Gluten Free Diet - Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Elisabeth Hasselbeck appeared on Good Morning America today promoting her new book "The G-Free Diet: A Gluten Survival Guide." Hasselbeck shared the story of her long history of illnesses and her discovery of her aversion to gluten.

Once she eliminated it from her diet, Hasselbeck found her health improved and the unexplained illness she suffered from for much of her life disappeared.

Here is an excerpt from her book:

My G- Free Journey

I learned about gluten the hard way. I wrote this book so you don’t have to. Most people with celiac disease, like me, have a story to tell. My hope is that in reading mine, and the pages that follow, you will be able to begin your journey to a better body and a better self—without all the heartache (and bellyache!) that I endured for far too long.

I grew up in an Italian-American neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. There wasn’t a single holiday that did not feature “Mama’s” (my grandmother’s) famous baked penne along with a thirty-inch loaf of fresh Italian bread. After dessert, my whole family would even sit around dunking any remaining bread into our coffee. My cousins and I would fight over who got the “end” of each loaf. I remember watching Mama slice into the loaf, waiting to see if it was my “day” or not. The smell of more toasted Italian bread and butter would wake me up the next morning.

In my childhood home, it was all bread, all the time—and that was just the way we liked it.

While some things haven’t changed in my family—we still have baked penne at every holiday dinner—other things certainly have. Since 2002, for example, my mom has made two baked penne: one for everyone else, and one just for me, a gluten-free version that hurts neither my stomach nor Mama’s feelings when she looks over and sees a plate devoid of our traditional family fare. Thanks to http://www.abcnews.go.com