Should I go Gluten Free?
When my daughter was nine years old (year 2006) she suffered from crippling anxiety, OCD tendencies and emotions that ranged from non- stop crying to irrational fears. She spent countless hours in the nurses office afraid to be in class. She came home and made us wash and wipe down all of her book bag and books for fear that germs got over them during the day. If someone was sick at school she worried that she had breathed the same air as them and would get sick herself. If something was out of place in her room she made sure to walk over and put it exactly as she had left it. She had a hard time catching her breath and was on the verge of tears every single day. We were heartbroken by this and while her teachers were so kind and gave her so much grace (ironically her name), we were all exhausted from the mental stress that we all felt.
Of course as her mom I felt helpless. I found an amazing child therapist who worked with her and nothing seemed to improve. After a year of prayer and counseling sessions, the therapist suggested drug therapy. Please hear me- I am not opposed to medicine when used appropriately and I myself have had to take anti depressants at different points of my life. But this was different. She was so young and I just knew that there was something else going on. I decided to seek the help of a family friend and chiropractor who also did some nutrition counseling. He suggested a gluten sensitivity test and we agreed because it was easy enough and we were desperate. I confess that in 2006 no one was talking about gluten and I thought he was reaching. But it was a simple blood test and the results were staggering. Her response to the gluten in her body was off the charts. In simple terms you should be under 10 and she was at a 35. His diagnosis- gluten sensitivity. The protocol was to remove gluten from her diet for three weeks to see if we saw a difference.
Now you have to understand that the gluten free products that are on the market today were no way near what was available back then. We found a cardboard loaf of bread in the supermarket and bought some Celiac cookbooks. I started baking my own bread and treats for her so that she wouldn’t feel deprived. Was it hard- absolutely. But in just a few weeks a miracle happened. All of her symptoms went away.
It was such a dramatic change that her teachers asked me what drug I was giving her. Seriously.
That began our journey into the world of gluten sensitivity. It’s not the same as celiac as the villi do not get damaged. However, after much research, there are so many ailments that can occur when a person is not processing gluten properly. Some symptoms are-
-brain fog
-headaches
_emotional
_rashes
_anxiety
If you or your child is experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s worth a try to experiment with giving up gluten. Give it 30 days to see if symptoms improve but I’ve seen radical changes in my clients within a few weeks. Some people argue, “but my grandparents ate bread and they were just fine”. Please know that the flour of the past is NOT what we are consuming today. It’s a very different world with so much of our foods engineered and sprayed with pesticides. We cannot begin to compare what our grandparents ate to what we are being offered in the stores today.
Part of any health coaching that I offer will always include a gluten free detox. It’s not hard at all because there are so many products out there today and most restaurants have a gluten free menu. Such a small change could lead to a major health improvement in your life.
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