Has anyone had luck with a gluten-free diet?

I have to admit I'm somewhat confused about what expense folks think they'd have to absorb to follow a gluten free diet. Maybe I'm just unaware of what most people spend money on when they feed themselves, but it seems to me that if you commit to preparing your own food there is no additional expense when you eat gluten free.

For breakfast I have orange juice and cereal with milk. Yes, it's a gluten free cereal. I happen to like Baked On Main's brand of granola, but I also eat gluten-free oatmeal sometimes, or just eggs sometimes. Yes, the cost of gluten free cereal is somewhat higher than I'd otherwise buy, but we're talking about a matter of a few dollars per week (less than $3).

For lunch I usually have leftovers from dinner. Today I'm having oven-fried chicken wings, made with corn meal and coconut milk. I also have an apple (naturally gluten free!), potato chips and Lucy's gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are also pricier than other cookies, but it's a rare treat and I like chocolate chip cookies.

For dinner tonight my husband is making sausage and peppers over rice. Gluten free!

My weekly grocery bill for my family has not changed with the change in my diet.

Effort is a whole other thing. I suggest, Matthew and others who are on the fence, that you suck up the additional effort for 3 weeks and then reevaluate. You might find that there's no difference for you. You might find that your life is significantly improved and that the extra effort is absolutely worth it (this was my conclusion). You won't know until you try it.

I thank you all for the posts. I have been on the GF diet now for 9 days. I have had pretty solid BM's lately. I still dont have a ton of energy.... but my 14 month old son has been waking me up lately at 230 am. He is teething again.

Thanks BusyCrohnsMom for the online ordering from Kinnikinnict. I may try it down the road.... but as for now I want to try and make stuff from scratch.... well my wife does..... she is already complaining that GF stuff is expensive....

I have got a few recipies that I havent tried yet..... like....


Bread that is simple and easy, yet oh, so good!


Ingredients:


WET INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/4 cup oil

DRY INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cup white rice flour
1 cup potato starch or arrowroot starch
3/4 cup bean flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp salt


Directions:


Mix first three liquid ingredients into a large bowl. Filter the rest of the dry ingredients into a different bowl, until they are thoroughly mixed.

Now mix both bowls together until well blended. Pour all this into the bread maker. If your bread maker has a "short cycle" option, use select that option to make your bread.

Add additional warm water if dough is too dry .

Allow to cool before you slice it.

Here are some company website examples:

http://www.heinz.com/glutenfree/index.html

http://www.thehersheycompany.com/brands/special-nutrition.aspx#/Gluten-Free

Most food places and major food product websites just type in nutritional information and it will tell you if it has gluten..Also you can google if an item is gluten free..

I use kraft parmesean with the green lid in place of bread crumbs for recipes..

Well, Kimerz7, I'm glad you're finding it easy to implement. I asked often at the beginning how long I'd have to wait to figure things out, and the general answer was 3 weeks. For me, things got better right around 10 days in, and by 3 weeks it was really clear that I had major improvements from eliminating gluten.

If you are still unsure after 3 weeks, plan a gluten challenge. You can read about that in several places. I'm not sure what all the details are, but essentially you plan a day or two or three of a really gluten-heavy diet (not junk food tho!) to see what happens.

Snacks at work are evil. Although for me, the benefits of being gluten-free are so apparent that I really have very little interest in cheating. When I have felt a strong urge, I've taken a small bite to enjoy it and then left it at that.

Hey all,

Well I went GF for a month.....  I learned a lot.   I'm not allergic to Gluten!  But I definently am allergic or intolerante to dairy. 

I have been back on gluten now for two weeks.... my stool is a little softer but not too bad.

Anytime I had dairy - whoa - big problems.

 

Deakin,
I think it's great that you tried and found out the correlations.

I like your post God answers prayer

Our church is reformed and charismatic in Va.

Hi Devon,

Welcome to the forum.

To answer your question: Yes.

Most of us, who are on diet modification, do gluten and wheat free. Be careful to check for hidden sources of gluten (it's in alot of sauces, mustard, ketchup, etc...). 

Here are a few links on hidden sources of gluten:

http://www.celiacsolution.com/hidden-gluten.html

http://www.tacanow.org/family-resources/hidden-sources-of-gluten/

http://www.practicalgastro.com/pdf/September08/HlywiakArticle.pdf

You may also want to see if cutting out dairy would help you as well.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

Hi all, I had the same problem, my doctor told me to forget about every day foods and focus only on gluten free foods. I was shocked at first, but than I started searching for gluten free products/foods on the internet and I've found many sites with good articles/reviews, some of these sites are mentioned by InSoFla. Take a look at this article, I find it useful http://healthytop10.com/top-10-gluten-free-foods/

Post Edited (BaDep) : 7/13/2012 2:06:44 PM (GMT-6)