Gluten Free Girls (and Guys!)

ccaruso219

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this thread, but not new to dieting. I have not been officially diagnosed with celiac or gluten sensitivity. For the past year I just haven't felt right. I have been to the doctor about 10 times last year. Over the weekend I was reading an article in For Women First and I have been dealing with all the symptoms that they discussed. I'm 41, constantly tired, serious mood swings and all that jazz. So I decided that I am going to try to eliminate gluten from my diet and see where that takes me. I really don't see how it can hurt, it just may work for me. Any recommendations that you all could give me to get started would be great. Thanks
Connie

nicolee516

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this thread, but not new to dieting. I have not been officially diagnosed with celiac or gluten sensitivity. For the past year I just haven't felt right. I have been to the doctor about 10 times last year. Over the weekend I was reading an article in For Women First and I have been dealing with all the symptoms that they discussed. I'm 41, constantly tired, serious mood swings and all that jazz. So I decided that I am going to try to eliminate gluten from my diet and see where that takes me. I really don't see how it can hurt, it just may work for me. Any recommendations that you all could give me to get started would be great. Thanks
Connie

Welcome Connie! I was the same as you 7 or 8 years ago. I stopped eating the wheat/gluten cold turkey. What a HUGE difference! Be careful, it hides in ALOT of foods. It really is a process of elimination. I still occasionally have beer, because I absolutely love it, there is GF beer, but I haven't tried it yet. I still occasionally have oatmeal as well. Some poeple are even sensitive to oats. Do what works for you and makes you feel better. There are alot of GF foods on the market nowadays. Some are extremely tasty, while others...eh.:noway: I make my own bread, I think there are others on this thread that do too. I think Aunt Bliz does too.

coronalime

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this thread, but not new to dieting. I have not been officially diagnosed with celiac or gluten sensitivity. For the past year I just haven't felt right. I have been to the doctor about 10 times last year. Over the weekend I was reading an article in For Women First and I have been dealing with all the symptoms that they discussed. I'm 41, constantly tired, serious mood swings and all that jazz. So I decided that I am going to try to eliminate gluten from my diet and see where that takes me. I really don't see how it can hurt, it just may work for me. Any recommendations that you all could give me to get started would be great. Thanks
Connie

Print a list of the "gluten" terms that lurk in ingrediants.
Take a day and go through your pantry/fridge/freezer. 1 pile put the things you know are GF (they would say GF or are very limited ingredients). 1 pile things that are NOT GF and 3rd pile you are unsure of.
For the unsure you can research online if its something you use alot.
Walmart online has a great list of foods that you can buy there that are GF. Trader Joes has a list.
I found that at 1st I found a small natural food store. They carried limited stuff but it was all labeled well, the staff helped and it was grouped together in 1 section. I learned what "brands" to look for. Now I can go through the Earth Fares, Whole Foods and local grocery stores easier looking for GF items. You can purchase though Amazon and other interent sites if you live rural. After you realize how much you cant eat You then venture out in the real world like resturants and friends houses. This is where you will get killed a few times (especially by friends )
Try and find a local celiac group. They can teach you where to shop where to eat and other fun stuff.
Its very overwhelming.. Even after all these years I still get messed up

coronalime

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this thread, but not new to dieting. I have not been officially diagnosed with celiac or gluten sensitivity. For the past year I just haven't felt right. I have been to the doctor about 10 times last year. Over the weekend I was reading an article in For Women First and I have been dealing with all the symptoms that they discussed. I'm 41, constantly tired, serious mood swings and all that jazz. So I decided that I am going to try to eliminate gluten from my diet and see where that takes me. I really don't see how it can hurt, it just may work for me. Any recommendations that you all could give me to get started would be great. Thanks
Connie

Print a list of the "gluten" terms that lurk in ingrediants.
Take a day and go through your pantry/fridge/freezer. 1 pile put the things you know are GF (they would say GF or are very limited ingredients). 1 pile things that are NOT GF and 3rd pile you are unsure of.
For the unsure you can research online if its something you use alot.
Walmart online has a great list of foods that you can buy there that are GF. Trader Joes has a list.
I found that at 1st I found a small natural food store. They carried limited stuff but it was all labeled well, the staff helped and it was grouped together in 1 section. I learned what "brands" to look for. Now I can go through the Earth Fares, Whole Foods and local grocery stores easier looking for GF items. You can purchase though Amazon and other interent sites if you live rural. After you realize how much you cant eat You then venture out in the real world like resturants and friends houses. This is where you will get killed a few times (especially by friends )
Try and find a local celiac group. They can teach you where to shop where to eat and other fun stuff.
Its very overwhelming.. Even after all these years I still get messed up

karins4

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this thread, but not new to dieting. I have not been officially diagnosed with celiac or gluten sensitivity. For the past year I just haven't felt right. I have been to the doctor about 10 times last year. Over the weekend I was reading an article in For Women First and I have been dealing with all the symptoms that they discussed. I'm 41, constantly tired, serious mood swings and all that jazz. So I decided that I am going to try to eliminate gluten from my diet and see where that takes me. I really don't see how it can hurt, it just may work for me. Any recommendations that you all could give me to get started would be great. Thanks
Connie

I found the Celiac Sprue Association site helpful to start with. It even gives you a list of a ton of ingredients you may wonder about and says if it's okay, questionable or stay away from. Here's the link to that page. http://www.csaceliacs.org/GlutenFree_Flour_Guide.php

Karin

yvonneh

... I still occasionally have beer, because I absolutely love it, there is GF beer, but I haven't tried it yet...

