Making Diet and Life Changes for Better Health

When I first began thinking of a title for this post, I laughed and thought to myself, maybe it would be better to title it "My Grain-free Trials!"  The past year has been a year of overcoming many obstacles.

But, getting right to the point, the traditional gluten-free diet that my family and I had been eating had not given us the health that we were seeking.  I knew there had to be a better way to regain our digestive health.

The first step in making life changes is realizing something needs to change.

There were many things I wanted to change. I had chronic sinus congestion that was very stubborn which I know in most cases is usually yeast related.  I began to feel really tired and run down, as if I had an infection daily.  At this point, my body was not responding to the herbs and tinctures that usually brought me around. Many days my face felt swollen and puffy.  My son and I were both experiencing  nutritional deficiencies. These symptoms were troubling because we were already eating gluten-free and taking supplements. It was evidence that our guts had not completely healed. I decided that we needed to make changes to what we were doing. 

If we continued to do the same thing it would be silly to expect different results.

It was time to take our diet to another level and make the changes to be grain-free. Even though I wasn't sure how I could make more diet changes, especially for my children, I decided to do this for my own diet and then gradually introduce these to my children.  

A visual image from an article, "How to make life changes — becoming the person you want to be" written by Marcy Holmes, Women's Health NP  shares Prochaska's six stages of change that I kept in my mind as I moved forward to make the changes needed to restore our health.

If you are in the midst of change, you may see yourself somewhere along this path,  too.

  

The contemplation stage took the longest period of time for me to move through.  I have learned that this is a natural element of my personality. as a Highly Sensitive Person, to ponder and study before I take action.  According to Dr. Elaine Aron, "HSPs only appear inhibited because they are so aware of all the possibilities in a situation. They pause before acting, reflecting on their past experiences."  I did a lot of thinking....

I began remembering when I first changed my diet ten years ago to deal with gut issues, ie. candida, leaky gut, auto-immune ITP, that I removed gluten, dairy and grains, except rice. I didn't have the energy or understanding of cooking without gluten and grains at that point, therefore I ate mostly meats, beans, and vegetables and followed the candida yeast diet.  I got better, but then I around eight months later  I reintroduce gluten and I became really sick.  (Learn more here about the dangers of this mistake for a gluten intolerant person.)

Well, now looking back I was on the right track, but I got off that track when I learned how to cook gluten-free. Yes, let me say that again....when I learned how to cook gluten-free. Well, why would this have gotten me off track?

My theory is that when I began eating gluten-free, I was still consuming many grains that caused a reaction in my body. Over the past year and a half when I first began my "Grain-free Trial" I removed millet, corn, sorghum from my diet. All of a sudden  I became extremely fatigued for many weeks. I even had an episode where I fainted which resulted in a head injury.  My body was speaking loudly to me that those grains were not good for me.   

Thankfully,  Dr. Peter Osborne, a leading Board Certified doctor of clinical nutrition, as well as a doctor of chiropractic,  wrote an article sharing research that revealed corn contained gluten. I saw his article in December 2010, during the holiday rush, and I skimmed the article and ran out the door to visit family for Christmas. On our way home we picked up our new golden retriever puppy. Life was moving fast, but this nagging thought kept occurring that if corn has gluten, then I was consuming poison every time I ate my favorite snack, organic blue corn chips.  I knew I had to find out more.

I kept thinking about the study that corn contained gluten and by this time I had learned from lectures by Dr. Osborne that all grains contain gluten, and more importantly that research was not adequate to assume these grains are safe for consumption by a person diagnosed with celiac disease.

I was challenged to think about making diet changes.  I wondered how I would find replacements for some of the convenience gluten free foods that we had begun to rely on when my energy was too low to cook.  I didn't have the energy to restructure my cooking at this point, but I knew it was what needed to be done to turn our health around. 

Preparation for life changes

I continued following Dr. Peter Osborne's video lectures and I began to learn and gain understanding from his clinical experiences and solid research. More videos were being released that taught me and inspired me to make the changes for my family. The information and observations in his clinic were overwhelmingly positive that patients who were not getting well on the traditional gluten-free diet were still consuming other grains...millet, sorghum and corn. When they began eating the "true gluten free diet" of no grains they became healthy again.

I was particularly interested in the list of grains that illustrated the content of prolamines contained in the traditional "gluten free grains" that are thought safe for the gluten-free diet. .

 Grain - Prolamine - %

Wheat - Gliadin - 69%
Rye - Secalinin - 30-50%
Oats - Avenin - 16%
Barley - Hordein - 46-52%
Millet - Panicin - 40%
Corn - Zien - 55%
Rice - Orzenin - 5%
Sorghum - Kafirin - 52%

If you notice that sorghum and millet are actually higher than rye and oats you will probably be shocked as I was to learn this.

For a complete list of gluten containing ingredients, Dr. Osborne  has written an excellent list you may study on his website here.  Plus, be sure to watch his video tutorial  for a more thorough study why you may need to avoid these other grains. By now you probably concluded that The Gluten-Free Society is my favorite website to learn and gain knowledge to support a healing gluten-free diet.   

  

Action
 
After all my contemplation and preparation It was time to get started with action.  I decided my first step would be to begin my grain-free trial for myself and gradually wean my children off grains. This has been my project for the past year and a half.  I have been creating recipes to transition us to grain-free along with our other food intolerance. The difficulty I encountered was that most grain-free recipes cater to those who are able to eat almonds and egg  which are a problem for me, but not my boys.  I have chosen to create grain-free recipes with coconut flour and pecan meal that you may have seen already on my blog.

I feel it is most important  that my kids are happy with our diet and gradually I have been able to work out my recipes and keep them happy, at least for the most part. Of course, change for any of us will have its good and bad days.  We just need to keep on course and find the encouragement we need through support of friends and others with similar objectives.

I am still searching for replacements or recipes of some favorite foods. It is a process of change at least in the right direction this time.

Maintenance 

The last of the Six Steps to Change is one that interestingly fell into place as if it was orchestrated by the divine.  Marcy Holmes shared in her article:

"Choose helpers who are consistent and strong, but don’t push you, nag you, or enable you as you work through the stages. The most important qualities for helpers are empathy and warmth."

Several of my close gluten free friends were making these same diet changes with the results of feeling better than ever. I am thankful for my friends who inspire and uplift me.  This network is probably the most beautiful gift that has come to me from blogging.

Recollection of changes

 You may wonder if I saw any changes in my body with the grain-free diet and the answer is  Yes, most definitely,  but  I am sorting out everything especially with the head injury complicating my observations. I will have to save all this for another post, another day.  I have seen wonderful changes and I know that I don't want to wait around for more studies. I have my own study with my own body. It knows way more than I can comprehend.