Why Our Family Eats Gluten Free (Part One)

If you’ve been hangin’ with me for some time now, you know that Superman has celiac disease and needs to eat gluten-free. We made a change years ago and went completely grain-free for about a year. Shortly after that, we started to reintroduce some grains into our diet–we eat rice a few times a week, organic popcorn sometimes and other gluten-free products when the mood so strikes. 

I don’t have to eat gluten-free. It’s a choice I make. But why? Am I just jumping on the “gluten-free bandwagon” because it’s a current trend? Nope. A few years ago, I had a DNA test done through 23andme.com. I discovered I carried a few of the genes associated with celiac disease and that I was nearly twice as likely as the general population to get celiac disease. Here are my results:

Superman was 3x as likely to get it. So, even though celiac disease had not manifested itself in me yet (that I know of–it could easily have been manifesting itself through my chronic joint pain and headaches), there was potential for it to rear its ugly head at some point. 

So, I decided I would just avoid gluten whenever possible. It’s not that I’m going to keel over as soon as I eat gluten, I just feel so much better when I’m not eating it. 

Not only is my energy level greatly increased when I don’t eat gluten, but my foggy head and bloated belly disappear as well. Again, I just feel better. 

After all, wheat just isn’t what it used to be. The world’s wheat crop was transformed in the 1950s and 60s in a movement called the “Green Revolution”. A man named Norman Borlaug pioneered new “improved” species of semi-dwarf wheat that, together with complimenting fertilizers and pesticides, increased yield spectacularly. This new farming technology was propagated around the world by companies like Dupont and Monsanto. According to Wheat Belly author Dr. William Davis, “This thing being sold to us called wheat—it ain’t wheat. It’s this stocky little high-yield plant, a distant relative of the wheat our mothers used to bake muffins, genetically and biochemically light-years removed from the wheat of just 40 years ago.” {source}.

Also, modern wheat contains more of the problematic glutens and there are some studies showing that older wheat varieties don’t cause a reaction in celiac patients. THIS study suggests that wheat breeding may have increased the rate of celiac disease.

I think most importantly, we have to be careful not to replace traditional wheat products with a bunch of highly-processed, sugar-filled substitutes. You can, however, at least find some substitutes for bread and those “treat” items like bagels and cookies. Because, let’s face it, as much as we’d all like to eat healthy all the time, we live on earth, and that’s pretty darn hard to do.

So I suppose you could say I’m swept up in a fad and that I’m just going gluten-free because it’s the “thing to do.” But I would {respectfully} disagree. For me, going gluten-free is about feeling better and living better.

What about our kids?

Well, one of our daughters is also 3x more likely than the general population to get celiac disease. Our other kids just behave better when they are off gluten. 

I use Udi’s gluten-free bread any time I make the kids’ sandwiches. I’m so fortunate that our Costco carries it! Their products are non-GMO, too! The kids get sandwiches a few times a week, and being able to buy the bread in bulk is a lifesaver! I even make cinnamon toast and garlic bread on the grill sometimes! I don’t even miss regular bread, honestly.

But living healthier doesn’t mean we just need to eat gluten-free. We take certain probiotics and supplements, use essential oils, exercise and try to get good sleep and downtime. I’ll talk more about all of that in Part Two! 

Want to learn more about living gluten free? Visit the Udi’s Gluten Free Community HERE. You can connect with Udi’s on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter!

Note: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Udi’s Gluten Free. The opinions and text are all mine.

Learn more about living gluten free! Visit http://udisglutenfree.com/community 

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