Celiac Disease

Official Website of Celiac-Disease.com

You are here: Home / Archives for Gluten-Free Diet

Gluten-Free Diet

Weight Watchers Gluten-Free Options

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

The weight loss industry in the U.S. is big business. In fact, it’s huge and it seems like everyone is looking for the next miracle diet to follow which helps grease the diet world wheels. Several years ago, none of the major diet companies like Nutri-System and Weight Watchers knew anything about the gluten-free diet. If you could not eat gluten and wanted to join such a program, you were on your own to figure out how to get around eating gluten on the programs. Since the Jenny Craig program involves ordering food, there are no options for the gluten-free set with that company.

Skip to a couple of weeks back when Janet Y. Rinehart (Chairman, Houston Celiac Support Group / www.houstonceliacs.org) posted on the celiac listserv that Weight Watchers now has a gluten-free program. Or at least they have guidelines to help people who are gluten-free follow the PointsPlus program. Below is what the new gluten-free flyer says:

“The new PointsPlus program is a great fit, as long if you’re eating GF foods and staying within your daily Target.

1. Have your physician or dietitian assess the program.

2. Choose WW Power Foods: There are many GF choices on the WW Power Foods list. Focus on healthy whole grains such as brown rice, millet, quinoa, buckwheat, and popcorn, as well as the wide array of fruits, veggies, lean proteins and low-fat dairy products. Unprocessed GF whole foods will limit your exposure to processing plants and risk for cross-contamination with wheat, barley, rye and oats.

3. Include GF Substitutes. WW prides itself on being inclusive of all foods, and this includes GF crackers, breads, cereals and desserts. Enjoy them whenever you’d like. Just make sure to track them and to stick within your daily PointsPlus Target.”

While I think this is great news, I know that most of the gluten-free replacement items I like are way too high in calories, fat, and sugar to eat many of if I want to lose weight. I certainly can’t eat them ‘whenever I like’ and expect to lose even an ounce. If I did, I’m pretty sure I’d run out of points pretty quickly each day. My new year’s resolution is to cut way back on replacement foods which I’m already finding hard to do.

The Weight Watchers website now provides a dietary shop. There are also some starchy side recipes as well as several main dish options. We’re having more ‘colder than normal’ weather here and a few of the Weight Watchers recipes look great to take off the winter chill!

Related Articles:

Gaining Weight on the Gluten-Free Diet is Easier than Losing It

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

For many years, doctors thought that patients had to be underweight in order to have celiac disease. It’s true that some people with the condition are underweight because they can’t absorb nutrients in the food they’re eating due to malabsorption issues. These days, however, more and more people are either a “normal” weight or overweight than anything else.

If I had a dollar for every person who told me that their doctor told them they were “too fat to have celiac” I would be able to buy a very expensive gluten-free dinner for myself. When certain celebrities (one of which wrote a book) started touting the gluten-free diet as the next weight loss fad diet, I knew that plenty of people were probably going to spend a fortune on gluten-free foods like bread, pasta, pizza, and bagels and then freak out when the scale moved the wrong way. Losing weight on the gluten-free diet can be done, but it’s much easier if you forego gluten-free replacement foods.

Finally, many mainstream websites are starting to report what many of us have known for a while. Gluten-free replacement foods tend to be higher in fat, calories, and sugar than the items they are meant to replace. It took me a while to figure out that I couldn’t eat all the gluten-free carbohydrates my heart desired and not pay a price for it. As they say, everything is in moderation and that is definitely true when it comes to noshing on gluten-free bagels, pizza, baguettes, muffins, crackers, pasta, pizza, and everything else you can think of.

After I started paying attention to the amount and type of carbs I was eating, I was able to modify my snacking habits to support a healthier lifestyle. My last physical proved that my efforts are paying off and I didn’t have to forego my favorite gluten-free items. I just had to make a conscious effort to enjoy them in moderation. Making sure to include gluten-free oats in my diet has proved a very good idea as well. Everyone who can safely eat gluten-free oats might want to consider making them a normal part of their diet.

