Fading Fast. And I'm Just Getting Started :(

[Cderbogh]

Please help! I was just diagnosed a few weeks ago and officially started my gluten free diet about 2 weeks ago. I noticed a difference immediately, which was very comforting. I've been extremely careful to avoid all sources of gluten and am trying my best to avoid cross contamination. Im just getting used to all of the ingredients i need to avoid to remain gluten free and its taken a lot of work and getting used to. I thought I was finally getting the hang of it, but I just discovered that I also have a reaction to corn! I started looking up ingredients that contain corn and the list is overwhelming! I am getting very discouraged as I didn't even know anything about celiac 2 months ago. I was really looking forward to my DH, bowel issues, anxiety, insomnia, irritability, brain fog, and dizziness going away for good but now I feel like I'm climbing Everest! Do I have to avoid all corn products in order for all of my symptoms to clear up? If so....what can I eat?!? It seems as though there is gluten or corn in everything! This is a lot to handle and my doctors aren't being much help. I feel like I'm alone in this!

[1desperateladysaved]

You are new here and I feel for you. After all, I was asking the same question about 6 months back when I was 2-3 weeks into my diet. . Many of us have had to go grain free to recover. I did a classic gluten free diet before I went grain free. I remember the dismay when I learned I needed to cut out more foods. I went through renewed withdrawl symptoms. Yet, I have plenty of good stuff to eat. I use nut flours, coconut flour, and bean flours as substitutes. My favorite is almond flour. It almost seems like the more foods I cannot have the larger variety I get in my diet. I just find more things I consider eating. You are going to learn alot more. It is very overwhelming and part of that is withdrawl symptoms. Your body is working very hard to recover. It will tell you more and more clearly what it cannot tolerate.

For me, meat and eggs have been my body's favorite food. These are gluten free and I hope you can eat them. I have really learned to enjoy beans.

I hope you will have some down time, and some time to learn some new tricks. This is a great place to learn how to put things into action into your own life.

Get well, and keep learning. Give yourself time to recover.

[flagbabyds]

From the middle of my Freshmen year of high school to almost the end of my Senior year of high school I was corn free (along with gluten free--have been since I was 2 yrs old), corn is MUCH harder to cut out than gluten, but it can be done. I would suggest doing the corn and gluten free thing for a while, then slowly start trying small amounts of corn (for me it was non-processed corn on the cob that I had for a while before being able to eat any sort of processed corn products). The big problem with corn is HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and other corn syrups that are in most processed foods. I would suggest doing meats, veggies, rice, potatoes, beans, fruits etc. for the time being, it's going to be a lot of cooking but it'll give your intestines time to heal before you start introducing more of the processed foods that could be causing you problems.

Good Luck!

[rosetapper23]

flagbabyds is right--avoid processed foods for now. Then you don't even have to worry about reading the ingredients. Concentrate on eating only natural foods: meats, nuts, dairy, eggs, fruits, and veggies. Yes, lots of cooking.....but you'll feel better sooner. Someday you may be able to reintroduce corn into your diet. Until then, stick to natural foods--you won't be sorry!

[Persei V.]

Yep, sometimes going only gluten-free doesn't work :/ I'm on a grain-free diet, besides a few other minor intolerances (coffee, citrus, honey, peanuts). Basically I eat fruit, meat, veggies, beans, meat, potatoes, meat and nuts. Two times a month I bake myself a cake using flaxseed flour or almond flour, but there are plenty other flours not made out of grains, as well. Two other times I make nut butter.

I have a very sensitive leaky gut, but I can see improvement. My symptoms when eating something my gut didn't like went down from D, light cramping and just general uncomfortableness to bloating, some gas and rough bowel movements.

It gets better, and soon you will be able to add more foods back in (:

[Cderbogh]

Thank you so much guys. I'm slowly but surely accepting this new reality. It's just hard. But it's great to have people here who understand and who have already been going through it all

[GFinDC]

Hi Cderbogh,

You may be able to eat corn starch, but not corn protein. But that is something you will have to test to find out. All you have to do is put some corn starch in a glass of water and drink it. Many people who have reactions to foods react to the proteins, not the starch part.

Like someone said, if you stick with whole foods, you don't need toworry about it. Except for vtiamin pills and such, as they use corn starch or some other starch as a carrier.

[Wendelann]

  On 12/6/2012 at 1:31 AM, Cderbogh said:

Thank you so much guys. I'm slowly but surely accepting this new reality. It's just hard. But it's great to have people here who understand and who have already been going through it all

I am in the same boat with you. I just started after fighting to accept it for months. Now that I am on the right track I am seeing more and more foods that are harsh on my system. I wonder though if it is because of the extensive damage to the small intestine? I have stuff come out whole that I ate the day before I take supplements though and that seems to be managing my nutrients for the most part This whole thing is like one massive head game! I think that even though I have had a rough time physically it has been equally hard mentally and emotionally.

