Your spouse: The biggest barrier to a gluten-free diet?
Gluten-eating spouse sabotaging your gluten-free diet? Their transgressions can be maddening. They order pasta with garlic bread in front of your newly gluten-free children, who proceed to cry through the rest of the meal. They dip their knife into your gluten-free mayonnaise after having used it on their whole wheat bread. They don’t read labels, feed the kids something with gluten in it, and then go off to work while you’re left at home to deal with your children’s stomach aches or behavioral outbursts.
Does going gluten free unearth marital issues?
Sometimes a spouse’s stubbornness unearths dormant marital discord that may require attention. Or the new gluten-free dieter becomes assertive and demanding for the first time in the relationship, which can rattle spousal dynamics. But given that gluten is linked to 55 known diseases and many neurological issues, going gluten free is worth the fight.How to win over your reluctant spouse to a gluten-free lifestyle
The first spouse to go gluten free is often the wife. This is because moms usually spend more time caring for and feeding the children, and are more apt to notice health issues and take dietary action.
Also, the hormonal upheavals of pregnancy and childbirth can be a health tipping point for many women, who must buckle down to manage an autoimmune disease, adrenal dysfunction, hypothyroidism, inflammation or other issue after the baby is born.
So how does one win over a reluctant spouse to support a gluten-free diet?
How others have gained support from their spouse for a gluten-free diet
Patience, persistence, education, and even the willingness to nag are the ticket, say those who’ve done it.- “My husband had to see a lab test with positive transglutaminase antibodies [regarded as a celiac marker] and stool IgA antibodies to gluten [a marker for gluten intolerance] to be convinced our child needed to be gluten-free.”
- “I would nag and nag and nag. I would send video via cellphone of one of the kids losing it after eating gluten.”
- “Experiencing the severe sleep deprivation of a breastfeeding baby who was colicky and having that go away when I went gluten free.”
- “He saw how differently I acted and felt on a gluten-free diet, and saw positive changes in our son.”
- “He saw how sick I got when insensitive visitors who insisted on eating gluten contaminated my kitchen and my food.”
- “He saw I was literally unable to move, stand, use my hands, or do anything unassisted for six weeks.”
- “We called a mediator to write up a divorce agreement at the start of a GAPS diet [a stricter, grain-free diet many moms have discovered helps their children who have autism symptoms]. He told me he would leave if I didn’t go back to the way things were. I told him I could not and would not ever go back. Many rough times later, he is eating with us and on his own healing journey. We went from numb, angry, ramen-eating zombies to people who fell in love on a deeper level.”