Throughout my past 5 semesters in college, I went through day to day unbearable abdominal pain and nausea. It got to the point where I got used to it and the pain became a normal thing. Well, one day in class, we were reading about cancer and something in my just clicked. As we got deeper in the discussion, my gut started to churn and I could tell that something needed to be done. You see, previously to this, I had been to the doctors before but had it misdiagnosed as heart burn. I knew it wasn't heart burn but my attending physician at the time seemed to not have listened - or cared - about my actual symptoms. Not soon afterwards, I found a lump on my stomach and immediately went to the doctors office. The PA put me on a series of antibiotics and assured me that everything was going to be okay. Unfortunately, 1 week into my first prescription regime, I found a second lump. At this point in time, I knew that antibiotics weren't the answer...but once again I was trapped by a doctor. I was scared. I felt like giving up and cried nearly every night afterwards. I hated all the medicines I took because it meant that I had to be home at a certain time because I was too ashamed to take medicine in public. To make matters worse, I am an extremely private person so I had no one to talk to. It sucked. Fortunately, I scheduled an appointment with an gastroenterologist and by the next week, I already had a biopsy and a colonoscopy scheduled. For those of you who have had a colonoscopy, you know that the prep is THE WORST part of the whole procedure but the best part is knowing what is really causing all the pain in your body.
A week after my surgeries and blood tests, I was diagnosed out that I had Celiac disease. More than anything, I was relieved but I immediately knew that my life was going to change. Don't get me wrong, I have heard of people who willingly went gluten free but it is not the same feeling as being FORCED to not eat it. If you have been regularly following my blog, then you know that I am a huge defender of whole grains and even wrote a post about it here. My new diagnosis does not mean that I will stop advocating for whole grains...it just means that I will stop eating them. So from now on, I won't be using gluten in any of my recipes BUT I will use their gluten free alternatives.
For those of you wondering, gluten is included in:
the sign (-) signifies certain foods
- wheat (whole grains and white grains)
- Graham cookies
- cookies, cakes, other desserts
- pastas
- pancakes and waffles
- breads
- rolls
- croissants
- bagels
- biscuits
- oatmeal* (unless specifically said gluten free, most oats are processed in plants that have also process gluten products)
- flour tortillas
- soy sauce
- chocolate -
- pickles -
- sushi -
- veggie burgers -
- beer
- rye
- barley
- malt, malt vinegar
- semolina
- rotisserie chicken -
- breaded foods - I never ate these but I will still add them on the list
- salad dressings -
- lunch meats
- hot chocolate
- snack foods and protein bars -
- Alfredo sauce
- gravy
- soups -
Thank you for reading for personal story. If you or anyone you know has Celiac disease, please feel to share your journey/tips with me! I would love to hear them all.
-Eating Clean in College
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