Update on my husbands IBS

Removing gluten from our lives is going relatively well. We found several types of gluten free baking mixes at Woods and at Aldi, the Aldi mixes were a lot better than the ones we found at Woods, I felt, and gluten free brownies are AMAZING!! Woods does sell a good gluten free bread in their frozen section, though, at a whopping $5 for half a loaf. Wal-mart has a small section of gluten free items, including pasta, organic macaroni and cheese, cereal, and a few more baking mixes. The pasta, made from rice, cooks faster than wheat noodles and faster even than what the box said so they turned out kind of mushy but other than that they were edible. Those are the stores that are closest to us, but they have more choices in bigger stores like Hy-Vee and Price Cutter.

When you have IBS, it really is hard to tell what is going on. You could be having problems with an ulcer, a gluten allergy that affects your intestines, a lactose allergy, or a combination of the three. My husband has, we believe, a gluten allergy and an ulcer.  For anyone that has HAD to change their lifestyle for a gluten allergy, they know it can be difficult. First, you pretty much can’t eat ANYTHING. EVERYTHING has gluten in it. Then you start figuring it out, networking and learning where the best places around are to get gluten free items. But they still don’t taste the same as gluten items. And it’s hard when everyone else around you is eating gluten. Boss brought donuts to work? Too bad, you can’t have any. Your favorite taco truck is in town and everyone is raving about the blueberry empanadas, but you have to have a taco on a corn tortilla. Maybe you even look for ways to try to get out of it, like discovering that peptic ulcers can mimic gluten and lactose intolerance. Peptic ulcer treatment excludes acidy foods, alcohol, caffeine, soda, pretty much anything that can irritate your stomach. But like I said before, it could be a combination of things, not one thing specifically. With all the terrible things we eat these days, it is very likely that we all have a least a small ulcer. But if you are one of the people who think you may have a peptic ulcer instead of being gluten free, please don’t just switch back to gluten. Do your things to treat the ulcer and when you have that under control, THEN you can test with small amounts of gluten.  Remember, just because you don’t have reaction the next day, or even two days later, gluten builds up in the intestines and can sometimes take a few days for it start affecting you again. Take it slow and don’t just jump back onto the gluten train. You’re body will thank you. :)