What is the Best Way to Go Gluten Free? (Simple 3-Step Plan)


Crowded city street
Need an easy way to go gluten free?
Just follow our 3-step plan!

Finding out you have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity can feel overwhelming in the beginning, especially if you've been sick for a very long time. The same is true if you're super sensitive to gluten and are continuing to search for the answers to why you are still feeling ill.

Although the media often presents eating gluten free as being simple and easy to accomplish, once you feel good enough to do some web research, you'll quickly discover that isn't true.

There is a lot of conflicting information and outdated advice being given out about what's safe to eat, what to stay away from, and what's the best way to handle different situations.

If you're extra sensitive to gluten, most of what you hear will not be accurate, so how do you sort out the truth from the errors?



Unfortunately, there is no easy way to know what's true before you've been eating gluten free for awhile. You need to learn how your body reacts to different foods and what your particular level of sensitivity is.

But that doesn't mean you have to let the shock of it all paralyze you into going hungry or sinking down into the depths of depression just because you'll never get to eat your favorite foods again.

While some things are totally off the menu for us, such as hubby's blueberry bagels or soft and fluffy donuts with chocolate icing, most of what we ate before going gluten free is still on our plate.

We just had to make a few easy substitutions, such as gluten-free rice-based pasta, gluten-free flour tortillas, and a homemade all-purpose gluten-free flour mix.

Going gluten free can certainly be a scary new adventure if you rely heavily on processed foods. It can be an even more difficult transition if you've grown accustomed to gluten-free replacements and are now reacting to trace amounts of gluten.

Whether you're new to gluten free or just need to start over, so you can find the hidden gluten that is complicating your life, here's how to figure out the best way to go gluten free for you.

Pinterest Image: Walking on Rocky Path

Can You Go Gluten Free On Your Own? Or Do You Need Professional Help?


Let's tackle the biggie first.

There is a large group of celiac advocates that believe you need to have a celiac diagnosis before going gluten free. They will tell you it is always best to seek out professional help in creating your gluten-free diet.

Justification for this advice varies, but most of the advocates point out the lack of vitamins and minerals in gluten-free products, when compared to whole grain breads.

Gluten-free replacements are not enriched like all of those stripped-wheat products are.


Even so, gluten-free foods are not lacking in vitamins and minerals. And they are not lacking in fiber.

That's hogwash!

There is nothing magical about wheat. You don't have to eat wheat bread to get all of the B vitamins and fiber you need.

In fact, meat, poultry, fish, produce, and dairy have more Vitamin B complex than whole grains do. And fresh produce contains more fiber than that fluffy white bread you were eating before going gluten free.

If you're living on a diet that's heavy on processed foods, then yes, you'll come up short.

But that holds true for those not eating gluten free, as well.

Most people who go gluten free eat better than they did before.

Another claim that celiac advocates make is that only a dietitian has the know-how to create healthy menus, but that claim isn't true, either.

The medical profession benefits when you don't go gluten free on your own. The longer it takes to accurately diagnose you, the more money they make.

There's no real incentive to get it right, especially when it comes to celiac disease, because the only treatment they can provide is a gluten-free diet.

There's not much money for the doctor, except yearly testing, and no money for the drug companies because there's no medicine you can take for it.

The media will also tell you that you shouldn't go gluten free unless you have an official diagnosis by a medical professional.

Yet, most doctors still believe that gluten issues are rare and that celiac disease always presents as digestive issues, malnutrition, and weight loss.

Some still believe it only occurs in children.

Getting your doctor to run the necessary tests can be a difficult adventure, especially if you are overweight or obese.

While malnutrition almost always applies to everyone, a lot of individuals actually gain weight when malnourished. Very few have digestive upsets.

In fact, non-typical symptoms of gluten intolerance like neurological problems, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia. or even no symptoms at all are far more common than digestive issues and weight loss.


There are over 300 symptoms associated with celiac disease and gluten intolerance, but few doctors are aware of them.

