Is anyone familiar with celiac disease? Does anyone have any advice on a gluten-free diet? I forgot to mention in my original request that this is for my ten year-old son who loves pizza, donuts, bread, crackers, etc.
I want to thank everyone who responded to my request. After numerous visits to Texas Children's Hospital, Jacob is allergic to Gluten. This does require a Gluten-Free diet but is much better news than a diagnosis of Celiac Disease. Anyway, since we are a household of two, I have also gone on the Gluten-Free diet and have enjoyed its benefits!
Go to www.wholecateringaustin.com Wholefoods market on Lamar has cooking classes, go to the website for the list, I know there was a class on cooking gluten free! Good luck, its hard to stick to things like that but you will feel better!
If you go to my website www.easytopreparemeals.com and click on the words "easy recipes" at the top, you can click on lifestyle choices and search for recipes that are gluten free. Over 100 will come up!! I love this! Let me know if I can help you with it!
go to www.celiac.org. They have links, support groups, recipes and advice.
I do alot of gluten free foods for my family, we eat mostly fruits, veggies and some meats.. and if you are interested in easy gluten-free foods..HEB has a whole aisle dedicated towards them. There are lots of recipies if you google gluten-free recipies. Good Luck.. and here's to better health!
My aunt has been living with celiac's for a while now. There are many good recipes out there and if you put gluten free recipes into google they do come up. One of my friends has recently found that gluten aggravates her MS so she is also trying to go gluten free. It is much easier now than it was earlier. Sun Harvest, Whole foods and even HEB now have gluten free items and they are marked.
There is a large celiac support group and they get together once a month (I think). My aunt has even been on a cruise to France with her celiac group and the food was all gluten free on the ship! I mention this to let you know that there is life for celiacs...
You can have rice and pasta and items that are made from rice. I am sure that it isn't easy but it is better now. Much luck to you and hang in there.
Hi L.,
I am going gluten-free right now with my family. I'm not sure if I have celiac or not but I know eating gluten causes me pain and discomfort.
To start with, I have been giving things away out of our pantry that I know have gluten in them. Soy sauce even has wheat in it.
www.glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com is a good site. I have been substituting rice flour for things and one of my favorite things to eat right now is rice with mung beans and coconut milk. I also use a little bit of cumin, coriander and fenugreek that I get from the Herb Bar in Austin.
Feel free to talk with me more. Like I said, I'm learning as I go along cuz we just started this.
Take care,
S.
My children are on a GF diet. If there is celiac disease you have to be very careful not to get cross contamination. Our whole family is on the diet, although my husband gets gluten when he is at work.
I found that in the beginning we ate a lot of GF processed foods like pastas, breads, ect. They are very expensive. You can get them (and mixes) at Whole Foods (try their gluten free section but also look in other sections such as the snack foods, the cereals, the pastas and the freezer section because it's not all in one place.) Also, Kroger and HEB have GF products.
It helped us to maintain some sort of normalcy in our diet while we got used to it. Our favorite pastas are quinoa or corn, the rice is pretty mushy and bland. Our favorite bread is Whole Foods Sandwitch bread in the freezer section. Their store brand cake mixes are good. My fave pancake mix is one with almond flour in it.
Eventually we got weaned off the processed foods and mostly eat fruits, veggies, meats, dairy. We buy corn tortillas and make enchiladas and quesodillas. There's a focaccia bread mix that's only $2.99 at WF and HEB and I mix it up and press it into a pizza pan (two mixes for a very large pizza) and bake it then add pizza toppings. It's great!! there's a lot of snack foods you can eat like veggie chips and fritos and cheetos. Make sure it doesn't have gluten, wheat, barley, or modified food starch unless it says gluten free. If you are terribly sensitive you might have to buy only products made in a GF facility (most products do say if it's is made in a facility sharing machines with wheat products.)
My children don't have celiac's they are just sensitive to the gluten.
S.
I was diagnosed with celiac disease last year months after I had my first child at 40 years old. It was a huge shock and I thought my whole world was over. As a result I also have osteopenia.. But I have since been on the diet for a year and my levels are great. It is more difficult going out to dinner but I always call before I go to a restaurant. There is a life after the diagnoses. My first step, other than cutting out any breads, was to make a list of products I usually eat and call or email those companies to find out what they offer that is gluten free. My vanilla BlueBell ice cream is safe for example. We've replaced our soy sauce with the wheat free Tamari sauce by San-J that is just as good. You can get that at Whole Foods. Since I could go on, I'm sure you don't have time to read all this, feel free to contact me if you have any questions. ____@____.com Good luck!
