Gluten Free

I have been Gluten Free now for 18 months, and my advise is to cook from scratch, avoid most GF substitution products (as you say it is for one month only to try it out) reason being:

1 it takes time to find GF substitute products you like the taste and flavour of
2 some people find GF products do not agree with them (different additives etc flours etc)
3 naturally GF food for most parts is not that hard to make, and tastes a lot better and you know what is in it, and often a lot cheaper in the long run (especially on a tight budget)

Look out for hidden Gluten in ingredients, get used to reading labels all the time

I make my own meatballs, stews, meat pies, fruit pies, bread, cakes, pancakes, roasts, stir fries you name it. There has not been many instances where I have not been able to re-create a recipe into a GF one. I even make breaded chicken, crispy prawn and crispy squid. Home made GF pizza etc. The only things I generally tend to buy is GF crackers (for cheese, canapes etc) yorkshire puddings (I am almost there with my recipie now but not perfect) pasta (my attempts were not successful from scratch) and take aways. Feel free to add me

allaboutthefood wrote: »

JoRocka wrote: »

if you aren't allergic to gluten- what exactly are you expecting to accomplish?

There has been research done on gluten and dairy and how it can affect autism, so I thought why not try it? I have nothing to lose. I have cut out other things from their diet and it helps. So going to give this a go just to see if there is a difference in certain behaviors. I am not saying it will work but I am willing to give it a try.

To be honest, it sounds like you have already made up your mind that it will make a difference, so of course you are going to see a difference. It's called a placebo effect.

Cutting out numerous things from a child's diet (unless they are allergic) usually doesn't fare well with the kid. Speaking from experience, I am sure she will likely have these foods outside the home.

Actually there has been studies done, and more are being done as we speak as GF is still in its infancy, and they have shown going GF CAN help with a variety of issues, ADHD, autism, IBS, food sensitivities and more.

"Food sensitivity is evident when a food causes some type of physical or behavioral symptom in a person, but no true allergy can be found through testing methods. Food sensitivity can cause stomachaches, rashes, headaches, or, in the case of ADHD, increased hyperactivity, impulsivity, and lack of concentration." additudemag.com/adhd/article/9807.html

If you believe food is the issue, or some food, I strongly suggest going down the route of the Food Elimination Diet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_diet

Canada actually has excellent labelling laws. If it is one of the major allergens or food sensitivities the label must say "contains" or "may contain" below the ingredients. That includes eggs, soy, wheat, gluten, milk, tree nuts, peanuts, mustard and a few other ingredients. Some foreign foods I wouldn't trust but any North American foods will usually be labelled as "may contain gluten" if there is a chance of contamination.

blankiefinder wrote: »

nvmomketo wrote: »

Canada actually has excellent labelling laws. If it is one of the major allergens or food sensitivities the label must say "contains" or "may contain" below the ingredients. That includes eggs, soy, wheat, gluten, milk, tree nuts, peanuts, mustard and a few other ingredients. Some foreign foods I wouldn't trust but any North American foods will usually be labelled as "may contain gluten" if there is a chance of contamination.

If this was in reference to my comment about being careful about different ingredient formulations between countries, the reason I mentioned it is because some of us also use google or gluten free blogs. My point was to always check the label, even on products that were safe in the past (such as the lee & perrins I mentioned. Was safe, changed formulation in Canada with no fanfare)

Always good to check the label.

elphie754 wrote: »

So gf substitutes are full of arsenic and should be avoided? I'm sorry, but this is just fear mongering.

Not quite what I said, actually, and what I said? I do no believe to be fear mongering, honestly. If the issue in question is of such little risk that the concept is ridiculous, then sure. If I went through saying things like 'everyone knows this is the most horrible thing ever and will kill you all and no sane person should do this.' Then again, sure, that's fear mongering.

But all I said is that many rice products tends to be higher in arsenic and that, because GF substitutions tend to have higher levels of rice, this could be a concern when it comes to eating many substitutions. And this is the truth, and not the truth twisted with statistics to make it seem more of a threat than it actually is. It's of enough concern that celiacs, doctors, and even governmental regulatory bodies are paying attention.

The arsenic levels in rice are known from testing performed by consumer reports of numerous brands of rice and rice products (over 1,000) a couple years back. ( you can see some of the information on that here: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-in-your-food/index.htm). While safe levels of arsenic in food are not yet researched, there are safe levels mandated for water, and just one portion of some of the tested rice samples contained over 1 1/2 times a full day's worth of water's arsenic levels.

At the time, there was much discussion among experts about the possible implications of this, and the FDA changed its recommendation so that it now recommends parents consider foods other than rice cereal as their babies' first solid foods (after first insisting that the arsenic levels should be fine, and that we shouldn't worry until they'd researched what arsenic levels in foods ARE fine, anyway). The UK Food Standards Agency now recommends that children under five not be given rice milk as a substitute for breast milk, formula, OR cow's milk. And many doctors and members of the celiac community discussed this issue because of the known increase in rice products in the celiac diet.

If you are curious, this is a good discussion of the entire issue here.
On top of this, however, the child mentioned by the OP is on the autism spectrum according to her. Arsenic has been shown to have at least a correlation to potential cognitive issues. Like in this study, where they found that increased "urinary arsenic levels “were associated with impaired attention/cognitive function, even at levels considered safe.” Again, it's only correlation, and hasn't been studied yet to see if there is also causation. But for a child that already may have other cognitive issues already (since there is a higher risk of this happening in children on the spectrum), it's something parents may want to be aware of, and make their own decisions.

So while yeah, the idea of rice products having higher levels of arsenic than may be safe IS upsetting, especially considering GF products that have more rice than the norm, and can inspire fear for some of us, simply bringing it up doesn't make it fear mongering, you know? It's just bringing up information that may not be known, but may be important, especially for a child who may have more fragile health to begin with.