Gluten free eaters, please help me.

I can't eat gluten, nightshades (potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, paprika or tomatillos) shellfish, avocado or most grains (especially corn). You want to talk about having to scour a menu! I've been gluten free for more than three years and the other stuff was slowly added as I did elimination diets. I don't have health insurance either but I really don't give a crap what anybody says about what I eat or don't being a "fad". When I eat corn, potatoes or gluten I am curled up in the fetal position praying for death within two hours time so it definitely impacts me. Shellfish and avocado my throat closes up and my tongue gets tingly so since I like being able to breathe I skip those.

If you cut it out and felt better then added it back and felt noticeably crappier then feel comfortable cutting it. I have a dear friend who went through all the testing but came back negative for Celiacs. Yet all her husband has to do is eat something with gluten in it and give her a kiss and she's out for several days.

As for coming to grips with it, it will take time. It sucks! I'm not going to lie! But for me at least, I got to the point where hurting so bad and feeling like garbage just wasn't worth five minutes of eating. I LOVE popcorn and miss it but even with my kids happily munching on it I won't touch the stuff. (Just a personal example. There is no gluten in popcorn)

Pizza crust is hard but there are mixes that would be a good start. You can make a decent pie crust without gluten though. In fact, it's actually easier because no matter how many times you re roll it you won't toughen it since there is no gluten to develop. Just roll the dough out between two pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper to the size and thickness you want. Then peel off the top layer and use the bottom layer to position the crust in your pan. Peel that off, purdy up the edges and you're good to go.

I'm sorry to hear you're having health troubles. I went through a strict GF period while determining if gluten was causing my bloat,lethary and aches on top of exacerbating some of my endometriosis symptoms. It was hard at first. I won't kid you. I was a carb lover to the max. But if cutting it out makes you feel better, you'll find that "cheating" stops being worth it. Today I still avoid most gluten containing foods, though I have found I can tolerate sprouted grain wheat bread in extreme moderation. I am not celiac, just intolerant.

I found eating out to be the hardest thing as often I was stuck eating lentil soup as I also need to be careful with soy and some dairy. But...it can be done. Some restaurants are good about letting you bring your own bread for them to toast or I've even brought rice pasta and to have them sub it in at a pasta joint. I feel like a doofus doing it, but if the restaurant can accomodate me, I leave a good tip! And you can find foods that replace the things you love. Some of them will be as good if not more enjoyable than the things you left behind in wheat-ville, and some will be close enough that they tick the boxes of what you love about a certain dish. Sometimes the things you can make will even please folks who eat wheat regularly. I recommend getting hold of some books on gluten free baking and learning about the different flours you can use (rice, brown rice, millet, quinoa, coconut, sorghum, tapioca starch, potato starch, teff flour, corn flour etc) , as well as binders to help prevent your baking from resembling piles of dry sand. Also alternative pseudograins are worth exploring. I found quinoa is perfect to substitute for cous cous in many dishes. It also makes for a great porridge (some celiacs avoid oats). Buckwheat is another. In flour form it makes dense pancakes and breads, but as a groat, it has a lovely earthy sweet taste. It also makes good porridge. Amaranth is another pseudo grain. It makes a great side dish and has a nice nutty earthy taste. I found I did a lot of my own baking from scratch initially as I find many gluten free convenience products to be not very nutritious, as well as kind of expensive. I either make my own flour to sub for commercial wheat flour with something I found in a recipe book I have (1 cup brown rice flour, 2/3 cup of tapioca starch, 1/3 cup of potato starch = 2 cups "flour". If you're using in a recipe that doesn't have eggs or mashed banana as a binder, you can use a small amount (1/4 tsp) of xanthan or guar gum to bind), or I buy the Bob's Red Mill baking mix or there's a new Robin Hood one that isn't too bad. They both make decent pancakes/waffles and cookies.

