So maybe you’ve been miserable for weeks, months, or years and you finally found out what was wrong! Or maybe you had no symptoms and just happened to get some blood work done. Either way, you now know you have Celiac Disease and you’re completely overwhelmed. Yeah, don’t worry, we’ve all been there. If you’re anything like I was, you probably barely even know what gluten is. I had so many thoughts racing through my head…”What is gluten in other than bread?” “Can I drink alcohol?” “Will anything ever taste good?” “How hard is this going to be?”
Listen, it’s a lot to take in. And in my experience, there aren’t a lot of clear and concise articles out there to help you. When I was diagnosed, I wanted an article to be like okay, you have Celiac, here’s what to do right now…but I couldn’t find one. Everything seemed to ramble on and it all felt so over my head. I don’t want you to feel that way, so I’m gonna give you what I didn’t have–a game plan. Follow the plan and you’ll be off to a great start! More importantly though, be patient with yourself. There’s a lot to learn! You’re going to mess up. But trust me, in a year or two, you’ll be a gluten-free expert ready to help other newbies! Okay so here we go…
1. Figure out what the heck gluten even is.
So, if you haven’t heard by now, gluten is wheat, barley, and rye. Often you’ll hear people talk about wheat, but not always the barley and rye. As far as wheat goes, think anything that’s made with flour. Bread, flour tortillas, cake, cookies, pasta, crackers, orzo, pizza dough, etc. DON’T PANIC YET. As for barley and rye, I don’t run into it a ton. Barley is used to make beer and it’s also sometimes an ingredient in chocolate or chips (it’ll read “barley malt”). Honestly the only place I’ve ever seen rye is in rye bread. When you’re looking at labels, most will call out wheat as an ingredient at the bottom, but many will not call out barley. So really that’s the only thing I’ve found I really need to pay attention to. Here’s an example:
As you can see, the Lindt Chocolate truffles do not list wheat, barley, or rye in the allergen statement (“May contain….”). But if you look at the ingredients, barley malt powder is the second to last one. Wheat is considered more of an “allergen”, so that’s the one most companies identify. On the Cheese-It’s, you can see it clearly calls out wheat in it’s allergen statement.
Lindt Chocolate Truffle
Cheese-Its
2. Clear all the obvious gluten out of your house!
You’re going to need to get your kitchen in the gluten-free spirit, so just go for it. Throw away or give away your bread, pasta, crackers, cookies, beer, etc. Something you may not think to do but you need to is to throw away all your jarred condiments! This means your mayo, peanut butter, tub of butter, jelly, etc. Anything you’ve dipped a knife into, spread onto a piece of gluteny bread, and then dipped your knife back in. Those jars are super contaminated with gluten crumbs and yes, crumbs matter.
Check the spices in your spice cabinet. I’ve found wheat hiding in the ingredients of a lot of them! Especially the pepper. McCormick is a great brand because they bold any allergens in their ingredient list (including barley!). If you’re not sure if something has gluten in it, it’s okay. Hang tight and we’ll get there.
Throw out your soy sauce. Nearly all of them contain wheat as the second ingredient, unless you happen to always buy La Choy.
If you have a toaster where the bread pops up, you’re going to need to get rid of that and replace it with a new one that will be exclusively gluten free. If you have a toaster oven, you can just put tin foil down every time you toast something! It just depends if you’re sharing a household with someone and what-not.
3. Replace your gluten staples with gluten free ones!
So many times when people get diagnosed with Celiac, they think they need to start cooking in an entirely new way. They look up gluten-free recipes and are terrified. So many have like 6 different kinds of flour you’ve never heard of and it sounds impossible. Ignore that!! It’s so much simpler than that. I didn’t change the way I cooked at all….all I did was swap out the gluten ingredients in my normal recipes for gluten-free alternatives.
Get yourself some gluten-free bread (I love Udi’s or BFree), gluten free pasta (Barilla makes gluten free penne that tastes like regular pasta), certified gluten free oatmeal, and gluten free all purpose flour. At least for me, that’s mainly what I need to shift all my recipes into gluten free recipes! I also buy gluten free bread crumbs, gluten free pancake mix, and sometimes gluten free cereal. But just decide what you eat the most or cook with the most, and buy the gluten free version! I remember the day I got diagnosed, I went to the gluten free section of the store and bought crackers, pretzels, and all kinds of random snacks. The thing is…I never even ate pretzels or crackers as snacks when I did eat gluten…so why do I need them now? lol Just because they’re gluten free? No…don’t change your whole life!
4. Download this gluten free app
There are tons of apps out there and I’ve tried several over the years! However, I really only ever end up using 1 and I use it a lot!
Find Me Gluten Free. This one is a LIFE SAVER. Put in your address and it’ll show you all the restaurants around you that have gluten free options and how good they are! Lots of other gluten-free people rate them and you can see what their experiences were like. This is what I use every time I’m traveling and need to find somewhere safe or even just to see if any new restaurants around me got added! You’ll find some serious gems on there.
5. Stock up on some gluten free snacks to take on the go
I’ll be straight up with you, you’re gonna find yourself in situations where there’s nothing you can eat. Whether it’s a birthday party, a work function, a wedding, a food court….where ever. Sometimes there’s just nothing that’s safe. And I’ll be honest, this might be upsetting to you for the first few years. I literally cried at a food court once because I couldn’t find anything to eat….my family was a little taken aback and went to talk to Subway about making me something haha I wasn’t crying about that one moment of not getting anything to eat, I was crying because I realized this was my life now…I was going to face this a lot. But trust me when I say it gets better. I cried over nachos in 2014 and I’m happy to say that was the last time I cried over gluten lol I don’t get upset like that anymore because I’m just used to it and I prepare for it. Get lots of Larabars and Kind Bars. I have at least one in my purse almost always. Situations where gluten free options aren’t around feel MUCH better when you’re not totally starving haha I also bring bananas with me as well!
6. Join a Celiac Support group on Facebook
I waited a long time to do this and I wish I hadn’t! It’s a great group to belong to and you get a lot of your random questions answered! Plus it makes you not feel so alone. This past Christmas, our group did a Gluten Free Secret Santa and it was awesome!!
7. Find some people to follow on Instagram
Just search #glutenfreeliving or #celiac and you’ll find TONS of people that are living gluten free. You’ll get awesome tips, recipes, and you’ll probably meet some awesome new people!
8. Discover all the things that are naturally gluten free!
There’s actually a ton that is already gluten free that you probably don’t even realize! Meat, fruit, vegetables, rice, quinoa, cheese, milk, yogurt, lots of ice creams, sushi, etc. I promise you there’s plenty to eat!
There are even lots of other products that are gluten free as well!
Reese’s peanut butter cups, Cool Ranch Doritos, Haagan Dazs Ice Cream, Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay’s potato chips, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, the list goes on and on…
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In the beginning, focus on the big things and get comfortable with those! There are lots of little tidbits of info that you’ll learn along the way, but just give yourself time. You’ll learn that gluten hides in chicken stock, holiday shaped Reese’s, dried beans, and random crap like that. But trust me, you WILL learn it all in time. Be patient, take a deep breath, and take it one meal at a time! I promise you can do it.
If you ever have any questions or just want to talk, feel free to contact me!