Sarah Morgan
Right now I’m not eating some things.
Well, if I’m honest, it’s more than a few things. It’s gluten, dairy, beef, shellfish, eggs, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, peanuts, cashews, peppers, oranges, tomatoes, mustard or maple syrup. Probably a few more things I’ve forgotten. So, yeah, more than a few.
Why am I doing this? Don’t I miss yogurt, oatmeal, shrimp, ice cream, peanut butter, pizza, etc.? Am I crazy? Is this some stupid fad? Well, 1. I think it may help me be healthier. 2. Less than I expected. 3. True but irrelevant. 4. I don’t think so.
I’ve been doing this three weeks so far pretty comfortably – and I’m typing this sitting perfectly happily in Panera, home of gluten, so that’s saying something. Of course, Danielle already has inculcated me into eating pretty clean, so this was a big step, but not as big a one as it would have been otherwise. I think the relative painlessness of it may be showing that it might be a good idea.
Long story short, my doctor started asking questions – do you have this? do you notice that? – and it felt like he was reading my mind. Sure, I’m never hungry for breakfast, eating sugar makes me crave more sugar, I get more tired and depressed than I’d like, I get light-headed when I haven’t eaten, my hands and feet are perpetually ice-cold, and what do you mean it’s not normal to gain weight eating 1400 calories a day? The list went on, and his correct guesses on what I’ve been experiencing – and not connecting – got more weirdly accurate as we went.
Basically, his belief is that gluten intolerance, hypoglycemia and hypothyroid may all be tangled up with each other. Which I thought might be a shot in the dark… till I got test results that backed him up, and found out that several of my relatives have been diagnosed with these already.
Add all this to the fact that my martial-arts instructor, who as you’d imagine is very health-conscious, got me to watch Food, Inc. and I was fascinated. (And then read this article about how wheat may not be as good as we assume.)
By the way, this doctor isn’t an MD, he’s a DC. This had (has) me skeptical, but between the family history matches, the blood-work results, and how I’m feeling, I’m intrigued enough to stick with this and see how it goes. Sure, I’d love a big sticky wedge of apple pie with ice cream on top, and I’m not saying I’ll never do that again. But for now, I’m looking to see what else I can learn and how I can help myself be healthier.
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