Member-only story
Dear Bread, How I Miss You
Navigating gluten sensitivity in a gluten-rich food landscape
My husband and I are in our favorite Greek-Italian restaurant. The waitress has taken our drink order and gone to retrieve our basket of warm, crusty bread. This has always been my favorite part of eating here — tearing hunks of bread and dipping them in a puddle of glistening green oil that’s sprinkled with herbs. Yum. Only now, I dip my finger in the olive oil while my husband apologizes (yet again) for eating the bread in front of me. I smile and say it’s ok, please enjoy it for both of us, as I peruse the menu for something that is safe for me to eat.
I discovered my non-celiac gluten intolerance the long way around. I had been having abdominal discomfort after meals for about a year. Sometimes that discomfort morphed into blinding pain in the base of my sternum that brought on nausea and made me unable to stay upright. I had almost begun to dread eating because I never knew when I was going to have one of these episodes.
It turns out I was having gallbladder attacks. I read everything I could about how to prevent gallbladder attacks and discovered that fried and fatty foods are a big culprit, so I cut those from my diet. Unfortunately, the pain did not go away. I finally went for an ultrasound and the Dr. confirmed that my gallbladder was…