[GFinDC]

  On 12/7/2012 at 4:19 PM, Wendelann said:

I am in the same boat with you. I just started after fighting to accept it for months. Now that I am on the right track I am seeing more and more foods that are harsh on my system. I wonder though if it is because of the extensive damage to the small intestine? I have stuff come out whole that I ate the day before I take supplements though and that seems to be managing my nutrients for the most part This whole thing is like one massive head game! I think that even though I have had a rough time physically it has been equally hard mentally and emotionally.

Hi,

You may have low stomach acid. You could try some Betaine HCL and some pro-biotics to see if that helps. When the gut is irritated and food moves through too quickly it sometimes isn't digested completely. Digestive enzymes may help also. It seems like our guts are often irritated at first on the gluten-free diet. All the bacterial changes could be part of that.

[Wendelann]

  On 12/7/2012 at 9:40 PM, GFinDC said:

Hi,

You may have low stomach acid. You could try some Betaine HCL and some pro-biotics to see if that helps. When the gut is irritated and food moves through too quickly it sometimes isn't digested completely. Digestive enzymes may help also. It seems like our guts are often irritated at first on the gluten-free diet. All the bacterial changes could be part of that.

Thanks very much! Before I was experiencing such high acidity that my guts (not really my stomach) were on fire all the time until it would end in diarrhea Now that I am not eating gluten, and a whole host of other things, I don't have that problem! Although I have swung in the complete opposite direction. As I has constipation now. Which is not great but it is a welcome change after what it's been like!

[GFinDC]

  On 12/11/2012 at 2:32 PM, Wendelann said:

Thanks very much! Before I was experiencing such high acidity that my guts (not really my stomach) were on fire all the time until it would end in diarrhea Now that I am not eating gluten, and a whole host of other things, I don't have that problem! Although I have swung in the complete opposite direction. As I has constipation now. Which is not great but it is a welcome change after what it's been like!

Celiac disease can cause gut paint, I wonder it that was the cause instead of high acid levels? Celiac attacks the villi lining of the small intestine, so it can damage a large surface area of tissue. That can hurt. Since your pain resolved after going gluten-free, it seems ilkely gluten was the cause, IE celiac disease or gluten intolerance perhaps?

[dreacakes]

Oh honey, I feel your pain! I had the same thing happen... after going "gluten free" I also noticed I reacted to other grains.

I'd bet money that you react to rice, sorghum, all grains. We all do, it's just that some of us notice and some of us don't.

And that includes the starch... it's best to stay away from all forms of the foods you react to. Continuing the inflammation in your gut will continue to damage your health.

I highly recommend going on a paleo-ish diet. (I say "ish" because you can make some modifications depending on what you're specifically sensitive to, like for instance I can eat goat cheese just fine, so I do.) My doc put me on this diet, and it seriously saved my health. There are many gut-irritating foods that you might not suspect as well, including beans, nuts, and seeds. You don't have to cut them all the way out of your diet forever, but if you do for awhile, it will excelerate your healing process. (you can read more about it here: Open Original Shared Link )

This supplement is also great for soothing your gut and helping it heal:

Open Original Shared Link

Don't fret! You can still enjoy many, many yummy amazing foods, and there are ways to easily modify existing recipes to fit your diet.

These are some recipe sites that I love:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

All the best to you, and I hope you're feeling lots better soon.

[Cderbogh]

Thank you thank you! I think I am going to try the paleo-ish diet bc another week in and I'm having trouble with dairy. It gives me terrible insomnia too �� Seems like I'm reacting to someone new every week! Hopefully just cutting it all out will help and then I won't really hafta second guess everything. I just wish I could fast forward to a time when I have this all figured out. Thanks for the help and encouragement! I'm gonna check out those recipe websites too!

[RuskitD]

I feel your pain. I went gluten-free, thought, hey, this is no big deal! Then the realization of the corn, dairy, then soy.....

In my case, just avoiding the actual corn, corn meal, corn starch, etc is not enough. Even the itsy bitsiest bit of citric acid in something makes me gain 10 lbs overnight and takes three weeks to go away. So discouraging! I was healthy two months out of 10, and that was when I only ate from my garden. No garden now.... ugh.

To address constipation, for those who have it.... make sure you get enough magnesium. That helped me. Then I got a fiber called Heathers Tummy Powder. Nothing like psyllium (which my body began to reject), it actually feels soothing to the guts, instead of violent. Also, I began ground flax meal daily trying to get Omega 3s, and that is helping also.

I also had to cut out all dairy for 6 months. I got brave enough to try butter again, and have not reacted to it or whipping cream. (the fat of the dairy)

For insomnia.... this was a duh moment for me. I always slept 10-12 hours a night, before I stopped grains. I now realize I only need 5 hours of sleep at night. I set my alarm to wake me up at 5 am, so I don't oversleep and cause trouble the next night... and I go to bed at midnight. My tossing and turning has stopped, I now sleep when I am in bed. Ahhhh......

Hang in there, everyone! It has GOT to get better. At least I am hoping it all will.