Oh, http://www.craigospizzaandpasta.com/ offers gluten free pizzas and they deliver!
I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease 8 years ago. I grew up with a sister who had it, as well. This is a very, very manageable condition. It does, however, require discipline and diligence. The first year is the most critical and the most challenging since you have to learn so much about foods and food additives. A great resource is glutenfree.com. It is a website that sells only gluten-free foods, but also has links to other informational websites and support sites. There is also a weekly newsletter that I find very useful.
Locally, most of the HEB stores, Central Market, and Whole Foods have gluten-free sections. They offer guides and lists to the gluten-free foods in their stores. If you are not a big bread or carbohydrate eater, the gluten-free diet is pretty straight forward. All fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats are gluten-free. Most cheeses are as well, but you need to read the ingredient list just to be on the safe side.
A rule of thumb that I live by is that if it is gluten-free bread, toast it! It tastes much, much better that way. There are many options for dining out, as well. The Grove Wine Bar and the Brick Oven on 35th street offer gluten-free pizzas. Wildwood Cafe at the corner of Bee Caves and Westbank offeres only gluten-free sandwiches, pastas, cookies, cakes, pies, etc.
Hope this helps a little. Good luck!
In Austin there is a wonderful lady who has opened her own gluten-free organic food delivery service. Meagan's website is http://www.mcgovernsorganics.com/. You can also find links to other resources and menu ideas on the site.
Dear L.,
I've never offered any advice on mamasource before, but I just happened to run across this recipe blog yesterday and loved it. The mother who maintains the site has a daughter with celiac disease so all recipes are gluten-free. (All recipes are for the crockpot, which if you like, can be huge time savers. She's also been on the Food Network and several news shows--how I found her--so I'm guessing the food is pretty good).
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com
Hope you find this helpful!
all the best,
C. M.
L. - I have several adult friends who have just been diagnosed with celiac. What a pain. I think more restaurants, food co's are recognizing this. Look it up on internet. One friend has to be very strict: no soy sauce, fish @ Goode Co. was slightly dredged in flour before sauteeing and the waiter argued about it ! Look at Whole Foods, even the health food section at Kroger has different types of flour. Good luck to you. I'm sure you'll feel better and more energetic when you get control of this.
Hi, my name is E. and I am 46 years old and about 2 years ago due to abdominal pain,bloating,headaches and diahrrea I was diagnosed with a Gluten intolerence thru my nutritionist as my doctor could not find the cause of my discomfort and pain.
We then initiasally did the elimination diet to determine the exact allergy,then did a detox program and then maintenance. I have done a lot of research thru the internet and then also the dlife.com website has tons of recipes for Glutenfree living.This is also a good website: www.GlutenFreeMall.com and then I am a member of :www.glutenfreeclub.com where they share all kinds of recipes. I basically started off by googling glutenfree diet and came up with a wealth of info and websites.
The key is to eat organic,avoid wheat,barley, rye and spelt flours.Avoid all processed foods,sausages and soy sauce,barbecue sauces,salad dressings that are not Gluten free. So you can eat all corn,rice and potato products. Fresh chicken,eggs,meat (without marinades or sauces).The only yogurt which is gluten free is the "brown cow" brand. Amy's frozen foods have come out with a gluten free pizza and enchiladas. Most of the BOB MILLS products are gluten free and easily available at HEB.I do recommend drink Kefir or a probiotic daily also papaya enzymes are great for indigestion or discomfort.
Let me know if you have any other questions, I would be happy to help. Just remember it is a change of lifestyle which takes adjustment and time, It can be very frustrating especially when eating out but I have learned to ask questions tothe chef and not the waiters.read labels and don't assume people know about gluten intolerance,they don't and it's up to you to edducate them.
Hi L.,
Depending on where you live there is a little health food shop called Ranch Creek, on Memorial Drive which has great gf supplies too. It is a little portable building but it is really good.
W.
Hi L.,
Apologies that this is so long. There is a lot to tell.
My two daughters and I are gluten free. I, too, was recently laid off, so I have been trying to be more thrifty with my purchases. (Know anyone who needs a really good editor?)Fortunately, I recently discovered that many Kosher items are labeled gluten free. If you live in San Antonio, the new Alon HEB (which is not far from the Jewish Community Center) has a large selection of Kosher foods. I was thrilled to see the prices, compared with the gluten free fare geared specifically for Celiacs.
