Celiac Disease

Official Website of Celiac-Disease.com

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

Gluten-Free Diet

Gluten-Free Mother’s Day

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 2 Comments

Mother’s Day is tomorrow – have you purchased your cards or made plans yet? While it may be too late to make reservations for brunch, it isn’t too late to plan out a day that Mom won’t forget. Last year I shared some restaurant and meal ideas for Mother’s Day. This year I want to focus more on simple brunch ideas and even some non-food ways to “WOW!” Mom. MP910220988

Brunch doesn’t have to be complicated.  It can be simple to throw a few naturally gluten-free dishes together. One of the easiest ways to make brunch gluten-free is to focus on what you can make with minimal substitutions. Shirley from gluten-free Easily does this well with her Crustless Quiche Lorraine. There is no complicated crust to make, just a bit of gluten-free flour is added to the egg mixture. Fruit is a super-simple, yet impressive side dish that pairs well with egg dishes. It doesn’t take long to cut up a melon and toss in some cut strawberries, blackberries and maybe some pineapple or grapes. Feeling fancy?  Serve mimosas – all you need is orange juice and champagne.

If you plan on leaving the cooking to someone else, that is fine too. There are plenty of things you can do for Mom that don’t involve food.

  • Plan a hike
  • Plant flowers in her garden or pots
  • Purchase a gift card for a pedicure or massage
  • Take over her chores/duties for the day

Try to steer the focus away from food. I know that most of our family functions revolve around food when they should revolve around spending time with the ones we love. Most importantly, take the time to really stop and smell the roses.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the wonderful Mothers out there!

Celiac Disease Foundation Resource Directory

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

The hardest part about starting the gluten-free diet is knowing which foods are safe to eat and which foods are not. When I first started the diet I made a huge notebook with lists upon lists of products that were gluten-free. The notebook went to the grocery store with me every week.

While this was great for the first few months, we all know that things change. Manufacturers make their products “new & improved”, which may end up leaving the product no longer gluten-free. Shopping gluten-free is much easier today than it was 6+ years ago. I am sure part of this is due to experience, but it is also due to increased awareness and many companies making the labels easier to read.

The Celiac Disease Foundation has a wonderful new resource available to the gluten-free public. The Resource Directory is a wonderful one-step guide to everything gluten-free. More about the directory:

Welcome to The Celiac Disease Foundation’s Gluten-Free Resource Directory!  Our mission is to provide you with a unique and easy, one-stop guide to all things gluten-free. Each category has been carefully selected to provide you with products and services that simplify and demystify the gluten-free shopping experience.

Once considered part of the dietary fringe, gluten-free foods have been embraced by a wide variety of consumers and mainstream distributors and ultimately has been accepted as a healthier alternative than their conventional versions.

The gluten-free Resource Directory is dynamic in that it is constantly evolving, growing, changing and being updated with new products and services every day. So, be sure to check the site often to take advantage of some great promotions and new-to-market products available to you and your family.   Before starting on a gluten-free Diet please consult your health professional.

The awesome directory not only includes foods and grocery store items, but stores, travel information, baking equipment, Celiac centers, and labs for testing.  Boy, I wish this resource would have been available 6 years ago!  There is a new product section that lists all of the newer products on the market.  I think this is my favorite part of the website, as I love to explore and find new gluten-free food and treats!

What resources do you use to shop?

Gluten-Free Certifications

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

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Popchips now being certified gluten-free by the GFCO. The GFCO (Gluten-Free Certification Organization) is just one of several companies in the United States who are performing gluten-free certifications.

These companies help consumers by making it relatively simple to know which products they consider to be safe for gluten-free consumers. There are certain standards set forth by each company as far as the tolerated upper levels of gluten.

The different companies are:

CSA – Celiac Sprue Association – CSA Recognition Seal products are tested using R-Biopharm RIDASCREEN Gliadin test and must test below 5ppm to carry the seal.  Requirements can be viewed here.

GIG – Gluten Intolerance Group – Their certification (GFCO) is a program of the GIG and is a 501 (c3) non-profit organization.  Over 6,000 products have met these standards!

NFCA – National Foundation for Celiac Awareness – Partners with Quality Assurance International.  Products displaying this logo must meet the standards in place and contain less than 10ppm of gluten.

CCA – Canadian Celiac Association developed the standard for the gluten-free Certification Program.  Companies must meet strict requirements in order to use the logo on their products.

I know that I feel much better about purchasing & eating a product if it has one of the above logos & approval. The thing that everyone needs to watch for is companies using logos (or those that look very similar) without the proper certification and testing in place.

I have been fooled before by a logo that looks a lot like one from the GFCO only to find out that there was no certification in place.  If there is ever any question in your mind, please make sure to check the websites and/or lists that the companies provide with the companies that they certify. It is horrible to think that any company would do something like that, but in a world where some are out to make money, cutting corners may happen.

