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…
9 Responses
Dr. Osborne,
This is Lorraine Packer, and I just read my story on you site. I just wanted to mention some things which I did not mention in my story when I sent it in.
I feel like a NEW person. I have energy and I’m not in pain any more. My hormonal situation has greatly improved and I’ve lost almost 30 lbs. The weight is coming off since going off ALL grains. When I was still eating the so called gluten free grains and prosucts, I was at a stand still in the weight loss department. I know that I’m going to continue to take all of this weight off, FINALLY! I also know that I will rebuild bone and be the fittest and healthiest person I’ve been in decades! I may have hit 50, but I’m getting better and younger!
Thank you again,
Lorraine Packer
New Jersey
I have the exact same problems that you do except I lost alot of weight and then when i realized it was Gluten I gained a little back. But now I am gluten free (I think)and I still feel like crap I am always sick,have acid reflux, and little bumps all over by body!! What do I do? I dont have insurance so foing to the dorctor is out! Please help I cant do this much longer.
Tammy,
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I Google recipes mostly eat protein veggies and root vegetables. Always eat protein with every meal. Keep a food diary until you know your triggers. Some of my symptoms are constipation even though I cant feel it I wont go for days and trouble swallowing and a rash like rosacea on my face. Goodluck.
Hello Tammy,
I haven’t had any insurance for many years either, but I had found over the years that the doctor’s I went to and paid out of pocket for visits and tests didn’t help anyway. I refused their drugs that they wanted to give me because I knew that drugs don’t heal but only mask the symptoms and cause other harm.
I was told I had a fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Epstein Barr, high blood pressure and more. I told my doctor that I take good care of myself and eat healthy and then told me that it’s not working and that I needed all of the drugs he wanted to give me.
I left there without the drugs, very depressed and having paid $600 for no help! I went home and told my husband that I might as well crawl into bed, pull the comforter over my head and never get up again. After a few days I decided to try fighting again.
I thought I was completely gluten free at one point also, then I found out that the white vinegar I was consuming had gluten and was making me sick. That meant I had to give up the prepared horse radish,marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and pickles that I loved. Then I realized that ketchup, mustard and mayo were out also, because of the white vinegar. Then there are bottled salad dressing and so much more. I switched to raw apple cider vinegar. It helped, but something else was still wrong.
Thankfully, I watched some videos and signed up for the email newsletter from Dr.Osborne and learned that I wasn’t eating a TRUE gluten free diet. I was consuming brown rice, corn and other grains that the gluten free community claim are gluten free but are not. That’s when things really changed for me. Dr. Osborne was the only source I found that gave me all of the life saving info I needed. No doctor that I saw helped me, so I gave up on them about 5 or 6 years ago.
I strongly suggest becoming a member here and watching those videos. This information was an answer to my prayers and has saved my life.
I wish you the best,
Lorraine
Tammy,
I forgot to mention that because of damage to my digestive track from the gluten, I had to go off of all dairy. I had been off of cows milk for years, but I loved raw goat milk, goat milk cheeses amd plain goat yogurt. I have trouble digesting certain foods and believe that I have leaky gut syndrome and it is causing me to develop allergies to other foods. I was using a lot of coconut products,but I started breaking out on my hands and arms really bad. I removed all coconut products from my diet for a few weeks and now my skin keeps improving. I believe that I will be able to one day have the goat milk and coconut products again, but my digestive track needs time to heal.
Lorraine
You will heal because your on the right road.
Hi Lorraine,
I am new to the site.
I am wondering if you have any gluten free hair products?
I need to use hair spray and so far no luck in finding a true glutten free one. They say they are but they are not because they have corn or something in them.
Is there a place on the site that tells us what cleaning products, laundry soaps, dish soaps, hair care, make-up, toilet paper, and anything else touches our bodies that will guide us.
I went gluten free 3 years ago so I thought but never thought about all of these areas and so I did not get better. I think I have changed some of this but wanting to know more about what we use on our bodies and make sure that gluten is out of my body. I feel like company’s are lying to us about gluten free and it upsets me so much. Just the other day I told a company that I pray to our God that no one in their family ever gets this! So stop the lies to us about your NOT gluten products that you say are. I sure hope this will help them wake up. So many people do not know what gluten is.
I use to use Vinger all the time for everything. I stopped using it and in 4 days I did not feel so tired all the time. I was also taking supplements that had gluten in them, and I think about cross contamination now all the time. This is something I wish I could really see how they are making their product.
We have to remember that it took many years for our bodies to get this bad and we can not heal over night (unless God does it for us) I will pray for all of us that God will protect us from evil ways of the products being made.
Thank you for listening to me and I wish us all the best and healing that will last for ever.
Thanks Sally
Look into Grove collaborative. I’m going to purchase when I get enough money to stock up. They are eco friendly and may be gluten free too.