If you're lucky enough to get a doctor who will test you for celiac disease, even if you're overweight, that doesn't mean the doctor is educated and understands how to diagnose the condition properly. Nor that they will be able to tell you the best way to go gluten free.

I've heard a lot of stories from people diagnosed with celiac disease where their doctor either shoved them out the door with orders to simply, "Don't eat gluten and come back in a year," or they were given a referral to a dietitian and no follow-up care.

The problem with heavily relying on doctors, nutritionists, and dietitians to tell you what is best to eat is that very few professionals understand celiac disease and even fewer understand the new gluten-free labeling laws or how to avoid cross contamination.

Most of the medical profession base their dietary advice on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, so the advice won't be based on up-to-date research. It will be based on what's best for the grain producers and farming industry.

You can easily see that in the guidelines' recommendations regarding saturated fats, meat, carbohydrates, and whole grains.

So, while most medical professionals will advocate for evidence-based nutrition, they don't really do that in practice. In fact, I've seen a tremendous push among dietitians lately to send newbies looking for gluten-free substitutes right at the very beginning of their gluten-free diet.

The phrase "gluten free" doesn't mean the product is free of gluten. There can be trace amounts of gluten in gluten-free products due to the way the food is grown and transported, as well as the environment it was packaged in.

Food manufacturers don't question the companies they buy their ingredients from, so the potential for contamination is quite high, even for products that don't list gluten ingredients on the package.

Starting off with store-purchased gluten-free breads, cereals, whole-grain pasta and crackers, gluten-free cakes and cookies while your intestinal tract is still inflamed and overreacting to gluten can prolong the agony.

That's my personal experience, as well as the experience that many celiacs have shared with me.


But dietitians won't tell you that. And many popular celiac foundations and organizations won't tell you that either. Instead, they just offer you sample menus that are overloaded with gluten-free products.

Overeating gluten-free products and gluten-free grains is the number one reason why super-sensitive celiacs continue to experience symptoms after going gluten free.

Your gluten-free diet is not as free from gluten as you think.

If you believe that avoiding refined grains like white rice is the best way to go gluten free because you need to eat lots of fiber and whole grains to be healthy, you're going to continue to experience lots of pain and suffering.

Whole grains cause pain, but advice given to newbies is to give yourself time for the intestines to heal, be patient, and keep on eating all of those whole grains that are so good for you.

The truth?

The autoimmune response triggered by eating gluten damages the lining of the intestine, so if the intestines are inflamed, it will be painful to eat whole grains, fiber, and anything that's difficult for your body to break down easily.

The irritation of continuing to eat fiber will prevent the body from healing. Eating things that aggravate the inflammation will either slow down the healing process or stop it completely.

The ultimate decision of whether to go gluten free on your own or with the help of a professional is up to you. There are benefits and drawbacks for each method.

If you happen to be referred to someone who really does know a lot about celiac disease and keeps up with the latest scientific studies, your experience can be a good one.

But if they don't know very much, you're likely to get a handout with tons of misinformation and suggestions for gluten-free products that can turn your first year into a nightmare.

The less than 20 parts per million of gluten that forms the basis for the legal definition of "gluten free" doesn't work for super-sensitive celiacs.

In fact, if you begin your journey not super sensitive to gluten and eat all of those products consistently, you can find yourself getting more and more sensitive to gluten as time goes on.

For this reason, quite a few celiacs, diagnosed and self-diagnosed, as well as those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity, have chosen to go it alone despite the cries and pleas from their fellow celiacs and experts.

It's best to trust your own research and judgment, rather than rely on the word or experience of others.


I Am a Self-Diagnosed Celiac


I'm a self-diagnosed celiac, so my negative experiences with the medical community have been about trying to get an accurate diagnosis.

