What Does Gluten Free Mean?

It means no Wheat, Barley or oats in those food products.

I was watching "Oblivion" at a local theater with my wife when during the advertisements before the previews begin and advertisement for "Ask.com" came on. Someone said, "What does Gluten Free mean?" or something to that effect.

Though my daughter had told me she was allergic to gluten, at the time I just thought it might be some diet fad she was interested in. After all, she lives in Portland which harkens back to the 1960s in the way things are sometimes done there.

However, after having about 1000 dollars in blood tests it was discovered that I am allergic to gluten as well as almost 50% of the people on earth. So, even for "Ask.com" and the whole human race this is a very important question, just like it is important for people who are lastose intolerant to know that they can't drink milk without problems.

In my case I was told it was likely that my degree of allergy to gluten had likely caused my immune system to attack my throid glands in an unhealthy response and caused or greatly contributed to my Thyroid Gland problems in becoming hypothyroid in nature. Since becoming hypothyroid likely was going to cause my death before it was diagnosed and in my 50s I sort of expected to die by 60 to 65 from Bronchitis or pneumonia as a result, I was really glad to have been finally diagnosed hypothyroid by age 58 and being diagnosed with a Gluten allergy now at age 65.

As soon as I gave up all wheat, barley and oats I noticed my hands stopped hurting from tendonitis by about 80 to 90%. I did construction work a lot in my late 20s and early 30s and so I have always had a really strong muscle mass core and still do. But, one of the consequences of lifting up to 400 pounds at a time is tendonitis which set in in my early 30s. So, I have had to "not think about" the pain in my hands sometimes, even though I can still pick up really heavy things and am very coordinated from all the physical activities of my life including running 1 to 5 miles a day until my 40s and climbing mountains including hiking up to 10,000 feet the Himalayas 50 miles from the nearest dirt road in the 1980s.

So, for example, I don't use pain killers because they might have bad consequences taking them all the time so I just try not to think about the pain just like my father. This has worked for me along with pushing through to exercise and walk almost every day with my dogs or ride a bicycle and to ski in the winter time with friends and relatives in Mt. Shasta and on Mt. Hood.

So, once again just like with being diagnosed with a hypothyroid condition when I found Armour thyroid which made me feel and still makes me feel 10 to 20 years younger than my age, finding out that I am Gluten intolerant and changing my diet also makes me feel 10 to 20 years younger as well with about 80% to 90% less body pain and swelling of different parts of my body including my brain.

You might ask, "Don't you miss pasta, and pizza and barley and oats?" "Yes. But I don't miss being in pain and feeling awful at all" So, most of the time I'm just really happy not to eat gluten in any form.

Also, just like some people drink alcohol, once in a while I can eat something lovely with gluten in it as long as I'm willing to accept the painful consequences of my actions, like Lasagna, pasta, wheat crusted pizza etc. However, if you shop at Whole Foods or an alternative market they now have gluten free pizza and pasta and new items are growing every day now.