Breaking up (with gluten) is hard to do

Dear Gluten,

It’s not you, it’s me. I just can’t seem to tolerate you anymore. You have made me sick for potentially the past decade, and I just can’t live with you anymore. When my physician told me the other day that I should try to live without you, I was honestly a little gutted (pun intended, as you mess with my guts…a lot). How could something I enjoy, bring me so much pain? The doctor had to be mistaken, right? There had to be another cause for my symptoms, right? It couldn’t me gluten, right? I was in denial.

Oh, how I love the things that you make an appearance in, such as warm sourdough bread, English muffins that I use as buns sometimes, my morning oatmeal, and a plethora of other delicious things. This was the anger stage of my grief over having to learn how to live without you. How could you betray me like that? Could you be the root cause for my psoriasis, nerve and joint pain, and even contribute to my painful bouts of IBS flares? I have supported you for decades, and you go and repay me like this?

But, I think I read that I can have a little bit of you, and it will still be okay, that you won’t hurt me too much. Maybe enjoy you once in awhile, perhaps on special occasions? If you don’t cross my lips during the whole year, I should be fine to indulge during the holidays, where there’s plenty of glutenous goodness abounds. I was bargaining.

When the doctor told me that I should try to live without you, visions of you danced in my head, or rather visions of everything you make great dashed through my mind. You are in so many things. You are in ALL THE THINGS. I would have to say goodbye to some of my childhood friends that still provided me comfort, such as macaroni and cheese, sourdough baguettes with soft cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, burritos, waffles, and pancakes. You make everything so good. I will never be able to revisit these things that you have touched, which brings me a little bit of sadness.

However, I have learned that I can live without you in my life. Sure, it means that I will have to do a little bit more work, read labels to make sure that you haven’t tainted it with your poison, and learn to make versions of my favorite things which you have ruined for me. Alas, I bid you adieu and wish you well. I am not sure if this is goodbye forever, but it will be a bit of time until I can reassess to see if we can be reunited. You caused me quite a bit of pain over the past decade, so I will need some time to readjust, but I think that this is the best and healthiest choice.

Sincerely,

Gluten-free Me