Gluten free by choice!

Doctors can't test for Coeliac if you are already on a gluten free diet as the villi in the intestine recover without gluten (if that is the problem). Many people are gluten "Intolerant" but not Coeliac. They are 2 different conditions and many doctors are not supportive of patients that "feel"" better on on GF diet as it is not a physical thing they can test or see.
If your doctor thinks you may be Coeliac, you will need to go back on normal diet (put up with all the discomfort) and then have a colonoscopy (with a biopsy of the small bowel) although sometimes they can do a blood test first to check but the blood tests are not always accurate.

My husband has what was previously diagnosed as IBS which we have discovered is actually a gluten intolerance or celiac. He has not gotten the blood work he needs to do to get diagnosed, but through trial and error we have figured out it is gluten that causes ALL of his symptoms, and he is highly HIGHLY sensitive. He cannot even drink any grain alcohols, even though the process is supposed to destroy the gluten. (He was very upset to have to get rid of the whiskey and scotch collection!!) If something says "May contain" he reacts, and if something has "Maltodextrin" or a few other weird things, he reacts. If you're really sensitive, do some research in to all the 'hidden' forms of gluten. If you're not that sensitive, you probably don't have to worry.

Because of his strong reactions, I've gone more or less gluten free just because I feel like it is super mean to have the stuff in the house if he wants it and can't have it. And making two dinners ect because one is gluten free and one is not is a pain in the *kitten* and opens up the opportunity for cross contamination.

What we have discovered is Udi's bread is so far the best. Gluten free baked goods, with very few exceptions, suck. GF cookies are the worst. The best way to do it is not to try to find a substitute. Don't eat crappy textured substitutes because they make you miss the real deal more. Just don't eat that stuff anymore. I used to have a sandwich ever day for lunch, I have a smoothie now. We both used to eat cereal for breakfast every day. Now we eat bacon and eggs, fruit and yogurt, some weird meat concoctions that the DH comes up with, instead. Its more nutritious and doesn't make us miss the mini wheats or cheerios. If you want a pie, try making a crumble instead and use almond flour and GF oats to make the topping. Just forget the crust. Besides, who ever ate a pie because the crust was good? The middle is the stuff you want anyway!

Depending how much of a hard-liner you want to be, its really hard. Eating out is the worst because there is always a high risk of cross contamination unless you go to a GF restaurant, which are few and far between and tend to be very very expensive.

I was kidnapped once and they would not give me any bread. Gluten free by force!

I am always AMAZED at the folks who attack you and act like you are a idiot if you decide to go GLUTEN FREE. I made this choice to aid weight loss and to lower my blood sugar (Diabetes Type 2). It was tough. I LOVE tortillas. But I have occasional IBS and since I take metformin, I have lots of gas. Well guess, what.....I felt better after a couple months. My arthritis got less painful. After reading info on how hard all grain is on our bodies, I made the next step and GAVE up ALL grains. I felt even better. My dandruff went away. My knees are so good I jog a little. I no longer needed a daily Claritin for seasonal allergies. My skin is less dry. and I DONT HAVE GAS anymore.

So don't DARE blast me for my choice. Don't try to tell me grains are great. My body tells me ALL I need to know.

I also don't buy the store gluten free products. There are tons of recipes out there making bread, cookies, cakes, etc out of ground flax, ground almonds, coconut flour and other nut flours. OOPSIE bread is the best light fluffly bun-like bread made of cream cheese and eggs--it passes the 'husband test". Easy to make (there is even a Utube video). I love my pancakes out of nut flours and flax. Pancakes and eggs are a great meal to me. Look up "muffin in a minute". There are so many ways to enjoy 'baked goods' without touching the wheat (or even other grains). I found a recipe for tortillas but haven't tried it yet.

I didn't need to bother with the testing. After I made my choice and changed my diet, my BODY told me all I need to know. Of course, if you suspect Celiac, then you do need to know.

For you who don't believe in gluten free, why don't you just keep it to yourself. Yall always want to get on a thread where someone wants to go gluten free and blast them for it. Why would you even go to the thread if you think we are so dang stupid. Enjoy your wheat. I give my share to you.

I am going without wheat/gluten for a month to see if it helps my allergy problems, mostly related to my skin (eczema). How long does it take before I see any benefit? It has been 9 days so far and I'm still getting random red splotches on my skin. I don't feel different at all. Same energy level, appetite, etc.

I am always AMAZED at the folks who attack you and act like you are a idiot if you decide to go GLUTEN FREE. I made this choice to aid weight loss and to lower my blood sugar (Diabetes Type 2). It was tough. I LOVE tortillas. But I have occasional IBS and since I take metformin, I have lots of gas. Well guess, what.....I felt better after a couple months. My arthritis got less painful. After reading info on how hard all grain is on our bodies, I made the next step and GAVE up ALL grains. I felt even better. My dandruff went away. My knees are so good I jog a little. I no longer needed a daily Claritin for seasonal allergies. My skin is less dry. and I DONT HAVE GAS anymore.