Best of luck and feel free to msg me if there's anything you think I can help you with. I have recipes for gluten free pizza crust (thin style), pancake/waffles and bread that I quite enjoy. I'd be happy to dig them out. I wouldn't say any of them are as great as the original, but they're all fascimiles that I can enjoy for what they are. Outside of breads and baking stuff, gluten free isn't too hard to abide by as dinner can be as simple as your protien source and sides of veggies and rice. Even though you're giving up wheat, you may find you enjoy some of the new foods you'll be trying as you figure out what foods will work in your diet.

*edited because I can't type

Okay, now that I have that TL;DR part out of the way. How do you deal with the fact that you can never eat the food you spent a majority of your life eating again? Do these feelings of resentment towards my husband and kid eventually go away? I feel like an idiot when I get a little teary eyed when I go out to eat with friends and they don't have to scour the menu while I'm basically confined to the side dishes and salads. I dunno...advice please?

You suck it up and get used to it...

I remember for first month or so I did wanted to have that tasty food what others eat and was sad that I couldn't. But after that you just don't care anymore. Your brain does not have it so it forgets about it and you don't crave it anymore. It's like that with anything if you don't have it for long enough - drugs, sweets, caffeine, cigars, etc. It's kinda like a developing a habit, do something long enough and with time it becomes automatic and if you don't do it you even miss it and want it, only in reverse. Don't do something for too long and you don't want it anymore. So just suck it up and wait, you will get used to it with time and won't care.

On one hand it's good because I've started to eat more whole foods and for the first time in my life the weight is coming off. But on the other hand, I kinda miss the pizza parlor and a really good quiche.

There are plenty of tasty gluten free stuff. There are whole food industry for this. Schar is my favorite, they make all kinds of delicious cookies and tasty stuff, even bread. And you won't notice a difference from non-gluten free stuff. And you can just make your own pizza or quiche. You can buy all kinds of gluten free flour, and other substitutes for other stuff, to add. Like rice flour or buckwheat flour, corn flour, heck there are even gluten free wheat flour which tastes almost identical only has little different structure so you have to know how to bake it properly if you make a fancy stuff. But you can make everything you can with gluten free ingredients and you an also buy everything. So don't stress about it.

I'm currently waiting for test results for ceoliacs...I don't think I have it. But I've been told three different things by three different doctors. The last lot of info was that you can only be gluten sensitive if you have ceoliacss - I get drowsy and am bloated but not necessarily suffering pain. This doctor told me I may just be carb sensitive yet I can eat rice and lentils etc (she did mention low GI foods are better)., however I get the same feeling with whole grain breads too. I cut out gluten just to see and I have found that I am brighter, no bloat etc and as well, I am now picking up on reactions smaller amounts of gluten or maybe it's just wheat (still getting used to knowing what is in what).

I'm finding it all a bit confusing but then again I can't ignore what happens.

I don't have celiac disease, but I have a wheat allergy, so I've been wheat-free for 30 years. I sometimes slip up, but then I have to deal with asthma, stuffed up nose, hives, constipation, headache, etc. So, it's not really worth it for me to cheat, since I just get sick.

Do you have Pizzeria Uno restaurants near you? They have 3 different types of gluten-free pizza. My hubby gets the type he likes and I get one of the gluten-free ones. The last page of their menu is the gluten-free menu, and you can get things like chili, chicken, etc. Olive Garden and Brio now have gluten-free penne pasta. Both restaurants have a gluten-free menu.

Here's a site listing restaurants with gluten-free menus: http://glutenfreeguidehq.com/68-essential-gluten-free-restaurant-menus-you-need-to-know/

You can also buy gluten-free pizzas made by Glutino or Amy's.

You can make a mock pizza with a ground beef crust. Just cook the beef and then layer in a baking dish with sauce, pepperoni and cheese on top.

I make all my quiches without crust, although you can buy gluten-free pie crusts at Whole Foods and other stores. I make turkey bacon quiche, spinach quiche, mushroom and feta quiche, etc.

Try looking at some South Beach Diet sites for recipes, as many of their recipes are free of grains. Or Google gluten-free recipes.

