Sunday 16 March 2008

My gluten free tips

On being told to avoid gluten you can only think what a major change this will be and tremble at the thought of what you need to do to change your lifestyle. Is it easy to make the change? Worry not, many people take this in their stride and live a relatively normal life. These gluten free tips will help you to make the transition easily and you can check online for other ideas such as this gluten free advice on this no gluten weblog.

Check online, you will often find helpful web sites dealing with gluten free guidance. Some sites we found were gluten free advice and gluten free guide and gluten free information.

1. Join a coeliac support or information group: there is no need to identify everything for yourself and to travel the gluten-free journey on your own. The Internet has made possible the development of on-line support groups for many food intolerances, where ideas and experiences can be shared amongst members. Many of the problems you will face will have been encountered and conquered by Celiacs who have gone before you. Join an online support group and read their advice, or post your questions and get knowledgeable answers and gluten-free tips from people who have been Celiacs for many years.

2. Check food labels carefully. When reading the ingredients on a food item if in any doubt do not eat it. Manufacturers often subtly hide gluten in meals. Whilst many foods are labeled as gluten free some food labels such as modified starch are ambiguous and could represent wheat flour or a corn based ingredient. When in doubt leave it out!

3. Get a gluten free cooking book. There are millions of people with celiac condition and thousands of gluten free rcepies. Don't try to think of everything for yourself, use the learnings of others and enjoy what you eat. At first, changing to a gluten free set of ingrediants can result in dry food unless you learn how to use these new ingredients. Turning to established, gluten free recepies takes you straight to being a successful cook.

If you are interested in participating in an online debate we know of a good gluten free blog which you should check out. Also more recently a new gluten free web blog has sprung up which is worth a few moments.

Adopting a gluten free diet may seem to be quite a challenge at first but that is only in the first few weeks as you change to the new diet. In a short period of time, following good gluten free tips such as these, you will find that you enjoy eating, going out to restaurants and even visiting foreign countries whilst managing to maintain a gluten free diet. One of our friends did this and has started a journal to record their gluten free tips at this gluten free site.