We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post for ... life!

 I'm swamped.

I have several rough drafts of blog posts with amazing and helpful advice about gluten-free living in the offing, but they're going to have to wait a few days as life has gotten in the way.  I'm in the process of applying for a work-at-home job which entails taking this insanely long test, our 35 chicks arrive this week for which we're madly preparing, and we're working on getting a house remodel (minor but time-consuming) started.  Plus the usual stuff like schooling the boys, feeding the family and juggling the jumble of lessons, appointments and playdates that happen on any given week.  So loyal and gentle readers (all 2.5 of you!), I will return soon with more helpful and scintillating thoughts on being gluten-free.  And of course we'll detail the mad experiment into raising chickens. 

In the meantime, I would encourage you to check out this blog post from the Gluten Free Mom about flying the gluten-unfriendly skies.  It's a good lesson in buyer-beware and in being sure to read the labels (and for educating yourself! Knowledge is power!).    Gluten Free Mom:  The Cereal in Delta Airlines Gluten Free Meal is not really Gluten Free!

What do you mean I can't eat that????

You may have realized by now that an overwhelming number of products on the local grocery's shelves contain gluten.  I know, it's staggering.  My very best advice for becoming gluten-free is to ditch the processed food completely and just eat whole foods in their natural, as God intended, state and avoid wheat in all it's forms.  Eat the apple as an apple not as Apple Jacks.  But being as this mindset is not always realistic, and since we all crave less than healthy treats on occasion (can you say pumpkin pie? cheesecake? creme brulee?), it's good to be mindful of those gluten containing ingredients.


The Obvious Culprits
Gluten is the protein component of wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye).  It's what gives baked goods their structure - in other words, it's what helps bread be light and fluffy and full of lovely yeasty air holes.  Because of this desire to create the highest-rising baked goods, wheat has been bred in the last 30+ years to have higher and higher gluten content.  This may account for the rise in gluten sensitivity.

So the obvious culprits when looking at ingredients to avoid would be anything containing wheat, barley, or rye in all their forms.  But this is where it starts getting tricky; besides the obvious breads, pastas and baked goods made from wheat flours, there are many, many other forms of wheat including spelt, bulgar, graham, matza, kamut, semolina, etc. 


The Sneaky Ingredients
Many processed foods contain ingredients derived from wheat or one of its cousins.  For example, most malt and malt flavorings come from barley.  Soy sauces, despite its name, is brewed from a combination of soy and wheat (tamari soy sauce is often gluten-free, read the label first though).  Beer contains barley (and sometimes wheat), and many alcohols are distilled from rye or wheat.  Bummer, huh?


I thought about compiling an exhaustive list of gluten-full foods and ingredients but honestly, it's already been done.  See the Unsafe Gluten-Free Food List from Celiac.com.  For a more basic version, see Checklist of Foods and Ingredients to Avoid in a Gluten-free Diet from dummies.com.


Here is a quick list of foods to avoid or carefully read the ingredients list before consuming:
Bread & bread products
Traditional baked goods like cookies, cakes, doughnuts & pies
Candy
Bread crumbs including planko crumbs
Crackers
Chips
Canned sauces & gravies
Gravy mixes
Spice mixes
Pre-mixed marinades & sauces (for example, teriyaki)
Soy sauce
Breakfast cereals (cold & hot)
Pretezels
Pizza crusts
Frozen pie crusts
Phyllo dough
Pasta
Imitation crab meat
Stuffing
Refrigerator biscuits & rolls
Cookie dough
Croutons
Salad dressings
Canned soups especially cream soups
Soup mixes
Biscuit and bread mixes
Cake mixes
Cereal, energy & protein bars
Protein & energy shakes
Malted products
Ice cream cones
Lunch meats & hot dogs
Puddings

A list of helpful gluten-free resources

We get asked a LOT about eating gluten-free - why we're doing it, how to do it, where to start.  We totally get it and feel your pain, it's overwhelming to make a drastic lifestyle change, especially when for health's sake you have no other choice.  When we first realized youngest needed to be gluten-free, I remember feeling so relieved we had a relatively simple and straight-forward answer to his issues - yay! no drugs or surgery or lifelong treatment, just kick the gluten out of the diet.  No problem!  It took about 10 minutes of investigating the new diet before being completely floored by the magnitude of the change we had to make.  Gluten seemed to be in EVERYTHING. So before pulling your hair out and rending your garments, take a big breathe and check out these websites.  It will be okay.  Really.  You CAN do this.