Everything I've been diagnosed with or treated for over the years are all conditions associated with celiac disease:

thrush
kidney infections
headaches
appendicitis
shortness of breath and wheezing
chronic sinusitis
frequent bouts of pneumonia
severe arthritis
vestibular dysfunction (vertigo)
ataxia (balance problems)
tinnitis
canker sores
heartburn
seborrhea
gum disease
nausea and upset stomach
projectile vomiting
hives and rashes
sensory dysfunction
tonsillitis
neuropathy
fibromyalgia
anxiety
swelling of feet
premature menopause
hot flashes and flushing
gall bladder malfunction
digestive issues
Graves disease

As a result, I have extensive intestinal damage due to several misdiagnoses, so I'm assuming that I also have some form of colitis, as well.

For me, it doesn't take very much gluten to set off an autoimmune reaction. Due to the level of contamination in processed foods, I have to stay away from them as much as possible.

And that includes most gluten-free products, as well.

In fact, this is true for most super-sensitive celiacs. I'm not an isolated case.

Discovering all of the places that gluten hides has been rough.

It doesn't help that manufacturers have recently been trying to push the legal line of what's safe to increase their profits.

The movement of gluten-free manufacturers toward mechanical and optical sorting of oats, without being forthcoming about it, is a good example of this.

Restaurants are also doing crazy things.

Marketing is focused on those who are gluten-free by choice, rather than medical necessity, so gluten-free menus and restaurant personnel cannot always be trusted to provide a safe meal.

Many believe that a gluten-free diet is a joke and only pretend to understand your needs.

When I first went gluten free, I listened to and followed the popular recommendations for avoiding gluten and stuck to brands I was told were safe. Today, I suspect that's why it's taken me so long to heal.

Following all of the generic advice dished out to celiacs wasn't the best way to go gluten free because it wasn't personalized to fit my situation. Over the years, I've come to realize that I am not sensitive to other foods, such as dairy, corn, and soy.

Just gluten.

It's always been just the gluten!

If I'd rejected the idea that I had additional food sensitivities from the very beginning, if I'd just listened to my body and gut instincts, if I had continued to hunt down all of the sources of hidden gluten in my life, I would have healed a lot faster.

So, with that in mind, here is what I've learned over the years about cutting gluten out of my life:

Personal Tips to Make the Transition to Gluten Free Easier and Safer


If you have health insurance that will pay for the blood tests and endoscopy needed for a celiac diagnosis, and you have a doctor who's willing to test you, go ahead and do that.

Knowing that you actually have celiac disease will greatly help when you reach the point in your life where you begin to question whether your problem is actually gluten and why you placed all of these food restrictions on yourself in the first place.

For the first couple of years, I didn't understand why anyone would ever question that the issue was gluten, but as the months went by and my diet got more and more restrictive, due to the potential food sensitivities that everyone said I had, the mind started looking for a way out of the discomfort.

It's common to hear that if you're gluten free and still sick, that you have additional food sensitivities that need to be addressed.

Foods most often blamed are dairy products, corn, and soy. Vegetables gums like xanthan gum and guar gum also fall into the blame-game.

In fact, I've often repeated this false idea myself.

I suppose that for most people, cutting out an entire group of foods like soy or dairy to get rid of annoying symptoms is the easiest way to eliminate some hidden gluten.

I can see how that would work when it comes to Xanthan gum. Since some manufacturers of Xanthan gum feed the bacteria on wheat starch, instead of corn starch, eliminating all vegetable gums from the diet would solve the gluten-contamination problem.

However, doing it that way only sets you up for more restriction than needed.

I use NOW Foods Xanthan gum for all my home baked goods because it's fed corn, instead of wheat starch.

I do try to avoid Xanthan gum in processed foods because that's much harder to control. When I can't avoid it, I test products one at a time.

If your insurance won't cover the tests (many insurance companies won't) and you don't have the money to pay for the tests yourself (blood tests plus biopsy cost about $8,000 in Utah when I looked into that), going gluten free will tell you in a matter of weeks whether you're on the right track.

This is provided you don't cheat during the test, and you take cross-contamination very seriously.

