My Gluten Free Experiment for Psoriasis

It’s been about 11 months since I embarked on my gluten free experiment for psoriasis. Thanks to all who have followed up to see how it’s going.

A little background: I decided to embark on this experiment after dealing with mild psoriasis for 2 years. Some recent research studies indicate that going gluten free for psoriasis might be effective. You can read more about the reasons behind my gluten free experiment, and how I did it, if you want more of the backstory.

Did my gluten free experiment work? What happened?

I’ll spare you a big build up and jump right to the end of the story…

Nothing happened.

Nothing with regard to my psoriasis, I mean. My nearly year-long gluten free experiment resulted in the psoriasis neither getting noticeably better, nor much worse. It waxed and waned as it does anyway.

That’s the funny thing about psoriasis – it’s affected by many factors, including stress. And, since I currently have 20 teenagers in the house… wait, did I say 20? I meant 2, with one on deck. It just feels like 20 sometimes, what with the groaning, grumpy retorts, raucous disagreements, and heated debates over who gets the last of the chicken salad. That’s enough stress for a decade right there, and while I have the thick skin that’s necessary to survive the emotional affronts of teenagery, it seems my actual skin isn’t so resilient 🙂

Just to be sure my gluten experiment was conclusive, I did a 5-day gluten challenge a few weeks ago. This planned re-introduction of gltuen coincided with a trip away with my husband. So the gluten-y items I added reflected the celebratory nature of our trip 🙂

♥ I kicked it off with these beauts from the White Mountain Cupcakery, tea-infused cupcakes with lavender/honey frosting, in honor of the Royal nuptials happening across the pond that weekend. The perfect choice since we were celebrating our 25th anniversary!
♥ A crispy handmade pizza from Flatbreads, a restaurant I love for their local/sustainable vibe and humongous wood-fired ovens. This satisfied the pizza dreams I’d been having. (gluten-free fueled dreams are the weirdest dreams)
♥ Our go-to trail mix that fueled daily hikes and one shopping marathon. It includes peanuts, raisins, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and whole grain cereals. Quaker Oat Squares, an oat-and-wheat combination and probably my all-time favorite cereal, is a must-have ingredient in this mixture. Those nuggets don’t fall apart no matter how jostled the container gets.
♥ Ice cream with a view, on a sugar cone. Oh, how I have missed a good cone, and licking ice cream off my knuckles. Spoons are so boring.
♥ A delish gourmet burger at Wicked Fresh in North Conway, with a yeasty, soft grilled hamburger bun. YUM!
♥ A killer egg sandwich with avocado on a whole wheat English muffin.

Am I disappointed that my gluten free experiment didn’t work?

Sure. I did have great hopes that my mild psoriasis would diminish significantly once I went gluten free. However, I knew that there was only about a 25% chance of that. Though the science is not yet conclusive, it’s estimated that about one quarter of people with psoriasis are likely also gluten-sensitive, thanks to the presence of anti-gliadin antibodies.

It doesn’t look like I’m in that 25%.

So, if it didn’t seem to be working, why did I stay with it for so long? Mostly I wasn’t sure how long I’d have to be gluten-free to notice a difference. I wanted to be sure I gave the diet plenty of time to have an impact. I thought at first maybe it was working a bit…but likely not.

Also, it seemed at first to cause a not-unwelcome reduction in minor abdominal bloating. But, that could have been solely because, in the beginning, I was not eating much in the way of the carb-filled foods I normally eat, like breads, whole grain crackers, and baked goods. (It took me a few weeks to find comparable gluten-free replacements, and to start gluten-free baking.) Looking back now, though, it doesn’t appear the diet itself has made a difference in that area either.

So, what’s next? Does the gluten free experiment continue?

No. After 11 months of gluten-free eating, I’m going back to my regular, unrestricted diet, which includes some of my favorite whole grains (barley, yay!), whole wheat English muffins for the aforementioned killer egg sandwiches, the occasional pasta dish, and baked goods using regular all-purpose flour instead of the very comparable (though pricey) gluten-free version of all purpose flour.

I’ll also continue to enjoy the naturally gluten free dishes I’ve loved, and will continue to create new ones, like those I developed in the past few months. New family favorites include Savory African Peanut Stew, Loaded Flourless Monster Cookies, and Creamy Chickpea Curry.