Gluten free? Sugar free? Food free?

Story so far… I had a miscarriage, it was my second one, I came across an article on line about a fertility diet that allegedly helps reduce your chances of miscarriage (no sugar, organic diary, no soy, no tuna, organic fruit and veg), so I went sugar free and started following the rest as best I could.

Of course I did, if there’s anything possible I can do to stop me ever losing another baby, then I’ll do it.

Then I found another article about women with undiagnosed gluten intolerance being more prone to infertility and miscarriage – migraines and low energy were other symptoms listed…

“Hmmn, could this be me?” I thought. So I decided to go gluten free too.

Being a pescetarian with zero cooking skills this has proved somewhat difficult.

So, now…. Obviously I’m not pregnant yet and so far I have failed miserably to become gluten free. The fertility diet has also slipped a bit in the confusion of trying to buy gluten free that also doesn’t contain sugar or soy.

In other words, argh! It’s time to take stock and refresh my thinking.

Do I need to prioritise one above the other?

Well, weighing it up, unlike sugar, where a little bit from time to time isn’t going to hurt, gluten intolerance is an allergic reaction in the body, so you have to cut it out 100%. Which I suppose makes gluten the priority.

In that case I should be aiming for a low sugar – no gluten diet.

Obviously though I’m aware I may not even be gluten intolerant so there is a chance all this upheaval is for nothing. From what I can tell there is no accepted diagnostic test for non-celiac gluten sensitivity –  the best way to find out is to cut gluten out and see if it makes a difference to my health (i.e. a reduction in migraines, more energy, less hormonal swings and oh please, a successful pregnancy?)

It is certainly worth a go.

So, if I take the last week or so as a trial run I can look back and recognised the pitfalls I need to avoid. Firstly I need to get up a little earlier in a morning and have breakfast at home (that should save me from the temptation of tea-cakes on the way to work), I could also do with taking my own lunch into work too for similar reasons although Holland and Barratt do gluten free sandwiches which makes a great backup. I need to plan ahead and shop accordingly, if we have the right things in then there’s less temptation to succumb to takeaways.  And then I need to be disciplined in making sure we stick to this.

So discipline, planning, organisation, and preparation of meals from scratch…. Oh dear, I’m in trouble!

This is so much harder than going sugar free.