While it's true that future gluten-free testing won't be accurate if you haven't been eating tons of gluten products for several weeks before the test, many people don't need a diagnosis to stay compliant.

Let's be honest. They don't.

However, I started questioning my own decision after hearing others who thought they were gluten intolerant and were actually allergic to corn.

Since I didn't have a diagnosis, I wanted to test the theory, so I ordered pasta from Italy that the corn-allergic folks could eat.

What happened?

I reacted so strongly to that imported pasta, that the price I paid for questioning my self-diagnosis was having to spend 3 days in the bathroom and several weeks being exhausted and cranky because:
  • my feet cracked and bled,
  • my hair started falling out,
  • and I was in a lot of pain
Then a few months later, I began to question the decision again.

This time, I'd forgotten why I'd ever started a gluten-free diet in the first place. It was so restrictive. Eating nothing but chicken or turkey breast and vegetables can do that to you.

Every time I turned around, my diet kept shrinking because celiac experts and popular bloggers kept telling me that if I was still sick, I must be sensitive to something other than gluten.

If you don't experience symptoms from eating gluten, or if those symptoms are minor and easy to live with, these will be very dangerous periods to go through.

Luckily, for me, I react violently to even traces of gluten, so those two gluten challenges I set up did their job. It didn't take long to remember what had sparked the idea to go gluten free in 2008.

And I've never questioned my decision since then.

However, for someone who doesn't react violently, getting a firm diagnosis might be essential.

The same goes for those who think their gluten sensitivity is mild or that gluten sensitivity is on par with a food allergy. You will be more likely to make excuses for eating gluten here and there, which means your symptoms might not clear up.

Plus, just cutting down on gluten won't be enough to avoid internal damage. I learned that lesson when I went on a low-carb diet in 2007 and stayed sick.

While a low-carb diet mostly consists of:
  • protein foods
  • dairy products
  • vegetables and leafy greens
  • nuts and seeds
  • berries and low-glycemic fruits
Low-carb foods like soy sauce, canned chicken or beef broth, most brands of nuts, and many purchased salad dressings are not gluten free. Most low-carb flours are made from wheat starch and pure vital-wheat gluten. Plus, some dairy products are not gluten free either.

It was only when I cut out all gluten sources and avoided all potential issues with cross contamination, which included moving to a completely gluten-free home, only eating what I make myself, and taking L-glutamine for the leaky gut, that I started to improve.

Scientists have been searching for drugs to repair our damaged genes, but the best they've been able to do is to slow down the autoimmune reaction. This makes drugs useless to those with celiac disease.

The same goes for farmers who have been trying to create a gluten-free wheat. The best they can do is create a lower-gluten form of wheat that celiacs still react to.

If you have celiac disease, it's for life! Accept it. Embrace it. 
It's best to also just assume that nothing will change during your lifetime.

That way, you won't feel disappointed each time something new fails to fulfill your expectation of being cured and you begin wondering why you started all of the restriction in the first place.

Going into a gluten-free diet with the proper mindset is essential for success.

If you're consistently struggling to make things different than they are, or if you're running around trying to force other people to take you seriously, you won't have the energy and stamina you need to rebuild your life.

Many things will drastically change due to the potential for cross contamination. But there's little you can do about that.

Acceptance of what's happening is critical.

It's only when you look at a gluten-free diet as something that is vital to your health that you can begin to take the steps necessary to improve your well-being.

Best Way to Go Gluten Free Uses a Personalized Approach


Opinions on the best way to go gluten free will vary, even within the gluten-free community.

Those who have been gluten free for years and are passionate about nutrition insist that switching to a whole-foods diet is best, but they rarely give newbies any advice or instruction on exactly how to do that.

Even popular gluten-free bloggers assume their readers already know how to cook or will have the passion for cooking that's essential to put their generic advice to work.

Others take the complete opposite point of view and will suggest that you take advantage of all the gluten-free products easily available in most of the major supermarkets today.

