"Gluten for Punishment" article
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"Gluten for Punishment" article
DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor and don't play one on TV.
LDN July 18, 2014
Joan
LDN July 18, 2014
Joan
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Matron in Distress
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2013 3:16 am
- Location: Ohio
Gluten-free is working for me
I was diagnosed with microscopic lymphocytic colitis in late 2005. I took lots of meds (including Asacol) until 2009 when I went into remission. Then in May 2013 I got really sick again. I am a vegetarian and as I got worse I further reduced my diet to be "soothing". I was eating buttered pasta most of the time and got worse. I came back to this site (which I hadn't visited for 4 years of remission) and saw all the posts about gluten. I was tested by an endoscopy in 2005 and told I did not have Celiac disease. However, I decided to try a gluten free diet. After a week I felt great, after two weeks I ate some pasta and was sick for days. It has taken three days of gluten-free diet, but I am stable again.
It is hard to be vegetarian and gluten-free, especially outside my home. Thankfully lots of restaurant servers are very aware. Today I ordered rice pilaf as a side, and the server told me that she had looked it up for another customer and they had gluten in the rice pilaf seasoning mix. Hooray for her. I had a roasted potatoes instead.
It is hard to be vegetarian and gluten-free, especially outside my home. Thankfully lots of restaurant servers are very aware. Today I ordered rice pilaf as a side, and the server told me that she had looked it up for another customer and they had gluten in the rice pilaf seasoning mix. Hooray for her. I had a roasted potatoes instead.
Hi,
Welcome to our internet family. You're very fortunate to be able to see such a fast response to the diet, because that makes it very easy to pinpoint the problem. It takes most of us much, much longer to respond to the diet changes.
Please be aware that most of us are also sensitive to dairy products, and many of us are also sensitive to soy, and most/all legumes. Therefore, if your symptoms should relapse after 2 or 3 weeks or so, and you have any dairy products in your diet, they may well be the culprit. Ditto for soy. If you are able to get past about 8 weeks without any return of symptoms, then you are probably home free, and gluten may be your only food sensitivity. I hope that's the case, but it's rather uncommon for someone who has MC. IOW, most of us have other food sensitivities that we have to avoid.
As long as you are not sensitive to soy and all legumes, you should still be able to continue to follow a vegetarian lifestyle, but it takes a lot of protein in the diet to heal the damage caused by gluten, and without any legumes in the diet, it's just about impossible to ingest enough protein on a vegetarian (or vegan) diet. In that situation, many members find it necessary to add fish and/or other meats to the diet, in order to heal and remain healthy. Unfortunately, MC is a life-altering disease for almost all of us.
Good luck with your diet, and please keep us posted. And please feel free to ask anything.
Tex
Welcome to our internet family. You're very fortunate to be able to see such a fast response to the diet, because that makes it very easy to pinpoint the problem. It takes most of us much, much longer to respond to the diet changes.
Please be aware that most of us are also sensitive to dairy products, and many of us are also sensitive to soy, and most/all legumes. Therefore, if your symptoms should relapse after 2 or 3 weeks or so, and you have any dairy products in your diet, they may well be the culprit. Ditto for soy. If you are able to get past about 8 weeks without any return of symptoms, then you are probably home free, and gluten may be your only food sensitivity. I hope that's the case, but it's rather uncommon for someone who has MC. IOW, most of us have other food sensitivities that we have to avoid.
As long as you are not sensitive to soy and all legumes, you should still be able to continue to follow a vegetarian lifestyle, but it takes a lot of protein in the diet to heal the damage caused by gluten, and without any legumes in the diet, it's just about impossible to ingest enough protein on a vegetarian (or vegan) diet. In that situation, many members find it necessary to add fish and/or other meats to the diet, in order to heal and remain healthy. Unfortunately, MC is a life-altering disease for almost all of us.
Good luck with your diet, and please keep us posted. And please feel free to ask anything.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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Matron in Distress
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2013 3:16 am
- Location: Ohio
Gluten-free
So far I seem to be fine with gluten-free. I realize that other sensibilities may surface in the future. I am so glad that the posts here led me to a solution for now.
to our family.