Hello everyone,   I'm Kevin.  I've been mostly gluten free for three years now, and I've decided to start up this blog in order to review products I taste, items I bake, and perhaps a large range of other gluten-free related things that I might do.  I also may try some thing that have absolutely nothing to do with gluten-free topics, but most likely, they won't be gluten related either.

As I said, I've been mostly gluten free for at least three years now.  Before that, for about twenty-some years, I was living a lifestyle without concern for allergies.  As a child, I had seasonal allergies that I took an allergy pill for, and I eventually, around the age of 8-12, found that I had some problems with dairy.  It was minor in that the symptoms lasted for only a day and were only gastrointestinal (if you don't know what it means, look it up, but make sure you're not about to eat a meal). 

I had trouble figuring out why my digestive system was acting up.  I thought that I wasn't getting enough fiber.  I then started baking.  Heavily.  I would bake using whole wheat, and white whole wheat.   Baking bread every other day, cakes every other week.  They would be loaded with high protein, high fiber wheats.  My digestive system got worse.  I soon looked up symptoms and cures and found bits and pieces of the disorder called celiacs.  I wasn't totally sure if I was just intolerant, or fully allergic, but I though that it was probably a bad idea to eat whole wheat each and every other day.  For several months, I went without gluten.  I lost some weight, felt less bloated and more energetic.  My digestive system got better.  Not 100% I think, but better. 

Despite this, I feared.  I was afraid that I would no longer be able to have bread, cake, beer.  All the fun dessert type items that I wanted to travel the world for.  For a year I would sit there, reading about gluten free products, the increasingly abundant. What was worthwhile, what was nutritious?  What was empty carbohydrates that were far worse than ordinary flour?

People think that the gluten-free lifestyle is healthier.  That is half true, and half false.  It's true if you look only at eating vegetables, legumes/beans, rice and animal protein (meat).  However, the baked goods that we eat, usually sparingly, consist of rice, processed potato, tapioca and maybe beans.  This means that the potential whole grain ability for baking is pretty hard to come by, and that our blood sugar is a little more volitile.  Eventually, people found that there were other high protein, gluten-free grains, like millet, quinoa and buckwheat.  These have been food staples for people, but they never got full recognition until the necessity for gluten free.  Some people, those who may not even be allergic, choose gluten free as a dietary path.  As for me, I'd love not to have to do it, but, until there is a cure, I'm happy with the substitutes, and I'm more than willing to share what they are, and my opinion of thm is, here, right on this website.   There are times when I may go off on  tangent, but I'll always come back to gluten free, and I hope to share all that I've experienced with you, dear reader.