Book Review: The G-Free Diet.

If you're a faithful blog reader you already know I'm in the process of going g-free. I bought Hasselbeck's book with a giftcard I'd received for my birthday back in September and committed to read it over the holidays in prep for a gluten-free experiment phase in 2011. I hope to begin this journey soon but I feel I still need a little more time to research and prepare my kitchen, it's a pretty huge undertaking.

That being said, Hasselbeck's book allowed me to get my feet wet with the concept. She shared her story to discovering that her stomach trauma was a result of Celiac disease. This part of the book wasn't particularly relavent to me, so Celiac is not my issue. But having a good friend, Melina, who does battle Celiac disease and just being an insanely curious person by nature, I was rather fascinated with all the info about Celiac disease.

I found Hasselbeck's suggestions for eating out, how to be g-free without killing your social life, and the recipe section most helpful for what my version of going g-free. Not having Celiac, her excessive discussion of cross contamination got a big tiresome for me. I was ready for her to move on to the more relavent about 3 chapters before she did.

As far as a survival guide, I think she was a little generous with that title. Reading that book wouldn't give you everything you need to know to live G-free. Not even close. I put down the book after finishing it and thought - I've only scratched the surface of what I really need to know. It was also short on testimonies, real-life experiences from other people who have gone g-free. For me, that would have been hugely encouraging. There were a few tidbits but could have been more if she hadn't over-done-it in other areas.

If I were rating the book on a 1-10 scale I'd probably give it a 4. It was interesting. Somewhat insightful. Somewhat informative. But sorely lacking in a few key areas. It was a surface scratch - not a survival guide as far as I'm concerned.

Love,
B

Exploring G-free Living Continued.

Here I started talking about my delving into research on the g-free diet in, 'But is G-free for me?'. I've continued my research and taking small steps towards a trial run of g-free living. If you read my New Years post about my goals for 2011 you know that I plan to spend at least one month of 2011 being g-free as an experiment to see if the health benefits out weigh the cost (the time, the effort, and the annoyance).

Let me start off by expressing my worst fear about g-free living - being 'that girl'. You know the one I'm talking about. The girl who comes to your house for dinner but can't eat anything you've prepared. The friend that brings her own lunch because 'they don't serve anything I can eat here'. The girl that orders a salad minus 5 items, with g-free dressing on the side, and then asks if it was cross contaminated in prep. Yeah, that girl.

Lets be brutally honest here, everyone hates that girl. On top of that, it's worse when that girl does it willingly. It's not like I have Celiac disease or a gluten intolerance. That would be acceptable to be picky about. But really, I'm just looking to give my stomach a fighting chance of surviving 2011 and exploring the health benefits of removing gluten containing products.

As I've been doing my research and you KNOW I'm thorough here's the question I've been asking myself - how feasible is this? I'm a realist through and through. If I say I'm going to do something, I will find a way to do it. But I want to know just how realistic it is for me to actually be g-free. So I've researched how eating out on the g-free diet, recipes, prepackaged foods (let's be honest - I'm young, single, busy, and a traveler - prepackaged is a staple).

From what I can gather, it's actually quite doable. 3 years ago, not so much. But g-free as a lifestyle has become increasingly popular and more and more restaurants are coming on board. Many chains have g-free options now including: Carrabas, Outback, Ruby Tuesdays, Chilis, and BJ's brewhouse. You can even eat fast food when you have to (though I'm not a big advocate of fast food in general) - some options being: Burger King, McD's, Subway, Taco Bell, Chickfila, Chipotle, Subway, and Wendys.

Since I travel for work it's essential that eating out fits into my lifestyle. I often wish that wasn't the case because eating out is murder on my IBS at times but I love what I do and I'm not willing to give up traveling over food issues. My thoughts are that eating gluten free when I travel may be just the ticket to having IBS related trauma free travel experiences.

As the beginning stages of my conversion to g-free I've started eating Gluten free when I eat out. Last week I went to Chili's for lunch with my friend, Chelsea, and I looked up the menu in advance to see what I could have. The most exciting lunch option I saw was the grilled bbq chicken salad - minus the croutons and tortilla strips. They had several GF dressing options and I chose citrus balsamic vinaigrette on the side.

