Saturday, July 27, 2013

Going Gluten Free?

My husband gave up gluten about 2 months ago.  He has been battling reflux and some digestive issues for years and though I don't think he's full out celiac, I was curious if he had gluten sensitivity.  He rolled his eyes a bit but decided to give it a go.  Remarkably his reflux symptoms started to go away.  He heard about the book Wheat Belly and ordered it (and the accompanying cookbook).  He had doubts about reading the actual book after learning the gist of it in the cookbook introduction, but became hooked on the book.  Many of my quiet evening became interrupted by, "Kris, you gotta hear this..." I was curious and started to do a little wheat free research myself. 
We drove to Halifax a couple of weeks ago and I brought along the Wheat Belly book for myself.  Somewhere between my bagel at Salisbury at noon and pulling into the hotel parking lot at 3 I decided to go for it, like right then and there.  I find if I think about it too much and plan for a diet change I take too long to actually do it.  I didn't want to think about my last bagel or my last pasta.  Fortunately my introduction to gluten free eating was a fantastic one.  My husband found this fabulous restaurant in Dartmouth called The Wooden Monkey which specialized in whole foods type of eating.  It was delicious.  Two weeks later I haven't looked back.  I don't find it particularly difficult to eat without wheat.  The thing that surprises me most is that I'm simply not hungry.  I'm not always wanting to reach for a snack to tide me over until the next meal.  I'm still on the fence about if I'm going gluten free or just wheat free (there is a difference).  I'm also trying to not eat any gluten-free products that are full of processed fillers.  It is a very different way of looking at food.  Fortunately, there is a resurgence of popularity of eating "real" food.  More and more I want to cut out processed foods and sugars too.  I hope as this next phase of our cooking life enfolds that I can find some really great recipes to share with you.

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