My personal experience with Gluten Intolerance started in the 1990's. It took me until 2009/2010 to understand why I felt so horrible eating gluten by just taking a break from it after a Juice Fast. For decades I had huge dark circles under my eyes, which everyone kept saying my eye makeup was running. I thought pasta and pizza grew inside the belly and avoided it because it made my belly so distended. I thought it was normal to look pregnant after every meal. It became normal to have irritable bowel, cramping, and urgency for bathrooms any time of the day. I was often exhausted and needed naps during the day. This is the "Spiritual Staff of Life", how is this so?
When I went gluten free my life changed. This was before it became a trend. I often felt sorry for those who called themselves "Celiac" as a hereditary disease. Over the next 5 years gluten intolerance became more understood. I taught classes on this at the Wellness Education Center and Natural Grocers from 2012-2017 as we explored what were glutenous foods, food intolerance testing, gluten free alternatives, and gluten free cooking classes. The one thing I knew for certain is that we "all" felt so much better! The other thing I knew is that gluten free alternatives are not necessarily "healthy" as they are filled with refined flours and not so natural ingredients. When you eat a cracker or bread with gluten it is simple ingredients like: flour, salt, yeast, oil, or baking powder. When you play with gluten it plays nice, elastic, rises well, and glues together well.
My other journey began when I was validated that my gluten free choices were not in my head. I looked back at 10 years of having symptoms "before it was a thing". Then when I did Quantum Biofeedback around 2014 with my friend Nancy at New Day Quantum Biofeedback it would show up on my session, but she didn't understand what that "CELIAC" word meant so she didn't mention it. One day she said, you know, this shows up for you. And I said why yes, I have that reaction when I eat gluten. I never knew it was something we could fix..
So fast forward to 2023. I have this new Quantum Biofeedback Device that can be used to balance any health "stressors". I also had a trip planned to Budapest for 6 days of the International Quantum Biofeedback conference in October and a side trip to Croatia. With all my heart, soul, mind, and belly. I wanted to eat bread in Europe. I wanted a Croissant. I worked on my mind, the Quantum, and my digestion. It was like a workout to get ready for the trip.. I started the end of the summer and worked on everything weekly. Most of my clients say they can eat bread in Europe. I was timid, afraid, and unsure. But I'm not gluten intolerant, I am Celiac on the spectrum. I know within an hour if I have been glutinated and suffer for 24 hours. I have trouble in restaurants with cross-contamination. My last restaurant exposure was August 2023. It was serious and who want's to travel with those symptoms.
When I arrived at 9am in Budapest, I could not check into my room til noon. So I had to go find a restaurant to eat, internet, and hang so I didn't need to lug my backpack around. The only one within a few blocks was French.. They didn't really have gluten free options. I was nervous, but I did it. No issues. And I sat for 2 hours, then I had more bread, then more bread. Maybe I was delusional. So I went out the rest of the day knowing that if I had made a mistake, I should just have a bit more each meal so I could binge. Well- no issues. I had meals with my International Quantum Colleagues and they all said the same thing "GLUTEN FREE IS NOT A THING ---IN EUROPE". The grains are ancient and the food systems are clean. They don't use Round-up as studies have stated how harmful it is to health. I ate breads five times a day for 2 weeks. Croissants daily. Sourdough, french bread, pizza, toast, bread and pumpkin seed oil, gnocchi, stews, and more pizza. Once again a binge and a LOVE for gluten. ZERO symptoms. I felt like Julia Roberts in the Eat, Pray, Love moment with Pizza in Italy. One of my last meals was huge and I at a half a loaf fresh homemade bread dipped in fresh pressed pumpkin seed oil at a small Croatian Restaurant outside Plitvice National Park. No issues and delightful. Photos: Homemade Bread with Pumpkin Seed Oil in Croatia, Pizza is in Croatia, Tapas food selection with bread was in Budapest.
So now I am home and trying gluten again. But only Einkorn flour from Jovial (Italy) or products from Europe or Italy.. They are in the store! Â Einkorn has way LESS gluten than our hybridized grains. I have had Gnocci from Italy with no problem. I have had a really nice fettuccine at Natural Grocers and The Farmstand from Italy with no problem. I am excited about this new chapter and wanted to share with those of you who have also been plagued by this experience.
My opinion is the reason we are all gluten intolerant is 4 fold:
The United States plants super-hybridized wheat with extra extra inflammatory gluten.
We have wrecked our microbiome with excess use of antibiotics in humans, in livestock, and our food choices are full of sugar and refined foods which do not feed our microbiome. We need vegetable fiber to feed a healthy microbiome. High meat or sugar diets cause overgrowth of other harmful bacteria.
We have wrecked the strength of our intestinal track by not eating enough food with vitamins and minerals to keep it strong. Then we eat foods that cause so much inflammation it gets leaky and creates allergies.
The United States sprays the crap out of non-organic fields with the weed killer Round-Up (glyphosate-click here) before planting and to desiccate (early harvest) while at the end of the growing season. This stuff never really leaves the soil even though the peak activity lasts a few weeks.
Round-Up (Glyphosate) has more than 4 ways it wrecks our health and kills us slowly:
It is a chelator and thus removes minerals from our soil (which makes our plants have less nutrient value) and our ALSO de-mineralizes our intestinal tract (which makes our tissues weak, inflamed and leaky).
It is anti-microbial and thus kills the micro-organisms in the soil (which help the foods obtain nutrients) and ALSO the microbiome in our gut.
It affects the Shikamate pathway which is in our microbiome and reduces our ability to detoxify and is highly linked to Autism Spectrum and Cancers. Detoxification is important
And all by itself, it causes cancer, lymphoma, auto-immune, allergies, and is just plain toxic. It has permeated the air and waterways around agricultural areas that use this product. And by the way, the non-organic grain industry is "required" to use it to sell their grain. I got that straight from a wheat farmer in Eastern Montana. Eastern Montana has a high rate of Autism spectrum from the exposure of mothers and children to this toxic substance. There are 1000's of lawsuits against this company for health.
4 Solutions to reverse and detoxify this poison:
Eat an organic, whole food, high plant based diet. Plant fiber feeds the microbiome.
There are 2 products on the market that help to detoxify Round-up/glyphosate from the intestinal lining by ion exchange. If you are a fan of Purium, the Biome-Medic (with coupon link) is helpful to detoxify glyphosate and it also comes in one of the shakes. The other product I like ALSO re-mineralizes the gut lining to make it strong and reduce inflammatory allergens in addition to detoxifying. Click here for this gut healing protocol
Eat fermented foods or some high quality probiotics to strengthen digestive health. My 2 favorite probiotics to alternate are included in the gut healing protocol.
I used Quantum Biofeedback to reduce my "allergic" sensitivity to wheat and gluten while working on re-training the "Celiac" electronic signature in my body to normal. I also worked on repairing the intestinal lining (as true Celiac has some damage). It might take 3-5 sessions, but it did work. Allergy-Desensitization is exciting!
Only consume gluten from out of the country. Even good organic companies in the USA sometimes have contamination from glyphosate or the grain has "extra abnormal gluten".
Be Well and Be the Change..
Please forward to friends and family and especially spread the word about Round-Up as it needs to be outlawed in this country as it has been everywhere else.
Kim