No Wheat & No Sugar

[Healthy Girl]

Hello. This is my first post, so I apologize in advance if I missed this in another topic post.

I was just advised to avoid WHEAT, OAT, and SUGAR, due to intolerance to them all. I also was advised to avoid sugar and soy. Looking for some guidance on what I can eat. I have been looking at gluten free foods, and most of the ones I see have sugar in them.

I would particularly like to find maybe a cereal for the morning that is gluten, oat, and sugar free....anyone have any ideas.

Also, any recommendations on any wheat and sugar free cookbooks out there? I am really looking to do this 100%, and would really appreciate any guidance from those of you that have been there.

Thank you. (and thank you for this webstie!!!)

Amy

[dangervolvo]

I have been avoiding gluten, dairy, soy, and sugar for about 3 months and while it is hard at first, you can find some yummy things to eat.

I have a warm bowl of Ancient Harvest Quinoa Flakes every morning for breakfast. I usually put in walnuts and maple syrup, blueberries and hazelnuts, or apples and cinnamon.

A great sweet snack is Clif Bar Nectar bars, they are gluten free and sweetened with dates.

I even found cookies; Mrs. Denson's Quinoa Macaroons, they are gluten free and sweetened with fruit juice.

Don't forget the very simple snack of peanut butter on a rice cake.

Last, you really can tweak most recipes to your own dietary needs, you can bake using a gluten free mix and maple sugar, or if you add a little extra of your dry ingredients you can use honey or agave syrup. Pick up a Bette Hagman cookbook, she is a gluten free baking guru, and then just play around with some of the ideas. Also, read the baking section on this forum.

Learning all of this is difficult, but if you experiment and lean most heavily on naturally gluten free and sugar free foods you'll be fine, it is just a process.

(I don't know if you know this but you should be avoiding molasses and Splenda in addition to cane and brown sugar because they all come from the same source).

Good luck, it gets easier, I promise,

-Sarah

[Healthy Girl]

Thanks Sarah:

I appreciate your response--and now have a good place to start. I was not sure if maple syrup came under sugar---if I can eat this it will be a big help. How are you feeling since removing these things from your diet, and about how long til you noticed a fifference.

I am committing to this 100% and really want to start off right! Thanks Again.

Amy

[sickchick]

Sugar free yogurt is really good if you mix some ground flax seed in it and you can't go wrong with hummus and rice crackers:)

Welcome and good luck!

[silk]

  amyb said:

Hello. This is my first post, so I apologize in advance if I missed this in another topic post.

I was just advised to avoid WHEAT, OAT, and SUGAR, due to intolerance to them all. I also was advised to avoid sugar and soy. Looking for some guidance on what I can eat. I have been looking at gluten free foods, and most of the ones I see have sugar in them.

I would particularly like to find maybe a cereal for the morning that is gluten, oat, and sugar free....anyone have any ideas.

Also, any recommendations on any wheat and sugar free cookbooks out there? I am really looking to do this 100%, and would really appreciate any guidance from those of you that have been there.

Thank you. (and thank you for this webstie!!!)

Amy

Hi Amy. In answer to your cereal question...I like Cream of Rice with a small amount of butter and maple syrup. If you can tolerate nuts, sometimes I add a few pecans and some craisins. Be careful of the dried fruit though because some of it is processed in a plant that also processes wheat so be sure to read the package. I also found that my local health food store carries 'puffed' cereals. Puffed corn, rice, and millet. I tried the millet this morning and it was delicious and it only cost about $1.65 for a large bag. The first gluten free product that I think I've found that didn't cost ten times more that the toxic stuff! I added a few pecans and 1/2 a banana and used my rice milk and it was really good.

As for the cook book...check your local library first to see what they might have and borrow some of those before purchasing a book of your own. That way you will have some time to try some of the recipes and find one that best suits your personal eating style. A gluten free recipe for quiche is great if you usually eat quiche, but if you normally eat simple foods and get a book that is full of exotic recipes that you will never have the time or inclination to fix, then it is basically useless. I checked out one of the "dummy" books...you know..Internet for dummies, taxes for dummies, etc. This one was called something like "Cooking with Food Allergies for dummies" and it covered just about every food allergy out there. There is also a Gluten Free Cooking for Dummies I think. However, these were not as good as some others that I found and tried. I then went to the local book store and purchased a couple that I really liked. Also, many of the better cookbooks offer alternatives or substitutions for other food allergies like sugar, soy, eggs, nuts, etc along with the gluten free recipe.

