Feeling Lost - Can You Help?

[lostinwa]

For starters I will give you a background - I have much stomach pain etc - dr. says IBS - I don't really believe it's IBS and really don't want to go with that until all other options are exhausted. So far I have not been able to find a good doc. I believe I can get blood panel work done but they just keep telling me it may not be conclusive and might still have to do the diet.

So for starters - what would you do? I don't see that it can hurt to do the blood test. Then if it is negative I can still try elimination diet. I don't know though. I guess if I will be doing it either way it doesn't hurt to start.

So there in lies the real problem. I can't find a place to start! I find lots of symptoms and what to eat and not to eat... but I am looking for a resource that will tell me everything I need to get rid of and how to eat the first couple weeks. I need to know how "clean" my kitchen should be... I just feel lost! there's so much information! I just want something that tells me how to diagnose by elimination diet, what I eat for how long, symptoms to watch for etc...

Please help point me to the best resource for a timeline of preparation how to and then diet execution.

Thank you in advance!!!! I am feeling so lost and overwhelmed~!

[nasalady]

So for starters - what would you do? I don't see that it can hurt to do the blood test. Then if it is negative I can still try elimination diet. I don't know though. I guess if I will be doing it either way it doesn't hurt to start.

I think that you already have a good idea there....get the blood test done but be prepared for a possible false negative.

So there in lies the real problem. I can't find a place to start! I find lots of symptoms and what to eat and not to eat... but I am looking for a resource that will tell me everything I need to get rid of and how to eat the first couple weeks. I need to know how "clean" my kitchen should be... I just feel lost! there's so much information! I just want something that tells me how to diagnose by elimination diet, what I eat for how long, symptoms to watch for etc...

One of the best resources for how clean your kitchen should be and simple things to eat for the first couple of weeks that I know of is the following post on Karina's blog:

Open Original Shared Link

Take it easy....identify things that you eat right now that are gluten free! Do you eat steak? eggs? vegetables? potatoes? rice? All of those things are naturally gluten free. Raw, unprocessed foods are best because when seasonings are added you can get hidden gluten in there. But Karina says it best...please read the post on her blog and I think that will give you good info to start with.

If I were you, after the blood testing is done, I would go gluten free for about 3-4 weeks then try eating gluten and see how you feel. If you feel better without gluten and worse when you eat gluten then that's really all you need to know, IMHO!

Good luck with everything!!

JoAnn

[ravenwoodglass]

You have a good doctor that at least knows the blood work and be inconclusive. But do go ahead and get the tests done and then start the diet and see how it goes.

I haven't looked throughly at the link above but it looks like it may be a good one.

You do need to degluten your enviroment, get a new dedicated toaster, wooden utensils should be replaced and cutting boards. Drop any toiletries that have gluten ingredients and don't bake with gluten flours for others. There is more so do read as much as you can here and ask any questions you need to.

[sb2178]

But for a diet trial, I would just live without toast. A new cutting board is helpful. Otherwise, you can stir with metal cutlery and hopefully you have some stainless steel pans that you can scrub down well to use for the diet. Non-stick pans are a bad idea. Foil can be put over baking pans.

Just put what you can't use in one cabinet (or what you can use!). After you see how the diet works, you can replace what you need or not.

I definitely second sticking to very simple one ingredient foods like steamed carrots or rice. It's easier and safer that using processed foods. I just did an elimination diet, and found it very helpful psychologically. Nothing like eating something and being very sure that it made you very sick to make avoidance easier!

[Mari]

You didn't say if you were gluten free but if you aren't you can have the blood test done. Somebody wrote that a person only need a small amount of gluten to keep the antibody levels up - maybe it was one peice of wheat toast daily. I've seen links to several simple elimination diets in another post so maybe you can find them by searching the internet. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet starts with food which are not very allergenic and works well for most Celiacs and people with IBS. People vary greatly in their reaction to gluten and you don't know yet how sensitive you are. So keep working to eliminate gluten from your foods then you may want to tackle the business of changing your cookware and other kitchen tools and begin getting gluten-free body products. Look at the Enterolab.com site as they have some more sensitive tests for antibodies and do the genetic tests also. Their FAQ sheet may give you some information on what you can do. If you haven't looked at the articles on this forum - especially the one of diagnosis see what they advise. You'll work this out and feel less overwhelmed as you go along. Don't forget to fill out your personal page and give us some information about your background regarding gluten and your possible problems - it will help us answer your posts.

[GFinDC]

If you want to pursue testing you need to stay on gluten until the blood is drawn. Don't start the gluten-free now as it can throw the test results off if you do.

When you get to doing the diet, stick with all home cooked meals with whole foods ingredients. No spice mixes but single ingredients spices are ok. No sauces or marinades etc. All your food should be in it's natural state, not packaged, boxed, canned etc. Frozen single ingredient veggies are ok, except soy.

This strictly whole foods diet will eliminate preservatives, soy, gluten, food colorings, secret mind control additives (kidding), and reading labels all day in the grocery.

A good starting diet would be rice or quinoa, chicken, sweet potatoes, salt, pepper, water, hamburger, olive oil, lettuce, psyilium husks, and parsley. Do this diet for a week or 2, and then add one new food item every 3 days.

If you get sick when you add a food, take it back out and stay on you safe foods for 2 or 3 days before you start adding again.

[LDJofDenver]

For starters I will give you a background - I have much stomach pain etc - dr. says IBS - I don't really believe it's IBS and really don't want to go with that until all other options are exhausted. So far I have not been able to find a good doc. I believe I can get blood panel work done but they just keep telling me it may not be conclusive and might still have to do the diet.

So for starters - what would you do? I don't see that it can hurt to do the blood test. Then if it is negative I can still try elimination diet. I don't know though. I guess if I will be doing it either way it doesn't hurt to start.

So there in lies the real problem. I can't find a place to start! I find lots of symptoms and what to eat and not to eat... but I am looking for a resource that will tell me everything I need to get rid of and how to eat the first couple weeks. I need to know how "clean" my kitchen should be... I just feel lost! there's so much information! I just want something that tells me how to diagnose by elimination diet, what I eat for how long, symptoms to watch for etc...

Please help point me to the best resource for a timeline of preparation how to and then diet execution.

Thank you in advance!!!! I am feeling so lost and overwhelmed~!

Don't know if you're from Washington state or DC - here are links to celiac groups in both.

Hopefully you'll find some good information and resources to help you:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link