I didn't know about gluten free beer, but a friend of mine bought some for me and I really liked it. It's called Red Bridge and has a picture of a red wooden covered bridge on the bottle.

arasmc

Gluten Free people, please help. I need to find a Gluten/Soy/Dairy free protien shake. Can anyone suggest a brand?

PrimalB

Connie:
Today, SparkPeople posted a pretty good overview on gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. It lists some good resources listed. Check it out:
http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=gluten_fear_should_you_go_glutenfree_for_good

This guy also has compiled a fairly comprehensive list of gluten and non-gluten free foods:
http://www.celiac.com/articles/181/1/Safe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-Safe-Ingredients/Page1.html

Best of luck

nicolee516

... I still occasionally have beer, because I absolutely love it, there is GF beer, but I haven't tried it yet...

I didn't know about gluten free beer, but a friend of mine bought some for me and I really liked it. It's called Red Bridge and has a picture of a red wooden covered bridge on the bottle.

i will have to try it! Thanks!:flowerforyou:

auntbliz

I've made brown rice flour tortillas that role up pretty well. It's kind of time consuming, but the ingredient list is pretty simple. 1 cup rice flour, 1.5 tablespoon olive oil, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp xanthan gum, hot water to doughy texture. I always have added the hot water last, a bit at a time to make sure I don't get it too wet. I cook them on a nonstick griddle (I don't spray it, they don't stick as long as you wait until the bottom is cooked to flip it) and keep the heat high enough that it doesn't take long to cook at all (medium on my stove). As long as you flatten them enough, you can see them change color as they cook. The toughest part about them is how sticky they are, I've had better results if I add twice the olive oil. What I do is ball them up, flatten a little on my hand, and then flatten them the rest of the way on the griddle immediately with a wax paper covered bacon press (round flat iron with a handle on top) but I've also flattened with a silicon spatula, just can't get them as thin that way. My family personally loves these, and they roll very well even when they've been sitting out a day, I can't remember how they do cold, I think well though, we eat them so quickly there's never been a need to refrigerate. Anyway, don't know if I ever posted that one, and if I did, I may have forgotten the xanthan gum, oops! You could play around with it to lower the cals, I think the xanthan gum is the most important ingredient as far as being able to roll it up so you want to make sure you have 1 tsp gum per 1 cup flour.

ccaruso219

Anyone care to share what a "typical" day looks like for them as far as meals go?

I'm trying to re-lose the weight I lost over the summer, but now I'm having to do it gluten-free. Of course, a lot of the GF substitute foods are high in calories, so I try not too eat too much of that- try to stick to more naturally gluten-free foods that normal people eat, too! :laugh:

I eat a lot of foods that I like, and I actually don't really mind eating pretty much the same stuff each day, but it'd be nice to hear what you guys are eating!

I could use some recipes too especially breakfast. I can only eat so many eggs a week......

ccaruso219

Question: I just started eating gluten free this week, but have noticed that I woke up with a headache for 4 out of the 5 days so far? Is this a withdrawal or not related?

auntbliz

I eat chex for breakfast every day, there are 5 different kinds of gluten free ones, so I will use mostly rice chex, and top it with one of the flavored ones. Simple, low cal, and I don't have to think about what I'm going to have for breakfast today, lol.

As far as the headache, my guess would be stress of trying to go gluten free. I don't think there are normally symptoms of suddenly NOT having gluten in your diet, although there CAN be some bodily upsets from suddenly introducing a lot of something as a substitute. For example, if you are suddenly eating a bunch of corn flour stuff to replace your wheat flour stuff, you may have a reaction to all the corn, so you'll want to go slowly when bringing all those new grains into your life. I've had psychological withdrawal, like, getting sad when I pass the bakery in the grocery store. I should mention that I think it may happen if you have psychological symptoms from eating gluten, example, autism, gluten acts as a drug in the gluten sensitive autistic, and they are actually addicted to it, as it gives them the same kind of feel good rush that heroin would give someone. So if gluten causes a brain issue for you normally (ADHD, OCD, autisms) then I think it could be reasonable to assume that you are going to have some headaches, maybe jitters, and bad cravings, but one would hope that won't last very long. Anything is possible, and I'm in no way a health professional, but those are the things that I have picked up from the internet about it. Hope that helps.

toots99

I didn't read through every post here, but i wanted to let any of you that might be around the Dallas/Fort Worth area know that the pizza restaurant I work in is very gluten-free friendly. It's called Fireside Pies, and there are a few locations around DFW, and the food is so good! We have gluten free pizza dough, and lots of salads that are (or can be easily modified to be) gluten free, and can also modify our apple cobbler to be gluten free! And, we also have a gluten free beer!

slm638

Can't believe this post has been up since December and I missed it!

