Re: [fast5] Looking for advice, please

Well you've been through a lot, for sure! Congrats on coming through it all!

I can't say for sure about your skin stuff, obviously. Some people who go gluten free do have amazing changes. For myself, I had a nerve cut in my jaw, due to some surgery I'd had a decade or more before. It made part of my face numb, which wasn't a huge deal and I didn't think about it too much. A year or so after I went GF though, the area started tingling and a lot of the nerves appear to have come back. I also stopped getting adult acne.

As for scars on the skin ... The thing that I know helps me is raw aloe. I have a plant (several now: they multiply!) and I pick one leaf, then use pieces of that leaf for a week or so. Just slather it on. It's gooey, but it just sort of evaporates or soaks in and disappears. I had a 2nd degree burn on my wrist that wasn't healing ... I put the aloe on it, and by the next day it was partially healed and after a week it was *gone* with no scar at all. It seems to promote healing in the skin (and in the gut I guess: some people have it in smoothies).

Vitamin K is said to be good too: it comes in a cream.

For other grains: wheat/barley/rye are the "gluten" grains. Spelt and some of those "old versions" of wheat are still wheat, and give the same reaction. But corn, rice, soy, buckwheat, quinoa, millet, teff, etc ... they are ok. Oats are basically ok except that they are usually mixed with wheat in the field, so you have to buy special "gluten free oats".

Many of the foods you buy though, have gluten sort of "snuck in" where you don't expect it. Like in sushi, surimi is made with wheat usually. Soy sauce has wheat. Many or most "chip" foods have wheat. So the good news is: if you go gluten-free, you won't eat nearly as much junk food!

A lot of the newer "gluten free" brands of foods are also doing a better job of making "healthy snack", since they are aiming for the health-food crowd. Mary's Gone Crackers is a nice cracker (and you can take them with you to parties). There are a few versions of nut/fruit bars that are good, and Mrs. Mays' products are just really tasty (and healthy). There are decent gluten-free versions of pasta, bread, and cookies these days though, you just have to look for them. General Mills is making a whole line of foods gluten free (Gluten-free Bisquick, brownie mix, cakes, rice crispies, rice chex). I made an outstanding (if I do say so myself) cornbread stuffed goose for Thanksgiving.

There is one caveat about going gluten free though. Some people go "mostly gluten free" and they feel better, and do fine, even though they don't bother with the little bits of gluten that are in soy sauce or beer. Other people have a kind of super-reaction ... after eating sandwiches and pasta for decades, suddenly, after they stop eating those foods, they start reacting to tiny amounts of the stuff. That hyperreactivity, for me, lasted about 3 years. It got so I had my daughter feed the chickens, because I was inhaling chicken feed and having a reaction. I don't seem to have that now, it went away. But for some people it sticks around. It is a very weird thing and made me feel a little crazy back then: no one was talking about "gluten" at all, and everyone thought I was just being a bit hypochondriac for avoiding it. But if I ate it, even a little bit of it, I got very, very sick for a few days.

By husband and daughter though, mostly don't eat gluten (it's not allowed in the house, period, even for the cat). Small amounts though don't bother them. Large amounts, like, say, a plate of lasagna, make them stick to their stomach (my daughter just "tosses her cookies" so to speak :-)

www.celiac.com has a ton of information about all this. The thinking these days is that "celiac" is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are a lot more people who react badly to wheat, but don't have celiac. They are designing tests to check for this. If you can get a celiac test, it's way better to get it, before going wheat-free. If you are in the 1% that really has classic celiac, it is way important to do stuff to heal the gut, but the tests will show negative if you aren't eating wheat.

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 6:01 AM, Susan Sloate <susan@susansloate.com> wrote:

Hello, all --

I'm one of the lurkers on this list, but I read every post and am amazed at the breadth of knowledge here - and your kindness in passing it on!

I'm now back on Fast 5 after about 7 months off (my mistake) I gained about 10 pounds! But my divorce had just been finalized, so I cut myself a little slack.) Naturally I feel a million percent better on Fast 5 - and last year got through all the holidays, from Thanksgiving to New Year's, without going off once, and still thoroughly enjoyed the eating (and didn't gain an ounce, which is a real feat during those weeks).

I've been really learning from the recent posts about gluten and seriously wondering whether I should go off it myself to see what kind of difference there is. But I have a specific question I'm hoping someone can answer - all your ideas are welcome:

I'm 54, in generally excellent health, but 40 pounds overweight and obviously this is my first health concern. I do take Synthroid daily (at low levels – 50 and 75 mcg) and am interested in the recent discussion about switching to natural. What my endocrinologist says usually is that given that I alternate, one day on 50 mcg and one day on 75, it might be trickier for me to switch to a generic brand of Synthroid or another medication altogether. However, will bring it up at my next appointment, now that I hear what's going on with people on the list.

What troubles me, though, is that on my arms, legs and torso there are lots of marks left over from rashes or skin issues that cropped up long ago and generally went away, but the marks themselves remain. They don't itch, aren't raised and aren't anything like skin tags; they're right IN my skin, and are really nothing but souvenirs of skin issues I've had in the past. They're not very pretty to look at, and obviously I'd like them to go away.

They've had plenty of time to heal but have not disappeared.

My question to you is: Could there be some nutrition-related thing that's keeping them from disappearing, as they ordinarily should?

The current rash I have is concentrated around my waist and mid-torso. Has been itching for some months now (I forget how long), and though I've tried hydro-cortisone cream applied topically, it lessens the itch but doesn't seem to take it away or end the rash.

If anyone has ideas, I'd be grateful to hear them. I am not diabetic or even pre-diabetic (I had the glucose tolerance test early this year - the one that lasts for HOURS - and it showed very clearly that my blood sugar was in the absolutely normal range.) So it shouldn't be that.

But if I'm eating something that's perpetuating this - and I eat HORRIBLY, I'll be the first to tell you - I'm the world's worst junk-food junkie - so would really appreciate your suggestions.

It's very inspiring to read the stories here of people feeling so much better just by doing Fast 5 and changing things in their diets and supplements. I wonder if you realize how much help you're giving those of us who are usually silent? I know for me, reading these posts is what keeps me doing Fast 5, even if I have yet to get it right in terms of WHAT I eat – at least the WHEN I eat part is being taken care of properly.

Also, if we're going to go gluten free - can we eat other grains like rye, or is that also a problem?? (And how about things like corn chips - does that count as gluten free? A friend of mine cut out wheat but continued to eat potatoes, rice and things like Fritos. Felt a million percent better, and she had lots of health issues.)

Thanks to everyone for your ideas ... looking forward to hearing from you!

Susan

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