Bye-Bye Whole Wheat

I've had some tummy troubles I started suspecting were caused by whole wheat. My mom can eat white bread, white pasta, etc and not have any problems. But she has a respiratory reaction to whole wheat. If I didn't know about her reaction, I don't know that I would've figured out what was causing mine! But knowing that, it was easier to track down.

I stopped eating whole wheat for a few weeks and my stomach got a lot better. Then Wednesday I ate a wheat bun with my burger. Oh. My. Goodness... Within 2 hours I was bloated and in pain! Three days later my stomach still isn't back to normal. So I'd say that was a pretty successful test. Just not at all pleased with the result :(

So, I've been making adjustments. Instead of whole wheat pasta, we've been eating brown rice pasta. And it's actually pretty good! I've eaten white bread (homemade and french) a couple times, and white flour tortillas with no problems. I've also had some Townhouse crackers. I'm really trying to minimize the amount of white flour I eat though. When I make pancakes, I use 100% oat flour instead of half oat and half whole wheat. I don't think it's a gluten problem since I have no problems with white flour. In fact, when my stomach acts up I eat white crackers to settle it and they work great!

I'm really thankful that I have other healthy options besides whole wheat! Not too long ago, I wouldn't have been able to get oat flour or brown rice pasta easily. Now I can drive about 2 miles and just grab it off the shelf when I need it! And of course I can eat brown rice and potatoes.