Monday, July 24, 2023
Living With Celiac
A little over 4 years ago, I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. I certainly wasn’t expecting it and I didn’t really know what that was. Here is how Beyond Celiac defines it…
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that’s triggered by consuming gluten and results in damage to the small intestine. When a person with celiac disease eats gluten, the immune system sees gluten as a threat and mounts an attack. However, it ends up damaging the villi of the intestines, which help to digest food. Damaged villi make it nearly impossible for the body to absorb nutrients, leading to undernourishment and a host of other issues.
I was having some stomach issues and lots of diarrhea which seemed to last longer than I thought it should. It took quite a while to finally get the diagnoses…an endoscopy and blood work finally confirmed the diagnosis and all of a sudden, the way I ate and specifically what I ate became a big deal. Until you deal with this issue, you have no idea how many foods contain gluten. Wheat, barley and all of their derivatives all contain gluten. Such foods as pasta, bread, beer all contain gluten and as such are no longer on my list of edible foods. Whenever I buy anything new, I always check the ingredients to make sure that I don’t get glutened eating something I shouldn’t. There are applications out there that will tell you if a product contains gluten…it is one of the most used applications on my phone. Granted, finding gluten free foods is considerably easier today than it was 5-10 years ago, but there is no cure for the disease, so I am stuck with it.
What has also happened is that I can’t go out to a restaurant and feel comfortable that I won’t be affected, even though they will carry menu items that are “gluten free”. The problem is that at a restaurant, the preparation of their menu items are all done in the same general area and for a celiac patient, that is a problem due to the cross contamination that is almost assuredly happening. I understand…the profit margin at a restaurant is quite small so having a separate prep area for gluten free items does not make sense. Therefore, a night out is most likely going to end up with at a minimum, a stomach ache and likely also many trips to the bathroom. On the positive side, I have just confirmed that I can drink Scotch because all of the gluten has been distilled out of the wheat used in most Scotches.
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Monday, July 24, 2023 - 09:17:52
I can only imagine how difficult dealing with a life changing disease, like Celiac, can be. I watched my father struggle with diabetes for many years, and how limiting it was on dietary choices. My sister is also living with Crohn’s disease, which also curtails much of what she can eat.
For my wife and I, we chose to change our diets now, before it became a life altering problem. For the most part, we follow a very low carbohydrate diet; no sugar or flour, very low starch, and high fat and protein. It seems to have changed our lives for the better. A few years ago, I was definitely seeing the signs of my body becoming insulin resistant. But thankfully, I’ve seemed to have changed directions.
As you say, though, it isn’t easy, once you’re forced to pay attention as to what goes in to processed foods. A lot of the foods we used to enjoy are now off the menu. We barely touch process foods now, opting to preparing most of it ourselves (apart from our dairy products). And we haven’t eaten restaurant food for years now. We just don’t trust it. In our garden, when we can get anything out of it, consists of mostly green beans, cauliflower and broccoli… the low carb vegetables. But, most of our diet now consists of eggs, since we raise our own chickens, free ranged on our own property. We’re very grateful to the Lord for being in a place that allows us to do so.
As inflation continues to climb out of control and prices of the better foods continue to soar, it gets more difficult to maintain the new diet. But, as things get tougher, we’ll just eat more eggs. It’s a good thing we like them!
Hang in there!
Monday, July 24, 2023 - 09:27:44
The high cost of groceries for a celiac patient is another of the “side effects” of the disease. Yes, grocery prices in general have increased lately, but the cost of gluten free items is beyond high. As an example, a package of 4 gluten free ciabattas is priced at $8.99, 3 baguettes is the same price and 4 gluten free bagels is $7.99 at the local grocery store. Unfortunately for me, the law of supply and demand really hits me where it hurts.
Monday, July 24, 2023 - 09:47:28
Ouch! And that’s U.S. dollars! Those bagels would be what, $10 Canadian?! Yes, it really seems diabolical as to what is happening in the markets right now.
The same thing is happening in our little village’s general store. The owner not only is faced with rising operating costs, but a lot of the orders she puts in these days go unfulfilled. So, not only are prices going up, but the selection is also going away.
We consumers are getting slapped with carbon tax upon carbon tax, yet the big grocery store chains are reporting record breaking profits. Just diabolical.