Wheat and Gluten Free Dieting?

mazfos

Hi, I just joined MFP yesterday and love it! Feeling really positive but wondered if anyone else is like me and has to avoid foods containing gluten and wheat and how they’re managing to adapt their diets?

pootle1972

i try to.avoid the free from as for the calories the portions.of bread are teeny.....i eat a lot.of everything else

bdahlia13

I started gluten/sugar-free/low carb dieting about 2 months ago with a friend who had a diabetes scare. I am hooked on it and feel MUCH better. One of my favorite foodie sites is alldayidreamaboutfood.com. Everything on there looks (and is!) delicious. People say it's very hard to cut gluten and sugar but it's really not that bad. You can always make "fake" breads and sweets with almond flour and stevia/truvia. It takes a little getting used to the different flavor of it, but you WILL get used to it and not miss anything. Though I admit if I am feeling tempted I will take a single tiny bite of someone else's carby/gluten/sugary item and try not to feel too guilty! You just have to be strong and YOU CAN DO IT!

gigglybeth

I was diagnosed with celiac disease 2 years ago. Really, unless they have a gluten intolerance or celiac disease, I don't know how any sticks to being 100% gluten free. It was not an easy transition, at least for me. It's still hard to plan to go out to eat, because it's not always easy to find something gluten free. When ever possible, I try to find out where we are going ahead of time and look at their menu online. My husband wanted to go to this one brew pub and literally everything had beer in it- even the rice! Now I try to go towards grills and steakhouses, because I know there will always be at least something I can have.


I try to stick to the basics- meats, veggies and fruit. There are some descent gluten free breads out there- like Udi's. But gluten free versions of "regular" foods normally have a ton of sugar and fat in them to make them palatable, so I generally try to avoid them.

For fast food, we eat a lot of Chipotle, because with the exception of their flour tortillas everything is gluten free.

Oh and one other thing I had to learn the hard way- watch out for stone ground corn or non-wheat flours. Often they are processed on the same lines as wheat flours and the wheat can get into the stones causing a reaction. I normally am a bit laxed about cross-contamination, but that is one I definitely have to watch out for.

scookiemonster

There is a gluten free group here that you can join. There are quite a few of us.

Cutting the gluten was actually not all that difficult for me. The biggest issue is eating out and convenience foods - it's tough not being able to just grab a sandwich at a deli or something like that, and restaurants don't always cater to gluten free customers (I love getting excited over a place having a gluten free menu to discover that it consists of nothing but bunless hamburgers and plain chicken breasts. How is that really a gluten free menu?). Going to someone's house can be tough too, because I always feel a little self conscious asking for gf options, so I try to just make sure to bring something with me that I can eat and share.

Cooking from my own home, it's really not that big of a deal. I focus on fresh proteins and produce, which are all naturally gf. I've found that adjusting my cooking to gf is pretty simple - savory cooking doesn't require a lot of flour anyway, and usually it can easily be replaced with a gf option as it's just a thickener (so cornstarch or similar works fine as well). I can get gf bread and gf pasta at my local supermarket, but I try not to rely on that too much as it's high in calories and not always so healthy. I've been eating a lot of salads in place of sandwiches, as a lot of quick eating places have that as an alternative option (subway has salads now, which makes it easier for me to grab something quick), which is healthier anyway. Lots of rice based dishes (also pretty healthy) and lots of veggies.

Sometimes, when it's in front of me, I do miss it a little - things like big deli sandwiches, fresh pastries, having a slice of the birthday cake, and the ease of going out for a big bowl of pasta at any Italian restaurant without having to check for a gf menu first.

