I used to be on a super restrictive vegan diet that helped a lot with my menstrual cramps. For the longest time, I thought it was just fat and animal products that made my period worse, but after being less restrictive I still found my period to be just as painful. For a while, I felt defeated, I wondered what else I had to do to get it to go away. I was willing to cut out more foods, but not a lot. I didn’t realize gluten was something that I had completely overlooked.
After reading an article that shows links between endometriosis and celiac disease. I decided to back onto 23 and me and investigate. I was surprised that I had nearly forgotten that I had a variant for celiac disease. While I have never been diagnosed by a doctor, I have taken other tests to see if the cramps I was having, were related to something else. I took a pregnancy test since women with large enough ovarian cysts will get a false positive if it is a problem. I took it and I got a negative, so now I’m pretty sure whatever it is, it probably isn’t cyst related. While I can’t say for 100% certainty that I have endometriosis, I am trying to go gluten free for at least the whole month of March and see what happens. However, this month I might need to cut out more saturated fats too in order for it to be more effective. Based on my on experiences here’s the foods I’ve found that need to be avoided:
- High fat foods
- Foods like oils, animal products, fried foods, and processed foods
- Caffeine
- Most sodas, and coffee(I still have decaf sometimes)
- Salt and refined sugar
On the restrictive diet I had, I found that eating only potatoes as a starch and lots of fruits and vegetables -without adding any salt or sugar- has been super effective along with exercising every day. However, this diet has been hard for me and I’m hoping if gluten is another factor than discovering that might actually help me expand what I’ve been considering healthy food.