About Us (Ahem, Me)

My name is Tyler Link. This site is my attempt to document the resources I’ve discovered and the knowledge I’ve acquired that have helped me transition to a gluten free diet over the last four years. It is my hope that this site will make your transition to a gluten free diet as painless as possible.

As far back as I can remember I was tired all the time, but it never seemed like a symptom of a larger problem. I was so far from normal that I didn’t know what normal felt like and so I continued behaving as if everything were fine.  But everything was not fine.

My freshman year of high school I managed to make it through a whole season of B-squad basketball and although I spent most of the season on the bench, the practices were agonizing. What little energy I had was entirely gone after an hour of drills and wind sprints. I would go home and sleep for hours.  I lusted after sedentary off-days spent lying in bed watching tv show reruns. At season’s end I decided that one was enough.

Not wanting to disappoint my parents by leaving my one last active interest, I mustered the will to try out for the team sophomore year. My coaches were impressed at my progress from freshman year and dangled a starting position as reason to continue, but my heart wasn’t in it. Or rather, my body just didn’t have what it took. I told myself my love for the game was gone. I told my parents I wanted to get a job. Both were lies. I quit.  The following three years were the most sedentary of my life.

In college, as is customary, I began drinking, mostly beer, often in large quantities (really cheap American beer at that!). I noticed a general feeling of lethargy and developed a bad case of acne, both of which did not begin in college, but only worsened on my liquid diet. My roommates gave me a hard time for sleeping all the time, but I denied sleeping more than anyone else.  I simply kept strange hours.  But if I slept more than a typical freshman who tried, impossibly, to balance class, study, and late-night “socializing”, then why was I the only one that appeared to be showing signs of crippling fatigue?

Everyone struggles to keep up with the demands of college life, but I seemed to be failing miserably. My grades were good, remarkably good for someone that could barely keep his eyes open in class. But for the first time in my life I failed my freshman English class.  My mind did not seem to be functioning at full speed.  Later, I would recognize this for what is was:  brain fog.  It’s cause:  gluten.  This fog followed me through four years of college and only began to lift when my first job required a cross-country relocation to a little town called Santa Cruz.

To put it mildly, my prior four years at college were not very healthy. I exercised in fits and starts, never being able to consistently make it to the gym. My diet consisted of cheap, processed foods from the local Wal-Mart. Through it all I never lost the nagging voice in the back of my head that I was doing significant damage to my health. But how? My understanding of how diet affects the body was almost completely absent.

That is, until I read Dr. Mark Hyman’s book Ultrametabolism. This book opened my eyes to how the food we eat interacts with our body. Suddenly it all made sense. I didn’t immediately suspect a gluten intolerance and I continued to eat pizza and burritos, but I was committed to learning more about healthy eating. I now had the curse of knowledge, I knew too much to turn a blind eye to my diet.

As my symptoms continued, I decided to re-read Ultrametabolism and at Dr. Hyman’s encouragement, proceeded to go on an elimination diet.  It was at this time that I noticed my body’s reaction to gluten. After many failed attempts, self-doubt, and skepticism from friends and family, I’ve been living a gluten free life to varying degrees of success for over four years.

Twenty-two years is a long time to live at half-normal, but I’m grateful to have discovered my intolerance while still young. The consumption of wheat (and other grains) and the subsequent diseases are the overlooked scourges of modern man. These conditions are vastly underdiagnosed and most people are still not correctly diagnosed with celiac disease until late in life. For some people, it’s tragically late. Consumption of wheat and gluten has been linked to many, if not most, of the so-called diseases of civilization.

My own experience with gluten intolerance led me to consider how I can help others lead a life where health is their greatest value and where they can make educated choices about the foods they eat, and help change a food culture where quality and nutrition often (always?) take a back seat to convenience and thrift.

That’s my story, though much of it still remains to be written.  What has your experience been?  What led you to pursue a gluten free diet?  I’d love to hear your story.