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More and more people are turning toward a gluten free diet to help improve mysterious medical conditions. This new awareness of the gluten free lifestyle is definitely very positive. The problem however lies in the foods being sold as gluten free replacements. The gluten free food industry has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar business. With this, we see a rash of unhealthy, highly processed foods being used as replacement fillers.

Breaking The Cardinal Rule of Nutrition

It is in this that the cardinal rule of nutrition is being broken. What is the cardinal rule? Simple - one cannot achieve or maintain health eating unhealthy foods. Now all we have to do is define healthy. This is where a lot of confusion sets in. Healthy for one, many not be healthy for another. I have had patients react to blueberries and broccoli. So part of how we define healthy for an individual is by following the next three rules -
  1. Don't eat foods that you are allergic or intolerant to (get tested to avoid confusion)
  2. Don't eat it if it makes you feel bad.
  3. If you can't pronounce the terms on the ingredients label without a biochemistry degree or lots of practice, then it is not healthy.
Digging Out of an Unhealthy Hole

The average person who identifies gluten as an issue is already sick. Therefore, removing gluten for someone with gluten sensitivity, removes a food that creates inflammatory damage, removes a food that overstimulates the immune system, removes a food that changes the good bacteria in the intestine, and removes a food that causes leaky gut (AKA - intestinal permeability). All good things. However; replacing gluten based foods with other processed junk food does nothing to help the body recover from years of gluten induced damage. In fact it stops the healing process in its tracks. This is one of the major reasons why people going on a traditional gluten free diet do not heal.

Health restoration requires care and attention to diet and other lifestyle components. Remember, going gluten free may improve how you feel, but it doesn't guarantee full recovery from illness, especially if you are trading one unhealthy food for another.

Starting The Healing Process

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In my experience treating thousands of patients, the best place to start is a functional medicine approach. Get with a doctor oriented in this style of practice. Gluten Free Society has started a training program for doctors and health care providers. You can check our database of certified practitioners here. Ask him/her to help you identify chemical, physical, and mental imbalances in your lifestyle that are blocking your path to good health.

Lab Tests To Customize Your Health Needs

The following labs work up should be done to obtain personalized treatment/guidance options for you: I hope this information was helpful to you on your road to recovery. You can learn even more with my online Glutenology Health Matrix program. Please feel free to share it with someone who needs help.

All the best,

Dr. Osborne - The Gluten Free Warrior