While the media will tell you there are hundreds of products and that the gluten-free industry is huge, don't waste your time looking for all of those foods. You're more likely to find a very small, quarter-of-a-single-isle section filled with gluten-free pasta, flours, mixes, and crackers.

Plus, an even smaller section in the freezer where Udi's tends to have a monopoly.

Geographical areas that have a large population of celiacs might have a larger selection. When we lived in Orem, Utah, gluten-free products were easy to get. But we were quite shocked to see the limited availability of gluten-free alternatives when we switched areas.

Even at popular health food stores like Whole Foods, gluten-free products were not available.

Both of these extremes come with their own set of problems.

Most people who turn to a gluten-free diet without a medical diagnosis are pretty sick. Asking them to start cooking from scratch without offering any guidance on how to do in a very simple way isn't realistic.

I can see why people would be more inclined to turn to gluten-free products for help, but they honestly don't taste anywhere near as good as what you can make yourself.

Like restaurant gluten-free menus, the greater majority of gluten-free products are marketed to those who are gluten-free by choice, so they contain whole-grain flours and added fiber, which is making it more difficult to find safe products for me.

New Grains Gluten-Free White Bread contains Sorghum Flour, psyllium husks and flaxmeal.
New Grains White Bread contains added fiber

Even so-called gluten-free white breads are not made with white-rice flour and safe starches anymore. Despite what the media says about gluten-free foods being devoid of fiber, they are typically made with:
  • brown rice flour
  • sorghum flour
  • millet flour
  • flaxmeal
  • psyllium husk powder
For those who don't have as much intestinal damage as I do, simple products like bread, pasta, and crackers can make the transition easier, but don't expect these gluten-free alternatives to taste like what you ate before.

They don't.

They are poor substitutes at best.

Breads tend to be dry, pasta is gummy compared to semolina, and crackers are often so hard that hubby can't eat them.

While that isn't true for every single brand, of course, finding brands you can tolerate and enjoy takes a lot of trial-and-error and money.

For that reason, the best way to go gluten free is to start with something that closely fits with whatever you're eating right now, so the transition won't be as upsetting for you and will feel more natural.

Most people want comfort foods when they enter into a stressful situation and asking you to give up those familiar comforts and exchange them for a foreign whole-foods diet will only increase the stress.

Best Way to Start a Gluten-Free Diet - My 3-Step Plan


If you used to cook a lot before going gluten-free, the challenge of making tasty new dishes might be appealing, even when sick. But if you didn't cook before, going gluten free will feel like a nightmare.

However, the fancy dishes you see on the web are not necessary. What you need is real food that will fill you up.

Step 1: Make a List of Your Favorite Foods


Start your new life off right by making a list of the foods you and your family enjoy and the recipes you used to cook before going gluten free.

If the recipes contain a lot of processed foods, that's fine. The list is simply a starting point from which to work. What you're going to do is approach the idea of a whole foods diet backwards.

Instead of looking at a list of generic food groups, such as meat, vegetables, fruits, potatoes, and rice, what you're going to do instead is start from a blueprint that's familiar and comforting.

My own list of favorite foods would look something like this:

bacon and eggs
fried potatoes and eggs
pancakes
biscuits with bacon gravy
chicken alfredo
tacos and fajitas
Mexican burritos
Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes
spaghetti and lasagna
baked chicken
barbecued chicken
chicken strips
fried chicken
pan-fried ham slices
fried rice
pork lo mein
flat-iron steak
burgers and fries
scalloped potatoes and pork chops
chicken noodle soup
Mexican pozole soup
sweet and sour pork
Chinese orange chicken
pizza
chicken stew and biscuits
hot wings
corn dogs
avocados
salsa with tortilla chips
funeral potatoes
baked potatoes
rice with sweet chili sauce
fluff salad
salty mixed nuts
deviled eggs
black olives
Cheetos
Ranch-Style Doritos
corn on the cob
cheddar cheese sticks
hot peppers stuffed with cream cheese
homemade yeast breads and rolls
banana nut bread
cornbread
oranges
broccoli
fruit cocktail over cottage cheese
cheesecake
pineapple-coconut pie
chocolate cake
chocolate-chip cookies

After you have your list created, go on to Step 2.

