Gluten Free Helpful Info

Thankfully, there are more and more items and brands that are gluten free. Some name brand items that are good are Chex, Tostitos, Boars Head, Hershey (most products). You can go on any of the manufacturer's website to get lists of what is gluten free.

If you want a decent burger or hot dog roll that doesn't crumble, I would suggest Udi's. For other bread products (sliced bread, rolls, bagels), I have found Udi's or Rudi's to be good. For either of the sliced bread, I would suggest toasting the bread.

You do need to keep the bread items frozen, so what I do is take out a few pieces and place in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator to be defrosted when I want it. Most packaging for frozen bread products will state that once defrosted you must consume the product within 5 days for freshness.

Barilla has a good gluten free pasta. I have not tried any other brands. When I find something I like I usually stick to it.

Also, you can try using spaghetti squash. You cook it in the oven and when you scrap it out of the squash shell, it has the consistency of spaghetti. I would suggest adding a little extra sauce, but it is really good.

Also you can make a lasagna and replace the noodles with either zucchini or eggplant. I haven't tried this yet, but plan to sometime because it sounds good!!

As mentioned in the first post, a lot of products are trial and error. I try items when they go on sale because they can be expensive. You get half the product for twice the cost. There have been some that are gross (I am not a fan of Enjoy Life). And some that are very good (Kind, Evol, Amy's - just make sure it says gluten free as they also sell products that have gluten)

You can also download the app "Find Me Gluten Free" if you have an iPhone to search for restaurants that are or have gluten free.

It's a little tough at first to be gluten free, but once you get used to it, it's no big deal.

Also, if you have a Pinterest account, there are a ton of gluten free recipes on there!

And if you want to have the occasional treat with gluten, I found "Gluten Cutter". They are pills that help you digest gluten like Lactaid does with lactose. Recently CVS has started selling Gluten Cutter. DO NOT OVERDUE IT THOUGH!! I learned the hard way that if you take these, they work but need to still eat gluten in moderation!!

However if the doctor thinks he may have celiac disease, do not use these pills! 

Also, I would suggest cutting down on lactose, as intolerance for gluten can also mean you have lactose intolerance. Not sure of reasoning but they can go hand in hand.

I use either almond or coconut milk instead of regular milk. I get the vanilla flavor with reduced sugar for my cereal (in fact I now prefer it to regular milk). And I make my smoothies with coconut unsweetened milk. Since I use fruit in my smoothies (fresh and/or frozen) the fruit sweetens the smoothie.

I would suggest not to have soy milk. Soy can actually mess with your body more than do it good from some of the articles I have read online.

On last thing, you may be surprised but some medicine can contain gluten. Most name brand medicines are safe. It's the store brand ones you need to watch out for as they may use fillers that contain gluten to keep the cost down. Again, you can always check the website!