My First Post on The Gluten Free Journey Website

So here I am making my first post on a website that I never thought that I would create – I website about eating gluten free. I have never been the type of person that would put any real emphasis on what I ate. That all changed the day that I was told that I have celiac disease.

Celiac disease, if you don’t know, is an autoimmune disorder that basically tells your body to attack and kill parts of your small intestine because you ate some wheat (which contains the gluten protein). It is not curable but it is treatable. The treatment is to not eat anything that contains gluten for the rest of your life. Now that sounds pretty dramatic but in some ways it is.

So what has gluten in it?

Gluten is in wheat (including kamut and spelt), barley, rye, and triticale.

So what types of things have gluten in them?

Pretty much all breads, cakes, crackers, and cereals. Wheat itself or its byproducts are also used in a lot of sauces and as a binding agent in medications (pills) and whatnot. It is pretty much everywhere.

When treating celiac disease with a gluten free diet the idea is not to eat any gluten whatsoever. Some people say that after your intestines heal that you can eat some but that does not work for everyone. We will see if that works for me someday.

The idea behind this website is so that I can share my experience in trying to live the gluten free life. At the time of writing this I have been on the gluten free diet for a little over a week and it has been hard. I am still in the discovery mode of trying to figure out what I can eat. I know it will get easier as time goes on (I keep telling myself that) but at the moment it is not too fun.

This is going to be an interesting journey. I am only 34 years old and have many years of gluten free-ness to go. We will see how it works out .

If you want to know more about me and what got me to the point of being gluten free you can head over to my About page and read some more.

If you are just starting out in the gluten free diet and are starving you can check out My Menu for a place to grab a quick bite to eat.