Step 2: What's Already Gluten Free?


With your list in hand, look over your favorite foods and pull out everything that is already gluten free. For me, that would be:

bacon and eggs
fried potatoes and eggs
tacos and fajitas made with corn tortillas
baked chicken
barbecued chicken
pan-fried ham slices
fried rice
flat-iron steak
Mexican pozole soup
hot wings
avocados
salsa with tortilla chips
baked potatoes
fluff salad
salty mixed nuts
black olives
Cheetos
Ranch-style Doritos
rice with sweet-chili sauce
hot peppers stuffed with cream cheese
homemade cheddar cheese sticks
deviled eggs
corn on the cob
oranges
broccoli
fruit cocktail over cottage cheese

There's enough there to create a week or two of menus, especially when I add other foods that are good, but not my favorites like green beans, lettuce salad, scrambled eggs, and tuna salad.

Step 3: What Can be Easily Made Gluten Free?


Next, look down your list and pull out foods and dishes that can easily be made gluten free by simply subbing out something.

Here are several examples.

Please, keep in mind that these foods and ideas are tailored to fit our level of gluten sensitivity. You might not find some of these suggestions safe for you. Please, be careful when implementing any of these ideas:

Bacon or Sausage Gravy: 

Traditional white gravy can be thickened with cornstarch instead of flour, and then served over mashed potatoes or rice. You can also sub out the bacon or sausage for cooked chicken. Add a little bit of homemade chicken broth to replace part of the milk.

Mushrooms will also make the sauce taste more like cream of mushroom soup. However, many people react to mushrooms if grown on wheat straw.

Chicken Alfredo: 

Tasty Chicken Alfredo Bake Recipe

Made low-carb style, with 4 ounces of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of heavy cream, 1/4 cup of butter, and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, Alfredo sauce is gluten free, and you don't have to use cornstarch to thicken it.

Simply simmer the sauce for a couple of minutes over the stove and the heavy cream will thicken the sauce on its own.

Add your favorite meats and steamed veggies to the sauce and serve over gluten-free pasta instead of semolina. We like Barilla gluten-free pasta for this. Barilla is certified to less than 10 ppm and run on a dedicated machine. It is not made in a dedicated facility, however.

If you don't have an acceptable, safe gluten-free pasta available, this sauce is delicious served over steamed broccoli or green beans.

You don't need pasta.

In fact, you can bake the chicken and broccoli right in the oven for a tasty Alfredo Bake like that in the photo above. I personally do it that way a lot.

Spaghetti and Meatballs: 

Meat balls in tomato sauce

Made your normal way (if using a jar sauce, make sure the sauce is gluten free) but served over gluten-free pasta, your favorite vegetable, such as sliced zucchini squash, or steamed rice.

I often do meat balls instead of a meat sauce in an electric skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of rice flour to the meat mixture and roll into balls. Drop the raw meat balls into the spaghetti sauce or Alfredo sauce, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

I often skip the pasta and toss raw slices of zucchini into the spaghetti sauce about 15 minutes before the meatballs are done. The squash cooks in the spaghetti sauce. Top with Parmesan cheese to serve.

Salisbury Steak: 

My gluten-free salisbury steak dinner. Mashed potatoes and green beans.

Replace the bread crumbs in your ground meat patties with 1/4 cup of cornmeal or 2 tablespoons of rice flour per pound of ground meat, and thicken the gravy with cornstarch.

Same goes for meat loaf or meatballs.

You don't have to use bread crumbs. Make sure that the broth or bouillon you're using for the gravy is gluten free. Currently, we use Knorr Swiss.