Also, the Brazilian cheese bread is gluten free. At the same store, I found a boxed Cheese Bread mix ("Cheese Bread, Pan de Queso" by Yoki) that is labeled gluten free. (I think it cost around $2.) Another mix, Chebe, is easy to make and tastes very good, but it is more expensive. There are also several prebaked gluten free breads in the frozen section that are not bad!
I live near several HEB stores, but by far my favorite right now is the ALON store. My husband even found some fresh "Chocolate Chewy Cookies" in the bakery that we ate. The ingredients listed no questionable items, and the box was labeled Kosher (you have to be careful about cross-contamination) so we took the risk that it would be OK to eat. We had no negative effects. (FYI: 12 good-sized cookies for $4.99)
If I can offer any more advice, please feel free to email me at ____@____.com. I have been gluten free for almost 11 years now.
Good luck to you!
N. O.
These diets are for low carb and diebetic diets. I think that is the same thing as gluten-free. Also do a search on flickr.com and see what you can find for food ideas. Good luck.
When I was diagnosed with Gluten Intolerance, I was very sad because I love cookies, cakes, muffins, etc and the GF kind are not very good. However, the past year I started baking again using "Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour" which can be found at HEB, Whole Foods, Central Market, even Target carries it. You substitute it cup for cup in all recipes that call for all purpose flour. You have to add Xanthan Gum to the recipes (it says how much on the package), but now even my husband and daughter will eat my baked goods. I made Christmas cookies this past Christmas that my friends loved and couldn't tell they were GF! I know it is overwhelming at first. Remember you can eat meat, eggs, veggies, corn tortillas, and rice all you want. Keep it simple, then experiment with GF products. I like corn pasta and Tinkyada's rice pasta. I like Whole Foods pizza shells (in the refrigerated section). I keep those foods on hand and when I make my family pasta or they order pizza, I don't feel most deprived. Good luck!
There is actually alot more in the food department now a days, than when I started with this problem 10 yrs ago. Try to stay on the rice side, than on the corn side. Corn is another major allergen, & many GF products are made from it. If you do have things with corn, make sure you only buy organic corn in order to avoid any GMOs. I also had to elliminate corn 10 yrs ago, but don't seem to have a problem with the organic corn as long as it is moderation. Corn is actually a grain, and can be just as hard on the digestive system. Quinoa is a great substitue & is a complete protein. It comes, in small grain (similar to couscous, but far superior), flakes and flour. Whole foods is a good place to shop, they even have a list of their items that they will give to you at customer service. I also like to order in bulk from Amazon, once I figure I like something. I hope this helps.
www.mybiopro.com/claudia13 (learn how to protect your family from cell phone radiation & EMF pollution)
You can now take an enzyme that fixes the gluten digestive issue. Not sure if it works for celiac's disease, but definitely works for gluten allergy and digestion. It is from Houston Enzymes and it is called ProZyme, I think.
L., I tried the gluten free diet and had advice from a friend who has celiac disease. WHole Foods carries the largest selection of gluten free products. I found the bread is not very good, but if you use them for a grilled cheese sandwich, it isn't too bad. Amy's makes a frozen rice crust pizza that is really good, add some more of your own toppings. I preferred the corn pasta over the rice pasta. It isn't an easy diet if you have family members who are not doing the diet, if I lived alone I would do it.. It is much healthier. San Antonio has a very large Celiac Disease Support Group you can join and they will send you lots of good emails. I don't know the name, but I am sure you can google it. Good luck....
My youngest dt did not get diagnosed with Celiac but with food allergies which sometimes thought that Celiac would have been much easier; no wheat, milk, eggs, strawberries, lemons. I only paid attention to the first 3 and not at all to the last one since, according to the result, she had a low adversion to them.
Anyways, there are more Celiac friendly items in your regular markets than there are no eggs, no milk items. So you must see that as a plus.
Also, this is not a plug for me, but you should look into learning to eat and make Thai food (I teach it). But Thai food is generally seasoned with fish sauce and not soy sauce. So if you are looking to eat out, eat at a Thai restaurant and just make sure they don't season anything with soy sauce and use fish sauce instead which is totally easy to do. Also Worcershire sauce is a great substitute. Also southwestern style food are seasoned well and most does not contain gluten, but you'll have to stay away from flour tortillas. If I remember correctly corn tortillas were find?
If you cook food from scratch as oppose from boxes you'll be find. It really is not that difficult as long as you make good food from scratch. Start watching the food network and learn to cook for yourself. The celiac diet is really good for you, and if you are overweight (i don't know if you are or not) this diet should help you loose and maintain. Don't make it harder than it needs to be, its not.
