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You Are What You Wheat

The medicine prescribed for me by my newly acquired NHS doctor wasn't intended to improve my mood.  It was intended to quell the queasiness I'd been feeling for weeks whenever I ate anything.  Happily, as a result of decreased queasiness, improved digestion or unintended side effects, over the past few days, I have been feeling more optimistic about life.  Which is a good thing, because my medication came with bad news.

I've had intermittent digestive problems  for a couple of years now. (Really, do you want the details?  No? I didn't think so.)  I finally got motivated to see a doctor when the aforementioned queasiness began; because I had lost all desire to eat, I was beginning to lose weight.

Medication seems to have solved the immediate queasiness problem, but to investigate the longer term problem, the doctor wants me to go wheat-free for 4-5 weeks.

Two words: Christmas Cookies.

I haven't yet managed a wheat free day.  Wheat snuck  into my casserole as a thickener for a creamy soup.  Then, friends and I had reservations for a Christmas dinner at a pub owned by Heston Blumenthal (an English celebrity chef), and I wasn't going to miss that.  Today I realized much too late that I should have requested a special meal on the plane.  My only option for lunch was a sandwich - and I was hungry!

But if I am honest, I will confess - when I do eat wheat, I know it almost immediately.  So I'm actually feeling motivated to avoid it as much as I can.

Let's list some of the things that I can eat instead.
Kellogg's Crunchy Nut
Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Cheetos
Triple Cooked Chips

If I decide to give up wheat forever, two things will obviously have to happen.  A) I'll have to watch out for substitutions.  Replacing low fat whole wheat bread with french fries has health drawbacks of its own.  And B) I'm going to have to start cooking more since I won't be able to trust as many prepared foods.

Food is going to require a lot more effort from now on, but tonight, I'm eating Cheetos.

Comments

  1. I never asked how the "celebrity chef" dinner was?

    ReplyDelete

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