Guest Post by Jill Green
This is my gluten free low carb diet feel good story. Obviously gluten free is not the same as a low carb diet, but they do have a lot of similarities and I enjoy benefits of both.
I am not overweight, but I have been a very bad eater most of my life. I am a reformed junk food junkie and total carb addict. Late night emotional overeating often left me feeling sluggish and guilty the next day, but I never realized just how much my food habits were affecting me.
I have been coping with anxiety for most of my life, so you can just imagine my surprise when my chiropractor suggested that following a gluten free diet could really help me calm down.
Last summer, I was seeing this chiropractor for back and neck strain. Since he was a holistic practitioner, he wanted to know my whole history – not just about the current muscle injury- and that included my history of anxiety.
When he said that people with gluten sensitivity sometimes have panic attacks and anxiety I thought to myself, No way could it be that simple! I’d been dealing with this for years.
After the appointment, I rushed home to my computer to do some research. Sure enough, I found others online talking about how going gluten free had either eliminated or markedly improved their anxiety issues.
Can you say WOW? To someone like me who had been completely managed (and often mis-managed) by modern medicine (with prescription medications) and expensive therapy over the years, this was nothing short of music to my ears.
Gluten free eating had me feeling better in about 4 days. It was that noticeable. As time went on, I not only felt much less anxious, but enjoyed other surprising health benefits as well. For one, my frequent migraine headaches started to ease off, and I had much less joint pain flare ups.
I found it interesting that when I mentioned to my medical doctor that I was following a gluten free diet and that it was helping me with my anxiety, he didn’t think there was any relation. In fact he had never heard of such a claim.
Well no matter. I continue to watch my intake and follow a gluten free diet. I fell off the wagon around the holidays and sure enough, all my anxiety symptoms came back. For me it boils down to this- when I eat well, I feel well. And if I put garbage into my body, I feel like garbage as a result.
To this recovering anxious person, going low carb gluten free is a no-brainer. If I ever get tempted with a bag of Cheese Doodles (and I do occasionally) I try to remind myself that nothing taste as good as feeling calm and serene feels. 😉
So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Wishing all you low carb travelers much success with your health and weight loss goals. Whether you’re going low carb or low carb gluten free like me, you definitely can start to feel good in ways you never expected!
Jill Green shares free anxiety tips and natural remedies for stress and anxiety, including her Pure Calm review.
Kelly McCausey says
I never knew about the anxiety connection to gluten intolerance. So interesting π
What if any connection have you personally found with your skin? I have an autoimmune issue that manifests as eczema and over the years I’ve had to move to using steroid drops to manage it. I’ve found since being low carb (and basically gluten free) that my symptoms have been lighter and I’ve used less medicine for it.
Jedha says
Kelly, gluten sensitivities have now been linked to many health conditions from things as simple as headaches to major autoimmune diseases. There are more and more studies coming out to show the connection but I think we are a long way from seeing just how many symptoms gluten can cause. Gluten has an amino chain that attacks other cells in the body, that’s how it causes disease. I’d say for your skin, cut out the gluten for sure. I think everyone should, wheat, barley and rye are a no, no π
Jill says
I don’t have any issues with skin Kelly. I do have an autoimmune disease however, called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Going low carb gluten free has helped with that too- my achy joints, heart palpitations and hemorrhoid flare ups (sorry tmi I know) are much much less. Eating well has so many wonderful benefits!
Lynn Terry says
I deal with anxiety too, which is probably why I’m such an introvert. Not shy (anymore) and still have an outgoing personality, but anxiety can really make you want to take a lot more “me time” than other people. LOL.
The more I research it, the more I find a number of contributors. For women, for example, an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone contributes to stress and anxiety and “edginess”. I was recently put on a low dosage of progesterone (for something else entirely) and was *amazed* at what an impact it had on my anxiety!