Do you feel better about buying a product that is certified gluten-free?  What about those that are labeled gluten-free, but not certified?

Gluten-Free Meal Planning

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

Do you find yourself scrambling to figure out what to make for dinner on a daily basis?  Do you stand in front of the refrigerator, pantry or freezer hoping that something will materialize each time you open the door?  I have done that in the past, and even though I do try to make a meal plan on a weekly basis, I am not always successful.  There, my secret is out.

I find myself sitting down late on Saturday or early on Sunday morning to make a plan.  This plan tends to be most successful when I inventory my refrigerator, freezer & pantry as I am writing my plan.  I have found that writing the menu plan from my bed is not nearly as effective, as I can’t always remember what I have on hand.

Before I do anything else, I figure out what proteins I have in the house.  I buy chicken, beef, bison, salmon & shrimp when it is on sale & use our extra freezer in the basement for storage.  If we are low on meat, I’ll check the weekly ads for sales to get started on the menu plan.  Next I look at our schedule for the week.  What is going on?  Are the evenings packed full of activity?  If so, even the best laid plans (menu plan) won’t help if there isn’t time to prep & cook the meal.  Once I have this part figured out, I can move onto planning the meals.

MC900287030After the main dish part of the meal is figured out (based on what I have on hand, what is on sale & what is going on for the current week), I can plan the sides.  I really try to focus on using what we have already so that I am not forced to run out & buy additional ingredients that may not be on sale that week.  Potatoes (sweet & white), brown rice and quinoa all make great staples for sides to keep on hand.

Meal planning can be as simple or as extravagant as you make it.  If you keep a well-stocked pantry with the basic staples, planning should be relatively simple.  To keep from getting bored with the same meals over & over, I like to browse Pinterest in my spare time.  I have pinboards set up for “Need to Make”, “gluten-free Recipes”, etc.  Sometimes all I need is a little inspiration to go from ordinary to extraordinary.

There are services out there that will plan your meals for you.  One of those services is emeals.  My sister is the one who told me about emeals and how they offer options for those with special dietary needs.  Not only do they plan the meals, but they give you a grocery list based on the store where you choose to do your grocery shopping (limited choices).  The plans start as low as $5/month (based on length of subscription; shortest is 3 months at $7/month) and can be personalized to fit your needs.  They even share the average weekly cost of the groceries based on the store/diet meal plan you choose.  For example, the weekly cost for groceries on the gluten-free meal plan, if you shopped at Walmart would be between $82 and $95.

Once you get into the habit of planning weekly meals, it becomes much easier.

Gluten-Free Easter Candy

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

Another holiday is quickly approaching and we all know that means a round of candy that is shaped specifically for the season.  While these varieties sure are cute & enticing, they may not be safe like their “normal shaped” counterparts.  Just when you think you have it all figured out, what is safe to eat & what is not, things change.  I know how frustrating this can be.  Sometimes it feels like all of the hard work I put into deciphering labels & making phone calls is for nothing.

Celiac.org does all of the work for you. They have one of the best Easter candy lists around.  Not only does this list seem to include every piece of candy that I looked up, but it is current.  There are many lists floating around cyberspace and while I appreciate the hard work that went into these lists, especially having compiled one myself, the list is only as good as the date the information was gathered.  Even candy that was verified last year or season needs to be checked on again.

Why?  Why is it that we have to constantly update these lists?  Manufacturers change their procedures; they look to improve their product, and inadvertently end up adding an ingredient that contains gluten; they change suppliers to get a lower-cost product and make a bigger profit. There can be any number of reasons. The bottom line is – always read the label, look it up or make a phone call – just like it was your first time checking the gluten-free status.

MP900314158Here is a prime example of the confusion that surrounds the reason for this post:

Are all Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs safe for a GF diet?

NO!

Even if they all look identical, they are not all made at the same place or under the same conditions. Before eating any of these Easter treats, you must determine what package they originally came from. Here is why:

154g & 381g bag of mini creme eggs – NOT SAFE
“May contain peanuts, tree nuts and/or wheat.”

154g & 381g bag of assorted mini eggs (caramilk, dairy milk, creme eggs) – NOT SAFE
“May contain peanuts, tree nuts and/or wheat.”

80g tube of mini creme eggs – SAFE!
“May contain peanut, tree nuts.”

Happy and Safe Easter!

If you have questions about a specific candy and are unable to find the status on their website, please email them with the following information & they will do their best to find out for you:

brand name
product name
size
upc
If you have children that are gluten-free and friends and family are purchasing candy for them, make sure to share this list.  Nothing is worse than telling your child that he/she can’t eat something because it is unsafe, especially when others around them are able to enjoy said candy.  Even better, keep a stash on hand for quick swap-outs to help avoid any potential disasters & meltdowns.