2/6/19 Gluten

I have been completely gluten free for about a year now and feeling great. As a reader you may be feeling confused as to why this blog combines the two, gluten free and fatigue. This is not just because the two diseases impact my life, but I have also seen how they impact each other. When I cut gluten from my diet I started to feel a bit better within months. Family friends who had also had to cut out gluten from their diet for a variety of reasons had said that it'd take time but you'd feel amazing in the future after your body had adjusted. The small increase in energy I received helped my fatigue and made this dietary change a reasonable sacrifice, especially as gluten is in almost everything it seems! This is the nature of fatigue, it is a combination of a variety of different elements that make the person tired, meaning it can be hard to distinguish the cause of this tiredness. I digress.

I do feel a logical place to start for any gluten intolerant people out there is a few tips.

1 - always clarify that you are coeliac at restaurants, cafe etc as they have to prep meals and avoid cross contamination the best they can, plus you never know, sometimes they can do a dish that isn't GF in a GF way.

2 - due to the push of the gluten free diet, us coeliacs are benefitted as more GF produce is in supermarkets and on menus than ever before, eg. bread and pasta that tastes like normal bread and pasta!

3 - see if your local supermarkets etc have any discounts for GF people as it really eases the pain of everything being a few dollars more expensive, eg. I believe woolies has a GF discount after you supply a medical certificate from your specialist doctor.

4 - remember the places that have good GF desserts, as they are hard to find!