I know my audience here is very small but I feel the need to share this important information with those closest to us. Gluten intolerance is a very real thing! I too often see posts and articles shared online calling it nothing but a fad and it is hard for me to restrain my frustration at seeing people who aren't living with this issue pretending that it doesn't exist. Instead I choose to believe that it is a simple lack of understanding. So, for the benefit of my friends and family, I want to share some of our recent experiences with gluten intolerance and navigating food landmines during this intense phase of our lives. As many of you know, Camryn has been strictly gluten free (I.e. avoiding all foods containing wheat, barley and rye or any ingredients derived from those three grains) since she was four and you also know that she have been essentially away from home or traveling back and forth for over seven weeks now while Nathan is critically ill. This means that we don't always have access to our typical foods or have time to make a proper meal happen. As a result, mistakes have been made and she has been exposed to gluten containing foods more than once over the past few weeks, and we are seeing the effects. What do the effects of gluten exposure look like for her? I know this list is different for each person and is even different for a single person depending upon where they are in their healing process. For camryn right now we are seeing frequent dizziness, headaches, stomach aches, night terrors, decreased energy, mood swings, differences in behavior and ability to focus, bacterial build up giving her early signs of urinary tract infections (thankfully we know how to manage to is before it becomes a true infection) and a few additional minor issues. Now I know these may not seem like serious issues when typed out, or when compared to Nathan's life-threatening illness or another child's anaphylactic food allergy, but the effects of gluten exposure are still very real and very frightening to a seven-year old child and her parents. And prolonged exposure results in inflammation and exponentially increases the risk of a whole host of potentially serious future illnesses. I have regrets, we haven't been able to be as careful as we normally would be, and now Camryn is having to deal with these effects on top of all the other stress and anxiety in our lives right now.
So, what can you do to help accommodate a gluten intolerant person? I want to clarify that we do not ever expect others to cook anything spefically for us although it is always appreciated when people do make special accommodations. Essentially, my wish is that anyone cooking for others in any way simply write down a complete list of ingredients and copy or include the labels of any packaged goods used. This simple step will tremendously help anyone with any dietary need and put the decision as to whether it is safe in our hands. I often feel like eating food in a pot luck setting, or even with family who know about our food restrictions, is akin to navigating landmines. I cannot expect the gereral public to know what gluten is or know the laundry list of foods containing gluten but I do hope that increased awareness will cause fewer people to just assume that our dietary needs aren't serious and try to placate our questions with a, "oh no this doesn't have any gluten", when it clearly does. I will add the caveat that some people are so highly intolerant to a specific food that they also must avoid all forms of cross contamination so their needs would be more complex of course but still a bit of awareness and being proactive in sharing a complete list of ingredients will help a huge number of people avoid the effects of "insert specific food here" exposure.
I will also admit that, in many ways, "gluten free" does look like a fad on th surface and there are many people eating a gluten free diet by choice (and yes sometimes even without knowing what gluten is) rather than by necessity yet still that choice should also be respected. Truly nobody needs to eat gluten to be healthy and one's personal choice is not a condemnation of another's opposing choice. Plus cooking and eating a stict whole food-based, gluten free diet is a whole lot of work. I wonder why so many choose to belittle or placate this choice (or often necessity) rather than actually understand it and support one another wherever we are in our particular life's journey. I am here and happy to help if anyone would like to learn more about gluten, its effects and gluten free cooking/eating. Any questions?
No comments:
Post a Comment