Gluten Free Diet Update

Hi all,

Just thought I'd tell you some more information.

Recently, and I'm talking a few months now, I've not been feeing totally well, no anxiety or panic, but knowing I wasn't in tip-top form as I was a few years ago after going gluten free. However, something happened the other day and I'm now feeling 100% again.

For my Sunday evening meal I had gammon, a fried egg and a fried fresh tomato. Lovely - till the next day. All day having to go to the bathroom, which I thought was strange as, to my knowledge, here was no gluten in anything I had eaten.

So I surfed the net about a link between tomatoes and coeliac disease and it seems tomatoes affect some people. Tomatoes are from the deadly nightshade group of foods.

And who has been a silly boy having tomato sauce on almost every meal!!!

So I've cut out fresh tomatoes and tomato sauce and "TA DAH" yours truly is back to his 100% totally relaxed self. No need to take a deep breath and my hands are warm, which for me is always a good sign that I'm well and relaxed.

Once again, the old saying "You are what you eat" is so so true.

Anyone else tried the diet/gluten free diet route? If so, how have you got on?

That's really interesting. I was looking at tomatoes recently. I have two in every smoothie and heard because of the deadly nightshade thing they cause a bit of inflammation.

I love all the mood/food links, always have. I go on mad food fads based on what I think that food is or isn't doing for me.

I've not gone totally gluten free but I try my best.

I dropped tea and milk recently and was shocked at how removing dairy made my stomach totally inflammation free. I didn't even know I had slight stomach inflammation until I dropped dairy.

I may be opening a can of worms here, but I believe cutting whole groups of food out (unless you have an allergy) to be detrimental to your health as your diet becomes less and less balanced. If tomatoes have caused you digestive issues on recently, then how did you stomach cope up until now. The more you cut out, the less efficient your digestive system could be when you do accidentally have foods you have not had for a long time.

I starved myself quite dramatically a year ago because I was sure everything was giving me bloating and indigestion. I ate less and less, with less variety and ate the same thing every day. Yet I'd still get horribly bloated and feel so sick and uncomfortable at night. If I ate anything out of the ordinary, my system could not cope and I'd feel really full. When I started eating more this got worse for a while, but as I added more and more variety and portion size, the bloating/digestive issues/feeling uncomfortable is now at its lowest it's been for years and I don't often get it as bad any more. Oily food and spicy food are worst for me, but since having a better diet overall, I can begin to even cope with small portions of these.

This is just my opinion and my diet is far from perfect as I eat way too much sugar, but I don't believe that the stomach is so delicate that it can't cope or adapt to a variety of foods. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there is research that goes against all I've said but what did everyone do before there was the Internet to research what food one should or shouldn't eat!

First of all, can I just say, you can't be a little gluten free by cutting down, it's all or nothing. It's like saying "Well I've reduced the cyanide in my diet and I only have a little" Even a very small amount of gluten will cause you problems. You do have to remove it all form your diet.

Kimberley2 - Yes I do have to agree with you on your points. When I was eating gluten I was plodding along, generally feeling OK, neither well nor ill, but when I went gluten free it was like WOAH!!!! I feel bloody marvellous.

Of course, now the gluten is removed form my diet if I accidently get any it's going to hit me like an express train, so the tomato problem I would have been able to cope with before has suddenly reared it's head and I didn't know.

Coeliac disease patients do suffer from a lot of vitamin deficiencies, before and after diagnosis, but I'd rather be on the diet and feel wonderful than off it and eat everything and feel yukky all the time.

I sleep better, breathe better, my whole body feels warmer, don't get out of breath as much AND I can't remember the last time I panicked properly, it's got to be 4 years ago at least!

It's interesting you posted this as I just posted about having a thread about Healthy Eating Recipes. I just posted it in the Misc. section.

With digestive issues so prevalent with anxiety disorder, it's important to maintain a healthy diet. Keeping in mind certain ingredients can cause reactions (like in your case), finding a good balance and eliminating the "crap" including additives like MSG etc. is important for both physical and mental health.

Glad to hear things are going well and the diet modification is helping.

Positive thoughts