Gluten Free

[the_std]

So my doctor recently suggested that I go gluten free because I am moderately allergic. Not Celiac levels, but she thinks some weight gain, mood swings, huge dark circles under my eyes, funky nutrition levels and other assorted annoying things are symptoms. It's only been a few days, and lordy lordy lordy, I am having a hell of a time trying to adjust. The worth part is it seems like I go to the grocery store and all I can see is the stuff I can't eat. Cakes, pies, cookies, muffins, donuts, bread... And then to realize all of the hidden gluten in stuff I never would have guessed it was in. There's flour in the dressing for my favourite potato salad. There's flour in the binding that keeps the pollock together in my California rolls. It goes on and on like that. It is, frankly, depressing.

So I was wondering if there are others on this forum who share my position and are gluten free. This is a thread where we could share hardships, suggestions, recipies and all of that fun stuff on the subject. Please contribute!

[Magpie]

I'm not trying the gluten-free diet (I have reason to believe it won't help). However a friend of mine has gone off, so I've been looking into this for her.

If you can, try to avoid looking for substitutes. Eat stuff that's already gluten-free. Yes, you're probably going to need bread (seriously: unless you're hard-core just buy it), but skip the rest of it. Switch to corn tortillas from wheat flour ones. Use millet or rice as your grain instead of bread. Whole-grain cookbooks have a lot of good suggestions. You'll need to skip anything with wheat variants, but there's still a lot of options.

How careful are you planning on being? Are you still eating oats? What about taking the risk with buckwheat? The worst for me was I went and bought a few new flours as usual, and then realised that I shouldn't be getting her food from the bulk food store (Seriously, I do know better). Fortunately she wasn't that picky, which makes buying this stuff a lot easier if there's no speciality stores near you.

[r2cagle]

My son is allergic to wheat... and yes it's a true allergy, not the celiac disease.

We've mostly gone wheat-free, but there are occasions that we get fast food, and there is just absolutely no way to avoid wheat in the fast food industry. You can in a sit-down restauraunt.. but not fast food.

Substitution is your friend! I have a lot of wheat free recipes for things like chocolate chip cookies, meatloaf, cream based soups, etc. And trust me, I hate long involved recipes, so these are pretty easy and simple with no bizarre foods you have to find. And basically, you'll have to change up the way you season foods as well. So, I'll do what I can to pass along recipes and tips. Right now... I gotta get back to work.

Don't despair.. it really isn't as hard as it seems! You'll find that as you change your diet, your tastes will change as well. That's your body healing itself.

[Cazzi]

My doc is pretty convinced I have coeliacs, but my test came back negative, but I'm definately gluten intolerant. I was amazed after doing my best to cut it out of my diet how good I felt!

I've been doing things the trial & error way, trying different breads & cereals etc, if I don't like it, don't get it again but I have discovered there is some truly horrible bread substitutes out there, but have found some very edible stuff too. I shop around different stores, some carry a good range of gluten free store cupboard ingredients, another place I'll just go to to stock up on sausages

I have a lot of wheat free recipes for things like chocolate chip cookies, meatloaf, cream based soups, etc.

Indeed, a quick Google will find lots of recipes, again, trial & error to see which suits you. I've tried some different bread recipes but I've settled on a brand name mix (Mrs Crimbles) that I prefer

You'll find that as you change your diet, your tastes will change as well.

Oh yes! my dietary habits have changed a lot over the last year or so, I eat a lot more fruit than I did but am having to get my veggies by making curries & soups... or I wasn't eating any. I've always managed to find something good to eat out, last time we ate out was at Pizza Hut.. I had nachos & salad I've found that I'm OK at the moment with oats too, but I will be keeping a watch on that

What about taking the risk with buckwheat?

I'm not a scientist, but its my understanding that buckwheat is gluten free, as its not related to wheat or any of the grass cereals, but instead related to rhubarb. Anyway, I have a terrific recipe for scrummy buckwheat pancakes

One thing I did find out the hard way though.. I shop online from time to time... don't ever take it for granted that the online stores nutritional writeup is right. I've bought things that didn't have gluten/wheat/rye/barley listed only to discover at home it did Now if I buy online, its only things that I know I've used before... and I keep checking the packaging, especially if there's any mention of new & improved!

[Magpie]

Buckwheat is gluten free. However, unless you're buying from somewhere that is being very careful, it is apparently often mixed with wheat. I was floored and really annoyed when I found this out. (I have a source for the good stuff!).

[Cazzi]

Hmm I've not come across that.. thanks for the heads up!
Luckily I've been buying my flour from a good supplier, I'll watch the grains I get very carefully

[Rapscallion]

Gluten free and wheat free are different - you can be happy with gluten, yet have an intolerance to wheat. Damned rare, mind. If you do start baking your own gluten-free stuff, try looking at xanthan (xantham?) gum as a binding agent instead to replace gluten.

Generally speaking, though, most dedicated gluten-free stuff is disgusting. I know. I sell several variants.

Some of it's palatable, but in the majority I'd prefer to have the symptoms.

Rapscallion

[Cazzi]

Generally speaking, though, most dedicated gluten-free stuff is disgusting. I know. I sell several variants.

Have you met Prewetts triple chocolate cookies? Miles better than ANY other cookie I've tried

But for the rest, yep, there's some god awful stuff out there!

[r2cagle]

Generally speaking, though, most dedicated gluten-free stuff is disgusting.
Some of it's palatable, but in the majority I'd prefer to have the symptoms.