Many people that are able to lose weight by eating gluten-free stick to eating mostly whole foods, leaving out processed items like gluten-free bread, pasta, pizza, etc. Anyone who does that will likely lose weight whether gluten agrees with them or not. For me, enjoying a gluten-free bagel or crusty baguette every so often is just too enjoyable to give up totally, but having days where I avoid all gluten-free replacement foods allows me the privilege of indulging in so-called empty carbs on other days.

The way I look at it is that we’re already giving up many of the foods we grew up eating, the joy of grabbing a spontaneous meal out (sans research), and countless other things we once took for granted. At least, we gave up doing things the way we used to. Now that there is a plethora of delicious gluten-free foods in every imaginable category available, there is no reason not to take advantage of them. After all, the thought of giving up gluten is enough to keep some people from being tested for celiac. To put it short and sweet – giving up gluten is enough. Breaking bread with friends is something worth eating empty carbs and calories for (in moderation) – no doubt!

Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Every Christmas a creative guy named Alek Komarnitsky, who has two kids with celiac disease, raises celiac awareness with Christmas lights.  Yes – I said Christmas lights. In addition to raising awareness, over $50,000 has been donated to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research, due to Alek’s Controllable Christmas Lights. That is a whole lot of holiday spirit indeed!

What is unique about this light display is that online viewers have the ability to control the lights with the click of a mouse. There is even Christmas music on the website, so you can turn on a holiday tune, sit back and enjoy Alek’s Controllable Christmas Lights from the comfort of your own home.

This display is not a virtual one – people in the Lafayette, CO area can drive by and see the lights in person. Since Alek is concerned about the environment, he tries to make his display as “green” as possible. Here is his explanation of what he does to achieve that:

While people around the world (157 countries last year) enjoy seeing the lights ON, environmentalists will be happy to know that they can turn the lights OFF with a click of the mouse. Better yet, this is the 7th year I’m using Wind Power and even though that is “clean” energy, I even did a Carbon Offset contribution for the 0.6 Tons of CO2 for the ~MegaWatt-Hour of power consumed – that’s about the same as *one* cross-country airline trip. Finally, by providing viewing via webcam, you don’t need to burn fossil fuels by driving around to see Christmas lights … Al Gore would be proud!

What is really interesting to me is that many people have asked Alek if he takes donations to offset the cost of the lights (power, etc.) and he continues to reply that he does not. Talk about the holiday spirit! Alek does ask that people who are so inclined donate to the Center for Celiac Research, which is how Christmas lights help raise celiac awareness and a lot of money!

Please be aware that Alek’s controllable lights are rather addictive. There is so much to see – and in this case – there is so much to do.  In the beginning, the lights were not really controlled by online viewers, but eventually, Alek delivered what in the past had been just an illusion. To learn more about that, read this information from the Center for Celiac Research website. Certainly, not all the millions of online viewers from around the world have celiac disease and many of them have probably never heard of the condition. That’s what makes this display so magical in terms of raising awareness!

Surviving a Buffet for Thanksgiving

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

You might wonder why I didn’t post this article before the recent holiday, but before this year I’d not gone to a buffet for thanksgiving (since being gluten-free) so that was not possible. This was my fifth gluten-free Thanksgiving and the first one we have eaten out for. Once I found out we were going out to eat, I had to contact the chef and find out if he knew what gluten-free meant well before Thanksgiving. If I felt confident that he knew how to feed gluten-free diners safely, we could eat there. If I didn’t, we’d need to make alternative plans for the holiday.

Thankfully, the chef knew more about what gluten-free means in terms of ingredients, preparation, and presentation than any other country club chef I’ve dealt with. There were only eight things on the salad and main tables I could not eat and four of them were bread items. Obviously, the dessert table was a different story, but I was able to have both maple crème brulee and flourless chocolate layer cake.

Many people who are gluten-free would not dare eat at a buffet of any kind, but the way a buffet is set up makes up all the difference regarding how safe buffet dining is (or isn’t). For instance, if croutons are in the middle section of a three-deep buffet dish arrangement, the odds are that some croutons were dropped into the dishes around them. Alternatively, if the croutons are at the end of the bar, there are probably not any croutons in the other dishes that are nowhere near the crouton container.

