Gluten Free Tips for Healthy Eating

  1. Being gluten free means being 100% gluten free. This is the one area where it really is either/or. It’s like you cannot be just a little pregnant. You either are or not. Even .03 micrograms of gluten will set off an inflammatory cascade in your small intestine. Those with celiac disease will not get well and those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity may not lose their other inflammatory symptoms. So commit fully and when you eat out, away from total control of your food, take special enzymes to digest any cross reactive molecules of dairy, gluten, soy, or egg that may have cross contaminated your food. This is very common.

 

  1. To avoid as much cross contamination as possible ask about grills and if they can be cleaned if your food is being cooked on one. Ask about oils and if bread has been fried in it. It will cross contaminate your fries. Don’t get served croutons on your salad thinking you can pick them off. They have contaminated your greens. You can’t pick the meat out of the sandwich and leave the bread. The meat is cross-contaminated. Unless the bakery is a dedicated bakery, items labeled gluten free will not be. If you work in a bakery or enter one, you are breathing gluten into your body. Even being very careful, I always take 2-3 enzymes with my food when I eat away from home.

 

  1. Buy “gluten free” soaps, shampoo, lotion, make-up and any personal care items that are put on the skin. The skin is a marvelous absorber of what is put on it. Personal care items are some of the most toxic and dangerous substances people use, since they are less regulated than food, and have many other things in them, including gluten that can damage your body. Read your labels carefully and learn what each ingredient means. Often with “certified organic” on the label, these products can be quite pure and contain only healthy ingredients.

 

  1. Many people think they are gluten free, but really are not because they don’t know if they have food intolerances to certain foods, that on the molecular level look very similar to gluten. When they eat these foods and are intolerant to them, the body can get confused at the cellular level, and react to these foods in a similar inflammatory way as it does to gluten. Some of the biggest offenders are any dairy product except butter (milk, cheese, yogurt), soybean, eggs, coffee, baker’s yeast, brewer’s yeast, oats and spelt. Get an Alcat test or good IGG test done through Cyrex (have to be eating these foods regularly for the antibodies to show up)

 

 

  1. While going off gluten and its’ associated cross reactive foods is a great step to a whole new level of health, you will need to address the collateral damage that has been done by eating inflammatory foods for years, depending on your age. The inflammation in the small intestine, often called “leaky gut” needs to be addressed. Research shows that 7 years after going off gluten, the gut still has measurable levels of inflammation. Probiotics and other specialty supplements can go far in accelerating the healing process downstairs in the “second brain”, the gut. Learn about the products in the store that can help this process.