What Can I Eat?!

[Tiffrankland2011]

I am totally new to the gluten free diet due to Celiac Disease, and I have NO CLUE what I can eat! I don't have any idea how to tell if gluten is in food, what do I need to watch for in the ingredients to be able to tell if I can eat it?

[mushroom]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. 

 

Here are a couple of sites to check to get you started.  The first is a list of unsafe ingredients you should look for on food labels.  The second is a general introduction to living like a celiac.

 

https://www.celiac.com/celiac-disease/forbidden-gluten-food-list-unsafe-ingredients-r182/

https://www.celiac.com/forums/forum/5-celiac-disease-coping-with/

 

But before you run off to the supermarket, pause a minute and consider that most food that is not processed is inherently gluten free.  Meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, eggs, rice, corn, dried beans and peas and lentils - all gluten free.  The gluten that ceiacs are sensitive to is contained in wheat, rye and barley, and perhaps oats (these you could be sensitive to or they are often cross-contaminated from the other grains).   Barley is used a lot for malting so it sweetens things and brews beer.  Wheat is primarily made into flour, so most baked goods that are not labeled gluten free are going to contain gluten.  However, if you shop the outer rim of the supermarket you can buy all fresh foods just the way they came from the grower and be pretty sure that they do not have any gluten content.  You do have to watch out for marinated and processed meats.

 

My best advice is to read as much as you can.  There is oodles of information available on this site.

[SensitiveMe]

After I was finally diagnosed and found out I couldn't have wheat, soy, corn, oats or lactose I wondered what the heck I was supposed to eat. So I remember how it can be a bit overwhelming trying to figure out what you can eat.

 

 

You will have to read labels on everything you purchase and even every time you purchase because they change things. I just go by the advice the doctor told me which was "Nothing is to go into your mouth that you don't know the ingredients of."

 

 

In time it even became enjoyable finding new and different foods to eat. For hot cereal I eat quinoa flakes or buckwheat ( which is really a fruit so don't let the word wheat in buckwheat prevent you from trying it. Some glutenfree cookbooks might be helpful to have around to give you ideas. Usually things saying glutenfree are safe except for Rice Dream Milk which I strongly suggest you never drink as the label on it says gluten free but they treat it with a barley enzyme and don't tell you and I have read quite a few posts of people having problems with it.

 

Look at the fine print on packages also as some will say processed on equipment which also processes wheat and so best to avoid them...it is easy to miss this fine print and I have purchased several things which I saw when I got home that are processed on equipment which also processes wheat...so I usually give them to someone else or take them back to the store. I even once bought an olive oil which ended up saying it was processed on equipment with wheat. So I consider nothing safe until I read everything on the label.

 

There are lists on the board which list safe and unsafe ingredients to look for when you purchase things. In the beginning I copied them down and took the list with me to the store. And you can ask here about things you might question are safe as people here are  helpful in answering your question.

 

I don't have any gluten free aisles in my grocery stores here so things safe there are a bit hard to find. But I do have a natural food market which I go to and have found new and different things to eat which are marked gluten free. And it seems to me they are now making more things for glutenfree people than they did 3 years ago when I had to go glutenfree.

 

And welcome to the board.

 

 

 

[GF Lover]

Make sure all of your medications and supplements are gluten free.  Also if you get shampoo in your mouth during your shower, like I do, get a gluten free shampoo.  

 

Welcome to the healthy road in your life.  You'll do great. 

 

Colleen