Freaking Out/ Addicted To Carbs

[amcken3]

I'm freaking out. I was just diagnosed this Monday and I am freaking out. I am SO addicted to carbs I can't stay away! I am in my 30's and God only knows how intolerant I am, if I was born with it, if I developed it or even if there is any long-term damage (still have more testing to do). I can't seem to stay away from Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell (how sad is that) I get sharp pains after I eat there but I think I have a SERIOUS addiction. Is there a appetite suppressant or something I can take so I have some self control. I feel at my wits end already and I was just diagnosed. Any suggestions are sincerely appreciated.

[mushroom]

I'm freaking out. I was just diagnosed this Monday and I am freaking out. I am SO addicted to carbs I can't stay away! I am in my 30's and God only knows how intolerant I am, if I was born with it, if I developed it or even if there is any long-term damage (still have more testing to do). I can't seem to stay away from Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell (how sad is that) I get sharp pains after I eat there but I think I have a SERIOUS addiction. Is there a appetite suppressant or something I can take so I have some self control. I feel at my wits end already and I was just diagnosed. Any suggestions are sincerely appreciated.

Here's a first suggestion. Think of gluten as rat poison for your body. Every time you think of eating gluten, think "Rat Poison" and what effects that might have on your body. This is somewhat equivalent of what gluten is doing to you. It's amazing how quickly your can tune your brain to be revolted by the site of gluten

You can still have carbs, just not gluten. You have to separate out the two. Carbs are in potatoes and corn as well as in pizza and bread. You just have to separate the carbs from the gluten. It is a retraining process and you will have to work at it. But the more weeks go by the easier it gets. For some it is like quitting smoking, but you don't have to quit all carbs, just the ones that are harming you.

Fix yourself a baked potato with some chili and be thankful for the diagnosis which some of us wait ignorant years for.

[tmbarke]

I'm freaking out. I was just diagnosed this Monday and I am freaking out. I am SO addicted to carbs I can't stay away! I am in my 30's and God only knows how intolerant I am, if I was born with it, if I developed it or even if there is any long-term damage (still have more testing to do). I can't seem to stay away from Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell (how sad is that) I get sharp pains after I eat there but I think I have a SERIOUS addiction. Is there a appetite suppressant or something I can take so I have some self control. I feel at my wits end already and I was just diagnosed. Any suggestions are sincerely appreciated.

You can still have tacos - I'm just not sure yet of taco bell.

Think Corn tortillas for an omelette rollup.......or whatever

I was a whole grain junkie - couldn't get enough of it! Doc told me that's a sign - once you start eating what your body knows is bad - your mind tells you not to stop....PIZZA - PANINI's!

Retraining is right.......I learned to make or buy 1 loaf of gluten-free bread to last for a few weeks - and my treat is toast with my eggs and bacon! Or French toast with cream cheese and Strawberry preserves! It just goes together so well and is so simple to retrain your thinking.......like telling your child you can open 1 present a day for the week before christmas......they'll patiently wait for the next day......and obey.

It's not giving up everything you love - to me it's learning how to make it gluten free.

Spaghetti tastes the same to me with rice of corn pasta....and Classico says it's gluten free.

Chili is still good

Chicken soup with veggies

Pot roast with potatoes, carrots onions and I add mushrooms (I also use Herb-Ox beef buillon (sp?) for the base broth and then make gravy with cornstarch........does that seem like you're giving up so much? The worse part for me was the gluten withdrawls - after that - you'll feel better......and ready to be healthy.

Good luck - gluten-free just means retraining

[RiceGuy]

Have you tried making a gluten-free pizza? This board has many recipes for pizza crust. That should help ease the cravings. However, there is for many a period of gluten withdrawal, so you may well expect to go through that. I'd guess some Tinkyada brand gluten-free pasta and gluten-free pizza would help get you through.

