indeed the gluten making me feel this way. I will also then cut out dairy completely for 4 days and then try it again. if I am sick immediately then I will know that it's the dairy!

this could take a while! lol

the thing is if it was the gluten that made my body go into preterm labour then if I keep eating it it will happen again... and I can't handle that. so I will now look to the foods that do make me feel good, fruit, veg, protein, and rice. and we shall see if they make a difference for me.