Q&A staff feature
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tories of bathroom-runs in haste, rashes, chronic upset stomachs, rumbles, fumbles, and completely legitimate grumbles abounded, but let’s gloss over that, if you’ll understand this is not a simple issue of an occasional tummy ache, in order to save some room for clean reputations!
Meet New Pi team members, in order of appearance: Jen Knights ( JK, Board member and former staffer), Laura Shorey (L, Coralville customer service), Ulonda Faye (U, wellness), Kelly Klein (K, Coralville customer service), and Jenn Buckhahn ( JB, IT data services). Let’s start with the basics: Why do you eat gluten free (GF) or wheat free (WF)? JK: I came to a GF diet kicking and screaming. I was in my early thirties, having intense GI issues and it was hard to pinpoint – everything came back negative… when the allergy panel came back, I was allergic to everything, gluten being the most severe.
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new pioneer food co-op’s newsletter
is gluten free the way to be?
Living without... and loving every minute Conversation with Allison Gnade, Catalyst Editor L: I was having a lot of panic attacks and feeling really wound up. I ate a lot of carbs [at the time]. A friend’s naturopath suggested eating GF to her for the same issue. I tried it too – and felt great. I’ve tried going back and had the same things start happening again.
How did you determine whether gluten or wheat were problematic for you? What differences have you observed?
JK: It took a couple of years to realize, more and more often, I wasn’t feeling well. I decided to go GF for a month. It U: For me, it started when I moved back started helping and I never went back to the U.S. – I’d lived in Germany for – and now nothing else shows up on ten years, where I’d never had any issues the allergy test. Whenever I have those with my diet. When I moved back, I [symptoms] again, I can trace it back to started feeling more and more ill – terri- something I’ve eaten. ble abdominal pain and other symptoms, JB: When I first heard about [eating so I was tested for all kinds of things. gluten free], I thought, ‘This is just crazy [Eventually] I cut out wheat, and I felt nonsense or just another diet fad.’ But better. I also ended up cutting out dairy, lactose. Now if I eat something, I’ll take as I started listening to my body and taking better care of myself, I realized four or five days to recover. it is a problem for me. I’ve been GF for K: Straight up for me: when I went to three weeks, and I feel awesome. At college, I got fat. With a more sedentary first I was having cravings, but now lifestyle, I couldn’t get a handle on my I’ll see something and I’ll think about weight. My dad had a heart attack and how it makes me feel, and it’s no longer he’s pre-diabetic. I started paying atten- appealing. tion to what I was eating, and noticed carbs all the time: bread at breakfast, concerned gluten might be bread at lunch. a problem for you? remove it
from your diet for an entire month, observing differences. reintroduce it, keeping your diet as similar as possible, to determine whether to focus on gluten or another factor – such as the amount of processed foods.
From Left: Jen Knights (Board member), Laura Shorey & Kelly Klein (customer service)