Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A little wisdom so far...

Sorry for the major lapse in posts! I'll try to get back on track...
I've talked to a bunch of people lately who are thinking of trying to go gluten free for a couple weeks to see if they feel better. I thought I'd post some of the bits of advice I'm giving here.



-Protein! Try to focus on getting lots of protein-- meat, nuts, soy, etc. I drank a lot of Ensure and Muscle Milk to supplement my diet at first. It also helps rebuild your damaged digestive system to eat protein. Think Thin bars are gluten free and help give you a bunch of protein too. Peanut and Almond butter was my best friend for a while. I'd eat it a lot on apples or rice cakes.

-Whole Foods. The Trader Joe's near me doesn't really have the best selection of GF stuff... so for additional things, I'd recommend Whole Foods. It's expensive so I usually only buy the things I can't get elsewhere. Keep an eye open for stuff by "Enjoy Life" brand-- they are mostly allergen-free and make AMAZING snickerdoodle cookies: http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/our_foods/cookies/snickerdoodle.html. I also really love "Food Should Taste Good" chips, which are made with a lot of GF grains:http://www.foodshouldtastegood.com/#/home/. Glutino brand makes great crackers, and Chex or Envirokids are great breakfast cereal brands.

-Gluten Free Registry (http://glutenfreeregistry.com/) and Urban Spoon (urbanspoon.com). These are two websites I use to find gluten-free friendly restaurants. Urban Spoon allows you to search for gluten-free friendly places by selecting it under "Special Features" Don't assume Urban Spoon is always right because anyone can say they are GF friendly... but then take a look at the Gluten Free Registry and other reviews to see if people have commented on them. I'd recommend trying to stay away from eating out for the duration of your little experiment, although places with gluten free menus are helpful when you do eat out (California Pizza Kitchen, P.F. Chang's, and some other chains are good with that). 

-Bring your own condiments. Regardless of what I eat out, I seem to most often get exposed to gluten from sauces and dressing-- probably because of utensils double-dipping after spreading them on bread, etc. I usually carry my own packets of salad dressing and soy sauce if I'm eating out (soy sauce is nearly always made with wheat unless you buy it GF). I ordered mine from Amazon.com.