Gluten Fre Foods

[Dugger]

A relative of mine has recently been diagnosed with Celiac's disease and I was wondering how difficult is it to find both glutten free prepared foods as well as ingredients? any help would be appreciated

[Crystalkd]

You have to read labels and learn what gluten is even the "hidden" stuff go to the pain page of the website for safe lists. It's hard starting out. You can find prepard foods as well but they cost more. Many stores and resturants have lists you just have to do some digging. I'm sure others can post links for you. I found the first 3 weeks or so the hardest.

[mindiloo]

It can be really tough at first but it does get easier. Although reading labels is usually very helpful, things that say "Natural Ingredients" may contain barley which we cannot have. Also, almost all "normal" cereals, including rice cereals, have "malt flavoring" which is made from barley.

Most deli meets have gluten in them as well as some chip flavorings, ice creams, alcohol, and soups.

Your relative also needs to be very careful with cross contamination. Nothing with gluten in it can touch what he/she is eating...that makes eating at restaurants pretty tough unless they have a gluten free menu and know what they're doing.

This means no using the same pans to cook food with gluten and your food, hands need to be washed or gloves changed in between, different silverware and cooking utensils.

if he/she has any questions you can send me a private messages or i'll give you my email address.

I know when I first got diagnosed last October it really upset me, i could no longer eat my favorite foods or go out to eat with my friends for Chinese food. Try to be as supportive as you can be and if there's anyone important in his/her life that doesn't understand/believe the seriousness of celiac tell them to come on the forum and ask us questions. it happens a lot.

good luck!

[DakotaRN]

Some companies have listings of their gluten free foods. Also Walmart has a listing on their web site of the gluten-free foods they carry. Our family brand has quite a few gluten-free items for a full listing go to their web site. Hope this help you out.