Ever
since I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism 24 years ago, unbeknown to me, I have
also suffered from gluten intolerance. In fact, I was unaware that there is
something called Gluten Intolerance till I chanced upon it online. Suddenly,
all the symptoms I had experienced since I don’t know when, had a name. But
wait. Oh my God! Did that mean I had to give up all my favourite foods? No flat
breads, no sandwiches, no pasta, pizza, spaghetti and the list goes on. Like
the rest of the world, or at least a large part, I am addicted to gluten. It is
like a comfort food. But, I had to abstain from it if I was to try and feel
better. The symptoms that had bothered me the most were frequent bouts of
constipation, fibromyalgia and painful blisters, especially on my scalp.
So, one
day I gave up gluten. Just like that. By the way, I must clarify here that
while most grains contain gluten, we are referring to the ‘bad gluten’ which is
primarily present in wheat, barley and rye. Some people who are gluten
intolerant cannot tolerate oats as well. This probably could be due to the
gluten contamination in oats as most factories that market oats also market
wheat etc. All I ate was rice, rice and more rice. Of course, I did love my
dosas and idlis. I noticed the results almost overnight. Suddenly I felt much
better. My stomach behaved much better in the next couple of days, the painful
blisters on my scalp began to vanish. The weird pains and aches all over my body began to subside. The fringe benefit was that I slept much
better, my energy levels were up (which is another thing we hypothyroid people
deal with every day) and I felt more cheerful and upbeat in general.
But I
wanted to be sure that it was in fact the gluten that was making me feel better.
So, after a month of being off it, I decided to have a sandwich for dinner. By the time
I was done with the sandwich, I could almost immediately feel the needle like
pain in my scalp which I recognised as the start of the blister. It was so
piercing that I needed to massage it to feel better. Next morning, my stomach
was in a bad shape and that spot which was painful the previous night had
turned into a painful blister. Ok, I’m done. No more gluten for me. And so I
went completely off it. This was nearly a year ago.
 |
| Some gluten free brands I use |
I am glad I went off gluten. I have lost some weight in the last year, I find myself more productive, cheerful and, feel generally healthy. I started
exploring gluten free options and didn't find too many. Of course I did find a
couple of bakers that made gluten free baked goods. Either they were too
expensive or they were not what I was looking for in terms of taste. As the
awareness about gluten grew, I began to find many brands of Gluten free flours,
grains etc in the market. I picked up the different varieties to start
exploring recipes on my own. I have started baking my own gluten free cookies which taste absolutely divine. Crisp on the outside and chewy, gooey on the inside. Especially with a glass of chilled milk. I always keep a batch frozen and pop them in the oven every evening. Takes just 10 minutes. Shall post the recipe in my next post. I am still in the learning stage and will share my
recipes as we go along.
