Why We're Gluten Free 1

Why are we gluten free?  


Well, we aren't, entirely.  But, I did some research and am always listening to people and have come to some conclusions.


People who are gluten intolerant can often develop celiac disease.


On the other hand, once you have cleared a lot of the gluten out of your system, you don't have to be death on wheat bread.


It's easier than a lot of other dietary restrictions, particularly, if you aren't celiac and can't even have a tablespoon of flour to thicken your soup with.   


Why are so many people intolerant of gluten?  Are we just weaker than our ancestors?  Maybe, but there are two basic reasons.


1) For thousands of years the only grains people could bake with were whole grains, making a coarser, denser bread than our modern day white breads.  By soaking their flour in an acid (sour milk, buttermilk, yogurt, water with lemon or vinegar) overnight, it automatically made their finished product lighter, not to mention breaking down the outer coating of the grains and making more nutrition available.  I'm not an expert, I read this on the internet, just the way you can.  The side effect was, the gluten also broke down, so even societies that lived on wheat, rye, or barley bread three meals a day were not getting glutened out.


2) The 20th century Green Revolution made it possible to breed strains of wheat, especially, that had higher gluten levels and resulted in higher, lighter, fluffier products.  Think Wonder Bread, hot dog buns, and Betty Crocker cake mixes.  People liked them, which fueled the demand for high gluten wheats, so the strains were widely developed commercially.  I don't know where you could go to get an heirloom wheat today.  


Why did we go gluten free?


I was wondering what was going on with my kids.  I did body testing with all of them and figured out that it wasn't the wheat, per se, it was the gluten that was bothering many of them.  So, I started changing our family diet.  Coincidentally, we got a new pastor and he had to have gluten free meals.  I asked him, "How did you know something was wrong?"
He started listing off his symptoms.  Pain in the lower shoulder blades, pain in the feet and ankles, deep pain, like, bone deep.  And extreme fatigue.  Suddenly, so many things came clear.


Personally, whenever I got up from a seated position, it would take me at least 4 steps to walk normally.  The pain didn't go away, but things loosened up enough I could take it.  I thought it was from being pregnant all the time!


Anna and Becki were complaining of pain in their backs and feet for years.  Becki has lain down to do school since she was 12 and still prefers a very sedentary lifestyle.  As for Anna, she always complained of being tired.  When she was three, we took a family hike at the local state park, and she ended up being carried by Gabrielle because I was a hardnose and thought she ought to buck up and walk.  She was fairly active until she learned to read, at which point she went to bed with her books and never came out.  She would put herself to bed and read while the family was watching a movie.  That was what contributed to her getting up to 100 lbs. by the age of 7.   Since we went gluten free, she has taught herself to ride a bike, always wants to go on the trampoline, has learned how to skip and is fighting with her brothers, which she never had the energy to do before. (The downside!)  She had never been strong and pain-free her entire little life. 


I am more flexible with the gluten now that we have been careful for so long and it has gotten out of our systems.  Anna, in particular, who had the worst symptoms, body tests as gluten free, while her older sister, Mimi, still is sensitive.  But Anna was amazing in her efforts to stay clean from gluten.  Imagine, going to a church breakfast when you are 7 and there is NOTHING you can eat.  (She's dairy sensitive, as well!)  No one told her she couldn't eat anything; she just didn't.  Becki has been more of a challenge.  She's always more of a challenge.  She is also 16 and has to make her own decisions on things more than before.  


Would it be nice if we didn't have to do gluten free?  Yes.  It would certainly be easier.  But, believe it or not, it's cheaper, since we do make a lot from scratch, and it's healthier, since we are forced to use whole grains in a variety, increasing our fiber and making it less likely to develop an allergy because of overexposure.  My life is not about gluten free, it's about living healthy.  I don't make my kids eat hot dogs with corn tortillas (not a success).  I don't turn down the occasional chocolate chip cookie.   I don't have to make an issue of it with other people or convert them.  They do what they need to for their families, we do it for our family.   Celiac is, of course, a different story.  But, while most people could benefit from cutting back on their gluten intake, most of us don't have to make our lives all about what we eat.  Praise the Lord!