Hi, starting gluten-free diet - looking for tips

Hello to you both! I am just over eight months since my celiac diagnosis and can honestly say that my family is eating as well as preGF if not better and all of us feel a lot better.

Christina - rest assured there are many people living healthier lives because they are living gluten free - not just those with Celiac Disease.

Is there a way to do gluten-free diet on a very low food budget? This can be tough - the hardest part is the first month - learning curve - I was nearly in tears during a few of those shopping missions while reading every tiny label. Goggle products and ingredients that you are unsure of. Just put "product gluten" and you will have answers in a snap. Of course this doesn't help at the market. At first eat as simply as possible. Meat, vegies, fruit, rice, potato are best. Many other things are naturally GF and you can shop for the best value cheese, corn tortillas, potato chips, peanut butter, most jams and jellies, most french fries and tator tots, many ice creams - label reading is important for all items - I still read chip labels to make sure they didn't change ingredients.

Are there glutin-free brands of sandwich bread out there? Yes, they taste awful except for Udi's which is expensive about $5 a loaf -- if you can find it where you live. I've just recently found a pretty easy recipe to bake bread that we (I have one 16 year old that is Celiac as well) are so thankful for -- I think we did a happy dance last weekend when we tasted it - and 16 year old young men rarely do a happy dance!

Does anyone out there feed their whole family gluten-free, or do you mostly cook regular food for others and eat gluten-free yourself? We transitioned...started with all gluten free dinners -- now the only gluten left in the house is the gluten eater's bread, flour tortillas and gluten eater's cereal. We've successfully changed all our favorite recipes to GF...wasn't hard once we found a good GF all purpose flour.

Is it easy to tell which foods have gluten by looking for "wheat, rie, oat and barly" foods on ingrediant lables, or is there a $5 word on the lable that hides wheat, rie, oat and barly products that I should look for? wheat, rye, barley (I usually see "barley malt" more often) do a pretty good job. The more processed the food, the more likely it will contain gluten -- "seasonings" is one of those that I try to avoid.

Do you find foods that you can eat at regular grocery food stores (walmart, kroger, aldi) or do you really need to go to specialty food stores to find gluten-free products? You can shop from any store. I started with Trader Joes and Henry's Market when diagnosed, but now am back to regular grocery store and am even able to use Smart & Final (discount store) for many items. I do utilize Amazon.com to purchase our GF pasta and flours -- these items are expensive in the stores so I buy in bulk from amazon with free delivery :) they also have this subscribe and save option (15% savings every time) that you can click on...it signs you up for those items, but you can cancel if you dont want that item again.

Hope that helps....oh advise not on your list of great ?s

hmmm....take it easy on yourself....the learning curve isn't easy but WILL pass...if you are anywhere close to my age 44 - do yourself a favor and take reading glasses to the market...I don't need them for anything else, but some of those food labels are tiny so I stole a pair of my husband's glasses :)

Good Luck!

-Lisa

---

Fibromyalgia 10/27/09 & Celiac 3/26/09

Med/Supplements: Flexeril at bedtime; Multi-Vit, B, D, Calcium, Magnesium, Malic/Acid, Fish Oil, Probiotic

Still a mystery - heat/humidity intolerance

Thank you for your replies, it really encouraged me.

Nor_TX- you're right, I should have asked for personal advice as well.  Thank you for offering it anyway.

I have learned a lot from reading here.  I am on day4 of a gluten-free diet, and I already felt better.  A stomachache that I didn't know I had till it went away is gone. 

The thing is, I had a communion wafer at church without thinking, and it has gluten in it.  Minutes after my stomach started tossing. I made lunch for the kids, but the thought of eating just didn't appeal to me.  Within an hour I was in the restroom and now I have gas/bloating stomach pains.  This is enough evidence for me and I am convinced I have a sensitivity to gluten.

I went to a health food store and found a large gluten-free aisle.  I bought a box of baking mix (kind of like Bisquick), a box of cookies (comfort food), some flour to try making bread, a cookbook, a bag of rice spaghetti, and a loaf of frozen rice bread until I am successful in making my own loaf of bread.  Just that much cost me $50 (nearly 1/2 of our food budget for a family of 5).  I was shocked that it would come to so much.  I'm glad that I won't have to do that again for quite a while. I will just have to go with cheaper meals and make them stretch this payday.

One thing I'm having trouble with is feeling sorry for myself because I can't have any of the Christmas cookies and treats that I love so much.  I am one of those women that will make  cookies and candies and wrap them up to give away as gifts.  This year I won't be able to sample them as I make them.  (I am sooo glad that chocolate is gluten-free!)  I went to church and a friend had brought doughnuts and I had to turn one down from 3 diffrent people.  How do you get past feeling so sorry for yourself?

Tonight I cooked chicken stirfry.  A skillet for my family with the added noodles and sauce and a small pot for me with veggies picked from the frozen package and seprate soy sauce that I was lucky enough to find was gluten-free.  Not sure what I will cook tomorrow...

---

 Christina