Gluten Free
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allaboutthefood
Posts: 781 Member
We will be going gluten free for a month (experiment I want to try) I have read a few things and want to see if it works. My oldest is a picky eater the other two not so much, but the youngest really likes her bread. I am looking for ideas, suggestions, alternatives on what to pack in their lunches, snacks etc. I make a lot of our foods/sauces/snacks etc from scratch and I love to cook so no worries there. If any of you are gluten free and have kids that are also gluten free I would love some input. We are on a tight budget and buying a lot of these products might not be idea for us. Looking for things I can make. Thanks
This is not about losing weight, it has to do with other health issues and we are not allergic to Gluten just want to see if it helps with a few things.
This is not about losing weight, it has to do with other health issues and we are not allergic to Gluten just want to see if it helps with a few things.
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Replies
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My aunt eats gluten-free as well, she mainly sticks to buying gluten-free products though and I know those can be pricey. It shouldn't be too bad making your own bread though (if you have the time!) and for baking, I know almond meal/flour and coconut flour are very good options. Coconut flour is more expensive but you use so little of it (it's highly absorbent so you can't sub it 1:1 with all-purpose!) that it shouldn't be awful money-wise. Almond flour is a very good option too! You can use lettuce leaves instead of bread, to put meat/veggies in! There's also substitute for pizza crust, I know cauliflower is a very popular option, or you can make little mini pizzas with cheese and tomato sauce on top of portabello mushrooms! Hope these helped a bit xx0
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Thank you
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If you suspect celiac disease you might want to get tested before going GF. One must be eating gluten in the 8-12 weeks prior to testing for the tests to be accurate, and even then the tests can miss up a quarter of all celiacs. If you find you start feeling better, you would then need to resume eating gluten for 2-3 months before you could be tested.
You may want to consider going GF for a longer time period if you are going GF. Some celiacs and those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) will start to improve in the first month but other symptoms can take a good 6 months to start improving, especially arthralgias, neuropathies, ataxia, nutritional deficiencies, osteoporosis, hair loss, and even low energy. A GF trial of 6 months is a better bet.
All that being said, we have celiac in our family so the entire family is GF. To save money, I would avoid GF substitutes like bread as much as possible. It costs too much and tends to have more sugar, less fibre, and is not vitamin fortified like wheat products are. Potatoes, rice, and quinoa are all gf. All veggies, fruit,and eggs are gf. Meats and dairy are usually gf unless it was added in, like in sausages. Move away from sandwiches for lunch. Maybe peaunt butter on apple instead of a sandwich. a container of tuna, mayo, and celery without toast. kwim? My kids will often have soup, yogurt, left over potato or rice, some meats and cheese, nuts, and raw veggies.
... Those gf substitutes don't taste the same anyways. It took my kids months to get used to the different taste and texture. Good luck.0 -
Oh! Maybe try celiac.com forums for more ideas.
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If you suspect celiac disease you might want to get tested before going GF. One must be eating gluten in the 8-12 weeks prior to testing for the tests to be accurate, and even then the tests can miss up a quarter of all celiacs. If you find you start feeling better, you would then need to resume eating gluten for 2-3 months before you could be tested.
You may want to consider going GF for a longer time period if you are going GF. Some celiacs and those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) will start to improve in the first month but other symptoms can take a good 6 months to start improving, especially arthralgias, neuropathies, ataxia, nutritional deficiencies, osteoporosis, hair loss, and even low energy. A GF trial of 6 months is a better bet.
All that being said, we have celiac in our family so the entire family is GF. To save money, I would avoid GF substitutes like bread as much as possible. It costs too much and tends to have more sugar, less fibre, and is not vitamin fortified like wheat products are. Potatoes, rice, and quinoa are all gf. All veggies, fruit,and eggs are gf. Meats and dairy are usually gf unless it was added in, like in sausages. Move away from sandwiches for lunch. Maybe peaunt butter on apple instead of a sandwich. a container of tuna, mayo, and celery without toast. kwim? My kids will often have soup, yogurt, left over potato or rice, some meats and cheese, nuts, and raw veggies.
... Those gf substitutes don't taste the same anyways. It took my kids months to get used to the different taste and texture. Good luck.
No allergies, I have two children with A.S.D and bad sleeping patterns and other issues and have done a lot of reading that suggest going gluten free may help with this, same with going dairy free, but they may be a bit harder to do. It was suggested to try it for a month to see if there are any differences so I thought why not, couldn't hurt. Thank you for all the info, I would much rather make all the foods than buy them. Even through I am doing this to see if there is a difference in the two children we are all going to do it. I am a bit worried about school lunches we can not send peanut butter or nuts and our kids love those. The two younger ones will eat different kinds of veggies and all fruits, but the older one is a bit harder, she is pretty picky at home she eats what's in front of her, but when she is out it's a whole other story, she is the one I am most concerned about she is always coming home telling me about all the crap she eat, I do pack her a lunch but the school also offers free food, just wish they offered healthier food.0 -
If you do decide to go GF and don't suspect Celiac, then that would be your personal choice. I would recommend staying away from GF replacement foods such as GF store bought muffins and such, as they tend to be nasty and no healthier than what it is replacing.
I notice that you are in Canada. Be aware that there is hidden gluten in many products and that product ingredients vary by country, so what is safe in the US may not be safe here. One prime example is worchestershire sauce. Lee & Perrins is GF in the US, but no longer GF in Canada. Watch for ingredients such as malt barley extract etc.
Choose to eat foods that are naturally GF such as vegetables, rice, meat, fruit, etc, and stay away from store bought sauces etc.0 -
Instead of bread, pasta, or pizza, make meals with potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, quinoa, buckwheat.
Rice Chex cereal is Gluten Free.
Here is a link about flours:
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2008/12/baking-cooking-substitutions-for-gluten.html0 -
allaboutthefood wrote: »We will be going gluten free for a month (experiment I want to try) I have read a few things and want to see if it works. My oldest is a picky eater the other two not so much, but the youngest really likes her bread. I am looking for ideas, suggestions, alternatives on what to pack in their lunches, snacks etc. I make a lot of our foods/sauces/snacks etc from scratch and I love to cook so no worries there. If any of you are gluten free and have kids that are also gluten free I would love some input. We are on a tight budget and buying a lot of these products might not be idea for us. Looking for things I can make. Thanks
This is not about losing weight, it has to do with other health issues and we are not allergic to Gluten just want to see if it helps with a few things.
If you are not allergic or intolerant, it won't help.
I am gluten free since I am deathly allergic to wheat, barley and oat (even gf oat). Some company suggestions: glutino, Schar and udis. I personally love Schar bread (tastes more "real" to me than udis). You said you like to cook right? The other option is making your own bread. You can buy a bread maker and either look up bread recipes or buy premixed gf bread mix.
For anything that calls for flour, I personally find cup4cup works and tastes the best. It is a bit pricey, but to me it is worth it.
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If you try & make gf products from scratch, your best bet is to buy a gf baking mix or blended flour. It gets pricey, I like Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 mix.0
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Kristinemomof3 wrote: »If you try & make gf products from scratch, your best bet is to buy a gf baking mix or blended flour. It gets pricey, I like Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 mix.
Only issue I have with red mill is the potential for cross contamination. They make products containing oat (which I'm allergic to) and pretty sure they make other products that contain wheat.0 -
allaboutthefood wrote: »If you suspect celiac disease you might want to get tested before going GF. One must be eating gluten in the 8-12 weeks prior to testing for the tests to be accurate, and even then the tests can miss up a quarter of all celiacs. If you find you start feeling better, you would then need to resume eating gluten for 2-3 months before you could be tested.
You may want to consider going GF for a longer time period if you are going GF. Some celiacs and those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) will start to improve in the first month but other symptoms can take a good 6 months to start improving, especially arthralgias, neuropathies, ataxia, nutritional deficiencies, osteoporosis, hair loss, and even low energy. A GF trial of 6 months is a better bet.
All that being said, we have celiac in our family so the entire family is GF. To save money, I would avoid GF substitutes like bread as much as possible. It costs too much and tends to have more sugar, less fibre, and is not vitamin fortified like wheat products are. Potatoes, rice, and quinoa are all gf. All veggies, fruit,and eggs are gf. Meats and dairy are usually gf unless it was added in, like in sausages. Move away from sandwiches for lunch. Maybe peaunt butter on apple instead of a sandwich. a container of tuna, mayo, and celery without toast. kwim? My kids will often have soup, yogurt, left over potato or rice, some meats and cheese, nuts, and raw veggies.
... Those gf substitutes don't taste the same anyways. It took my kids months to get used to the different taste and texture. Good luck.
No allergies, I have two children with A.S.D and bad sleeping patterns and other issues and have done a lot of reading that suggest going gluten free may help with this, same with going dairy free, but they may be a bit harder to do. It was suggested to try it for a month to see if there are any differences so I thought why not, couldn't hurt. Thank you for all the info, I would much rather make all the foods than buy them. Even through I am doing this to see if there is a difference in the two children we are all going to do it. I am a bit worried about school lunches we can not send peanut butter or nuts and our kids love those. The two younger ones will eat different kinds of veggies and all fruits, but the older one is a bit harder, she is pretty picky at home she eats what's in front of her, but when she is out it's a whole other story, she is the one I am most concerned about she is always coming home telling me about all the crap she eat, I do pack her a lunch but the school also offers free food, just wish they offered healthier food.
My oldest is on the spectrum but it is milder than many, and we've had some behavioural improvements with the gf diet. He's calmer and able to focus better. His tolerance improved somewhat too so he can handle discomfort better.
How does your daughter do with left overs? There are a couple of leftovers my oldest will eat so I tend to dole that out over a few days. My oldest likes many separate foods for lunch like bags of veggies with a dip, pepperoni sticks, cut up fruit and soup. He loves the break of getting hot water for his soup.
Can the school help with limiting her free "crap"? My kids are mostly homeschooled so I am not sure how schools are about that.
BTW celiac and NCGS are not allergies but rather food sensitivities where symptoms may show up within minutes or days later. Allergies are IgE mediated but sensitivities are IgG or IgA caused. Just a different part of the immune system. 0 -
She will eat what I put in front of her at home, we all eat left overs. The kids know you must eat it or you don't eat. They won't do anything about it, they put the food out and it's first come first serve kind of thing. I will having a talk with her and explaining what we are doing and why we are doing it and hopefully she won't "cheat" when she is not home. Thank you for the input and happy to hear it is working with your child. Have you tried dairy free @nvmomketo?0
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I'm not sure about oats, but they have a completely gf packaging facility for the gf products.Kristinemomof3 wrote: »If you try & make gf products from scratch, your best bet is to buy a gf baking mix or blended flour. It gets pricey, I like Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 mix.
Only issue I have with red mill is the potential for cross contamination. They make products containing oat (which I'm allergic to) and pretty sure they make other products that contain wheat.0 -
allaboutthefood wrote: »She will eat what I put in front of her at home, we all eat left overs. The kids know you must eat it or you don't eat. They won't do anything about it, they put the food out and it's first come first serve kind of thing. I will having a talk with her and explaining what we are doing and why we are doing it and hopefully she won't "cheat" when she is not home. Thank you for the input and happy to hear it is working with your child. Have you tried dairy free @nvmomketo?
Most kids will "cheat" especially if a food is forbidden at home. I grew up in a home without caffeine, soda, chocolate etc. when I'd be out with friends, or if offered to me, I would eat it... And typically way too much of it.0 -
allaboutthefood wrote: »She will eat what I put in front of her at home, we all eat left overs. The kids know you must eat it or you don't eat. They won't do anything about it, they put the food out and it's first come first serve kind of thing. I will having a talk with her and explaining what we are doing and why we are doing it and hopefully she won't "cheat" when she is not home. Thank you for the input and happy to hear it is working with your child. Have you tried dairy free @nvmomketo?
Yes. He was dairy free for a good year and the I let him reintroduce some back into his diet, mainly small amounts of very hard cheese like Parmesan. On occasion he will have more dairy like in ice cream, but we limit that because we do start to notice a difference in behaviour - mainly his tolerance levels drop. The cheese doesn't affect him noticeably but larger amounts of dairy do something.
