Sorry this is so long. Believe it or not... it's my MOM who's instigating this! She's got fairly advanced osteoporosis, and nothing she's tried so far has helped any. One of the things she's found while trying to research this herself is a marked increase in bone density among people who use the gluten-free diet. Since we already KNOW that she's got a sensitivity to high-gluten foods, I had already suspected this could be a problem for her. The really short version of this is that she's ready to try a gluten-free diet. And since I lost 4lbs in 10 days on the diet & suspect that I have sensitivities here myself AND it's been recommended that my son try this because of his Aspergers Syndrome it looks like all 3 of us are going to "take the plunge" together. My mom will be seeing a dietician later next week about this, so by the end of next week all 3 of us will be on the Gluten-Free diet. I already have tons of info on Celiacs disease & tons of gluten-free recipes and brands... we saved that info from a few months ago. But has anyone done this while on a vegetarian diet?!? I'm wondering if I'll need to suppliment my diet in any way to counter for an even more "restrictive" diet. love, mom
hm, well, we do eat meat, but my kiddo (also with aspergers) wont eat it unless it's very fresh, ie no leftovers. so he does get veggie proteins too, but i'm talking whole foods like nuts and seeds, eggs, etc. no soy. kids who react to gluten and dairy are almost guaranteed to react to soy and corn as well. imho, it is entirely possible for your fam to go gluten free. i'd be careful though because many of the gluten replacements are very high on the glycemic index, and if you're already veg, it's going to be more difficult to maintain a good balance b/n carbs and protein. i hate rice flour. it's like eating pure sugar. buckwheat flour is okay, although it's a little heavy. we use a lot of hemp seed flour lately, and nutbutters/seedbutters. link to check out: http://www.pecanbread.com/ (check out their recipes, just skip the meat section since you're veg. they use a lot of higher protein ingredients in their other recipes, so this is going to be a good place for you to get some ideas)
I personally haven't, but apparently it can be done. These look pretty good resources ... http://www.vegsoc.org/info/gluten.html http://www.vegfamily.com/health/gluten-free-vegan-diet.htm http://www.geocities.com/glutenfreevegetarian/ (I just googled 'gluten free + vegetarian' and got loads) Good luck
Really? Lactose intolerance is usually remedied by using soy milk products. I don't think there's a lot of cross sensitivity unless it's to processed foods in general. Do you mean they have to react to BOTH gluten & dairy, and then they are likely to also have the reaction to soy & corn? Realize this: Most wheat & soy & dairy products in america are now Genetically Modified (meaning they get sprayed with a LOT more insecticide & herbicide) or full of hormones and antibiotics (dairy). Those could be what are causing increasing cases of allergies, besides the lactose intolerance. Of course just pollution in general has cause a marked increase in sensitivity to many man-made processed products. Even our homes are problems. Most ppl aren't even aware of all the allergens in our homes. If you buy organically grown products as close to their natural state as possible and live in a realitively allergen free environment, you should lessen the allergic reactions you and your children encounter.
skip, i'm talking about kids with asperger's syndrome, specifically, because the op's child is on the autism spectrum. i've done a lot of research in the area, because my son is high functioning autistic too. the dan! protocol (which is very successful at bringing autistic kids out of their own worlds, and into ours) recommends a diet that excludes gluten, casein (dairy), soy and corn, because children on the autism spectrum are lacking an enzyme that allows them to digest the proteins in these foods which leads to a whole cascade of problems. it's not about lactose intolerance, it's about the proteins. and not only that, but the last dan! conference really advocated the specific carbohydrate diet, because not only does it elminate the proteins that autistic kids cant digest, but it also works on actually healing the gut. http://www.pecanbread.com/
