Thinking of going gluten free-need advice

Like you, I adopted a gluten-free diet after a long time of avoiding even the idea of eliminating something that seemed so basic. Here's one piece of advice - think about it, at least for now, as a test. Give it a month (maybe less) to see if it really makes a difference.

In my experience, eliminating gluten resulted in a noticeable change at the 2 week point. Since that time, I've eated small bits of food with gluten here and there, without any problem. Two or three times I've gone way past the point of "little bit" and really suffered the consequences. But it wasn't like an immediate issue. The first time, we ate Indian food at a new place and the waitstaff didn't have a clue. I had bad diarrhea and cramps the next day, but maybe that was from the spices/fat/whatever. The second time I tasted too much cake batter preparing for my daughter's birthday. That resulted in a day of feeling like complete blech, but it was two days later. The third (?) time we ate at a friend's house; she told me which dishes were gluten free, but on Sunday (after a Friday night dinner) I had really bad cramps and soft stool. It is definitely a complicated issue.

The best way to eliminate gluten is to prepare your own food and avoid eating in restaurants until you have a good handle on which foods contain gluten (generally wheat/barley/rye, but there are surprises in store for you - soy sauce is made with wheat, so eating Asian food out is really a problem - you can manage at home by substituting tamari (wheat free soy sauce), but unless a restaurant is specifically marking their food gluten free I wouldn't touch it).

In any grocery store these days you will find plenty of breakfast and other prepared foods that are marked gluten free.

I don't think you need a nutritionist to help you with this - you do need to do some reading and look at labels, however.

One last item - re: pasta. I really like pasta. There are many brands of gluten-free pasta out there. Some are better than others. I personally prefer the ones made with buckwheat (not a relative of wheat); I think the brand is Schar's. There are also some good quinoa pastas. Many gluten-free prepared foods use corn, so if you think you may be sensitive to corn, be very careful.

I have become more constipated w/o my whole wheat breakfast and bread. I've added miralax to my medicine drawer. I should have been using it before, but now that I have absolutely NO soft stool EVER I can really tell when I'm backed up.

I do try to include whole grains as much as I can. I eat gluten-free oats. I use brown rice. But I'm still having slow moving bowels. I've been thinking about getting some gluten-free fiber supplements to help.

I like brown rice pasta. Very good with some olive oil and a little parmesan.
Also, Nature's Path original gluten free waffles are very tasty with real maple syrup.
I can handle unbleached white flour bread if it is made with sourdough too. I think it's because the gluten is at least partially pre-digested.

Lots of restaurants have gluten free stuff available. If you don't have celiac's, you might find traces of gluten won't bother you anyway. Good luck!

Going gluten-free can appear daunting at first. But trust me, if you are sensitive to gluten then the benefits of eating GF will be so apparent and you will feel so much better that you will not want to look back.

Cindy's right there are a lot of "naturaly gluten free" foods.
but you have to be careful because some things that are naturaly gluten free have added gluten like shredded cheeses not all are gluten free some add something to keep it from sticking together. Anything that's packaged I started off only buying it if it said gluten free on it. Like Walmart brand and Aldi's brand food. Progresso even makes a couple of gluten free soups. Bob's Red Mill is a good brand of mixes, there's a great Carrott cake mix we tried. I havent' done any scratch baking either it just seems too complicated.(except for the peanut butter cookies). Pastas aren't great alone but with sheese or some kind of sauce they're pretty good. My daughter is so sensitive that we have to be careful of any cross contamination even crumbs on the counter or toaster can be a problem.
Mary G.
Mary G

One more question...I had a stricture...inflammation seems to have resolved with Prednisone. But I thought I was supposed to avoid high fiber foods...so do I have to stay away from the brown rice and brown rice pasta? This all gets so complicated. Thanks

I actually find it more challenging to get fiber on the gluten free diet.ut as kazbern said you will be the best judge of how much is too much.
Mary G

Thanks for the responses. One more question...when I read the labels on canned goods like cream of mushroom soup, for example, does it need to say "gluten free," or is it ok if it doesn't list wheat, barley or rye in the ingredients? I noticed in the cereal aisle, that there was regular Rice Krispies,and then Gluten free Rice Krispies made with brown rice. Why would there be gluten in regular rice Krispies in the first place, or Cream of Mushroom soup for that matter???

Thanks! I'm meeting this afternoon with an employee from my local food co-op and she will walk me through the store and point out all of their gluten free products. Thanks for all your help