Hey everyone!

All grains contain gluten, and my western diet contained a lot of wheat gluten. Almost at every meal (and between meals!), I ate wheat (bread, baguette, rusks, pastries, pasta, semolina, pancakes, waffles, biscuits, etc.).

I digest badly, my gut is leaky and I have problems absorbing nutrients, not to mention inflammation.

Completely reviewing your diet to either reduce or eliminate gluten is not an easy task. Gluten is everywhere, in all the products found in supermarkets. I started checking all the labels and ingredient lists. A first awareness of the amount of wheat I ate, but also sugar and additives...

I went completely gluten-free for a year and a half. Now, I allow myself time to time deviations. But overall, I try to replace gluten with foods that rebalance my diet.

WHAT I AVOID

The first food that I avoid, as I have just indicated, is wheat (durum wheat, wheat, kamut, Khorasan wheat). I also eliminated rye, barley, spelt and small spelt (although the latter would contain less gluten).

WHAT I EAT INSTEAD

I had also removed oats from my diet, but having lost a lot of weight, I try to eat more cereals. I ended up finding gluten-free oats that work well for me for breakfast or smoothies.

The main cereal I eat is buckwheat (flour, semolina, Japanese pasta called soba, grains). For bread, pancakes, muffins and various pastries, I use buckwheat flour.

I also like almond flour and hazelnut flour for cakes. I usually mix two or three flours. I rarely turn to coconut flour, which remains too moist for my taste and is difficult to control when cooking. I still have to try chickpea flour and chestnut flour.

For pasta, after several tries, I ended up finding lentil pasta (coral or green) that I like. It is sometimes necessary to test several brands before finding what pleases.

Some people recommend millet, but for me, I notice a blood sugar problem about 2 hours after eating millet, so it's not for me. Each time, it gives me the cravings.

For rice, I sometimes eat basmati rice and rice noodles, but that's rare because it's not ideal for my gut. Same problem with quinoa which can be a good solution for a gluten-free diet but does not really suit me. Like corn, it contains too much lectins for a non-inflammatory diet.

It took me a lot of time and research to find all these new products. If you are starting this “gluten-free” journey, above all, be patient with yourself and persevere in your research. It can take months. Being accompanied by a nutritionist was a great support. If you can, do not hesitate to get advice from a competent person to adapt your plan to your personal needs.

This was already the last part of the series on the non-inflammatory diet. I hope this has given you some ideas and new avenues to explore in implementing a non-inflammatory diet. It is not easy and I wish you a lot of will and motivation to continue.

YOUR DISEASE DOES NOT DEFINE YOU, BUT YOUR STRENGTH AND COURAGE DO.

Pericordially yours,

Vali