Meeting on Cross-reactive foods

Hello Everyone,
We had a pretty lively meeting last week talking cross-reactive foods. I'd encourage you all to visit www.thedr.com and see if you can still get access to the videos from the recent Gluten Summit, b/c what we discussed was Dr. Peter Osborne's talk. In a nutshell, cross-reactive foods are foods that the body essentially interprets as gluten, and hence they cause some of the same autoimmune/inflammatory effects.  He finds that 100% of his patients have foods other than gluten to which they react. If you're new to gluten-free eating, don't despair. Most of us take this in stages. Take your time to learn what it means to be gluten free and do it well, and then you can evaluate how you feel and if you want to take the next step to explore this.

Per Dr. Osborne, the biggest cross reactive candidates can include dairy, corn, soy, and coffee, but there are many others. If you visit the website for Cyrex Labs, they have an entire array looking at cross-reactive foods. It's definitely emerging literature, but particularly for those who are diligently eating gluten free and certain of  no cross-contamination (NOTE that I just said cross-contamination, not cross-reactivity), then cross-reactive foods would be something worthy of consideration. Several posts back, I talked about my Cyrex Labs results. I have since cut out nearly all foods to which I reacted, per their results. I feel terrific! I will eat some high quality, raw dairy, and occasionally some cheese that's not so high quality (I confess), but it is not a daily indulgence.

Dr. Osborne noted that he endorses a grain free diet consisting of high quality (e.g,. pesticide free) meats, fruits, and veggies. He also talked about GMOs and noted he expects to see a lot more in the research about negative effects of these as well. 

There is a more technical explanation of cross-reactive foods here, if you're interested:

http://www.thepaleomom.com/2013/03/gluten-cross-reactivity-update-how-your-body-can-still-think-youre-eating-gluten-even-after-giving-it-up.html

In an upcoming meeting, we'll be joined by a local psychologist, Dr. Mary Smith, who was kind enough to join us to hear our concerns about the difficulties that go along with a chronic disease diagnosis and a subsequent radically altered lifestyle. She'll be coming to do a presentation for us, probably some time in April. Stay tuned!

Be well,
Janet