It’s May 1st, 2020, I’m in an “intelligent” lockdown due to Covid-19 and can’t work from home, so I figured why not make a blog about Celiac Disease. It’s been on my mind for a while now so now is the perfect time to start.
One of the reasons I want to do this is because people diagnosed with Celiac Disease are prettty much left in the cold after their diagnosis. “Eat Gluten Free!” is not enough to heal and start feeling better again. It’s not just a diet change, it’s a complete lifestyle change.
So without further ado, here are the things I wish someone had told me when I got diagnosed with Celiac Disease.
No more gluten…..and so much more
I wish “just going gluten free” was the answer to fixing your health, but it isn’t. Many Celiacs can’t handle dairy either, or soy, or sugar, or corn, or watermelon, or peanuts, or oats, you get the idea. It’s not necessarily an allergy but your intestines are sooo messed up from years of Celiac Disease that you can’t handle many types of foods.
It could be an allergy though!
Yeah if you didn’t get the memo yet, Celiac Disease is complicated. Maybe you can’t handle dairy or whatever due to your damaged intestines, but maybe you can’t handle it because it actually IS an allergy. The difference? One will go away when your intestines are healthy again and your immune system isn’t in overdrive anymore, the other is allergy.
Intestinal flora is a big deal
You know those commercials for probiotics, talking about your gut flora and stuff? Turns out they have a good point there. Years of anti-immune attacks on your intestines didn’t only physically damage your guts, but also your gut flora. Your intestines are probably overgrown with bad bacteria, and to make it even better, they release toxins when they die. Yeah.
So should you take probiotics? I don’t take them, in pill form anyway. I do eat fermented foods though (real fermented, not the vinegar kind), raw cacao nibs, yogurt, things like that.
Sugar is bad mmmkay
We all know sugar is bad, but for newly diagnosed Celiacs sugar is really bad. They feed the bad bacteria of your gut flora, preventing the good bacteria from growing. If I had to choose one thing that made the biggest difference in my healing, except for ditching gluten, it’s definitely going sugar free for a while, and limited sugar intake after that time (months). Yes it’s very hard to do, but if I can do it, so can you. I had an enormous sweet tooth, but after 2-3 weeks you get used to it. The good thing is, no more sugar crashes!
Cross contamination is always sneaking up on you
I live alone so my house is completely gluten free year round and the first year since my Celiac diagnosis I still managed to “get glutened”. Sometimes it was the symptoms but the culprit turned out to be sugar (before I knew). Another time I managed to gluten myself because I filled my dog’s bowl and I forgot to wash my hand after handling his food (which contains wheat). My beloved dog is now on grain free dog food. His coat actually got way shinier because of it.
It’s the same thing when going out to eat, sometimes you get glutened, sometimes you don’t. Many people don’t realize how serious Celiac Disease is, or they just don’t know which foods contain gluten and which don’t. I got served gluten free soup once, after me asking the waitress if it was gluten free, and her asking the chef. It got served with croutons. Needless to say, I skipped that meal.
I wish someone told me to skip the gluten free aisle
I remember the first time going to the supermarket after getting diagnosed. I just stood there, looking at the aisles, just having no idea what I could eat. I figured soup should be okay, nope, gluten. I’ll throw some burgers on the grill then, nope, gluten. Eventually I found the diet section where the gluten free foods are and my options were basically gluten free bread, pasta, pizza or cookies. I chose bread because I needed breakfast too so I was happy to at least be able to get some calories in.
With what I know now, I wish someone just told me to stay away from that section. It’s bad for your mindset, and generally bad for healing. For the mindset because it’s much easier to just accept that you’re going to have to live with a new, healthier, fresh foods diet instead of getting “replacement food” for your standard western diet. For the healing due to the ingredients mostly, lots of sugar in general which is bad for healing the gut, and a lack of vitamins and minerals. You know what’s good for the gut? Lots and lots of fresh vegetables. I don’t like them either. I throw them in the blender and drink it.
Iron deficiency goes hand in hand with Celiac Disease
I have no source for that statement, it’s just what I saw in myself and see in Celiacs around me. I’m a guy and multivitamins for males generally don’t have iron in them, or very low iron. Since switching to the female variety with iron I have so much energy, it’s unbelievable. Together with my daily blender vegetables I’m able to keep my iron levels up. Other common deficiencies include vitamin D, zinc, copper and magnesium and basically every other vitamin or mineral. Your intestines are just not able to absorb enough nutrients yet. Depending on the severity of the damage done it may take up to 5 years to have (near) normal absorbtion rates. Faster if you take good care of your gut.
The risk of other autoimmune diseases
You know what’s the best way to get an autoimmune disease? Already having one.
Common comorbid diseases with Celiac Disease are Sjögren’s syndrome, hashimoto’s disease, diabetes type 1, rheumatic arthrosis and some others. Depression and anxiety, though not autoimmune diseases, are correlated too. Reading this was a lightbulb moment for me to really start taking care of my gut and general health, and I’m glad that I did.
Conclusion
I hope some people reading this save some trouble in their gluten free lives. I know it did in mine. Take care of your gut and general health, and try to avoid cross contamination. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. The benefits of having a good health outweigh the trouble of giving up gluten by far.