I know many of us hear the word autoimmune disease and want to freak out.
There are over 80 autoimmune diseases and most people don’t just have one—they normally have two or three. Some are more closely related than others, and although the research varies on which ones go hand in hand, most all of them are treated by medication.
But guess what? The treatment for celiac disease is not medication.
It is your choice on how you eat. A gluten-free lifestyle is what will keep you healthy. Eating gluten-free can seem like a pain at first, but once you figure out your groove it will become your healthy lifestyle.
What is gluten-free?
Gluten-free, per the FDA, is anything that has 20 PPM (parts per million) or less.
This is actually a lot for a celiac. I have yet to meet a celiac that can actually ingest 20 PPM and not get sick.
People go gluten-free for many reasons. Possibly they believe it is healthier for them, they are trying to lose weight, they’re gluten intolerant, or they have an actual allergy to gluten.
With gluten-free becoming very popular it has opened many doors in the celiac community. If you are kind of a health freak like I am, I don’t really care for all the processed foods anyway. They have to add extra additives to replace the gluten which your body may not tolerate.
Always check with your physician to ensure you are eating what is good for your body.
Gluten-free may not be the best for people with celiac disease but what about certified gluten-free? Well FDA has required that certified gluten free must be 10 PPM or less. Now I have met people with celiac disease that can ingest certified gluten-free products.
My daughter, however, was still getting sick from eating gluten-free and certified gluten-free. For her there really had to be no gluten in it. So processed foods sat on the back burner for us for a while.
Following a healthy gluten-free lifestyle is what we did. This meant we made everything from scratch!
Yes it was time consuming but the way my daughter felt was so worth it. She started to look healthy, this meant she was absorbing the nutrients that she was missing before. We eat a lot of fruits, vegetables and no pre-seasoned meat. The seasoning is very important as many times there is hidden gluten in seasonings.
Once we found our groove with this lifestyle, cooking became much easier. I knew which seasonings were appropriate, and I even tried different recipes and learned how to tweak them to be gluten free.
Look at the positive side of celiac disease
- You are not putting any medication or artificial substance into your body.
- You are using food to treat your disease.
- The better you eat the better you feel.
Go out and try cooking something from scratch and see the difference in the taste and how you feel. Go back to basics and don’t eat processed food. The difference will be there! Happy eating!
