Gluten Free Society salutes another Gluten Free Warrior. Congratulations Lorraine! You have won Glutenology – the Cookbook…
This is my story-
I spent many years trying to be healthy and fit. I got interested in health and nutrition beginning in my teens. In my twenties, as a wife and mom, I got more heavily into health and nutrition. I loved working out and eating healthy. Learning about good nutrition was my main interest.
In my twenties I began having a lot of health problems. I also lived in a neighborhood where toxic chemicals were being illegally dumped into our sewers. Many of my neighbors died of cancer during those years, and my children and myself had weak immune systems and got sick often. I still worked hard to feed us healthy and natural and I exercised almost constantly.
Whole grains were a must for us, along with all of the other foods that I was learning about that were supposed to be healthy for us.
In my thirties, my health issues got worse. I still continued to learn about good nutrition and worked on getting as healthy as possible. I had a bad weight problem, even though I ate healthy, didn’t eat much (was always dieting), and exercised for hours a day. I would get so discouraged and cry. I knew I had a slow
thyroid since my late teens, when I was tested by a doctor. But I still fought hard!
In my forties my weight was even worse and my health continued to worsen. I continued to work on good nutrition, but eventually I could no longer work out the way I used to for years. I became more sedentary.
I often felt like I was dying. I was fatigued, I hurt and was fat! I was so miserable and I wanted to be the REAL me, but I was someone I didn’t want to be. I was not living, just surviving.
I broke out in hives constantly and had two full weeks of severe PMS for two full weeks out of every month. I ate healthy, but was so sick! I saw people who put all kinds of unhealthy stuff into their bodies, and they were so much healthier than me.
Some people thought I was a hypochondriac, and would even tell me so. People saw my size and didn’t believe that I ate so little and ate healthy. All they could see was an unhealthy, miserable, very over weight woman. I just wanted to be normal! My acid reflux got very severe and the hives were driving me crazy. I went on a liver cleanse for months and felt much better. I had no more hives and acid reflux.
I learned that I could not handle cows milk products, so I switched to soy….later to find out that soy made my thyroid and other problems only worse!
The last few years, my health was continuing to get even worse, and I could hardly function. I felt as though I was dying a lot of the time. My hormones were so out of whack, I was depressed a lot, still fat, still hurting and fatigued. I wanted to know why! I ate so healthy and natural, yet I was so unhealthy!
This past winter and spring my health was getting worse. I was in pain from my neck down through the souls of my feet. I had no energy and I knew I was dying. It was hard to get out of a chair or turn over in bed. I knew my bones were in bad shape. I had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and other problems. The doctor gave me some vitamin shots and for a week I felt like a real person and couldn’t sit still. I knew that I was not absorbing nutrients form the healthy food I ate, but I had no idea why.
Right before turning 50 this past spring, I started learning about
gluten. I had a horrible, tormenting, weeping, rash for months to add to my problems. I learned it was dermatitis herpitiformis! I had been looking into the gluten situation and was 90 % sure that gluten was my problem. Then one night my husband was on the PC and looking up Celiac because it was an answer to his puzzle, but he was spelling it with an S, and it didn’t fit. When he looked it up, he was taken to a website where there was info on Celiac disease and there was a picture of the same rash that I was being tormented with for months! He showed me the pic of the rash, and we learned what causes it. I immediately went off of gluten, and within days, the rash was GONE!
I has always thought that people with gluten problems were skinny, wasting away and had constant diarrhea. I was now learning that all of my health health problems that I’ve suffered with over the years were because of gluten! I was excited!
So I went all out learning and changing my diet. I got heavily into the so called gluten free products on the market and collecting recipes that were supposed to be gluten free. I was better than I was before, but things were not right for me health wise. I learned that all of the foods that were either packed in white vinegar or contained white vinegar actually contained gluten and were making me sick, so out they went!
But still I was not quite right. I was better than before, but still not well enough. I was discouraged. Then I watched a video by Dr. Osborne and learned that ALL grains have gluten! Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but it was the TRUTH!
Sadly, I had to stop eating Pamela’s Products, my brown rice wraps and organic tortilla chips that went so well with fresh salsa. Life has certainly changed for me and the road has not been easy. But with the life saving info from Dr. Osborne, I am able to start healing, and even better, I have been able to help others with gluten problems! There is so much false information in the gluten free community and that really disturbs and saddens me. I will continue to tell everyone I can about Dr. Osborne and his life saving truth!
I have bone to rebuild, a very slow throid, hormone problems and a damaged digestive track. But at least I’m not making myself worse by eating foods that most people think are gluten free when thay are not. I have to build myself up nutritionally, and that is a long hard road, but now I have real hope!
Thank you Dr. Osborne!!
Lorraine Packer
New Jersey
If you have gone gluten free without the healthy results you expected, join Gluten Free Society and learn why here…
