25 Jul A Gluten Free Diet Made Easy!

A gluten-free diet doesn’t have to be hard! Here are some tips for simple gluten-free living, from someone who has Celiac disease herself! Going gluten-free may seem a tad overwhelming at first to someone cutting it out of their diet, especially if that person has an autoimmune disease (like celiac disease) and must also be concerned with cross-contamination. The following tips should certainly help you get started! 

1. Shop the perimeter of the food store. Remember, lots of whole foods are gluten-free naturally. It is mainly processed foods which contain gluten, so shopping the perimeter of the store (where your produce, meat, and dairy usually are located) is the best and safest bet!
2. Enjoy gluten-free grains/starches such as potatoes, quinoa, rice, amaranth, polenta, buckwheat, corn, millet, gluten-free oats, and tapioca.
3. Be vocal about your restriction when going to restaurants or getting food out—let your waiter know! Restaurants actually prefer for you to tell them you’re avoiding gluten so that they can avoid cross-contamination. Trust me, they don’t want you to be sick from your dining experience there!
4. Ask about gluten-free designated fryers, cooking spaces, and separate utensils when eating out to avoid cross-contamination. I once made the mistake of eating fries in a restaurant that didn’t have a gluten-free fryer and paid for that with days of being sick. Don’t make the make a mistake.
5. Learn how to properly spot gluten-containing ingredients on nutrition labels—keep an eye out for wheat, rye, barley, oats, modified food starch, kumat, spelt. 
6. Be wary of modified food starch—there is no way of knowing what grain or starch is used to make this nutritional label ingredient. Unless the nutrition label indicates that it’s gluten-free, steer clear of modified food starch. 
7. Be cautious around oats— unless oats are certified gluten-free they could be harvested with gluten-containing grains, leading to contamination of the oats. 
8. Know which alcohols are gluten-free and which alcohols should be avoided. Gluten-free options include most ciders, wine, rum, corn, potato, or grape-based vodkas, tequilas, and spirits. Malt beverages, beer, and ales should be avoided as they contain gluten. There is some controversy as to whether distilled grain alcohols like whiskey, bourbon, scotch, are gluten-free due to the distillation process. However, I still personally avoid these grain alcohols all together. 
9. Watch for “hidden” gluten— for instance, sauces are an easy place to hide gluten-containing ingredients! 
10. Don’t eat toast from a toaster that isn’t designated gluten-free. It took me months to figure out why I kept getting sick from my gluten-free toast. I was toasting it in the same toaster as my husband and daughter were using so I was cross contaminating every time — whoops! Now I have my own half of the toaster 🙂 
11. Check out my other blogs SO WHAT EXACTLY IS GLUTEN?!, DOES IT CONTAIN GLUTEN? about gluten-free living for some quick and simple tips.
12. Focus on all of the fun substitutions you CAN have rather than focusing on what you can’t. Worried about giving up pasta? Don’t be! Pasta made from lentils and chickpeas have the same al dente texture and are awesome! I also started making more spiralized zucchini noodles and spaghetti squash noodles when I went gluten-free. 
13. Make time to meet with a registered dietician or a nutrition educator—If you are going gluten-free for health reasons, it can be a little overwhelming. Be sure to involve someone who is an expert in celiac disease. This can certainly ease the stress of the process!