I thought this would of be kind of interesting to let you guys know of some of the silly things that I've done in more recent years, living with Celiac Disease.
The following transcript is taken from my Podcast, The Healthy Celiac Podcast. If you would like to listen to the episode, you can do so here, or on your fave Podcast app.
I've been diagnosed for well over a decade now, but we still make mistakes. We still learn. It's always a learning journey. But I wanted to share these because I shake my head at myself now that I ever did any of these things. And I just wanted to make you more aware that it is okay to make mistakes and that we all learn together. Let's start with the first one.
So a couple of years ago, I was going through a major phase of being completely over the top environmentally friendly. I've always been a massive advocate for being environmentally friendly and always doing my best. And, you know, I remember years and years ago being one of the first people that used reusable bags before it was a done thing. And one of my friends being completely embarrassed with me, and now everyone does it. So what I was doing was I was taking my own jars and containers and I was going to a bulk food store where they have bulk bins of food and you could scoop your own food out and put in your containers. And I did this for some time. It was maybe six months that I was doing it continuously. And I guess I put it to the back of my mind that, you know, there's a major risk here for cross-contamination, but because I was so focused on cutting down my waste and really trying to focus on having less rubbish going into my garbage bin, I was actually more focused on that than my own health.
And I probably should've been putting my own health first. Let's say I definitely, definitely should have not maybe. I should've been putting my health first before the environment. It sucks that we have to make a choice, but unfortunately, you know, that's a predicament that we have living with celiac disease and when COVID hit, I was unable to do that anymore. I stopped shopping there and I started buying my food that I was buying from there in packages from our supermarket again. It was things like nuts and seeds and cacao powder and, you know, things that were probably quite a risky thing to be buying from the bulk food store. And looking back, I really can't believe that I did it and I just wanted to share in case anyone else is doing it. It's probably not worth the risk. We don't know what goes on when those containers are being refilled. We don't know what's going on with the customers as far as the cross-contamination either. So that was my first thing that I wanted to share with you buying food in bulk. I would say it's a big no-no and I should've never have done it. And I urge you to stop doing it if you're doing it just in case because of the risk of cross-contamination.
All right . The second one, you might've heard me talk about this in a previous episode, but it's about not asking about food products being gluten-free each time I've shopped. And this goes for not reading packaging each time because brands sometimes change what they produce their foods with and on as far as production lines and ingredients. So we do need to read each time. It gets quicker and easier, but the thing was, I stopped asking at my local butcher and I got very complacent. I've been shopping there for many, many years. And I stopped asking about what was gluten free. And I got quite sick and I was getting all the symptoms of being glutened again.
I went to my doctors and we could not for the life of me work out where I was getting so much gluten in my system from, and lo and behold, it ended up being the bacon that I was buying from my local butchers. They were buying it from another company. So they were buying the bacon in, and were no longer making it themselves. And that company was injecting it with a wheat liquid. That wheat liquid was making me quite ill. So if I had asked at the butchers, that wouldn't have happened, so yeah, that's definitely something we need to keep doing. That has been a little bit of a slap on the wrist for me, and a bit of a reminder to keep asking because, you know, after quite some time and so many years I did get complacent. It was a much needed reminder.
Another mistake that I made was not seeking better support earlier on. And what I like to say is you don't know what you don't know, and that's the thing with celiac disease. There's so much that we don't know. And until we get that guidance and get that support, there's so much that we're not aware of, or we're not learning that we need to. When I was first diagnosed, I was put onto the worst dietician. He was not a good match for me. He was not a specialist in celiac disease. And I think it's important that we need to find that person that can actually support us and can give us the guidance. So I do wish that I had looked for the right person, for me, rather than having to spend years and years learning and teaching myself everything that I needed to know to feel better.
Moving on to the next one. I allowed gluten flour in my kitchen. Many of you are probably thinking, oh my goodness, no way. And some of you probably thinking, yes. So what’s the big deal? Flour gets very airborne. It gets in everything. It's actually a nightmare. And I, I kind of put up with it for too long and it wasn't until my eldest daughter started growing her interest in baking. It started freaking me out because she was using items that I would normally bake my gluten free food in. And she made a mess. She's not the tidiest little chef.
That one, it just got to me and my anxiety levels were through the roof. And I was like, nah , I can't do this anymore. I can not have normal flour in my house. So I decided it was all going. I cleared out my pantry completely and got rid of anything to do with flour that was full of gluten and we no longer have it in the house. And if she wants to bake any cakes or muffins or anything like that from packets, they are gluten-free versions so that I don't have to stress over that. So I do regret that we didn't do that from day one from my diagnosis, but again, I wasn't given the guidance early on. I wasn't given that information about cross-contamination. And I feel like if I'd had that support earlier on, I would have known these things, but that's the thing, without that knowledge, we just don't know how harmful certain things can be.
All right . So I hope that helps you see that we are all on this journey together. We are all normal. We all have the same sorts of stresses and anxiety, and it is okay to keep learning and it is okay to make mistakes, but if you're making any of these mistakes, like I have, then please learn from my mistakes and moving forward, you'll be a better version of yourself.
I hope you enjoyed this. You can have a little chuckle at my mishaps.
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