Category: Gluten-Free Living

Gluten-Free Myth 3: You’ll Have Less Money to Spend

Probably my favorite gluten-free myth is the “it costs a fortune!” legend. Okay, I’m being a bit harsh, because this myth has a basis in reality. That being, if you look closely at the price comparisons on the linked page, you’ll notice a pattern.

Yep, it’s those darn highly-processed foods. There was a CBS News story about a celiac patient’s grocery bill increasing forty dollars a week due to her dietary change. Digging into the source of her diet, you can see that, again, the price increase is due to *what* was being consumed, not the gluten-free diet itself.

This does not have to be the case. Gluten-free specialty foods have higher costs for a variety of reasons: the cost of special equipment, the cost of testing, the cost of safety for consumers, the cost of raw ingredients, the loss of some economies that come from scale. Ditto for special gluten-free meals in restaurants. I was extremely opposed to the lawsuit filed against P.F. Chang’s by a woman who felt the higher prices for GF meals was discriminatory; I’d rather pay a price for a safe meal out.

That being said, if you think long and hard about your meals, the one thing you realize is that gluten-filled foods are not usually the largest component of what’s on your plate (quick reminder about the necessity of reading labels!). Meats are gluten free. Vegetables are gluten free. Dairy products (with some exceptions) are gluten free. Fruits are gluten free. Many grains are gluten free. Eggs are gluten free.

Or, you can eat pretty well without encountering a situation where you need to buy or ingest specialized and pricier gluten-free products. Taking this approach allows me to treat these products in the same way I treat a special food item or meal out at a nice restaurant. They are nice-to-have additions to a meal, not have-to-have additions.

Additionally, many restaurants and food suppliers are making a point of noting they serve naturally gluten-free items. Yes, this means some people laugh at salsas that are labeled gluten free, but I totally appreciate a manufacturer alerting me to the fact that their food is safe.

Sure, you can increase your grocery bill by investing in gluten-free specialty foods, but as we learned in Myth 1, this may not be the best thing you can do for yourself from a nutritional perspective. My advice? Put your money in a place that gives you the best return for your investment!

Thoughts?

Tip of the Week

As you expand your culinary horizons, you will discover a lot of cuisines tend toward naturally gluten free. One that is increasingly easy to enjoy around the world is Mexican food. While there are rare corn tortillas that contain wheat (why, oh why?), the basic diet is remarkably gluten free. I can get my taco fix safely whenever I want!

Gluten-Free Meal of the Week

Speaking of tacos…yeah, I do love me some tacos, but I’m also pretty excited about enchiladas, made my way. Much to my surprise, many commercial enchilada sauces have wheat in the them, so I avoid them in restaurants. And at home, I either make my own red or green sauces (so easy), or I substitute commercial salsas for the traditional sauce.

You can guess which approach I take most often! In fact, based on the ingredients I have in the house right now, I’ll be taking this approach tomorrow night. *Someone* bought avocados when we were already oversupplied. Those babies won’t eat themselves!

One word about enchiladas: yes, traditionally, they are filled and rolled, but ain’t nobody saying you can’t do a stacked, lasagna-like enchilada. Especially if time is short.

Gluten-Free Myth 2: You’ll Experience Extreme Fatigue

Ah, Myth 2, you baffle me. The video I referenced two weeks ago, indicated that eliminating a food group like gluten — still baffled by this — can lead to nutritional deficiencies and even fatigue. Gluten, as you know if you are gluten-free, is a protein found in wheat. The similar proteins found in barley and rye have different names, but for the sake of ease, we lump them all together as “gluten.”

So, yes, gluten contributes to your overall nutrition profile (but still isn’t a “food group”). Gluten is a good thing for many reasons, not just protein. It makes breads rise, doughs elastic, and other good things for baking and cooking. On the other hand, it makes me and many, many others very sick. Because we must exist without gluten in our diets — and again, I speak only of those glutens relating to wheat, barley, and rye — we are clear and absolute proof that gluten is not necessary to maintain nutritional health. Continue reading “Gluten-Free Myth 2: You’ll Experience Extreme Fatigue”

Gluten-Free Myth Busting

I believe it’s important to fight against gluten-free stereotypes. Yeah, the community doesn’t always help itself by making claims about gluten-free health that are, well, suspect, but most of the misconceptions about the gluten-free lifestyle comes from people who embrace the diet for all the wrong reasons.

And then there’s the media, helping perpetuate myths. For example, The Greatest published a video entitled “5 Convincing Reasons You Shouldn’t Go Gluten-Free (sic) (Unless You Have To).” Oddly, the title in the URL is more accurate, saying “Why Gluten-Free Diets Aren’t Necessarily Healthy.” And we’ll get to that in just a moment.  Continue reading “Gluten-Free Myth Busting”

And Then I Was Glutened

I was glutened. Despite my best precautions, somehow gluten snuck onto my plate. I’m not 100% sure when it happened, but it did. It’s been a long time since my last accidental glutening, and, weirdly, I didn’t quite realize why my body was out of whack.

Then the memories came flooding back. Continue reading “And Then I Was Glutened”

Eating Gluten-Free at Conferences

Last week, I wrote about the challenges of being gluten free and dining with groups. This week, I am going to talk about another group dining challenge: conference meals. I will state for the record that even if you’re not gluten free, meals at conferences tend to be, well, okay. It’s hard to make a thousand or so meals that meet a wide and diverse range of attendees…interesting (and affordable). Continue reading “Eating Gluten-Free at Conferences”

Group Dining: The Biggest Gluten-Free Challenge

Recently, I discussed the fact that the gluten-free diet is not boring. Maybe a better way to put it is that the gluten-free diet is as boring as any other diet in the world: it’s what you put into what you eat that defines boring or exciting. I personally prefer exciting, varied, and adventurous. When I eliminated gluten from my diet, I made it my mission to eat very, very well.

Recently, I had an email exchange with an individual who indicated that a certain city continued to disappoint her when it came to gluten-free dining. Surprised, because I’d managed to eat a wide range of gluten-free meals in various corners of that city, I contacted this person for more information. It turned out it wasn’t the city, it was the diners involved. Continue reading “Group Dining: The Biggest Gluten-Free Challenge”

Avoiding Dogmatic Diets

If I were to sum up the diet trends of the past few decades, it would be something like this, with all apologies to Michael Pollan: eat more vegetables, eat less meat, eat whole foods instead of processed foods.

Pretty simple, and it’s a philosophy I practice (almost) every meal. I don’t like dogmatic approaches to diet — I mean, except the part where no gluten will ever be part of any meal I eat. That’s not so much dogmatism as it is keeping me healthy and alive. Continue reading “Avoiding Dogmatic Diets”