Today is the start of Coeliac (not to Americans: we don't drop the "o" out!) Awareness Week for 2012, and is the inspiration for today's post. I thought it might be good to share some of my thoughts and feelings about this topic - especially in the hope that someone might read it and be inspired to help or seek help if you find yourself in the same boat.
I was officially diagnosed in October 2004. It is scary to think that I've now been gluten free (apart from the occasional mistake!) for 7.5 years. Up to that point, I struggled with my health: all through school, university, and some of my working life. Many of us take our health for granted, but when things just aren't quite right, you become aware of how massively that little bit of difference can make.
The old adage of "you are what you eat" is fairly accurate: our bodies' cells require all sorts of nutrients from a wide variety of sources to keep going. Proteins (for example, for cell membrane formation), carbohydrates (the energy powerhouse for our bodies), fats (that fish you ate just a little while ago with its omega-3? That omega-3 is a type of fat!), water...
When your body decides somehow to reject one of the things you're eating, it does amazing and bad things to your entire body. My body, for some reason, finds gluten (that sticky protein in wheat, oats, rye and barley) to be extremely toxic (actually, that isn't strictly true, since the mechanism is much more complex than that, but it'll do as a good first approximation... Heh, typical of a good engineer, will assume a horse is a sphere to make the math easier! :-D ). That seems to be the case all the way since probably sometime very soon after I was born, and has been that way the entire time since.
After my diagnosis and going gluten-free, I've been in significantly better health. And the health isn't just physical, it's emotional and mental health as well. It should be pretty obvious why, if you think about it: if your body is rejecting some of the food you eat, and therefore not absorbing all the nutrients you need for proper functioning, of course your emotional and mental health will suffer. These are, quite naturally, based on the operation of the cells in your brain (neurones, which form interconnected loops and chains from which we get the term "neural network"); if your neurones aren't functioning 100%, then naturally whatever your neurones are doing isn't going to be 100% either!
Anyway, it feels fantastic to be in good health! If you aren't in good health, or your health is not quite as good as you find in a lot of those around you, you could do worse than getting yourself checked. Yes, the gluten-free diet is more expensive. Yes, it's annoying having to ask about ingredients everywhere you go. Yes, it's sometimes depressing to miss out at shared meals (though this isn't too much the case for me these days: my wife's family and my own family are pretty gluten savvy these days -- we've trained them well! -- and often make things gluten free, likewise at church functions... plus I love to cook so I'll usually take along something scrumptious that I can eat).
But at the end of the day, a little bit of depression about these things is a lot better, than, say, a lot of depression and other sickness caused by not being gluten free! And besides, when I do feel down from those more minor things, it's an excuse for yet another lovely hug from my gorgeous wife :-D .
And I'm not even mentioning the massive increased risk of bowel cancer and osteoporosis and other nutrient non-absorption diseases caused as side effects of not being gluten free.
So, happy Coeliac Awareness Week 2012! If you want more info, visit the Coeliac Society of Australia.
PS. A big thanks to the large supermarket chains who over last and next week have lots of gluten-free specials! We've certainly stocked up (like we do every year)!
