Is it Really the Gluten?

 About four years ago, I started doing the anti-inflammatory diet to help with the inflammation caused due to fibromyalgia.  I stayed faithful to the diet for three years.  

Around a year ago, I started to re-introduce some foods back into my diet, to see if there were certain foods that caused inflammation that triggered the pain levels.

The results of my "experiment" was that when I ate anything with gluten in it, i.e. anything with flour, that it was definitely causing me some gut issues.  So, I started doing a gluten-free diet.

As recently as a month ago, I saw 

THIS VIDEO.  You can follow the link to watch it, but in short, it was a man describing how sick his wife had become until she cut out the foods that were made with flour.  The wife also had a family member who had the same sensitivity to gluten, (not the same as being allergic to it) and this family member went to Europe on vacation.  She found that she could eat anything when she was there and she had no ill effects from it.

Long story short...the husband and wife, along with the other family member, came to the conclusion that it had to be something with the way the flour was processed in America.  They decided to give a try with some flour that was made in Italy.

When they started using this flour, the wife could eat anything that was made with it without any side effects from it.  And it also shed her family from paying out the higher prices for gluten-free products when it wasn't really the gluten that she was sensitive to.

If you are curious as to what it is about the process that flour in America goes through that can cause this sensitivity, CHECK THIS LINK and scroll down to Agricultural Practices.  The additives and the chemical that is used in the processing of American flour is what many people are sensitive to...not necessarily the gluten.

I was a bit skeptical at first, but the more my husband and I talked about it, we decided to give it a try.  I ordered my first flour (like the above picture) from Amazon and was almost afraid to try it...you know, just in case this wouldn't be the way it was for me.  But I had really been craving a regular homemade pizza rather than having to use a gluten-free crust, so that was the first thing that I tried making when the flour came.  No side effects.  I've since used this flour to make many different things from cakes to muffins, to pie crusts.  I've experienced no side effects from any of it.  What a joy it is to eat "regular" food again!  When we eat out, I still have to do the gluten-free menus, but when I am at home, I can have any of the things that I make for my husband! 

I have since discovered a more cost-effective option for ordering the flour.  Brick Oven Baker is almost half the price of what I paid for my initial flour from Amazon.

I'm not a doctor or a nurse practitioner and not offering medical advice here.  I'm just saying that I am a person with what I thought was a sensitivity to gluten, who can now consume products that contain gluten by using a flour that is made outside of the U.S.

I've also discovered that I can consume products such as pasta, and other goodies that I find in the International Aisle of the grocery store.  I've recently been enjoying crackers that are made in Germany.  I just check the labels to make sure that the products say that they are imported from Italy or Germany or other countries.  

It was just a simple matter, for me, of understanding that the things that are done in the processing of American flour are banned in the European countries.