Best advice I ever was given is to let yourself mourn. Cutting gluten out of your diet is a little like the end of an era or a death of a good friend. I don't feel resentment when others eat it- it was my choice to make this medically necessary decision. I can watch people eat donuts and cake and it doesn't bother me because I know that joining them is not worth it. But I still get frustrated when people choose restaurants that I cannot eat at or the options are completely unappealing but I'm lucky in that my friends and family go out of their most of the time to make sure I can be included.

I have a friend with a celiac disease dianosis before it started to be well known as a condition, so by the time it because apparent I had a problem too it wasn't a foreign concept. The options today are amazing. In 1999, there was only one restaurant in my city that had a gluten free menu item that wasn't a salad and the grocery stores had nothing. These days I can buy or bake a GF version of just about anything I miss from my gluten days. Awareness of food allergies is at an all time high.

I'm terribly sorry if this question has been asked before, I tried the search option, but I didn't see much that could answer my question.
Since December 3rd 2013 I have abstained from gluten except for once when my kid had a a few left over McDonald's chicken nuggets and I snapped. The reason is stopped eating gluten was a bit of an experiment since I have no health insurance and being tested for an intolerance or Celiac's Disease is pretty pricey. Since I was young my stomach always hurt, I've had terrible fibromyalgia for years and I was labeled infertile due to my PCOS. Why am I telling you my medical history? Well, because it all went away when I cut out the gluten and I don't want people to jump on me about gluten free being a dumb diet fad. I know this is the case for people who don't have a medical reason not to eat it, I don't do it for that reason. This is life long.
Okay, now that I have that TL;DR part out of the way. How do you deal with the fact that you can never eat the food you spent a majority of your life eating again? On one hand it's good because I've started to eat more whole foods and for the first time in my life the weight is coming off. But on the other hand, I kinda miss the pizza parlor and a really good quiche. Do these feelings of resentment towards my husband and kid eventually go away? I feel like an idiot when I get a little teary eyed when I go out to eat with friends and they don't have to scour the menu while I'm basically confined to the side dishes and salads. I dunno...advice please?

If it's feasible, find a therapist and talk with them about your issues with food. I also deal with simiilar issues when I go out and friends eat what they want. But I know my plan is working for me. I keep remembering the reason why I made the decision to do this in the first place and the feelings of resentment go away. Eat to live don't live to eat. Hugs!

Just start finding new recipes and foods that you can eat that make you happy. I recently found Almond Butter. Eff yeah it's a good switch up to Peanut Butter. With a gala or fuji apple, it's the shizzznit.

Marks Daily Apple has tons of free amazing recipes. Try there.

Also know that will power is a muscle. And every time you choose eating what's right makes your will power stronger.





LeadingMuscle.com

It sucks, but you just do it. I have celiac and Crohn's disease, so in order to control both things I eat a gluten/oat free, nut/seed/bean/corn free, dairy/meat/egg free diet. Try going to a restuarant with that lol. We actually don't have one restuarant here (small town) with gluten free options, except salad. I do cheat sometimes, never with gluten, nuts or seeds, but with meat/dairy. Then I suffer for the next 3 days.

The best way I found to cope at the beginning was to focus on what I can eat, instead if what I can't. And I can bake pretty much everything I want. Muffins, poptarts, cake, waffles etc. The only thing I really haven't found a good replacement for is pizza, but I've found GF pizza from local pizza places isn't horrible.

Google ' low FODMAP' elimination diet. I've found it brilliant. Now I know for sure what causes my problems, I find I don't WANT to eat certain stuff as I now know how good it feels to be without it.

I recently cut out gluten too, doctor's orders as i have a sensitivity to gluten.
Yes it is life changing, difficult, frustrating etc. Gluten and wheat are in everything. However I find that i feel so much better!
Yes it's a pain in the *kitten* to eat out. It takes forever to order anything, and quite frankly it is so inconvenient, I much rather eat at home. Which, has become a good thing, because I have been eating healthier. But plan ahead when you do eat out, and check out the menu beforehand or call to see if they have a gluten free menu.
Best of luck!! What you are doing is NOT easy, but you will be a healthier and happier person because of it.