So don't DARE blast me for my choice. Don't try to tell me grains are great. My body tells me ALL I need to know.

I also don't buy the store gluten free products. There are tons of recipes out there making bread, cookies, cakes, etc out of ground flax, ground almonds, coconut flour and other nut flours. OOPSIE bread is the best light fluffly bun-like bread made of cream cheese and eggs--it passes the 'husband test". Easy to make (there is even a Utube video). I love my pancakes out of nut flours and flax. Pancakes and eggs are a great meal to me. Look up "muffin in a minute". There are so many ways to enjoy 'baked goods' without touching the wheat (or even other grains). I found a recipe for tortillas but haven't tried it yet.

I didn't need to bother with the testing. After I made my choice and changed my diet, my BODY told me all I need to know. Of course, if you suspect Celiac, then you do need to know.

For you who don't believe in gluten free, why don't you just keep it to yourself. Yall always want to get on a thread where someone wants to go gluten free and blast them for it. Why would you even go to the thread if you think we are so dang stupid. Enjoy your wheat. I give my share to you.

Thanks for posting this! I agree with you completely! It really bothers me when those who haven't tried going GF come and try to tell us we don't know what we are doing, that it's not going to make a difference.

Since going GF and DF, my eczema has cleared up, my sinus and stomach issues are gone and I no longer have knee pain. My husband who is also GF has very few migraines anymore. My brother went GF and had warts that went away, toenail fungus that he had for 15 years cleared up, and his asthma symptoms are gone.

Gluten is an inflammatory food and wreaks havoc on our bodies. I am so happy my brother introduced us to the Whole30 diet and Paleo eating. Now to get the rest of the siblings to try it as all my sisters have stomach and asthma issues, too.

I was diagnosed with celiac disease just over a month ago. At first I was using a lot of gf products - crackers etc., but be careful because they're often made with high-glycemic ingredients, so I found I got blood sugar spikes and lows. Really not conducive to health or weight loss.

Try to stick with foods that are naturally gluten free. That being said, here are the best brands for when you really have cravings:

-Udi's bread and bread products and in Canada, Silver Hills bakery does a great gluten free sprouted grain bread
-Tinkyada brown rice pasta
-Crunchmaster crackers - you can get these at Costco for cheeeeeaaaaap in both the US and Canada
-Glutino is okay for cookies, but I don't really like their crackers very much. They're very dry.

I'm not gluten-free (thank goodness) but I've heard that some people who have issues with gluten can have Food For Life's sprouted stuff. I eat their Ezekiel 4:9 bread (just the regular kind) because it's the best (taste/texture/ingredient-wise) whole-grain bread I've had. I really want to try their cereal and tortillas, but they're crazy expensive where I live so I haven't yet. They say something about it on their website, I guess the sprouting process makes the gluten easier to digest or something? Could be a crock, but I've heard actual people (as in not trying to sell a product) say this too. For actual gluten-free stuff, I've had some of Alternative Baking Company's gluten-free cookies, and they were pretty good. You probably won't have any problem finding things since they label everything as gluten free. Like orange juice and other things that have no business having gluten so the labeling is weird.

Also the reason people respond harshly to **** like fad diets (which gluten free is, if you've never been in a health food store or the diet section of a bookstore; actual celiacs and whatnot aside.) is because people use the "my body tells me all I need to know" reasoning like it's at all valid. Smokers' bodies tell them to smoke and alcoholics' bodies tell them to drink. If you feel better, that's great, do what you need to do. But sometimes it's incidental that gluten-y foods were making you ill. You might have just changed your diet for the better (e.g. you cut out processed foods). When I went vegan (ethical reasons), I dropped 40lbs and felt a million times better. I also ate virtually no fast food and discovered that veggies were awesome. Not to mention I spend a lot of times So again, stick with what makes you not sick, but be aware that you could be waaay off the mark about why you feel better.

okay, I am going to take a deep breath and not respond like my first gut reaction.....

