Gluten-Free? Oh my!

Just when you think life can't get any stranger, it does. Well, strange might not be the right word. For those of you who don't know me, I've been battling some very horrible health attacks the past few years. They are called vasovagal attacks.  I won't give you all the gory details. Suffice it to say I was taken to emergency six times in an ambulance, because no one was sure what was happening. It looked like I was having a heart attack. I wasn't. It felt like I was going to die each time, but I didn't. I kept hoping I would and get it over with. I didn't want to keep going through the attacks.

I recently went to a doctor who is both a MD and a Naturopath. He thought what I was having was a severe reaction to a food allergy. Egads! Food allergy? But it kind of made sense. Several of the attacks came not too long after eating. The doctor had me take a test where my blood was sent to a lab and tested for reactions to all kinds of food.

I got the results this past Tuesday. Whoa baby! I'm allergic to more than one food - barley, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, Swiss cheese, garlic, ginger, gluten, grapes, malt, white potatoes, rye, wheat, baker yeast, and yogurt. How can that be? No more bread. No more wine. But those are a God-given right! (See picture above.) No more mashed potatoes. No more beer. No more pizza. No more pizza? Anything but that.

Well guess what. It isn't as bad as it seems. There's a whole other world out there. It's called "gluten-free." There's gluten-free pizza. There's gluten-free beer. (I hope this doesn't sound like I'm a lush or something. I don't drink that often. But if you're going to have pizza, you have to have beer. Besides, the Bible says drunkedness is wrong, not drinking. It even says, "a little wine is good for the stomach.") There are all kinds of blogs with recipes for people who have to follow gluten-free diets, too. I'm not alone in the world! Yay! There's even an added benefit. I may finally lose weight. :O)