Pork Lo Mein: 

This is basically pork slices and veggies mixed with spaghetti. The sauce is just:
  • gluten-free soy sauce, sometimes called tamari,
  • a little brown sugar,
  • some fresh minced ginger,
  • and minced, fresh garlic
Use gluten-free spaghetti or skip the pasta and simply use shredded cabbage instead. Pinterest enthusiasts call this egg roll in a bowl.

Burgers, Hot Dogs, and Fries: 

Initially, you won't know how to make a safe hamburger or hot dog bun, but you can serve the burgers and dogs without the bun.

In fact, a restaurant we used to go to before we went gluten free served Hawaiian burgers. It was basically a thick cheeseburger served without the bun and topped with a slice of ham and an egg.

We tried the frozen Udi's buns once, but once was enough. They're super dry and heavy like dense french bread. Their hot dog buns were totally impossible to eat with a hot dog.

You can make their buns softer by wrapping them in foil and heating them up in the oven, but we haven't tried this with hot dog buns. Just the hamburger ones.

You can make your own fries, quite easily. But we use Ore Ida french fries, which are gluten free, and so is Heinz or Del Monte catsup. I also don't react to the sugar-free variety of Heinz catsup, either.

Chicken Noodle Soup: 

Gluten-Free Chicken Noodle Soup

Make your favorite chicken soup and use gluten-free pasta for the noodles. Break them up into small pieces if using spaghetti, or leave them out completely, and add lots of extra vegetables, potatoes, or rice instead.

Be careful with the amount of rice you use. Rice will soak up a lot of the broth, especially if you store the leftovers in the refrigerator.

For a Top Ramen type soup, you can use thin rice noodles which are available in the oriental section of the grocery store or at an oriental market.

Make sure that the noodles are made from rice flour or rice starch and not wheat.

Corn Dogs: 

Foster Farms Gluten-Free Corn Dogs and Homemade Honey Mustard Dip

Foster Farms Corn Dogs can be found in the freezer section of some supermarkets, near the other corn dogs. They are certified to less than 10 parts per million of gluten. You can make a tasty dipping sauce by combining equal amounts of spicy brown mustard, honey, and mayonnaise.

My Warnings and Final Advice


Everything on my favorite foods list can be made gluten free, but initially, you don't want to jump in over your head. This is especially true when it comes to incorporating gluten-free products, such as pasta, store-purchased breads, and even gluten-free flours and mixes.

Gluten-free on the label doesn't mean the product is free of gluten.

Gluten-free products are allowed to have up to 20 ppm of gluten. That isn't zero, so the more products you eat, the more gluten is going to accumulate in your body.

Certified products often contain less gluten than traditional products, but they can still have between 5 and 10 ppm, or less, depending on which organization certified them.

This is still not zero gluten!

You want to use gluten-free products sparingly!

In addition, cooking and baking gluten free isn't as easy as it was with wheat. There are different rules. Different principles you have to follow.

So the idea is to transition into your new diet by starting with familiar foods that are already gluten free and then pay attention to how you feel as you slowly expand your diet.

It's always best to just try one product at a time, so you can see how that product affects you.

Once you have adjusted to your new diet, you can begin to add to your list of favorites by learning how to make some of the items you're missing gluten free. Please don't rush into replicating your old diet, unless you were eating nearly gluten free already.

That is not the best way to go about this.

The best way to go gluten free is to accept the fact that your old life doesn't exist anymore. It is not an option. Things have changed and there's no way to turn back time.

You can't un-trigger celiac disease after it's been triggered, so you aren't helping yourself cope by sitting around wishing things were different.

While you do need to give yourself adequate time to mourn the old you, pass through the stages of grief, and accept what's going on, the best thing you can do for yourself is take full responsibility for your life.

Don't let this disease stop you from truly living. Stand up and take charge of your emotional state. Accept the reality of celiac disease and/or super sensitivity, and move forward from there.

Vickie Ewell Bio


Comments