colorado1850

My name is James Shirley and my family and I have been eating gluten-free since the end of 2007 when our daughter was diagnosed with celiac disease.

We had quite a scare with our daughter as she had lost significant weight (she was only 18 months old at diagnosis) and seemingly no one could figure out what was wrong. What a relief it was to figure out it was celiac disease. I was so happy to know that it wasn't something that would require medicines or surgery.

It was really hard at first. Pasta and bread were staples in our house. But we made a commitment to go gluten-free as a family and we looked at it as something we had to do so we could raise our daughter (and now son) and teach them all about it.

So we checked out numerous books from the library and we got a lot better at cooking. We could only occasionally afford to buy gluten-free breads and other treats, so we learned how to make them. It didn't turn out to be as hard as I thought.

The most difficult thing was grocery shopping.

I got really interested in making my grocery trips easier and that led me to create a personal list of gluten-free foods available in grocery stores. That project turned into a much bigger one than I thought it would and I ended up publishing all those products, along with tips and pointers, in a book.

The book is Gluten-Free Diet: A Shopping Guide and it is available on Amazon or Barnes and Noble (along with other smaller retailers).

Find us on Twitter: @happyglutenfree

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GlutenFreeShoppingGuide