[Mskedi]

I went through that freak-out stage, too. Before I had to start eating this way, I was addicted to artisan bread -- I made a loaf every couple days. I still dream of making a gluten-free artisan bread successfully, but I don't pine over the real thing anymore: I want to be able to eat artisan bread; I do NOT feel tempted at ALL to eat the gluten-containing version when I'm around it. When I see it or smell it baking somewhere, I actually cringe a little in disgust because I know exactly what it would feel like if I were to indulge.

My very last hurdle, actually, was a soup at my favorite restaurant. It would be safe if it weren't for a little bit of soy sauce in it. I decided about three months in to being gluten-free that I was going to have some and just deal with the consequences. I was sick for DAYS and ended up in the hospital with severe dehydration from the D and V. Now that temptation is completely gone. In fact, that experience got rid of the last bits of temptation I had. As someone above mentioned, I really do think of anything containing gluten as containing poison. It simply isn't appetizing in the least, even if it used to be my favorite thing in the world.

I, personally, think I jumped in too fast with trying to find replacements to my favorites: bread, pizza, muffins... nothing was quite right. I went a few months without any substitutes -- I ate rice, potatoes, quinoa, and corn tortillas (which I always liked better than flour tortillas, thankfully!) as my carbs and subsisted on salads, stir-fries, and fresh fruits and vegetables. I did surprisingly well. Then when I tried reintroducing some of those gluten-free substitutes, I found that I liked them. I particularly like Annie's rice pasta macaroni and cheese for when I need a carb-y comfort food. I think giving myself that space of time between "real" bread and "real" pasta and the gluten-free versions helped me not spend every bite comparing the two. It also forced me to find what exactly I could eat on this diet that wouldn't cost a ton. I'm already a vegetarian, so adding no gluten to my restrictions was pretty daunting at first.

Now I can honestly say I'm happy I eat this way. Before it was a grudging sacrifice I made for my health. Now it's practically second nature. When I went vegetarian 15-some-odd years ago, I remember the stages it took for it to become natural: the first year was the learning stage during which I made a lot of mistakes; the second year was the passion stage where just about everyone around me had to listen to my little discoveries (my poor friends!), the the third year it became so much a part of me that I stopped thinking about it. I'm seeing something similar in my transition to gluten-free... in fact, I think I've hit the passion stage a bit early and will have to curb myself before I drive my friends nuts with all my little discoveries.

I realize I'm rambling on longer than anyone should, but I wanted you to know that you're not the first person to freak out in exactly that way. I would say most of us have. But there's also cause for celebration -- all of us here have had major health problems for all our lives (some problems more obvious and annoying/debilitating than others), but now we know what causes it and can avoid it. Of all the hereditary diseases out there that I could have gotten, I'm glad I got this one that I can control without drugs or surgery and that allows me to live a relatively normal, healthy life as long as I stick to the diet.

[Ahorsesoul]

There is a withdrawal phase from gluten. It will go away. There are plenty of gluten free carbs you can find to replace what you think you are missing.

You can replace the flour tortilla with corn in this recipe. Just make it at home, you can have it more often.

Open Original Shared Link

Best tasting:

Udi's Bread

Against the Grain's, baguettes, rolls and pizza crust

Schar's crackers and cookies

Betty Crocker's gluten free Chocolate chip mix

[T.H.]

So sorry it's been so hard!

I can totally relate. I'm in my thirties as well, was just diagnosed a few months back. For me, though...I had a sugar cane allergy as well, it turned out. THAT was my achilles heel. It really is an addiction, isn't it? I could be nauseated and feel horrible, but the urge to try something sweet is so overwhelming I just didn't freaking care!!

I can tell you what I've done, see if it helps?

First off...it's gonna suck. It so is. I want to say it's wonderful, and part of it is, but that doesn't mean getting there isn't going to be frustrating and difficult, and it's hard to keep the goal in mind when you are getting there, but haven't seen any results yet!

so, what I do? To help me with my self-control, I put notes all over the house, in my purse - anywhere I might see it just before I was going to give in. And they remind me why I am sticking it out. for me, it's because my family and my health and my mental well-being are worth it (I get depressed and angry whenever I eat the bad stuff for me, on top of the pain).

