I have always had an obsession with food...

I have always had an obsession with food.  From my youth, cheese.  Grilled cheese sandwiches. And Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup.  When all else failed my mother knew what I would eat. But I remember voluntarily and happily eating whatever was on my plate when I was a wee tot. I know that we ate kohlrabi  (read about Kohlrabi at this link --hmm, sounds good!) a root vegetable, 

and hasenpefer  (click here to read about Hasenpfeffer) -yes, that is rabbit stew. My uncle raised rabbits for that purpose, and it is a very tasty meal.  But I digress.... my point is that as a small tot I was fed a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, and I always found meal time satisfying and often delightful.  Our little family, gathered at the table, in the large, warm kitchen every evening.

In my teenage years I did a lot of over-eating. I had the metabolism to get away with it. I can remember, once I was finished with high school, that I ate much less during the week, but Saturdays were "pig out" days...I was home, no place to go, and free to eat anything I wanted.  It was insanely easy because my mother always had 6 months worth of food in the house. Doritos, spaghetti-o's, macaroni & cheese, brownie batter, cookie dough, hamburger helper.... sometimes all of that in one day.... hard to believe that I could eat that much and still weigh 130lbs.

Anyway, I LOVE FOOD.  But in my thirties I started to not feel well,...a lot of nausea to go along with fatigue that I had suffered from for a few years. Without medical insurance I began to do some research... not so much at the library, as at a local health food store. I began to read Natural Health magazine, and subscribed after finding that, at the time, it held many very good articles. My main impetus was an unpleasant condition, most simply described as chronic diarrhea.  I sought relief through dietary adjustments. Nothing seemed to help.  Remember that I had no health insurance, and I was also reluctant to go to a doctor for answers because I did not want to have the accompanying (unpleasant) tests and how would I pay for all that! And then, in a health store in a shopping mall I found a temporary answer in a product for babies, a product called Colic. Like a bolt of lightning I made the connection! Colic is digestive distress, so a product that would help with that, and gentle enough for a baby, so why not try it! And what was the main ingredient? Acidophilus. Dumbstruck, I realized that I had known the answer all along. I needed acidophilus. Probiotics. 

Well, that was a piece of the puzzle, and acidophilus meant that I could enjoy food again, without worry. But I did not leave things at that, I continued to read health oriented magazines, and chat with the lady at the health food store, because she was very knowledgeable.  Eventually I stopped buying bread, instead only eating it in restaurants or at other people's houses.  Then I cut back on consumption of meat, not eliminating it entirely, but only consuming what meat was in meals that I bought (Stouffer's, and other frozen meals) or on pizza. That reduction of meat eating lasted about 2 years, until I decided that I needed the protein.  But, about that time, I noticed something else... I was not eating foods I had loved my entire life, like pasta, specifically spaghetti.  I was still eating a lot of processed foods, like frozen dinners, but I stopped purchasing pasta obsessively, that was a big sign of something, but I shrugged it off.

I will admit that I had read articles about Crohn's Disease (how truly awful!), and diverticulitis, celiac disease, and myriad other illnesses of the digestive system.  All of that simply horrified me! Imagine not being able to eat the very foods you love the most!! No bread, no pasta,.... Olive Garden was my favorite place to eat! Bread sticks and endless pasta bowls.... And every time I ate at Olive Garden I went straight home and slept for hours.  My body was struggling and I was not paying enough of the right kind of attention to it.  And then there was the itching.  No hives, no breakouts of any kind; the only evidence was the scratched skin.  Horrible, burning itchy skin,..but only in the winter.... 
At one point I thought sugar was the culprit.  Always a label reader, I began going through everything I ate, and reading the ingredients for the sugar content.  I cut back on sugar consumption, and the itching went away.  That worked for 2 winters, and then stopped.  Clearly there was something else, but I let life in general stop my search for answers.  I was told, by doctors and others, that everyone had the same problems I had.  Everyone has fatigue.... but everyone does not spend upward of 8 hours sleeping on a Saturday, when they have slept soundly all of Friday night.....  I was spending my weekends sleeping, quite literally.

I tried a rotation diet, in which I ate no bread or pasta, cookies, pizza, etc. for 4 days in a row, and then ate all I wanted of those things for a day.  This was in the winter, when the itching was at it's most unbearable, and (low and behold) the itching stopped.  But, still, I thought that was all I needed to do... in winter, when itching started, just rotate "wheat" out of my diet: 4 days off and 1 day on.

It was only when I realized that I had not eaten pizza in months, 11 months to be exact, that I began to consider that I would need to seek medical advice.  I had been doing it all by myself for more than 15 years!

As it happened, about that same time a number of people I knew were in treatment for various types of cancer.  I did not think I had cancer, but it made me think: what can I do? to assuage my own fears..... and I thought about my journey from chronic diarrhea, to seemingly unexplained itching, to myriad symptoms that mystified doctors. And I made a very important decision... a decision that may have saved my life, but certainly saved me from becoming gravely ill.  I decided to get a colonoscopy.  Colon cancer is 100% preventable, if you get a colonoscopy. If it is caught early enough it is curable.  (read about it by clicking on this link)  It was the only thing I could do, for myself.  (Yes, I helped myself, because I could not help my friends. I won't defend that here.)

The results, as you may surmise, did not surprise me, but they did dismay me greatly.  I have Celiac Disease. It can be deadly, but death would come only after suffering, withering, weight loss, hospitalization,.... not a pleasant prospect.

The next place I went was to a local grocery store. I wanted to see what was available in gluten free foods, and what was this going to cost.  Woodman's... fantastic. The day I went they were preparing to nearly quadruple the size of their "health food" selection.  Thankfully that meant they were, not only aware, but they were increasing their actual gluten free selection greatly.  I immediately began to overeat many of the foods I was missing, like pasta!  But a pound of gluten free noodles costs more than twice as much as that nasty wheat pasta everyone else eats.  Portion control is everything.  For health, weight, and peace of mind. In a world of chronic overeaters, please at least take this away from the time you have spent reading my story!! PORTION CONTROL IS EVERYTHING!  Have will power, and be proud of yourself for not overeating, please.

Once again I love to eat! and I love food, and this affair ain't over.... the journey continues, as you have seen in recent posts, I am still on a food journey.... I am working on a "keto cycling diet", and I will certainly write more about that...

Be well my friends!

Listen to your body! It will tell you if something is not right.....

here are a few things I can have on my keto diet: