I have decided to give up gluten, or at least wheat, on a trial basis. How I will live without pizza, I don’t know. Not to mention waffles, muffins, tortellini, crescent rolls and my grandma’s cookies.
by Steven Straiton
For the past year or two, I have had a severely itchy scalp. It is worst at night but I rarely feel non-itchy. We have a water softener and chlorine filter on the shower. I’ve tried different shampoos, no shampoo, Scalpicin, coconut oil and shea butter to no avail. I was going to see a dermitologist when, on a whim, I ran a search on “scalp itch food allergy.”
After weeding through a lot of results about contact dermatitis, which I’d effectively ruled out, I landed on a Livestrong article saying it is not an uncommon symptom of wheat allergy. A search for “scalp itch wheat allergy” brought up many more accounts of people having this symptom.
Reading other possible symptoms of gluten intolerance or wheat allergy has lead me to think this is the likely cause. I learned the difference between the two and hope it’s only wheat, not all gluten, I’ll have to avoid. Because I was planning on oats being a major substitute but that also has gluten.
Durum wheat, by Markus Hagenlocher
I spent a couple of weeks paying attention to how I felt after a day or two with little or no wheat compared to a day, like yesterday, when I ate pizza and a sub and ended the day feeling miserable.
I sought advice on Twitter last night. I was amazed at how quickly people spoke up with offers to help or suggestions of who to talk to after my friend Missy, a food allergy advocate, put out the plea for help.
I’m talking with two acquaintances/soon-to-be-friends about their experience. One of them posts gluten-free recipes at Stuffed Pepper, which looks like it will be a great resource. The other has celiac disease and blogs about it.
I’m also going to employ the help of my friend Mary, a holistic health counselor who I’ve wanted to work with but never had a reason in crafting a diet that works for me.
Several people have suggested to me that getting tested by a doctor is unnecessary since I’m fairly certain this is the key or at least a big piece of it. But food issues are complicated; there are so many things that can cause reactions when eaten together even if you can handle them separately. (I suspect dairy may be a culprit for me as well.) I am considering seeing a gastroenterologist as well as working with Mary on my diet and overall health.
As you all know, I’m no cook, so learning to live gluten-free will not be easy but I’m willing to do it if it means being the me I was intended to be.
Good luck! I did a month-long gluten-free trial recently, and it really wasn’t as hard as I thought in some ways. I blogged about the book Gluten-Free on a Shoestring, which I loved! http://propernounblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/finding-the-food-that-loves-me/
Thanks Mindy. I’ll look for that book. Like you, I want things that are simple to make and not full of fancy ingredients the kids won’t eat. Today I bought a gluten-free frozen dinner (which wasn’t even good) and 4 gluten-free muffins at the store today. Definitely more expensive than the regular thing.
hey Jen – the biggest thing I noticed when we had to cut out peanuts, eggs, soy and milk a couple years ago was that we just needed to stay away from food in packages (boxes, bags, cans, etc.) and instead focus on the living foods – vegetables, fruits, meats. In your case, dairy = yogurts, cheeses.
Processed food is usually bad for you anyways. There’s so much you CAN eat that if you beat yourself up looking at every ingredient level of every convenience food you are used to eating, yes you are going to feel sad. But if you focus on fresh foods and how much healthier you are eating anyways, it’s not really that tough. Because there are tons of things you CAN eat. And although, yes, there are gluten=free substitutes out there, view them as a treat, not a staple of your diet – for a few reasons: 1) they are probably way more expensive. 2) they won’t taste as good as the real thing and you’ll feel a bit deprived 3) you don’t need pre-packaged foods anyways.
Good luck with this part of the journey. Glad you feel you have some support.
I had a packaged gluten-free enchilada on Friday and you were right that it was 1. expensive and 2. not that good. I didn’t look at the ingredients but I’m sure they weren’t awesome, especially when compared to eating whole food.
I just had my first meeting with Mary she said even as important as cutting out gluten will be adding whole foods, especially vegetables of all kinds, to repair any existing damage. Honestly, I think adding vegetables might turn out to be as hard as eliminating wheat.
My friend Angela blogs about gluten free and dairy free cooking and baking. She has 10+ years of living gluten free expertise and knows all the substitutes and products on the market, plus she bakes phenomenal stuff, including a GF pizza crust. Thankfully you have a lot of company and it isn’t difficult to find GF items everywhere, including pizza.
I sure hope this helps Jen. Feeling continually worn down and unwell is no fun. Good luck!
http://angelaskitchen.com
And if you need to talk to her, she is local and always happy to support anyone starting out on a GF diet
Thanks Kate! I’ve found several local gluten-free blogs/twitter users. There is no shortage of resources, it will be more a matter of changing my own mindset, routines, etc.
I hope you feel better, Jen! One of my brothers has a gluten intolerance. If I come across any easy and yummy recipes I’ll send them to you.
And my mom has had an itchy scalp too. Her doctor thinks it’s related to her thyroid level but she’s not convinced of that. I wonder if she’s got a wheat allergy too. Hmmm…
Has she had her thyroid tested? I did four years ago because of my low energy levels and it was normal.
Yes she’s been tested and is on meds for a low thyroid. Her dose puts her in the low end of “normal” for thyroid level so maybe her dose needs to be tweaked.