About this blog.

I've been fighting with autism all of my life. I didn't have "common sense." Most of what I know about people I've learned through repeated observation. I analyze facial expressions. Look for signs of distress on the face when I'm talking with people. I pay attention to nervous ticks in people. When I was younger I was labeled as "special," and placed in the gifted program. I didn't fit in. My brain wandered and wondered all of the time. A's and B's in academics. Cs in conduct.

I've had digestion issues as long as I can remember. As I got older I started playing with my diet to try and fix some of the digestive issues I was experiencing. We had to change something. I cut everything out of my diet down to the point that I was eating saltine crackers, tuna fish, and bread. That was about it for meals outside of dinner, and I was cutting meals completely out of my day in order to try and remain productive. Drank a lot of soda for calories.

Much of my day job requires thinking about marketing and analytics. My nighttime activities usually revolve around web programming and research (hacking).

One day a couple of years ago now, my wife made chili... I hated chili days although I love my wife's chili. The next day I did not have any digestive issues at all. When I asked her what was different about the chili, she said nothing, but she had forgotten to make cornbread. This got her to thinking... so about 20 minutes later she comes into the office and says "I think I may have found something. Let me know if this sounds like what you're going through..." and she proceeded to name off 90 some-odd symptoms. Out of the 90 I had about 85 during any regular month. These include such things as ADHD, autism, and anemia to name a few. Turns out I have a wheat allergy that causes my intestines to attack themselves when I taste wheat. The technical phrase [in the states] is celiac disease. When I eat wheat I can't think. I can only focus on one thing, my multitasking ability goes out the window and then I am left wondering where my day went (usually around the time my intestines start working again). It's completely horrible, and the longer I go without eating wheat the more severe the reaction when I come in contact with it.

You would think with the gluten-free craze that it would be an awesome time for someone like me, but it's just the opposite. I work in marketing, so I can tell you that most companies don't care about how their products affect you... only that you buy their product. The fear of consuming wheat for me almost paralyzes me when it comes to meal time. I don't enjoy going out to dinner in restaurants anymore. When restaurants ignore my requests I tend to get angry. I've resorted to bringing my own [disposable] silverware with me and asking for my meals in to-go boxes. I usually regret it anyhow. I've been noticing a trend of companies labeling and marketing products as gluten-free, yet they're made in a facility that also processes wheat, or manufactured on equipment that also processes wheat. This blog in particular is about my findings as an analytical being and my ongoing battle with the proliferation of wheat gluten in its various incarnations. I'll post recipes, product notices, and restaurant reviews... when I get time.