| I read an interesting article on a celiac website | | | | life...and how good I could feel instead. Then I got |
| called "Celiac Disease and Obesity - There is a | | | | tested and found out for sure what the trouble |
| Connection." I'm glad to see it because I certainly | | | | was. It was so simple to do, and caused a |
| didn't fit the usual celiac mould, which is | | | | dramatic improvement in my quality of life, not |
| underweight and/or unable to keep on or gain | | | | just physically but mentally/emotionally. |
| weight. Puh-leez. Celiacs/gluten intolerants tend to | | | | So why don't we test for this all the time? Why |
| have malabsorption issues, meaning gluten/gliadin | | | | isn't food tolerance/allergy testing a routine part |
| (the protein in wheat) is interfering with the | | | | of a medical workup? Why aren't children tested |
| absorption of nutrients from their food; your | | | | when they start on solid foods...and then re-tested |
| body thinks you're starving, no matter how much | | | | several times throughout childhood? Why does |
| you eat. Throw in the fact that gliadin breaks | | | | the medical community at large know so little |
| down into an addictive opiate-like substance in the | | | | about nutrition and food, about the effect food |
| body and you have people like me, who | | | | has on our bodies? Hippocrates said "Let thy food |
| experienced intense cravings and insatiable | | | | be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food"...so |
| hunger...and of course, weight gain. | | | | what happened? |
| "Eat less and move more" doesn't help in this | | | | It is my theory that Overeaters Anonymous |
| situation. I wanted to eat less. I made a huge | | | | meetings are chock-full of people who, like me, |
| effort to eat less. Eating less took up about 85% | | | | have food intolerance issues that manifest, at |
| of my mental energy each and every day. All I | | | | least partially, as cravings and overeating as well |
| thought about was food: eating it, getting it, not | | | | as depression, anxiety and other emotional |
| eating it, eating "better" food, when I was going | | | | symptoms. And no-one - not their doctors, not |
| to eat, did I bring enough food with me, why am | | | | their counsellors, not their sponsors, not their |
| I so bloody hungry? I studied other people's eating | | | | friends - is going to "let them off the hook" by |
| habits and wondered why I couldn't eat slowly, or | | | | suggesting that their actual problem could be |
| put my fork down between bites, or leave food | | | | bread or oatmeal or fettuccine. I do not believe |
| on my plate, or NOT want chips or cake or | | | | that ANYONE has ever become obese because |
| crackers after a meal of spaghetti and garlic | | | | they just like to eat or have no willpower, |
| bread. I was overweight, but not obese - if I'd | | | | whatever that is. I think obesity always has an |
| been obese, you bet I'd have taken a beating | | | | underlying reason - meaning that obesity is a |
| from friends, co-workers, family and health | | | | symptom of something else - and that reason |
| professionals for my behaviour, which would be | | | | can be treated. Unfortunately, we still treat |
| (and still is) seen as gluttony, a lack of willpower, a | | | | obesity and overweight as something that |
| character flaw. | | | | requires penance and punishment. It's a moral |
| Many people on the low-carb forum I frequent | | | | failing. A scarlet letter. |
| find that when they add wheat products back to | | | | But the real failing is ours. We fail the obese by |
| their diet, they react badly: brain fog, fatigue, G.I. | | | | blaming them. We fail the overweight by giving |
| distress, aching joints, skin rashes, etc. I was the | | | | them diet plans containing the very foods that |
| same. I suspected something was up, but it | | | | may have led to their overweight. Would it be so |
| wasn't until I'd removed all gluten from my diet | | | | difficult to just run a couple of tests? Or do we |
| for a while and then added it back that I really | | | | just not want to have to admit we've been |
| noticed how crappy I'd felt for most of my | | | | wrong, judgemental, mean...and say sorry? |