Rapscallion

QFT

It's extremely hard to find mixes or premade stuff that doesn't taste like something is missing or leave a nasty aftertaste. It's why I make up half my recipes.

Besides Xantham gum, there's corn starch, rice flour, tapioca flour, oat flour, arrowroot, and some others I can't think of right now. Mostly depends on what you're making and how it's being cooked as to what you use. Gone are the days that I could get a ready to eat meal in the grocery store and doctor it up. Now, I've got to cook mostly from scratch... 7 days a week... that's annoying to say the least.

It's doubly hard if you have a gluten and dairy intolerance... there's a combo that's got to be fun. A little girl in my son's daycare has an allergy to corn! That's a pisser... if you think wheat is in everything, try to find something that doesn't have corn starch or high fructose corn syrup in it. As difficult as wheat is, it's still easier than some allergies.

[r2cagle]

Okay, I'm taking a few minutes of work time to post gluten free chocolate chip cookies. This recipe was given to me:

1 cup of peanut butter
1 large egg
1 cup of brown sugar
1 tsp of vanilla (gluten-free or not)
1 cup of chocolate chips.

Mix all together, dole out to cookie sheet. Cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit 10-12 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet at least two minutes before transferring to rack to cool.

*I've been experimenting with a peanut butter that's got chocolate in it as well as different flavored chocolate chips. This recipe is so easy to customize.

[Lady Legira]

Gluten free and wheat free are different - you can be happy with gluten, yet have an intolerance to wheat. Damned rare, mind.

Rapscallion

Yup, you can. My mother is one of those rare people. She finally found a bread she can eat after a year and half of looking. Spelt & Rye I think it is. She raved about having beans and toast.

[trailerparkmedic]

I find a lot of my recipes at Tasty Kitchen and I've noticed a bunch of gluten-free recipes, made with stuff like spelt. I've never made any of them but maybe they don't suck since the site generally has good stuff.

[noone]

A lot of my friends either have this problem, or for some reason don't want gluten in their diets.

It is my personal opinion that Rice flour is horrible in pastries, don't try using it as a substitute.

If your food stores have Whole Food or Natural Food sections, they'll probably have a lot of gluten free stuff in it, but it'll be a little more spendy.

[AccountingDrone]

I find a lot of my recipes at Tasty Kitchen and I've noticed a bunch of gluten-free recipes, made with stuff like spelt. I've never made any of them but maybe they don't suck since the site generally has good stuff.

Please do be careful, spelt is actually a form of wheat, as is emmer and einkorn ... http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/p...96/v3-156.html

Sorry for the long document, just demonstrating I am actually telling the truth. [I was on a paleo food mailing list back about 10 years ago and you would not believe the absolute shitstorm created when I tried explaining that spelt was a form of wheat ... so I now tender the document explaining in excruciating detail by actual scientists that it really is wheat despite the funny name. ]

However, teff is an amazing grain - hot cereal, can be made into a pancake like bread called injera that is amazingly nummy. Think of it as the worlds thinnest sourdough english muffin =) Quinoa is also an excellent grain. In combination with millet it makes a decent bread. Chickpea[besan] can be made into sweet or savory cakes/pancaes or into a sort of candy called burfi though i prefer almond burfi to be honest. Actually indian cooking has a lot of interesting recipes using flours other than wheat.

have an interesting time experimenting ... don't look upon it as you are stuck not being able to eat wheat flour, look upon it as a chance to try all sorts of new and interesting foods.

[r2cagle]

Now that I'm home, I can give some brand names of stuff.

Mayacamas(gluten free) has quite a variety of gravies and sauces. You will need to add additional spices for better flavor, but for the most part, they aren't too bad.

I always get DeBoles corn spaghetti. So far this is the only brand that a local health food store is carrying. Have not looked for any other brand online.

Blue Diamond makes Nut Thins - crackers out of different nut and rice flours. They are pretty good, but spoil quickly after being opened. Does not claim to be gluten free and are made in a factory that processes wheat, however, my son has not had any problems with them.

Betty Crocker just came out with a (gluten free) yellow and chocolate cake mix. Chocolate is pretty good, haven't made the yellow yet. They also make a gluten free chocolate chip cookie mix which isn't too bad, crispier than normal cookies and only a slight aftertaste.

I use rice or quick cook oatmeal instead of bread crumbs to make meatloaf, but I've started experimenting with chopped spinach as the filler and trying to cut out the rice and some liquids to see how it works. We've pretty much dropped most breads from meals as I've not found any acceptable substitutes and I'm not the bread making type. Cheap meats like sausage/hot dogs/bologna often use wheat as a filler and it's not often spotted on the ingredient list. So pay a little more money for the better stuff after reading the ingredients. The reverse is true on chips. Pringles and Doritos, for instance, have wheat. Cheaper potato chips are just chips, oil and salt... go figure.

I started with our favorite foods and found substitutions for those first. Now I'm working on trying new things in our menu, it's very slow going... cause as stated before, premade gluten free/wheat free stuff is pretty expensive. I've found that a great substitute for cooking with worcestire is balsamic vinegar plus beef soup base or oddly enough sarsparilla soda. Gotta experiment.

Alton Brown on Good Eats had an episode about substituting for wheat, and using xantham gum. Worth looking up.

Needless to say, after all this work at eliminating foods, is it any wonder my son's favorite snack is chocolate!