Gluten And Soy Too!

[Curious and Determined]

I received my EnteroLab results today, and wasn't surprised to find I was gluten intolerant and that I carry both sets of Celiac genes.

Fecal Antigliadin IgA 14 (Normal Range <10 Units)

Fecal Antitissue Transglutaminase IgA 11 Units (Normal Range <10 Units)

Serologic equivalent: HLA-DQ 2,2 (Subtype 2,2)

At first I was surprised that my numbers were so close to 10, but when I read others' results, many of you are around 14 or 15.

What really took me off guard was that I need to eliminate soy as well!

Fecal Anti-Soy IgA 13 Units (Normal Range <10 Units)

I've been reading up on gluten free diets the past few weeks, and I was prepared for that. But I don't see as many resources to help with a soy free diet. And soy is everywhere! I need some direction...

[Kaycee]

Welcome curious. I think you will have the determination to get there, going by your name, but the first few months is somewhat a great big learning curve.

To be able to eliminate gluten as well as soy, your best bet would be to eat fresh fruit, vegetables meat, rice, fish, eggs etc. You will have to learn how to read labels, and discover where gluten and soy hide. The beauty in using these things fresh, is that there is no gluten in soy in them, and by cooking from scratch, you can add in what ever flavouring that you want, just making sure they are free of gluten and soy. Make sure the oil you use is soy free as well. I know it is time consuming, so much so for me, that I opted to cut out a couple of hours a day in my job, just so I could cope and keep on top of all the extra time needed for cooking etc, not to mention just so I could get my head around such a diagnosis.

I am not soy free myself, but did try for a few months, thinking it was a problem, and it seemed that having already cut out the gluten I was nearly there, and even now, I barely consume soy, I kind of avoid it to say the least.

I think it is recommended that to start with on the diet go simple and eat fresh and build up from there. Soy is everywhere, (but so is gluten) and it is so much easier to eliminate these things when you start from scratch. It is like gluten, it seems to be in every prepackaged, prepared food item.

Good luck curious, and I hope that helped, but I am sure there are a lot of other people who can help you as well.

Cathy

[burdee]

Do you also have problems with dairy? If not, you won't need to use any soy based milks or other dairy substitutes. You can't have any gluten free SOY sauces or Tamari or Shoyu (all forms of soy sauce). or anything with edamame or miso. If you are also dairy sensitive, try the nut based (almond or hazelnut milks). However you will not tolerate soy lecithin in sprays like Pam, many chocolates, frostings, etc. Rather than memorize all the foods which have soy, learn the other names for soy like lecithin and tamari. Then READ LABELS OBSESSIVELY. The food labeling law helped us a lot by labelling those 8 major allergens. So avoid anything that says soy or wheat. However 'gluten' wasn't covered by that act, so also watch out for anything that says 'malt' which means barley. I've been off gluten, dairy and soy for over 2 years. Avoiding those 3 food sources became pretty easy. Then I learned I also have egg and cane sugar allergies. Now (after 3 more months of studying labels), I'm confident I can avoid those 5 allergy/intolerance food categories. It gets easier ...

BURDEE

[Curious and Determined]

The tests for milk, eggs. and yeast were in the normal range, 9, 6, and 7 respectively. Not what you'd call low, but under 10. You're right - if I just concentrate on fresh foods I'll get there. Thanks!

I think back to when we lived on an acreage in Nebraska. I lost quite a bit of weight after moving out there. At the time I thought it was just the additional exercise, but now I'm wondering if it was all the wheat and bean dust in the air. If you have a food intolerance, might you have the same problem breathing the dust? We've been in Texas now for three years, and my symptoms have leveled off. There's obviously not much grain dust in the air down on the Gulf coast.

[kabowman]

Enjoy Life products are soy free and they have great chocolate chips.

Once you start to figure this out, it is easy--you just have to cook.

Avoid all vegetible oils (soy) so no fast food. Cheeseburger in Paradise only uses canolla oil but their seasoning has soy oil added, I order my foods without seasoning and am fine.

Watch the lotions and soaps, many of them add soy (under a different name, Jen has a list somewhere). Also, Puffs Plus, last time I checked, used soy in their lotion.

Go with new pots and pans unless they are stainless steel or enamel (sp?) and I have all new cutting boards and wooden utensils. It may seem like overkill but it isn't. I just replaced my very nice rolling pin this year.

I cook meat on one weekend day each week and freeze a bunch of food for weeknights since we have kids sports practices Monday through Thursday. Then all I need to do is fix the side and re-heat the meat and dinner is done. I make sure I have enough for lunch the next day.

[Curious and Determined]

I had some blood tests done by my neurologist too, and I had one questiion maybe someone can answer about my results:

Immunoglobulin A was high at 328 (normal 70 to 312)

Endomysial Ab, IgA Screen was 0.6 with no normal range given

Endomysial Ab, IgA Titer said "not done"

Why would they do that? Is there some sort of protocol whereby you don't do every test ordered?

Do these results correlate with Enterolab?