gluten free awareness month!

Hello dear readers. This month is (unofficially) gluten free awareness month. It's officially celiac awareness month in Canada and they are trying to change it officially here in the US from Oct to May. So this weekend the good people at GIG an Pamela's Products are challenging everyone (specifically those who don't already) to live gluten free for this weekend. It helps raise awareness of what people living with gluten intolerances have to face everyday and it just helps raise awareness of this disease. Did you know probably only 5% of people with gluten intolerances have been diagnosed! We need doctors to know about this problem so people can get the proper treatment and not be poisoning their bodies with a food that hurts them anymore!

I have had to be gluten free since I was 17, so this year is my 8th anniversary of living gluten free! I'll admit for a while I wasn't 100% gluten free because it was hard, especially in college; but for the past three years I haven't touched gluten at all. My health went crazy a few years ago so I had to vow to not eat any gluten again and I haven't. Its gotten so much easier in the past couple of years because of the raised awareness of gluten intolerance. I've found restaurants that have gf options, there are stores dedicated to only gf foods and tons of bakeries are starting to do gf things!

When I started my gf diet in high school almost no one knew what celiac or even gluten was. I would get really frustrated when I did things with friends because it felt like I couldn't eat anything, and the stuff I could eat tasted horrible. So I existed off of rice and meat and vegetables, which is healthy but can get boring because you feel like you eat the same thing all time. We tried to bake breads but they never turned out well. I couldn't figure out how to even bake cookies, COOKIES! I love cookies, so that was sad. But now there are tons of mixes out there to help you bake cookies and cakes and even pastries. And there are tons of people who are gluten free and experiment to make delicious meals and desserts!

I envy the people who start their gf diets now because it honestly is so much easier to find information and foods then it was eight years ago! But I know its still a scary new thing to take on and takes a lot of time to figure out. But you can do it! And you will feel so much better and healthier. If you do have an auto-immune disease or gluten intolerance isn't it great that we can just change our diet to heal our bodies and don't have to be taking a medicine for the rest of our lives! I try to look at this as a blessing and not a curse because I am healthy and eat healthy and enjoy the foods I eat.

So go out there and eat gluten free this weekend! And if you suspect you have a gluten intolerance get to a doctor and get it tested because letting it go on can really be detrimental to your health!