GF/CF Diet - Lake in the Hills,IL

My husband started a GF diet (along with no dairy, limited sugar, and no meat) last August because he was having a lot of trouble with gas. He had already seen a specialist, and had not had any luck figuring out what the problem was.

After being on the diet for several months, he did see some improvement, and his cholesterol improved dramatically. All of us in the house were/are on the diet when eating at home simply because we didn't want to cook a bunch of different meals. When we go out, we don't stick to it, although my husband does.

Now he still sticks with all parts of the diet except that he's added back chicken. He's still GF for the most part, and is dairy free and has very little sugar. The rest of the family does the same, but we have dairy. We all feel healthier. I think limiting sugar and taking out red meat has made the biggest difference.

Yes, and we have remained gluten-free for 2 years, as a family.

My daughters and I have autoimmune/immune issues and going gluten-free has helped immensely. We have done trials of casein free, but saw no results after several months (although both daughters were very sensitive to casein and had reflux as babies, but outgrew it as far as we can tell.) We do raw cow dairy now, and when unavailable, goat dairy from the store if we must.

Benefits of going gluten-free:

better behavior (not as anxious, quick to tantrum/cry, etc-- evens out emotions)
total elimination of PMS/cramps for me
unexplained foot pain relief for my hubby
less stomach aches/upset and constipation all around
better sleep
more energy
better skin
husband was diagnosed with IBS and symptoms have disappeared
FAR less colds/flu/viruses since changing our diet

We do more than "just" gluten-free, so other things could account for some of this, like sugar-free, no preservatives, no colors, no artificial flavors, and we are strict about organic and grass-fed meats, etc. etc. BUT I know the stomach things and period things are gluten-related because when I accidentally have gluten, I get those symptoms back.

Hope this helps. Happy to talk to you via messages, and my blog is here if you are curious about what we eat and why: www.chickiepea.wordpress.com

In my family we have celiac, developmental delay, severe allergies to seafood, soy, banana, mango, papaya, latex. So going gf and of course allergy trigger free has..made weight gain possible for one, cut down behavior issues for another, helped sleep for all. If you want to try it a chhallenge for six weeks as alot recommend will not tell you much. A true challenge will be six months no cheating. This will give you time to learn the diet and know how not to cross contaminate, give gut time to heal and give time for the nutrition to rebuild. Good luck with the answers to whatever your challenge.

I am 100% gluten free (from the foods I eat, lipstick, toothpaste, etc). I have an auto-immune thyroid disease and gluten makes it worse (at least for me it does). It is a lot more effort and pre-planning, but I maintain this lifestyle because it makes me feel better. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

I have a friend who is GF and Vegan - GF for Celiacs, Vegan because it's shown to help bipolar disorder, which she has.

Result: She stopped puking regularly!

Unless you have celiacs or other health issues that keep you from digesting grains, there's no reason to do a glutan free diet. As far as a weight loss method, it's a fad.

ETA: I don't know enough about the use of GFCF for autism or autoimmune issues to argue for or against it, but after reading below I'm simply going to say, if it works, don't knock it! You will personally need to try it to see if it works for you.

When my son now 5 who is autistic was younger we realized early on that GF/CF diet was useful for him. We managed mainly to make his diet primarily CF seeing as the only foods he'll eat do have gluten in them and don't think we did not try to get him fully on the diet it just in our case did not work. The fact that he was casein free for the majority of his life actually helped him; by that I mean we realized that casein made him regress each and every time it was consumed however when we eliminated it regression no longer occurred.

I know it doesn't work for everyone and I realize this is purely anecdotal but in our case it was worth it and I would do it again if we realized that is what is needed.

When my son was diagnosed as Autistic at 19 months old, he was still nursing. I read about the possible benefits to a GFCF diet, so I decided to give it a shot. He and I both went GFCF since I was still nursing him from time to time. I gave it more than six months with no perceivable difference, so I slowly weaned him back on to the proteins.

I lost some weight while on the diet, but not much.