ruca55

Neshema-
I appreciate your concern and advice. Mine (like everyone else's story here) is a long one. To cut it short. For me, looking back my main symptom was headaches like no other in my life that started after the birth of my second child. (was also my secon c-section). I spent 2 years being bounced around from doc to doc trying to find the cause of my headaches. In that time I did have an MRI done. Eventually I did see an endocrinologist who treated me with dosinex. It took a couple times and a couple of years of going on and off the dosinex, but all seems to be fine for now. I have just finished all my testing, which was negative. However I am 100% sure certain levels of gluten are the cause of my headaches. I believe the burden of pregnancy and surgery is what triggered a gluten "sensitivity" for me. I have many other symptoms that correlate with celiac, but I will call myself "gluten sensitive". Now I just need to learn to stick to the diet!

Hmmm. Interesting. My period was almost like clockwork until after my second pregnancy. I have always said something wasn't right after I had her. Every time I call my ob about issues with my period they blame it having a tubal and my age. I'm 35 now, but they've been claiming my age at 31!!! I fought it for four years but it's getting bad, apparently my options at this point are taking birth control pills or an ablation. Yippee! A couple of months ago I had to have my gallbladder removed and the thought of surgery scared the daylights out of me. I started to research all I could and came across celiac. It definitely connects most (if not all of the dots) for me. Someone posted a link a couple threads down about a study that was done at the University of Maryland, and that fills in the missing pieces for me. As long as I'm not overloading my system it seems once in a while I can handle a piece of pizza with out a problem. Now I know what I need to do, it's just following through.

Sorry I don't have time for a full explanation, but here's been a few posts about fructose problems recently, so if you search for fructose or FODMAP you will find some previous posts. FODMAPs are a larger category of poorly absorbed sugars that include fructose.

There are a range of fruits and vegetables that are low in fructose, and people have varying amounts of fructose they can tolerate. If you want to find out more the best place to start is a yahoo group called 'fructose malabsorption Australia', and and work by Sue Shepard, Jacqui Barrett and Peter Gibson. They are researchers in Australia that test foods for their fructose and FODMAP levels, so their research is the most reliable out there.

Thank you!

There are actually quote a few good gluten free vegan cookbooks. I mainly eat friut for breakfast. I make 3 or 4 recipes on a Sunday and use them for lunch and dinner with salads. Snack on raisins, nuts, Lara bars and fresh fruit. I do have an occasional Ice cream with the kids. Quinoa is a great protien source. At this point I was just trying to get away from all of the antibiotics, pesticides and hormones that animals are fed. Once I get to feeling better maybe I'll buy organic and eat meat sometimes, right now I'm just trying to eat as clean as possible. I know nothing about a fructose problem. So I was wondering if there were "levels" , like you said maybe some fruits that would be ok?

Thank You everyone!