naturally gluten free

Gluten free: we have been here before.  Last fall when Rachel was having numerous health issues including shoulder pain, digestive discomfort, chronic constipation and UTI's, I put her on a gluten free diet.  We bought the look-alike animal crackers, mixed three kinds of flours to make cookies, and spent more money on groceries than ever.  Even though I knew the gluten free (GF) diet was also recommended for children with ADHD, I never put Josiah on it.  With his numerous food sensitivities, very few of the processed products worked for him.  He did eat the cookies and other baked goods I was able to make, but he was never completely gluten free.

Why things got more challenging for Josiah this fall is a question for which I have no real answer.  But I do know that Eric and I reached a point where we felt that trying a GF diet would be worth a shot.  However, this time I had done more reading, visited more blogs (her recipes always make my mouth water!), and talked to more people.  It seemed that trying a more natural approach to gluten free than finding numerous substitutes was in order.  I wanted something our whole family could benefit from, and the rest of us have a list of things we'd like to address in terms of our own health.  Thus, our entrance into the world of the Paleo diet.

I have to admit, the name rubs me the wrong way.  I don't believe in evolution and the whole "caveman" approach is just a bit much sometimes.  But I do think I may understand why there are people flocking to this way of eating in droves and find they are feeling better.  It virtually eliminates all processed and genetically modified food.  When you look around at where the Standard American Diet has gotten most of us, it isn't very pretty.  Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other health issues are on the rise.  Gluten sensitivity and celiac are becoming more commonplace.  Allergies (including those that are life-threatening), asthma, ADHD, and autism are almost at epidemic proportions. So many people are suffering from anxiety, depression, and other mental illness.  While I am not blaming it all on diet, I've seen enough in our food journey to know it has to be a big factor.  We are eating food, and plenty of it, but we are not really getting good nutrition.

So what is the Paleo diet?  While it is still all pretty new to me, I think I've gathered that it is gluten free, dairy free (most of the time), grain free, sugar free and even avoids legumes like beans and peanuts.  (Sorry, dad!)  What is left to eat is a beautiful, nutritious assortment of meats (grass fed are promoted to be best), fruits (in moderation), and vegetables, along with nut flours and animal/nut fats.  Before you start to think that is just way too limiting in terms of food, check out some recipe websites like this one, where I even found a recipe for peppermint patties (we can still have chocolate!)  The hardest thing to wrap my mind around is the addition of fat to the diet, but it seems that without the constant intake of high carbohydrate grains, our bodies actually do well with fat.  Cholesterol and triglyceride levels actually drop, pounds come off, and people feel better, emotionally and physically.  At least that's the testimony of those who have tried eating this way.

How "perfectly paleo" our family will be remains to be seen.  In our first three days, we've continued to eat our peanut butter, corn chips, grain fed animal products, and other offending ingredients.  My main goal right now is getting rid of gluten and keeping Josiah away from most sugar.  What is amazing is how much more we are eating real food!  I'm getting to know our grocery store's produce section a lot better.  I don't have to search ingredient lists to make sure there aren't any forbidden foods; instead, I am buying ingredients and using them to make the things we love to eat.  What we love has yet to be discovered, but already we've found several new foods (or ways of making foods) that are quite tasty.  You may notice the recipes I share here getting strange, but they really aren't if you think about how people ate in this country 100 years ago (minus the bread that was eaten and now adding coconut which wasn't exactly readily abundant then!)  Because of my aversion to the word Paleo, I will label these recipes naturally gluten free. :)  And best of all, so far our grocery bill has not gone up. 

It's really too early to tell how this will help Josiah because his body is still adjusting, but there have been glimmers of good things.  More on that to come.  Meanwhile, we can rejoice that our kids are eating things like sweet potato french fries and actually enjoying them.