And similar to the rat poison thing, I heard a story one gal's doctor told her. Imagine gluten is a bowl of ground glass. Someone puts it in front of you and says you can have just a little bit, because a little bit won't hurt.

We wouldn't eat it, because obviously, it IS hurting us. So my son wrote down 'bowl of glass' and posted it all over the house, LOL. But as cheesy as it is, as oddly embarrassed as I get seeing these stupid little notes everywhere, it has still helped. I see them and take a deep breath and leave it alone. Sometimes I'll go as far as to buy something, then look at it and feel like crying and just go throw it away.

Better to have made the stupid mistake of buying it than make a stupider one in eating it and damaging myself because I don't wanna waste money.

After staying away from the sugar for a while, I can honestly say I stop craving it. Completely. But then I accidentally had some and WHAM, the craving ramped right up again and I had to go through it all over again.

So, I guess what I'd say is: there's hope. It won't always be like this. And get help. Write notes to yourself, tell your friends to smack you in the head or steal your gluten if you need it, empty out your entire house (I had to do that with sugar cane), drive a different route to work or wherever, to avoid the places that are just too tempting.

Don't let yourself NEAR temptation when you are hungry; that's the worst.

And it should get better. And eventually, the cravings go away. I will be honest, though, I went the direction of picking entirely different foods. Trying for a food that tastes 'close to' but is not the same just made me feel even worse. I just found completely different foods. Different ethnic foods, like Indian and middle eastern. And they tasted good and didn't set off my cravings, either.

Good luck!!

Shauna

I'm freaking out. I was just diagnosed this Monday and I am freaking out. I am SO addicted to carbs I can't stay away! I am in my 30's and God only knows how intolerant I am, if I was born with it, if I developed it or even if there is any long-term damage (still have more testing to do). I can't seem to stay away from Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell (how sad is that) I get sharp pains after I eat there but I think I have a SERIOUS addiction. Is there a appetite suppressant or something I can take so I have some self control. I feel at my wits end already and I was just diagnosed. Any suggestions are sincerely appreciated.

[Googles]

I went through this same fear. What was I going to do about my carbohydrate cravings? But I found that after I stopped eating gluten, those cravings actually ended. I was surprised. I didn't realize that most people did not feel that way about their carbohydrates. However, when I get glutened they come back for a short period of time (but not as bad.) I can tell after I've been glutened and go to the store that the donuts want me to eat them . But if I'm not glutened before going to the store I can just walk past them with no problem. Good luck.

[Takala]

Hello, welcome, and don't worry, this goes away.

One of the symptoms of being gluten intolerant is craving carbohydrates. This is caused by malabsorption of nutrients, and then aggravated by the typical American habit of eating too low fat and high starch and sugar diets low in vegetables. The body intreprets the imbalanced feeling as a sugar/carb craving.

Eat more good fats, such as from olive oil and coconut and avocado. Eat more vegetables. Enjoy proteins, such as nuts, fish, meat, chicken, or be careful to combine vegetarian sources such as lentils and rice. Start taking a good B complex vitamin and a calcium/magnesium supplement, and that will eventually make the cravings disappear.

[mysecretcurse]

I'm sorry you're freaking out. It's okay. You just have to accept that you can't ever have taco bell again (sorry, NOTHING from there is safe as most of it either contains gluten or is gluten due to cross contamination).. it will take some time but as you learn to prepare better food for yourself and what not, you will eventually get to a place where the idea of polluting your body with something as foul as Taco Bell (or any other fast "food") will make you nauseated... I shudder to think I once at Taco Bell.. that stuff is toxic crap that isnt good for ANYONE! But the good news is that you can learn to cook, and cook well, so think of this as an opportunity to learn to cook BETTER food than you ever ate before!!! It will be okay! It's a really scary, frustrating, sometimes hard, sometimes AMAZING, and overall very fun and educational journey. And you WILL end up better off if you trust that this is happening for a reason and go with it.

Tonight I'm making roasted chicken breasts with mashed sweet potatoes and spicy veggies with coconut milk gravy. And I'm intolerant to many foods, not just gluten. Trust me, you can eat well!