Gluten-free

[doubtful]

I am interested in trying to go gluten free. but honestly I dont even what this means, beyond avoiding wheat.
What can I eat?
what should I be avoiding?
how long will it take before I notice a diffrence? What kind of diffrence might I notice?
What do I need to know?

BTW: I know that there are alot of good books out there but we are financially in a place where buying ANYTHING in not an option so I cant go buy a book.

Please someone HELP!!! I would really appreciate it.

Also I am thinking about going milk-free, I was allergic as a child (milk made me scream as an infant, when I was a toddler it made my hyper and temper tantrumy) but I drink milk now, but I wonder if it is not helping me.

I have RLS depression mood swings ADHD and MAJOR irritability and anger I am taking meds but they are not really helping.

[kjbrown92]

Go to the allergy sub-forum here. There's lots of help there.
I would go off ALL dairy and gluten (wheat, barley, rye, oats, etc.). If you had trouble with dairy as a child, you're probably still having it. A lot of ADHD people have really good luck with a GFCF (gluten-free, casein-free) diet.
If you want to go to my blog, and do a search for recipes, taking out milk and gluten/wheat, you can find some ideas of things to eat. It seems very daunting at first, but if you do it and start getting results, it doesn't seem as difficult. My kids have been food intolerant, and I finally took the plunge about a month ago and went dairy and gluten free with them. I've gotten off my back pain medicine and most of my sleep medicine and can honestly say I'm doing tons better. Do I miss pizza? You betcha. But not when I see the difference in pain. I'd rather give up the pizza. You can do it!!

[Dia]

Hello

We went gluten free about a year ago after finding out about DH's allergy to it. One thing I would add to this is that gluten by-products are in everything. Essentially every processed food (this includes salad dressings, sauces - anything you buy in a jar or package) potentially includes gluten.

So - read labels. It is more than just avoiding wheat/bread products.

Also, you asked what you should eat. I am a vegetarian but DH eats a lot of white meat (chicken and fish), rice, all kinds of vegetables and fruits, beans, nuts, and soups. He also eats a lot of asian cusine in general. I have a lot of gluten free dinner type recipes you are welcome to PM me for.

I hope that's helpful! It really isn't as hard as it sounds

[rockportmama]

When we went GF we noticed a difference in a couple of weeks. But when we REALLY noticed the difference was about a month later when we accidently ate some gluten. How did we know? Joint pain, burping, farting, quesy tummy, diarrhea (hey, you asked!) and just plain feeling like &*().

As for the books, figure out which books you want, then head to your friendly free local library. If they don't have the book themselves, they'll do an inter-library loan and get the book for you at no cost to you.

FYI on the dairy. The proteins are called casein and whey -- as in "sodium caseinate" and "whey solids". Avoid these.

Best advice (to repeat PP) read labels.

Also, in my experience, my body does not process sugar well. When I eat too much sugar (high fructose corn syrup, honey, brown rice syrup, molasses, glucose, sucrose, fructose, ____ose!) I scream like a banshee and throw things. Definate irritability. I try to limit my sugar -- I can taste when I've had too much and immediately stop eating ANY or screamy time!

HTH!

[grisandole]

I'm moving this to the allergy subforum so you will get more responses

[lil_miss_understood]

I noticed you got moved and then no further answers. I might have more time tomorrow, but for now I'm bumping you up.

[greencat]

There are many little things you can do now.
*avoid drinking cow's milk.
*avoid bread and foods from bakery
*avoid obvious sugar as much as you can
*Google "Gluten" and learn the list of foods that contain gluten
*start cooking your foods from scratch: Traditional Food on MDC is a good place to learn how.
*learn about cross contamination
*learn to read food labels-call the company and ask questions
*Ask librarian to find books that are on the Sticky from Allergy post for you.
"Is this your child" may be a good one to start.

[xekomaya]

I had entertained the thought of going GFCF for a while, but always thought it would be nearly impossible. I've had to now for ds and I'm amazed at how easy it becomes after a while. The first month is definitely the hardest when you need to change the way you eat, but after that you can find subs for anything you really crave. DH found me gluten free beer the other day and it totally made my week :-D (brand is Green's, btw, and its actually good!)

For us it does mean virtually no eating out & cooking all food at home from scratch, but you get used to it and I really prefer this way of eating anyway.

I would also strongly consider dropping sugar while you're at it. My sugar addiction has caused symptoms for me that mocked bipolar, and was actually dx'd as such. The meds they gave me never worked so I eventually quit taking them, only to find that all my symptoms went away when I started eating a diet full of fresh fruits & veggies. It took me a couple years to make the connection though. I had to give up all sugar for a long time, but now I can have limited amounts and as long as I'm careful I hardly have to think about it.

ETA: Also - celiac.com has TONS of info about how to go gluten free. Its a great place to start

[tanyalynn]

We've been gfcf for just over a year now. It was hard at first and is still sometimes annoying, but very worth it for us.

We're doing it because the mercury in my amalgam fillings has messed with my health and my kids' health. I got more energy (for me it was fast, a day and a half, but I don't think that's typical) and saw other stuff change (hormonal stuff got better, my cycles got a bit more normal, like that) and my son had some behavior changes but that took a lot longer, about 3 months. My daughter has typical gluten intolerance symptoms (sleep problems, digestive stuff, dark circles under her eyes, swollen tonsils) that all got better gf--I think a gluten intolerance runs in my husband's family.

For me, I had to spend some time thinking about each meal and what would work for us (we'd be happy eating, like that). We do eggs almost every day for breakfast--with a bit of bacon, with salsa and corn tortillas, hard-boiled, and I'm going to try some egg and curried vegetable things soon (that last oe will be cooked-ahead and re-heated).

You can make homemade gf bread for sandwiches, it's much better than the store-bought stuff. And making homemade for all this is more economical and also an easier way to avoid stealth gluten.

Things we eat more of that I never really considered before: quinoa, gf flours (teff, sorghum, brown rice, tapioca, and many more), lentils and other legumes, and it's helped us branch out into veggies that were not in our usual repertoire. Things like dip (hummus, black bean) and veggies are a nice lunch and quite filling.

You may need to make hardware changes in your kitchen--plastic containers (like gladware) hold onto gluten and even when they're clean, they can still leach it out into food (happened to me). I replaced almost everything we have with glass (pyrex or canning jars) for food storage and stainless steel for cooking.

Have you tried magnesium for the RLS? I've read it helps some folks, but haven't needed to try it myself.