The road to health after being diagnosed with Celiac Disease starts with a gluten-free diet, but does not end there. Just because something is gluten-free doesn’t mean it is healthy. There are plenty of gluten-free junk foods out there. In addition to removing gluten from my diet, I also needed to add in vitamins. I was deficient in Vitamin D and had low iron stores. I have always had problems with vitamins. They have always upset my stomach. It was a struggle for me even when I was pregnant both times to get my prenatal vitamins in. I finally resorted to Flinstones while pregnant, a suggestion made to me by my OB/GYN.
With the help of a friend last year, I started to add some vitamins into my diet. Instead of doing a multivitamin at the time, I opted for the most important ones for my body & the female body – calcium, vitamin D, magnesium. I quickly found out that my body is not crazy about the magnesium supplement even though it is indeed gluten-free. The calcium & vitamin D were okay. I was able to raise my vitamin D level to right below normal with the combination of the vitamin I took twice daily & some exposure to the sun.
Now that I am training for a marathon in May, it is even more important for my body to have all the vitamins & minerals that it needs. I browsed a lot of websites & stores for a multivitamin that would not make me feel sick and that wasn’t too expensive. I finally settled on Trader Joe’s (or Trader Darwin’s, as the bottle so cleverly states) Women’s Once Daily Multivitamin & Mineral Dietary Supplement. Aside from the label having the Trader Joe’s “No Gluten Ingredients Used” symbol, it also said “gentle on the stomach” right on the front. That sure caught my eye. Trader Joe’s also happens to have one of the best return policies out there – not happy – bring it back for your money back – no questions. As a side note, Trader Joe’s will also let you sample just about anything in the store before you buy it! I had a nice chocolate sampling last time I was there!
Some of the main features that stand out to me about these vitamins are:
- Additional Women’s Nourishing Blend comprised of 300 mg of food & herbal powder (Dong Quai root, Spirulina, Red Clover blossoms)
- Vegetable Juice Complex equivalent to 40 mg vegetable powder – Kale, Spinach, Dandelion Greens & Beet Juice.
- Lactobacillus Sporogenes (a probiotic)
From the bottle:
Trader Darwin’s Once Daily Women’s Multivitamin provides complete nutrition for women, including bone supporting calcium and other nutrients plus iron, a high potency B complex, and a nourishing blend of botanicals & green foods.
I have been extremely pleased with these vitamins. I am glad that I finally found one that doesn’t make me feel sick! After taking this product now for over 2 weeks, I feel great & don’t have the “normal” queasiness I get from taking vitamins. I highly recommend this vitamin to all women, not just those with Celiac Disease.
In looking at the chart it may look like there is nothing for us gluten-free eaters except the Pad Thai, but that is because these items are made with gluten noodles. If you ask to replace the noodles that typically come with these dishes, with the rice noodles used with the Pad Thai, you can easily enjoy several noodle dishes, which include*:
When I first step up to order my dish, I will tell them I have a wheat allergy. I have learned that if I say gluten-free, many times they look at me like I have a third arm, but if I say I have a wheat allergy, they are taking off their gloves to change them before I even finish my sentence. And if someone else is going to be handling your dish, be sure they also change their gloves. However, once I say I have a wheat allergy, that first person will usually alert the others to change as well.
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