Raleigh Bread Trial Video

Thank goodness, Paul Seelig was found guilty as charged for selling a bunch of us wheat bread as "gluten free."

Justice does help make it better.  I hope that his horrible example will help us move forward in the area of food safety and labeling improvements!

Who can we trust to keep us healthy?

Hi everyone.

You may have noticed I've remained rather silent the past few months.  It's a combination of working a lot, many personal and professional commitments, etc.  But there is also a lot of soul-searching I've had to do about what I am doing here, with this blog, and how to do it best.

When I set out to start a blog about my experiences living gluten-free, I came with great excitement to my computer keyboard, full of the ideas that are working for me in my life, and wanting to inspire others that it IS possible to live a full life that is gluten-free.  To live a life that doesn't feel like something is missing.

That's still what I believe, and still what I'd like to do.

However, some of my faith has been shaken.  In the past year or so, it's really come to light that you cannot trust every product, you cannot trust every company, and we do not have stringent enough food safety and labeling regulations in this country to ensure that not all "gluten free" products can be trusted.  While I don't think it should be like this, I have to face reality.

Last time our celiac group here in Raleigh toured the Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse, I remember that they were telling us that they test every single ingredient that comes in, and some have tested positive for gluten.  And they refuse to use, return these ingredients to sender and won't use their company in the future.  I applaud and am relieved by their diligence.

One of the earth-shaking experiences I've had in the last year or so was being duped by the gluten-free claims of Paul Seelig, who is on trial this week in Raleigh.  I was quite ill for some time, after eating wheat bread sold by this man as "gluten-free."  It is unfathomable to me that anyone would do such a thing, but the overall lesson from this might be that the world is still the world--some people are looking out for themselves, no matter what the cost to others.

So who can we trust?  Good question.  I don't have the answers.  I'm navigating through just the same as everyone else.  Quite frankly, though, I do not like the reality that it might be better for me to expect the worst, until proven otherwise.  For example, I'm so glad I can feel pretty confident about the Whole Foods Bakehouse items.  But I haven't toured every gluten-free facility and do not have that assurance from other companies.  So I guess a skepticism is healthy for my body.

Even more reason to keep eating the naturally gluten free foods--your vegetables, fruits, meats, rice, nuts, etc.  The outside aisles of the grocery store, as they say.  It's fairly unlikely that someone's gonna pour flour all over broccoli by accident...but I guess, you know, never say never...

Read this if you're a celiac tempted to eat gluten

Last fall, several of us in my area were duped, I am sad to say, by a guy who was selling bread that he claimed was gluten free, baked in his own bakery.  Turns out, it was wheat bread he was repackaging that he'd purchased wholesale and passed off on us.  It was lie after lie after lie.  You can read about it on Zach's blog here.

I do not know of any studies that have looked into the long-term effects of "glutening" over a period of time.  In any case, here are photos of me, before and after being glutened, so you can see what it looked like on me.

The first photo is me in November 2009 (before):

The second is me at Christmas, Dec. 25, 2009.  I ate wheat bread at almost every meal for approximately 2-3 weeks, starting November 25 and finishing probably around Dec. 11th-13th, somewhere in there.  So this 2nd picture is from AFTER I was glutened, and I think it's pretty obvious that I had still not recovered by Christmas.

I felt horribly tired and could barely do anything outside the bare minimum for work, which was excruciatingly difficult itself.  All I felt like doing was staying in bed.  All day.

Check out the bloating of my face and hands.  Not to mention my coloring.
















Thank goodness I am feeling better.  I've been working to lose the weight I gained over the winter (that I really believe was in a large part secondary to the glutening), and I feel much better overall now.  Here I am yesterday with my gluten-free little brother (a little sweaty after an outdoor concert--but looking and feeling much, much recovered!).

So you might be thinking, gee, one little wheat cookie (or two, or three)/piece of bread/cake, etc. might be OK.  If you want to kill yourself and feel horrible, go right ahead.  Don't say I didn't warn ya.

(and what I really mean, is--please don't.  It's not worth it.)

Logging Gluten Reactions?

Does anyone do this?  Write down when you were glutened, how you think, how much it was, and then track how long the reaction lasts?