Monday, May 4, 2009

Last week of school!!

I haven't posted on this blog for about two years. I almost completely forgot about it until this morning. I decided I needed something else to occupy my time. A project, let's say, that I can put effort into when I am bored or need to simply write about something. Since my last post I have moved out of my parents' and now live with some other college girls in a house. The past year and a half have been really hard--emotionally, physically, mentally--because of school, getting along with new people, and eating. I was officially diagnosed with gluten intolerance by having a blood test done in January 2008. I did fine for 6 months until my birthday. I'm not sure what happened after that, but the summer was really hard for me and I ate way too much--gluten, sweets, anything. In the fall of 2008 I continued to have a really hard time. This spring has only gotten worse. One of my roommates is becoming a nurse and recently did a research presentation on gluten intolerance. She told me some of what she found out. Apparently even though my symptoms are mild when I eat gluten I still need to avoid it at all costs--even if it's dusting on Doritos or soy sauce or some type of vinegar--because I can be damaging my intestines. Eating gluten can also lead to diabetes, kidney failure, malnutrition, and cancer, among other things. Cancer? Diabetes? Even though I have only mild symptoms? Say what? And what do I get to eat? Meat (check label on packaged ones), dairy (but no icecream with cookie dough in it, and no waffle cones!), vegetables (but I avoid corn), soup (but few canned ones, because wheat is used to thicken), fruit (this is the easiest), legumes (beans and lentils), rice and other random grains (but no oats or barley, which includes malt, often found in like, every packaged thing), and sweets (though, being hypoglycemic means my body hates sweets, even though my tounge loves them!). Yes, this may sound like a lot of food, and in fact, it is. This diet is extremely healthy because you're eating a lot of raw, whole, natural foods. Next time you're at your local super market and buying your regular food items, check the ingredients list (everyone should do this all the time anyway). Look for "wheat, wheat gluten, food starch, wheat protien, barley, malt syrup, barley syrup, oat, oat flour, wheat flour, gluten," among other things. Gluten is in a lot of things that you wouldn't think of--dusting on Doritos and other chips, soy sauce, beer...

I need to start cooking again, because I haven't in about two weeks and have been doing really bad. Hopefully after finals are over I can get back into my normal schedule. I need to get back on schedule...I'm also asking for a camera for my birthday and hope to be posting pictures of things I cook and off things going around on campus. Lastly (for today at least), I am...wow got distracted and totally forgot what I was going to say.

:)