Introduce yourselves!!

[jax]

Has anyone else been curious about where everyone is from, how old they are, how long they have been vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free, etc? Or is it just me?! I know there's some info on the profiles but not enough

I'll start the intros - I'm 20, female and from Toronto... I have been a vegetarian for 8 years and diagnosed with Celiac Disease last year.





**IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION OR PRODUCT REVIEW MAKE A NEW THREAD--ONLY USE THIS THREAD TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF**
~EDGEYVEGGIE

[edgeyveggie]

Good idea jax

I'm 19, male and from Syracuse, NY. Vegetarian for 15ish years and gluten free for 1 year. Check my profile for a pic of me.

[jage]

Bunch of fricking kids-

I'm 33 vegetarian for ... uh, since I was 15ish, vegan for sevenish years (all so long ago) and known wheat allergic for 3 years, but had had misunderstood symptoms for probably 2 years before that.

I'm from Indianapolis but just this year my wife and I moved to Tucson.

[edgeyveggie]

This is cool I'm going to sticky this, everyone should post in here .

jage, you code php?

[Antonia89]

My name's Antonia, i'm from central New York, i've been vegetarian for 3 and a half years, and i'm actually NOT gluten-free, but i'm interested in it, and dating edgeyveggie . I'm also interested in nutrition. After college i'd like to get my masters in human nutrition, and celiac disease is something i'm sure i'll come across a lot as a nutritionist. So, I enjoy seeing recipes that are gluten-free and learning more about what it's like being gluten-free!

[jage]

My wife is voluntarily nearly gluten free, although it's purely a support thing- it make life a lot easier with cooking single meals, and mentally it's a lot less of a strain for me becaue we don't keep wheat crackers or anthing in the house. She still eats regular bread and some veggie meat items, but all in all it's very beneficial to me to have her support. We've also been vegetarian and vegan together since about the time we met.

> jage, you code php?

PHP, mySQL, Flash, ASP, SQL, JavaScript and about everything else under the sun. Feel free to email me.

[hathor]

Originally Posted by jage

Bunch of fricking kids-

I'm 33 ...

Speak for yourself, bucko -- I'm 54. I guess that means I can be the mother/crotchetyoldlady figure for everyone I vaguely remember being 33 ...

I've been following the McDougall diet (plant foods, no added fat) for seven years as has my husband. My son is 22 & soon to start graduate school; he is vegetarian (hasn't really gone low fat; now he claims he is going to cut back on cheese). My daughter is 20 and getting ready for her junior year abroad; she also is vegetarian, but finding it difficult to avoid cheese & eggs, particularly when she is off on archaeological digs. She just got back from Turkey ...

Once my husband & I switched to McDougall, we had some health problems clear up. However, my intestines still never worked properly (and never have). After reading Dr. McD's latest book about digestion and how it is supposed to work, I figured something was wrong. I tried adding all sorts of additional fiber, but now I know that all that wheat bran & whole wheat bread & pasta was just making things worse At the beginning of this year I tried to make homemade gnocchi that turned into gluten bombs. Still wanted to eat them, though ... at which point I felt really bad & realized that maybe, maybe I had a problem with gluten.

I tried going GF and immediately felt better. My husband thought this might be the placebo effect so I did the Enterolab testing & was positive for everything they test for. I don't have the "celiac genes" but rather double DQ1, which depending on who you listen to, might be associated with neurological problems with gluten. Not that I've noticed any myself ... unless being a klutz counts. I sprained my ankle a week ago just walking down the street. Darn sidewalk tripped me

My biggest concern now is staving off osteoporosis, because I'm at the big M, my mom has full-blown osteoporosis & my older sister has osteopenia. I haven't been able to convince either that the problem is animal protein, not lack of calcium. Other than B12, the one supplement I take contains magnesium & some other things that should support my bones. I also do some heavy exercise when I'm not laid up due to my klutziness

I have separate cupboards now for gluteny stuff & what I can have. I cook GF, but if folks want regular bread, crackers, or cereal they are around. I think I have trained them about avoiding cross-contamination in PB, hummus, etc.

Let's see, what else. I live in the DC area and am surprised I can't find more GF restaurants or offerings about. I really hope someone starts doing GF pizza near me.

I pretty much follow a vegan diet for health & now environmental reasons, not animal rights. I recently discovered on vacation (when pickings were slim) that I can tolerate goat milk's cheese. This is my biggest temptation now. I don't believe that animal protein is good for you. But the cutoff in The China Study (which you all should read BTW) found health problems once animal protein got up to 5% of calories. I'm not to that & trying not to get into the stage of having it every day either.

I guess if I could hack soy cheese I wouldn't be having this problem, but I'm supposed to avoid soy. Sigh ...

[jage]

Sweet old lady. Haha- you're story actually reminded me of two things. Once when I too was trying to figure out what was up I thought of doing more fiber. I bought these super fiber muffins at wild oats or trader joes, and they seemed like someone had shredded a plastic bag in them. Still I plugged ahead and ate one- OMG, talk about a gluten bomb! Terrible.

Anyway my Aunt & Uncle had had great success on the South Beach diet and it seemed like a good diet for us vegetarians to try too so my wife and I went on it. My problems all but cleared up, and I was eating more cheese (which I'd previously though I had lactose intolerance) than ever, so something in my brain said, "well if that's not the problem..."

Shortly thereafter I realized that my continued problems were because of Veggie Patties and the like being all gluten based, and my life really started to change to gluten free.

I also remember from my vegan days about excess milk actually causing your body to shed calcium and possibly lead to osteoporosis, but I'm out of date with my info.

[Milena]

I’m Milena, 37 years old and vegetarian since 1 month or so and sticking to it. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease on February 2004.
I live in Madrid, Spain where I met I husband, but American from Boston (my mother is Italian). Some ****tail I know.

Ciaoo o

[hathor]

Originally Posted by jage

I also remember from my vegan days about excess milk actually causing your body to shed calcium and possibly lead to osteoporosis, but I'm out of date with my info.

No, you aren't really out of date. What milk gives you with calcium is more than depleted with the animal protein, which can only be neutralized by calcium coming out of the bones. There's a reason that there is a direct correlation between dairy consumption and rates of osteoporosis (not inverse, folks, direct). In fact, there was a study financed by the dairy industry that found that the group that had the recommended milk consumption ended up with flimsier bones than those that didn't. This doesn't make it into their ads for some reason

Fortunately I'm not too tempted by dairy these days given my suffering when I have it. I swear I was sick for a week when I ate a slice of cheesecake at Thanksgiving trying to be nice to the young relative that was so proud of having baked it.