Several months ago, our 4yo started complaining of tummy aches. As time went on they got worse and more frequent and we tried a number of options at home to remedy the situation. I thought maybe she had acid reflux so I tried to get her to sleep with a tallish pillow to elevate her. We tried to avoid orange juice and other acidic foods under the same premise.
Finally, she refused to play because of stomach pain so we went to urgent care. The doctor said it could be a gluten issue, so we cut all gluten and ignored the acidic food. Orange juice did not make it worse. Cutting speghettios and shells and cheese made it better.
Several more trips to doctors and a Celiac Disease test, she tested negative. But there was the indisputable fact that she felt better when she wasn’t eating as much gluten. Doctors stressed that if you are going to go gluten free, go all the way, but … Grandma Huang cooks homemade Chinese dumplings and noodle dishes from standard white flour and our daughter LOVES them. And she ate some. And nothing happened.
What we know about the microbiome is that a diversity, a broad range of different foods is best for our digestive systems. However, the industrial complex overtook American farming as well as all other types of manufacturing and now just like the original Ford which you could get in any color as long as it was black, our food diversity has been sharply curtailed.
With the mass production of wheat, we can have wheat-based pancakes for breakfast, wheat based sandwiches or hamburger buns or hotdog buns for lunch and wheat based breaded foods for dinner like chicken nuggets or fish sticks. Wheat based breakfast cereal. Wheat. Wheat. And more Wheat. Not that wheat is a bad grain, but I’ve begun to wonder if what helped my daughter’s stomach move on wasn’t so much the elimination of wheat or gluten as it was the increase in diversity of grains from adding lots of gluten free products to her diet. Gluten free products are made from all kinds of different cereals and grains. Maybe we should all add a little gluten free to our diets. Like the Gluten free Dr. Schar bagel slide I just ate. Delish.
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