1. "Ethical Vegan" can be construed by many as a fad diet. I don't feel that way but I know folks who do.
2. Eating Gluten Free is absolutely NO comparison to people who tell themself their bodies need CIGARETTES OR BOOZE and that comparison is absurd and actually offensive.
3. You are making huge assumptions about what I was eating before I went gluten free. I ate moderate carbs, moderate protein,and low fat. I had allergies and took a claritin daily, lots of stomach gas/discomfort that mostly got blamed on the metformin I take for diabetes. I had bouts of IBS. I had dandruff. My knee pain was awful. I had headaches and multiple sinus infections. I felt like crap and never got enough sleep.
4. AND I had just dropped 30 pounds and worked out regularly on this diet plan. It took over a year. I was eating brown rice, whole wheat bread/pasta, quinoa., and lentils/black beans. All procaimed healthy by all standards. I ate nuts, olives, avocados, olive oil, apples, berries, tons of salad and good veges. I ate low fat, chicken/turkey breasts only, along with fish. My only fat was olive oil and occasional eggs. I felt like crap on this diet that sounds VERY healthy.
5. After reading a lot about wheat sensitivity, I decided WHY not experiment. At my age with my health issues, I did not follow some dang fad. I am 58, diabetic, hypothroid, and educated myself on the subject before jumping off the bridge for ethical reasons.
6. After a month, I felt better, clearer (AND MY ONLY DIETARY CHANGE WAS THE GLUTEN). Then I did more research and read more how our bodies can negatively respond to grains/legumes. I read A LOT. So I then chose to drop ALL grains and ALL legumes.
7. That is when the symptoms in #3 ALL WENT AWAY. GONE. POOF. Again, the only change was the grains/legumes.
8. After much more research, I added (wait.....drumroll....) HIGH FAT into my diet to replace the useless calories for those
grains, etc. I don't eat bacon. I only added more of the stuff I was already eating.--the good fats: avocado, olives, olive oil, flax, and now I allowed myself BUTTER, CHEESE, MAYO, CREAM, COCONUT OIL.
9. Guess what....I feel like a million bucks. I have tried every way of eating out there. And since I am OLD, DIABETIC, HYPOTHYROID, and NOT stupid, I tried only the healthy ones. No 500 calorie days with hcg shots. No random peanut butter diet. No FAD FAD FAD DIETS. I did not try vegan, because I guess I am not ethical (sorry, that was rude--let me try again...). I did not try vegan because I am diabetic and my BODY TELLS me that I need protein BASED ON THE BLOOD SUGAR NUMBERS I GET WHEN I PRICK MY FINGER 3 TIMES A DAY. So, technically, the blood and the litlte machine tell me to eat MEAT.
10. I love vodka. But my body does not tell me to drink.

Unfortunately, I now wish I had a vodka after being hinted at by a 21-year-old that I am following a FAD DIET and that I don't have the sense to realize what my BODY was trying to tell me. Sorry, my gut took over there and just blurted out the feelings...

And, I do apologize, because I wanted to make this not sound like an attack, I have always hated the folks whose comments are such brutal attacks on someone's opinion. I appreciate your comments but unfortunately, I don't care for your deduction that my changes in diet did not truly cause the changes I FEEL.

I think it's great you are vegan if that makes you happy and makes you feel good. I applaud your choice. I would not propose to tell you that your feelings of well being are based on something else. And though I might have been a little brutal about the 'ethical' comments, I do applaud your choice to take a stand for the animals. I did not mean to insult your choice, I just felt very insulted by your insinuation that I don't know what my body knows. Maybe you didn't mean to it come out like that and now I feel guilty for being snarky. Good luck with your vegan life. i honestly believe their are a lot of good reasons to eat in such a manner. It is just not for me.

Missjulesdid -- GREAT response !

GF for 1.5 years, allergic reactions, no choice.

If you can find Canyon Bakehouse breads, they are pure uncut CRACK! Best hamburger buns, not too pricey, way better than Udi's.

@scubanana7 I stopped reading after #3 because I could tell it was all vitriol. Sorry if you got reasonable at some point after that. But in response to what I did read: I've never met anyone who considers ethics a fad, and gluten-free is a fad diet in that there are people (lots of people) convinced wheat (slash grains in general) are bad for everyone and they're making us all fat and unhealthy and that's annoying and why a lot of people side-eye people who are obsessed with gluten-free when they don't have an allergy/intolerance; I didn't compare gluten-free to cigarettes or booze, I said those were examples of why "trusting your body" isn't always better than trusting science. Your body has needs and they're not always in your best interest; I didn't make assumptions about what you were eating (mostly because I was talking to the OP, and not you) I provided an alternative explanation to why a new dietary restriction could make you feel better. Basically the second paragraph of my post was food for thought.

tl;dr it's unscientific to pinpoint a broad cause (eliminating foods that are made of more than just gluten; even if they're ~whole foods~) to a specific effect. And you read way to much into what I said. Sorry if it seemed like an attack (it wasn't? I reread through my response and can't figure out where it would have seemed that way.), I can't figure out why you felt the tone of your response was necessary.

As a school teacher, I can vouch for the current fad of the vegan lifestyle among students. Some students (certainly not all) can be in your face about how can it be ethical to eat animal/by-products...until their favorite pizza is served. Seriously. I've seen it.