I've been gluten free (diagnosed with Celiac Disease) for 9 years now. Wow, that seems like a long time. I had the same gut issues...it just started one day then didn't stop. Luckily I was diagnosed within 6 months (blood test then small intestine biopsy) and have been gluten free ever since. It took me a long time to get over the feeling of deprivation, but now, like others, enjoy being able to say no to unhealthy fast food and treats at work. However, I wasn't completely better after the gluten free diet and finally, last fall, I was also diagnosed with Crohn's. I'm not on Remicade and have not felt this good in years! I actually don't have a problem eating healthily at home (relatively) as my husband and I both cook and have two kids to feed as well. Sometimes, there's extra pots and pans for pasta, but oh well. Traveling is always a challenge...I've learning planning and research beforehand are necessary and message boards like this are full of good information.

Thanks for the posts everyone! It's nice to talk to people that can relate.

iRun4wine

Besides the wraps that Nicole mentioned (that I can't find near me), what the heck can I use to have peanut butter and jelly or a turkey sandwhich? I use rice cakes for tuna or egg salad, but they're too think to put peanut butter and jelly on. What do you guys use?

Laceylala

Kelynn, Have you tried sprouted wheat breads? Do some internet "research" on sprouted grains...I got a few books and came across Essential Eating books and have found that my daughter can eat sprouted wheat breads with no issues. The grain aren't processed the same way as refined wheat so that is the difference. I don't know if you can or not, but it might be worth a try if you are looking for bread. It actually tastes like bread and looks like bread. Not some hardened rock that is supposedly bread.
Anyways, my three year old daughter is undiagnosed but we took her off wheat and dairy because she kept getting ear infection after ear infection among other things for the first 18 months of her life. Like sleeping 5 hours a day. Total killer. Now she has minimal wheat and dairy and does so much better. No moaning in the middle of the night for hours, no sickness, no emotional changes.


I've also found that amaranth flour works quite well to make your own bread. Try looking up recipes for No Knead bread for super super easy to bake recipes. I'm talking mix ingredients, let sit and plop into a hot pot to bake. That's it.


Also for others on this post.. Trader Joes has a decent supply of other grain tortilla shells (rice, spelt, etc) if you have a store near you. And gluten free macaroni and cheese which we were SO Excited About for our daughter. And its only $1.99 a box which as you know is cheap for GF foods. And they carry sprouted grain bread which is the most reasonable prices I've found as well for around $3.50 each.

Laceylala

Hi everybody. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I searched "gluten-free" on Amazon.com and found a lot of the products I like at a good price, plus if you order over $25, a lot of them have free shipping.

WOAH! Inever thought of looking it up on Amazon! What a great idea!

Welcome Amyjo, Heather and Athman!

I am on a mission to see if I can find a gluten-free bakery in Medford OR. My son's birthday is next month and his class is going bowling that same day! ( not because of his birthday) I thought it would be cool to take everyone cupcakes that are GF since we are, then we can eat them too!

I am in Eugene and from Medford. I would be surprised if Medford has anything but if you head up to the Ashland Organic Co-Op there is a very good chance you will find GF baked goods. Also the Market of Choice in Ahsland has stuff. And the Market of Choices in Eugene have a TON of GF products and the best cupcakes ever. Seriously better than regular ones.

Laceylala

Hey everyone!

I'm a celiac, and found out March 2009. Since then it has been a horrid battle to figure things out....in Canada we don't have as many options as the US (and you can't order food to cross the border). the grocers are getting better though - and starting to stock better food.

Since finding out I've taken to cooking at home every day, and our version of 'ordering in' is picking up a rotisserie chicken from our local grocery mart.

Hello!

Perhaps one of you could take a look at his thread I started and give me some ideas??

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/78970-6-hour-work-out-marathon-on-saturday-help

This is really interesting because if you look at the back of many GF foods many of them say they are imported from Ontario. I don't know what area you live in, but I was all excited to be traveling to Ontario this spring on business and picking up stuff to ship back to Oregon!

iRun4wine

Kelynn, Have you tried sprouted wheat breads? Do some internet "research" on sprouted grains...I got a few books and came across Essential Eating books and have found that my daughter can eat sprouted wheat breads with no issues. The grain aren't processed the same way as refined wheat so that is the difference. I don't know if you can or not, but it might be worth a try if you are looking for bread. It actually tastes like bread and looks like bread. Not some hardened rock that is supposedly bread.

Lacey, I haven't tried them- I didn't think they were gluten-free. I will have to look into it... thanks :flowerforyou: