Old Time MFPer, New Celiac needs help from her fellow Celiac

LainMac

Hi Folks,

My eldest teen son was recently diagnosed with Celiac. (Celiac is when you body sees the gluten in Wheat, Rye, and Barley and thinks it is a foreign invader, attacks, and instead destroys your own guts) There is a high genetic component to this condition, so like a good dubie, I got tested. And yup, you guessed it. I am one too.

Last summer I had figured out how to eat healthy and not feel deprived (well at least not too deprived). However the rules have changed. I can no longer eat those filling whole grain products because yup, you guessed it again, they are full of gluten.

Processed, (i.e. easy to make and eat) gluten free foods are higher in calories, sugar, salt, and sometimes more fat than their gluten free counter parts. (The gluten free bread stinks but goodness are the gf crackers too good.)

My weight was inching up before the diagnosis but I have gained back 1/2 of what I lost. If anybody has ideas of how to eat Gluten Free, Healthy, and still have some fun in the taste department, I'd love to hear about it.

It is hard enough to get back on the wagon, but now I have to find a different wagon to ride.

Thanks,

ckatastrophy

Hey there! Good to see ya. I have a friend who has to be completely gf, I know she eats lots of vegis. I'll ask her for some ideas for ya. She has sent me some great gf recipes, too.
Good luck my friend!

JulieBoBoo

I had some good success with Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbook. Also the blog "A Year of Slow Cooking" is gluten free (same woman). There are some products that aren't too bad and some that bite the big one. Once you figure out which products are o.k. and which to avoid you'll have an easier time planning meals. HUGS.

JulieBoBoo

oh and look at the bright side.. you'll save a TON of money because almost all fast food has wheat in it (most FFood chains coat their fries in flour to make them crispier so you can't even have the fries most places). And be careful for spice mixes. Learned that one the hard way

rdmchugh

As a lifetime Celiac (diagnosed 40+ years ago) I haven't eaten "poison" bread. I do know that Udi makes a really good whole grain, gluten free bread that has a reasonable calorie/sodium count (and some really tasty muffins). My husband says he likes corn pasta better than wheat pasta. We do clean eating now, which removes processed, packaged foods. So we eat lots of fruits, veggies, lean meats, brown rice and quinoa for grains.

Going gluten free is difficult if you concentrate on what you cannot have. Focus on all the good things you CAN have .

Some of my favorite GF sites:
http://glutenfreedelightfullydelicious.com/
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

And a site with many links to other GF sites:
http://glutenfreegirl.com/links/

Once you go GF and start feeling better, it becomes easier My daughter was diagnosed as celiac and had to learn to eat with me. She says that easier to eat healthy when you remove all the gluten-infested foods!

Sending you support and maybe a ray of hope.

LainMac

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out the suggested websites. Trying to get the other people in the house to "get it" (four kids and a hubby) has been a little hard. My non celiac teen son asking me to make him a sandwich because he doesn't get that I shouldn't handle gluten foods. The hubby not getting cross contimination. The celiace teen ignoring the his dietician's advice which is pretty simple, "more veg, way less carbos" and polishing off 6 dollar box of gluten free cookies when we have left him in the house alone. ("Mom, but at least I fed myself. ")

d2footballJRC

Whole Foods has an AMAZING section for people who are GF. The one in Omaha there is a frozen good section that is GF and a shelf section that is gluten free with different types of pastas and stuff.