I didn't break the rule - I DID tell them I'm gluten free when I ordered so they'd understand why I needed my salad that way (and not toss the croutons on by accident and just pull them off) and be aware not to contaminate my salad with gluten in any way. I'm gauging the responses of restaurants on having a gluten free guest. As previously mentioned I was impressed with BJ's Brewhouse when they asked me how severe my allergies were so that they could accommodate (clean the kitchen before they prepared my food, etc).

Chili's was equally accommodating. I told my waitress that I'm g-free and told her the items I couldn't have on my salad. She was great about it! My salad came exactly as I'd asked for it and it tasted delish! Props to Chili's for accommodating the g-free life.

I had a less exciting experience when I tried to eat g-free at Bahama Breeze. I had friends in town so I hadn't picked the restaurant (but honestly, I love Bahama Breeze!). They don't have a g-free menu and the naturally g-free things they do have they note the don't guarantee to be uncontaminated. Lucky for me, I don't have a gluten intolerance or I really would have been in a pinch!

I finished the book on my flight from Tampa to Indy for Christmas. I feel inspired. I can do this. I don't know if it will be a permanent lifestyle change for me or just a worthwhile experiment. But I feel ready to take it on when I return home and can buy some g-free groceries.

Love,
B

But is G-free for Me?

It begins, my reading of Hasselbeck's 'The G-free Diet' and my consideration of if this couldcure my own health battles with the illusive 'ibs' (read: irritable bowel syndrome). After this entry where I told you all about my battle with ibs this year and my long road to trying to figure it all out, I got several messages from readers and friends asking if I'd considered that I may have celiac disease.

The answer is, I wasn't the one to think of it but it was thought of. They didn't test me for Celiac because my symptoms are textbook ibs but I'm missing about 50 of Celiac's symptoms. Come to find out as I've dug deeper and done my research, many people who suffer from Celiac have no symptoms but that doesn't mean the disease isn't eating away at their body.

Here's a little health related confession for you. After a few disappointing visits to doctors early on in my health struggle, I quit going. Now before you jump down my throat about this, let me explain. Ibs is very manageable in most cases my diet and exercise but it is frequently a process of finding the groove that works for you. After my displeasure with my options for treatment via medical help I determined that I thought I was strong enough mentally and physically to run a gamut of self-tests to see if I could get in a good place where I wasn't getting sick all the time.

Over the 9ish months since this all began I have seen a vast improvement. When my flare up first started I was sick 4-5 days a week. Once I began eating healthier, limiting my dairy intake, working out 6-7 days a week, and taking probiotics daily I've been able to (slowly) move from 4-5 days a week to 1-2 times per month. From here, I hope that it will only decrease until someday it will be non-existent or close-to.

So now that I've shared my successes and yes I see them as that, you may be wondering why if I'm on the up-and-up I'm considering such a drastic choice as to go gluten free. Great question. Truth is, after so many people brought it up to me, I got curious. As I researched I started to read all the benefits of a g-free lifestyle and it got me thinking that perhaps it's still worth a shot. If it can drastically improve autism, osteoporosis, type 1 diabetes, thyroid problems, etc. then why not give it a go? Oh, bonuses - it helps you lose weight and/or maintain a healthy weight and has been shown to reduce headaches! Cha-ching.

I'm a firm believer that you can try things and not have to stick with them forever. What's the harm in seeing if I think the health benefits are worth what I'd be giving up. So currently, I'm in the research stages. I'm halfway through Elisabeth Hasselbeck (who does have Celiac)'s book The G Free Diet...

And today I ate gluten free during a friend's graduation lunch at BJ's Brewhouse. I ordered gluten free pizza thinking, why not give it a go. After reading the phrase 'cross contamination' about 1500 times in Hasselbeck's book I was pleased when he asked me if I was severely allergic so that they could be sure to avoid cross contamination or if I just eat g-free. In the future I may have to tell this fib a few times to really get the g-free feel but for now I told him they could cook normal, I just wanted a g-free pizza.

The pizza wasn't half bad I'm pleased to report, though the sauce had a bit of a strange after taste. Best of all - I ate pizza and I didn't feel like I needed a nap after! No sluggish, post gluten binge ecky feeling. I ate and I was good to go. I loved that! There really may be something to this.

I will continue to experiment with some g-free foods as I finish my research but I don't plan to go g-free officially until after the holidays. I feel like the week before/of Christmas is not the time for such a huge leap.

I'll keep you posted as I go.

Love,

B