I found out I have celiac disease about 18 months ago. My daughter found out she had celiac a couple of years before that and said I should get tested. My PCP talked me out of it. Finally after losing more than 20 lbs and my wife telling me I was turning grey, I got the test. It was positive and the number was vey high! Scoping my small intestine confirmed it. I was also severely anemic.

I fired my PCP shortly after that and I heard recently he “left our clinic” to work at his wife’s health food and supplements store.

We cleaned the wheat out of our house and I went gluten free. Six months later another test had me in the normal range and my iron was coming back. I am no longer anemic, my color came back, unfortunately so did the weight.

The best way to start gluten free is to eat things that don’t have gluten naturally. Most of what you can eat in the grocery store comes from around the perimeter of the store. Whole foods ( fruits, vegetables, meat and other natural protein are best and the easiest to pick from. Once you get into the interior aisles, you really have to read labels.

It’s really time consuming, but it gets easier the more you do it. Also, get the GF app. You can scan barcodes and it will tell you if the food has gluten in it.

When someone tells me they could never eat gluten free I just tell them gluten was killing me and once I found that out cutting out gluten was easy.

I can still smell the fresh bread and cinnamon rolls, smile and remember how good they used to taste. I don’t have to eat them anymore. 😊

Btw, Udi’s make’s very good bread and bagels, expensive tho.