“So, are you actually gluten free?”
- Sarah Aitken
- Mar 17, 2016
- 4 min read
This is a sentence I hear nearly every time I tell someone new that I am gluten free. And every time I answer yes, I’m actually gluten free. Coeliac, in fact. No, it’s not a lifestyle choice, or a fad – it’s my life, for life.
I’ve been a medically diagnosed coeliac now for about 13 years, since I was formally diagnosed by a gastroenterologist when I was 22. It took nearly a year for them to work out what was wrong with me after I fell ill one day – I went to bed one night feeling fine, then woke up the next morning with what I thought was a stomach bug. Unwavering nausea, except it didn’t go away…for ten months. Imagine feeling like you’re going to throw up all day, every day. I had every test under the sun and my doctor told me I had ‘anxiety’, so put me on anti-depressants and told me to relax.
I tried everything to ‘relax’ but nothing helped, and the more time that passed with me feeling like I wanted to spew, the more anxious I actually got! Finally my doctor referred me to a gastroenterologist and within five minutes he’d arranged for me to head off to hospital to have a gastroscopy and colonoscopy (hooray, both ends!)
A week after my tests I received a phone call from the specialist to tell me my results – he was ‘really sorry, but you’ve tested positive for coeliac disease’. He was really apologetic to be delivering the bad news, but what he didn’t realise is this was the news I’d been waiting for – my sickness was real!
Fast forward 13 years and I’m on a strict gluten free diet and I feel 100%. Back when I was originally diagnosed I didn’t even know what being ‘coeliac’ was, and things like gluten free bread and pasta barely existed. I used to have to order my gluten free bread from the local health food shop, and return a few days later to collect my little brick of gluten free goodness! Nowadays the gluten free food available is incredible, and I love exploring the local café scene to see what’s on offer along with experimenting with my own gluten free recipes.
More recently, it seems more people have caught on to the gluten free lifestyle and people who aren’t medically diagnosed coeliac are choosing to follow a gluten free diet. This is both good and bad in my opinion – good, being that people are feeling better, eating more fresh fruit and veg and potentially less processed food and heavy, carb laden meals. Bad however, as the gluten free ‘fad’ has made some people doubt the genuine need of a good number of us to eat gluten free not just to feel better, but to avoid such side effects as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and potentially infertility and bowel cancer. People say ‘come on, can’t you just have a little bit?’ – well no, I can’t. As much as I’d like to, I can’t have a little bit (and believe me, I’d love to as I remember what that Tim Tam tastes like!). And don’t get me started on those that say to me ‘Oh, you’re one of THEM’ (cue death stares!).
I don’t enjoy being ‘that person’ when I go for dinner with friends, or going on a first date and having to admit I’ve got dietary requirements to my potential suitor so ‘can we please not go to that amazing Italian restaurant you’ve heard about that I know has no gluten free options as I did my standard google search beforehand’ (oh hey, high maintenance chick!). I also don’t enjoy the fact that people don’t always take my illness seriously because a lot of people are saying they are ‘gluten free’ but then eating 4 slices of pizza washed down with a pint of beer. Rightio.
For those people that believe they might be coeliac, self-diagnosis can be a dangerous path to head down. This is due to the fact that the whole idea of the gluten free diet is to heal the intestines and repair the villi that have been damaged by the disease. So once you have followed the gluten free diet long enough, the villi will be repaired and be healthy again (but don’t be fooled – one fall off the gluten free wagon and you’ll be feeling it in a major way!). So if I was tested now after following my gluten free diet, I should come back negative to the disease despite the fact that I’m 100% coeliac. So if you self-diagnose and put yourself on a gluten free diet but then head to get tested, you’ll come back negative and potentially start the whole painful cycle again because you’ll be reaching for that gluten-filled breadstick in celebration!
If you believe you might be coeliac or have issue with gluten, PLEASE see your doctor so they can properly diagnose you. When I was diagnosed, hardly anyone was gluten free (or at least they didn’t know about it!) so the doctors didn’t think to test for it, hence why it took so long for them to work out why I was so ill. Nowadays it’s far more widely recognised, so get tested properly and find out for sure – that way you won’t incorrectly come back with a negative result if you eventually do decide to get checked out.
However, if you know you’re not coeliac but just enjoy eating gluten free, there’s plenty to choose from! Gluten free food in 2016 is awesome and cafes and restaurants everywhere are super accommodating to the gluten free diet. Having eaten my gluten free way across this great country of ours, I can personally testify to the quality and variety of gluten free food available.
It took me awhile to get here with a fair few stuff-ups on the way, but the way I feel now compared to the way I felt then makes me never want to ‘cheat’. GF 4 Lyfe!
This week is Coeliac Awareness Week (13-20 March 2016), so go and and hug your local coeliac! Also check out the Coeliac Australia website for everything you need to know about living life gluten free.
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