If or when you have recently found that you have coeliac disease and have to adopt a gluten-free diet you may find the whole thought daunting. Don't worry you are not on your own, approximately 1 in 300 people are confirmed as Celiacs in the western world and they are able to adopt a gluten free diet every day. To help you we have listed some of our most sought after gluten-free tips to living life gluten-free and being healthy.
These days a lot of valuable information can be found online. Some sites we found were gluten free advice and gluten free guide and gluten free information.
1. Plan ahead when you go out. There is nothing worse that deciding to stay on a trip longer than originally planned and finding that you cannot find anything to eat. If you will not be near a modern supermarket or large restaurant then take some gluten free snacks with you. Rice cakes are a good example, light and easy to carry but they can get you through hunger pangs until you return home to a refreshing gluten free meal. Fruit is also a good easy carry food which will last the day as are nut bars.
2. Err on the side of caution. When Checking the ingredients on a food item if in any doubt do not eat it. Manufacturers often subtly hide gluten in meals. Whilst many foods are labeled as gluten free some food labels such as modified starch are ambiguous and could represent wheat flour or a corn based ingredient. When in doubt leave it out!
3. Get a gluten free cooking book. There are millions of people with celiac condition and thousands of gluten free rcepies. Don't try to think of everything for yourself, use the learnings of others and enjoy what you eat. At first, changing to a gluten free set of ingrediants can result in dry food unless you learn how to use these new ingredients. Turning to established, gluten free recepies takes you straight to being a successful cook.
Some different gluten free advice can be found on this no gluten site. If you are interested in joining an online discussion we know of a good gluten free blog which you should check out. Also more recently a new gluten free web blog has sprung up which is worth a few moments.
Maintaining a gluten free diet may seem to be quite a challenge at first but that is only in the first few weeks as you change to the new diet. In a short period of time, following good gluten free tips such as these, you will find that you enjoy eating, going out to restaurants and even visiting foreign countries whilst managing to maintain a gluten free diet. One of our friends did this and has started a journal to record their gluten free tips at this gluten free site.
