Gluten free food suggestions??

madeleinebolt696

I’ve recently been looking at introducing some gluten free foods into my diet.

Does anyone have any gluten free recipes or gluten free foods they enjoy

Would love some ideas!!

Thanks in advance

lynn_glenmont

Of course you can do whatever you like, but I'm not sure I see the purpose of introducing "some" gluten-free foods in your diet. If you have a medical reason to avoid gluten, just having "some" gluten-free foods is not going to cut it.

If you're not particularly sensitive to gluten, or are doing this for some non-medical reason, you can eat gluten free by avoiding foods that contain wheat, rye, barley or are derived from them (e.g., malt products). If you like baked goods, this will mean having to seek out special gluten-free versions or make them yourself. Gluten is the protein in wheat that allows the dough to stretch and little pockets of gases to be trapped and give the baked product its rise. There are some special additives used in gluten-free baking to try to imitate that effect when using gluten-free flours or meals, like almond meal, chickpea flour, and the like.

If you are sensitive to gluten and need to avoid it completely, you'll either have to cook from scratch or spend extra to purchase gluten-free versions of foods that you wouldn't expect to have gluten in them anyway (like potato chips, which in theory only have potatoes, oil, and salt, none of which naturally contain gluten, or peanut butter, which in theory only has peanuts, oil, salt, and/or sugar, none of which naturally contain gluten), because of the risk of cross-contamination from standard products made in factories that also make foods with gluten.

yirara

Hi there,
I saw you're also looking into IF.

Here's another advice if you're not gluten intolerant and need to fast for medical reasons: don't make things unnecessarily hard for yourself.

Weight loss is not only about losing weight, but also about building sustainable habits. If you make things too difficult for yourself you might just give up. Some kind of black/white, good/bad mindset doesn't help, really. Plus the chance is high that you stop all this immediately once you're at goal weight, have learned nothing about making the right choices and what amounts of eat, and regain the weight. If you're not happy with how you eat then why not make small changes. If you mainly eat out, or eat fastfood then why not start with cooking 1 day per week. If there's something you feel you don't want to eat anymore then start with finding a single replacement that makes you equally happy. Then another. And if you don't then don't fret. Just eat less of it.

Seriously, neither IF, nor glutenfree, nor anything else is needed for weightloss. All you need is to eat less.

SuzySunshine99

Unless you have an allergy or an intolerance, there is not a good reason to avoid gluten.

My husband has an intolerance, so we are forced to, and I have found....

Pre-made gluten-free products are expensive, do not taste as good, and generally have more calories than their "regular" counterparts. They are in no way "healthier" than products with gluten. Gluten-free bread is particularly bad. My husband eats it because he won't give up bread, but it's very expensive and it must be toasted in order for it to taste "okay".

If you want to reduce gluten, you don't need specific gluten-free recipes...just eat foods and use ingredients that naturally do not have it. That's generally what we do. Meats, vegetables, rice, potatoes, dairy, etc. in whatever combination that you like.

fatty2begone

I Second the comments above.
I went gluten free for a few months to determine if I had an allergy. No allergy but can't handle large quantities. (stomach and rash issues)

Anyway, here is my take... Unless you need to stay away from gluten for med reasons, allergy, etc... It is not easy to substitute gluten free flour, prebought products taste horrible and are expensive, and calories are typically higher. Not saying it cant be done, it can be... just takes some practice in learning how to bake/cook with gluten free products.

SuzySunshine post above is spot on.