My Favorite Foods.......Who Knew??

MMMMMMMMM!!! Fresh baked bread, muffins galore, cookies, cakes, trifles, pear bread, brownies.....these are a few of my favorite things. Well, they used to be my favorite foods, but not anymore.

Earlier this month I went to the doctor for my annual check up (that was overdue). As part of my check he ordered a bunch a bloodwork like he always does - can't be too careful with my history, and my family history. This time, however, he added a new test for "tissue Transglutaminase IgA".
Then on Friday I went back to see him to get a tiny mole removed, and review my blood test results. As it turned out, my results had just arrived at the office that day, so he hadn't had the opportunity to review them before I got there. So together we started looking at the results. Page 1 - wow - "you have no vitamin D" (35.0 instead of the 80.0 - 200.0 that I should have). Perhaps that is contributing to the restless leg problem that I have. The doctor says that vitamin D plays a role in restless leg syndrome. Page 2, hmmmm, "your iron is a bit low", better take a good vitamin with iron. Page 3, uh oh, wow, "you have celiac disease". "What, me, I don't really have any symptoms".

Apparently this tissue Transglutaminase test is a new test for Celiac disease. You should have 0.0 - 20.0 kU/L (whatever that is), and i have >200.0 . They quit counting cuz I had so many. This is not good.

So what does this mean?? Well, my favorite foods just became my favorite memories.
I am now on a Gluten-Free diet. Yikes! Party pooper! It is actually supposed to be an extremely healthy way of eating, and I should feel like a million bucks if I do it properly. I can have all the fruit and veggies that I want (farmer's market here I come), meats, diary, are all ok. Even pop and popcorn, potato chips and corn chips are ok. And good thing I love cheesecake, cuz it's fine too (without the crust, or with a modified crust). The obvious stuff is easy to avoid - all wheat, barley and rye. The trickier part is in avoiding all of the derivatives of those - things like malt syrups and extracts (found in seemingly safe rice krispies and corn flakes). And lots of foods contain some form of wheat - surprizingly things like some soy sauce (kikkoman brand) and taco seasoning, and cream of chicken soup. Hmm, this could be tricky.

So here we go, on a new adventure - trying new foods, and learning a new way of cooking. My energy levels should increase, my leg pains might decrease, and I should live to be a ripe old age.

Oh ya, how did I get this? Well, apparently there is a genetic predisposition to it (so family members might want to be checked), but it can have onset at any age. Onset often follows things like, pregnancies, childbirth, surgeries, major stress, or viral infection. Incidentally, if you are planning on being tested, don't cut gluten from your diet until after you are tested or you will get false results.

Oh, I suppose I should say what Celiac disease is (you'll probably look it up on the internet anyway). It is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food (hence my vit. D and iron deficiencies). People with the disease can't tolerate a protein called gluten. So that is why I am on a Gluten - free diet.

The top two pictures show what a normal intestine should look like and the bottom two pictures a Celiac intestine. Normal looks like high pile carpet. Diseased looks like linoleum.

If you know any great recipes that are gluten - free I'd love to have you share them with me (especially if they taste good).

p.s. i wrote this last night, and today i found some great sounding recipes for all the treats i need - cakes, muffins, pizza crust, donuts, brownies etc. This might not be so bad after all :)