You Need to Eat Gluten Free…Now What?

Finding out that you need to follow a gluten free diet can become very overwhelming. You need to change your eating habits and your dining out routines . You may be dropping your favorite foods and cleaning out your kitchen cabinets and pantry. And not only food will need to be removed, but also many of your cooking utensils. This Instructable will help to clarify what you need to do at the beginning of your diagnoses and some tips and tricks that worked for me along the way.

Your Doctor may ask you to track your food for several weeks to see where you may be eating your gluten as it hides in several foods.

Please note: this Instructable is NOT about giving medical advice. Rather this is some of the information that I received from different celiac organizations and what other people have told me about their transition to a Gluten Free Diet and I offer this in the hopes that these experiences can help you learn to ask the right questions of your medical team.

- You will need your computer to research different terms and web sites.

- You will need to access a Family Doctor.

- You will need access to a Gastroenterologist.

-You will need lots of money and some budgeting skills as buying gluten free food is expensive.

If you have symptoms such as:

- cramping

- nausea

- diarrhea and or constipation

- Brian fog

- depression

- bloating or gas

- fatigue

- weight loss or gain

then make an appointment with your family Doctor. Ask for a blood test to see if you have the markers for celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Also, discuss with your doctor to see if you can try making changes to your diet and to eliminate gluten to see if it makes you feel better. Depending on your doctor, you may be asked to keep you diet the same until you can have an endoscopy done. Discovering you are gluten intolerant or a celiac requires a medical diagnosis.

So now you have been diagnosed as being gluten intolerant or a celiac?

This is great news, it means that you are on the way to feeling a lot better!

But now what? This diagnosis and the changes in your diet and lifestyle can seem like a very overwhelming position to be in. A lot of terms will be thrown at you. Don't worry, this instructable will walk you through some of the information you need to know right at the start. I found it helpful to search for Facebook groups in my city, the national association for celiacs in my country and to find other friends that I already knew were gluten free or celiac.

That was one of the great things that I discovered . . . there are a lot of support groups out there to help you with what you need.

The next steps in this instructable will contain a lot of information and some of it is specific to my experiences here in Canada. Always check with your own country's National Celiac Association or an equivalent group to make sure the information is the same in your area.

One big idea that I had to learn about was that I needed to check for BROW ingredients on the ingredient lists of every food that I had, that I was going to eat or going to purchase. BROW is an acronym for:

BARLEY

RYE,

OATS

WHEAT.

The reason for this is there can be a lot of cross-contamination with those ingredients! It only takes 20 parts per million of gluten to cause some people to react, so even a small amount can cause big problems.

Of course, it isn't as straight forward as just always avoid those ingredients. Sometimes they are hidden in other words (like malt can be a barley malt). And some producers go out of their way to make sure that their products are gluten free. You can buy certified gluten free oats here in Canada.

FOR THOSE OF YOU IN CANADA

One important trick here in Canada is to look for the following information on the labels:

1) The product says that it is Gluten Free. If it is certified gluten free in Canada that means it must be regularly tested to have less than 20 ppm of gluten. So this is safe to eat! This is true even if wheat, barley, oats or rye is in the ingredients or the May contain statements.

2) If there is no GF claim on the product, look at the ingredients. If the product has a May Contain statement that does not any BROW ingredients in it, this will also be safe. In Canada, it is illegal to hide allergens on the label, so if a product says "May Contain: Milk and Soy", you know that it cannot have Wheat or Gluten in it.

Note: As of the publication of this instructable the current Canadian Celiac Association Guidance is that there is a high risk of contamination with corn and corn flour. If the item is not certified Gluten Free AND corn or corn flour is in the top 3 ingredients the recommendation is that you do not eat that item.

For example, The Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream (in the pictures at the top of this step) has a May Contain statement, but none of the ingredients or the May Contain statement says this is a product with BROW or Gluten. So for me, this is safe for my digestive system and I would eat it.

Now comes the first really big job . .. it's time to clean the pantry! You will need to look carefully at every package to see if the product is safe to keep. My rule of thumb is if you are not 100% certain it is safe, you are better to get rid of it!

BROW ingredients occur in a surprising number of places, including spice blends, sauces, soups, and of course cereals, crackers and cookies. And a surprising number of candies and chocolates also have gluten in them.

One thing we found was that this purge made for a great opportunity to donate to the food bank (if they were new packages) or to give them to friends, family and neighbors if they were opened.

*Note - If you have purchased anything in the past in bulk it may contain gluten or have been cross contaminated from the plastic bins to the close proximity of foods containing gluten. This mean you will need to either compost this food or give it away to family/friends as you can not guarantee it to be 100% safe. It doesn't take very much gluten to make you feel really lousy!

Because the tolerance for gluten is so low at 20 ppm, you also have to watch for things that are porous or hard to clean if you have already had BROW ingredients on them. This is a surprising amount of kitchen ware.