Really, once you look at the list of all the things you CAN eat and stop focusing on what you CAN'T eat, going gluten free isn't all that bad, and if you are intolerant you know how much better you feel without it and how crappy you'll feel if you eat it again, in my experience, it's not really all that tempting anymore. Now that I've detoxed from it (and it really did feel like a detox), I can't imagine ever going back to that again, no matter how tempting a pastry may be.

meshashesha2012

it was hard at first but i got used to it. i didnt think it would be hard because i dont eat a lot of bread or pasta, but wheat and gluten are in so many other things.

i make a lot of stuff at home and depending on where you shop you can find all kinds of gluten free substitutes. some even taste the same. as for bread, i generally dont like udi's because the texture sux, but i have made bread from a cookbook by the gluten free gourmet and it's pretty good texturally as normal sammich bread. i recommend those cookbooks by the way, the gluten free gourmet (i forgot her name) has a series of cookbooks

lithezebra

The hardest thing about having to be on a gluten free diet is avoiding cross-contamination. It's easy to find things to eat at home, and to cook gluten free meals. It's hard to check medications for possible ingredients derived from wheat, and hard to eat at restaurants where gluten free entrees might be cross-contaminated from other dishes.

DorothyR87

I have been diagnosed with gluten intolerance and personally I think it sucks. Heck I still eat gluten even though I know full well I will feel like absolute crap. But if it is something you want/have to do I would just stick to foods naturally gluten free (meats, vegetables, fruits). There are a lot of GF products out there but they tend to be expensive and not all taste great so it's a total trial and error kind of thing.

lithezebra

I was diagnosed with celiac disease 2 years ago. Really, unless they have a gluten intolerance or celiac disease, I don't know how any sticks to being 100% gluten free. It was not an easy transition, at least for me. It's still hard to plan to go out to eat, because it's not always easy to find something gluten free. When ever possible, I try to find out where we are going ahead of time and look at their menu online. My husband wanted to go to this one brew pub and literally everything had beer in it- even the rice! Now I try to go towards grills and steakhouses, because I know there will always be at least something I can have.

I second checking ahead! I take gluten free snacks with me, just in case there is nothing for me to eat. I've only eaten something with gluten a few times, accidentally, and it is not worth it to me.

I try to stick to the basics- meats, veggies and fruit. There are some descent gluten free breads out there- like Udi's. But gluten free versions of "regular" foods normally have a ton of sugar and fat in them to make them palatable, so I generally try to avoid them.

They're pricey, but I've had good luck with Bob's Red Mill and Pamela's gluten free mixes. I read the labels, and unless I'm buying something like cake mix, if sugar is an ingredient, I don't buy it. I still eat mostly the basics, but I like to be able to bake sometimes, without having to experiment with substitute flours.

gigglybeth

They're pricey, but I've had good luck with Bob's Red Mill and Pamela's gluten free mixes. I read the labels, and unless I'm buying something like cake mix, if sugar is an ingredient, I don't buy it. I still eat mostly the basics, but I like to be able to bake sometimes, without having to experiment with substitute flours.

Me too. I made the Pamela's chocolate cake mix for Christmas one year. I think it was the mayonaise recipe (very moist and chocolatey) on the package, frosted it with homemade cream cheese frosting and it was sooooo good! No one even realized it was gluten free. My only suggestion would be to make it in the 9x13 pan, because in 2 8x8 or 9x9 cake pans it gets a little crumbly.

I've made the Betty Crocker corn bread recipe substituting Bob's Red Mill rice flour for the all-purpose flour and it tasted exactly the same. My 6 year old nephew couldn't get enough of it. I only make it on special occasions now because I like it a little too much. LOL

lithezebra

They're pricey, but I've had good luck with Bob's Red Mill and Pamela's gluten free mixes. I read the labels, and unless I'm buying something like cake mix, if sugar is an ingredient, I don't buy it. I still eat mostly the basics, but I like to be able to bake sometimes, without having to experiment with substitute flours.

Me too. I made the Pamela's chocolate cake mix for Christmas one year. I think it was the mayonaise recipe (very moist and chocolatey) on the package, frosted it with homemade cream cheese frosting and it was sooooo good! No one even realized it was gluten free. My only suggestion would be to make it in the 9x13 pan, because in 2 8x8 or 9x9 cake pans it gets a little crumbly.

I've made the Betty Crocker corn bread recipe substituting Bob's Red Mill rice flour for the all-purpose flour and it tasted exactly the same. My 6 year old nephew couldn't get enough of it. I only make it on special occasions now because I like it a little too much. LOL

GF cornbread turns out really well....I only make it occasionally for exactly the same reason, especially because it's most scrumptious when it's fresh out of the oven. I'll have to try that chocolate cake!