Because there is celiac in our family I won't allow him to eat gluten. We assume he as it and make sure he always has gf foods for all occasions. It is a hassle but he is healthier for it.
It did take a few weeks to months to really notice the difference once his diet was changed. It is annoying because the bad stuff comes back within hours but it takes weeks to get to the good results of a gf diet!
Best wishes. 0 -
I'm just going to throw out a variety of things here. :-)
1. When it comes to going GF, I would, honest to god, avoid substitutions, period. My daughter is both celiac and on has ASD as well. Here's what I have noticed about the gluten free substitutions: to achieve the look, texture, and taste of foods with gluten, they typically add in ingredients which can ALSO cause problems. It kind of felt like my daughter improved for a little bit when we were eating mostly unprocessed food as we tried to figure out the diet, but start having trouble again when we started adding in processed GF foods. She has done MUCH better on home made foods that don't involve subs much. I couldn't say this works for everyone, but it made a difference for us.
Some possible reason that these GF foods could be an issue might be that they have more gums added (known for causing a section of the population bowel problems with these, especially xanthan gum), artificial flavorings and dyes (GF foods don't brown like gluten foods do, and of course don't taste the same), more substances used for thickeners, and a LOT more rice. Like, nearly every GF food sub in existence has rice as a major ingredient. I only mention this because, as you might have noticed a couple years back, rice in the US (and some other areas) seems to be higher in arsenic. For those who don't have rice as often, not a big deal. But for those eating a lot of GF foods, there has been speculation that it could be something to keep track of (no research on this at all, however. it's simply speculation)
2. For what TO eat, Foods that worked for us (although we're still working on it, sometimes), have been
- Foods from Asia. We sometimes used GF soy sauce, because this is actually old fashioned soy sauce, before wheat was used as a filler. It's better than the regular wheat filled soy sauce. Then we also looked at flat breads (like Ethiopian traditional Injera bread, or French chickpea based socca). Foods from a variety of countries in Africa. And plain foods from here, like veggies and fruit, roasted meats, and so on.
3. When we were starting out, and my daughter was very upset at the idea of different foods of ANY kind, what helped me a lot was looking at Japanese bento boxes and how they were set up. We got bento box supplies (which are NOT needed - a simple little box like a glass, or even plastic, tupperware style box will work) - had to save up for them. We checked them out, though, to get ideas for what we could do, first ( - little boxes, and picks for food, and ideas for cutting pieces of food - http://en.bentoandco.com/collections/bento-boxes-newest-oldest )
We got a lot of recipe ideas and more here:
http://justbento.com/handbook/bento-basics
If you are not familiar with it, basically - it's making lunch using little bits of food leftovers, or newly made, and prettying them up. So, for example, a little rice with a tiny tinfoil 'wall' barrier in the middle of the box separating the box from, as an example, 3 cupcake wrappers that might contain, say, pieces of bell pepper cut into star shapes with cookie cutters in one, a tiny salad with some circle and triangle shaped pieces of carrot and cucumber, and the third would have some cooked chicken with soy sauce and chopped garlic.
My daughter really liked being able to make it pretty. Some that people make are REALLY elaborate and they even make pictures out of the food, or mold things like rice snow men or carefully cut pieces of ham, cheese, seaweed and more to make cartoon faces, etc... The following website acts like these super-fancy ones are made all the time, but that's BS. Most every day bentos are a little pretty, not hugely amazing like these ones: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/creative-and-interesting-bento-boxes/ ). She liked being able to make things look like she wanted. Like she liked flowers better than circles or strips, and she got to cut out her veggies into a shape she liked, which made her more likely to eat them.
It's also GREAT for leftovers One meatball is perfect as a little addition in this kind of lunch. Or half a hard boiled egg, a teaspoon of sauce, a 1/2 cup of rice, etc... I cannot say enough about how much this has improved my kids' eating habits after we had to go gluten free.0 -
I'm just going to throw out a variety of things here. :-)
1. When it comes to going GF, I would, honest to god, avoid substitutions, period. My daughter is both celiac and on has ASD as well. Here's what I have noticed about the gluten free substitutions: to achieve the look, texture, and taste of foods with gluten, they typically add in ingredients which can ALSO cause problems. It kind of felt like my daughter improved for a little bit when we were eating mostly unprocessed food as we tried to figure out the diet, but start having trouble again when we started adding in processed GF foods. She has done MUCH better on home made foods that don't involve subs much. I couldn't say this works for everyone, but it made a difference for us.