Please note: the list below is based on what I was told, and what I did. There are lots of varying opinions on what is safe to keep and what is not. In our house we decided to make 100% safe decisions!

I replaced all my silicone utensils, including flippers, spatulas, tongs.

I also had to change all my wooden tools including cutting boards and my favorite wooden spoon.

All my plastic cutting boards were replaced, and I also removed any plastic bowls or tools with scratches.

Finally I went through my baking drawer. Even though the sifters and the strainers were metal, I knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to every get them clean.

It is important you replace them with new items.

This replacement coast was around $300.00 CDN for the kitchen appliances and tools.

My husband loved his cast iron pans, so well seasoned and ready to for everything from French Toast to Pancakes. But unfortunately, Cast Iron is porous and the advice we were given was to replace them with new Cast Iron pans that would never have glutenous foods cooked on them.

Another decision we made was to play it safe and get all new baking pans. I marked each of the new pans with the letters GF on the side in Sharpie, so we would know that they were the ones that were safe for making gluten free food.

My husband eats 85% gluten free of the time to support me. However, due to the cost of gluten free foods, he will eat Gluten Bread for toast and sandwiches.

To be safe I have my own dedicated:

Toaster

Butter dish

Mayonnaise

and Peanut Butter

Depending what you share with your partner, your list may the same or you may need to add some items.

In our kitchen we also have a Gluten Only Area. Where my husband makes his sandwiches and his butter dish have a dedicated space. Any bread or sweets such as muffins or cheese buns also go in this area.

It does not matter if you are going to the park, stadium to watch a football game on on a trip to Mexico. You need to pack safe snacks. You never know where your adventures may take you. You can not always guarantee that their will be safe food. Ensure you pack a good variety such as crunchy, soft, full of protein, healthy and sweet.

Some suggestions:

-Gluten Free Granola Bars

-Gluten Free Fruit Bars

-Fresh fruit such as an apple, small bag of grapes. mandarin orange or a banana

-Travel Cheese

- Raw nuts such as Almonds

- Raw Sunflower Seeds

- Raw Pumpkin Seeds

- Dried pieces of Coconut

Being Gluten free has been a real hard adjustment as it has meant some of my favorite foods and places to eat are no longer safe. There are a lot of risks, and you really do want to be careful when you are eating out.

That said, there are many Facebook groups and apps where celiacs share their safe places to go and eat in places all over the world!

Questions to ask when eating out:

-I always make them aware I am Celiac and ask them if they understand what that means?

-I ask if they have a Gluten Free menu?

-I ask what items can be made gluten free?

-I ask if they have a dedicated prep space for gluten free?

-I ask if they have a dedicated fryer just for Gluten Free? Eating French Fries from the same fryer that that battered chicken fingers are cooked in means the French Fries are no longer gluten free!

- I ask if they have separate utensils, cutting boards and or cooking pots?

-I ask if they have a dedicated grill space for gluten free?

-If I am eating a salad, I will ask to see the ingredients of the salad dressing.

- I ask the the person making my meal to change their gloves. (They may have handled Gluten before my meal)

- Watch out for the term "Gluten Friendly." This normally means that their is a high risk of contamination, so they restaurant does not want to risk saying they can make it Gluten Free.

- We have found a surprisingly large number of Chinese Food restaurants will fry their gluten free foods in the wok so there is limited amount of cross contamination . . . it never hurts to ask!

- If it is a chain restaurant, do research before you go. Head to the chain's website and look at their nutritional information and allergen guides.

As you eat Gluten free food here in Canada, it is about 30 - 40% more expensive on all food costs. In some provinces you get a monthly rebate. As well, in Canada you are able to claim the extra cost on your groceries for tax purposes; but only if you have an official diagnosis and you keep your receipts. You have to track each gluten free item you purchase and also list what the comparable non-gluten free item would cost. Finally you also have to pass the threshold for medical expenses, which is quite high.

In my case, this work would never add up to enough to make a difference in my taxes. However, depending on where you are in the world, this could be different for you. It never hurts to ask your national Celiac Association what tax benefits might be available for you!

I just turned 50 last February and have always eating a low gluten diet. Foods, such as bread and pasta, would make me feel bloated. I wasn't completely off gluten though.

But this past summer I became really ill. I had troubles with my bowels . Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. It did not matter what I ate, I was sick. Saw my family Dr and got a blood test. It did not confirm or deny a gluten allergy. However, he suggested going off gluten completely to see if that would help. My results then went to a Gastroenterologist who quickly booked a endoscopy without seeing me! ( A Endoscopy is a camera that goes down your throat to your small intestine). The surgery showed scaling which is evidence of Celiac disease, but because I had stopped eating foods with gluten on the advice of my doctor, they were not able to diagnose me as being a celiac. My Gastroenterologist believes that my intestines had started to heal during my non-gluten eating time which I started while waiting to see the Gastroenterologist.

However, staying on the gluten free diet has made me feel much better. So although it can be hard to do, if you are celiac or gluten intolerant, it is important to stay the course!