At the age of 27 I realized I had a problem with sweets and 27 years later I’m still struggling with it. But I’ve had powerful healers help me with this dependence/addiction and at the age of 54 and a half, I’m in a very uncomfortable position: for the sake of my health, it might be time to give up what used to be my favorite foods.

Ice cream has never done much for me and I must lack whatever gene makes you adore chocolate, so those have never been my weaknesses. What I crave is baked goods, preferably baked goods with frosting or icing or glaze. When I first started treatment with a local Nutrition Response Testing practitioner, I had all kinds of chronic health problems and being hooked on sweets was one of them. Would a Western, allopathic doctor have had anything for me if I’d asked him (or her, but probably him) how we could reduce my sugar cravings? Of course not. But with the NRT practitioner I have gradually shrunk those cravings as she has treated the underlying problems that contributed to them.

Slowly over the past five years all my chronic health problems have improved, physical and mental. Most stunningly my clinical depression has gotten so much better I’ve stopped taking anti-depressants (with the approval of my psychiatrist). I’ve also had gradual-over-five-years improvement in my digestion, tendency to overheat and perspire, joint pain and my emotional dependence on sweets.

But my craving for cookies and pastries isn’t gone, so I keep going back to them. Unfortunately, my NRT practitioner recently told me that my remaining problems all have wheat as their underpinning. I can beat many of the things that still plague me if I keep all wheat out of my diet 100% for about five months. And after that, I need to keep wheat out of my life permanently. Yeah, that’s right. I’m not happy about this, but I guess it’s time. At the very least, I’m willing to abstain from wheat for five months to see if it will really eliminate my current problems. (And they are problems, not “issues.” Why do so many Americans like to say “issues” when we mean “problems?” “Issues” feels euphemistic and I hate euphemism).

It’s actually been years that my stomach has increasingly protested when I eat wheat. Twelve years ago I had terrible digestion problems that had me losing sleep at night. I saw a Midwestern ayurvedic practitioner who didn’t turn out to be very good, but I’m grateful for one thing: she showed me that if I got the wheat out of my diet, those terrible stomach aches stopped. I thought I had lactose intolerance, but it turned out the problem wasn’t the cheese, but the pizza crust; not the ice cream, but the cone; not the cheese, but the crackers. I was happy to find I could peacefully enjoy cheese if I laid off the bread.

But I couldn’t stay off it. A few times since then I’ve stripped wheat from my life only to add it right back after a few months. Each time I feel much better without it, but can’t stay away. And each time I add it back, the stomach aches get worse.

Because the NRT practitioner and I have made quite a bit of progress on my food problem in the past year, the prospect of five months 100% off wheat isn’t as painful as it would have been before. But it’s still a big ask. I finally finished the McCombs Candida Plan last Sunday and now I’m to stay off wheat for another several months?

Okay! Fortunately, my emotional need for donuts has been shrinking and my commitment to complete health has been growing, so I guess I’m ready. Since February 16, 2021 I’ve been reading the labels of all the processed foods I buy in the store, avoiding restaurant food that’s made with flour and staying off the baked goods, pasta, breaded foods, meatballs made with breadcrumbs, foods wrapped in pastry and anything with wheat on the list of ingredients. Yeah, it’s been fun.

Goddamned Americans with our wheat-in-everything way of eating. We add wheat to our sauces, our soups, and to all cuisines that come to this country wheat-free. Did that recipe start out with a rice or corn husk wrapper? Well, it’s got wheat in it now.

And don’t talk to me about gluten-free foods. The stomach aches I get from those are as bad as the ones I get from regular bread. They have flour made from rice, amaranth, corn, quinoa and whatever-the-hell, but in my stomach they hurt. So no gluten-free stuff for me.

In fact, it seems the only kind of grain flour my digestive system will accept peacefully is corn. I can eat corn tortillas with no problem (thank dog). Is that a Mexican thing? Is my body genetically hard-wired for the food of “my people?” I don’t know, but I’m grateful there’s one kind bread-like substance I can eat.

So here we go. If I can get through the next five months without wheat I might see the end of the problems I’m currently struggling with and then I’ll win the pleasure of living without wheat for the rest of my life!

Illustration 100729828 © Royyan Wijaya | Dreamstime.com

27 Feb 2021

Share this post: on Twitter on Facebook