Celiac Disease

Official Website of Celiac-Disease.com

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

Gluten-Free Diet

Gluten-Free Hotel Travel Guide

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Traveling on a gluten-free diet can be extremely difficult, especially the first few times you travel. The best thing you can do is to properly prepare before traveling!

Below you’ll find we’ve put together a gluten-free guide for hotel travel. If you have anything to add, feel free to submit a comment below!

Try to Stay in a Hotel Room with Cooking Facilities

If money is no object, then you can continue to visit your favorite five-star hotels and have the chefs and kitchen staff cater to your every need. If, like most of us, you’re on a budget, you’ll be more comfortable if you have access to kitchen facilities while you’re away from home.

Try to find an all-suite hotel

Accommodations in suite hotels usually include a refrigerator, a microwave, and possibly a stove top that will allow you to prepare food for yourself. Also, it will be easier to store any food you bring with you or buy locally.

Bring food from home

Bring a supply of gluten-free crackers, cookies, soup base, candies — whatever you like to munch on or that’s easy to prepare. Be sure to bring enough to last through your trip home. Don’t assume you’ll be able to buy gluten-free favorites on your trip.

Try to stay somewhere with easy access to a grocery store

If you’re close to a grocery store, you can easily replenish your supplies of fruits, vegetables, plain yogurt, and other fresh snacks. Some of the all-suite hotels will actually go shopping for you. If you use this service for anything other than fresh food, however, don’t forget that you’ll have to provide an extremely specific shopping list with brand names, because the hotel’s shoppers won’t read labels for you.

Bring along reusable toaster bags

If you’re staying in a hotel that provides a free breakfast buffet, you’ll hopefully have access to a toaster. Several companies manufacture heavy-duty reusable toaster bags that let you toast gluten-free bread in the hotel toaster without fear of cross-contamination. Toaster bag brand names include the following:

  • Toast It Reusable Toaster Bags
  • Toastabags
  • Kitchen Craft Non-Stick Reusable Toaster Bags

Bring some of your own baking pans

Some resorts offer units with full kitchens. If you bring your own baking pans and some gluten-free muffin or bread mixes, you can enjoy fresh baked goods even while you’re away from home. Measure out the dry ingredients at home before your trip and pack them in sealed plastic bags. Supermarkets now sell flexible silicone and disposable baking pans, which are easier to pack than regular metal ones.

No Kitchen in Your Hotel Room?

Explain your needs to the hotel’s dining staff.

Most hotel chefs are willing to modify the items on their menus. Often they will even prepare foods for you that are not listed on the menu at all, as long as they have the supplies in their kitchen. Don’t hesitate to ask for special treatment. Hotels are in the business of accommodating their guests and have probably accommodated people with Celiac Disease in the past.

Consider faxing a note and a restaurant card to the hotel’s chef in advance.

This is important advice for everyone, but it’s crucial if your hotel will be in a country where you don’t speak the language. Restaurant cards contain descriptions of the gluten-free diet in a variety of languages. They are included in several books and sold by a variety of vendors. You can hand them out to restaurant staff to help explain the gluten-free diet. If you will be traveling to Germany, consider faxing a restaurant card (with a letter, of course) in advance to your local hosts as well.

Ask for a room with a refrigerator

If you’re staying in a regular guest room with no kitchen facilities, ask if the hotel will put a small refrigerator in your room. Many will do this if you ask.

Consider these ideas for inexpensive restaurant breakfasts:

  • Bring sealed bags of gluten-free cereal, and add milk and fruit from the restaurant.
  • Bring your own rice cakes or granola bars, and ask the restaurant for cheese, fruit, or for individual servings of cream cheese.

Seek Help from a gluten-free Travel Specialist

Finally, if you’re going on vacation, don’t overlook the option of traveling on an organized gluten-free tour. One of the best-known organizers of such tours is Bob & Ruth’s gluten-free Dining & Travel Club.

If you have anything to add, feel free to post your tips in the comments below!

Gluten-Free Snack Guide for Traveling

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

One of the challenges of traveling on a gluten-free diet is having access to foods that you know are gluten-free. On your first few trips, this will require some planning and probably a little research, but hopefully, this post will help give you some ideas to get started.

Below we’ve attempted to cover a variety of different types of travel, ranging from traveling to the mall to traveling overseas.

Snacks you can keep in the vehicle for eating on the go:

  • Almonds or mixed nuts
  • Gluten-free cookies
  • Dried fruits (raisins, etc.)
  • Lara Bars, EnviroKidz Organic Crispy Rice Bars, or another gluten-free energy bar
  • Gluten-free crackers

Snacks to keep in your desk drawer (or children could keep in a school locker):

  • Canned fruit with flip-top lids
  • Fresh fruit (apples and bananas store well and aren’t messy to eat)
  • Microwavable packages of gluten-free soup (or bullion cubes)
  • Microwavable rice noodle meals
  • Peanut butter and rice cakes
  • Individual cups of applesauce or fruit cocktail
  • Gluten-free cookies
  • Gluten-free candies
  • Gluten-free dry cereal in zipper bags
  • Individual-size boxes of 100% fruit juice
  • Baked or reduced-fat gluten-free potato chips
  • Gluten-free baked tortilla chips

Snacks if you have refrigerator access while traveling:

  • Hard-boiled egg
  • Gluten-free yogurt
  • Single-serving orange juice bottles
  • Single-serving tomato juice cans
  • Gluten-free rice pudding or tapioca pudding
  • Sliced veggies and gluten-free salad dressing

Snacks to keep in your briefcase, backpack, or purse:

  • Baked or reduced-fat gluten-free potato chips
  • Gluten-free baked tortilla chips
  • Gluten-free cereal in a zipper bag
  • Mixed nuts
  • Gluten-free candies
  • Gluten-free popcorn in a zipper bag
  • Dried fruit snacks or raisin mini boxes
  • Small carrots
  • Gluten-free cookies
  • Larabars or EnviroKidz Organic Crispy Rice Bars

Have any snacks you use for traveling? Let us know in the comments below and we could get it added to our list!