Some possible reason that these GF foods could be an issue might be that they have more gums added (known for causing a section of the population bowel problems with these, especially xanthan gum), artificial flavorings and dyes (GF foods don't brown like gluten foods do, and of course don't taste the same), more substances used for thickeners, and a LOT more rice. Like, nearly every GF food sub in existence has rice as a major ingredient. I only mention this because, as you might have noticed a couple years back, rice in the US (and some other areas) seems to be higher in arsenic. For those who don't have rice as often, not a big deal. But for those eating a lot of GF foods, there has been speculation that it could be something to keep track of (no research on this at all, however. it's simply speculation)
2. For what TO eat, Foods that worked for us (although we're still working on it, sometimes), have been
- Foods from Asia. We sometimes used GF soy sauce, because this is actually old fashioned soy sauce, before wheat was used as a filler. It's better than the regular wheat filled soy sauce. Then we also looked at flat breads (like Ethiopian traditional Injera bread, or French chickpea based socca). Foods from a variety of countries in Africa. And plain foods from here, like veggies and fruit, roasted meats, and so on.
3. When we were starting out, and my daughter was very upset at the idea of different foods of ANY kind, what helped me a lot was looking at Japanese bento boxes and how they were set up. We got bento box supplies (which are NOT needed - a simple little box like a glass, or even plastic, tupperware style box will work) - had to save up for them. We checked them out, though, to get ideas for what we could do, first ( - little boxes, and picks for food, and ideas for cutting pieces of food - http://en.bentoandco.com/collections/bento-boxes-newest-oldest )
We got a lot of recipe ideas and more here:
http://justbento.com/handbook/bento-basics
If you are not familiar with it, basically - it's making lunch using little bits of food leftovers, or newly made, and prettying them up. So, for example, a little rice with a tiny tinfoil 'wall' barrier in the middle of the box separating the box from, as an example, 3 cupcake wrappers that might contain, say, pieces of bell pepper cut into star shapes with cookie cutters in one, a tiny salad with some circle and triangle shaped pieces of carrot and cucumber, and the third would have some cooked chicken with soy sauce and chopped garlic.
My daughter really liked being able to make it pretty. Some that people make are REALLY elaborate and they even make pictures out of the food, or mold things like rice snow men or carefully cut pieces of ham, cheese, seaweed and more to make cartoon faces, etc... The following website acts like these super-fancy ones are made all the time, but that's BS. Most every day bentos are a little pretty, not hugely amazing like these ones: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/creative-and-interesting-bento-boxes/ ). She liked being able to make things look like she wanted. Like she liked flowers better than circles or strips, and she got to cut out her veggies into a shape she liked, which made her more likely to eat them.
It's also GREAT for leftovers One meatball is perfect as a little addition in this kind of lunch. Or half a hard boiled egg, a teaspoon of sauce, a 1/2 cup of rice, etc... I cannot say enough about how much this has improved my kids' eating habits after we had to go gluten free.
So gf substitutes are full of arsnic and should be avoided? I'm sorry, but this is just fear mongering.0 -
I do know that some people react to the gums ( guar and xantham) that make gf foods a bit airy.0
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if you aren't allergic to gluten- what exactly are you expecting to accomplish?0
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My son is on GF diet. He has behavior problems that are linked to Gluten. My husband, youngest son and I suffer a lot of the symptoms of Gluten problems also. my favorite go to for Gluten Free recipes is Pinterest. They have so many that are great! I'll also look up Primal Diet recipes. I hope that helps. We use King Arthur's Gluten Free Flour for baking. It's cheaper than many of the others I've found and doesn't leave a nasty after taste. I'm in the US and as someone mentioned some things are different here than in Canada so do check labels. I prefer to cook my own instead of buying but there are some things that are unavoidable. Good luck.0
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