My wife and I are starting a gluten free diet because she is symptomatic of celiac disease. Though not diagnosed, yet, she exhibits all symptoms of the disorder. Our first purchase of gluten free food nearly bankrupted us! E-gads this type of food is expensive and outrageous! I have yet to see a blog on the cost of this type of food! Any suggestions???

It is so expensive! I absolutely feel your pain, I'm a college student and it is TOUGH. My best suggestions are; 1) get a bigger pantry; talk with the owners of your local food co-op, usually you can get a discount for buying items in bulk and they will alert you when items are going on sale - buy 'em up! Look for any food buying clubs in your area, you might find many more people in your same situation. 2) make time for baking. It is time consuming but if you buy individual flours in bulk it is much cheaper to make your own bread. There's a great recipe book written by the Culinary Institute of America called Gluten-Free Baking with recipes you would think are 'normal' bread products. The research and information is VERY helpful. Make it a new adventure to learn to bake gluten-free, it actually is fun and SO rewarding. There's a recipe for sandwich bread that makes 3 loaves at once and freezes very well - that saves time! 3) Check out gluten-free product reviews on the internet before buying something you haven't tried before. Ask co-op employees too because they often have taste testings of newly stocked products. 4) Buy more spices to make cheap yet hearty dishes (beans and rice) interesting, flavorful, and ever-changing. Take leftovers from one night and turn it into something completely different.

This is my first time writing on here, but I would like to start blogging and the cost of gluten-free food is one of my main concerns. I hope those few tips help you and your wife - don't get discouraged just get creative. Good luck.

First, while I'm not celiac, my father and brothers are. As my mother is in poor health, I'm doing most of their cooking. Gluten-free cooking doesn't have to be expensive. PREPARED foods and mixes? Might as well invest in gold. But the ingredients themselves are fairly cheap. Rice is your best friend. While her poor gut heals,(and that takes a long time!) rice is the easiest to digest. And there are a LOT of great gluten-free recipes out there. Get a grain grinder, so it will be dedicated to gluten-free. This is for rice and some of your beans; they're cheaper if you self-grind. Find a good TRUSTWORTHY health food store for your bulk flours. (make sure that they understand the dedicated area concept--lots of them don't get it!) Corn flour is wonderful, and instead of Xanthan gum, try Guar gum first. I've got some wonderful recipes that I found on the web. In recipes, instead of potato starch, use cornstarch. Instead of the more expensive potato flour, use 100% mashed potato flakes, just give them a whirl in your new, dedicated gluten-free blender. (Yes, some of your appliances should be new, and dedicated gluten-free! They don't have to be expensive, top of the line; $15 at Wal-Mart ones work just fine.) My staples are corn, white beans and rice flours. I occasionally use gelatin and guar gum, plus egg whites in breads, as binders. And many things can be made with mashed potatoes and milk (or yogurt) instead of wheat thickeners.
Oriental food stores have a sweet rice flour that isn't gritty, and a lot of things that are naturally gluten-free. I use rice flour and corn flour mixed together as breading for oven-baked chicken, chops, fish, etc.


Also, a lot of the bouillon powders are actually gluten-free, you just have to know all of gluten's "evil incarnations".


Good luck!

My sisters and I all have celiac. My sister was diagnosed with celiac because she had extreme nausea (as well as some other symptoms). She was ultimately tested for celiac - but along the way, they discovered that she had an inner ear infection that was left over from a case of strep... and was causing the nausea. Might be worth double-checking that it's not an infection (vs a food issue).

Have you ever had a HIDA scan done on your gallbladder? Last year I started feeling nauseous almost all the time. I had ultrasounds done, but it didn't show anything. Someone suggested that I should get a HIDA scan done because that is the only test that can test the function of the gallbladder. So I asked my doctor and he ordered the test. The results were that my gallbladder was not functioning properly and needed to have my gallbladder taken out. My celiac diagnosis came earlier this year after still having problems. After having been on the gluten free diet for about 6 months, I am not having the constant nausea or pain. Once in a while I eat something, usually while eating out, that contains gluten and have to deal with the pain, but now I know where it is coming from and it is easier to handle now since my gallbladder removal almost a year ago. Hope you find the answer soon.

Are you on any medications for other issues? I was on birth control pills for years and years without problems. However, I went back on them for a short time about the same time I was diagnosed with celiac. I had a horrible reaction to them- night sweats, hypoglycemia, light-headedness- and these were essentially the same pills I had been on for years! I happened to go off them for another reason and everything cleared up. Something about the celiac makes me overly sensitive to medication.

I found that xanthan gum, in almost all celiac approved bread, cookies, salad dressings and sauces, was the ingredient that made me feel nauseous and bloated. Try avoiding it for a week and see if it helps. I found a great cookbook, "You are What You Eat", that is all natural (mostly vegetarian) and can be used by celiacs with minor adjustments. I'm hypoglycemic and lactose intolerant too and these recipes are great. Hope you feel better soon-we know what you're going through.

You could have bacterial overgrowth. My doctor gave me flagyl which is an antibiotic and then it was followed up with prednisone.
I had about the same symptoms and then developed really bad nausea that worsened over time. You would have to have biopsies taken again. Talk to your doctor before it gets unbearable. I hope that you feel better.

It could be a lot of things, candida being just one of them. Remember, your gut is supposed to be all fuzzy inside with little fingers, and by the time you're diagnosed, the fingers have been worn away. It takes a LOT of time to heal, and a lot of the things you ate thinking to make yourself healthy, were actually doing more damage. While your body is trying to heal, anything rough (almond skins, potato skins, fibrous things, etc.) can, according to a dietitian I consulted, be hard on the new cilia trying to grow.

She recommended easy-to-digest things that have very few ingredients. Steamed veggies that are between crunchy and soft, (except for carrots and tomatoes, which release more nutrients when they're cooked thoroughly) She recommended against things with more than 4 ingredients or 3 syllables! She also mentioned that when babies are being introduced to new foods, you're supposed to start them on only one new thing a week. That way, they're less likely to become allergic or sensitive to new things, and it's easier to pinpoint if they are. Think of your gut as a new baby trying to grow, and don't feed it grown-up foods for awhile.


She advised my family to go on a "rice-plus" diet (rice plus steamed carrots, rice plus a bit of chicken, rice and fish and a veggie, etc.) for awhile, and take GF vitamins, with extra B-12. Extra iron if you're a woman of childbearing age, since celiac gives you an absorption problem.

Have your blood checked for levels of everything, and then slowly add wholesome things, one at a time. Build up a repertoire of foods, vegetables and simple meats, that won't cause you to become ill, then when you have 20 or so foods, you can start to vary and add. Even spices, especially the woody ones, can be rough on your gut at first. Garlic is usually okay cooked in foods, and then cinnamon (later, because it's a fibrous food) These are very healthy and "anti-candida" and extremely antibacterial.

Check ANYTHING you take, such as a probiotic, for GF; some still contain bad things in the binders. And think twice before you eat anything sugar-free, especially gum and candies. The sorbitol, mannitol, etc. can have a profound laxitive effect, which can make you think you're having more gut problems!