I have only been doing this for a couple of months now, but I hope to be able to get the flour measurements and combinations down enough to be able to adapt the tapioca/rice/potato flour to some of my favorite toxic recipes. Experimenting is kind of fun but I hate how fine the flours are because they go everywhere when you are mixing them.

Good Luck!

[Healthy Girl]

Thanks to all the responders. I did buy a puffed rice cereal---and it wasn't to bad.. I am finding the no sugar (also no honey/maple syrup) is a bit harder and frustrating at this point.

Why is soooo many gluten free items filled with sugar? I will keep reading labels, and eventually I will add more into my new lifestyle. This forum is a big help--THANKS.

Amyb

[psipsina]

It takes some creativity but you can have great food. You can adapt the gluten free recipes out there to be sugar free by replacing the sugar with stevia. There are stevia cookbooks out there to help you get how much stevia to put in for sugar (it is sweeter so you don't need as much). Its a pain in the tush not to be able to buy all the wonderful premade goodies but its so satisfying when you create something fabulous in your kitchen. I've never bought a gluten free cookbook but rather played around with how to substitute gluten-free ingredients into normal recipes. Last thanksgiving i brought a gluten-free macaroni and cheese (I used martha stewarart's recipe and made subsitutions) to bring to a family dinner and everyone liked mine better than the "real thing"! It can be frustrating at first but it does get better. I've been gluten-free for almost 2 years now!

[silk]

  psipsina said:

Last thanksgiving i brought a gluten-free macaroni and cheese (I used martha stewarart's recipe and made subsitutions) to bring to a family dinner and everyone liked mine better than the "real thing"! It can be frustrating at first but it does get better. I've been gluten-free for almost 2 years now!

It's funny (sort of) but I made my own pasta to eat while everyone else ate their toxic stuff and guess what? they tasted mine and liked it better. Everyone commented on how much better the flavor and texture of the quinoa pasta is. So I am dumping any left over toxic noodles from the cupboard and my pasta from now on will be made gluten-free by request.

[JNBunnie1]

  amyb said:

Thanks to all the responders. I did buy a puffed rice cereal---and it wasn't to bad.. I am finding the no sugar (also no honey/maple syrup) is a bit harder and frustrating at this point.

Why is soooo many gluten free items filled with sugar? I will keep reading labels, and eventually I will add more into my new lifestyle. This forum is a big help--THANKS.

Amyb

Amy, you can use fruit to sweeten a lot of things, especially plain yogurt. Stonyfield Farm organic plain yogurt comes in big tubs, so it's cheaper, and it tastes good and is nice and thick. You can add anything from frozen cherries (when they thaw the juice runs out and makes the yogurt yummy) or applesauce or bananas or frozen anything, blueberries, I don't recommend raspberries though. Cut up strawberries. Banana bread is easy to make without sugar, just take some really overripe bananas and freeze them, in the skin, for a day or a few months, and then let them thaw and use them for banana bread. I have a gluten-free recipe that only uses bananas & applesauce to sweeten if you like. Freezing the bananas makes them even sweeter, in my opinion.

[Healthy Girl]

  JNBunnie1 said:

Amy, you can use fruit to sweeten a lot of things, especially plain yogurt. Stonyfield Farm organic plain yogurt comes in big tubs, so it's cheaper, and it tastes good and is nice and thick. You can add anything from frozen cherries (when they thaw the juice runs out and makes the yogurt yummy) or applesauce or bananas or frozen anything, blueberries, I don't recommend raspberries though. Cut up strawberries. Banana bread is easy to make without sugar, just take some really overripe bananas and freeze them, in the skin, for a day or a few months, and then let them thaw and use them for banana bread. I have a gluten-free recipe that only uses bananas & applesauce to sweeten if you like. Freezing the bananas makes them even sweeter, in my opinion.

Is there a recipe area on the forum??

A