Being Gluten Free

I love to help people who first begin their gluten free journey and so I find myself writing this same information often. Now that I'm blogging, I thought I could write it down here and refer people to my blog entry when they need it.

My Background
I have been gluten free for over four years now. I realized I had Celiac disease and stopped eating gluten three months before getting pregnant because I felt sick every time I ate. I listened to a good friend who had gluten & dairy intolerance and said she thought I was intolerant as well. I bought books on the diet, read them all and then began. I didn't know how to bake gluten free, I just stopped baking and was a little heart broken when I thought I'd never be able to eat my favorite foods again. I was wrong but didn't know that then.

A week after being strictly gluten free I was amazed at how great I felt. I had boundless energy, I remember jumping and running around my apartment because I suddenly felt so energized. My digestive problems went away, I lost 35 lbs in 3 months with little exercise, other than the jumping around my apartment. My personality even changed. I was so used to feeling ill, it effected everything, my personality, my outlook on life. I went from being a very high strung and anxious person to being way more relaxed and having less problems with anxiety and depression. When I became pregnant I learned I had a common vitamin deficiency associated with Celiac disease and also I had low bone density, another common side effect. I finally had a blood test about half way through my pregnancy but had been without gluten too long and it came back negative. Regardless, I don't need a doctor to tell me I have Celiac disease. Everytime I accidentally eat gluten it's clear. Since then I've learned I'm intolerant to dairy and soy as well. When I first learned about Celiac disease I was overwhelmed by how many products contained hidden gluten. Since then, I've learned so much about how to cook and bake. I love to share my experiences and make the process easier for others. Don't be afraid to try going gluten free. I've met so many people who weren't willing to make the effort or thought the food was going to be terrible. Your health and how you feel is worth the effort and the food is amazing!

Gluten free Tips
Buy or Borrow the book, Wheat-Free, Worry-Free, by Danna Korn, It's the best book I've found on the diet. It talks about hidden gluten, how to get tested and talk to your Dr, how to manage the diet within your family, recipes, etc. It's comprehensive. Also, become friends with this website, http://www.celiac.com/, it's also indispensable. Great current information and research. Recipes too.

Find a forbidden foods & food additive list and keep it with you while you shop. There's a list in the afore mentioned book as well. Before I became gluten free I ate a lot of processed foods. Once I became gf I was so frustrated because all the processed foods I ate contained hidden gluten. For awhile it's a pain to read every label of everything you buy. Soon, though you won't have to refer to the list because you'll know what the common gluten additives and ingredients are and you'll get to know the products that are gf. Also, many more companies are listing the 7 major allegens on their labels or carrying the gluten-free label.

Eat mostly whole foods. I learned to eat whole foods quickly. You can eat meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, rice and other grains like quinoa plentifully. Other alternatives like Tinkyada brand rice pasta is delicious and easily found at health food stores. Tinkyada brand sells all different kinds of pasta including lasagna noodles. Besides that I eat fairly simply. What I can't find at the store, I make from scratch.

Use all your old baking recipes. Gluten free baked good recipes are sometimes wonderful and sometimes not. The long list of different flours to mix together has always put me off and often taste too dry and starchy. So I buy garbanzo bean flour (it doesn't taste beany) and brown rice flour. I use
1/4 Garbanzo bean flour
3/4 c brown rice flour
& 1 tsp xantham gum for every cup of flour called for in your old standby recipes. (use less for cookies)

The only recipe this hasn't really worked for is my Grandma's dinner rolls. I haven't perfected that one yet.

Give up on sandwiches. Sad, maybe, for some. Sandwiches are such an American standby, but eating them is habit, not need. Gluten free bread is so expensive and making your own is time consuming. I've come across one great gluten free bread recipe. It's so good right out of the oven. The next day it's a bit crumbly and dry if not taken out of the oven right on time. Instead think tortillas! Rice and flax seed tortillas are sold at heath food stores and are a great, very tasty alternative. Stuff any sandwich fixings in there and yum! More often than not I use plain old corn tortillas. I make quesadillas smothered in salsa, peanut butter & banana "quesadillas", ham & avocado wraps. My friend even uses corn tortillas for individual size pizzas. I eat wraps now, not sandwiches, and when I do have a sandwich it's a wonderful treat.

Use pecan meal or other nut meal for bread crumbs in meat loaf, meatballs, hamburgers or breaded chicken, etc. It's rich in protein and adds wonderful flavor.

Some people have said to me, "Oh, how sad, you have all these intolerances." I have to say having Celiac disease and the intolerances that I have, makes me eat healthy. I'm not someone who ever learned self-control when it came to the foods I love. Now, if I want a treat, I have to make it. While I love baking, sometimes it gives me enough time to think, do I really want to make the effort, do I really need it? It's opened up a whole new world of healthy eating for me and now I'm able to pass that on to my family. For that, I'm very thankful.