I think I figured it out

 

 

Canker sores have never been a problem for me.  Until 2020.  Doctor Google informs me that canker sores are usually caused by stress or a food trigger.  While stress may have been a factor; there was some stress involved in surviving 2020; I don’t think that has been the sole cause for all of 2020 and 2021.  I’ve spent the last almost two years trying to figure out the food trigger; not an easy task when it may take several days between exposure and an outbreak, and several weeks to get through the cycle and back to a new starting point.  That’s a lot of suspect foods to eliminate, and keep eliminating, searching for that elusive trigger.

 

I thought I had a solution last summer with, not a food to eliminate, but with Lysine, an amino acid supplement.  That worked like a charm.  Until it didn’t.  Last November though, it finally occurred to me that since there is a fair amount of gluten sensitivity in our family, maybe that could have a bearing on my dilemma.  Maybe the source of my issue has been so hard to figure out because my problem is not caused by a single food, or just a few foods, I have issue with a whole group of foods.

 

It’s not that hard to go gluten free.  Meat, potatoes, rice, fruit, vegetables.  They don’t have any gluten in them.  Dairy.  Ice cream for dessert.  No problem.  For foods that do have gluten in them, like bread and pasta, there are gluten free substitutes that promise to be “almost as good” as the real thing, but the simplest approach is to just skip any baked or boxed goods altogether for a while.  Every night for dinner, cook enough for leftovers, and eat them the next day at lunch, instead of the usual sandwich.  Eggs, potatoes, and coffee for breakfast are naturally gluten free.  If I want something to hold a blop of jelly, or dip in coffee, toast a slice of gluten free English muffin, don’t expect it to taste like bread, and call it good.  Apples make good afternoon snacks to get me through to dinner.  It only took a few days gluten free to realize that I was on to something; some late blooming reaction to gluten had finally caught up to me and I can be canker-sore-free if I avoid gluten.  In fact, I don’t seem to be super-sensitive to gluten so if I eat mostly gluten free, that seems to do the trick just as well.  That was November.  Still canker-sore free in January.  Problem solved.

 

Life is a learning experience, isn’t it.