Essential Gluten-Free Shopping Guide

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Most gluten-free shopping guides I’ve had the privilege of trying over the years are either not very good, or they are so thick that you can’t really take them with you when you are “on the go.” So, what is the solution?

My recommendation would be for you to check out the Essential Gluten-Free Shopping Guide by the team over at Cecelia’s Marketplace. This book is considered a “must have” among the Celiac community and many people have come to rely on it while doing their shopping.

Here is the description of the Essential Gluten-Free Shopping Guide, according to Amazon:

Voted the ‘Best Seller’ on gluten-free Mall and the Celiac website. Frustrated in trying to find gluten-free Products in your grocery stores? Tired of calling food manufacturers and guessing on nutrition labels? Well, help is here! Introducing Cecelias Marketplace gluten-free Grocery Shopping Guide! This easy to use 4.5″ x 6.5″ book is a list of over 25,000 gluten-free alphabetized products. Popular brands like Heinz, Kraft, Del Monte, Frito Lay, as well as supermarket chains, such as Kroger, Wal-Mart, Publix, Safeway, Walgreens, and more. Just pick a product, look it up, and all the gluten-free brands are at your fingertips. Unlike CD-ROMs or gluten-free computer software, this book is easy to carry to the grocery store for easy product confirmation anytime, anywhere. The book easily fits in one’s purse or back pocket. Either take this book with you or make your grocery list before you leave the house. This guide is not only designed for people with a celiac disease, gluten intolerance and gluten sensitivity, but excellent for family members, friends, chefs, dieticians, or others that needs to prepare gluten-free meals or learn about gluten-free products. In addition, Cecelia’s Marketplace gluten-free Grocery Shopping Guide includes ‘gluten-free Kitchen Tips’ which gives family members, friends or chefs specific tips on how to avoid gluten contamination in the kitchen. As an added bonus we have also included 1,500+ ‘over-the-counter’ pharmacy products which included antacids, pain relief, hair care, supplements, vitamins & minerals, and more. This book is a must have in making gluten-free living easier!

If you spend a few minutes looking through the book reviews on Amazon, you’ll see what I’m talking about.   I’m not sure a book could possibly get better reviews!

Note:  It looks like the 2009 version of the Essential Gluten-Free Shopping Guide will be out shortly, but as of today it has not been released.  We will update this post with a link to the newest version once it is available.  In the meantime, you may want to add it to your Amazon wish list or pre-order it so you get it once the newest version becomes available!

Is Vinegar Gluten-Free?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 8 Comments

Is vinegar gluten-free? One of our readers recently sent us this exact question, so I think it is likely that there are others out there who are also wondering the same thing.

Is vinegar safe to eat for people with Celiac Disease?  The answer is yes…for the most part! Like most ingredients, vinegar is naturally gluten-free, as the gluten it is made with is lost in the distillation process (just like alcohol).

While checking for additional information, I found this post by Dr. Stephen Wangen which goes into greater detail:

Other vinegars, such as red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and balsamic vinegar also do not contain gluten. They are not derived from a gluten grain, therefore they never had gluten to begin with.

The primary exception to all of this is malt vinegar. “Malt” can almost always be assumed to mean “barley malt.” Barley is of course a gluten grain, and malt vinegar is generally not a distilled vinegar. Therefore there is gluten in malt vinegar. The other exception is when malt has been added into something after it has been distilled. This is sometimes the case with hard alcohols, but you have to check with the manufacturer.

Hopefully, that clears up any potential confusion!

Gluten-Free Communion in Church?

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

While doing some research for an upcoming post I ran across some information about the various Christian church branches and how they view/handle communion for members with Celiac Disease.

If you belong to one of these branches, let us know how communion is handled at your church in the comments below!

Lutheran Church Communion:

The policy is outlined in section 44c of its sacramental practices statement, “The Use of the Means of Grace.” It states, “For pressing reasons of health … congregations might decide to place small amounts of non-wheat bread or non-alcoholic wine or grape juice on the altar. Such pastoral and congregational decisions are delicate and must honor both the tradition of the Church and the people of each local assembly.” Similarly, the Episcopal Church allows congregations to offer non-wheat wafers if someone in the church community makes such a request.

Catholic Church Communion:

The Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law permits priests to set aside a special wine chalice exclusively for worshippers following wheat- or gluten-free diets. This eliminates the possibility of the hosts accidentally contaminating the wine. The Canon Law also offers parishioners the alternative of drinking only wine or consuming low-gluten wafers.   But for many afflicted individuals, low-gluten wafers are not an option because even a tiny amount of the protein can trigger immediate reactions.

United Methodist Church Communion:

“There is no church law or official rule that would invalidate the efficacy of the sacrament when served with gluten-free bread,” reports Dan Benedict, worship services director of the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church. He reports that generally speaking, as awareness of wheat and gluten intolerances grows, more congregations are offering wheat alternatives for communion. Benedict explains that the United Methodist Church, unlike the Catholic Church, believes the “substance of the sign is in the signified, Jesus Christ, and not in the chemical make-up of the sign.”

Christian Reform Church Communion:

The church allows gluten-free wafers, and the pastor’s wife began baking rice-based hosts after learning of Annette Baker’s sensitivity. “She told me ‘the essence of Christ is inside us, not in the gluten,'” remembers Baker, who was touched by the woman’s kindness and understanding. The rice wafers are kept separate from those made with wheat to avoid cross-contamination and are available at every service. [quote from a book]