Why would you want to go gluten free?

In the past few years I have not had much luck loosing weight in spite of 4-5 rounds of exercise a week and cutting my intake down considerably. Nothing seems to budge! After learning that gluten is in so many of our everyday foods, I have attempted to cut it as far back as possible.

Gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut and often in oats. Because gluten is very hard to digest, intolerance is common due to over indulgence or simply by inheritance. The lining of the intestinal walls become irritated and the cilia that absorb nutrients can be destroyed causing inflammation and irritation of the bowels.

Celiac Disease is the severe allergic reaction to gluten. Allergic reactions to gluten are varied and many have no knowledge of it and blame it on something else. Symptoms can look like other health issues like: arthritis, acne, eczema, lupus, migraines, chronic fatigue, Crohn's disease, irritable bowl, restless leg syndrome, depression, autism, dermatitis herpetiformis and so on. An inability to loose weight was another little tidbit that I discovered. This can be really nasty stuff!

Many conventional doctors still do not connect it with the wide range of problems listed above. Doctor's are often rushed and merely treat the symptom to fix the complaint. Scientists that have studied gluten intolerance believe that as many as 1/4th to 1/3rd of the American population will develop a gluten intolerance in their lifetimes.

Often this causes the diagnosed people to have to make much of their own food. On the bright side, this is much better for your body to be eating less processed foods. Some of the local grocery stores are carrying more gluten free products and this is nice to see. There are also many web sites that now are giving out free recipes too. I have used flour mixes developed by Bette Hagman in her The Gluten-Free Gourmet Makes Bread in place of my wheat flour and have been pretty happy with the results. However, when I make my sour cream pound cake the dough does not want to let me swirl the chocolate in the pan very well. My chocolate brownies are just as good as ever with the flour mixes. However, I have not had much luck with getting bread (one of my specialities) to turn out anything like I want. I'll post more pictures later. :-)

Be Safe All,
Nancy
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