Gluten | Nashville, TN Photographer

Hey fellow nutrition lovers

Its Tuesday! Today’s topic is Gluten.

First, the back story of how and why I took out gluten.

My son was about a year old. He had been eating table food for a few months. My friend, Michelle, (who I speak of often) kept warning me about gluten. But I kept saying “pish posh” and felt it was a joke. Just seems so silly. Im fine and he is fine, so why take it out?

She kept saying “It causes the blood sugar to spike in children” But I still didn’t take this to heart. I did, however, know that gluten could cause behavioral issues. Around the age of 16-18 months old, I noticed he started to get rather aggressive. Now, as well all know, to some extent this is normal for children to do. However, I could not seem to curb it. And one day, I noticed that after giving him a high Gluten snack, he was particularly bad. So, I started playing with gluten. I would take it out for a few days and then give him a little. I always noticed  a big difference in his behavior. So, after a few weeks, I took it out completely. He was a completely different child. For a few months, I would let him have it because it was more convenient to give a packaged snack that had gluten in it than to cut an apple. But every time I did, I regretted it. By 18-20 months, he was absolutely gluten free. I NEVER gave it to him because it was way more headache to deal with his aggression than to cut an apple

Around May, 2011. My husband went Paleo, which automatically cuts out gluten out of our diet (my husband and I). Now, I can even tell a difference in myself when I have it and when I dont.

Do I think gluten is the worst thing in the world? No. But here is why we have a problem. Our diet  is SO carb based and processed food based, that WHEAT is in EVERYTHING. I remember the first time I looked at my son’s daily intake of wheat. I was shocked! Breakfast – wheat. Snack – wheat. Lunch – wheat. 2nd snack – wheat. dinner -wheat. OY VEY!

Then, I discovered Dr. Axe.  and I got his EXCELLENT cookbook. In the beginning of it, he details the old food pyramid vs his Real Food Pyramid. The problem is that if we ate the amount of grains they say to eat in one day, we would be in a carb coma. Now, we eat one serving of bread per day most days. And the bread is healthy, like Chia Millet Gluten free bread. I think that because Americans eat SO much gluten, that our bodies have developed sensitivities to it. This is known reason for most food allergies. Overconsumption causes allergies.

Here are some symptoms that gluten can cause:

Typical Symptoms of a Gluten Allergy

• Joint pain
• Muscle cramps
• Skin rash
• Mouth sores
• Tingling in legs and feet
• Fatty or oily stools
• Weakness and fatigue

Here are some links to Dr. Axe discussing Gluten http://www.draxe.com/is-it-time-to-give-up-gluten/ and http://www.draxe.com/video/should-you-go-gluten-free/

Now, going GF is not easy. Now that Atticus is older, I do let him have some gluten. But if I can avoid it, I do. So we might go to Moes Southwest grill and he can have a burrito. I will also let him have chips, once he is done with the burrito. Im not overly worried about infrequent consumption now that he is a little older and doesn’t show the aggression nearly as much. But if I were to let him have it daily, it does cause issues.

I like most GF foods and found it decently easy to change as far as cooking at home. Outside of the home is always harder. However, at home I do not like GF tortillas. So we use Corn Tortillas. I also do not prefer GF breads from the store, so I am the only one in the house who eats regular bread (by regular, I mean organic 365 Whole Foods brand bird seed bread). I do LOVE making home made GF breads and they are SO easy and good. I love that the majority of them work like a crockpot recipe – dump in all the ingredients into my bread machine and push a button

For GF recipes, I LOVE The Gluten Free Goddess! They really do taste good, I promise (except the sandwich bread, but my son loves it)