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[MAlthaus]

...and it sucks!

We've been primal for several months now, and have really felt the changes in our energy levels and every other aspect of our lives. Unfortunately, we had a few incidents where we had food with traces of gluten in it, and my wife has had an upset stomach for a while because of it. She's getting tested for a gluten intolerance due to the severity of her reaction, and that means having gluten in your system in order for the test to work properly. As a result, we've been off our primal diet for the past few weeks, and let me just say, it sucks! (It's just my wife and I, so it made no sense to us for just me to stay primal and enjoy grass-fed meats, veggies, and so on while she had to eat SAD foods. Cooking 1 meal for two people = easier than cooking two separate meals for two people every day.)
I'd been saying that I would get cravings for baked goods at some point, but I never took into account the other side effects of going back to a CW diet after being primal for 2+ months! I've noticed that I get more headaches, have less energy, and get hungry far more often than I did when I was primal. On a primal diet, I would wake up hungry, and be fine for 4-5 hours if I had a small snack in the morning; even a small handful of nuts would do the job to keep me sated. Now, I wake up *starving*, and the small amounts of food I used to snack on until dinner time don't really satisfy me any more. I also don't have the energy levels I had before.
She's getting tests done on Monday, so hopefully we'll be able to go back to being primal right after that. I started this primal journey thanks to the success stories, but it's incredible to notice first-hand the problems that glutens and grains cause when you go back to eating that way after only a short time being primal.

[Farfalla]

But what's the point of getting tested in the first place? There's no cure, just the diet you both apparently want to stick to long-term. If she is positive, she might even be denied insurance in the future, or pay a higher rate (I am not sure how frequently this happens, but I've read about some cases). If I were you, I would cancel the appointment and forget gluten forever.

Anyway, I wish her the best of luck.

[jkr]

Eating gluten when one knows there is a sensitivity just to have a test confirm the already known sensitivity isn't what I'd do. Purposely eating poorly to support the test taker isn't a great idea either.

[sbhikes]

Why can't you just continue eat primal and add a little bit of bread for the gluten test? I mean, you didn't go back to a Dominos and Pepsi diet did you?

[Isfahel]

That's what I'd do if I ever decided to get myself or my intolerant daughter tested, not that I would as from what I understand the only decent test cost several hundred dollars and I don't have insurance. But all you'd have to do is eat like a slice of bread or the equivalent a day, not change your whole diet back. And if your Dr is just doing the normal Celiac test it's notoriously inaccurate and even if you don't have Celiac you still shouldn't eat wheat. Read Wheat Belly by Dr William Davis, it is amazing, it would make anyone quit wheat, it's scary what wheat does to people, even those who aren't "Celiac".

[Dragonfly]

But what's the point of getting tested in the first place? There's no cure, just the diet you both apparently want to stick to long-term. If she is positive, she might even be denied insurance in the future, or pay a higher rate (I am not sure how frequently this happens, but I've read about some cases). If I were you, I would cancel the appointment and forget gluten forever.

Anyway, I wish her the best of luck.

+1

[Dialit]

I can appreciate wanting a definitive answer, though for myself, I chose to go with my gut (no pun... Ok, pun intended) and just give up the gluten for good without testing. I have to agree with sbhikes, however. If I elected to go for testing, I'd eat the requisite bread (yuck!!!) and otherwise stay primal. BTW, the requirement for testing is 4 slices of bread (or equivalent quantity of other gluten foods) per day, for approximately 2-3 months to have the best likelihood of an accurate test after having been gluten free for any length of time.

[keevelish]

It just seems pointless to me.

If the test is negative, what will you do? Go back to eating grains? Or will you go back to eating primal?

If the test is positive, what did that tell you? A confirmation of yep, grains aren't good for our bodies?

I don't think I'm celiac, or my daughters, but I don't need a test to tell us that grains do nothing good for us in the slightest.

[MAlthaus]

Well, it's not pointless in regards to my wife's very strict work attendance policy - the way she feels after eating even a tiny amount of gluten means that if it happens again in the future and she needs to stay home from work, her workplace can't give her any flack about it.
As to why we went off primal - would you want to eat grass-fed London Broil while your stomach was seriously upset? There's no point in wasting expensive cuts of meat when you're in constant stomach pain, when you can just go off the diet for a short time and then jump back on after the test.

[Kimelah]

I really hate it that in some places it is "required" that you "prove" your body's inability to function like most others, ie: not react so immediately violently to what most think of as benign.