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Allergy Awareness

I am so excited to be travelling and working in New York CIty, and yesterday had the pleasure of meeting Danyelle Demchock of www.glutenfreeandgorgeousdetox.com/. Not only is this wonderful woman a professional dancer and certified holistic health coach, she is a recovered gluten sensitive lass who has formed a business based around helping people through the conversion to gluten free (and GORGEOUS) life! Given that two of the four people in my home have a gluten intolerance, it’s also a topic close to my heart!

Danyelle was a speaker at Jena la Flamme's Pleasure Immersion program also in New York City, a group whose purpose is to reconnect women to the fact that weight loss and positive body image steeped in accessing what gives you pleasure in the world is the only way to permanently and easily lose excess weight.

She was invited to speak about our friend gluten because one of the main indicators of possible gluten sensitivity is weight gain or inability to lose weight.

So what exactly is gluten? The word itself gives you a clue. Say the words gluten and glue and it becomes a little more obvious that gluten is a glutinous or "glue-y" material (think flour + water = glue) that helps our breads rise and is used in many a processed food for binding, rising and texture. Gluten is a protein found in most grains, including rye, wheat, spelt, kamutz, triticale, graham, farro, semolina and barley.

Danyelle shared with the group that approximately 40-60% of our entire population is either gluten insensitive or intolerant, with about 1 in 100 people suffering from a full-blown gluten allergy called Celiac's disease. In Celiac's disease, the intestinal wall is broken down and flattened out causing malabsorption of nutrients into the bloodstream, often leading to leaky gut syndrome where pieces of undigested food are released into the bloodstream, causing an inflammatory response in the body. Danyelle described this as "like a third degree burn to your intestinal wall". Gluten intolerance is a less severe, but still highly inflammatory reaction which is likened to a "second degree burn".

So how do you know if you are intolerant to gluten?

The most common symptoms of gluten sensitivity are weight gain, fatigue, depression and digestive issues (stomach pains, gas pains, bloating). Other symptoms can include acne, hormone disrupt including thyroid disease and swollen glands. The tricky piece with diagnosing gluten intolerance is that there is most commonly a 12 to 24 hours delay in onset of symptoms.

So where do you find gluten?

In all foods containing those grains including breads, crackers, cereals, pastas, pizzas. There are also some surprising hidden gluten in lots of foods like sauces and gravies, soups and broths, salad dressings and marinades, spice blends, coffees, dairy products, vinegars and even some liquors.

As our family found, there are many ways to test for Celiac's disease and even gluten intolerance, but Danyelle told the group the tests are often inaccurate. She does suggest a simple 14 day detox: completely eliminate all foods containing gluten for a full 14 day period, and on the 15th indulge in all of your favourite gluten-containing foods, then judge the effect based on your own symptoms. Your body will soon tell you if gluten makes it happy ... or not!

The incentive for giving this a go are decreased stress on the body (a less stressed body loses weight and decreases fat storage), better digestion (better absorption of nutrients, no bloating, less farting and burping!), a stronger immune system (in turn meaning less sickness and clearer skin) and vibrant and contagious energy for life!

For our family, after the initial inconvenience of sourcing gluten free options that we actually liked, turns out that eliminating gluten eliminated the headaches, tummy pains and digestive issues of Miss 5, but also (along with removing its lactose-containing dairy friends) led to full recovery from asthma, eczema, and chronic sinusitis.

If you are up for the 14 day gluten free challenge, make sure you are prepared for all meals and stay away from the many packaged highly processed gluten free options in our supermarkets – these are only marginally better than their gluten containing friends. Stick to whole foods swaps (the closer to nature the better), and trial whole food GF options for breads and crackers – there really is some yummy ones out there!

For more information on GF lifestyle and to download her free gluten free cheat sheet and other tips on maintaining a gluten free lifestyle go to Danyelle Demchock's website http://www.glutenfreenandgorgeousdetox.com/ .