Gluten Free Foodie

Debbie Howard’s Journey I often joke that if I was someone’s pet, they would have had me put down by now.  I’ve always been the problem child in the health department and my story starts back in my teens. I was late to the puberty party but when it hit, I wanted to die.  How was it that all my other friends  who  had their periods seem ed  to be able to get on with their lives ,  I could barely get out of bed.  My period would last for weeks , i t was heavy, it was painful, and it gave me migraines.  I was one of the fortunate ones though ,  my  doctor  was able to recognise my symptoms as endometriosis.  Over the course of 5yrs, I had  3 surgeries plus another to remove an ovarian cyst .  B y  not taking the sugar pills in my contraceptive,  ( to avoid having a period )  I was able to start living my life again.  At that point  I  also  started a gluten free d...

I’m 64, and about 10 years ago I started noticing that my gut was playing up. I'd brought up 4 kids on what I considered to be a healthy diet of home-cooked meals, although there was a fair amount of baking in the mix! I had severe heartburn so sought medical help and went on medication for that. The problems with my gut continued, though. I was lucky to be living in Auckland at the time and had private medical insurance. My GP was sympathetic and referred me to a gastroenterologist in Milford, Ishy Maharaj. By then I'd done some reading about FODMAPS which resonated with me. Further tests were done to ensure there was no cancer lurking - a relief to know I was in the clear. Ishy was just lovely and treated me with respect. He gave me reading material and said I was intelligent enough to work out the diet. So home I went to figure it out, but I was actually quite shattered. My relationship with food had changed forever. Now I was almost too scared to eat anything. I...

I’ve been a Remedial massage therapist for 21 years. 5 years ago my elbow became really inflamed and sore, it was so bad I could barely move it. I was trying everything, Yoga, massage, Chiropractic and acupuncture. I would get minimal relief for a short time. I came to the conclusion that I’d have to retire from massage. I went to yoga teacher training in Bali, 2015. I had the most relief while I was there, I was meditating and practicing yoga for 3-4 hours a day, the pain didn’t completely go, but I was able to use it better every day. Before I went to Bali there had been some news at home about dog meat being served, so I stayed away from the meat while I was there (just incase). While there we learned about the 8 limbs of yoga and in one of those limbs is Ahimsa (in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist tradition) respect for all living things and avoidance of violence towards others. I remember my teacher saying that  some Yoga teachers take that as to not eat animals, ...

Turning 30 should be celebrated, you are about to enter the best years of your life, so they say. But when I turned 30 all I could think was, how come everyone else isn’t complaining about how exhausting aging is? My health hadn’t even got to its worst at this point. I often wonder what triggered my celiac. Was I gluten intolerant first? Was it a virus? Maybe the mumps, the measles, phenomena? Maybe the flu? Or maybe childbirth was the final straw. My Grandads niece is the only family memeber I know of who has an autoimmune disease, so it’s just me in my immediate family. When I left home at 19, my diet changed, and not for the better. I worked a lot of jobs, 70 hour weeks were normal, I was also studying and partying pretty hard. Ironically, the first major change in my health I can remember, is when I worked in a bakery. All of a sudden my asthma wasn’t seasonal or if I had a cold, it was an everyday battle. Burning the candle at both ends, my Mum would say. I soon s...