Luckily for me, the setup at our Thanksgiving meal buffet was especially friendly for anyone who had to avoid certain dishes. The only thing on the soup/salad table that contained gluten was the crostini for the smoked salmon and it was placed in a basket instead of on the fish platter. Even the butternut squash soup was gluten-free. Due to the way the hot foods were laid out on long tables with plenty of space between each of the dishes, one would be hard-pressed to use the wrong serving utensil for said dishes.

There was one snafu regarding the turkey on the buffet, but the chef advised me that he’d need to bring me turkey from the kitchen before I even saw the presentation for it. Both the regular and Cajun turkey was laid over the cornbread dressings in the serving dishes, making it unsafe for anyone with a wheat, corn or gluten intolerance to eat. Both the ham and prime rib were fine as they were both gluten-free and at carving stations. I’m not sure I’ve ever had Cajun turkey before, but I think it might be my favorite type of turkey now. It was absolutely divine!

Like most Thanksgiving, I ate too much and almost everything I had was incredible. Did I miss having pecan pie and dressing for the big dinner – or in this case lunch? Yes, in fact, I did. That’s why I took my own Honeybaked turkey, cornbread dressing, pecan pie, and mac-n-cheese to enjoy for dinner that evening. I held off on making green bean casserole with homemade fried onions until later that weekend at home.

I’ve got to say that the green bean casserole was spectacular this year because the new condensed cream of mushroom soup from Pacific Natural Foods is so delicious. Also, the homemade fried onions made with Jules Gluten Flour took the dish to a whole new level! I’m all about taking shortcuts in the kitchen on most given days, but making homemade fried onions (that are much better than the French version in a can) was well worth the thirty minutes it took to do it.

For me, Thanksgiving is partly about leftovers which you don’t get if you go out to eat. Therefore, taking my own food to enjoy at my in-laws made sense on several levels. I had what I consider a true Thanksgiving dinner (with dressing and pie) on Thanksgiving Day and had plenty of leftovers to bring home. Hopefully, all of you had a tasty gluten-free holiday meal as well!

Friends Don’t Expect Gluten-Free Friends to Eat Gluten

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

One of the most challenging things people face once they accept their new dietary guidelines is getting other people in their lives to do the same. It’s an odd concept really. Why would someone else care what you are eating? The answer to that question is long and varied and would be best answered by a therapist. However, I’ve had some experience with the subject and have heard from plenty of others that have been shocked by the reaction to their diet by friends and family members. I should add that both my family and my husband’s family were more than willing to work around my diet. Of course, by the time my first gluten-free holiday season rolled around, there were two other gluten-free people in my family.

Think about your average day. It involves food – morning, noon, and night. You might have to turn down food at work functions, business lunches, church outings, and every other social situation you can think of. It can get annoying explaining why you can’t eat something everyone is enjoying over and over again. Eventually, most of your friends will start to ‘get it’ and at least when you’re around them, no apologies (about not being able to eat something) will be needed. At least, that is true if your friends are not threatened by your diet.

The first few times a good friend invites you over (to an event that involves eating) and doesn’t have anything for you to eat, there isn’t cause for concern. Remember, we are always thinking about our food being gluten-free, but others are not obsessed with our dietary needs. The more often you’re around someone, the faster they will start to understand what being gluten-free involves. If, after a year, you’re still not being accommodated by your good friend with something safe to eat, there is probably something going on that is more their problem than yours.

Generally speaking, people like being around others that are like them. That means unhealthy people don’t necessarily want to hang out with people that are focusing on their health. When someone is told they have to eat gluten-free in order to get and stay well – and to keep from getting various cancers that untreated celiac causes – their friends might be put off by the new health kick. In fact, the friends might think the person is just going through a phase and that eventually “this too shall pass”. In other words, they assume that the gluten-free diet won’t be around by the time the holidays arrive.

When the holidays roll around and the gluten-free diet is still going strong, things can get unpleasant – especially for the gluten-free person. If someone suggests that you might give up your diet to make it easier for them for the holidays or a special event like their birthday party, a serious conversation is ordered. If your point regarding why it’s imperative you remain gluten-free does not go over well, it’s probably time to examine the friendship and consider whether it’s worth keeping or not. Friends worth having would never expect someone to eat something that would make them sick, period.