And Diet Advice For A Newly Diagnosed Celi?

[margotb]

Hello everyone. I recently received the official biopsy results that showed moderate to severe damage caused by celiac. Even though I knew it was 95% or more likely that I have celiac based on my symptoms and blood test results, I found it quite a shock to find out that it's really official. I'm reeeling but also I have a lot of hope about embracing gluten-free as a positive change in my diet and life (thrilled to experience already and read about improvement in imsomnia, for example--I was off gluten for two months before doing a 5-week challenge).

I would like to speed my healing and was wondering if anyone has advice for a good detox diet to speed recovery. Some alternative health people say fasting or cleansing is good because the stomach is not so busy digesting food it can repair itself faster. Is that principle considered true in celiac recovery? Are there particular veggies, foods, juices, probiotics, supplements, diets that have been found effective in helping people feel better faster than just eliminating gluten from the diet? I am not interested in eliminating a lot of other food categories right now, but are there particular foods to eat in greater quantities that others have found helpful?

Thanks for all the help--this community seems stellar.

Also, I am in the SF Bay Area and will be looking around for celiac meetups.

[Takala]

Just eliminating gluten is going to be enough of a challenge. Remember that cells need nourishment to grow and replace themselves.

Basically a diet which contains fruit, vegetables, proteins, and good fats is the foundation. Some people find they cannot just replace the regular breads/cereals with the same quantity of gluten free commercially made varieties, because they don't handle some of the ingredients as well, and it may take a while to figure out which is your best option. I went grain free at first, and used almonds and almond meal for a lot of cooking/baking, and then gradually added in things like hard cheeses, but discovered I'm much better on organic cheese. I can eat gluten-free bakery goods now from some vendors if I am careful, but I'm not good if anything has a relatively large amount of flax (ick) or tapioca, and soy flour seems to just absolutely not be compatible for me.

You won't gluten yourself with many vegetables - shop around the perimeter of the stores' aisles.

I discovered that if I have corn tortillas around, rice cakes, almonds, and enough higher protein gluten free flours to make quick breads or pancakes or flatbreads, I don't need that much more carbohydrate regularly anyway. Cereal about kills me in the early morning, so I stick to anything but that for breakfast, and if I eat something baked it may be an almond meal thing, if at all. Other people do fine just eating regular gluten free cereals.

Milk- I don't do regular milk anymore, so use coconut milk, hemp, or nut milks in coffee or tea or soups. I can tolerate cheese and one brand of greek yogurt, after much experimentation. I learned the hard way to use water as a baking liquid after ruining several batches of breads with either yogurt that was too lactosey, or cross contaminated soy or rice milks (some manufacturers have changed tactics since then, but the memory remains ). A week long migraine will do that to a person.

Starbucks coffee: they claim to have gluten free items. Watch out for the flavorings. And really watch out for the Tazo brand teas, some flavors of which are gluten bearing. I've also reacted to their supposedly non gluten containing milk substitutes. Remember you can always make better coffee at home, and it's cheaper.

Juices- there are so many cross contaminated juices it is mind boggling. Plus they are very high in sugar. I finally gave up, and have a piece of fruit instead. Warning: any thing marked "organic" or "natural" may be especially bad about this feature, as the makers assume the consumer is a vegan eating a lot of wheat bread.

Probiotics: ditto on the suspicious nature of many probiotics, which may turn out to not be gluten free at all. There are regular foods that are full of bacteria, such as saurkraut, kimchi, raw vegetables, olives, yogurt.

Supplements: a gluten free B vitamin complex and a calcium and magnesium complex is good, as these are the nutrients which really tend to be needed. Warning: I have taken and recommended that people take calcium in the form of calcium citrate for years, instead of Tums, which is calcium carbonate, and which can lead to another problem with the blood levels of bicarbonate or give you kidney crystals, when taken a long time in large quantities. Well, the wretched manufacturer of Citracal, Bayer, has started putting an unidentified grain derivative in their calcium citrate. I just about had smoke coming out of my ears reading labels in the stores 2 weeks ago, because the generic store brand type calcium citrate supplements also have started doing this, and were saying it was derived from corn. Yes, at least the cheaper stuff was admitting it was corn, who knows what's in the Citracal. I can eat corn (see username....) but what about the rest of the world with corn allergies ?

stupid, stupid, STOOPID cheap and bad, on the part of the Citracal manufacturer.

[margotb]

Thanks for this advice! It is very helpful to hear from others.

With regard to Starbucks, do you mean that the coffee drinks can contain gluten if they contain flavoring, or other products? I was thinking just buying regular coffee must be OK, or even a soy or lowfat latte. Hope that is true. . .

And now I am reading about tea bags. Adjusting to this really is a huge checklist.