Selling out: my pre-FET GF cleanse

I've never been one for fad diets.  As much as I've spent a large portion of my life "dieting" (sad, I know, and not even really necessary), I've never followed any specific plan other than counting calories and trying to eat less bad stuff and more good stuff.  Atkins, South Beach, low-carb, no carb, Paleo, primal...they all confuse me with their seemingly arbitrary restrictions, and quite frankly any diet that tells me I can't have something at all (even in moderation) is bound to fail.

Now, before everyone starts shouting at me, I realize that going gluten-free (GF) isn't a diet per se.  Of course, unless you're putting yourself in the poorhouse by gorging yourself on expensive GF substitutes, quite often you'll lose weight on a GF diet because you're cutting out calorically dense foods like bread, pasta, and most baked treats.  Which is great, if that's what you're going for.  But for a lot of people, going GF isn't something they're doing to lose a few pounds.  It's something they have to do because their health depends on it.  One of those people is my sister.

My sister was diagnosed with Celiac disease when she was pregnant with my niece.  Unlike a lot of people with Celiac who have digestive issues, my sister was totally asymptomatic apart from a longstanding issue with anemia that even iron supplements couldn't fix.  Turns out that's because her gut was so damaged from gluten that she couldn't absorb it properly.  Once she got pregnant, it seems that her Celiac kicked into high gear and she had a lot of trouble eating anything at all for a while.  It went beyond normal morning sickness, but fortunately her doctor figured it out relatively quickly and she's been healthy ever since going totally GF.

Given this history, gluten intolerance was pretty much the first thing I got tested for when we started having problems conceiving.  Though I've never had any digestive issues at all, I found myself in the unlikely position of hoping that I had asymptomatic Celiac as well, since it was something I could fix.  Take bread out of belly = put baby in belly!  Simple equation!  As we all know, for me it wasn't that easy.  My Celiac blood panel came back clean, and a later test at a naturopath's office (just for good measure) yielded similar results.

I got 99 problems, but a 'wich ain't one.

Which brings me to the crux of my dilemma: going GF when you don't absolutely need to for health reasons.  On the one hand, the increasing number of people who are eating GF has meant huge growth in the availability of GF foods, which is a great thing for people like my sister.  She's no longer relegated to one aisle in the grocery store like some kind of digestive leper.  But the flip side of that coin is that GF is taken a lot less seriously, because most of the people eating this way won't die (or even get seriously sick) if a speck of gluten gets into their food through cross-contamination.  Lots of restaurants are now claiming to offer GF menu options, even though their allegedly GF potatoes are fried in the same oil as their gluten-filled breaded chicken.  My sister has been served croutons on a Caesar salad accompanying her GF meal, and had to specifically ask for a new salad rather than just having the waiter take it back and pick off the offending bits.  This would be unacceptable if the customer had a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction to, say, shrimp.  But being GF has become so common, nay, so trendy, that it isn't taken as seriously by food manufacturers anymore.  This is despite the fact that people like my sister, with true Celiac, will get sick even if it's not immediately visible.

It may sound like it, but I really don't intend to crap on people who have genuine digestive or other health problems caused by gluten intolerance, even if they don't have full-blown Celiac.  If going GF makes you feel more healthy, then by all means do so!  And I'm all too aware of the fact that there are a lot of women in the online IF community who've finally had success with cycles where they went totally GF, despite the absence of any obvious pre-existing problems caused by gluten.  So there's that.  I just have personal issues with people jumping on the GF train for absolutely no reason other than the fact that it's the latest thing that they think will make them skinny, or because they believe that gluten is the source of all health problems, or whatever.

Anyway, the gist of all of this is that I've decided to go GF for the next two weeks leading up to my FET.  I feel like such a sellout!  And yet it's a relatively easy thing to do, so why would I not try everything possible given that this is our last shot with my eggs?  I have to admit that I'm not sold on the idea that it will help, but I'm also curious to see if a GF regimen will have any impact on other inflammatory issues that I've been dealing with (namely, hereditary psoriasis that's been getting steadily worse over the past year or two).  My doctor seems to think it's worth a try.  To make myself feel mildly better about it, I've decided to tie it in to a general clean-eating regimen linked to my latest fitness program, which is much more focused on weight training than on cardio.  I've stocked up on fruits, veggies and lean protein for the week to come, and am staying away from GF breads or other snack substitutes (because they're not strictly "clean" due to the chemicals required to stabilize them).  At best, I'll find myself pregnant in a month's time, at which point I'll become an insufferable advocate of a GF lifestyle to deal with infertility.  At worst, I might start seeing some strength gains and more muscle definition.  Can we call that win-win?  Yes, let's.