How to Start
So you just found out that you or your loved one has Celiac Disease. I’ll never forget the moment I found out. I was naively smiling at my daughter’s gastroenterologist as he uttered the words, “Your daughter has Celiac Disease. You are going to have to put her on a gluten-free diet.” I was too ignorant at the time to be moved. Okay, I thought to myself. It’s just one more food restriction. We have been dealing with food restrictions for years. My oldest son is anaphylactic to eggs, my youngest son is allergic to milk, and I have severe nut and sesame allergies. What’s one more thing? When I left his office I was still smiling like a fool.
Then I got home and Googled it. I learned that gluten is the protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease where the body reacts to gluten as if it were a poison. It begins to destroy the villi in your intestine so that you can no longer absorb nutrients from your food. So that’s why I have a two year old who weighs just slightly over 17 pounds. Okay, so I will just eliminate bread, right? Then I continued reading…
So how do you go about instituting this diet without first wanting to set yourself on fire? First, step away from the flame…it’s not that bad. It’s difficult at first, but you will get used to it. I would start by focusing on the things you or your loved one can eat. There are lots of delicious naturally gluten-free products. Fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, rice, corn, quinoa, eggs, nuts, beans, and vegetable oils (including canola) are all still perfectly suitable for you. Surely you can get a meal or two out of that list.
The next step is to learn about some of the things to avoid. Take this slowly. Don’t read the whole list in one day. Start with the basics: wheat (including spelt), rye, barley, and most oats. Oats don’t naturally have gluten but there is cross-contamination in the growing and processing of oats with the other grains, so you need to avoid them unless they are specially marked “Gluten-Free.” And some celiacs even react to the “gluten-free” oats, so you need to tread carefully with oats.
Once you have grown accustomed to living without those grains and you are beginning to get sick of the acceptable foods that I listed above, you can begin to expand your horizons. You will need to dedicate a few hours in the supermarket for this, so don’t bring your two year old with you, and go to a supermarket where you feel comfortable sitting on the floor and reading labels (Don’t wear a nice clothes either, the floors are filthy).
What do you look for in a label? The Gluten-Free Living website has an excellent list of common ingredients with an explanation of each ingredient. Go to that website and print out the list before you go to the supermarket. You would be surprised by the types of food that contain gluten. It’s not just cookies, cereals, and cake. Soup mixes, potato chips, margarine, and chocolate are examples of food that might contain gluten. Which brings me to the my next step. Are you far away from that flame?
You are going to become very comfortable calling manufacturers and asking them if their product is a gluten-free product. I must have called ten different manufacturers over the past six months, and they are all very pleasant to deal with (okay not ALL). Admittedly, it’s a pain. Especially when you are put on hold, or they tell you something like, “uh, we can’t take responsibility for health issues, ma’am, so we can’t answer your question.” But most manufacturers are receptive to your inquiries and it is very important. I found out that a certain margarine had gluten because of one of the vitamins that they added to it. There is no way I would have known that had I not called.
It can be very overwhelming at first (I think my husband hid all the matches in the house for the first few weeks), but it does get easier. Two or three trips to the grocery store will yield a basic list that you can refer to. Pretty soon this will all become second nature to you. Then you can start baking…
5 Responsesto “How to Start”
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Hello,
Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!
Have a nice day
One of my first purchases after going gluten free was this shopping guide. It is SUCH a time saver!!! I can’t say enough good things about it. http://www.ceceliasmarketplace.com/