General Sites:

• Celiac Disease Foundation - informative pdf brochures, tips on getting started and info for helping kids make the transition to gluten-free eating
• Celiac.com - lots of resources, a discussion forum for asking questions, recipes, and helpful articles including a list of forbidden foods and another of safe foods
• Gluten Intolerance Symptoms - masterfully explains gluten intolerance and has one of the better lists of possible symptoms pointing to gluten intolerance
• Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG) - a wealth of information including help on getting started, a state-by-state list of medical professionals, recipe database, restaurant list and more
• R.O.C.K. (Raising Our Celiac Kids) - information on this support group for parents raising kids with Celiac's or gluten intolerance

There are literally thousands and thousands of blogs dedicated to gluten-free eating and recipes and lifestyle and and and...  here are just a few of our favorites.

Gluten-free Blogs:

• Gluten Free Girl and the Chef
• Celiac Chicks
• Gluten-Free on a Shoestring
• Gluten-Free Goddess
• Elana's Pantry
• Ginger Lemon Girl

Gluten-Free Magazines

• Allergic Living
• Delight
• Gluten Free Living
• Living Without

Why?

My father has developed a theory ~ he believes gluten-free qualifies as the new fad, the current rage, the "it" diet of the moment.  Sort of like low-fat, high-carb was in the the '70's (for those of you who remember) and low-carb, high-fat was in the '90's.  At the risk of sounding sacrilegious in the GF community, I tend to agree with Dad.  I know, I know how could I possibly think gluten-free eating is a fad, especially when I'm feeding a family where 3 out of the 4 people and the dog all have issues with gluten?  Please bear with me in this thinking: our culture does tend to be fad eaters, jumping on the current newest and coolest eating phenomena, and as gluten-free has gained traction in the last couple of years, it tends to fall into the "newest eating craze" category for a lot of people.  And all I can say is, THANK GOD!  As GF living has stepped into the lime-light it's resulted in more eating options for people who, for the sake of their health, HAVE to eat gluten-free.  It's also caused more people to really examine their diets to see if their health issues might be related to something they are ingesting.  And it's resulted in more knowledge about the very real problem of gluten-sensitivity in all it's forms which has led to the beginning of more tolerance and understanding.

In my humble opinion gluten-free eating is good for everyone even if you don't deal with a gluten-sensitivity, intolerance or Celiac's Disease.  Eating gluten-free forces you to be more intentional about your food choices, to consider the ingredients in the food you consume.  Out of necessity, you tend to eat a more whole-foods diet and less empty calories when you're gluten-free.  Can't really see the bad in any of that.

We've been a gluten-free family for almost six years.  Not by choice, no.  Heck, six years ago we were clueless about gluten-free living and were fairly uneducated about food allergies and intolerances.  Oh, we'd heard of them, of course, but they were something that happened to OTHER people, not something we grappled with on a daily basis.  But when our youngest son started having health and behavioral issues after being introduced to solid foods, the search for a possible food culprit began.  Thankfully our amazing nautropathic doctor zeroed in on gluten being the possible cause, and after several weeks of an elimination diet, we confirmed youngest had a severe sensitivity to gluten (possibly Celiac's). As we made the transition to GF living we discovered my husband and oldest son had sensitivity as well.  In fact, I strongly suspect my husband's 20+ year old Crohn's Disease diagnosis is potentially incorrect and instead he's Celiac.  Personally, I do not have issues with gluten but choose to eat gluten-free because it's easier than preparing a separate, gluten-filled meal, makes it less likely to cross-contaminate my guys' gluten-free food, and frankly, I just feel a whole lot better when I stay away from the stuff.

Whatever your reason for eating gluten-free or for investigating the gluten-free lifestyle, welcome to the journey.