A friend pointed out to me that she has Rheumatoid Arthritis (which I’ve written about recently), and that under the care of her doctor, she has eliminated wheat from her diet to control her RA symptoms – because they’re triggered by a wheat intolerance. So I’ve been doing a lot of searches on the subject, which will be showing up in my regular links lists tonight.
I really need to talk to my doctor about wheat intolerance and the link to RA, because there’s a lot of information there about symptoms that sounds strikingly familiar. But from everything I’m reading, simply cutting wheat out of my diet without getting tested for wheat intolerance first wouldn’t be a good thing at all, because I would need to carefully supplement my nutrition at the same time, or I’d have other problems, so it’s not something I should just jump in and do.
But this gives me some hope that maybe if this is the source of the inflammation and is aggravating my joints and lungs, I could manage my health issues without long-term medication and maintenance, which would be awesome. Not that going on a wheat-free diet sounds easy if that’s the ultimate solution, but the medication route certainly has it’s bad points.
Yes, you probably would have to supplement your diet but not because I think eliminating wheat would be the reason. I don’t think there is much nutrition in wheat that you wouldn’t get elsewhere.
Wheat is still new to us as a species and western people eat too much of it, causing many log term health problems. RA is one of them, skin rashes, bloating and digestive problems are others.
Oatcakes are a good alternative to bread but pick Pattersons or Nairns, ones without wheat, also oat-based breakfast cereals are good for breakfast and if you are dairy intolerant try with a fruit smoothie if you don’t want soya or rice milk. Wheat free pasta, rice and potatoes have all replaced wheat in my diet and you quickly find tasty alternatives. It is well worth making the effort to modify your diet but don’t expect instant results.
Wheat, like all seeds (including nuts) contains phytic acid which severely inhibits the digestive system’s ability to absorb many nutrients. Soak seeds and nuts for 12hrs in slightly acidified water -a dash of vinegar will do. Discard the soak water and you will have food virtually free of phytates. Alternatively sprout your seed and/or nuts for even more nutritous food. As a consequence of the fermentation process, sourdough breads have greatly reduced phytate content.