The Gluten Factor

No one intends on blogging about digestion issues (hopefully). But...I'm about to. Anyone who has known Kyle for very long at all knows what I'm referring to. The infamous "SixFlags" story, or the "Horseshoe" incident funny stories that Kyle's friends and he, himself will tell you in between cracks on uncontrollable laughter. Needless to say, Kyle has always had digestion issues. We always just wrote it off and called it IBS. But sometimes it's a hard life with only one bathroom...ahhmmm!

So, a few weeks ago, I happened apon a show that was talking about "gluten allergies" and what the sypmtoms were for people that suffered from this. I literally said out loud, "That is Kyle." Gluten (in case you didn't know...) is wheat, barley and rye.

Some of the symptomatic things are :

• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Mouth ulcers
• Anaemia
• Iron-deficiency anaemia
• Osteoporosis
• Weight loss
• Diarrhoea
• Abdominal bloating
• Crohn’s disease
• Attention and behavioral problems
• Skin problems

I know that maybe that sounds like TMI but this has been our life since I have known Kyle. He is always tired, even if he slept for 18 hours, he would still feel like he hadn't even been asleep. I've put him on daily vitamins before but that didn't help, and come to find out it is because when you are allergic to gluten but still eating it, it is doing such tremendous damage for you digestive system that your body can't absorb enough nutrients or vitamins...hence the fatigue and anemia.

So, after a little more research, we decided to try a little self-diagnosis and try to go gluten free for a while and see if it help. I think we're in week three now and Kyle says that he feels a lot better and his symptoms are improving. Grocery shopping a little bit more tricky and some things are more expensive because you can only find them in the organic section or at the health food store. And we don't buy all there is out there that is gluten free, because frankly, it's not in the budget. But this week I bought two things to try (pictured) and we'll see if we like them. Up until this point we've only just tried to simplify. So a typical meal is some sort of fresh protein and salad or some other fruit or veg. (Doesn't seem so extreme right?)

It does pretty much cut out most fast food, but who couldn't stand to do that anyway?

Who knew gluten could change your life? Isn't it amazing the things we just "put up with" our whole lives and think the can't get better? This is proof that change can help.

This is the gluten factor.