Problems Only Gluten Free People Understand

You can’t eat normal bread and baked goods.
You don't need to be reminded of the odd flavors and textures.

You went through lots of trial and error to finally find the perfect muffin recipe, and when you finally found it, your wheat eating friends or family made the whole batch disappear in one day.

Sadness

You’ve also had more than your share of pathetic store bought products. You can read about some of the gf products I’ve tried HERE, HERE and HERE.

Then you feel guilty eating something different in front of everyone, because you didn’t bring enough to share with everyone. As a kid you were taught not to eat food in front of people unless you could share with everyone.

 You realize you have a sharing problem now, because gf food is expensive, and you wish people who can eat wheat would not gobble up your carrot cake. Sometimes when you label your dessert with a tag that says “Gluten free” what it really means is stay away! This is mine!”

ALL the Questions

People see what you’re eating and ask questions you are tired of answering.

(Don’t get me wrong. I’m all about awareness. But I’ve had this conversation so many times!)

What’s that? It’s gluten free bread.

Why do you eat gluten free?

Sometimes you fear that people are judging you for eating gluten free. Do people think you went gluten-free to be trendy, think you are healthy because you are thin, or think you went gluten-free to lose weight? None of these are true. 

You are self-conscious because you’ve seen comedians making wisecracks at gluten-free food and the people who eat it, but you’ve almost never ran into a judgy person in real life. (I have heard people say they think celiac is real, but gluten sensitivity is not. His or her friends went gf to be trendy, and felt better off gluten, but his or her reasoning was that their friends would feel better because they were eating less carbs, regardless of gluten.)

Are you celiac? No, I’m gluten intolerant. My body doesn’t like it when I eat gluten.

What happens when you eat gluten?

This question always makes me pause. Invariably, we’re both eating as we have this conversation, and I’m not sure how much detail to go into. I start out really vague: “Severe GI distress.”

Why can’t your body handle gluten?

This is a tough one. Medically speaking there are no solid answers. Celiac is easier to diagnose, and so there are more studies on celiac than Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity. You are becoming well versed in all the theories:

Unhealthy gut due to overuse of antibiotics and lack of probiotics in the diet.

Unhealthy gut due to too many refined carbs and not enough nutrient dense foods.

(Celiac patients have multiple vitamin deficiencies, which brings up an interesting chicken-or-egg question: Did the celiac cause the malnutrition due to the gut’s inability to absorb vitamins, or did the malnutrition in the diet cause celiac and the gut’s inability to digest gluten?)

Unhealthy gut due to GMOs, and all the chemicals they spray on GMO crops.

Unhealthy gut due to faulty genetics.

Unhealthy gut due to all of the above!

Another reason I personally am self-conscious about being gluten free is that early on, a well-meaning person was teasing me and asked if I couldn’t handle gluten because I ate too much white bread. That remark hit home because I used to LOVE white bread. I still love white bread, I just don’t love what it does to me, and so I don’t eat it! Sometimes I feel guilty, as if my poor diet caused my gluten-intolerance. Then I don’t want to admit to anyone that I am gluten free, because they might judge me for being such a horrible person and not taking better care of my body. (I almost don’t want to admit that last sentence because reading it in print makes me see how ridiculous it is. People don’t know what causes gluten intolerance. Why would they assume the worst? I don’t judge diabetic people that way, even though type 2 diabetes is often caused by obesity, among other factors. I’m admitting this fear in the hopes that it will help someone else to move on, like I have.) And while I’m on the subject, no, I don’t think everyone on the planet should go gf, and I won’t judge someone for eating wheat. Back to the list:

You are jealous of people who can eat gluten, and have to remind yourself just because they can eat wheat doesn’t mean they are healthy. A lot of people have healthy problems that are not visible on the surface.

You secretly wonder if your gut will ever heal to the point that you could eat wheat again. Maybe organic wheat?

You have so many problems you are going to save them for another post! 

Sneak peek: I'm going to talk about restaurants. Let me know if I missed a problem, and it may show up in Part 2.